Ragi Huri hittu

Hello everyone,
  Today, I am posting a very authentic Karnataka recipe. Sometime back, my mom sent me Indira's Ragi Hurihittu (millet & multigrain powder). It has few recipes in the back but I wanted to try out something else. I do not know the ingredients for this Hurihittu as its ready to eat. The package does not contain any details about the ingredients. I do not know if it has nuts or not, so pls do not eat this if you are allergic to nuts.

Ingredients needed:

2 cups of Ragi Hurihittu
1/2 onion - finely chopped
1 green chili - finely chopped
A small bunch of cilantro - finely chopped

For tadka:
Oil - 2 tsp
1 tsp channa dal/red gram
1 tsp of Urad dal/split black lentil
1/2 tsp of mustard
Water as needed
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat oil in a pan and make tadka by adding red gram, black lentil and mustard seeds. Add finely chopped green chili, onion & cilantro. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add 2 cups of ragi hurihittu. Mix well. Add a little bit of water (1/4 cup to 1/2 cup, enough to make a dough and do not make it watery). Mix well. I did not add salt to mine but if you want, you can add a bit of salt to taste. Turn the heat off and make ragi hurihittu balls. I just made it as ragi laddos or ragi balls. It can also be consumed as upittu/upma. Breakfast ready :). Enjoy this with a cup of filter kaapi :).

 

Bend + Crater Lake, May 2018

Dear all,

  I want to start my today's blog by saying THANK YOU to all those who are reading, commenting and encouraging me with a lot of positive energy! I am very Thankful! <3

My very good friend Suzanne, is a regular visitor to Bend, OR. She suggested I should go there and see the beautiful landscape as I enjoy taking landscape pictures. Thank you, Suzanne for suggesting Bend, OR.

I wanted to be a soccer mom and so funny we ended up with a Honda Mini van in 2010, for a family of 3, when my son was born! The mini van was super useful during our moves and when family visited, but, it was way too big for just the 3 of us! We purchased a new SUV just before the beginning of 2018 and my family and I decided to take a road trip to test the SUV.  Suzanne's suggestion came to my mind and we decided to visit Oregon again, but, this time to a new place: BEND. On google maps, I saw that Bend was just a stone's throw away from Crater Lake and oh! I was even more excited to visit!

The drive to Bend is just fantastic! The variety of landscape was super thrilling to all 3 of us. The landscape started with pine trees and slowly changed to dry terrain and then to green meadows and then again to pine trees and more dry/desert terrain! My husband who was driving kept listening to my *click click click* for few hours and asked me, if I would ever put my camera down. Yep! it was that beautiful & I am not exaggerating! Sharing few pics below from the road trip:

Stonehenge Memorial, Maryhill WA 

The meadows at the border of WA & OR

Mt. Jefferson

Mt. Hood

As we drove from Issaquah, WA to Bend, OR, we noticed Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, Three Sisters & Mt. Bachelor! What a drive!!!
We stayed at Sun River Lodge . We were welcomed by blue birds and large family of deer. The lodge's unit was fantastic. We had a kitchen, a living room in the 1st floor and the 2nd floor which looked like a loft, had a big bedroom + bathroom. It was very convenient & comfortable. It was so comfortable that we wanted to stay longer! The resort is very large & had multiple fun activities - Glow golf (golf at dusk with Mt. Bachelor in the backdrop), an awesome pool, bike trails, kids carnival, live music in summer, etc. There were too many options, but, we had very little time!

Glow Golf

Sunset view from the Golf Course

Day 1: We relaxed at the resort since we reached late in the evening. The Resort is very close to the shopping center "Village at Sunrise". We got drinking water, some food for breakfast (since we had kitchen) & some vegetables before heading to the resort. If you are planning to stay at this place,  shop before you check in. 

Day 2: We woke up early and headed first to the awesome Lava River Cave. We had never hiked inside a cave before. I am super paranoid about hiking in dark places and I was a bit nervous but I decided that this was a great opportunity to fight my fears and be a brave mom to my little one. The cave experience was fantastic and one of my most memorable adventures ever! It is really dark and cold so be prepared with some good head lamps and warm jacket. Make sure you wear comfortable shoes too. Your cellphone lights are not enough so carry your own head lamps or you can rent one at the cave. Its a 1-2 mile hike so be prepared to spend at least an hour or two. My son had a blast! We thought he would be scared, but, he completely surprised us by enjoying it and he was sad that our adventure got over quickly! 

