Cactus Poriyal

As you know, I bought some Cactus (or is it Cacti?) from the farmer's market on Saturday. I was amused by the prickly little thing and decided....hey, why not try cooking it? Needless to say, I got quite a few thorns stuck on my fingers. I had no idea how to clean or cut it. Thankfully, I had the Internet to show me how! Thanks Internet!

Growing up, I never understood why my mom and aunts would "Indianize" everything. Let me explain. For Thanksgiving, they would make 'masala turkey'..enough said. Well, it looks like I'm following in their footsteps because I Indianized the cactus. ;) I made Cactus Poriyal. For those of you not familiar with this, poriyal is a South Indian vegetable side dish. We cook veggies using mustard seeds, onion, cumin, coconut, turmeric powder, red chili, etc.

So, here it is people...Cactus Poriyal. :)


Thorny Cactus


The Cactus after it was cleaned..it looks like it was cleaned by a 5 year old. I had to wear gloves and use a paring knife.

Cut cactus

Cooking the cactus

Tada!!

The Cactus was quite slimy, like Okra. The more it cooked, the less slimy it became. I was surprised by the taste. It tasted sour and lemony, which I happen to like. My husband on the other hand, didn't care for it too much. He doesn't fancy sour things too much.

Will I make this again? Probably not. Only because my husband didn't care for it and I'd rather save all this work for making something he loved. I am happy to try something new, fun and different though. :)

p.s. Later on this week, I will show you what I made with the Banana Peppers from the farmer's market.

Farmer's Market Association

On Saturday, I went to the Farmer's Market with some friends. I've been wanting to go for some time now but could never wake up early enough on Saturday mornings to go. Folks have told me that if you're going to the farmer's market, go early because that's when they have the best produce. Also, many farmer's markets close by Noon. Well, I found one in Houston that's open until 5 p.m. on Saturdays...and I didn't get there until Noon!

It's called the Farmer's Market Association. It's an open air farmer's market with lots of different vendors. They had tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, chilies, cactus, bananas, apples, oranges, guavas, pomegranate, peaches, peas, cucumber, squash, pumpkin, zucchini, green beans, methi leaves, cilantro, yuca, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, peanuts, cinnamon, and so much more! Plus, you can bargain! It's every Indian's dream. ;)

Here are some pictures I took just for you. :) The sights and smells reminded me of the open markets in India. It was an exhilarating, nostalgic experience.


I had to take this picture. It reminded me of Jack Fruit in India. ;)


Fruits and veggies galore!


These tomatoes have my name written all over them!

Reminded me of the mini bananas in India.

I wish I bought the cabbage...my husband loves them!

I had a $20 bill and thought...man, I wish I had more cash on me. You will be AMAZED how much $20 in a farmer's market will get you! I got some peppers, cactus (yeah, I know..cool, right?), potatoes, apples, oranges, cliantro, methi leaves, avocados, tomatillos and limes. Guess how much I spent?? LESS than $10!! When I came home, I told my husband that we're going to go vegetarian this week! ;) (We better, especially after the meat fest at Fogo last week).

I also told him that I can't wait to go back! He said...sweetheart, we can go every week if you'd like...sweet man. I'm sure he was thinking...imagine how much we can save on our grocery bill! ;)
p.s. Stay tuned for my next post...I'll show you what I did with the cactus.

Husband's birthday post...a.k.a...a post about food!

My sweetheart's birthday was on Monday, October 19th. We had a wonderful weekend celebration. My parents and brother came on Friday, October 16th. We spent the whole weekend together and it was glorious! For lunch on Saturday, we all went to a wonderful Greek place called Niko Niko's. Then, we had my husband's birthday dinner at home on Saturday. We all went to church on Sunday and my parents took us out to Cheesecake Factory, again, for my husband's birthday. I know everything sounds like it revolves around food in Houston...well, it does. That's what Houston is famous for...good food. ;)

On Monday, I took my sweetie to Fogo De Chao. If you've never been, it's a Brazilian Churrascaria. At close to $50 a head, you want to make sure you go on an empty stomach. As soon as they seat you, they bring out piping hot cheese popovers, crispy polenta, fried plantains and mashed potatoes to your table. Then, you help yourself to their beautiful salad bar, full of fresh veggies and cheese. They have asparagus, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, smoked salmon, rice and beans, swiss cheese, parmesan cheese, tabouli, etc. Each person is given a coaster which is red on one side and green on the other. If you want meat, you turn it to the green side. If you're done having meat or want to have a break, you turn it to the red side.

