GOLU 911
Has anyone had cops as their first guests for navarthiri golu? We did!
It was one of the incidents that can ever leave my memory. That was ourfirst golu in our new house and the first with our daughter who was 9months then. My husband is the one who usually sets up the entire golu scene. He does it so meticulously and really he is very artistic. So needless to say he was immersed in this job on that eventful nightt. My daughter was crawling then and was a fast mover. I was helping my hubbyand also was keeping an eye on my daughter the same time. She kept on heading to the stairs leading to the upper level of my house and I had to pull her down each time .My husband watching this, closed the door ofthe room where we were keeping the golu. We finished arranging the dollsand decided to do the minor decorations next day as it was getting verylate. So I went to open the door to leave, but couldn't open. So my husband tried his hand but ditto. He tried all sorts of things but in vain. Now we started thinking of the options to leave the room. We didn't have any tools or phone in that room also. The option of getting out of the window was of no help, because we didn't have the keys toopen the front door or the garage. We also hadn't given a duplicate keyto our friends and so calling them was also useless. Suddenly I was reminded of the phone which we had got for our relatives in India which,fortunately, was in our basement. So rushed for it and got it connected.My husband after serious thinking dialed 911. We had a few queries from the lady who took the details, mainly about our child whether she was with us or in a different room. The cops reached our home while myhusband was still talking to the lady on the phone. My husband openedthe windows and they jumped in, took a tool and in a blink of an eye hadthe door opened. Actually the door knob had broken and was stuck. Thecops hardly spoke and left immediately after doing their job. I was speechless and couldn't help wondering how these people could be so efficient. It was their job of course, but the help came so fast. We couldn't get sleep the whole night and kept talking about the incident.Thereon we had the knobs of all the doors removed (for child's safety)and also have phone connection in all rooms of our house. Another lesson learnt too, gave a duplicate key to our close friend. So cops, whether welcome or unwelcomed, were our first ever visitors for our Golu that year.

suchi ruchi

Vadam Memories
April-June,the scorching heat is at its best in Chennai.With the onset of summer,fruits and veggies with lots of water content (water melon,tender coconuts,kamala oranges etc) makes their appearance.Summer is also the season for “VADAMS”.The very word vadam brings me memories of my childhood days.Like any other kid who looks forward to their vacation for fun,I also did but for a different reason.I could hardly wait for my amma to make the vadams.I just love the taste of the vadam mavu .I hardly remember helping my amma in kitchen chores except during these vathal days.I used to help her by carrying the mavu vessels,nazhi,plastic sheets,etc to the terrace .I also was interested in squeezing the mavu into differnt shapes,the long striped ones was my favourite.I loved to eat the semi dried vathal from the sheets .The process would go on for a month or so.One day it would be omapodi,the nextday javarisi 0r thakkali vathal.My amma would send the vathals across to her brothers and sister every year without fail.My chitti who lived in Tirunelveli knows how much I am fond of these vadams .So she would send me the vadams she made(which was more spicer than what my amma made)through someone or the other.
But now its a the age of instants.These vathals come in packets .But they dont taste like the home-made ones.Now that my amma is old,she stopped making them.But when I visited India one summer she surprised me one evening making my favourite vadam mavu.My eyes are wet when I am writing this.I must not forget to mention about my MIL on this occasion.When she was here with us for my delivery,she too made it when I told my craving for vadam mavu.She made it not the next day,but within 20 mts of my saying so.That was really nice of her.
I guess there are some like me who has a liking for this unsual item.I will soon come with the recipes for VADAM.

I am always on lookout for quick-fixes when it comes to tiffin/snacks. Evening tiffin is a must in our house. So it gets monotonous doing the same old regular stuffs like idli, vadai etc. I break my head from the morning for the evening snack. I luckily came across one such recipe recently.

It is called BREAD FRITTERS. I couldn't resist doing it. It was easy, yet tasty. I bet such easy recipes will defenitely come to our rescue when we have sudden visitors at our doors. So here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Bread Slices-6
Gram flour-1/4 cup
Rice flour-2tbsp
Garam masala powder-1/2 tsp
Chilli powder-1/4 tsp
Grated or finely chopped onions-3 tbsp

For grinding:
Cilantro-1tsp
Green chillies-2 /3
Salt- to taste
Ginger-a small piece

Cut the bread slices into 4 square pieces each. To the grounded paste add all the ingredients to make a bajji flour consistency. Heat the tava and spread a drop of oil on it. Dip the bread pieces in the batter and toast them on the tava using generous amount of oil to cook on both sides.

Serve hot-hot. The best sidedish would be KETCHUP.

Its a nice snack for kids too.

hi,this is my first blog entry.Just testing to see if this works.