Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Recipe Wednesday - Veggie Quesadilla

***Edited:  Apparently I cannot look at a calendar correctly, as this is clearly Tuesday and not Wednesday.  I scheduled this last week so it would post tomorrow.  Imagine my surprise when I found this here today.  Oh well.  Enjoy!***

Ingredients
Flour Tortillas - 2
Cheddar Cheese - shredded (or any other kind of shredded cheese you want)
Shredded Zucchini - I stole some from the bags of shredded zukes I saved for making muffins/breads
Frozen Spinach - thawed and patted dry
Green Onion - sliced

On a microwave safe plate, lay out one tortilla.  Sprinkle cheese over top, then add on the rest of your ingredients (I didn't list a measurement, just use as much as you like).  As usual, you don't have to limit it to what I have listed.  Lay the other tortilla over top.  Give it about 30 seconds in the microwave, or enough to melt the cheese a bit.  This makes it a LOT easier to flip later. 

Heat griddle over medium heat and spray with cooking spray.  Cook quesadilla on one side til browned, flip and brown on the other.   Slice into fourths.... or eights if you're going to serve this to children. 


I first had something similar to this at a friend's house during a playdate.  The hostess also sprinkled some sort of seasoned salt w/ the other ingredients, which was tasty.  What do you put in your quesadillas?

Monday, October 17, 2011

Welcome: Annie!

(This is going to be picture heavy.  And believe me, it was hard only picking out these to post.  My apologies for getting this important post up so late!)

Biju made a little trip to India at the beginning of September.  While I and the boys were disappointed that we wouldn't be able to attend Bino and Annie's wedding, we knew it would be better for him to make this trip solo.  We're already looking forward to our next trip, whenever that might be!

Biju arrived in India and hit the ground running as there were a few loose ends to tie up.  The biggest snag they hit was when they learned the hotel they had reserved for the reception after the wedding had double booked.  What a headache that turned out to be, as you can imagine!  In the end, though, everything worked out well. 


Thursday night there was the Engagement ceremony.  We didn't do this for our wedding in India, which probably had something to do with us already being married before we got there, I'm guessing.  Just by going off of the pictures Biju brought back, there was a ceremony at Annie's family's church, then it rained like crazy, then there was a celebration afterwards.
.



 

The wedding took place on Saturday at our family's church.
The tradition of helping the goom to get ready before leaving for the church.

Another tradition is having every family member present shake hands/hug/kiss the groom.  I'm thinking this is a way of giving their blessing for the marriage.  (I should ask to be sure!) - Here are the brothers in their embrace.

The vehicles that brought the bride (on the right) and the groom (on the left) to the church.

Preparing to enter the church.  (The decoration on the entrance floor was from a festivity the night before, unrelated to the marriage.)

Bino putting the wedding necklace w/ the tali (spelling?) on Annie. 

Putting a sari over the bride's head.  I'm not sure what this signifies.  Biju did this to me at our ceremony and even he didn't know why.  We just did what we were told to do :)
The bride and groom with their immediate families and the four priests that presided over the ceremony.

The married couple with the flowers presented to them. 
On to the reception!

The stage was set, ready for the couple to greet each and every guest.

Lighting the candle.

Cutting the cake.

Drinking the coconut water.

Congratulations to the new couple!


Welcome to the family, Annie!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Recipe Wednesday - Poori

I made these up for the first time last night to go with our Chick Pea Curry. 

1.5 c. whole wheat flour
pinch of salt
1/2c + 1/4 c. water (slowly add the last quarter cup as needed)

Heat small pan w/ oil - enough to cover

Mix together and knead.  Pull off small bits and roll into balls (ping pong ball size or smaller).  Put a small drop of oil on and roll flat.  The shape of this should be a small circle - do not fold as you did for the chapati.   Submerge the disc and cook for a minute or so on each side.  Drain on paper towel. 

Best served with veg. curries.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Recipe Wednesday - In need of a Diaper

Have you ever been out and about and thought you had a spare diaper in the diaper bag but realized you didn't?  This post is for those moments.  As long as you have a (cotton) receiving blanket, you're in luck.  This should help you get by until you can get your hands on a diaper you would normally use.

This is a fold used with flat diapers.  Since I've discovered this, and other folds, I've decided to bust out the many receiving blankets that aren't getting any use and have been using them as cloth diapers.  It really makes my relatively small diaper stash stretch farther. 

A video would work best, and that's actually how I learned - by watching videos on YouTube.  But I wasn't able to take a video while doing this.  Instead, I took a gazillion pictures for you.

Take your receiving blanket and lay it out flat.  (Design side face down, if you prefer.)

Now fold it in half, bringing the bottom up.

Fold in half again, bringing the right side over to the left.

Now you're goign to take the top left corner and extend it back out to the right.  Hold onto the rest of the layers so they stay put.  You will end up with an upside down triangle.


Now flip the whole thing over.  Do this carefully so you don't end up with the folds falling out.

Take the folds from the right side and either bi-fold or tri-fold (depending on how wide you want the center padding). 

 Fold 1:

 Fold 2:

Fold 3.

Now you're ready for baby.

Bring the center fold up and into place.  Now would be a good time to tuck in some of the wings by the leg.  Just pull the extra cloth by the thigh up - so it sorta makes a U-shaped hug around baby's leg.

Pull the rest of the wing over baby's tummy.

Do the same on the left side.



If you have a safety pin with you, carefully pin into place and you're good to go.  If you aren't normally a cloth diaper user, you likely won't have anything to cover the diaper with, but like I mentioned before, at least this method will allow you to keep baby in a diaper until you can get your hands on your usual diaper of choice.



After this diaper was used, I chose to use another blanket for the next round.  I decided to skip the pinning and I just tied it into place - which might be more likely if you're out and about and don't have a big safety pin on hand.