About Making Unnakai, And My New Hobbies

Hi guys.
I wanna apologize to my blog for abandoning it like that. Sorry!! But I’m back.
I’m proud to say that I found LOTS of new hobbies! Yup and I mean LOTS!!

Anyone can and will have countless number of hobbies if you are introduced to Fevicryl Hobby ideas! My love for this product started when I walked into a famoust craft store in town called PKG. I went with my friend because she heard about this stuff from her friend. We were like kids at a toy store. I WANT THAT!

I bought all the stuff needed for Glass Painting(which is VERY easy to do), shilpkar, fabric paint, play dough, and many other stuff.
Shipkar has two dough inside. Mix it in equal quantities and mould it into different shapes, stick it to flower pots, photo frames, literally anywhere. When it dries, paint it using fabric colors. I made flowers and sticked it on the most boring looking pot I saw lying around. Painted the flowers pink and the pot, black. Now it ooks Bold And Beautiful! 😀
Play dough is just for fun 😛
Glass painting turns out good even if you are the messy person with shaky hands!

My other new hobby is cooking. Started out as a hobby, but now its a passion. I make one dish a day, mostly tea-time snacks. 70% of the time, my dish comes out amazing. Lets not talk about the other 30% which turns out to be a complete disaster(even my dogs think twice before eating!)

Yesterday(sunday), I planned to watch three movies. Monte Carlo, Bad Teacher and Crimes of Fashion. I wanted to watch something other than the Guy-movies in the IMDb Top 250 list (which btw is going good.) Monte carlo was very boring. Fast forwarded through most of it. It was like a bad rip off of the Lizzie-Mcguire, the movie. Bad Teacher was hilarious (Jason Segal was super cute!). Crimes of fashion was also good.

The whole family was at home, infront of TV or computer. That’s when my dad asked if I was making any snack (My dad became a fan of my cooking after tasting the Gulab Jamun I made. And I DID NOT make it using Instant Gulab Jamun mix!) I wasn’t really planning too, but the fact that someone asked was more than enough reason for me to run to the kitchen and start scanning the kitchen for ingredients for an awesome snack.

There was everything to make Unnakai. My favorite tea-time (or any-time) snack. It does take a lot of work, but it is all worth it. For making unnakai, First step is to steam ripe banana. After it is cooked, allow it to completely cool down. Then mash it. I was mashing the bananas, and that’s when my mom starts suggesting ‘tips’.
“Don’t mash it. There will be lumps in it. Use the mixer. Then add rice powder to make it crisp”
I ignored. She repeats. I yell!
” I’LL DO IT MYSELF. ”
My mom always does this. She throws suggestions at me. I reject it completely, and then I’ll get second thoughts.
‘CRISP’-That’s the word that catched my attention. I use the mixer and the product turned out to be a sticky paste! So I had to add rice powder (and flour), if I still wanna make the unnakai. Then I made small balls with the dough and stuffed coconot and sugar mixture, and deep fried till it get golden brown color.
It was DELICIOUS( Everyone thought so 🙂 )

I’m posting the recipe here, just in case any of you want to try making it. 🙂

1. Ripe banana – 2
2. Grated coconut – 1 cup
3. Sugar –  6 spoonful
4. Cardamom – 2
5. Ghee – 3 tablespoon
6. Oil

Steam the bananas. Let it cool completely. Mash the bananas & keep it aside.

Heat ghee in a pan & add coconut, sugar & cardamom. Cook it for 4-5 minutes.  Apply a little oil in the hands & make small rolls with mashed bananas. Fill it with coconut mix & roll it  into an oval shape. Fry these rolls in heated oil until it becomes light golden brown.

I’m so over you!

Yup. Its true. I’m over you. And I hope I don’t look back. 

Now wait, why did you assume that this was all about some guy?! 😛 

 

Let me make myself clear – I’m so over you, GOOGLE PLUS!

The so-called over-hyped-Facebook-Killer , Google Plus did impress me, but there’s nothing exciting happening there. I’m totally Disappointed!! 😀

I seriously thought that this was the end of the Facebook-era.

It does connect you directly to celebrities. More like an advance version of Twitter. But not many celebrities are in Plus yet.

I like the idea of  sparks.

Circles is kinda like groups. Facebook also has video chat now. I haven’t tried out Huddle yet. So no comments there.  Everything you need is right there, all neatly arranged. But it somehow doesn’t beat Facebook. All of our lives are now so attached to Facebook, that its hard to leave all that behind. the Friends, the photos, the groups, everything.

Although there is one thing that I like about Google Plus. It makes you feel like a celebrity! Random people starts following you. Creepy, but its kinda fun. In twitter if you don’t update your tweets, you’ll loose followers rapidly. But not in Google plus, it somehow keeps on increasing.

P.S : As for my Project IMDb, its Day 2. Lost yesterday. I was busy as hell. I’m watching The Shawshank Redemption right now.

And one more thing : One of my friends, is expecting a post on ‘World War III’! So here you go. Read All you want. 😛

 

Project IMDb!

I just found the perfect activity to keep me busy and to get me out of my lazy streak.

I’M GONNA WATCH ALL THE MOVIES IN THE IMBD TOP 250 LIST!!

And probably write a review. How does that sound? Crazy?

Here’s the list. How many of these have you seen?

I need a deadline. 300 days sounds OK. 300 days, 250 films. I’ve already seen about 35 out of the 250. But I don’t mind watching it again. 😀

So the project will start from tomorrow (16th Aug 2011) and will end on 11th June, 2012.

I’m obviously inspired by the Julie/Julia Project. More on my project tomorrow. 🙂

By the way, Happy Independence day, India.

Choices

People say that a job should be something that you love to do or you’ll regret forever. So it must be good that I haven’t started my career path yet. Time to lay out the choices and think. Or is it too late?

I”m in love with programming languages now more than ever. I took Electronics and Communication as my main in college, so there wasn’t much programming there except for the basic C programming in the first two years. I didn’t realize it then, but that was my favorite subject in my whole Engineering course. I should have taken Computer Science Engineering.  There is no one to blame for it. I didn’t have any clue whatsoever about the possibilities after school. And honestly I didn’t care. I took everything lightly and left the decision-making to my parents. They did the best they could.

And now I hate Electronics so much that I feel bad for it! So its decided that I’ll start my career in Programming, hopefully. I’m guessing that’s what a Software Engineer do! 😛

That’s decided. Now what if I wake up one day and I just hate my job?  I got that figured out too. I made a list of everything that interests me and I’ve selected the best two. This doesn’t mean that I’ll quit the job, but something to take my mind off it.

COOKING

With films like Salt n’ Pepper and Julie & Julia , It would be a surprise if anyone didn’t get interested in cooking. But that was not the reason I’m in love with cooking. I had to learn to cook last year. There was a lot of reason behind it, but I’m not gonna write about all that here. So there I was, in the kitchen with no idea whatsoever about cooking. Wrote down a lot of recipes from the internet and I started cooking with a little excitement and a lot of nervousness. Then I got my first complement and it was one hell of a tasty ride from there (yes, there were some disasters, which are bound to happen!! ) !

I’ve always wanted to own a restaurant or a coffee shop. <–That will be Option 1. Make lots of money with the first job, quit, and open a restaurant!

MOVIES 

I love movies and I wanna be a Movie Director (or a film critic, but that needs a journalism degree) someday. This is also an option for me after retiring from the first job! 😀  Rom-coms and occasional thrillers.! Again , make lots of money, quit and take a course in film making, and there you go! 😀

You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’

Fingers Crossed. 

Adieu.

Indu Prakash.