Promotion

I have a new office/cubicle and a new job role! I am going to be a tech support coordinator for my company, which means ensuring that our customers are getting the required and timely responses from our tech support team. I am excited about the new job but I’m even more excited about my cubicle! I have never had my own cubicle before, I finally have my own three walls. I am super excited to put up pictures and a plant and all sorts of fun little toys that I have!

Right now life is good! I have the best fiance in the world, he spent all weekend taking care of me and another friend SVS when we got drunk at a party and he took me to a really yummy seafood dinner on tuesday to celebrate my promotion. We went to a restaurant called Fishmongers in downtown Durham and we ordered so much food! We got raw oysters and curry calamari as appetizers, I got a blackened Reddrum Fish as an entree and J got BBQ shrimp. We also got yummy sides of jalapeno corn and sugar snap peas. It was a great celebratory dinner.

A June Wedding

Saturday, one of J’s coworkers and good friends B got married to his long time sweetheart. They had a small and simple ceremony by the side of a lake and fun reception in the clubhouse right after. The ceremony was beautiful but they were a little too prompt, and a lot of guests missed the ceremony.  However, in their reception they had fun norwegian and scottish touches because the groom was half norwegian and half scottish. He wore a kilt to honor his scottish traditions and they had a norwegian cake and his dad wore a traditional Norwegian military outfit.

I had worn a black strapless dress to the wedding and I felt very sexy dancing with my friend ST, who is a really fun dancer because he does all the twirls and dips and turns. Anyway,  he spun me out for this really great turn and my dress went flying up my waist. I flashed everyone at the reception, little kids, grandmas, J’s boss.

Thankfully nobody mentioned anything and the rest of the night went without incident. It was a very mellow night, with good friends, and food(smoked salmon….aaaha….) and drinks and dumb jokes about wedding nights.

Also going to a wedding at this stage of wedding planning was very calming for me! It actually helped me realize that it is all about how happy the bride and groom were that day! None of the guests cared that much about the details and we were all having fun just because our friends were having fun! This is an important lesson for me to remember!

Girls Night!

 JE, two other girls and I had a girls night. We drank alcohol and made junk food and sat around and just talked through the night. We were all supposed to spend the night, but the other two girls decided to leave last minute, so it was just me and JE who ended up sleeping over. We had a really fun girly morning too, trying on clothes and making breakfast. 

 On friday night, J was a very sweet boyfriend because even though he was not invited he came over and helped us out of  a jam. He was the only boyfriend who volunteered to help! I was so proud of him. (I’m being cryptic on purpose). Its building up to something….

Sendomatic – Vendor Review

For my Save the Dates , I used Sendomatic.com an online announcement sender. I chose sendomatic over others especially evite.com is because sendomatic was not cheesy and my card looked more like an e-card rather than an invitation. At evite, I found that it was really hard to upload my picture and make it look nice. Also there was no way to get rid of the response boxes. Sendomatic gave me an option of uploading my pictures, getting rid of response boxes and sendomatic’s designs in general were very pretty. For 100 ecards it cost me 12.99 and there were absolutely no advertisements on either the site or the email sent to guests. Also the 12.99 covers any other correspondence I might have with my guests, like reminders etc. Sendomatic also lets you see all the people who have viewed your invitation and guests can also send comments to you through your e-card. The only thing I didn’t like about Sendomatic was that it didn’t have an option to turn off the sound. I really did not want sound on my e-card but there was no way to change. Overall I give Sendomatic an A- and I will definitely use their services in the future.

Dahi Vada and Potluck

I am becoming rather proud of culinary skills lately. I have graduated from just cooking for J and my family to now cooking for big groups of people. Last Sunday DS and Y hosted a Potluck in their backyard and I cooked up a big batch of dahi vada and people actually enjoyed it.

In fact I overheard this conversation between DS and Y

DS: This is great, Did X make this ?

Y: No , this is the dish N and J brought

DS: N made this , really , wow!

The setting was really fun, they had set up a long picnic bench and it felt like this big family meal outdoors. There were Italian dishes, tapas, mac and cheese, shortbread cookies and Tempeh and also DS’s homebrew. After dinner Y and I watched her wedding video and the boys made fun of us.  Also I got an email from DS saying that they will be hosting every sunday , so it will become a summer tradition.

Anyway to celebrate the summer season, I am posting a recipe for Dahi Vada( Dough balls in Yoghurt): A yummy, chilled summer snack

Dahi Vada ( Makes 6 small portions)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups Urad Daal without skin (black lentils)
• Salt to taste
• 2″ piece of ginger grated
• 2 green chillies chopped very fine
• Vegetable/ canola/ sunflower oil for deep frying
• 3 cups thick fresh yoghurt (should not be sour)
• Red chilli powder to taste
• 1 tbsp chaat masala
• 2 tsps cumin seeds roasted gently and ground into a fine powder
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• Chopped corainder leaves to garnish

Preparation

Soak the urad daal in a bowl of water overnight. Grind it into a paste the next morning. Do not add any water while grinding.

Add the green chillies and ginger to this paste.

Mix 1 cup of yoghurt with 2 cups of water and salt to taste

Keep aside.

In another bowl mix the remaining yoghurt with the red chilli powder, chaat masala, cumin powder, sugar and salt to taste. Mix well. Keep aside.

Heat oil for deep frying on a medium flame. Grease your palms with oil and put 1 tbsp of the lentil mix in your palm. Make into a donut shape (these are the vadas).

Slide each vada into the hot oil and fry till light golden. Drain and put immediately into the yoghurt/water mix. Allow to soak for 2-3 minutes.

Remove from the yoghurt/water mix and press gently between your palms. Arrange these vadas in a deep platter as you prepare them.

