Best Wishes for Deepavali... & Pictures of Nine Dot Rangoli with Diya decorations.

Today is  the Festival of lights, Diwali signifies the victory of lights over darkness and  of truth over dishonesty and of happiness over sorrow. Let the world  work towards this Deepavali Spirit to bring peace, equality and justice. May this Festival of Lights bring blessings of Joy, Prosperity, Peace and Good health to all my followers, readers and visitors.  You all have a wonderful New Year.

Yesterday I enjoyed drawing nine dot Rangoli, for me it is therapeutic art form and gives me immense pleasure. I had limited choice of colors but it worked good for  this one inch spacing - 9 dot rangoli. I used  single vinyl sheet to draw this Rangoli. I pasted it on  bigger size white color thick paper. First I made rough sketch of design then made final outline with white Rangoli, later slowly filled Rangoli colors. I used individual small size tiles to do surrounding decorations with diyas. Enjoy the Rangoli pictures with Diya decorations. 

 Picture of completed Rangoli before starting Diya decorations.

 Time to lit  Diyas.

Thanks for watching...Shubha Deepavali.

Five Day life cycle of Parasol mushroom growing in the backyard. [ Summer 2011 Lawn mushroom pictures. Post - 2 ]

Summer 2011 has been wonderful  year for mushroom growth in Cary, NC.  I have already posted Puffball mushroom images earlier. This Parasol mushroom was growing near my patio in the lawn, just 15 ft away from home so it was easy to observe it growing every day. I spotted it on 23rd Sept  and clicked until it dried and withered away on 27th September. Enjoy viewing beautiful life form of Parasol mushroom.

 I spotted pair of  Parasol mushroom.

 (Macrolepiota procera)[1st Day] ..23rd Sept-2011]

[1st Day] - One more picture from another angle.

[2nd Day]...[24th Sept-2011]

one more picture. [ Day -2 ]

[ Day -3]....25th Sept -2011]

Mushroom shrivelled up ..[Day-4] [26th Sept-2011]

Mushroom withered away. [ Day-5 ] [27th Sept -2011]

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This is little different than above  Parasol Mushroom 
(Lepiota procera)
 still to open fully. [27th Sept, 2011]

Above mushroom next day. (28th Sept, 2011)

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 Some random single mushroom (10/01/2011)

Above mushroom after five days...(10/06/2011)

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Sauteed Green mix with Veggies - Mooli Palak and Red Spring Onions with Mustard Greens.

Adding sauteed greens as side always brings tastier, healthier meals packed with multiple food value .Cooking Sauteed Greens by pairing up with  veggies makes more enriched stir fry. I am posting two stirfry recipes, First one is Daikon and spinach combination and second stir fry is cooked with locally grown mustard greens and red spring onions.These stir fries are simple, seasoned with only onion, garlic, green chilies.

1) Sauteed Spinach with Daikon (Radish/Mooli)

Ingredients :-

• 1 bunch of fresh spinach chopped or 10 oz frozen chopped spinach
• 1 7-8 inch long Daikon radish (Mooli) - cut into half inch pieces
• 1 medium size onion - finely chopped
• 8-10 - fresh cloves of garlic - make thin lengthwise slices
• 2-3 Green chilies - roughly  chopped
• 1.5 Tb.spoon oil.

How to saute Radish and spinach :-

1. Heat 1.5 Tb.spoon oil in a large pot. Add the onions and stir fry on high heat for about 3-4 minutes.Reduce heat to medium and continue to saute for another 2-3 minutes.
2. Now add garlic and green chilies. Saute for about a minute. Add cut radish and saute for 2-3 minutes. Now turn the heat to high, add half cup of water and cook for 5-6  minutes or more until radish is cooked. Make sure there is enough water to steam radish pieces - if required add 1 tablespoon water at a time.
3. Once radish is almost tender and water is evaporated  add chopped spinach and salt. Mix well and saute on medium heat until it wilts with bright green glow. This will need about 4-5 minutes. In case there is  little  water left, stir fry on high heat for 1-2 minutes. Serve hot with rice and roti.

Fresh chopped Spinach (Palak)

Mooli Palak subji

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2) Sauteed Red spring onions and mustard greens.

Ingredients and Cooking Process

Greens you need :- One bunch of Red spring onions and 25-30 leaves of mustard greens, one medium garlic bulb, green chilies,oil and salt.

Preparations :- Thoroughly rinse red spring onions and mustard greens under running water. Roughly chop mustard greens. (refer above chopped spinach picture) Cut  and finely chop red onion portion from spring onions. Also chop green onion leaves.  Lengthwise slice each garlic clove, finely chop green chilies.

