TOMATO KADHI

Ingredients:

Ripe tomatoes ... 4-5

Besan/gram flour ... 2 tbsps.

Green chillies .... 2-3

Bhindi ........ 4-5

Beans ......... 4-5

Potatoes... 2-3

Carrots ... 1

Ginger .... 1 inch piece

Curry leaves .... 1 sprig

Coriander leaves ... handful

Turmeric powder ... 1/4 tsp.

Red chilli powder ... 1/4 tsp.

Salt ............ to taste

Jaggery or sugar .... 1 tbsp.

Asafoetida........... 1/8 tsp.

Cumin seeds ....... 1 tbsp.

Methi / fenugreek seeds ... 1 tsp.

Oil ..... 6 tbsps.

Method:

1. Blanch the tomatoes, peel them and make a thin puree.

2. Wash the bhindi and remove the two ends and give a slit in the middle. Sprinkle a little salt and fry them until half done. Set aside.

3. Peel the potatoes and cut them into big pieces. ( cut the small one into two )

4. Scrape the carrot and cut into long or round pieces.

5. Cut the beans into 2 inch pieces.

6. In a pan, heat the oil and add the asafoetida, cumin seeds and methi seeds. Put the besan and saute it for a few minutes until you get the aroma, taking care not to make it brown.

7. Pour in the tomato puree and about 2 cups of water, stirring continuously to avoid the lumps. Now put all the vegetables except the fried bhindi. Bring to a boil and add salt, jaggery, turmeric & red chilli powder, green chillies, crushed ginger and curry leaves. Simmer it until the kadhi is thick and the vegetables are done. You can add more water if required. Add the bhindi and coriander leaves 5 minutes before you close the gas. Usually it takes 30 - 45 minutes to cook the kadhi.

Serve with plain rice.

This goes to the event - Dish it Out : Tomato Chilli

@ Kaarasaaram & Zesty Palette

CHEESE AND MACARONI ROLLS

Ingredients:

Macaroni.... 1 cup (boiled)

Cheese..... 2 cubes as shown in the picture

Salt.... to taste

Red Chilli Powder..... 1/4 tsp

Coriander Leaves

Method:

1. Boil the macaronis. Grate the cheese.

2. Strain them and transfer into a bowl. Add grated cheese, salt, red chilli powder and the coriander leaves. Mix well, crushing the macaronis and the cheese.

3. Now, apply 2-3 drops of oil on your palm. Take some mixture and make it into a roll as shown in the pic.

3. FRYING TECHNIQUE: Heat oil. First add a roll in the oil. Wait for 10 seconds. Don't touch it. Now add another roll, after 10 secs, add another. 10 Secs after you add the third roll, turn the rolls and fry them till golden brown. In the same way, fry the remaining rolls, three at a time.

Tastes the best with tomato sauce and garlic chutney.

Garlic Chutney: Crush 3 cloves garlic, 1 green chilli, little salt, 1/2 lemon's juice into a fine paste.

This goes to:

Srav's CC - Appetizers

@ Srav's Culinary Concepts

Happy Birthday Lia .... in Boracay!!!!

Yes!!!  Finally ...  my real birth day!  No other place for me to celebrate with my sister but in my favorite happy place called, Boracay!

 I have been waiting for this weekend for months.  I went to mass almost every day of August just to pray for a fun, safe and sunny trip to Boracay.

God did not disappoint me!  God is good, God is kind and God is merciful!

On the day I was leaving, it was the height of typhoon Mina.  When I was about to board the plane, the rain stopped.  I liked Seair because the trip was short, about 40 minutes only, business class seat size and free transfer up to Boracay port and vice versa.



Speaking of ports ...... it is the Habagat season .. which means the winds are coming from the west.... very strong winds at that.  The usual Caticlan jetty port can not be utilized by small sea vessels, had to use another one on the farther side of the city.  When we got there, it was low tide and the boats could not dock near the shore.  They made an improvised gang plank!



Sheets of plywood on top of plastic barrels to keep them afloat.... and everybody had to cross to get to the boat!!!!  I do not think the senior citizens can handle it because it was swaying while we were walking on it!



Some parts did not have hand rails!  I asked my porter to hold my hand.  The boat ride only took 7 minutes.

When I got to my destination, it was not sunny but at least it was not raining!!!  I could not ask for more.  I was already happy.  It was very cold, the wind was strong and chilly.  I had to wear my windbreaker... still... I felt cold.  I had to put my beach bag behind me to protect my back from the wind.