When it's green, gaucho chefs come to your table and give you your choice of meat. They have filet mignon, rack of lamb, garlic beef, leg of lamb, chicken legs, sausage, parmesan pork, ribs, and much more. The assault of meat in your face is quite unforgettable. Our personal favorite was the rack of lamb. We would go back just for that. They also give you a complementary dessert if it's your birthday. We chose their papaya cream....highly recommend it! However, I just don't see how people dine there so frequently. After we ate, my husband goes, ok, no more red meat for the next month! Haha!

The funniest part of the night was meeting and talking to our server. He was a very animated man and you can tell he loves living life! This past year, he dropped a whopping 50 pounds! He did this by running 12 miles a week and get this....cutting out red meat and alcohol! How's that for irony?! I figured, if he dropped so much weight, in spite of working at Fogo, anybody can!

Oh, and if you want to know about what I ended up giving my husband, it was the practical gift of cash. :) After shopping for days, I just decided to give him cash....on one condition. That he spends it on HIMSELF. Not on me, not on groceries, not on fixing the car...but on himself.

I hope he had a wonderful weekend. Honey, I love you more than you will ever know. I am so blessed to be married to you!

God knows our hearts.

I will eventually give you an update on my husband's birthday weekend and the mice situation. Right now, I just want to write about what's going on in my heart. I'm not going to get into too many details here but let's just say I've been burdened the past few days.

It may be PMS, thyroid, hormones, something else or just me but needless to say, I've been on an emotional roller coaster all week. I'm trying to attack my emotions by spending time with the Lord, because that's the only real way I know how. I'm not one of those people who can hide their emotions well. What you see is what you get. I haven't really admitted this but I've been feeling like a failure, especially as a wife.

Yesterday, a couple things happened which totally made my day! Let me start out by saying that 'words of affirmation' is my strongest love language, followed closely by 'quality time'. God must totally know this. My husband's primary love language is 'acts of service'. If you don't know what I'm talking about, pick up the book "The 5 love languages" by Dr. Gary Chapman...great read.

Yesterday, I got a call from an older gentleman named Ernest, who's one of our customers. I don't even remember what he called about but at the end of the call, he said: "You are the first person who has helped me, all day. You totally made my day young lady". Mind you, most of the time, I deal with complaints and disputes over the phone. So, to hear a customer actually thank me, for anything, is a big deal. There was something about the way he said it...you could hear the sincerity in his voice. Mr. Ernest, thank you. You totally made my day.

I've been praying for more wisdom because I genuinely feel like I lack this. So many times, I'll say and do things foolishly, only to regret them 10 seconds later. It's a bad habit I know I need to break. Not just for the sake of myself but for the sake of my family, particularly my husband and our marriage. Last night, before I went to bed, my sweet Shankari Chitthi shared an encouraging word with me on Facebook. She said: "I know your heart Kannae, and I sense the Lord saying that "He is so pleased with you." I was like, what??! Honestly God?? I haven't done very much that is pleasing to you lately. I had a hard time believing it but I received that word by faith in Jesus' name! She doesn't even know this but after she wrote those words, something just lifted. I had tears in my eyes and the burden just lifted.

So, Shankari Chitthi, thank you. You have NO idea how much that meant to me. You have no idea how much YOU mean to me. I love you so much. Above all, Lord, I love you so much. Thank you for giving me grace, even when I don't deserve it.

Outwit, Outplay, Outsmart

We woke up this morning, hoping to find mice in our traps but alas, we found nothing. I slept lightly all night, just waiting to hear snaps. I thought I heard one, but it was probably just wishful thinking. Although, we found that one of the traps was empty. The mouse cleverly ate all the chocolate leading to the trap and the chocolate on the trap. We must not be very good mouse trappers.

Per my friends' suggestions, I'm going to buy some peanut butter. I know we're dealing with a very smart mouse. There may even be more than one mouse. We don't know. What's the best way to deal with a smart mouse? Yup, outsmart them. I'll probably buy some crazy glue and put it on top of the peanut butter too. The battle is on baby!

Can't sleep

It's 1:36 a.m. right now and I just can't get to bed. It was another busy day, but a great day. Among other things, the maintenance guy came over with more mouse traps today. We have strategically placed 4 snap traps and 2 glue traps all over our kitchen and living room. My sweet friends Cat and Grace were kind enough to give me great mouse trapping advice. Thanks guys! I knew I can count on you!

