A lazy weekend in Holiday Season

It was another lazy Sunday. It had been raining since previous night. When I woke up in the morning, and saw through my window, first thing I noticed that  my front yard turned golden yellow. The sky was gloomy, but my front yard was golden, definitely not by sunshine, but by the golden maple leaves which fell through out the night due to the storm. 

Gingerbread house from box

As the Christmas is coming around I am making decorations for Christmas. Every year I decided I will start making decorations one month before, but i always end up starting after the first week of December. My problem is that I don’t get my inner inspirations to start Christmas crafts. As soon as December starts, so many ideas start to come in my mind. Anyway, last year my son begged for a gingerbread house. Lastly, I told him  that, I could make house which looks like gingerbread house out of box. First he was not ready to agree with me, but lastly he accepted.

Decorate how you like to do. :) 

Thanksgiving 2015

Still the weather is cool. Still the air is nice and crisp. Still the trees are wearing the burning red and orange color leaves. Before the weather becomes cooler than now,rain starts down pouring I must write down my beautiful, eventful, enjoyable Thanksgiving celebration with my readers. First I want to just say that I’m extremely thankful that you guys read my blog. Here I write down my experience in life. Mostly I share with you all the happy moments. That not means I’m always happy, always active, always on my toe. Though I try to do that. Anyway, let me tell my Thanksgiving weekend story.

Is crocheting my new obsession?

Suddenly one day my son requested me to make a hat for him out of yarn. I causally told him that I would do that. I fought that he would forget about my promise, and I would skip that. However, my little one usually doesn’t forget anything. After some days he again reminded me about my promise. Again I casually promised him, hoping that he would forget. But, nothing such had happened. Few days later again he remind me. Then I understood, he is not the person who would just let it go. I reluctantly looking for a suitable yarn to make a hat in my yarn box.  I asked him whether he would like blue. Anyway, I started crocheting the hat, he told me the hat would be too small for his head. So, I made the hat bigger, but the hat became so big, that he best fitted on his dad’s head. I asked him to give the hat to dad, and I would make another one for him. He happily agreed with that. Actually, at that I was already got addicted to crocheting. After making my son’s hat, I wanted to crochet more. I showed those hats to one of my friends. She desperate wanted a hat made by me. After making her hat I just couldn’t stop me. I started making things one after another. Here is the result of my new addiction in past fifteen days. 

Scarf for my friend

Point Reyes Hiking

Have you ever been in a  situation like us? Let me tell the situation. On a narrow mountain road, with the inclination toward the cliff, sharp turn, without any guarding fence beside the cliff, a child who was throwing tantrums from backseat, a bunch of bicyclists who were climbing the mountain in front of your car, amid all those my husband drove the car towards our destination. When he was driving on Lucas Valley Road, I was just cursing myself for asking him to take us on a hike at Point Reyes Lighthouse. After driving more than ten miles on Lucas Valley Road, when we entered the Nicosia Road, I sighed in relief. At least there was no such cliffs. Rather we were in between two mountains, without any fear, though the cyclists were present through out our journey.

The cyclists on the road

Three vegetable cake

I baked carrot cake. I baked zucchini bread. I baked beet root cake. But I never baked anything combining three of the vegetables. Today, I was just sitting lazily on my bed in the afternoon, thinking of baking something. First I thought I would bake zucchini, as I had loads of zucchini in my refrigerator. Then suddenly I thought mixing all the vegetables together in one cake. 

Zucchini Sandwich

Actually once I found a sandwich kind of dish recipe with eggplant in a cookbook of Martha Stewart. I couldn’t make that, because all of us have eggplant allergy. So, I decided to try the same dish with zucchini, when there are plenty of zucchinis in my backyard garden. I also have changed some in the recipe. Instead of using feta cheese I used homemade cottage cheese. The dish turned out delicious.Here is the recipe.

Vegetable-fish stir fry

Since past few days unusual bizarre things are happening in my house. First the strange sound from all pipes through out the house. One fine morning I was cooking and teaching my son simultaneously. First my son noticed the odd sound, which was like a distant sound of garbage truck. He repeatedly ask me from where the sound was coming. Every time I told him it was a distant garbage truck. However, after some time I went to garage, and I heard the odd sound very loudly, and realized that the sound was coming from my very own garage. I called my husband , and he found the sound was coming from the pipes. I searched on the Internet, and found the solution. Next two days were fine. Again on the fourth day heard that same sound. After much thinking we found out that, whenever the sprinkler on the front yard had been started the sound was coming. Then imperatively we called the plumber. He told that, the main valve of the water source was to be changed. 
 