Our hotel was Two Seasons, beach front and accessible from the main road. This is very important because when you get tired of walking and walking and walking along the white beach, you can just take a tricycle going back.   It was a nice mid-range hotel... same price range as Boracay Regency, Astoria and the likes.  It was clean, service was good and the staff was pleasant, always greeted you with a smile.









We arrived in the mid afternoon and had not eaten lunch yet so I brought my Ate to my favorite Japanese restaurant at the southern end of the island, Nagisa Coffee Shop, Station 3, Angol Point.  We did not want to eat a full meal since it was late afternoon, we just shared an order of my favorite Mixed Tempura and Ate  shared the Gyoza with me.





Tempura is the only thing I like to order in that resto.

We walked all the way to station two to try the batchoy of Decos.



LOL  I told my Ate we should not eat a lot because we will not have space in our stomachs for the food we would like to eat.  It was perfect for the cold windy weather.

For the late afternoon dessert, we tried the Baked Cheesecake of Cafe del Sol.



Hahaha  soooooo... it was eat... walk.. eat.. walk... then eat again.

It was too far to walk back to the hotel, we just rode a tricycle.  I have already eaten all the must try food in Boracay, except at Kasbah and True Home Indian food.   Still waiting to crave for it, so far... have not called me yet.  On this trip, I only wanted to eat what I want and not what I should try.

So dinner was just at a nearby restaurant, Bama Grill.  We ordered the Pork Sinigang ... I loved it!



I am a Pork Sinigang fan and this dish is 9 out 10.  The best is the recipe of Mariger and this comes second.  They used fresh tamarind as opposed to the sinigang mix and hugas bigas that was why it was foamy on top! With lots of vegetables and tender liempo.


Ate ordered grilled tuna belly.



It was grilled perfectly, it was moist and flavorful.  Very hard to grill tuna, sometimes it comes out tough and chewy.

No more energy for clubbing or midnight snack!  An early night for us. 

Happy Birthday, Lia!!!!!  I woke up at 9 in the morning!!! The sun was out! Yay!  Thank you God for the perfect birthday gift - bright and sunny day in Boracay!

Breakfast was served buffet style at the restaurant of the hotel facing the beach.  I just got tapa, sardines, rice, red egg, waffles



ham-cheese-mushroom omelet and toasted wheat bread.





Time to hit the beach.  The waves were huge as usual at this time of the year.

 It was wonderful but I was prepared. Even if it was out of fashion to wear a one piece suit in Boracay, I did!  Hahahaha I did not want to get undressed by the waves again, which happened last year, several times because I was wearing a 2 piece tankini suit.

I felt the waves were excited to see me as in... Welcome Back Lia!!!! Every time a wave would hit me, it was like ... Nice to see you again! ... We missed you!  No wardrobe malfunction this time.  There were other people in the water, most of the women were wearing 2 piece string bikinis... I was waiting and waiting for the waves to untie the stings but nothing happened!!!!!  Why... why... why!!! Then it dawned on me that maybe the waves only chose round people! hahahahahahaha.

My birthday lunch was at D Talipapa.  I have been dreaming of eating there again.  It is an ordinary place, I could cook better than them but still .... it was where I wanted to eat.  We bought in the wet market the female crab, sea water prawns and oysters.

Butter Garlic Prawns.... Ummmm Yum!!!  Margarine galore!  Hahahaha.  Loved it.



Grilled Oysters



Green Mango Salad



Chili Crabs... with lots of aligue... the crab was so sweet, succulent and fresh!



Fresh because it was easy to remove the shell, the meat did not stick to it.

We ordered Garlic Kangkong because we needed to equalize the bad with the good. 



My birthday fell on a Sunday and we heard mass at  Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church.



I asked the little girl to write my name on the sand, I wanted to have my picture taken!  Hahahah Cheesy!!!  I know!  But I loved it!



I was kneeling for quite a while when the little girl asked:  You only want to kneel. (Hmmm my question mark key is not working.)  I answered NO!   Then I said: Ate!  Give the girl my camera.  hahahaha  Well, I thought it was a funny story.

We could not eat dinner anymore even if we wanted to because we were still full from our late lunch.  We just had a snack at Epic.

Epic Nachos



Ohhhh did I tell you... Wriggly went with us!!!!



