Hope you had a good weekend and are looking forward to a fabulous week ahead. Today I would like to share another tea recipe that I recently learnt how to make from my brother’s in-laws who visited us from Dallas, Texas last week. Darshana and Yogesh came on a fall-California road trip and headed up from LA to Northern California to visit with a friend of theirs and us. It was a quick 2-day visit during which time I took them around our beautiful hilly terrain and of course showed off my garden 😊. Continue reading Mint, Cardamom Ginger Tea & A Visit from my In-laws→
Here is one more squash soup recipe to add to the fall squash soup recipe box – a butternut squash and celery onion soup. The simplest soup to make with the simplest of ingredients – squash, celery, onion, salt, pepper and broth. That’s it! Sauté the veggies in olive oil and cook with broth until smooth and creamy. The soup gets all sweet from the butternut squash with the added aroma of onions and celery. Delicious, wholesome, and so fall 🍂🍁! Continue reading Butternut Squash and Celery Onion Soup→
Sunny skies, warm daytime temps and cool night time temperatures have made this week the quentessential fall weather here in the Bay Area. Our North Bay wildfires are under control and we are hoping for some rain. In the garden leaves have started falling, and though it’s an up hill battle to keep the garden clean, I keep sweeping the front stoop only to have more leaves drop right in front of me 😀🍂🍂🍂! My flowering bushes on the other hand are still holding on tight to their leaves and blooming away, and my veggie patch is looking lush and happy. I even see pea pods on the pea seedlings I planted! Continue reading Friday Flowers→
Ginger honey tea is nothing new to many of us as this soothing drink is a go-to warming tea and the perfect drink to relieve a sore throat when we have a cold or a flu. This ginger honey tea recipe on the other hand is for a ginger honey tea made with black tea and milk. Honey sweet, gingery spicy; with the pick me up of black tea that is made all creamy with whole milk, you might as well call this a ginger honey dessert tea! Continue reading Fresh Ginger Honey Black Tea→
Gotsu is a saucy, tangy, spicy cooked salsa made in most South Indian homes to accompany any type of rice dish. I shared a recipe earlier for an easy tomato onion gotsu that my Mom used to make to accompany a lentil and rice pilaf called pongal. Here I would like to share my Aunty Shashi’s recipe for an eggplant gotsu made with eggplant, juicy tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and lots of spices. Continue reading Eggplant Gotsu→
After a busy last week we had a lovely relaxing weekend this past Saturday and Sunday. I spent most of my time planting up spring bulbs and I also worked on dividing a few of my daylillies and bearded iris in the garden. Speaking of gardening, my Aunty Shashi visited me from South Carolina last week and spent three wonderful days with my family (she is an avid gardener). The last time I saw her it was under sad circumstances last fall as her young daughter Tara had passed away unexpectedly, but this year her visit is a more upbeat one as she came to celebrate her granddaughter’s 8th birthday down in Southern California; and then made her way up north to the Bay Area to visit with me and my two cousins. It was a lovely time spent with Aunty Shashi whom I affectionately call Shashi because even though she is my Aunty (My Mom’s younger sister) Shashi is only 14 years older than me 😉😀. Continue reading Three Days with Aunty Shashi + Two Recipes→
A delicious quiche made with flavorful veggies all baked into a crustless style quiche. If you are looking for a light and easy quiche to make that is healthy and delicious this is the one to try. All you do is sauté the veggies, then start layering them with an egg mixture, then cheese, and then bake. The egg and cream mixture finds it way into the veggies and bakes into a fluffy custardy type of quiche. My daughter said it tasted like the Japanese egg custard called chawanmushi 😋. Packed with flavor and light as can be, serve this quiche with a side salad like this kale apple avocado salad and you’ll have the most delicious, healthy and filling lunch. Continue reading Mushroom Pepper Kale Veggie Quiche→
This has to be the easiest salad to make! Just toss kale, apple and avocado together with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. That’s it! The apples release their sweetness when tossed with lemon juice making the salad taste like it was made with a honey dressing, while the avocado gives a nice creamy texture. Hard to believe that something so simple could taste so good, but it does! Continue reading Kale Apple Avocado Salad→
I hope you had a good week and are looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Today I would love to share a few photos I took of fall color in my garden. It seems almost overnight that the leaves in my garden turned color this week. Turmeric yellow, red, orange and brown leaves abound and are piling up on the floor. As many leaves are falling and have already fallen, my trees still have plenty of leaves still waiting to drop. All the leaves won’t drop until early January! Yup, we get three solid months of falling leaves 🍂🍂🍁🍂🍁. Continue reading Friday Fall Leaves→
Creamy risotto with farm fresh kale and leeks tossed with Mediterranean inspired artichokes and goat cheese turns a smple arborio rice into a delicious vegetarian risotto full of tangy veggie flavor. Risotto can be made in so many variations, as many variations as the countless number of veggies out there. This combination of vegetables is especially delicious as leeks add such a wonderful green oniony taste while the artichokes add that meaty bite and texture, as for kale and Swiss chard? Well, they are just good for you super greens that when cooked in the risotto add these beautiful flecks of dark green ribbons that in my opinion looks very cool. Mix in some creamy goat cheese and tangy Parmesan cheese and you get this delicious risotto loaded with good for you veggies. Give it a try!