Selfie time :) 

After the hike, we headed over to Village at Sunrise. They had kids events and a carnival on that day. It was a typical carnival with bumper cars, pony rides, rock climbing, train ride and all the favorite things for kids (ages 1-15). After enjoying the ride and shopping a bit, we did something that was totally fun for all 3 of us! We hired BIKES! Woohoo! Sunriver lodge has amazing bike trails. It was one of the best experiences ever for us! We rented a tandem bike & a little bike for my son. I would like to suggest something: Either carry your own bikes/helmets or keep some wipes ready with you to clean the rental helmets(we always do). We rode for almost 2 hours! It was so fun! We took a break & ate some ice cream since the day was very hot. We rode the bike for another hour. 

After enjoying our bike ride & returning them, we headed over to Sparks lake for sunset. Sparks lake was just amazing! On the way, you can see Mt. Bachelor which is a very popular spot during winter for skiers. To go to Sparks lake, I would highly recommend visitors to go on an SUV or a 4 wheel drive, if its winter. The road is very rough. The Three Sisters and the lake are very beautiful! Watch out for bugs though! 

                                 

Drive to Sparks lake

Day 3: OK! I have to tell you all this! I am a big Instapot fan! The next day, me being an Indian and carrying my Instapot as if its my treasure everywhere, wanted to make best use of the situation. I cooked a delicious Veggie Pulao in the morning and we hit the road to Crater Lake. From Sunriver, the Crater Lake is just 90 miles away! 

Note: If you cook something for a picnic on Instapot, make sure you don't open the lid until you reach the location. The food stays warm if IP is unopened after cooking! 

Crater Lake

A portrait of my IP :) 

I have been wanting to visit Crater Lake since 2005. Ahhh! I was jumping with joy when I saw Crater Lake. Its one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Its fantastic and fascinating and we were all super hungry. We had a picnic in our SUV watching the beautiful blue sky and water. It was so calm and peaceful! After having lunch, we went to the visitor center! A really funny thing happened at the visitor center and I wish I had taken a picture to explain it in a better way. I was looking for Women's restroom. We found Men's but couldn't locate Women's. After going around twice in a circle, I at last found a rare entrance in a small building which was actually the Women's restroom! How silly! The Men's restroom had a clear sign in the front and you can easily make out the entrance but the sign for the Women's was all hidden at the rare! I really found that funny! As I was coming out the restroom, I heard a small child talking in my mother tongue! I looked back & Lo! It was a friend of mine from Issaquah! What are the odds??! Its a small world, indeed!

Amazing colors - Crater Lake

After taking some photos of the lake, we took a small walk & played in the snow. It was such a fun experience to play in snow during early summer! We went back to Sun River Lodge. That evening, the resort had live music & dance for families. We listened to the live band while playing badminton. We all danced together, had dinner and went back to the room.

Day 4: Goodbye and Thank you, Bend OR, for a fantastic time! We had a very delicious breakfast at the Sunriver Lodge's restaurant. The view was stunning! 

Breakfast at the Sunriver Lodge Restaurant

We wanted to stop by at Smith Rock state park or Tumalo falls, but, we were very happy and content with the trip. We decided to head back home early and prepare ourselves for a busy working/school week! Once again, we enjoyed the beautiful scenic drive!

Mt. Jefferson

Thank you all for reading. I will be back again with more travel tips! :) Keep Traveling!