Cooking :- Heat one tablespoon  oil in a open saute pan (10 inch diameter)  put in  chopped red onion portion, saute for 3-4 minutes on high heat. Add sliced garlic and green chilies, saute this  for one minute. Reduce heat to medium, add chopped greens and little salt. Cook until wilted  but still  bright green, about 8-9 minutes. Serve hot with rice and roti.

Locally grown Mustard Greens and Red spring onions from Cary Farmers Market.

PuffBall Mushroom break out around home. (Summer 2011 lawn Mushroom pictures. Post-1)

Now summer is getting milder,  we have cooler temperatures since last two weeks and  since last 3-4 days we are enjoying beautiful rainy weather. Good rainy summer always brings out break of lawn/ yard mushrooms and this year it seems weather is more  cozy for mushroom growth in  Cary,NC. Yesterday  early morning I spotted beautiful Puffball/ Earthball / Pigskin poison puffball mushroom and amazingly  it was very different with beautiful  Giraffe and Snake skin like design. Its light brown color glow against green weed background looked very attractive. Scientific name for puffball mushroom is  Scleroderma Citrinum. It takes just few hours to pop up  those mushrooms from ground. I took less than one hour stroll around home to enjoy and click all  those  mushroom pictures.  Late summer and fall  is the season of puffball mushrooms in America. Since last one month several google queries reached blog searching for puffball mushroom and interestingly many queries came from Ohio region. Here is my last years post on Backyard mushrooms. (Link). I will be making one more post to share other types of summer mushrooms. Enjoy the photos.

Pigskin poison puffball  seen on - 22nd sept...morning. (1)

same above one from another angle...(1)

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Rainy  weather .... Sunset clicked on 23rd September.

This one was the biggest (5" in diameter) puffball . (5)

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Above mushroom started  decaying in just  two days. (clicked on 26th sept)

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May be some Bird tried to taste this puffball mushroom.(8)

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Following three pictures were  taken on 13th Sept. 

These puffballs were a bit unhealthy/ dry due to dry weather. (9)

You can see cracked mushroom skin. These are seasons first spotted puffball mushrooms.

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After ten days puffball mushroom breaks and spreads brown color dust/fine power around.
Above mushroom (9) turned into powder after 10 days.

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(11) Following mushrooms clicked today morning around 8 am.- 26th Sept.

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Just rose up from ground few hours back.(13)

A unique puffball  with wrinkled skin. (14)

 Thank you for watching....

Shri Krishna Jayanti 2011 - Appam, Nippattu, Poha+Sabudana Kheer - Prasadam for Lord Krishna.

Last weekend on 21st and 22nd August Krishna Jayanti/ Gokulashtami  was celebrated by all Krishna devotees all over the world. I celebrated by doing simple Shri Krishna Pooja and cooked one savory and  two sweet dishes for Krishna Neyvaedyam/Prasadam offering. I made appam and  Kheer with Dagdi Poha(aval)+ Sabudana, combining poha and sabudana gave wonderful texture, taste to the Kheer. For savory dish I made Nippattu (south Indian savory crunchy snack)with some deviation from authentic recipe. I flavored Nippattu with two pot grown American herbs Rosemary and Sage, also replaced chana Dal with split green peas. This twist made nippattu extra delicious.( I will blog detail recipes later). This year it was great joy to use all Indian flowers for pooja  from my patio garden. I used sadafuli (periwinkle), Zandu (Marigold), Aboli/Kanakambaram (crossandra/firecracker). Last year I had made sattvik Vrat friendly dinner for Krishnashtami . Click here to check. Scroll down to enjoy some pictures of Shri Krishna Pooja and his favorite dishes.

May Krishna Bhagwan always shower his divine blessings on all of us.

Jai Shri Krishna!!

Gokulashtami 2011 Pooja

Appam & Nippattu Neyvaedyam/ Prasadam for Shri Krishna.

Three Dish Bhog for Krishna Jayanti.

Traditional Nippattu with some twist.
Flavored with rosemary,sage and  Split Green  peas.

Dagdi Poha (aval) + Sabudana Payasam for Lord Krishna.

Appam - Sweet snack for Krishnashtami.

Shri Krishna Image credits :- First picture with Bal Krishna and Balaram is taken from  Calender. Second picture is cover  of the book "Shri Krishna Pratap" written by  Param Pujya Shri Kalavati Aai. (Shri Hari Mandiram)