Category: Life

Life, Scrapbooking

Scrapper

nainadg

I think a mentioned a while ago that I have taken up scrapbooking. Its a really fun hobby and I have found some really great designers whose work I think is really exciting. They are simple and focus more on recording one’s thoughts on clean , graphic layouts and are less about embellishments and stickers.  One designer who really inspires me is Cathy Zielske. She is often criticized that her layouts look too much like advertisements but maybe because I am a marketing major,   I find them enchanting. My favorite is one where she finds inspiration in a Jones Soda Bottle Label. Jones Soda and Simple Scrapbooks (She is the creative director for the magazine) put it up here.

Anyway, yesterday after working out , I decided to go check out the Scrapbook store. There is only one in Durham, apart from Michaels and AC Moore. In a tiny little town in  Utah there were atleast 4 or 5. Its funny all the major scrapbooking companies have their offices in Utah. Woo Hoo UT Scrap Capital of the world.

I am really happy with my new hobby and that it allows me to express my self visually and through words

Life

Weekend full of Food

nainadg

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!! What a busy weekend! I had friday off b/c my parents were in town and now it feels weird to be back at work! Thankfully I only have half a day today!!! yaaay! I love working somewhere that lets me have a flexible schedule.  Its been really nice spending time with my parents this week, even though my mom and I had our usual little tiffs. Friday and Saturday we went shopping and drove out to the country side near Chapel Hill and went on a fun little walk.  Orange county has a really cute little dairy called Maple View Farms; it has rows of old fashioned wooden rockers and a nice wide shady porch. After our walk we got yummy icecream cones and enjoyed the shade and icecream. Yesterday we went to our usual potluck and I think my parents enjoyed meeting some of our friends and eating really good food. My dad leaves this afternoon and my mom leaves tomorrow morning and thinking about the house being empty again makes me sad! I don’t think I want to live with my parents again, because that would drive me crazy, but I do wish they lived at least in the same city.

Yummy foods I ate this weekend:

Indian Buffet

My mom’s chops

My new recipe red curry

J’s fab steaks

Spearmint Lemonade

Chocolate Orange Icecream

BBQ joint BBQ, Coleslaw, hushpuppies and garlic green beans

Kahlua Pudding

Mini gourds filled with shrimp

Pancakes (aaaagggggh!!!)

Mojitos

Sweet Potato Salad

Rhubarb Torte

Beer Can Chicken

Wow reading this list makes me realize how much time I spend eating. I wouldn’t have it any other way though. Although, I need to take a little breather from all this food this week.

Life

Hosts

nainadg

Its weird hosting my mom in our apartment. Usually, I visit my parents and totally relax and laze in their house and just pretend I am a kid again. Last night , it felt weird ,being a host, making sure my mom had everything she needed, cooking dinner, insisting she have the bed etc. Wonder if this will add a formal dimension to our relationship.  So far I give J and I a B for our hosting skills. Why B? because we have left my mom at home alone all day today, since we both have to work.

Life

I hate CVS

nainadg

The title pretty much sums it up! When I’m in a bind and need photos printed right away! ( yes, I have photo emergencies, don’t you?) I go to the CVS one hour digital prints. The last two times, I had such  a horrible experience with them: broken machine, bad employees, horrible prints, not ready in time that I swore that I would stick to my online service and never use them again. But, yesterday, since I bought some new frames and I really wanted to put a few photos in them before tonight that I thought I would give CVS another try, boy was that a mistake! They messed up my order, gave me prints from a previous order, told me I hadn’t ordered 1 hour service when I clearly had and on top of that the Store manager, yes the store manager got bitchy with me!!! On top of that i have to wait for my pics till wednesday. I have decided that I have had enough! I am boycotting CVS for good!

Friends, Life

Stilts

nainadg

Whew! What a busy weekend!!! J and I have been cleaning, organizing and setting up house non stop since last friday and we still have a few mini projects we want to finish before tongiht when my mom gets here. We did have some fun scouting Thrift stores for a couch and some end tables and I am happy to report that we found both!

Projects we completed:

Bought a cute loveseat

Bought two really nice end tables and matching lamps

Reorganized bedroom

Reorganized study (both look damn good , in my opinion)

We also had some fun this weekend! We went to our weekly potluck at DS’s house and my friend ST fulfilled his lifelong dream of buying stilts. He found construction stilts on craigslist and after our yummy potluck we decided to give them a whirl. I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it because I was wearing high heels and the stilts couldn’t be brought down from a size 12 to fit my size 6 feet. But what the hell!!! We only live once right and I had full faith that the boys wouldn’t let me fall! Check out my stilt pics!

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Life, Love

Promotion

nainadg

I have a new office/cubicle and a new job role! I am going to be a tech support coordinator for my company, which means ensuring that our customers are getting the required and timely responses from our tech support team. I am excited about the new job but I’m even more excited about my cubicle! I have never had my own cubicle before, I finally have my own three walls. I am super excited to put up pictures and a plant and all sorts of fun little toys that I have!

Right now life is good! I have the best fiance in the world, he spent all weekend taking care of me and another friend SVS when we got drunk at a party and he took me to a really yummy seafood dinner on tuesday to celebrate my promotion. We went to a restaurant called Fishmongers in downtown Durham and we ordered so much food! We got raw oysters and curry calamari as appetizers, I got a blackened Reddrum Fish as an entree and J got BBQ shrimp. We also got yummy sides of jalapeno corn and sugar snap peas. It was a great celebratory dinner.

