All posts by jcisnowjs

Blogger, Freelancer, Manager, Software Engineer, Beginner in Crocheting, Struggling Cook, Photography addict, Passionate for long drives n soulful music, Movie buff, Interested in politics, a loving wife and a Mom of three, but still a girl from heart :-)

Food, Health

Mouthwatering Monday – Paneer Tikka

Image June 30, 2014 jcisnowjs 2 Comments

For us vegetarians, Paneer can be termed as delicious and mouthwatering as Chicken is for the Non Vegetarians. We relish Paneer dishes. Karahi Paneer is one of my favorite dishes, along with Paneer Tikka, which I have tried my hands on this weekend.

Paneer Tikka is marinated Cheese/Paneer, with spices and curd, which is grilled or baked, preferably in a tandoor, but an oven will do too.

Below is the recipe for it. I have done this with some variations so, posting my variations too, along with the original recipe.

Ingredients:

1½ cup Paneer (Tofu also worked for me 🙂 )
2 Capsicums (Red Yellow or Green) – I have not used Capsicum coz hubby doesn’t like them 😛
1 Onion
1 Tomato
1 cup Hung Curd
1½ tbsp Ginger-Garlic Paste
1/2 tbsp Red Chilli Powder (use Kashmiri Red Chilli if you want more Red Color)
1 tbsp Turmeric Powder (Optional as per your taste/color choice)
1/4 tbsp Garam Masala
1 tbsp Cumin Powder
1 tbsp Coriander Powder
1 tbsp Chaat Masa
Oil to spray for baking/griling
Salt as per taste (You may also like to use black salt in small quantity)

Method (fairly simple):

Mix curd with all the spices. Add lemon juice to it. Mix well.
Dice vegetables and Paneer into square shapes or any shape you prefer, just small pieces 🙂
Marinate Paneer and vegetables in the Curd mix prepared above. Put them aside for 2 hours, in fridge.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Place your onion, tomato, capsicum(I didn’t used them 😦 ) and Paneer onto Skewers (You can use toothpicks too).
Spray with some olive oil.
Put them in oven for 10 minutes.
Rotate your skewers. 10 minutes more in oven and done.
Serve hot with chutney of your choice (preferably Mint chutney). Sprinkle some lemon juice to add that tangy taste to it.

You can garnish them with lemon wedges and onion slices.

Preparation won’t take much, except for the 2 hours of marinated time. Tasty and healthy recipe which my kids enjoyed eating too.

One more variation– I used extra gravy left after marination as separate dish or as Masala for my Paneer Tikka 🙂

P.S. My cooking is experimental. You will find many similar and different recipes, but the idea is to explore your food and do experiments with it. Enjoy Cooking Experiments and Experiences 🙂

Life

Cleaning House While The Kids Are Home, Is Like Shoveling Snow While It’s Snowing

June 27, 2014 jcisnowjs Leave a comment

lauraagudelo272

Click the image to view today’s funniest pictures – 84 pics –

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Books

Queen Of Babble

Image June 27, 2014 jcisnowjs Leave a comment

What’s a Girl without a big mouth?

Sensible, maybe.

Well, Queen of Babble by “Meg Cabot” is everything a chic lit should be, just not sensible enough. No complains though, as I opted for a lighthearted and fluffy read after going through some serious psycho business like “Along Came A Spider”.

Meg Cabot has written a list of series on “Queen Of Babble”, and I just came to know that a movie is also under production on this one. Great going. It would be better to watch a silly comedy than to read and waste your time on a stupid book.

Coming to the book, this story is about Lizzie Nicholas, who is a silly girl, just graduated from college with major in Fashion (actually not yet graduated, she forgot to submit her thesis, see how stupid :P), and now she is going to London to visit her boyfriend for a month. Problem is, the guy that she says that she has fallen in love with, Andrew; she don’t even remember his face (butt off-course, she remembers).

