Category: Food and Drinks

Bun365, Family, Food and Drinks, Holidays, Mommyhood, Week in My Life

Dinner With the Family- A Week in My Life Friday&Saturday

nainadg

So my original plan of doing Friday and Saturday separately for Adventuroo’s Week in My Life project is not going to happen. None of my pictures from Saturday is worth posting,  So I’m just going to jot down what we did on saturday at the bottom of this post. Sunday’s post is going to be skimpy too, but you’ll have to read it to know why.

Friday and Saturday were both busy days for me, it as mostly running errands, dealing with a tantrum-ing toddler and getting craft supplies busy

Friday night my parents invited us for a family dinner to celebrate Bijoya- the last day of Durga Puja. My mum cooked an elaborate dinner and we ate and ate and ate some more after we were already full

My parents have a toddler size camping chair on their deck for Bun and he loves to sit in that and look at my mum’s plants.

Bun and his Dee

 For Dinner, we had Stuffed Puris- fried bread with spices and peas stuffed inside, goat meat curry, Baked Fish in a cilantro and Coconut sauce, chickpeas chilli and rice and dal

My dad found this chocolate wine and decided to open this as a dessert wine and it was interesting. I like wine and I like chocolate, but I don’t think I like them together in a bottle.

But despite the negative review all around, we still finished the bottle. Now wine is ever wasted if my family around

After dinner, Bun read some books with my dad to get the bedtime routine started. And then since it was getting late, we said goodnight to Dee and Babu and headed home.

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Saturday Highlights

* I bought supplies for Bun’s Halloween costume

*Went to look at houses with my parents

*J, Bun and I took a family trip to the Verizon store at the mall to see if the Iphone 4S was in stock- it wasn’t

*We ate some Chick Fil A at the food court and then wandered around and saw some diggers and bulldozers.

*After Bun went to bed, J and I hung out and got caught up with our DVR and then I went to bed.

Food and Drinks, Funny, Toddler

Cheftestant

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While Bun was napping this afternoon, I walked into our kitchen and found this.

Apparently he had picked out ingredients from the pantry and filled his wagon with it. I like that it looks like it could be ingredients for a middle eastern dish- chickpeas, tomatoes, cumin, oregano and chicken broth. And also the ball, an essential component of any great dish.

Your quickfire challenge is to make something with these ingredients in 6.35 minutes. Top Chef Masters Season 23 here comes Bun.

Toddlers are funny. Yeah.

Food and Drinks, Life, Mommyhood, Toddler

Lunch Mar 31

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Its been dreary here lately, with cloudy skies and dull gray weather. Bun and I haven’t been going out much and days just seem to blend together into one big lump and I sometimes can’t keep track of what day of the week it is. So thats why I’m doing such a random post, maybe when I look back over this blog sometime in the future, I’ll remember mine and Bun’s lunch from Mar 31 2011.

Today is also dark and gray and we have to have our indoor lights on to cheer this place up a bit. Its also harder to entertain Bun when we don’t get out of the house until late afternoon when its a little warmer. I decided to make my favorite lunch for us today- Eggs and toast- scrambled for Bun and crispy sunny side up for me. Bun eats the same breakfast everyday -oatmeal and banana and I don’t eat breakfast all , I just chug down cups and cups of coffee. But I absolutely love breakfast foods, especially eggs. I’m crazy about eggs just like every single person in my family. We are all as Antony Bourdain would say “egg sluts” and proud of it. Bun used to be very fond of eggs when we first started doing table foods but like every other food he doesn’t seem to care for it too much. I’m hoping this will change soon.

I needed these big bursts up yellow today to brighten up the grays.  Yum Yum Yum Lunch

Food and Drinks, Life, Toddler

Dinner Fail

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7:30 AM in our kitchen as I warm up some milk for the Bun and J packs his lunch

J: Hey, I have to ask you for a favor

N: What?

J: Can we not have noodles for dinner tonight? I have now had dinner for 5 meals straight

Yikes!!!! I didn’t even realize that. We had my version of Dan Dan noodles on Sun night, Chicken and Pasta on Monday night and last night we had spaghetti and meatballs. Also J took leftovers for lunch. I didn’t plan it this way, clearly if I was planning out my meals I wouldn’t have made noodles three nights in a row. J, Bun and I try to eat dinner around the same time and noodles is something that Bun eats used to eat and I guess I focussed so much on toddler food that I forgot about adult taste buds. Somebody help me break out of my noodle rut by giving me some easy dinner ideas that are toddler friendly. I guess it doesn’t even have to be toddler friendly, since Bun has decided to go on the cheerios and grapes diet. It just needs to be easy, quick and noodle free. Help!

Bun365, Food and Drinks, Love, Mommyhood, Toddler

Parks and Recreation

nainadg

Is one of my favorite comedy Sitcoms on TV right now.

And also the only title I could come up with for this entry. I ‘m terrible at titles. We have had fabulous weather in these parts (Up until today of course, its now cold and cloudy as I write this) and we had the added bonus of J not having to put in any work hours this weekend. Family time ensued. We grilled, went to the park twice, checked out Kidzu on Franklin Street. It was mellow, relaxing and lovely.

We kicked off the weekend on Friday afternoon with a play date at one of my favorite parks in Durham. Morreene Road park is a small park and most of the park is taken up by the large sprawling play structure and there are foam mats underneath. There are also large ramps that are wide and low to the ground- perfect for toddlers to run on. Also there is one big slide and 3 or 4 small ones, again perfect for toddlers. The swing set too is very baby friendly. As an added bonus, there is a tennis court right next door and Bun just loves to run over and watch the balls flying the air. The fence is pretty high so I don’t really worry about the balls hitting him.

