Cauliflower lime soup

I went a bit overboard on day 2 of soup week and made a huge batch of cauliflower lime soup. So much that I ended up having it for dinner as well as lunch on the following day.

However, the taste turned out great - so no complaints really!

2 cups cauliflower florets

1 cup onions

2 garlic cloves

1 inch ginger

2-4 green chillies (adjust per need of slickness)

3 tablespoons coconut milk

1 cup veggie stock

1 cup water

1 small green lime (not lemon)

Salt to taste

A pinch of Turmeric 

Black pepper

Cilantro - few sprigs

Sauté the basic 3Gs (ginger-garlic-green chili) in little olive oil, then add onions. Add cauliflower after the onions are semi brown and mix in the spices. Cover and cook until soft. Cool, transfer to a power blender and blend on high with coconut milk, veggie stock and veggie broth until creamy and smooth. Mix in the cilantro and squeeze in lime juice and blend on high until color turns mild green.

Transfer to bowls, add salt and serve!

I mixed in some cooked beans to add texture to every spoon.

MCP Soup

MCP is my version of a mint coconut and pepper soup. It's healthy, flavorful and super easy to make. It was so good that we devoured it prior to taking a picture. 

I used my cuisinart 13 cup food processor to chop up the onions, peppers, ginger and garlic; bagged them for the week. For the soup, you need 

1 cup chopped yellow onions

1 cup chopped peppers (yellow, orange, red)

2 green chillies

2 garlic cloves

1 inch ginger chopped

1 sprig of mint leaves

1/4 cup coconut milk

2 cups veggie stock or water

Spices of your choice - I used cumin, coriander and pepper

Salt to taste 

Sauté the veggies (don't add mint) in a pan with the spices. Cool slightly, then transfer to blender (Vitamix) and blend with veggie stock and coconut milk on 10 for about 40 seconds and then on high for a minute or two. Turn off, and add mint leaves and blend quickly on variable and 10 for a few seconds. Transfer to bowl, add salt to taste and serve!

Jawbone UP3

S got me a Jawbone UP3 that I've been eyeing for a while, and since then I've been logging my sleep, activities and food on it. It's quite amazing to take stock of sleep hours and make a conscious effort to meet those goals. I was amazed to see calorie counts & nutritional charts for traditional indian meals come up within the app when o log my meals!

Anyhow, that combined with us feeling really fat got us on the health week wagon. The cuisinart chopper and vitamix blender have found their spots on the counter top and we are sticking to fruits, veggies, salads, soups snd smoothies this week. Recipes to follow!

Flea Market Flip - Mail Holder

S & I did an impromptu trip to Maine in Fall '14, and had an amazing time staying at an Airbnb farmhouse. On our way back - we stopped at a Flea Market. Digging through layers of throw-away items to find a treasure that speaks to you has got to be the most exhilarating feeling ever!

I found this mail holder for $1, and a pair of candle holders for $4. The mail holder was too plain and simple, and was sure to get a makeover one of the weekends. It took until Spring '15 for me to flip the flea find! Before and after pictures are below..

Some glue all, pebbles from Dollar Tree, stencils and paints were all that were required to turn the plain mail holder into something that fit with the rest of my home! The mail holder got a coat of brown paint, the sides were glued and lined with pebbles and the front panels got some designs using stencils. In less than 30 minutes - the flea market find was flipped !

Privacy for $10

It's been almost a year since we moved into our new home and the plain view side panels of our main door has been driving me crazy for just as long!

Investing in new panels or replacing plain with opaque wasn't an option. Hanging mini curtains on the inside wasn't my style. After some intense pinteresting, I found this cheap, but effective solution that allowed me to add a bit of my creative energy into our home.

What You Need

Clear Contact Sheet

Scissors

Tape Measure 

Paint Pen

Here's how 

Measure your side panels or any window you are looking to create privacy / obstruct plain view into your home

Cut contact sheet to this size. Cut as many as you need. 

Use a paint pen to draw any designe of your choice on the non adhesive side ! Not much of an artist? Simply stencil it!

As you can see, some of the best looking panels are the simple squiggly lines that even a toddler can do!

Mix and match as you please and decide where you want each of the panels to go.

Now comes the hard part!

Letting the contact sheet stick to the window without air bubbles requires a little more skill than laying a screen protector on an iPhone. Find something sturdy like a thick bound book that is more or less the same size as the panel. Unrolling the sheets along the longer edge worked best for us (best to use help while doing this) i.e left to right in these pictures rather than top to bottom.

We chose to stick these such that the design side faced inside the house rather than the outside. I think this will extend the life of your handy work by protecting it from nature's fury (sun, rain, snow)

You can still see the design from outside, it will just be inverted. So be mindful to not use any text in your design.

Hope this is useful!