We didn't have any peanut butter but we did have some 3 Musketeer bars. My sweet husband put trails of chocolate by each trap. Now, I am just sitting here waiting. I know that if I turned the lights off and went to sleep, the mouse/mice will come out. I'm usually not a wuss when it comes to these things but since we live in a 767 sqft. apartment, I can hear everything that goes on in each room.

I am going to pray and make myself go to bed now. Hopefully, we'll be hearing the mouse traps snapping tonight. Hey, a girl can hope right?

Gross

As mentioned in my previous post, we're having mouse/mice issues.

This past weekend, while I cooked, my husband cleaned the apartment. It was totally spotless. Not to brag or anything but our apartment management has even asked if they can show our apartment to future residents. Point is, it's relatively clean. I definitely didn't think it was attractive to a mouse. Of course, I was wrong.

This morning, my husband woke up to find a mouse had eaten through a large brown paper bag to get to a mini 3 Musketeers bar! Is that crazy or what?? I cleaned our kitchen counters and stove top last night and put every drop of food away before I went to bed. This brown paper bag I speak of was in our living room. It had a random assortment of things in it. We totally forgot that the 3 Musketeers bar was in there.

Last night, I couldn't sleep much thinking about the mouse. So far, it has shown itself in our kitchen, our washer/dryer closet and the living room. We have never seen it but it has definitely left us "evidence" each time. One day, I found a white spot in our dark brown leather recliner. Upon further inspection, it looked like something bit a hole on our recliner and the white stuffing was sticking out. I'm almost 100% positive it was the mouse, although my husband is not so sure.

The maintenance guy has come to check it out and laid 3 traps with cheese. Still, no luck. What concerns me is that we have no clue where it's coming from. My biggest concern now is that my family is visiting this weekend and someone will be sleeping in the living room. Scary thought. After some research, I've found that the best way to get rid of a mouse is to borrow a cat. We have several friends who would let us do that but our apartment is a pet free community.

Has anyone ever had issues with mice before? Any suggestions?

Random Thoughts

My blog needs some TLC. I've been slacking. Not intentionally though. I've had so much going on this past week that I don't know where to start. Here's a quick run down of this week's events, along with random thoughts.

• Monday was a crazy day. One of our friends' apartment got broken into, while they were in there, sleeping! Crazy or what?? Thankfully, no one was hurt and as far as we know, nothing was stolen. Can I say God's grace and protection??
• According to the doc, I need to start using a bone growth stimulator..more on that later.
• I finally started cooking....which is huge.
• So far this week, I've made Squash Lasagna with Bechamel Sauce, Parmesan Breadsticks, Baked Squash, Couscous, Spinach Salad, Sambar, Tindoora Poriyal and Zucchini Lasagna, which is cooling as I write this.
• My husband made spinach daal for dinner tonight....it was wonderful. Our friends Jenny, Joseph and Isabel came over and we all had dinner together. :)
• Tomorrow, I'm going to start cooking for my husband's birthday. I finally got all the ingredients I needed, after going to 4 different grocery stores.
• I'm making Mutton Biryani and Channa.
• Jenny is making Poori and my mom is making Chicken Kozhambu.
• Yes, I said my mom!! My parents and brother are coming on Friday to celebrate my husband's birthday! Yay! I have the most wonderful family!
• I need to bake my husband a chocolate cake...still looking for a recipe.
• Going to physical therapy twice a week. Each time, it gets harder but I know it's worth it. I try not to schedule anything on my PT days because I'm just so exhausted.
• Our friends from home group are moving into our apartment community....I'm so excited we're going to be neighbors! They have the cutest little boy with gorgeous bright blue eyes!
• With some help from friends, I decided to buy a BBQ grill for my husband. I was so excited to finally find a gift.
• I checked with our apartment and they said BBQ grills are allowed as long as we have renter's insurance (which we do).
• Then, they told me they misspoke. We cannot grill on our patio. The grill must be at least 15 feet away from our building...seriously??!
• A couple weeks ago, I signed up for a mentoring program through our church. It's a great program called Kid's Hope. Please check it out at http://www.kidshopeusa.org/. I need to pick up my badge at school this week but still haven't done it.
• We finally found and purchased an unlimited long distance phone plan for my work. It's called Ooma. It's $250 but we found it at Best Buy for $220 plus tax. With a 10% off coupon, it came out to $217, including tax. Steep, yes but it's a one time fee for unlimited long distance. I average 3,600 minutes per month for work so it's worth it.
• I'm looking for a Panasonic DECT phone to go with it. Hopefully, I can find a used one on Craigslist.
• I made reservations for my husband I at Fogo De Chao for his birthday on Monday. He LOVES that place. I found an ad for a Fogo De Chao gift card. After bargaining with the lady, I bought the gift card at a 25% discounted rate.
• This is embarrassing but we have a mouse (or rat) problem in our apartment. We keep our apartment quite clean. We've laid out 3 mouse traps. Still haven't caught the pesky creature.