When all urad daal paste is used up and the the vadas are done as above and in the platter, pour the thick yoghurt mix over them to cover completely.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving.

To serve, put 1 or 2 Dahi Vadas in a plate and garnish with Tamarind Chutney and green Mint-coriander Chutney. (optional)

Relief

Last weekend J and I emailed out our Save the Date . After sending it out ,I felt a huge sense of relief and excitement all at the same time. Relief , because we had one thing crossed off our list, Excitement and nervousness because now it seems like the wedding is on for sure. Other people know about it and there is no turning back now. I am happy to say we got mostly positive responses. Maybe some people were offended that it was an email rather than a card, but it made sense for us.

Sangeet

 

One of the traditions of Indian weddings is a Sangeet. Sangeet literally means song and dance in hindi and it  is a womens only get together hosted by the Brides female friends and relatives before the wedding.  The main part of a Sangeet is the putting Mehndi(Henna) on the bride and other women. The significance of Mehndi is a way to make your love stronger. Tradition says that the darker the color of your Henna the deeper your love and hence the stronger your marriage. Another fun Mehndi custom is to hide the groom’s name in the design and he has to find his name in the Mehndi design the day of the wedding or the Bride’s friends won’t let him see his bride. Usually at a  Sangeet women  play music, make up bawdy songs about the bride and groom and there’s lots of dancing. Also there’s  jokes( some off color ones), and silly skits and of course food. 

One of my mom’s friends wants to do a Sangeet the night before the wedding, but I’m not sure how likely this will be because a lot of people may not even get into town till Friday morning. Also, I’m not sure if I will be able to find someone to do Henna in Utah because the Indian population is quite small , but if I could, I think it would be something really fun to do with my bridesmaids. Its a very Indian tradition and I feel like if this happens it will add some desi flavor to the wedding festivities. Plus any chance to party is good. Right ?

Which comes first…..

I feel really frustrated about my wedding plans lately. I did go ahead and decide on a Save the Date. I guess we are going to do Send-O- Matic ones becasue even though it is a pay site, it is not very expensive. All I’m waiting for is a final list from our parents and that seems to take them forever. J and I have decided that if we dont’ get a list by Friday night, we are mailing those suckers out anyway.

Things that need to happen by this weekend:

Find a house/apartment/condo for my family while we are in UT for the wedding.

J absolutely needs to follow up , what the hell is going on with his suit

We need to come up with an events calendar for the wedding, which is hard at the moment because I don’t know how many people to plan for. Also it would be easier to plan events if we had accomodations booked because it would let us know what activities are even feasible.

Poker Face

Last night J and I went out to play poker with his regualar group of poker buddies. It was really fun because Y went with us and also the hosts wife played as well. I was pretty amazed that I came out two dollars on top. I had gone all in one hand, lost and then I had to buy back in,but at the end of the night still recovered all my money. Some of the guys that play are really intimidating though and I realize the only way to not be bullied on the table is to play a lot and get more confidence. I also feel like playing with flair comes with practice. A lot of people who did play some big hands came out even or won really big. I only won because I played small ,steady hands.

There is a really neat coffee shop in our old neighborhood called Broad Street Cafe that host poker games every tue and thu night and I really want to go check it out next week. I think its funny that they can’t call it gambling and you technically don’t play for money but you play for points instead. My theory is that points are less motivating that money and one would take bigger risks with their hand.  The thrill of poker is in taking huge risks, risking points doesn’t seem like a huge gamble to me. Maybe I’ll change my mind after I play there.

La Michelada and She Crab Soup

Saturday afternoon at Cape Hatteras, DS had a very strong craving for a Bloody Mary. We went to this little restaurant called Dolphin Den to eat some seafood and drink some cocktails, only to find out that Hatteras was a Booze free island. THat meant that they had beer and wine but not liquor. Being the good wife that Y is , she decided to make this yummy, spicy and delicous beer coctail for us. It is a Mexican Cocktail called La Michelada and here is the recipe

La Michelada

The Michelada is a refreshing summer twist on the standard Bloody Mary.  Try it with a light Mexican Beer.  You can’t go wrong with the Michelada!

 

4 drops of Tabasco Sauce
1/4 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

Dashes of Salt and Ground Pepper
Juice of 2-3  Lime wedges

1 Bottle of Beer, preferably a Corona Extra

Optional: Maggi Sauce

 

Combine above ingredients in a glass and pour beer to top.  Serve with wedge of lime in a salted glass. Serves 1.

 

                          

 

 

She Crab Soup

 

Originally this soup was prepared with the meat and roe (crab eggs) from female blue crabs.  However, it is now considered environmentally unfriendly to harvest roe, therefore the soup is just made with female crabs. Since I cannot afford 9- 10 large crabs with shells (just in case there is roe inside), I found this recipe that uses lump crab meat.

 

Ingredients: Serves 6

• 2 hard-cooked eggs, optional
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 scallion including green top, minced
• 1 rib celery, minced
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups Fish Stock, or bottled clam juice
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 pounds lump crabmeat, picked free of shell
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 6 thin slices lemon

1. If using the eggs, separate the yolks from the whites and save the whites for another use. Press the yolks through a sieve and reserve.

2. In a large pot, melt the butter over moderately low heat. Add the scallion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft, about 4 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Stir in the stock, milk and cream. Bring to a simmer, stirring.

3. Add the sieved egg yolks, if using, the crabmeat, sherry, salt and pepper and bring almost to a simmer. Ladle into bowls and top each serving with a pinch of paprika and a lemon slice. Serve soup with oyster crackers.

*Recipe from CulinaryCafe.com*