Lazy me!! September 14, 2009

Lazzzzzzyy…….yeah thats what I have been all this while wid no blog post for months. I find twittering to be more easier then writing a blog as few lines quenches my thirst for writing. But not any more as the inspiration adrenaline is runnning high today, wat wid 2 1/2 yr old coming out with her own blog @http://rhearajan.com. Now thats where the zest to write is coming from or is it compulsion??? Whatever I’m just happy to be back and kicking.

Lots have happened while I was away. My daughter is super excited about the fact that she’s going to have her own sibling in december. Also work has become quite meaningful & fulfilling. Twitter & facebook has become my companion,when friends and families are not around. I think the curiosity of knowing whats happening in others life make these social networking(twitter/facebook) site quite popular. And for an introvert its perfect gateway to be abreast of whats happeing around them. So happy twittering and facebooking.

KidZui, the Internet for Kids! March 19, 2009

Are you worried about the unwanted content that your kid may stumble uplon while browsing on the internet? Don’t know what website to engage your kid with? Worry not! Soon your kids will be exploring over a million kid-friendly games, websites, pictures and YouTube videos with Kidzui.

Kidzui - Browser for Kids

Expand your kids online experience with KidZui, the Internet for Kids. This is a free application that should keep your kids happy online but for extra features you will need to purchase a subscription. KidZui is cross platform and works with Windows Xp/ Vista, Firefox (Win/Mac/Linux), and Mac OS X.

Real parents and teachers review content for KidZui so your kids can surf independently. To express themselves online you will first need to create avatar for your child. After creating your kids account they will need to login anytime they want to use KidZui.

They can tag content and share it with parent-approved friends. When locked down, KidZui prevents kids from closing the browser, downloading files, or opening other applications. If the child tries to enter in a not so appropriate URL into the browser they will get a friendly message advising them of other content they can look at. This is a great way to let your kids independently explore without worrying about them using the adult Internet, or accidentally deleting important files.

The free version has a lot of cool features which should be adequate for most users. With a paid subscription you will get unlimited history of the kids Internet activity, unlock more user interface enhancement, and have access to a feature called Homework Helper. If you are looking for a fun way to help keep your children safe online KidZui may be the perfect option.

Self-Education January 28, 2009

Self education is how I would describe my way up to the ladder (both professionally as well as knowledge wise). I always believed in a notion that a person is more knowledgeable if he/she has taken formal training in his/her chosen discipline. I tried fooling myself by taking up a few courses here & there but all of them failed to give me the real world knowledge.

There are three disciplines that have been useful in my self-education: Reading, practicing, and collecting. There are many long lists of suggested reading for UI design, and there are a host of great blogs covering different aspects of designs.

I began by creating directory of bookmarks carefully categorised for easy access. Tools like delicious, Google notebook, & my own blogs became repository of all the precious links that I thought I’d require at some point of time.

But needless to say that most of the time I ended up googling rather then remembering to open my carefully stacked treasure. Although the habit of collecting never went waste as I got the opportunity to browse through them for some inspiration, whenever I got some time.

Collecting isn’t enough in itself. Paying close attention to what thinking goes into a product creation and applying those observations to my work is what makes this exercise pay off. I put this into practice with a my current job and this led me to exploring more growth oppportunities. Not limiting myself to one stream but participating in the entire cycle of product creation.

THALIPEETH December 11, 2008

<a href=”http://www.tarladalal.com/Recipe.asp?id=1716&MailerId=226&RecipientId=94928″ target=”_blank”>Original Source: Tarla Dalal

A nutritious pancake made with 3 kinds of flours.

Cooking Time : 7 minutes.
Preparation Time : 4 minutes.

Makes 4 thalipeeth.
Ingredients
3 tablespoons Bengal gram flour (besan)
3 tablespoons millet flour (jowar)
3 tablespoons wheat flour (gehun ka atta)
1 small onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 green chillies, finely chopped
salt to taste
Other ingredients
oil for cooking
home-made white butter to serve
Method
1. Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl and add enough water to make a thick batter.
2. Heat and grease a non-stick tava.
3. Spread a layer of the batter to form a pancake of 4 mm. thickness.
4. Cook on both sides till golden brown, using a little oil.
5. Repeat to make 3 more thalipeeth.
6. Serve hot with a dollop of home-made white butter.