Highlights: 

• Lava River Cave
• Crater Lake
• Sunriver Lodge's Glow Golf 
• Bike ride around the trails (there is a fantastic bike trail that runs along the golf course with Mt. Bachelor view)
• Live Concert at the Lodge
• Sparks Lake
• Fantastic drive

Few other touristy things to do in Bend, OR: 

• Kayaking & water activities in summer
• Pro Golf
• Ski in winter at Mt. Bachelor
• Tumalo Creek/ Falls (we got lost despite of GPS so be prepared)
• Smith Rock State park for climbers and hikers
• Lava Butte & Pilot Butte
• High Desert Museum 
• Shopping

Veggie Pho, anyone? :)

Hello readers,
  Tonight I am posting my first recipe blog here on blogspot. I had a travel/cooking blog many years ago with several recipes & I deleted it as I was working full time and, had severe morning sickness from pregnancy which kept me away from different food, travel and blogging for several months. Now, I have gathered more experiences with travel, food and photography, so, I can definitely continue with my *type type type type* journey .. :)! I have to warn you all that I am an amateur and not an expert at cooking or typing recipes, so kindly bear with me. :)

We are vegetarians at home. We are a bit flexible and not very strict vegans or vegetarians like many - we made a choice and added eggs into our weekly diet. I try my best to customize many Asian meat dishes into vegetarian dishes by adding Vegetables + Tofu or Paneer. We exercise/walk everyday and and eat as healthy as possible. So I will try my best to post simple & healthy recipes for you all!

I am a huge fan of British, Turkish, Japanese & Korean TV series (nope, not the crying & melodrama ones, but the ones with a bit of romance + mystery + thriller + food + travel). Whenever I watch series or movies on TV, I get tempted to cook what they are eating. There are so many on Netflix and Amazon Videos that focus on food and travel. I get my inspirations from there and customize them with my own touch! Now I will get back to the what you are actually looking for - the recipe!

Veggie Poh
  
SERVES: 3-4        Preparation time: 60-90 mins (depending on how fast you can cut veggies)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of Mixed vegetable (Onion, Garlic, Carrots, Green + Red Bell Pepper, Broccoli, Baby Corn, Napa Cabbage, French Onions,  Sugar Snap Peas, Edamame etc)
• 1 small cup of Firm Tofu cubes
• 3 Veggie Pho Liquid broth (pic attached)
• 1/2 tbsp Sesame oil to stir fry vegetables
• 1 cup cooked noodles (rice or pad thai) 
• 1/2 tsp chili powder (optional)
• Pepper to taste (optional)
• Salt as required

Directions: 

First, make a broth by adding 3 packets of concentrated Veggie Pho liquid broth (as shown in the pic) to 3 cups of hot water. Set aside. 

On a pot, stir fry all the vegetables in sesame oil. I added just 1/2 tsp oil, but feel free to add more. Add a little bit of water to the vegetables and steam them on medium heat for 5 mins. Add the vegetable broth, bring to boil for 10 mins. Add chili powder & pepper (just to kick ur taste buds). Gently add tofu & cooked noodles. Stir gently and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes and not more than that. Do not let the noodles become too soggy. Add salt as needed. Serve hot. Bon Appetite!  

Simple, isn't it? :) Another option is to add frozen stir fried vegetables if you don't have enough time to cut fresh vegetables. Check out the Pho Broth I found at Metro Market in Sammamish or you can order online from Savory Choice. Enjoy! 

Final result - yum yum yum

From Metro Market

Northern England - Alnwick & Bamburgh 2017

Dear all,
  We didn't have power today for 15+ hours due to wind storm. My family and I had loads of fun without screen time .. no TV, no internet, no LTE either, so that gave us a chance to enjoy some fun games together! We usually spend 30 mins to 90 mins a day watching Family friendly programs or travel programs, but today, we utilized that time to play games! We made up a "word travel game"! We took turns naming different continents, countries, cities and towns. Its such a fun Geography family game! We were so glad we were prepared for emergency as much as we could. We had an emergency bag with food, warm clothes, batteries, lanterns, blankets, water bottles, match & candles. Regarding emergency preparedness, I will write another blog later.

While we played the game, I couldn't help think of Alnwick Castle in Northern England. When we were visiting Scotland, we had set aside a day to visit Alnwick and Bamburgh. If you are a Harry Potter or Downton Abbey fan, Alnwick Castle  is a MUST visit place. Remember the scene where Harry learns to use his broom to fly for the first time and gets recognized to be a SEEKER? Well, that scene was shot at Alnwick.

