Diwali Decorating Ideas/Inspirations

Diwali is around the corner, I hope all of you are as excited about Diwali as I am.Diwali is my favorite festival, there is something so special about decorating homes with diya's or candles, fire crackers, friends and food. As all of you are getting ready for Diwali wanted to share few decorating inspirations from few favorite bloggers. Here is wishing all of you a wonderful and a safe diwali. Please click on the pics for more information.

Floral Rangoli by DesignbyVani



Lentils inspired rangoli from designbyvani
Diwali Doily from http://rangdecor.blogspot.com/2010/10/doily-patterns.html
Beautiful Rangoli courtesy Arch from Rang Decor , I am hoping to recreating the pattern below this year at my home.
Flower Balls From Rajee
Gorgeous tablescape for Diwali from Rajee Sood , Click on the link for more pictures and awesome ideas. How beautiful and creative are these bangles when illuminated from IndieHome.
Just few floral candles will ring in the festive mood. (Pic courtesy bing image)



Combination of flowers,candles of various colors and height, adds quite a dimension to any table or home.


Check out my other post on Diwali decorations here
If you have ideas that you would like to share please email and I would love to add it to the list.
Sreelu

Halloween Decoration Ideas

One of the best things about blogging for me is a chance to meet fellow bloggers who are exceptionally talented and whose passion resonates on their blogs, be it creative, technical, humourous or political.

One such blog I frequent is Hostess with the mostess, she has awesome decoration ideas, recipes and excellent party ideas. All the images below are courtesy HWTM

Check out all the halloween inspired ideas

Easy Peazy No cook, no chop Chutney - Roasted Split Chickpeas Chutney

Split Chickpeas Chutney

This recipe is a favorite at home , learnt it from a colleague of mine, cannot tell you how many times it comes handy when you realize you are short on ingredients or time. Goes very well with most of Indian breakfasts like idlee, dosa, upma etc..
Ingredients
1 cup roasted split channa dal ( gulla senga pappu)
2-3 green chillies adjust according to taste
1-2 tbsp jeera/cumin seeds
2-3 cloves of fresh garlic
tbsp of tamarind paste
salt according to taste
Process
1. Grind all the above ingredients in a food processor or a mixer.
Serve with your choice of desi breakfasts.

Can chutney get any simpler, quicker, and easier than this , thought so ........

For all of us who are visual learners

For all you visual learners .........

An upside down cake to ease midweek blues
For all of you who are visual learners like me, a blog dedicated to recipes and illustrations, can't go wrong with that combination. Check out The Draw and Cook, a website that's super fun and where recipes add so much more flavor given their illustrations.For as they say a picture tells a thousand words ...

Yummy Cinnamon Rolls

Chick Pea and Sweet Potato curry
How creative and cute is the Palak Paneer recipe from one of my favorite bloggers Kamini

Goat cheese and berry Salad

Strawberry Apple Pie

Now making choclate truffles is not that hard after all.

All images courtesy The Draw and Cook , go check them out for they have tons more.

Guess ?

Any guess on what these fruit/berries/seeds are ..

Bagel Melt Sandwich

Bagel Melt Sandwich

I think this post comes after my longest blog break ever, awww I really missed blogging, I may sound like a broken record but seriously had no time at all so many things to do and so less time. I had set few ambitious goals at the start of the year and I had to complete them before the year end and those tasks pretty much took away any spare time I had, but never the less I am so glad I have completed my goals for the year few weeks ago and that really took pressure of me.

Last few weeks have been partying weeks, Bay area comes to life during Navratri and Diwali, somehow everything seems very festive , Golu's, Dandia's ,parties, food and friends , its truly the best time of the year.

Today's recipe is the end result of my pantry cleaning session, I go through these spurts of cleaning where I pretty much empty the pantry and restock don't ask me why but it happens quite often at my home. It was a cold and chili evening, hot sandwich and soup seemed perfect for dinner. There is this cute little cafe at work that I frequent regularly and their speciality is open top bagel melt so decided to create the same instead of regular bread .

Ingredients

Bagel - I used honey wheat

garlic,olives, sun dried tomatoes, capers, jalapeno, feta cheese ,salt and pepper.

Your choice of cheese

tomato, baby spinach

Process

1. Cut bagel vertically


2. Grind all the ingredients below add salt and pepper and mix well.

3. Remove spread and keep aside, this can be used instead of cream cheese, can be used as dip with pita chips as well.
4. slather a generous portion on each side of the bagel.
5. Top it with choice of cheese.
6. Broil on high in a oven till cheese melts and starts to form bubbles.
7. Add baby spinach and tomatoes and serve hot.
Makes for a perfect breakfast, lunch or dinner. Crossing fingers that I get to my regular blogging.

Love,

Sreelu