STIR-FRIED BABY CORN December 11, 2008

original source:Tarla Dalal
A spicy medley of baby corn and vegetables.
Cooking Time : 5 minutes.
Preparation Time : 6 minutes.

Serves 2.
Ingredients
 1/2 cup baby corn, sliced
 1/2 cup onion, cubed
 1/4 cup yellow pepper, cubed
 1/4 cup red pepper, cubed
 1/4 cup capsicum, cubed
 1 tomato, diced
 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
 2 tablespoons chopped coriander
 1 tablespoon butter
 black salt (sanchal) to taste
Method
1. Cut the tomato into half. Remove and discard the pulp. Cut the firm portion into cubes and keep aside.
2. Heat the butter in a pan and add the cumin seeds. When the cumin seeds crackle, add the baby corn, onions, yellow and red peppers, capsicum and tomato.
3. Stir fry for some time and then add the coriander and black salt.
4. Serve hot.
Tips
Do not overcook the vegetables as they will lose their crispness.

Mountain Trip November 4, 2008

At the drop of the hat..I need vacation & I don’t leave any opportunity to plan one. Due to long weekend vacation coming our way owing to diwali an impromptu vacation to Kasauli was planned. A research from my traveler savvy friend & good old google prepared my itinerary. I booked Kalka shatabdi from Delhi which reaches Chandigarh in 3/12- 4hrs time. From there we hired a cab & went to our first destination i.e Pinjore garden in Parwanoo. The mughal garden was quite a dekko but night time is the best time to visit it. My kid had a good time climbing the tree & I too joined in the fun. We had our lunch inside Pinjore garden’s restaurant & headed to Timber trail. Timber Trail gives you a delightful experience of riding a cable car from Timber Trail resort at 3000ft above to Timber Trail height which is at 5000 ft above. The view was mesmerizing. Once we reached to Timber Trail heights we had a fun at amusement park there. Also a round of badminton refreshed us. Something you miss doing when you get caught in 9-12 job . From herein we drove to Kasauli & reached our hotel well before dark. Ros Common is hptdc hotel which is quite decent & gave you scenic view from small porch of your room. We had planned to relax on that evening & take it easy. We did required to put on our room heater as it gets chilled in the evening. Morning we had a breakfast in the garden table basking in the glorious sun rays & enjoying the mountain view from there. Also we happened to pick few pomegranate fruit from the tree in the garden. Theirs not much to see in Kasauli. It’s a laid back vacation destination where you bond with yourself & your family. Also you do things that you don’t get to do everyday in this marathon of life & that’s to RELAX. Before signing off from Kasauli we trekked our way to famous monkey point & paid our respect to hanuman mandir perched on the top of the mountain where you get the entire view of kasauli as well as Chandigarh. You need to be aware of monkey‘s though out there. We encountered a funny incident at Monkey point. While climbing down one of the big monkey came and grabbed our bag which had few food item as well as our return train ticket. My husband refused to leave the bag & kept convincing the monkey to let it go as if it’s a small baby he’s talking to. Thanks to the lady who owned a cafeteria around there, she made a noise to scare the monkey off. We had a hearty laugh at the end of it! The whole experience was enjoyable & the travel in shatabdi was altogether new experience which made the whole trip pleasurable.

The Secret October 21, 2008

This is the book that I’m currently reading. The book is awesome, but what its telling us is something which we have already heard from our elders. The only thing why it hits me is that it tells us how to practice it & foolproof method to do it. It advocates the age -old saying that “THOUGHT” is very powerful & we create our life by thinking what we want to become & what all we want to experience in this life. Be it money, health, career…whatever. If you are stuck in a problem, not having great health or money & blah blah then its because of our thought. So its very important to think positively and enrich our life with whatever we desire. It also dispels all doubts of “I didn’t ask for this?” query & explains why its happening it to you. Must read! I adore this line in this book:

” Universe is the Genie & You the Alladin! You are the Master of the Universe, and the Genie is there to serve you! Your Wish Is Genie’s Command!”

Gobhi Musallam September 17, 2008

The gobhi mussallam or ‘whole cauliflower’ is a dish most appropriate for a formal menu or special occasion.

