Search This Blog

27 December 2014

How to Grill & Bake fun on a Christmas?

Whats more fun than spending time together on a Christmas night. That is what we planned. Decided to do a grilling session for preparing the Christmas dinner.

Confirmed the menu the day before and Ani led the shopping for the items. 

Invitation & Menu

It was real fun to prepare the recipes for the grilling. Prawns, Chicken, Fish Fillets were all ready the day before. Perfect marination overnight.

The tough part as usual is to make the charcoal burn. We bought some Weber charcoal and lighter, which made the job easier compared to the last time.

The charcoal burned in few minutes, however cechi took all the efforts to make it burn :) Excellent job!

The prawns ready to grill on the skewers

Ani wanted to engage full heartedly to the grilling, however she did the complete job of marinating the items for us to grill.

Get smoked :)

Yummy prawns BBQ in the make

Fish Fillets

Encouraging the charcoal cubes in between

Veg Biriyani and Fish Fillets

Ready for dinner

Ani's creative shot :)



Ani tried the fruit cake for Christmas the first time. To be frank, it was awesome. The main ingredient is the wine soaked dry fruits. 

It was a real yummy deal.



Altogether a fun filled and joyous Christmas night...

When to grill next?

19 December 2014

How to beat the Bangalore Winter

Grilling is fun

To be frank, climate is the main reason why I hate Kerala and love Bangalore. Climate, I can't compromise.

Many says that Bangalore is not the old Bangalore anymore. IT development and real estate is killing Bangalore at a faster rate (who is worried about it anyway).

Inspite of all these concerns, Bangalore winter is still good. It is a chilled December for me and Ani. While I enjoy the climate, Ani is not liking it much. Especially Isaac and mummy are facing troubles due to this climate.

It was on my birthday, Ani gifted me with a small charcoal grill set. I was excited to grill at the very moment. But for that I need to get some charcoal.

Took the bike and went around my place to get some charcoal. Nowhere they are selling it. Finally went into a BBQ restaurant and bought some charcoal for INR 60/kg.

Marinated the chicken with the traditional Tandoori Chicken recipe. And started the grilling by 9 pm.

But the tough part was to lighten up the charcoal. It took my life to make it burn as I didn't have the right tools to do it :)

Freezing cold outside, but the heat from the grill was so soothing.

However at the end of the grilling - satisfaction made me to SMILE.

BTW - the chicken was yummy :)

Getting grilled in the traditional way
Ready to savor...

17 December 2014

Dallas Farmers Market Walk

This place was great to spent time
It was another weekend and while planing for the place to visit, Dallas Farmers Market popped out from one of the travel catalog. Decided to visit the place for one another reason - cooking.

Wanted to cook chicken curry that needed some fresh vegetable. Can see the place and get some veggies too. That was the real intention :)

That was a fantastic place to spent time. Clean and vibrant place. Spent almost three hours, visiting the stalls at the market, trying out the food and clicking the pictures around. 

The market consist of 4 huge sheds.

Shed 1
Local Farmers: sell their own produce grown within a 150-mile radius of Dallas. Farmers display a "Verified Local Farmer" designation.
Produce Dealers: resell refrigerated produce, including food shipped from out of state

Shed 2
Eateries, specialty foods, and food related products

Shed 3
Produce Dealers: resell refrigerated produce, including food shipped from out of state

Shed 4
Wholesale Produce Dealers: sell large quantities of fresh vegetables and fruit

Just got out of the farm - fresh :)

Home made vinegar

Tempting and yummy veggies called me to pick them up. However I controlled myself because of the limited travel budget :)

Those were so cute to watch. They shied in the afteroon sun light

Veggie varieties...

Deal of the day


Creative minded vendor with her stall

Yummy juicy Caribbean honey covered grilled chicken...Heavenly...

After almost 3 hours, got out from the market and took a stroll around the place.

The neighborhood 

The signature gate 

Tractor prototype

A nursery next to the market. Well maintained, clean and extremely beautiful
More details: http://dallasfarmersmarket.org/visit/plan-a-visit/

06 December 2014

Lakewood Church & Joel Osteen

The worship team getting ready for the service
I've been watching his live sermons for almost two years now. But never tried to search his church location. Not in my wildest dream I thought of standing at this church in my lifetime.

I was surprised to hear from Paul that his house is only few feet away from the Lakewood Church. Really? - then what am I waiting for.

Searched for the worship timing for the next day and reached the church an hour before. As I was a first time visitor, they gave me the seating in the second row. Wow that was great.

I was excited to live in one of my dreams then. Worship for half an hour and there comes the person whom I admire the most...

And the best part, I could meet and talk to Joel after the service and got his autograph on my bible. 

Fantastic Experience...

The stage getting ready
Stadium size church got filled in minutes after this click
Joel on the stage with his joke of the day. I couldn't believe that I was watching him live, few feet away...
Hung around the church for sometime. Church getting ready for the next service.
Joel's autograph on my bible
Soo great and nice to meet you too Joel...