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?

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...

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/

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...

Meeting Paul and Nancy

Houston wasn't in my travel list, until I met Paul . 

Paul got transferred from Seattle to Texas, based on his location preference, as he was staying out of Houston.

We used to go pick lunch for the team together from Chipotle and I loved that ride always. When I speak about the facts of India, it will be closely correlated from Paul's experience from Hongkong.

It was during one of those journey, Paul asked about visiting him and Nancy at Houston. Houston got added to the weekend trip list as I was excited to meet them over a weekend. And it happened. 

This trip will be one of those moments that I will cherish for sure. There was no ice breaking needed, no formalities. They were so easy to get along. 

We went out for dinner at a Thai place together followed by a Houston city ride. In between the ride, we hopped in for a dessert from their favorite store. Coconut milk & bamboo based desserts, DrinkBamboo, but it was so tastey and yummy.

Paul and Nancy became the best Houston guides, showing around the places and explaining about the city and the culture.

After spending time with them for a day, I headed towards the Lake Wood church the next day for the Sunday service.

If I am visiting Houston again, they will be in my visiting list for sure...Thanks a ton for the wonderful moments!

I Can't Ignore The BBQ Boards

If it is written BBQ somewhere along the way I drive, I could never resist stopping by. Frankly speaking, I never liked the BBQ food till I joined the team for lunch at a wonderful BBQ restaurant. 

Since then that became my favorite cuisine. Specially the smoked baby ribs :) If I miss a cuisine in US, it will be the slow smoked baby BBQ ribs. It's yummy.

On the way back from the Oasis restaurant, the above hoarding caught my attention. No second thought, parked in the premise and headed towards the counter. 

A small outlet, then menu was outstanding. Quickly ordered the brisket and waited impatiently for my call.

Waiting can be sweet when it is for something worth and there it was my favorites in front. Still my mouth waters at this yummy pack.

The Oasis On Lake Travis

One of the largest restaurant in the world with a seating capacity of 2800 people. The biggest restaurant in Texas situated in 500 acres of land. 

When Paul mentioned about this place, I didn't have the doubt of visiting this place. That was the first destination I visited in Houston. 

But this restaurant had a bad fate in 2005 when it was devastated by fire. The OASIS remained open during the two years that followed, using only the remaining outdoor entertainment venue and served food out of a trailer. 

When I reached the restaurant it was already crowded by the people. Everyone was requesting for a seat facing the Lake Travis. I too requested the same :)

It was almost the lunch time. Thought of having the lunch from this fantastic place. 

This was the view from my seat while flipping through the menu. I am a big fan of budget travel and it took sometime to find an item which matched my budget :)

Finally after 15 minutes or so, finalized Chipotle Baby Back Ribs. Slow smoked ribs and sweet potato fries - that was a yummy treat.

Lunch wasn't the only thing which I enjoyed at that moment. The clean fresh breeze and the water race that was happening in the lake. What a view that was.

This is not the picture that I clicked. But I wanted to show how the restaurant looked from a birds eye view.

Must recommended place to visit in Houston. Leave your senses and indulge in the beauty of the nature.

Let's Go Houston!

An awaited trip to the famous NASA home town. 

3 hours from Arlington, Houston had surprising stuffs for me in the shelf. The actual plan to visit NASA and Galveston island did happen, however the main highlight was the moments with Paul/Nancy and the meet up with Joel Osteen at the Lakewood Church (a cherishing moment indeed).

It was a long drive and I wanted that drive to be a special one. So took the muscle machine for the journey. 

It wasn't like a normal drive though. I enjoyed the outstanding power the car delivered during the entire stretch. Smooth and steady, piercing the air in the front, it took me to Houston in two and half hours. 

Once reached Houston, wanted a short break. Then took out the planner which Ani shared to go through the locations in the wonderful state.

The horse is full and ready to dash. Houston was less than 300 miles and used the rest for a small town trip before re-fueling.

More trip memories coming soon...

Happy & Thankful

Psalms 63:5-7

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.