 
 

A quick trip to Hong Kong

This time we traveled to India by Cathy Pacific airlines. While coming back we decided to take a quick trip to Hong Kong to utilize the 16 hour long stop-over. Before we started our journey from India, my husband and I searched for any guided tour in Hong Kong. We had not much time in our had to explore the country by our own. Moreover, we didn’t want to travel a lot, just wanted to have glimpse of a place new to us.There were several of them, and we chose the one with less time, because, specially I didn’t want to take much strain. So, we decided to take the Lantau tour. Lantau tour was only 5 hours long, so we could have plenty of time to have rest at the airport. Basically,  Lantau was the island where the Hong Kong airport was situated. When I saw the pictures of the island on Internet, I really fell in love with the island. As it was guided to tour, we didn’t have much to think about it or plan it.  

The million dollar homes

Trip to Ferndale and Eureka

December, 2014

The first house we saw in Ferndale

I heard about the tiny Victorian town, Ferndale, while I was watching a TV show. I’m the person who always loves Victorian style , except the fashion. When I heard for the first time about the town, I asked my husband to make a trip there. This Christmas Holidays, we were thinking to going somewhere. My husband was thinking about Santa Barbara. Then I told him about Ferndale. He also likes Victorian architecture, so he agreed with me to go there. We decide to spend last few days of December away from the city, to an old town with a touch of rural flavor. 

The town was situated at the Northern part of California. After driving on the winding mountain road through the dense forest of conical shaped high redwood trees, when we reached Fortuna  it was almost 4 o’clock. The redwood forest was so beaconing that I was desperately longing hiking on the mountain trail on the chilly afternoon. Specially when I could see the cyclists and the bikers were going. The trees were so tall and so green and undamaged, it looked like that still civilized man’s hand yet to touch the forest. However, it reality it was the opposite. 

Anyway, it was a winter evening. Though it was only 4 o’clock, but seemed that it was almost going to be night. Anyway, after reaching the hotel we decided to just give a visit to the town Ferndale. 
Ferndale was very, very small town. It was very quiet, and very small. The residents were very relaxed, and not so keenly interested in the modern complicated high-tech life. I felt that, it was an ideal place to spend the retired life. As soon as we entered the town, first my eyes caught, one small victorian house with a beautiful sprawling front yard. My husband asked me to take a picture of that house. As soon as I clicked, one lady came out from the house and gave us a beautiful smile. However, we thought she was coming to object us, so we hurriedly drove away from there. Then we stopped our car near the downtown, where actually all the houses were built in Victorian style. I have no idea whether those houses were once residence or not, but currently they were all used for commercial purpose. I always love the detailing of the Victorian architecture. 

Downtown

 Victorian architecture is a series of architectural styles in the mid-to-late 19th century during the Victorian era. The houses were very brightly colored. These style is very much romantic style, very intricate and very beautiful.  Every where  from the roof to the window pane, some kind  of very detailed and ornamental design could be seen. We parked our car on the side of the road , and decided to take a walk through the  downtown to see all the houses individually. The buildings on the both side of the road were very old yet they were very well maintained. Even the post office was also beautifully designed. We went there just after Christmas. 

So, all the Christmas trees were still there. All the shops kept their Christmas tree outside of the shop. I am mentioning it here, because all the trees were decorated with the crafts made by the local children. After the small downtown, everywhere were only the ranches and fields. The cows were grazing there. 
We came back to the hotel, and decided to find out more places there to visit. Thankfully the hotel provided a book with many information about neighborhood area. We found out that next town, Eureka had more Victorian building than Ferndale. My foodie husband wanted a different restaurant to dine out. He found out Samoa cookhouse. 
Next morning we weren’t in hurry. We knew that it was not  going to much time to see all the Victorian buildings, as there was no option to go inside of individual house to see the interiors. So, we started around 10:00 in the morning, after a hearty breakfast at Best Western Inn, where we were lodging. We directly went to the Carson house in Eureka. 

Carson house

It was famous landmark there. The mansion was built for William Carson, who came to join the gold rush in California, later formed a lumber company. The mansion was a mix of every major style of Victorian Architecture, especially Queen Anne style. However, later, the mansion was  converted to a private club, called Ingomer Club. The house opposite to Carson mansion, attracted me a lot. The pink house may be not that much ravishing compared to the mansion, but it had its own charm. The ornamental architecture was not so detailed, but it was very homely. I tried to find out something about the house, but sadly I couldn’t find out anything. From there we went to the solitaire seaside. We walked along on the deck, sometimes we stopped and watched the yachts stood in rows.

