I like my Bhindi slimy

Bhindi (Okra) is my favorite vegetable cooked Indian style. Today, I will bestow upon you my classicly simple recipe for Bhindi (provided that you have all the right ingredients).

Start off with your washed whole okra. Chop off the stem part and then cut the rest of the okra into 1/4” slices.

Eat one of the okra bits and decide it doesn’t taste very good raw :)

Place chopped okra into a pan and add a little water (depending on how slimy you want it to be). Simmer on medium heat for about 20 min, or until okra is cooked. To spice it, add haldi (turmeric), lal mirchi (red chili powder), dhania (coriander powder), and salt. Um so I never follow recipes, so I add random amounts of spices and legit, it always turns out ok. I like my bhindi spicy so I add a lot of lal mirchi. I eat bhindi with roti or naan (coming soon). To serve this, squeeze a little lime juice on top.

Yummmm.

Another Paper Mosaic (Reversible!)

So I admit I have a penchant for paper mosaics ok?! They’re mostly environmentally friendly and I don’t have to purchase more art supplies (besides glue). I cut out squares from magazines in the maize and blue color family.

I decided to make a 3-D block M. All my forays into the interpretation of the block M thus far had been in 2-D and I needed something more. I used cardboard I found lying in the parental house and the “funnies” with glue as the binder.

The finished structure stands as tall as a Harry Potter novel (in paperback, of course).

I painted the entire thing black and mosaiced it with maize.

Or did I mosaic it in blue??

We’ll never know.

The Whole Enchilada

I’ve made enchiladas twice this week. I don’t know if that constitutes an addiction, but this is a chance I’m willing to take.

The filling was made from black beans and corn and cheese (cheese not pictured).

Poured into a whole wheat tortilla…

Sprinkle a little cheese on top, with enchilada sauce…

And bake! Then proceed to stuff the entire thing in your mouth rapidly as if it hasn’t just been baking at 350F for 20 minutes.

Ingredients:
1 16oz can black beans, 1/2 16oz can enchilada sauce, 1/2 cup frozen corn, 1/4 cup cheese (filling), two tortillas, 1/4 cup cheese to sprinkle on top (I used “taco blend”)

Mix together the black beans, corn, and the 1/4 cup cheese and stuff the two torillas.
Use a little bit of water dabbed on the flap to shut the tortillas.
Pour the enchilada sauce on top of the tortillas.
Sprinkle 1/4 cup cheese on top.
Bake at 350F for approximately 20 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

Sofa Table of my Dream

I had a dream one night that I had a sofa table. In this dream, I built the sofa table with three pieces of wood and some L-brackets. I woke up with the feeling that this is one of my dreams that could be realized with relatively little effort.

So I went to Home Depot, bought a very long piece of wood (that’s what she said), and had them cut it to my specifications. I also bought a bunch of L-Brackets.

I used three L-Brackets for connecting the legs to the top. This is the first time I used my new power-drill since I got it in Dec 2009 :).

This is the unpainted table. It was sitting unpainted for a few weeks because I didn’t have paint. And in the background, I’m pretty sure I was watching Hannah Montana.

I finally bought black paint. I want the base color of my living room to be black. I think this paint is almost black, but it’s close enough for me!

More painting shots. Look at my table with its legs up in the air.

The sofa table in action! I had a conversation with some of my co-workers on why I called it a sofa and why they called it a couch, but I don’t think there is any difference.

Side view!

I love it! So gorgeous :) And you can see a small part of my gallery wall in the mirror.

This table cost me approximately 30$ to build and maybe 3 hours.

Also, follow me on twitter @nidhizzle. Hopefully this one won’t be like the great twitter addiction of ‘09.