The Solitary Hut

Its after a long long time I am back at my space. Believe me I really missed blogging. Since I am still busy with quite a many stuffs and changes I may disappear now and then. A big Thanks to all blog buddies who regularly visited my space and gave their previous comments. Sorry for not replying to all of you. Sorry to all my blogger friends for not commenting to all your beautiful posts. Meanwhile in my busy schedule I could not stop myself from painting. This painting is primarily my version of   a Nicholas Hankins painting....

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Together we

Completed this painting a few days back. Swans are beautiful creatures. Loved painting them....

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Instant suji dhokla in microwave

The story is:  Mr. Husband is not very fond of besan and its recipes. And I am completely in love with besan recipes. Savories like dhokla , cheela and farsan are my favorite snacks. This leads to big dilemma when I crave for these stuff. So the solution being substitute besan with something which will result the same taste. Hence the aforesaid  recipe. Quick and tasty, this makes a wonderful tea time snack or even a nice healthy breakfast. Ingredients: A cup of suji A cup of curd a teaspoon of eno salt...

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Snowy foothills

I had painted this one a few days back but wanted to add a few details here and there. Finally i completed this today. A chilly snowy winter evening at the foothills ...

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Spring at foothills

My version of a Bob Ross painting. I wish I could watch all his TV series, amazing artist and an equally amazing personality. He made painting such a fun with his patent phrases like "Happy little cloud" or "Lets give a friend to this tree". Regarding the painting, I am not very satisfied. May be it was because of Acrylics which dry to quick, I am not able to blend colors as I want. May be I should try with oils no...

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Morning glory and blue bird

Painted this today. A bluebird among-st morning glories. I was not able to justice to the leaves, but quite satisfied with the bird and flowers. ...

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Breezy seaside

This is my first effort at painting a seascape. I always feared painting waves. Somehow I had the feeling that painting waves would be a disaster. But after trying different landscapes I couldn't avoid painting a sea. Having said that, today I have just painted a very distance sea. Next time I am going to paint seascape, it would be crashing waves in details. But before that I need to study the anatomy of crashing waves. Lets see what Google and YouTube can provide me. ...

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Phulkopir singara.. The typical bengali Cauliflower samosa

In one of my previous posts "Tale of many cities", I had written about cities and towns where I had stayed briefly or for long. These cities have their own bundle of memoirs. Sweet or savory each city has offered many "MUST EATs". One such city which remained unaccounted for in my post was Agartala. Baba was posted to this capital city for some months. Although because of my studies Ma n me could not shift to Agartala, being an avid traveler like ourselves we did make it a point to visit or rather stay...

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The homemade PIZZA

A couple of months back I had severe allergy and eczema. The eczema has not yet completely gone. The doc asked me to go for an allergy patch test. Oh its one the worst medical tests. Anyways the verdict: I have severe allergy to nickel and benzoic acid. And that means "NO CHOCOLATE", no tinned foods , no salmon, no blah blah blah and of course possibly "no eating out". Imagine life without Chocolate.. a sweetaholic person like myself, this is no less than a punishment. Poor me... buuuuhhuuuu.. Anyways since we have stopped eating out,...

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The mountains

Its almost a year since I have restarted painting.  Now I realize how immature my paintings were a year back , lacking all the technical details. I am trying to learn all these technicalities and I still have a long long way to go. In between I switched from watercolors to acrylic. Its fun to work with acrylics, although it dries off way too fast, its forgiving as well. If you make mistakes you can easily rectify by re-painting over it. This is a painting on 11 x 14 canvas, with acrylic. The second one is with the flash on. Pitfalls...

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Cheesy buttery garlic rolls

The other day I baked my first bread. I was contented with my result, but wanted to improve. So again I tried today. And wow, the bread(roll actually) came as wonderful as I could imagine of. Simply simply perfect and sooo delicious. No I am not bragging. Better no more talks. Here's what I did: Used: 1 sachet of active yeast(around a teaspoon) A cup and a half of All Purpose flour(the first day I had used half maida and half aata, the roll was not so very very fluffy as today's) A teaspoon of sugar A teaspoon of salt or as...