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This is pretty much what we played with the entire time on Friday afternoon. The boy loves wheels.

He was finally persuaded to swing a little bit right before we left the park.

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Friday for dinner we had awesome grilled chicken kebabs in a greek marinade thanks to my very talented grill master – J and his trusty assistant. Bun even agreed to eat two whole chunks. I’m amazed every time he eats chicken.

Saturday was a little bit colder but we decided to head back out to Morreene Road park again because J wanted to check it out for himself. This time there were lots of kids running around and Bun just wanted to watch them. When he finally felt like he was ready to play, he went on the big slide with Dada

He also went down the slide on his own for the first time- We taught him to lie down on his back and slide down and of course we were right there to catch him. And of course we had him go down the littlest one.

Hair Static!

Bun wasn’t really as impressed with this concave window thingie as I thought he would be.

And finally, it was time to head home and J was very upset about having to leave the playground.

Finally, On Sunday we went to check out Kidzu the children’s museum in Chapel Hill but I committed a double sin and left my camera and phone at home so we have no pictures. I’ll just have to take Bun back there again and do a blog post then.

 

Food and Drinks

100 Foods

nainadg

Like the book list I did a few weeks ago, but for the foodie in me! Sidenote, I think this list is definitely geared more towards the British than Americans.

 A Very good Taste ‘s list of 100 things that every “good” omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. Bloggers are encouraged to copy the list and bold items they have indulged in.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB& J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Food and Drinks, Stuff

Weekend Project- Herb Garden in a pot

nainadg

 

I have never had a green thumb, in fact other than an odd aunt here and there, no one in my family is gardening oriented at all. My mom was never a gardener and my dad didn’t even mow our lawn, we always had someone else do it! J always screams at this info in horror with “Oh my God, how UnAmerican.” Unamerican but true!

I married a non green thumber as well, J and I are just not good around plants, we really can’t even manage to keep house plants alive. This is really not an exaggeration, my mother will testify about the number of her prized potted plants that have met an early death, just because I was house sitting.

But all that is going to change, this weekend, I am going turn a new leaf ( snort* ha ha…get it) and start my own herb garden. This is something I have been meaning to do for a while and I am going to start this sunday with my very favorite herb- Cilantro and if all goes well, by the end of the summer, I might have Basil, Dill and Parsley as well…but I’m getting to ahead of myself.

I found this method here that I am going to try , so lets hope this works!

Food and Drinks, Life, Love

A Movies Weekend

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This was the weekend of movies. On sat I watched Sex and the City and on Sun, J and I watched Iron Man. What can I say, we love to support our local theaters.  Other than movies, J and I have perfected our Bloody Mary recipe, well actually mostly J worked on the recipe and I worked on drinking them. Also we bought some new RAM for the computer. On to the movies:

Ironman: Pretty good Super Hero flick! Never thought I’d like Robert Downey Jr. in anything, but he was actually pretty good! Also Gywneth Paltrows black dresses and heels look uber fab!

Sex and the City: It was everything I wanted it to be- a 2 hour episode of the movie. Some parts were good, some were brilliant, some were just boring, but overall, despite the tepid reviews, I thought it was pretty good. I enjoyed the fashion eye candy- SJP out did her self and there were definitely looks that I want to steal- Argyle Knee socks and oversized graphic tees= awesome.  And of course the female bonding was at its best! I was more upset about Carrie and Miranda’s quibbles instead of Carrie and Big’s problems.

Really, As much as I love J , I wouldn’t know what to do without the women who keep me sane! Boys are good, but girls are better 🙂

Food and Drinks, Life

The Anti Cosmopolitan

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Now that Sex and the City has officially driven a certain group of women into harried frenzy, I was thinking about one of the major points of the show -Drinking.

The women are all fabulous, so of course they go to fab bars and drink fab drinks and one of the drinks which became synonymous with the show and all things girly was The Cosmopolitan. In my opinion, the Cosmo isn’t usually very good because most bartenders tend to make it cloyingly sweet, but I’m sure it suits a lot of people’s palates. More info on the origins of the Cosmo and its supposed evolution from a Gimlet can be found here.

I was discussing going to see the movie with some friends the other day and someone mentioned that not drinking Cosmos at a little pre party would be borderline blasphemous. Although, I didn’t say anything at the moment, I think I disagree. Carrie Bradshaw, who is supposed to be the one to popularize Cosmo actually doesn’t tend to drink Cosmos throughout the show. In the last few seasons her drink of choice is usually Scotch on the rocks. Its funny  though that Scotch on the rocks never became a popular drink for women. I guess I just love Scotch and I think Scotch is much more fab than a cosmo, probably because I come from a long line of Scotch drinkers and also married a Scotch lover, but still there is nothing  more fab than ordering a Scotch on the rocks, while wearing a sparkly dress. Maybe Carrie Bradshaw learned that later in life as well.

But thats just my opinion, Here’s me raising my glass to good liquor in any form! Cheers!

 

 

photos: google images

Food and Drinks, Recipes

Limoncello Cocktail

nainadg

I guess I have been all about the citrus lately! Another liquor that I adore at the moment is Limoncello. It is an italian liquor made from the rind and zest of lemon. It is really sweet and really alcoholic- almost as high as vodka or rum. Although, this is a traditionally drank either on ice or plain as an apertif or as a dessert drink, I prefer mine with champagne.

It is essentially one part Limoncello with three parts champagne. Its bubbly, sweet, citrussy and boy will it give you a little rush! Its also especially delicious with some raspberries and blueberries thrown in.

The other thing about Limoncello is that it can be quite easy to make at home so J and I are going to attempt to make our own one of these weekends. Will post more on that later!

***photo: google images***