Alnwick Castle ground where Harry Potter movie was filmed

Entrance

Of all the castles we have visited in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, Alnwick is one of the best family friendly castles! They had organized many Harry Potter themed games and fun activities for kids. We noticed a huge difference between the Scottish and English castles when it comes to the decor and antique collections. I was dumbstruck looking at Alnwick's interiors. The staterooms were massive and richly decorated. Everything sparkled in gold & the wall colors were very bold. While the Scottish castles that we saw were a bit of Gothic in style to my eyes, Alnwick was very much a Renaissance style architecture. The Scottish castles that we saw during this trip, had either very old tapestries or bare walls, while Alnwick walls were of bold colors. Its a very well maintained castle like the Edinburgh Castle. My favorite room in Alnwick castle was their Library! Oh! It was the best library ever! My son loved Alnwick castle as he got to play lot of games with us and enjoyed eating their famous ice-cream.

Watch out for the rat attack :)

After some lessons on how to fly a broom & dragon quest, we walked to downtown Alnwick and had some lunch. 

Highlights & Tips: ALNWICK CASTLE

Drive from Scotland to Alnwick Castle is fantastic. Enjoy the view.

Check out the castle hours and activities. 

Book tickets ahead of time. 

Take the castle tour - its a must! 

Eat their famous ice-cream and check out their Downton Abbey chariot/car collection.

I met a photographer from Northumberland on Facebook & he mentioned that Bamburgh Castle is a must visit place if we were going to Alnwick. He was absolutely right. Bamburgh is magical! Bamburgh is right the beach and massive! Its just 25-30 kms from Alnwick. 

Bamburgh castle from the beach

As I mentioned earlier, the castles are open for limited hours. By the time we finished Alnwick and drove to Bamburgh, the castle was closed. My little one was over joyed when he saw the beach. I had planned ahead of time and purchased some cheap beach toys at Scotland for him. We enjoyed making a sand castle at the beach. The water was pretty cold so we stayed ashore making sand castle. Luckily, it was a beautiful, sunny day.  

Highlights & tips: BAMBURGH CASTLE

Bamburgh castle has few kids friendly events but we missed it. 

Its also a popular wedding location. 

Its right on the beach!!!! Perfect location for kids to have fun! 

We couldn't find any stores near by for water or coffee & the nearest restaurant was 5 mins away. So be prepared. 

Carry sunscreen, blankets and beach toys if you have little kids.

Go in summer so that you can enjoy the beach and the beautiful birds at the castle grounds.  

After soaking in the sunshine as much as we could, we headed back to Edinburgh & planned to take the coastal drive. Its a 2:30 hours of scenic drive to Edinburgh from Bamburgh. We took a short deviation hoping to see St. Abb's head lighthouse for sunset but the GPS misled us and we ended up at a marina. I took couple of photos and by then we were exhausted so we headed back to our hotel in Edinburgh. It was a very memorable trip! 

                                                                          Coastal drive - Scottish border

I hope you all enjoyed reading my travel tips and my photos. Feel free to leave comments if you have any questions. I will give you as much info as I can! I hope you all get to visit these beautiful places! See you next time..!!! :) 

Cabo, Mexico 2017

Hello again everyone,
  Happy New Year 2019 to you all! I hope you all had a fantastic New Year's and wishing you all a very happy & prosperous year ahead!

I was planning on writing about Northern England but, one of my close friends requested me to write about our Cabo travel experiences as they are planning to take a trip to Cabo.

Visa Requirement:
If you have Greencard or US passport, you do not need Visa to Mexico. For those with Indian passport, H1b or B1/B2 visas, kindly check for required paperwork on embassy website. You will have to carry your H1 documents for re-entry.

Our first trip to Mexico was to Cabo. It was very memorable but short. I enjoyed the idea that its just 4+hrs of air travel from Seattle & hey, we have a direct flight! There are 2 different areas - San Jose Del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas. We decided to stay in between the 2 cities at Hacienda Encantada Resort and Spa. We booked the hotel room and also a Taxi to pick us up from the airport to the hotel. My husband, a fan of Mercedes, booked for a Mercedes Benz car to pick us up from the airport to give us a surprise. Immigration was very smooth and welcoming. As soon as we finished immigration, we were mobbed by many travel agents and taxi drivers inside the airport right after baggage claim. Since it was our first trip, we had our taxi info in our hand, ready to go out and we asked someone for directions. The person instead of giving us directions took us to a travel counter and tried to sell us travel packages. So beware of scammers and few agents lying to you as soon as you get out of baggage area. They are just doing their job so be respectful but don't fall for their tricks. If you have a booking, go directly to the baggage claim, get your baggages & exit the airport completely to find your taxi or booking contact. They usually hold a placard with your name.

