More summer fun 2010 posts.

Winter is about to come and I am still harping about summer? Well, I had ten posts in mind and with this I am finishing this year’s summer series.

Activity 9 – Cooking.

We(the girls and I) got in to the habit of cooking together with some regularity. My mom was here in summer and was responsible for the majority of our meals. So we ended up making fancy dinners once in a while. We made dessert for all the get-to-gethers we had at home. Of the desserts we made, croissant pudding(your every day bread pudding comes out so rich and yummy if you use croissants instead of bread), fruit salad with custard and fruit kebabs were huge hits in terms of ease of making(for kids) and taste.

The above is a part of the tea time snack menu the girls came up with for a friend with diet restrictions. The whole spread here.

One pot wonder soups are a huge hit at home. My recipe is not fixed, it is more like throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. I put a plastic stool next to the counter and the girls are all set. I cut the onions and garlic. They wash, rinse, cut, peel everything else. We dump a can of beans(garbanzo, pinto, red kidney beans, white kidney beans anything that you have in your pantry) and some pasta. My secret ingredients for these soups – fry onions with garam masala and finish the soup with fresh home made rasam powder. Devour as is or pair it with some garlic bread and salad. Hmmmm!

Even if they are not cooking they just like hanging out with me in the kitchen.Literally. Especially Mieja! Look at the picture and you will know what I am talking about πŸ™‚

Another hit recipe that is a one stop meal is my version of Giada’s Curried Cous Cous salad. I omit the dried berries, substitute cashews with almonds, sometimes use quinoa instead of couscous, cook the grain in low fat vegetable stock, add a whole bunch of desi spices, add a couple of avocados, use regular low fat yogurt instead of greek and serve it lukewarm. R.O.C.K.S!

Another thing we are getting to be crazy about is naan sandwiches. Inspired by Aarti, I started making naan pizzas. My twist is to layer it with left over home made paneer butter masala or palak paneer and bake it with a little cheese. Then it morphed in to sandwiches. I started using mini pizzas. As soon as the paneer butter mini naan pizzas are out of the oven, I slap two together. I find the sandwich version a lot easier to eat, especially when I am taking the left overs for lunch the next day.

Activity 10 – A picture is worth thousand words and this is the better half’s contribution for SummerFun2010 πŸ™‚

Now you all know what we did this summer.