Ingredients

1 medium sized
Onion  1 large
Ginger  1” piece
Poppy seed 1 tbsp
Cashewnuts  5
Chilli powder  ¼ tsp
Turmeric powder ¼ tsp
Salt  to taste
Mace  1 blade
Cinnamon 1 stick
Green cardamom 5
Cloves 5
Curd 150 gms / or Tomato 2 medium
Ghee 100 gms
Shelled green peas 250 gms
Cumin seeds ¼ tsp
Method:
Wash the whole cauliflower, cut off the main stalk and remove the leaves. Pressure cook the cauliflower completely with little water and salt(one whistle will be enough).
Preparing Masala:
Finely slice the onion, fry to a golden brown colour and grind to a paste using some of the curd / tomatoes along with ginger, mace, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Lightly roast the poppy seeds and cashewnuts on a griddle and grind to a paste. Heat oil and fry onion paste. Mix all the ground ingredients, chilli and turmeric powder and salt & fry for sometime till the oil separates.

Gobhi Preparation:
Now in a kadhai, heat the ghee in which the onions were fried and put the cauliflower upside down first so as to lightly brown it. Turn and cook the stem side for 5 minutes. Remove and place in the curd.
Place the cauliflower on a serving dish and stuff the masala. Cook in microwave for 2 minutes. Cook till the masala is dry but moist and the cauliflower is done. Meanwhile in the kadhai heat a tbsp of ghee and add the cumin seeds. When they begin to crackle, add the shelled peas, a pinch of salt and cook till tender. When the cauliflower is done, serve on a bed of peas.
Note: The cauliflower can be cooked in a moderately hot oven as well

Free Web Icons September 11, 2008

Posted at: http://www.webmasterkit.info/2008/05/30/download-free-web-icons/

If you don’t have the skills or the time to create original icons for your website you can find plenty on the web. iconfinder is a search engine to search for icons. Two other icon search sites are www.iconlook.com and iconlet.com

• http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~djohnson/freeMedia/ Damian Johnson has compiled a great list of icon archives including all the licensing information, dimensions, formats and preview images.
• http://www.userinterfaceicons.com/preview.php allows you to download a set of 140 free icons available in 4 different sizes
• http://www.aspneticons.com/ you will find 300 free ASP.net icons at this site.
• http://www.mouserunner.com/Spheres_ColoCons1_Free_Icons.html has huge collection of free icons organized by category
• http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/ A collection of 700 free mini web icons from FAMFAM FAM
• http://garcya.us/blog/90-free-vector-icons-set/ A collection of 700 free mini web icons from FAMFAM FAM
• http://e-lusion.com/design/greyscale/ Free greyscale icons.
• http://vikiworks.com/2007/06/15/social-bookmark-iconset/ 400 free icons in PNG format
• http://www.bittbox.com/freebies/72-free-vector-glass-buttons-and-bars/ Free glass icons
• http://www.jm-artstudio.com/iconpackager.html Vista icons from Jm Art Studio
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Clear Crystal Clear Collection
• http://wefunction.com/2008/07/function-free-icon-set/ 128 Free icons – Function
• http://garcya.us/blog/scratch-vector-icons/#more-542 Scratch style icons

Potato in Curd Gravy September 3, 2008

Ingredients:

3 medium. potatoes boiled and peeled

1 cup curd or yogurt beaten

1 tsp. red chilli powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. dhania powder

1/4 tsp. turmeric powder

1/4 tsp. garam masala

2 pinches asafoetida

1 stalk curry leaves

1 tbsp. coriander leaves chopped

1 1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp. each ginger, garlic grated

2 green chillies slit

1 tsp. each cumin, mustard seeds

1/4 tsp. wheat flour

1 tbsp. oil

Method:

Cut potatoes into big pieces. Mash 3-4 pieces fine with hand. Keep both aside.

Mix all the dry masala in 1/4 cup water.

Heat oil. Add the seeds (cumin and mustard). When they splutter, add ginger-garlic, chilli and curry leaves.

Add the masala mixture and fry for 2 minutes.

Add beaten curd and fry for 5 minutes or till the curd loses its whiteness. Stir continuously after adding curd.

Add the remaining water and all the potato and flour. Stir well.

Boil and simmer for 10 minutes or till gravy thickens

Garnish with chopped coriander.

Serve hot with thin wheat chappaties and rice.

Making time: 30 minutes.

Makes for: 5

Shelf life: Best fresh