Hahahaha NOOOO he was just a Wriggly look alike.  The woman brought along her pet.

Another tiring day.... no time for clubbing ... LOL... so we went back to the hotel at around 9.  Our goal was to eat the burger at Ambassador in Paradise for midnight snack.  We liked it the last time but there was simply no space.  All Seats Taken.  Standing Room Only!!!! (Hehehe...  in our tummies.)

I loved the breakfast the next day.  Bacon!  Lots and lots of bacon!!!  I had bacon with rice and red egg,



I had bacon, waffles and fried egg!



I also tried their molo soup.



I asked the cook what brand it was, it sounded something like, Belcrest.  Will have to google it and find out.

The waves were really huge that day.   Even more so than the day before.



I was standing on knee high water but the waves were over my head.  I was still on the look out for a wardrobe malfunction from the girls in sting bikinis but it never happened.

We enjoyed the crab at the D Talipapa on my birthday so we decided to eat it again! This time, just steamed crab.



Also got grilled liempo



and BIG clam soup.



A visit to Boracay is not complete if one does not wait for the sunset.



It was really beautiful.  I have seen several sunsets here but each time was different.

I read in some blogs that the Lemon Chicken in Ariels House is a must try, so we had it for our appetizer,   Ummm with rice.  hahahaha.  This was the only must try food I ate.



The Boracay craving of my sister was Aria.  The last time we were there, our next table neighbor had the Caesar Salad... soooo also we ordered one.



It was her turn to choose the food, she got Spaghetti Puttanesca.  I was still full from my Chicken Lemon,  I just split the pasta with her.



The dessert was Mango Cheesecake from Cafe del Sol.



My Ate loves all kinds of cheesecake.

Clubbing time!!!   Hahahaha  Noooo.... back to the hotel by 9pm.  Too tired... clubbing hour starts at 11 or 12.  No more energy... all we wanted to do was lie down and rest.

Breakfast on our last day was just so so ... I only got the tocino, fried egg, tuna flakes, rice, pancakes and omelet.





Last day to take a dip in the ocean.  Waves were not as strong as the previous 2 days... I do not understand why people jump when they see a wave coming towards them.  Well ... I followed what they were doing  and it sure felt fun!!!  And Silly!!! So....  why not!

I wonder ... why is it that I stayed 4 days in Boracay and it still was not enough for me.  I did not want to leave yet....  so many things I still wanted to do, so many food I wanted to try but not enough time to eat my way in Boracay!  Hahahaha.  Good thing I already booked my November trip!

It was a wonderful birthday present from my Ate.  She also enjoyed herself. 

Ate was saying: Do not take my picture yet!!!!

Thank you!  Thank you!! Thank you!!!  Until next year!

So, You've Been Unfollowed and/or Blocked

We were gonna totally do a blog post about unfollowing...but, halfway into it we thought "who the fuck cares", then we wrote that sentence and started trying to do a condensed version of what we had already wrote...now who the fuck knows...

So, You've Been Unfollowed...

All you need to know is that there are lots of reasons people unfollow; suspended accounts, legitimate Twitter glitches** (yes, they exist...and Twitter has NOT fixed them despite what they say), accidentally (people are drinking and on drugs on Twitter!).

And sometimes people are just offended by something you said, sometimes your content is not what they are looking for. Sometime people are using some of those applications on the net that "help" you "clean" your following, find more followers, manage them, find who doesn't follow you back, who stops following...who is "spam", etc., some of those applications offer an automatic unfollow feature and sometimes regular people (not spam, sometimes your "friends"!) get caught in the swoop. (The only application we use for these purposed is 'Refollow' http://www.refollow.com/refollow/index.html - NOT A PLUG)

It's why we have a list to track "unfollowers" (Twitter Glitch List)...because they are not all legitimate unfollowers....if we recognize an account who has unfollowed us "toss" them in our net (list). We've had people thank us for it.

You can also get unfollowed for not talking to a person, we have (sorry, but with as many followers as we have we can't talk to people every single time they @...but we try to at least acknowledge by starring [favorite-ing] the @). We've been unfollowed for offending people, we've been unfollowed, not surprisingly, for tweeting "too much", and sometimes it's a Twittercide*.

Oh, and the newest one, for those "Favstar whores" (which is an actual thing in Urban Dictionary...but what isn't), is to unfollow people who don't RT/star/favorite their Tweets in Favstar enough...we're planning on an entry to talk about Favstar.