Love Birds String Art

There were only 2 things that always came to my mind when someone said Love Birds

1. My mom singing this age-old tamizh song everytime we play anthakshari and she gets stuck with the letter 'l' to start her next song

2. The 1996 ARR album that had a few gems !

This weekend, after spending hours on Pinterest and Etsy - I have a third item that will come to mind when someone says Love Birds. This one -

Love Birds String Art

What you need - Spare plywood, Strings, Nails and a Hammer.

The original idea - http://www.pinterest.com/pin/198791771027487898/
"Pinspired" has got to become a real word and get added to the oxford dictionary soon.

Here's a step by step on the DIY process

Step 1 - Draw out your idea on a magazine paper and cut it out. Use a pencil, and draw a light outline on the wood. Use nails ( 3/4" ) and a hammer to pin the outline on the wood. Make sure that the nails are level (more or less)

Step 2 - The outline looks as below. I tried to keep the nails about 1 cm apart from each other so that the outline is clear and the shape is visible.

Step 3 - Use a twine / rope or string that will wind around nails easily to begin your string art.
Start at one of the nails and tie a simple knot to hold your twine in position. Then, start wrapping it around nails one by one to make your outline. Make sure to push the string down to the bottom of the nail to allow room to the nail head.

 

Step 4 - Continue winding to make intricate patterns as you please. It was quite therapeutic to wind this string from corner to corner and see the patterns create themselves. If you are not happy with what you weaved, retracing your steps and redoing it is quite simple - just wind back in reverse! Once done, put a fine know around one of the nails and tuck the loose end into the weave.

This way, you can create your own simple, mess free String Art !

Put those old cabinet doors to good use now, will you?

Golu Padi | Navrathri Steps

Navrathri or Golu brings back very special memories from my childhood. A festival that spans 9 days, with friends & family making it a point to visit each other , displaying dolls that have been handed down generations and setting the space to a theme. Add to that the little gifts for all guests and delicious 'sundal' every evening. Ah, it's beautiful.

The men are tasked with climbing up the attic & picking out the dolls from locked away trunks that come alive every season. 

The dolls are to be displayed in a shelf with odd number of steps (3/5/7/9 etc...) Back home (home is Chennai, India) one has the luxury of using steel frames that can be screwed in to position. I remember being my dad's little handy girl & slowly graduating to his apprentice over the years. I have to give him a lot of credit for not stereo typing the role of the woman and disregarding the occasional remark from my old fashioned grandmother that would go something like 'pon kozhandhai ta en sutheel kudukareL?' (Why hand a hammer to a girl child?).

Anyhow, appa dearest taught me to use the tools n made me take pride in building things. I enjoy woodwork, handy girl jobs & doing odd jobs around the house. 

Now, in our new home I have enough space in the garage and a workbench to take on bigger projects. Thus came along my fall project - the 5 step golu padi!

Here's what it entails

In one trip to Home Depot, get

1. 5 step stair stringer (2), ensure it's level when you buy ( pocket spirit level helps)

2. 2x2x8 furring rod cut in four to measure up to the height of the stair's 5th step & 3rd step

3. Two/Three Wood planks cut to make horizontal support bars, cut length to be as wide as you want your steps. Make sure they can get it through the main door after assembly

4. Wood board cut to size to place on stairs to make the 5 steps

5. Cordless drill. I have black & decker.

6. 3 inch nails & a suitable drill bit

7. Spirit Level

To start, find a place where the ground is level. As first step - fix the furring rod legs to either side of stair stringer.

Use 2 screws to attach the pole to the top edge of the step. Understand that the pole needs to be flush to the top so that your plank can sit without wobbling or the need to be screwed in place.

Similarly fit it flush to the side.

Tip : I found it easier to drill a small but deep hole to mark my position n then drill the nail through. It gets easier after the first trial.

Repeat the same for the other side so both legs are attached to the inside edge.

Next, find a way to balance these legs and begin attaching the horizontal board to determine width of step

I had decided on 32" so it fits comfortably through my main door. I leaned one side on the wall, n the other on a cardboard box as below n screwed the horizontal board in place.

I drove the nails from behind into the furring rod. 

Beginner's error : the 3 inch screw was too long for this combination of board n rod. But it was workable as the tip of the screw is on the inside.

Once this is done. Repeat for the bottom stair to provide base support

Now you can remove the cardboard box n the frame will stand by itself. You can test to check how sturdy the stairs are, n provide additional leg support from the third step if required. I was prepared to do it, but didn't seem necessary.

Place pre-cut planks on top n voila, your own customized golu padi is ready!

 

Simply dismantle the stairs by unscrewing the 2 support boards. That collapses the construction to store and reuse next year.

It's really simple n just about anyone with a basic vision can achieve it. I'd say - if you can assemble ikea furniture - you can build your own steps.