Now that I have manage to overcome my laziness and prepared myself for my daily chores, In my next post I will write about my days in India and a pure village wedding of Punjab and also very important, my first ever visit to Delhi.

May we all have a great 2008!

And what a Christmas, everything is standstill. Complete London is on halt, buses and underground nothing is working. What am I doing? Sitting at home and sipping my soup, I am not feeling very good. Bloody weather is sick outside, raining, dark, cloudy and -3 and I still have shopping to do for my India trip, waiting for after Christmas sale. London is famous for its sale starting on Boxing Day and continues till mid of Jan.

I spend my evening watching lovely movie “Love Actually”. Have seen this movie hundreds of times and still can watch it again and again.

There is something about your aura, attitude and manner which pull people to you time and again. Giving advice, support and showing the way is, in a way, your ‘karmic’ path in this lifetime. And this path indirectly helps you too, as helping people facilitates erasing ‘karmas’.

What a beautiful and relaxing thing to read about myself. Well, every word mentioned in my today’s horoscope is true. Not going ga-ga about myself but I am a helping nature person. I like to give advice and help people around me, even if they don’t need it…..lol. But now I have learned to take a chill-pill about all this giving advice and helping people stuff, after I had some bad experiences….. bhalaayi ka to zamaana hi nahi hai!

I believe in all this karma stuff, am a very religiously fearsome person. Total believer in God and everything related to it but not orthodox! You can say I am a 50-50 of modern and old fashioned person. Total believer in God still I have reservations for people who cheat in the name of god, like all these so called saints, mahatmas and gurus now a days. Everyday we see a new face of Mahatma giving lectures on how to leave our life and what not to do to avoid being in hell after death. Who the hell knows what’s up there!

But that doesn’t mean being nasty to others, I believe in saying “Swarg Narak Yehi Hai, jo boya hai wohi kato ge”.

Dying to eat pani puri and bhel puri. Going shopping to Gandhi market for latest trend in Punjabi dresses especially the patiala salwars. Actually I am getting ready for my brothers wedding happening in Hoshiarpur. I love weddings, balle balle!

12 large bhavnagri green chillies
4 tbsp oil
A pinch of asafoetida
Salt to taste
2 tbsp lemon juice
Stuffing:
1/2 cup gram flour (besan )
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves

Dry roast gram flour in a nonstick pan on low heat till it emits a nice aroma. Remove from heat, transfer onto a plate and allow to cool.
Slit the bhavnagri chillies and remove seeds. Cut the longer chillies into half.
Take roasted gram flour in a bowl, add salt, coriander powder, cumin power, red chilli powder, garlic, turmeric powder, garam masala powder and coriander leaves, mix. Put stuffing into the slit chillies.
Heat oil in a pan. Add asafoetida and remaining stuffing mixture. Sauté for a minute. Add the stuffed chillies, salt and lemon juice. Cover, cook for some time. Sprinkle some water if required and cook till done.
Serve hot.

Sanjeev Kapoor

2 1/2 cups yogurt     
A few strands saffron, roasted and crushed
2 cups powdered sugar   
1/4 tsp green cardamom powder 
1 tsp sunflower seeds (charoli) 
10 pistachios, chopped   
Tie yogurt in the muslin cloth and hang for at least two to three hours in the refrigerator so that the yogurt does not become sour.
Mix the hung yogurt and sugar in a bowl and keep on stirring till sugar is totally dissolved. Add saffron, green cardamom powder and sunflower seeds and stir well.
Garnish with chopped pistachios. Chill in the refrigerator and serve cold.

Recipe by: Sanjeev Kapoor

“Mirza”

Here are the lyrics:

You’re my Honeybunch, Sugarplum
Pumpy-umpy-umpkin, You’re my Sweetie Pie
You’re my Cuppycake, Gumdrop
Snoogums-Boogums, You’re the Apple of my Eye
And I love you so and I want you to know
That I’ll always be right here
And I love to sing sweet songs to you
Because you are so dear!