Sunday, March 13, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
A trip to Rolla, Missouri - food, travel and more
It has been a while since I really wanted to write something. I actually started traveling, not literally! I always wanted to travel but was stuck back due to various reasons. Recently I visited quite a few number of cities.
It all started in October when I really wanted to travel and decided to visit Bharath in Peoria near Chicago. After long time we have seen each other! First, I went to Rolla in Missouri to watch his grad walk. He picked me up in St. Louis on 17th December, 2010 and we drove to Rolla. However, I did not think fully of entertainment as I still had to complete an unfinished assignment to secure a better grade. Yeah, a nerd. So it took some time for me to get in to the groove to enjoy. Grad walk on 18th was indeed a treat to watch. Over 300 students graduated including undergraduates. Grandparents cheered at the name of their grandchildren. It was a delight to watch friends, family and acquaintances who came to cheer the graduates! The grad ecstasy is something to be experienced.
I met Uday, Bheem boy, Swathi and other people I don't want to remember! Uday was my college mate at Vasavi and was very glad to meet him after almost three years. He's a great cricketer, bowler in particular (have not seen his batting though) and many at college were at awe of him. He was a good footballer too and represented Civil engineering for at least an year as far as I can remember. He's a common friend to me, and Rohit (from post high school study).
About Rolla, MO
Not a big town from what I have seen. In my opinion, it is a university town. Not a huge downtown similar to other towns. I always wanted to visit this place as Bharath studied there. I have not tasted any local food on this trip. Only regret in this trip is that I could not visit Meramec caverns near Rolla. Saved it for the next time!
We drove back to Peoria on 19th after lunching at El Sombero. I had a burrito which tasted OK and the dessert, Special Mexican Ice cream tasted awful. I tasted milkshake at Steak 'n Shake and it was good. But nothing replaces the same from McDonald's for me.
On our way to Peoria
P.S: I have a strong liking to Mexican food, Pizza and do not enjoy mediocre food at all.
Semiya Payasam !
You are habituated to few things in daily life, cooking has been that one of those things which got me hooked right from the word go. Finally made the decision to detail my recipes. This week it's Semiya Payasam / Bambino Payasam (that's how we term it in our home, Hyderabad).
Ingredients:
1) Bambino
quantity depends on the number of people you want to cook for. I used 350 gm of Bambino for five of us.
2) Milk
again, depends on the number of people. I used about 1.75 ltrs (approx. half gallon) of milk.
3) Elaichi, Cashew, and Kismis (dried grapes)
5-6 pieces of each.
4) Sugar
This is very relative (depends on the in-take of the eater!). I haven't measured sugar. But it must weigh around 300-400 gm. The best way is to add sufficient amount of sugar, taste it and add further if your taste buds are not satisfied enough.
5) Ghee
Two tablespoons of ghee
Method!
-> Take a bowl (to fry the Bambino), add ghee to it and place the stove in medium-high. After 5 minutes, add cashew, Kismis and Elaichi. After 5 minutes, Bambino and fry till light brown.
-> Meanwhile, boil the milk very well and add the above mixture to milk.
-> Wait till the Bambino is well cooked and add sugar very slowly ensuring no sugar balls formation.
I have not made this before but it tasted very good. I did not expect it though :)
Have fun!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Tangled movie review
Tangled is easily tops my list of lovable movies in the past one year. I am not a big fan of animation movies and carefully choose which animation movies to watch. After watching Black Swan yesterday, I wanted to watch a soothing movie that does not involve high drama and one that has high entertainment quotient. So I chose Tangled just to see how Disney makes animation movies. Another, geeky, point is that I am now interested to watch animation movies more than ever thanks to a graphics course last semester!
I liked the simple story of a girl finding her parents after being abducted by an evil woman. Rapunzel (little princess) is very likeable and we are treated with stunning visuals throughout the movie. I particularly liked the voiceovers of Rapunzel, Eugene/Ryder and the antics of the horse. It was interesting to watch an English movie with songs and boy, what-a-fabulous score it was! It was a trivia for me to find that the music director for this movie already won 8 oscars! I absolutely loved the visuals especially during the lantern lighting, fight scenes, and rendering the huge kingdom. One cannot help to notice the amount of work that went in to rendering the hair of Rapunzel. For these details, I liked the movie even more!
A must watch for all ages and do not miss the fun ride with Tangled.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Floods in Pakistan
Oh nature!
why this destruction?
Humans, either Indian or Pakistani, are vulnerable to nature's fury. Can nature stop this once for all? Is this a message to politicians or common man or dictators? How should we treat this?
May all who have suffered in the recent floods in Pakistan recover soon. All countries sensitive to human destruction should come forward to help them.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Blessed
'I am Ryanda, she is my sister Kathy'
nice to know
'I have another sister as well. Also, I have my friends here'
that's great!
'we will be for three more days with my mom'
see you tomorrow then!
I met the little girl today who was happy to spot me at the pool. Honestly, I wasn't positive at the very idea of having a discussion with small kids as they can be awful at your face. But, I'm struck by her innocence. beautiful smile! amazing kid.
may all good luck be with her.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Where have I been?
Hi blogosphere,
looking at the statistics of this blog:
10 posts in 2007
80 posts in 2008
35 posts in 2009 and
3 posts in 2010
observed that I got too self-indulgent these days and decided to blog more frequently. And instead of maintaining too many blogs, I decided to move all blogs in one place which requires some work! I'm into it from this moment :)
I have eight blogs in all and own five of them while the rest three are group blogs. I would leave the group blogs for now and work on integrating the rest five. Of these five:
one is telugu blog
one is research blog
one is pictures blog
one blog is supposed to be for life and personal blogging (the first blog I started)
and the last blog is this one - focuses on politics, sports and not-too-serious-about-my-life stuff
I would retain this blog and merge between life n living blog in this. I would include telugu posts, pictures and research posts in this blog in different tabs.
Looking forward to brighter blog times!
Update: merged two blogs, current blog and between life n living blog.
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