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A tranquil Sunrise

Although I did learn sketching, I never really learnt painting. At my drawing classes, saw girls and boys learning oil painting. At home during free time , I usually tried my hand with the poster colors.  Now I yearn to learn painting. There are so many technicalities of which I had no idea before. I have been watching a few videos of Wilson Bickford at youtube. He is a professional artist and teacher. Wish I could learn from him personally. His paintings are amazing and inspire me with different ideas. This painting is inspired...

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Romantically moonlit

The full moon always captivates me. I believe that "Chaandi" चांदनी (Full moon in hindi) magically transforms even the ordinary things to pure beauty. Since childhood I had cherished this dream of visiting and seeing the TAJ on a full moon night. What magic the full moon does to the grandeur of TAJ, I cant imagine. There is this park in Gwalior Phool Bag(hope its still there). So one such चांदनी रात of a lazy balmy summer, my parents and I had gone to this PhoolBag to enjoy the cool summary night breeze. And while...

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Moong Daal paratha

My Ma makes daal puri of urad daal, but daal paratha I had never tasted. I got this recipe from : www.maayeka.blogspot.com/2012/04/moong-daal-paratha.html. Than Anjana for sharing such a wonderful and healthy recipe. Made from moong daal, this paratha can be a complete meal. Since my recipe is a ditto of hers except that I added hing (asafoetida ) while adding fennel and cumin, I wont go about scribbling the recipe here. Its a worth try and if you like the smell of hing , do put a pinch of it. The whiff of hing makes...

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Dahi Kabab (Yogurt Kabab)

I love yogurt and any recipes with yogurt. I got this recipe from NDTV. Carried out the recipe almost word to word. So I would rather Ctrl C , Ctrl V , with my tini-mini changes here and there. Ingredients: 400 gms yoghurt 100 gms paneer 2 teaspoons chopped onion 1 tsp chopped ginger Half a handful of chopped fresh coriander 10 finely chopped almonds 7 to 8 chopped raisins 1/2 tsp white pepper powder(didnt use) 1/2 a tsp green cardamom powder salt to taste oil to grill Cornflour to dust A cup of ready to eat oats(didnt use) Method: Hang...

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Sunrise

A splendid sunrise by the river...

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Ghugni or "The Yellow peas Bengali snack"

Actually the title is not literally correct. A because the Ghugni is not a native to Bengal rather to the East Indian states of Bihar , Bengal , Orissa or Odisha(I recently happened to know that the state's name has got changed, phew God only knows what the achieve by changing names) and B its not just a snack but rather healthy breakfast too. Served in many households along with Luchi (Maida puri) or Muri (Puffed rice), this is a easy , hearty and ever welcome breakfast. And for snacks,Ghugni topped with onions , a little...

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Sorse Kopi.. Cauliflower in mustard and coconut

Bongs love any recipe with mustard paste in it..The pungent and sharp taste of ground mustard adds magic to many veggies as well as pisces recipes. Love knows no bounds and so is our love for this humble seed. The other day I was bored of cooking and eating aloo gobhi (dry or gravy whatever). Since the choice of veggies is quite limited in Texas, and ones like Mr Cauliflower are my guest at all time any season of the year, I decided to try something new. And what better option then Sorse Kopi (Cauliflower in mustard), a very very simple...

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Fall Colors In Acrylic

Roaring waterfall by the mountains Fire everywhere...

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Blooms n Blooms

I love flowers.. and love to paint them. Iris Flower..  Hibiscus Being new to Acrylic paints (before I always painted with water colors), I have to go a long way before I am comfortable with Acrylics. Tried a few flowers with Acrylic but not satisfie...

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The solitary abode

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