Believe it or not we get DM's asking us questions about a lot of this stuff, and most recently some questions about Favstar.

Bottom line on the unfollowing? Take a deep breath. Relax. Unless it was someone you recognize and talk to (a friend) then it shouldn't be too big of a deal, right?

Oh, and if you unfollow someone you have never talked to...don't bother fucking sending the person a DM to let them know why because a) they can't respond to you unless you are still following them and b) they probably would rather you keep your yap shut and move on to finding someone who is as lame as you are.

But why care, you ask?

Well, most people don't and that's cool, because people are on Twitter for a variety of different reasons.

However, depending on what you are on Twitter for, sometimes you deal in high numbers of followers, and want to follow a lot of people who are not going to follow you back, such as publishing companies, celebrities, news accounts, magazines, and television shows, for example.
Twitter has a following/follow ratio (limit) that's we've written about before...we're not going to rehash it, we'll just show you the snip that is in the entry where we wrote about it:

So, to be able to follow the people who follow you PLUS follow people you want to follow, no matter if they follow you back, you have to be able to unfollow the unfollowers.

Also note, some accounts prey on the fact that people aren't paying attention and do not bother to find out who unfollowed them; they follow you, you follow them, and then within two days they unfollow you. You don't remember who they are so you are stuck following them. Bait and switch. They do it for whatever reason, we figure to make themselves look more important.

"I've Been Blocked!"

Now...here's some information about blocking people...because it's not really blocking much other than being THEM receiving YOUR @'s. (they can still talk @ you, you just won't "hear" it)

To illustrate...

We had a follower who loved our Tweets, then he unfollowed us and blocked us. When we used our choice application for such matters (finding unfollowers) and found out he unfollowed us, we went to his Timeline (we always check out what people have been saying, sometimes they say things to people they unfollow, sometimes they leave Twittercide* notes)...this person wrote an @ to us (stating in case we see this message, you know, in case we stopped by) saying he had blocked us because while he liked our Tweets, he had read our Timeline @'s and said they were "fucked up". Not sure what he meant, BUT he could write to us, have it in HIS timeline and we never would have known but for going to his profile.

Blocking someone does NOT...prevent the person you blocked from looking at YOUR tweets. Nor does it prevent that person from saying things @ you...it prevents You from seeing what THEY are saying about you. Like talking behind your back. (but you can probably find out if you search your name on Twitter, then the things recently said about you can be found, even if you are blocked by that person)

We're not really sure the point in this blocking thing, though we have blocked a couple people so we didn't have to be harassed by them. Generally if you want to block someone it would be because you don't want them to see you, or the things you are saying in addition to not wanting to see what they are saying.

Furthermore, blocking sometimes doesn't work because you can still get those annoying Tweets, that maybe you put the block on for in the first place, when people you mutually follow RT the asshole that you blocked (or blocked you, in some cases. We have a few who blocked us and it pisses us off every time they are RT'd into our timeline)...there they are...in all their douchebag glory.

Also, Twitter may state they do not notify you that you have been blocked, but let's say a random Tweeple blocked you, one you never followed them, who never followed you but for some reason they saw you and blocked you...if you try to follow them you'll get a popup saying you can't follow this person because they blocked you. (totally happened to us in the last week)

Unfollowing and blocking...they're just not that into you...but who the fuck cares...as long as you can unfollow them back if you didn't want to be following them in the first place. Or maybe it was an accident.

As with all our social media blog posts we hope this was helpful to someone.

Other Social Media Posts We've Done:

• Birds of A Feather, on Twitter, CAN Flock Together


• For Us, It's All About Team Awesome...and Twitter


• You're Doing Twitter Wrong



• We Talk About Listing People On Twitter


• Who Are The Twitter Elite...And Of Course We Ramble

*Twittercide is when someone closes their account...they're account remains a ghost for around 24 hours, all of the people they follow are automatically unfollowed, and all of their following and follower numbers go to zero. The person in question can elect to have all their tweets removed, or to leave them on the Timeline. There is also a period in which a Twittercided account can reclaim their account and "come back to life". People Twittercide for a variety of reasons.

**Twitter glitches are sometimes caused by using certain applications, but Twitter also has a glitch in their website/system whereby it unfollows accounts on your behalf...it's a real pisser.