Our taxi ride to the hotel was very beautiful. You could easily say you are in Mexico with all the beautiful palm trees, rocky mountains & lovely blue water. The resort is huge & very self sufficient with many restaurants, kids play area, pools & grocery store on site. The resort welcomes you with a beautiful water fountain and live music. We had decided to spend most of the time in the resort because it has a beautiful view and access to the beach. What I really enjoyed was having breakfast in the restaurants watching the blue water & clear sky. Our visit to Cabo was in February and we assumed it would be a bit warmer. The weather was windy and a bit chilly on the first night. But, for the rest of our trip, we enjoyed the 70s weather. We also enjoyed soaking our feet in the pools and having drinks at the pool bars.

Camera gears that I carried for this trip:

Nikon D750 + 2 batteries
Nikkor 14-24mm
Nikkor 24-70mm
Nikkor 55-300mm
WonderPana filter for 14-24mm
Travel tripod

WonderPana filter

View from the resort

There are many resorts in Cabo but, we felt this one fit us the best as we kept family friendly, commute and food as our main criteria.

The beach at the resort

As much as I love warm climate and beaches, I cannot stand lizards! The first day we checked into the hotel room, it was indeed clean and neat, but, 2 small lizards on the wall welcomed us! I almost had a mini heart attack and we called the hotel staff to help us out. I was sure I couldn't sleep that night with those lizards starting at me... The hotel staff immediately came with a big grin and took away the lizards! Big relief. Alas, I did not take the pictures of those 2 long lost friends *ha ha*!

View from the hotel room during sunrise

Day 2: We woke up early in the morning and had a nice breakfast at one of the restaurant at the resorts. The resort is so massive that you either have to walk for 20 mins to the restaurants or request for a ride. My son loved the ride within the resort because they took us around in golf cart. Ah! the joy on the child's face was priceless! We had a nice long walk after breakfast within the resort. We soaked ourselves in the pool for few hours, enjoyed the drinks at the pool bar. The lunch was fantastic at the beach restaurant which was within the resort . Over all it was a slow, relaxing day at the resort which was exactly what we had on our agenda. Since the sky cleared up a bit, we decided to walk to the beach at the rare end of the resort and I got a chance to take few sunset pictures. Cabo is a paradise for water lovers. If you like water sports/activities, this place should be in your bucket list. 

Day 3: We rented a car from the resort and drove to Cabo San Jose.  San Jose is a very colorful old city and is famous for shopping, cathedrals & restaurants . We walked for 2 hrs enjoying the colorful shops, had our lunch & watched some street performers. I did not take my camera with me that day as I just wanted to enjoy the local attractions without a bulky camera bag. I just captured few personal memories on my Iphone. 

We later drove around to Marina - San Lucas. In my honest opinion, I felt San Lucas is a very vibrant place that mostly had young travelers. The majority of the crowd we saw were people in their teens to 30s partying and enjoying sunshine rather than families with young kids. We wanted to take a boat ride to Arch of Cabo or do some snorkeling. However, we choose to go back to the resort and relax at the pool. We had a lovely dinner again at the resort & I took few more photos at the beach. 

Day 4: We had a lovely breakfast at the resort and headed back to the airport. With a nice tan and a happy heart, we big goodbye to Cabo. 

Highlights (places to see or things to do):

Cabo San Jose Downtown

Cabo San Lucas Downtown

Arch of Cabo (take a boat ride to Bay of Cabo) 

Snorkeling (if you are interested)

Must try authentic Mexican food

Few tips: 

Beware of scammers at the airport and downtown. 

Prebook all your trips. 

If you are traveling in winter, check the weather and carry a jacket. 

Thank you for reading! :) I will be back again soon with more travel tips!