Minced meat pasta / Keema pasta

Ingredients:
1) Pasta (cooked) - 1 cup
2) Keema / minced meat - 1 1/2cup
3) Saunf / Fennel - 1 tsp
4) Cinnamon bark - 2 one-inch long
5) Cloves - 2
6) Onions - chopped - 1/2 cup
7) Tomato - chopped - 1/4 cup
8) Ginger - chopped - 1/2 tsp
9) Garlic - chopped - 1/2 tsp
10) Green chillies - 2 - chopped 
11) Chilli powder - 1 1/2 tsps (add according to your taste)
12) Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
13) Garam masala - a pinch
14) Salt - according to your taste
15) Oil - 2 tbsp
16) Coriander -  for garnish


Method:

For pasta:
I have used rotini /fusili pasta . You can use any type of pasta you like.
Cook pasta and keep aside.

For the minced meat / keema sauce:
- Cook the minced meat in a cooker till tender.
- In a vessel, add oil and then add the cinnamon and cloves. When the oil is fragrant, add  
   the saunf, fry a bit.
- Then add ginger and garlic, fry for a while then add onions.
- When the onions are browned, add the green chillies and fry for a while.
- Now, add tomatoes and fry till it becomes a paste.
- Add the spices and fry well, add salt and sprinkle water till a smooth paste is formed.
- Add the cooked minced meat  and mix well, fry till you get a medium consistency
- To this minced meat, add the pasta and mix well.
- Garnish with coriander and serve.

To get you started in the US

All set to leave to the US ??
Well, you need a list of stuff that would help you get settled during your initial months of searching for an apartment. It is not easy to just go into the supermarket and buy what you want. I mean, you do get everything here. But you will not know its equivalent name. Also, being an Indian, our spices are so important to us. We have lived with that particular taste on our tongue for as long as we can remember. Our clothes, shoes and accessories came from our favorite stores.  Our family doctors knew our medical history. Now, leaving everything behind and starting off all over again may be a bit overwhelming. So, here you would find a list of things that you need to carry with you and also few pointers on what not to carry.... 

1) Medicines - This is the most important of the list. Carry all your medicines with a prescription for each. Take along with you tablets/syrups even for the common cold and balms/sprays for headache/sprains. Medical facilities are highly overpriced here and they do not give over the counter medicines here without a prescription.

2) Prescription eye-glasses/ Spectacles -  Carry atleast two pairs of optical wear (specs / lenses) with your latest eye-test readings.

2) Pressure cooker -  Carry atleast 1 pressure cooker with you. The ones you get here are not as good. You may or may not find a cooker here in all the stores. Also, purchase an extra gasket and a whistle, in case, the ones you have might wear out.

3) Chapathi rolling pin and board - It is tough to find it here in any store, so carry one of each.

4) Spices - You may not find the brand that you used in India, but you will get most of the spices at the Indian store in your area. So if you want,carry a few packets of spices from home. All packets must be tightly sealed. Loose and opened packets may not be allowed in the US Customs Dept.

5) Mixer/ Grinder - There is no point in carrying electrical devices as the output power supply has a different voltage/frequency compared to India.   If you really want to, you can buy a mixer/ grinder which is compliant with the US power supply i.e. in terms of voltage/frequency and the pin style. The Preethi Mixer Grinder range has one which is compatible for use in the US.

6) Iron  - Do not purchase from India, you get good ones here for quite reasonable rates.

7) If you are carrying any electronic chargeable devices like laptop/camera/cellphone, it is advisable to carry a 3pin to 2pin US style converter.

8) Kitchen utensils / dinner ware / cutlery -  Carry the basic minimum. You can purchase more from here later.

9) Rice - Rice is not allowed by the US Customs people. Many people carry rice and increase the weight of their luggage for no reason. You get good quality rice here in the Indian stores.

10) Pickles / Pickle bottles - Not allowed by the US Customs Dept. They will ask you to open the jar / packet and look inside it. So not worth the trouble.

11) Soaps/ toothpaste/ shampoo - Carry only one of each in a sealed box/ packet, you get a variety of these here. Seal the shampoo bottles with tape.

12) Detergent - Washing machines require liquid detergents to be used which can be bought from the stores here.

13) Clothes - Few women wear salwar/ kameez and saris here. But then, if you don't want to stand out, you can carry western wear with you along with a few Indian wear for a get-together or any Indian functions. As it gets very cold here, carry jackets,sweaters, winter caps, scarves, mufflers from India, . You might have to still purchase a few from here when the winters are unbearable.

14) Bucket and a mug -  This might sound weird, but they do not sell buckets and mugs here in the stores. You might find a few at the Dollar stores (not always in stock), so carry one of each with you.

15) Seeds -  Any type of seeds are not permitted in the US Customs.

All liquid items (sealed) /spices (sealed) must be put in the check-in luggage.

Please check with your airlines about what you can carry with you in the cabin and what you can check-in.

