Monthly Archives: November 2013

We All Scream for Ice Cream

I was at work the other day when I heard music. It was playing continuously so I was curious and went outside to check it out. To my surprise, on the parking lot, there was a big pink ice cream truck.

It is spring here and the days are getting hotter. It was nice to find an ice-cream truck just outside work. I ordered a softie dipped in chocolate. I know it was not on my menu for the day but sometimes indulgence is allowed while dieting 🙂

The truck reminded me of my childhood when there used to be an ice-cream push-cart. In Nepal, instead of ice-cream truck, we had manual carts which had to be pushed around.

They didn’t even sell fancy ice-creams like we get here but just ice blocks with flavoring and sugar but we still used to love it.

After school, we used to run to the ice-cream carts and get whatever we could afford. My favorite one was orange flavor.

Then we used to have kulfi carts. I used to love kulfis as it is denser and creamier.

My good old days and happy childhood memories!

Do you remember enjoying ice cream in your childhood? Is it different these days?

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Celebrating Tihar

Like every year, we celebrated Tihar this year as well. For the details of the festival, please click here. I am sharing some of the photos from the festival.

Kaag / Kag (crow) Puja

Kaag puja (2)Kaag puja (1)

Kukur (dog) Puja

kukur puja (2) kukur puja (1)

Laxmi Puja and Gai (cow) Puja

laxmi puja (9)laxmi puja (7) laxmi puja (1) laxmi puja (3) laxmi puja (4) laxmi puja (5) laxmi puja (6) laxmi puja (8)

Mha Puja and Nepal Sambat

mha puja (2) mha puja (5)mha puja (4) mha puja (3) mha puja (6) mha puja (7) mha puja (1)

Bhai Tika

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This year, I have one more person to put tika on and that is my little nephew. It was so much fun and amazingly he even managed to sit still on his father’s lap in front of the mandap for the whole puja.

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Hope all of you had great time celebrating the festival.

tihar

P.S: Do not forget to nominate  your favorite blog .

Nominations open for NEPALIAUSTRALIAN’s Blog Award 2013

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Mula ko achar (Grated Radish Pickle)

There is different ways in which mula (radish) can be used to make pickles and this is one of the easy ones. For another way to make radish pickle, click here.

Ingredients

  • Mula (Raddish) – 1 (small)
  • 3 fresh green chillies cut lengthwise
  • ¼  teaspoon of turmeric powder
  • ¼ teaspoon of cumin powder
  • ½ teaspoon of fenugreek seed
  • ½ teaspoon of cumin seed
  • 3 table spoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons of mustard (or olive) oil
  • Salt to taste

Steps

  • Wash radish and peel its skin using a potato peeler.
  • Grate radish in a bowl.

Mula ko achar  (4)

  • Squeeze fresh lemon juice into it add cumin powder and salt. Mix well.
  • Heat oil in a pan, and add the cumin and fenugreek seeds.

Mula ko achar  (1)

  • When they start to splutter, add the green chillies and turmeric and let them turn brownish.
  • Add the hot oil to the grated radish and mix well.

Mula ko achar  (2)

  • Mula ko achar is ready to serve!

Mula ko achar  (3)

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Best Birthday – EVER!

I think everyone in this world like to be spoiled, be it men or women, and I am not any different. We planned not to have a big party for my birthday this year like every year. There is so much happening around us that I wanted to have a quiet one this year.

So, the original plan was to go to work on the day but meet after work to go and have dinner. But as everything in life, things didn’t go according to plan.

On the 28 Oct morning, when I woke up suddenly I didn’t feel like working so AS insisted that we take a day off so we have a whole day to celebrate my birthday. For a change, it was a nice idea to just relax and unlike every year I didn’t have to worry about the party and plan and cook food.

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I was spoiled with amazing breakfast by my darling husband. It was a simple breakfast of toast, eggs, mushroom, bacon and tea. Just loved my lazy morning. Then we decided we have whole day and ended up watching my favourite series. By the time we were done, it was time to go for lunch. We went out had a quick lunch so we could watch a movie.

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AS let me choose the movie and I chose Gravity. I was looking forward to watching it. I like the concept of the movie but I was a bit disappointed. Nothing as expected but 3D made a big difference. The rating for the movie was really good but I won’t call it a 4 star movie though.

Do share your thoughts about the movie.

Anyway, after movie we had dinner reservation so I was excited to have amazing dinner with my husband.

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We went to a great Greek place where they served amazing food. The shared Greek entrée platter featuring Greek salad, dips, country-style bread, stuffed vine leaves, lima beans, haloumi cheese, savoury cheese pie, spinach and cheese pastries, fresh barbecued octopus, calamari and white bait fish was mouth-watering.

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It was so much that I thought we didn’t need the main but still we ordered shared meat and seafood platter featuring lamb and chicken souvlaki, lamb chops and pork ribs served on a bed of traditional chips and Greek salad.

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The food was accompanied by wine for AS and juice for me. I decided we didn’t need dessert as there was no room for more food in my tummy.

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So we drove home happy and content. When we got home, I was surprised by AS with lovely roses, a birthday card and a yummy cake. It was so nice of him to be so thoughtful.

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We cut the cake, just the two of us and celebrated my birthday. I loved everything about the day but the biggest surprise of the day was my birthday gift.

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Yap, I was a surprised as we had been thinking about our Christmas/New Year holiday but hadn’t decided on anything and this makes it all so perfect. He bought a cruise holiday for us.

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. o ..
o . o o.o
…oo
__[]__
__|_o_o_o\__
“”””””””””/
. .. . /
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Sailing soon 🙂

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At the end of the year, we are going to New Caledonia from Sydney in a Carnival Sprite cruise and we will be stopping at Noumea, Lifou Isle and Isle Of Pines.

For those of you who don’t know, New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, 1,210 kilometres (750 mi) east of Australia.

The culture in the five islands that make up New Caledonia has heavy French roots and also unique Melanesian elements, while their southerly location make them a bit cooler than other South Pacific holiday destinations. The New Caledonia Barrier Reef (the second largest coral reef in the world after Australia’s), the island of Grande Terre, the sophisticated beach capital of Noumea, the Loyalty Islands, and the stunning Isle of Pines is considered  as one of the best places to travel.

This is going to be our first cruise holiday so I am looking forward to this tropical holiday and this will cross two items from my bucket list, cursing and New Caledonia, how awesome is that. Of course I will keep you updated about the trip when it happens in December.

Now I am 100% sure that my husband knows me so well  🙂

Instead of just being a birthday, this year also I am celebrating a birth week. I had a nice birthday lunch at work on Wednesday and they bought me Halloween themed cupcakes. They were so pretty and yummy as well.

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Then the following day I went to lunch with another of my friends .Tonight my brother and his family are coming for dinner to celebrate my birthday as well so basically I am eating lots of food in the name of celebration. Scared to jump on the scale now  🙂

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Thanks to everyone who sent me special birthday messages, cards, e-mails, messages and Facebook greetings.  Your good wishes, love, and friendship mean the world to me 🙂

P.S: Do not forget to nominate  your favorite blog .

Nominations open for NEPALIAUSTRALIAN’s Blog Award 2013

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