My Scrawls

I have tasted pineapple kesari on many occasions at various functions and festivals in India. I tried a different recipe “Pineapple Halwa” that I had never tasted before. The recipe came out very well and tasted yummy too. Here is the pineapple halwa recipe.

Pineapple Halwa

Ingredients:

Pineapple (cut into cubes): 2 cups
Condensed milk: 100 gms
Cardamom powder: ¼ tbsp
Cashews: few
Ghee: ¼ cup

Preparation Method:

• Pressure cook the pineapple without adding water for 2 whistles.
• Smash the cooked pineapple.
• Add the condensed milk and cardamom powder.
• Keep the mixture in low flame and stir continuously.
• Add ghee little by little.
• Keep stirring till the mixture solidifies.
• Heat ghee and fry the nuts.
• Garnish the pineapple halwa with the nuts.

Tips:

Anu's Kitchen Pineapple halwa

Thanks a lot for all your wonderful wishes. We are really blessed to have many loving hearts wishing and praying for us. It was indeed touching to hear that archanas were performed to “Ranganathar” at Srirangam and “Lingeshwarar” at Chennai on our behalf We had visited the Aurora Balaji temple on Saturday and offered our prayers to the lord.

Special thanks to Anna for providing contributions to the Sevalaya. We are glad that we spent our special day by serving the poor children and receiving their wishes.

I had prepared a simple “Sana sampaka”. Baked an egg less cake (will post it soon). Webcam sessions and calls kept us busy thru out the day! Went out for dinner had our favorite Mexican and Middle Eastern cuisine.

Since it was a weekday, we couldn’t plan for outing. With all snow and ice all we could do was to skate on the pavement We do have few places short listed to venture out… and yes we are waiting for spring! Do stay tuned to the travel section and join us in the virtual sashay.

General Our first wedding anniversary

I am not a great fan of Aloo (potato)! When ever I refuse second helping of aloo sabji, most of the hosts raise their brow posing me the standard question “why on earth you don’t like Aloo?” Well that’s me!!!

Ganesha loves potatoes; here is his favorite Aloo Capsicum Fry recipe. It tasted sooo well that I went for second helping

Aloo Capsicum Fry | Potato Bell Pepper Fry

Ingredients:

Potatoes: 2
Capsicum (Bell pepper): 1
Onion: 1
Chili powder: 1 tbsp
Salt: to taste
Asafetida: a pinch

Preparation method:

• Clean and chop potatoes, capsicum and onion in same size.
• Heat oil and do seasoning with mustard, cumin seeds, and curry leaves.
• Sauté onion till it turns brownish.
• Add salt, chili powder and asafetida.
• Now add capsicum and potatoes.
• Deep fry them in low flame.

There is one more method:

• Boil and cook the potatoes.
• Heat oil and do seasoning with mustard, cumin seeds, and curry leaves.
• Sauté onion till it turns brownish. Toss it with capsicum.
• Add salt, chili powder and asafetida.
• Now add this mixture with cooked potatoes and slide it in the oven.
• Bake the mixture at 350F for 45 minutes.
• Yummy Aloo Capsicum Fry is ready!

I have tried both the methods and the recipe came out very well!

Anu's Kitchen Aloo capsicum bake, Aloo capsicum fry, Potato bell pepper fry

From the day I landed in Chicago, I desired to visit the Sears Tower sky deck. I wanted to see the city from the tower top. My dreams were fulfilled. We got a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the view of this windy city from the sky deck of the Sears Tower.

Sears Tower is one of the seven wonders of Chicago! It is the tallest Chicago skyscraper consisting of 110 floors. Sears Tower is now the fifth tallest building in the world (Source: Tallestbuildingintheworld.com). Sears Tower was built in 1974. It took 3 years to complete the construction of this majestic building.

Over the past 10 yrs, many new skyscrapers, all over the world have surpassed the Sears Tower in terms of height. Nevertheless, Sears stood unbeaten, holding the title “World’s tallest Tower” for a period of 30 yrs!!

Designed by Fazlur Khan, the architecture of Sears tower is based on bundled tube system of structural engineering. Imagine 9 individual skyscrapers of various heights bundled together. That’s how Sears Tower looks.

Sears Tower, Credits:Wikipedia

Sears Tower consists of a bundle of nine square tubes. All the nine tubes (skyscrapers) reach up to the 49th floor. At this point, two of the outer corner tubes terminate. At the 66th floor, the other corner tubes terminate. Three more tubes terminate at the 90th floor. The remaining two tubes reach the full height of 1450 ft.

Sears Tower, Credits: ecow.engr.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/get/cee/340/davidcamac/studentsbu/searstower.doc

Sears Tower looks different from each angle. This bundled tube structure provides it the strength to withstand the strong winds of this windy city, Chicago!

The sky deck admission costs $12.95. We had to wait in a queue to get into the elevators to reach the observatory floor. I have to mention about the elevators. It took just one minute to reach the 103rd floor (the sky deck observatory). These elevators operate at 1600 ft/min!

Here are the few snaps that we clicked from the tower top.

John Hancock tower and other skyscrapers from the Sears sky deck

View of Chicago city from the Sears Tower sky deck

On a clear day, we can see the neighboring states Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan from the Sears Tower sky deck! It was a splendid experience to stand on the top of the tower and take a bird’s-eye view of the city! Visiting Chicago? Don’t forget to catch the glimpse of this beautiful city from the Sears Tower sky deck!

Travel Chicago skyscraper, Sears tower, World tallest tower

As I was shopping groceries, I was totally bewitched by the bracing fragrance of the mint leaves (pudina)! I bought few bunches of the fresh mint. Back home I started thinking the ways I can use these fresh bunch of mint leaves. “Hey why don’t you make Pudina Pulav..?” This was Ganesha. It’s a pleasure to cook for the loved ones, isn’t it? I geared up to prepare hubby pie’s favorite Pudina Pulav It did come out very well. Here is the appetizing Pudina Chana pulav recipe.

Pudina Chana Pulav with Cucumber raita and Raw Banana (Vazhakai) curry

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice: 1 cup
Pudina (Mint leaves): 1 bunch
Chana (Chickpeas): ½ cup
Onion: 1
Green chilies: 3
Grated coconut: 3 tbsp
Cloves: 2 pieces
Pepper: 2-3 pieces
Cumin seeds: 1 tbsp
Coriander seeds: ½ tbsp
Salt: to taste
Asafetida: a pinch

Preparation Method:

• Soak the chana overnight.
• Drain the water from the chana and pressure cook the same.
• Clean the mint leaves.
• Grind mint leaves, coconut, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, pepper, cloves and green chilies.
• Heat oil and do seasoning with mustard seeds.
• Sauté onion till it turns brownish.
• Now add the mint paste and chana, allow it to cook for 3 mins.
• Add salt and asafetida.
• Meanwhile clean the rice and soak it in water
• Now add the soaked rice to the mint paste and fry it in low flame for 1 min.
• Add 1 ¼ cups of water and pressure cook the mixture for 2-3 whistles.
• Garnish the pulav with mint or coriander leaves and serve hot.

Pudina channa pulav can be served with any raita.

Tips:

Anu's Kitchen mint chickpeas rice, mint rice, pudina chick peas pulav, pudina pulav, pudina rice