mayurisjikoni

crunchy and healthy  It has been a long time since I have made stir fried vegetables at home. It was a common request by my father in law to make some of it along with fried rice and spring rolls. A visit to one of the greengrocers in Nairobi for just strawberries and I nearly bought the whole shop. Fresh, crunchy vegetables and the first thing that came to my mind was stir fry vegetables. I made some noodles to go along with it as my hubby loves noodles. Any combination of vegetables can be used for stir fries and its quick and healthy. Some Chinese restaurants in Kenya serve chinese dishes loaded with cornflour. They presume that a thick sauce with loads of cornflour makes the dish appealing. I hate the cornflour taste. Some restaurants charge the earth for a dish and use loads of cabbage. I would recommend Bangkok Restaurant to anyone visiting Nairobi. They are the best. The vegetables are crispy, fresh and tasty. None of the dishes are overly spiced. Till you can reach a nice Chine

evil temptation    Whenever I would make my signature dish, vegetable crepes , I had to make extra crepes(pronounced as cr+ape) so that the kids could have some dessert too. They loved to spread jam or nutella over the crepes. The Sweet Fantasy Club (started by Preeti of Simply Tadka) challenge for the month of February was eggless chocolate crepe with strawberries. What are crepes? Well they are just like pancakes but much thinner. Its a common street food in France. Creperies sell crepes with all sorts of fillings both sweet and savoury. Crepes can be served in restaurants with coffee or tea. They can be served as an appetizer, main meal or dessert. That's how versatile crepes are. They can be made from a variety of flours ranging from wheat flour to buck wheat flour. All sorts of flavours and spices are added to the crepe. Crepes can be folded into a triangle, an envelope shape, into half or rolled.    Normally, I make both the recipes for the challenge as soon as possible but

double treat The Sweet Fantasy Club's  # 5  challenge (started by Preeti of  simply tadka ) was chocolate barfi and eggless chocolate crepe with strawberries.The word barfi reminds me of Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Just can't help it... loved the movie. Barfi (Murphy) and Jhilmil were just fantastic, innocent and reminded us that basic happiness and laughter in our lives is very important.   For eons the recipe for barfi has been gathering dust or rather the page has turned yellow. Its my phobia of making indian sweets. So when the challenge came up, dug out the recipe and made the chocolate barfi. My hubby and I both love chocolate so I made a double chocolate barfi (notice the thick layer of chocolate on top :). Making barfi is no big deal, wonder why I bought ready made ones when in a jiffy yummy home made ones are more delicious. I made the barfi using ready made mawa (khoya). I made them as a treat for Valentine's day and have to make another batch soon. The mil

The best things in life are free  Recently a good friend of ours shared the above picture on Facebook. I had to share it with my blog followers for many reasons. The first being that many times during the day we forget about the best things in life and concentrate too much on our other meaningless, frustrating and stress giving issues. As soon as I saw the picture, I thought about it and it dawned on me that I am truly blessed. This made me instantly forget a harrowing and frustrating incident that I went through yesterday. It was an eye opener for me as it showed how threatening, menacing, mean and arrogant some people can get about the position they hold be it in the society, in a company, the government or any work place. Looking at the above picture and the thoughts that followed made me forget the humiliation and look forward in life. Hugs: I get plenty of that from hubby dear and from my children whenever we are together. Hugs from my dad, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousin

a cooling indulgence   Valentine's Day was a bit hot and hubby dear was expecting to find iced tea, cold fresh juice or something cool in the fridge. He didn't find anything so I asked him to have a cold glass of Ribena. He didn't want to have that so I thought of nimbu pani. He didn't want that too. Its amazing how some people love to beat around the bush when they have something specific in their minds and cannot speak it out forthright. The conversations went towards all deviations but the direct path.... "It's been so long since we have had that nice cooling cold coffee, home made, not the ones we find at cafes, watery and with blobs of cream. Ummm I can taste it in my mouth. I wish somebody could make it for me". I look around to check if he is talking to someone else, but that can't be as its just the two of us at home. "If my mum was here she would have already be making it as I speak." That too didn't make me rush to the kitchen b

nutritious and filling    Much of the African cuisine is not fully discovered as yet by the rest of the world. Though Kenya falls in the Savannah region, many parts of the country grow a rich variety of fruits and vegetables that provide the people of the area with their basic requirements of carbohydrates, proteins and minerals. Colonization by the British Empire and the influx of Indians and Arabs has added variety to the basic dishes prepared in many parts of Kenya. The coast is well known for using coconut milk in most of their dishes, the highlands use lots of potatoes and areas around Lake Victoria use a lot of fish and cassava. Over the years traditional methods and recipes have given way to new versions and more palatable ones for the younger generation. One such dish prepared mostly by the Kikuyus, called Irio has over the years developed its own version, depending on the region and culture.Traditonal irio is prepared by mixing cooked red beans, maize and mashed potatoes. Some

Happy Valentine's  Day Image courtesy of Ohmega1982 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net     We hear from everyone that we don't need a special day to remind us that we love someone so dearly, we should feel that way everyday. Now feeling love and nothing else 365 days is a tall order. Be true to yourself and think of how many times you had wished for your own space, you hated your spouse or friend for some reason or the other. There are days when small habits irritate you to no end and its easier to remember the sad and irritating times than the happy times. How many times have you wanted to scream at the top of your lungs and pull your hair (not literally, you don't want to be bald). I am sure all of you have had those moments. We quickly get over those and move on, not looking back till the next such irritating, hating episode occurs. They say that these very experiences makes a relationship more stronger and we learn to cope with hurdles much better. Many jokes and jibes are targete