She met Andrew for a span of, I think, 24 hours and she falls in love with him. So madly that she agreed to go all the way to London (first time alone), to live with him. Unknowingly, that he has no car or even a roof of his own. He is living with his parents, two brothers and a dog, with no bed or room to offer her. So she has to make adjustment with the laundry room/partition. He told her that he wants to be teacher but instead is working as a waiter, and still getting the unemployment benefits from his government. Above all he needs money from Lizzie to complete his education, as he has blown his, on gambling. :@

Enough lies from him, but this is not what deter our romantic girl from leaving him, but the fact that he told his family that Lizzie is fat. What FAT??? You called your girlfriend Fat? Don’t you love your life?

She leave him finally, after much drama of her own (sobbing and losing consciousness and all…).

But where to go? She has no money, her return ticket is non refundable and is scheduled after a month. Saving grace, her best friend Shari is in France, helping out in managing a wedding with his boyfriend Chaz, i a rich chateau. She left for to France, alone in a train knowing little of french and all distressed with a broken heart. Only, her luck have it that she met the handsome dude Luke in the train who not only consoles her but also turned out to be the true gentlemen, and Chaz’s friend and owner of the beautiful chateau.

You will guess, story complete. No, because he has a girlfriend, Dominique, who is rich beautiful and too classy to handle alone by Lizzie. Our damsel, poor girl still falls in love with Luke. Only problem other than, him having a girlfriend, that our girl Lizzie, has a big mouth. Queen Of Babble, you know. I am not elaborating more on the story, don’t want to spoil the most predictable story. 😛

Problem with this kind of chic lit is that it’s a no brainer. A stupid love story, without any story. If you want to read something without using your brain and rest of the common senses then you should probably go for this one. Otherwise, pick something useful.

Photographs

A Stroll Around The Lake

Gallery June 25, 2014 jcisnowjs Leave a comment

Life, Random

Dealing With Writer’s Block

Image June 24, 2014 jcisnowjs 5 Comments

Writer’s Block is when you are stuck and not have any thing good to write about. What I am dealing with is somewhat different. I have so much to write about, that I am not able to figure out what to pick next for writing.

It’s like whenever I sit down to write something, normally I would have visualized the starting content by then, but today, the moment I start writing, my mind goes blank. Totally Blank. Not even a sentence or a word.

Instant I will leave my writing table and would stand up to do some other work (mostly to settle down a intensive fighting session between my kids), ideas will start flowing, along with that visualization thing I told you about. :O

At first I thought, let’s start writing standing up. Maybe, I am sitting for writing that is why I am not able to write (weird right!!!). I was so wrong. It didn’t help. I even tried it lying down, took a nap instead (all thanks to kid for rescuing me from a peaceful sleep 😛 ).

Then I thought of writing down something on paper, and not on my laptop. I have heard that some still prefer to write using Paper and Pen. How cute? I also loved writing this way, when I was a kid. Not anymore, it’s just a hassle to upload it or transfer it to blog later.

Still, I decided to write on paper. First thing, where is that damn Paper? I have to go through my Kids stationary and bags to find one piece of nice Paper. Working pens?? when was the last time I saw a god working pen? Oh, my husband has stacked all the pens high in cupboard, so that kids won’t get hold of them. I don’t understand, Why my kids are blamed for everything that goes wrong in my house? What do they have to do with breaking of pens?

We will discuss Kids problems later, first I have to find out a pen. So, my hubby has stacked them up high, so high that I have to get help from my elegant yet fatty and quite heavy Chair, to reach the Pens. Got them, finally!!!

1 minute, 2, 5 minutes… almost 10 minutes…. No, I can sit that long without doing nothing. Scrap it. I am not writing anything now. My inner voice is so angry now. Shouting and screaming (only inner voice, not me, not my fault).

Then I got this brilliant idea. Let’s write about, why I am not able to write? Or, what I am going through? Cool!!!!

Don’t curse me. Yeah, I know I have disappointed you with all my blabbering, but I enjoyed it. It’s fun to write about ones frustration. LOL…. why did I use the frustration word 😛