International Day-Tricolor(tiranga) Pulao

Its international day at my daughters school and I decided to make Tricolor Pulao (Triranga) to represent the colors of the Indian flag.The Indian republic day is right around the corner on the 26Th Jan so this may good and easy dish to try.




the three different kinds of rice are Saffron rice,Mint rice and plain rice
(curd rice would do too)

Yesterday was an exciting day of new beginnings and hope.We celebrated with Obama cupcakes

Tea /chai

Baking has always been a weakness for me.Stories of how I burn things in the oven are famous among friends and family.I baked the perfect scones yesterday!!!
All thanks to Youtube.

I am hooked to the all the recipe demonstrations on youtube.When you read a recipe
the one thing missing is technique.The videos show you exactly what to do and More
importantly what not to.

Here is the Cranberry scones recipe -

Another recipe I tried from youtube were these delicious chicken finger sandwhich recipe. They were really really good. i just added walnuts and that made it even better.

Tick Tock clock countdown new year table

I was inspired by the table featured at the Hostess with the mostess website so i tried my version

MY COUNTDOWN CLOCK CAKE

I am no expert in decorating cakes but this came out quite well

The Disco ball ornaments made the whole house glow!!

Celebrating Diwali in the US

I know this is terribly late for (or early) Diwali but here is some glimpses into my Diwali celebration decor last year.Living outside of India my daughters don't get as much exposure
to our beloved festivals as I would like them to have.So they don't really know what it is to pig out on mithai(besides these day we worry about the calories).To light patakha's (fire crackers)
its illegal were we live .But each year I try to make it as exciting for them as I can. I still remember
my daughter being five and saying she wasn't really very excited about diwali "Not like its Christmas"!! We were going to the usual potluck dinner.That statement saddened me a lot but
I realize she didn't know how exciting diwali was she didn't really see the fun part of it as I did
growing up of course she looks forward to Christmas because its so festive here all her friends
are excited and THE PRESENTS!!!
So I thought why not adapt it to suit her environment. So I decided to have a diwali gift exchange among all her Indian friends( a big Hit) then the next hurdle was the fireworks Its Illegal in my county and not available anytime except 4th of July So we combined a Dusherra tradition of
burning the Ravan ka putla with Diwali. Diwali usually falls around Halloween so my friend used a straw scarecrow as a base for a Ravan.

she certainly put a lot of effort into it and here what happened to it !!


The Kids loved listening to the Story of Ramayan and burning the evil ravan.

I am not too good at rangoli so I did a mini rangoli as my centerpiece with
battery candles over store bought.Why fake candles ? just thought it was safer with so many kids around.

Diya Cupcakes for Diwali

Diwali the festival of lights is nearly here.As my daughters grow older, I feel the need to make it
a special celebration for them, so as they grow up they can value and cherish the festival as I do.
Its hard for them to feel the excitement, as most other children around them dont share the celebrations. I have made it a point to have a Diwali party every year were we do a gift exchange with other children(which they really enjoy).
We love baking cupcakes. Here are some Diya cupcakes we baked over the weekend.
I made the Flame with fondant and a leaf shaped cookie cutter & orange food coloring.
The gold cupcake liners give the cupcakes a diya look.

A Sleepover Spa party.

If you have a Pre teen, or teenage daughter you are bound to have had a few sleepovers.

Here's a fun theme for a sleepover to make the lil ladies feel very special & have tons of fun.

A Spa theme Sleepover Party is easy to organize and girls of all ages love to be pampered.

First decide on the spa treatments to be offered manicures, face masks.

Look around the house for creams & facepacks to be used or go for homemade treatments.

Here is a helpful link http://www.epigee.org/beauty/spa_treatments.html

Easy Manicures

Bowl of warm water

Liquid soap

Hydrogen peroxide

Nail polish remover

Nail buffer

Hand cream

Cotton balls

Nail polish

Nail stickers

Face Treatments

Face Masks

Buy from a store

or use home made ones

Yougurt face Mask

ingredients:
1 tbsp natural yogurt, room temperature (not lowfat or non-fat)
1 tsp runny honey (microwave for a few minutes to soften hardened honey)
Preparation:Combine mixture, then apply to face. Let sit for 15 minutes. Wash face with steaming washcloth. For dry skin, use an extra tsp of honey. Oily skin? Add a few drops of fresh lime juice.

Papaya Mask

Ingredients:
Papaya
Instructions:
Peel and remove seeds. Chop into pieces and drop into food processor. Puree until papaya is the consistancy of baby food. Use 1/2 a tablespoon for each facial. Research shows that it is one of the best non-abrasive masks that you can use. It contains a strong enzyme called papain which dissolves oil and dead skin cells.

Face scrub

Brown Suger scrub

Take one cup of fine ground salt (Dead Sea salt would be the best but you can also use a regular sea salt), two table spoons of dry milk powder, 1/3 cup of virgin olive oil. Mix all the ingredients together and apply to moist skin with your finger tips, then wipe it off with a wet towel. Store the left over mixture in a tightly closed container in the fridge.

Oat meal face scrub

Take a bag of plain Oatmeal. Grind the Oatmeal in a coffee grinder or blender. You can store ground oatmeal in a jar. Once you are ready to scrub your skin mix some of the ground oatmeal with cold water until it reaches even consistency (not runny, you will need to use it as a scrub!). Now your scrub is ready, gently massage it into your skin. Oatmeal will absorber and clean away all of the toxins that your skin have collected during the day.
Second scrub can be used for both face and body skin. This scrub contains a lot of honey so do not use it if you are allergic to it!

Last but not the least dont forget cucumber slices for eyes

Keep refrigerated for 1/2 hrs

After all the relaxing treatments snacks & a girly movies should

be a perfect way to put them all to sleep.

favors ideas for the party.