Onam feast at Shweta's

Happy Onam!! My friend and neighbour Shweta (and Nikhil) invited us over for their onam lunch. She said it was going to be simple and not many dishes... We went there just around lunch time and she was done with her cooking and was frying applam (papad). I was so surprised to see so many dishes... She managed to prepare all that by lunch time with a 1 year old toddler, and she called it simple... Wow!!!

She served food the traditional way on a banana leaf and we ate sitting on the floor. We had banana, banana chips, sweet chips, beans poriyal, potato stew, dal and potato sabzi, white pumpkin dal, avial, applam, rice, sambar, rasam and buttermilk. The food was delicious and we ate to our heart's content. This was my first onam feast and I loved it!!

Krishna Jayanthi

This is my first blog and my first post and decided to start with the festival we celebrated recently - Krishna Jayanthi ( Gokulashtami).

I am an East Indian living in U.S. for the last 3 years. I love to celebrate festivals the traditional way and try to do as much as my busy life would let me. All festivals go with their own mouth-watering food and that's an added plus.

For me any event requires a bit of planning - especially with a one year old toddler running around...


The following are varieties that I prepared this year

Savory snacks:
1. Murukku
2. Thattai
3. Seedai
4. Ribbon/ olai pakoda

Sweets:
1. Theratti paal
2. Aval payasam
3. Vella seedai
4. Rava Laddu

Main food:
1. Pongal, Chutney and Sambar
2. Thair Sadham (Curd Rice)

I had invited few of our friends (about 15-20 people) for the puja. The festival was on 23rd August (Thursday). I had planned out all the cooking starting Saturday.

1. Saturday - Preparation of Flours (Rice, Urad and Dhalia)
2. Sunday - Murukku and Ribbon pakoda
3. Monday - Seedai and Thattai
4. Tuesday - Rava Laddu and Vella Seedai
5. Preparation of flower decoration and cut veggies for cooking the next day
6. Thursday (The festival day) - Theratti pal, Aval payasam, pongal, chutney, Sambar and Curd Rice.

The celebration went on very well and I received praises from my friends (and my folks back home who saw the pictures) about making so many varieties. All the food tasted great. A little planning goes a long way.

I'll post the recipes very soon.