Banana Bread

Ingredients:
1) All Purpose Flour / Maida- 2 cup / 240 gms - (see note below)
2) Baking Powder -1 tsp
3) Baking soda -1 tsp
4) Salt -  a pinch


5) Butter - 4 ounces / 100 gms- (see note below)
6) Sugar - 1 cup / 200 gms (use less or more as per your taste)
7) Banana - 2 big ones - (see note below)
8) Vanilla essence - 1 tsp - (see note below)


Note:
1) You can use wheat flour instead of maida, the bread will be more denser when wheat                  
    flour is used. But it tastes good. Maida makes a fluffier bread.
2) Use unsalted butter, as we are already adding a pinch of salt.
3) Bananas - the riper the better. The blackened ones make the bread sweeter. So instead  
    of throwing the blackened ones, you can use them to make bread.
4) Vanilla essence is needed to bring out a subtle flavor in the bread. I did not have it when   
    I made my first bread, but you could hardly make out the difference. But once you get to  
    bake often, I suggest you to buy vanilla essence.
5) Buy a baking pan made of aluminium instead of the non-stick or the steel ones.    
    Aluminium conducts heat evenly and the cake bakes well.
6) Use a whisk to mix the batter, it is easier and mixes well compared to a fork.



Method:
1) Mash the bananas in a grinder into a smooth paste. Do not add water.
2) In a bowl, add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Lightly mix the mixture.   
    Set aside.
3) In another bowl, add in the butter (at room temperature) and sugar and mix till light and 
   fluffy.
4) To the butter and sugar mixture, add the mashed bananas and mix well.
5) Now add the flour mixture to the above mixture. Add in the flour slowly, in parts and 
   mixing after each addition. Set aside.
6) Preheat the oven to 360 F.
7) Prepare the baking pan by coating it with butter and then sprinkling flour to fully coat  
   the pan. Then pour the batter into the pan.
8) After the oven is heated, place the pan in the oven and bake for 40-45 min. Insert a 
   toothpick in the center of the cake and it should come out clean, indicating that the cake 
   is fully baked.
9) Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for atleast 10-15min.
10) Cut into slices and enjoy!!

When I baked for the first time

Baking has always intrigued me. I admired those who could bake. My first experience of eating home made baked goodies were those of the Christmas cakes and biscuits brought over by one of our neighbors near my mum's home. There were a variety of assorted baked goodies that were tasty and more importantly, she baked them herself. I was very apprehensive of baking, one because we did not have a conventional oven to bake and also, the cakes that were baked in a microwave oven do not have that particular taste that a well baked cake has which comes out of a conventional oven. There is a difference ,trust me. And secondly, I had no idea how to make a cake from scratch and did not know how to go about all the measuring or the whipping or using a whisk or using the right amount of butter etc etc. 

Our kitchen in the apartment has this huge conventional oven below the cooktop and I was not using it. Well, I did use it to store my utensils...
It kept looking at me begging me to make 'proper' use of it. Every night, once I retired, my mind was filled with thoughts of trying it once and burning up the cake or worse, the whole oven going up in flames!! 

Weird dreams and fears apart, I still wanted to bake. So I started on my quest of learning the basics - reading up articles on baking, scouring the Internet for the right ways of baking, simple recipes to start with, the type of baking dish to be used etc.
After a lot of researching, I stumbled upon this recipe which looked quite easy. I had most of the ingredients in my pantry, so I started with the process, apprehensively though, checking the measurement of the ingredients again and again at every step of the recipe. Finally, with a prayer on my lips, I shut the oven door with my batter in a pan. I patiently waited for the timer to go off, all the while hoping that the oven does not blow up! When the timer beeped, I sprang to take the pan out from the oven , again hoping that the bread is not undercooked.
And voila! I had my first perfectly baked bread!!! My masterpiece.... it sure felt like that.... There was so much joy in my heart that I felt I would burst.....

Here you go, make your very own masterpiece 
Banana Bread

Welcome to gLoW'S

After living most of my years in India, my husband (Mr.A) and I moved to a place far far away.... new place.. new people and a whole lot of new stuff in front of us either to embrace or ignore.... Well, the latter was not an option. So here we are in the United States of America to start a brand new life......!!


The day we first came here, the thing which I marveled at the most is the attitude of the people here. I will talk about this at different points in my blog. 
After working for six years in India, being a stay at home wife is not easy. Watching my favourite soaps / visiting the library did not keep my mind busy . So I started looking back at my life in India and started wondering about all the things (which will be blogged about in the coming pages ) that I ever wanted to accomplish and which I could not either due to time constraints or just sheer laziness :)


So after a few months in this new place, I am finally getting used to the US life. Happy as I am to acknowledge that I have learnt new things. Mr. A and I are spending our time together engaged in various activities, which we would not have done if were back at home. So far so good......


This blog is a documentation of our life in the US. Places that we visited, stuff that I liked and also that I detested, my learnings etc... So come along... join me in my journey called "gLoW's "