Life, Love, Wedding

A June Wedding

nainadg

Saturday, one of J’s coworkers and good friends B got married to his long time sweetheart. They had a small and simple ceremony by the side of a lake and fun reception in the clubhouse right after. The ceremony was beautiful but they were a little too prompt, and a lot of guests missed the ceremony.  However, in their reception they had fun norwegian and scottish touches because the groom was half norwegian and half scottish. He wore a kilt to honor his scottish traditions and they had a norwegian cake and his dad wore a traditional Norwegian military outfit.

I had worn a black strapless dress to the wedding and I felt very sexy dancing with my friend ST, who is a really fun dancer because he does all the twirls and dips and turns. Anyway,  he spun me out for this really great turn and my dress went flying up my waist. I flashed everyone at the reception, little kids, grandmas, J’s boss.

Thankfully nobody mentioned anything and the rest of the night went without incident. It was a very mellow night, with good friends, and food(smoked salmon….aaaha….) and drinks and dumb jokes about wedding nights.

Also going to a wedding at this stage of wedding planning was very calming for me! It actually helped me realize that it is all about how happy the bride and groom were that day! None of the guests cared that much about the details and we were all having fun just because our friends were having fun! This is an important lesson for me to remember!

Life

Girls Night!

nainadg

 JE, two other girls and I had a girls night. We drank alcohol and made junk food and sat around and just talked through the night. We were all supposed to spend the night, but the other two girls decided to leave last minute, so it was just me and JE who ended up sleeping over. We had a really fun girly morning too, trying on clothes and making breakfast. 

 On friday night, J was a very sweet boyfriend because even though he was not invited he came over and helped us out of  a jam. He was the only boyfriend who volunteered to help! I was so proud of him. (I’m being cryptic on purpose). Its building up to something….

Food and Drinks, Friends, Life, Recipes

Dahi Vada and Potluck

nainadg

I am becoming rather proud of culinary skills lately. I have graduated from just cooking for J and my family to now cooking for big groups of people. Last Sunday DS and Y hosted a Potluck in their backyard and I cooked up a big batch of dahi vada and people actually enjoyed it.

In fact I overheard this conversation between DS and Y

DS: This is great, Did X make this ?

Y: No , this is the dish N and J brought

DS: N made this , really , wow!

The setting was really fun, they had set up a long picnic bench and it felt like this big family meal outdoors. There were Italian dishes, tapas, mac and cheese, shortbread cookies and Tempeh and also DS’s homebrew. After dinner Y and I watched her wedding video and the boys made fun of us.  Also I got an email from DS saying that they will be hosting every sunday , so it will become a summer tradition.

Anyway to celebrate the summer season, I am posting a recipe for Dahi Vada( Dough balls in Yoghurt): A yummy, chilled summer snack

Dahi Vada ( Makes 6 small portions)

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 1/2 cups Urad Daal without skin (black lentils)
  • Salt to taste
  • 2″ piece of ginger grated
  • 2 green chillies chopped very fine
  • Vegetable/ canola/ sunflower oil for deep frying
  • 3 cups thick fresh yoghurt (should not be sour)
  • Red chilli powder to taste
  • 1 tbsp chaat masala
  • 2 tsps cumin seeds roasted gently and ground into a fine powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp sugar
  • Chopped corainder leaves to garnish

Preparation

  • Soak the urad daal in a bowl of water overnight. Grind it into a paste the next morning. Do not add any water while grinding.
  • Add the green chillies and ginger to this paste.
  • Mix 1 cup of yoghurt with 2 cups of water and salt to taste
  • Keep aside.
  • In another bowl mix the remaining yoghurt with the red chilli powder, chaat masala, cumin powder, sugar and salt to taste. Mix well. Keep aside.
  • Heat oil for deep frying on a medium flame. Grease your palms with oil and put 1 tbsp of the lentil mix in your palm. Make into a donut shape (these are the vadas).
  • Slide each vada into the hot oil and fry till light golden. Drain and put immediately into the yoghurt/water mix. Allow to soak for 2-3 minutes.
  • Remove from the yoghurt/water mix and press gently between your palms. Arrange these vadas in a deep platter as you prepare them.
  • When all urad daal paste is used up and the the vadas are done as above and in the platter, pour the thick yoghurt mix over them to cover completely.
  • Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving.
  • To serve, put 1 or 2 Dahi Vadas in a plate and garnish with Tamarind Chutney and green Mint-coriander Chutney. (optional)

    • Life

    Poker Face

    nainadg

    Last night J and I went out to play poker with his regualar group of poker buddies. It was really fun because Y went with us and also the hosts wife played as well. I was pretty amazed that I came out two dollars on top. I had gone all in one hand, lost and then I had to buy back in,but at the end of the night still recovered all my money. Some of the guys that play are really intimidating though and I realize the only way to not be bullied on the table is to play a lot and get more confidence. I also feel like playing with flair comes with practice. A lot of people who did play some big hands came out even or won really big. I only won because I played small ,steady hands.

    There is a really neat coffee shop in our old neighborhood called Broad Street Cafe that host poker games every tue and thu night and I really want to go check it out next week. I think its funny that they can’t call it gambling and you technically don’t play for money but you play for points instead. My theory is that points are less motivating that money and one would take bigger risks with their hand.  The thrill of poker is in taking huge risks, risking points doesn’t seem like a huge gamble to me. Maybe I’ll change my mind after I play there.