Lemonade Concentrate

Blogging Marathon#65: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Kid's Summer Vacation Recipes

Dish: Lemonade Concentrate

Whenever my son thinks he needs money to buy something from school, he asks if he can open a lemonade stand. My answer is always is 'go ahead, but don't ask me to make the lemonade'. He doesn't really get the concept that he has to spend money first to earn later.

But I wanted to make him lemonade anyway because my husband bought 2 huge bags of limes and lemons and as they say when life gives you lemons (and limes), make lemonade. Which is exactly what I did :-)

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Vegan Lemon Cupcakes

We are cruising past May with jest speed, last weekend was my birthday and Mother's day. We had a fun weekend getaway to Connecticut and a beautiful Mother's day party at a dear friend's house. Hope you guys had a good Mother's day. But make sure to appreciate your mom not just on her special day, but every day of the week -- she deserves it :-)

I made these cute little mini lemon cupcakes for Mother's day last weekend. It is a variation of the basic vegan vanilla cupcake recipe, but instead of vanilla flavored with lemon zest and pure lemon extract.

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Barley Pulihora (Lemon flavored Pearl Barley)

Blogging Marathon# 60: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Festival of the month Recipes

Dish: Barley Pulihora

I'm starting the first marathon of the year with recipes for 'Festival of the month' theme. I picked the first festival on the Hindu calendar, Sankranthi or Pongal. Makar Sankranthi is a harvest festival is celebrated all over India and even Nepal. The day is believed to mark the arrival of spring in India. It usually falls on the 14th of January and sometimes on the 13th or 15th January.

In AP, where I grew up it is celebrated for 3 days. The first day is called 'Bhogi' when at dawn, people light a bonfire with wood logs and other solid fuels, representing the disposal of old habits, vices and so on. In the evening, infants and children are showered with Regi pallu (Indian jujube fruit). This is believed to wade of any evil from the kids. It is a time for the family to get together.

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Classic Hummus

I love hummus. I use it as a spread on sandwiches, wraps and even made a bread with it. But never made hummus myself at home -- I wonder why!! All it needs is 2 main ingredients -- chickpeas and tahini and that's all you need to make this creamy and delicious dip.
Hummus is known as the poor man's food in the Middle East and it is a versatile dish. It can be served as a snack or with any meal of the day -- it is served for breakfast for Israel. It is an easy and delicious way to add protein to the diet.

This recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine. The recipe is a little unusual in that it uses warm chickpeas -- the author says the heat helps cut the garlic's acidity. It is best to make the hummus from scratch using dried chickpeas (instructions on how to cook chickpeas from scratch are included at the end of the post).

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Honeydew Citrus Juice

I am enjoying the warm summer weather, the lovely fresh summer fruit and my backyard garden these days. It makes me sad that it's already middle of summer -- I wish I can hold on it a little longer.
May be I can with this refreshing drink made with honeydew melon and citrus juice. I bought a honey dew melon the other day, it was super juicy, sweet and delicious. After eating most of it as is, I used the rest to make this drink.

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Lemon Almond Ricotta Bundt Cake

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 22

Bake of the Day: Cakes -- Lemon Almond Ricotta Bundt Cake

I am not a health freak but I do look at what a eat. My motto is everything in moderation is OK. There was a phase in my life, few years back, when I tried making 'healthy' foods that really tasted 'healthy' (you know what I mean, right??). I'm glad that phase has passed and now I try incorporate healthy ingredients into my dishes but try to make them taste as normal as possible.

Coming to today's dish, I had a container of ricotta in the fridge waiting to be used up and a quick search landed me on this Lemon almond Bundt cake recipe. I loved the pics and decided to bake it.

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Menthikura-Pesarapappu Chaaru (Methi-Moongdal Soup)

There's an overdose of Methi recipes on my blog this week. After Methi Matar Masala, Methi Chana Pulao & Methi pulusu/ stew, I have a lentil based methi dish today. Recipe is from a Telugu cooking show.

Methi and moong dal are a good combination to make pappu or dal. But in this recipe, the consistency is more like a soup instead of thick like a dal. Soup is flavored with freshly made spice powder made with coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds and peppercorns. This makes the dish taste very earthy and spicy. Finally adding lemon juice to the rasam/ soup gives it the required tang or zing that makes this dish super delicious.

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Zeppole (Eggless Version)

Blogging Marathon# 33: Week 4/ Day 3
Theme: BM# 32 Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Zeppole by Sandhya Ramakrishnan

As I was looking for a dish to make for the final day of BM# 33, I narrowed down my search by looking for recipes made with X, Y & Z instead of the starting from A. Isn't that smart?? I think so too (patting on my shoulder right now :-) 

I got super excited when I saw Zeppole from Sandhya's blog in the list for Z and made it for our evening snack today. I've seen Zeppole in many street fairs but never tried to make it myself. This recipe sounded simple enough to try. I'm so glad I tried these because they were sooo good, we gobbled them all up in one sitting and wished there were more.. lot more.

Zeppole are also known as Italian donuts. Flour, butter and eggs are mixed into a dough and then deep fried. This particular recipe uses ricotta cheese and mascarpone cheese instead of butter. The resulting fried zeppole are so airy and fluffy that you lose count of how many you ate.

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Aratikaya Annam (Raw Banana Rice)

Blogging Marathon# 31: Week 3/ Day 1
Theme: Main Course
Dish: Aratikaya Annam (Raw Banana Rice)

Today we are starting the 3rd week of Blogging Marathon and my theme for this week is "Main Course". Like Valli mentioned in her post, even I'm not sure which dish is considered as 'main course' in an Indian meal. Is it the Curry that goes with the rice or is it the rice itself. It's almost like the 'who came first question -- chicken or the egg??'

Well anyway I'm going to post 3 dishes that I think are 'main courses' in the next 3 days. For day 1, I have this raw banana rice. I saw the recipe on 'Eenadu' site and since I had all the ingredients, made it right away. It is a modification of good old pulihora or lemon rice and tastes great without any side dishes. Quick and easy to make, perfect for lunch boxes and picnics.

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Meyer Lemon Pulihora (Meyer Lemon Rice)

Blogging Marathon# 27: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: Occasions - Birthday
Dish: (Meyer) Lemon Pulihora

Pulihora is the first dish that is made for any occasion in Andhra Pradesh. Be it a simple birthday celebration at home or a big fancy sit-down meal for a wedding, pulihoras in different avatars make their appearance. There are 2 types of pulihoras: lemon pulihora - this is the quickest and I usually make it when I don't have too much time, but still want to make something festive for an occasion. The second variety is made with tamarind -- this needs some time to prepare and to let the flavors mingle with each other, but is the tastiest among the two. 

I used meyer lemons instead of regular lemons in today's dish. Meyer lemons are fruitier and have a slightly sweeter taste. Their skin is also not as thick as regular lemons.

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