Ok, that about sums it up. My brain is going at 150 miles an hour. I'm sure I'll wake up in the middle of the night and go...I forgot to mention this!

I'm still looking for gift ideas for my husband. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this blog! Good night!

p.s. I hope my lasagna has cooled by now, so I can stick it in the fridge. My mom always told me that bacteria multiplies if you stick something warm in the fridge. See mom, I am listening to you even when you don't think I am. :)

10 week follow up

Yesterday, I had my 10 week follow up with my Orthopedist. I was super excited to go, thinking this would be my last visit. Well, I was wrong. After I got some x-rays done, I went into a room, waiting for the PA and the Doctor. They came in and had a puzzled look on their faces. They told me that for some reason, my bone hasn't fully healed. According to the doctor, normally, it would take 8 weeks for a bone to heal and considering my age and health, there was no reason why the bone shouldn't heal.


Initially, I was quite disappointed and visibly upset to hear about the results of the x-rays. This lasted only for a brief moment because I realized that I serve a great God. It's amazing how God prepares you for every situation in your life. The morning of my appointment, I was watching Marilyn Hickey while getting ready. She was talking about the healing power of God and His word. She talked about a woman who was completely healed from having 26 tumors on her body!

I was reminded of this when I was at the doctor's office. I claimed that God is my healer and He is going to make my bone grow. His word says that and He never lies. I thank God for loving me enough to prepare me and give me strength for every situation in life. His mercies are new every morning.

I need some ideas

My husband's birthday is in 10 1/2 days and I've done absolutely nothing for it yet. Usually by now, I would have his gift, made him a card, and pretty much planned out the entire day but not this year. I'm stuck...just completely stuck.

Starting with gifts. One of my husband's true loves is cars. He has been wanting a BMW 3 series (sports package) for quite some time. That's the only thing he really wants. Obviously, that's waaaaay out of my reach, for a gift. I don't want to get him clothes...face it, that's just boring. I don't want to get him a gift card to his favorite anything because although practical, it's too predictable. Same goes for cash. I made him a scrapbook one year...I'm not making that mistake again. Anyone got any ideas?

I usually buy or bake him a cake. This year, I'll bake. At least that's covered. As for an activity, I want to take him to a race track but his wrist has been hurting. I definitely don't want to add to that. I thought I'd treat him to a weekend away, just the two of us, but that's more my thing. Not sure how he'd feel about it. Besides, we live in Houston....where can I go within a 50 mile radius, which doesn't scream big city?

The only other thing I somewhat have planned out is his birthday breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'll probably make him a nice breakfast involving chocolate, cook lunch and take him out for a nice dinner. Growing up, I know what his mom made for his birthday lunch. I want him to have that nostalgic, childhood experience all over again. I just hope I can do a half decent job in recapturing that.

My goal is to just let him know that he's loved and respected....a LOT, by me. If any of you wise women (or men) have some ideas, please send them my way...please.

I'm Pooped!

I left home at 9:35 a.m. for my Physical Therapy appointment and got back home at 11:45 a.m.! Boy, they really work you! My foot is super sore but I feel like I got a lot accomplished.

My therapist's name is Beth and she's super sweet. Beth had me do several different different exercises. These included exercises on the stationary bike, a mini trampoline, a body gym, a heel wedge, and my least favorite, the balance trainer. The balance trainer is a round board you stand on and move your ankle without rotating the actual board, or your hips. Of course, as with all things involving balance, this was challenging for me.

Beth kept going...Priya, don't move your hips. I looked at her and went, Beth, I am Indian...I can't do anything without moving my hips! The best part of the PT session is the 5 minute foot massage at the end. I felt bad for Beth though. My foot isn't a pretty sight right now. Not to totally gross you out, but I have blisters and a couple of open wounds from my boot rubbing on my ankle. Told you...totally gross. Hopefully, this will disappear soon.

Anyway, when I came back home, my body just wanted to crash...but not my mind. I am ready to take on the day! I am going to hang out with my friends Jenny, Joseph and their daughter Isabel. They will be here soon and I can't wait!