 We started walking along the narrow lanes of the historic old downtown, where all the buildings are Victorian style. Most of them were either motels or shops. I don’t know whether they were residences before. In Eureka old town and in Ferndale, I didn’t find any retail chain. All kind of shops were boutiques. Though I didn’t go inside, but from outside all the shops were looking stunning. Every shop was decorated in Victorian style. I felt that we went back to old time through a time machine. 

The beautiful pink house just opposite to Carson house

My husband wanted to go to Samoa cookhouse to have lunch. From Eureka, we headed to Samoa cookhouse, crossing a long bridge. The Samoa Peninsula was the land barrier that separates northern Humboldt Bay from the Pacific Ocean. Samoa is a peninsula between Eureka and Arcata. Samoa was punched by a private company which wanted make it a beach destination. However,it was ended up as a working town with sawmill factories. 

Eureka downtown

The reason is unknown to me.  When the land took shape as a working towns with sawmills factory, the Samoa Cookhouse  was opened as a humble encampments for the workers. 

Samoa Cookhouse

However, the sawmill didn’t run anymore. We saw the area was very quiet, and I felt like it motionless. After spending some time on the deserted beach we went to Samoa Cookhouse, but the eatery was almost empty, though it was opened. We were skeptical, whether the food would be good or not. So, we came back to Eureka. When we decided to go to New York Pizza, at that moment it started raining. We had no umbrella, actually I forgot about the winter rain in California. We waited in our car for some time, then practically we ran towards restaurant. We ate enormous sized sliced-pizza. Then again we strolled around the old town, and we came back to the hotel, just to spend a leisurely evening. 

Zucchini Fritter (another way)

I failed every time when I want to make zucchini chips. Until now i don’t know which is the exact method to bake crispy zucchini chips. After many failed attempt , currently I’ve decided not to make anymore zucchini chips. However, what to do with so many zucchinis I’m harvesting almost everyday. The other I was chatting with one of my friends in Whatsapp, who lives in France. She gave me a recipe of zucchini fritter, but I miserably failed to make that. I was desperate to make good fritter without deep frying. Then I came with this recipe.

Journey from Singapore to Home country

12/24/2013
The longest and arduous journey
It seemed to be an easy task, as there was nothing to do inside the plane, but sitting back idly. However, that was a real pain. Siting back , and doing nothing, and watching movie could be a nightmare to a person like me who likes to keep herself on toe. On the top of that sitting on a tiny seat continuously, gives only pain to waist and legs. However, I must say this is the first time in six year after my marriage I sat back and watched 4 movies one after another !!!! 

Anyway, after everything was done smoothly, we had a brunch at cafe Monto at the airport. We had a plenty of time in our hand. Soon after, we felt bored,especially my son became frustrated, and started disturbing us a lot. He was so bored that he couldn't keep himself on the chair.He started acting very silly. Anyway, we had been waiting eagerly to hear from the authority to announce to boarding the plane. At last we heard the announcement. Thanks to our little one ,we could avoid a long queue to board the flight. The starting was not so bad. Father and the son started watching movies. 

I have no habit of watching TV. So, I started reading the newspaper. After finishing that, I sat back for few minutes to think, what I should next. Actually I didn’t want to switch on my tablet, in the fear of losing the battery of it. At last I switched on it, then I started reading Anna Karenina, which I had been thinking of reading for along time, but I never started reading. Soon after, I started writing journal, about our journey from home to airport.  One round of meal was already finished.

 I didn't know what to call it, though it was a full fledged meal, we had at  4 o'clock in our time. When I read or write I always crave for coffee or tea. I didn't take the coffee with the meal, I asked the air hostess to give me a hot coffee, which also help me to stay awake. Already my back started paining. It seemed  that it was a never ending journey. I often watch the time in my wrist watch. 

Though it was giving me the US time, I had no problem in calculating the time of our destination. As we were traveling from west to east, we the time was rapidly changing, I found we were always in sunlight, though every time we were getting "dinner". After getting bored I started watching movies. Though I finished 2 movies two movies, but our stopover destination Seoul was still far away. 

We arrived at Seoul airport. We were relieved, as we got chance to walk for a while. After a hassle free check-in we waited in the queue to board to Singapore bound plane.  That was another 8 hours journey to Singapore. After boarding our son started watching movie. Again the meal arrived, this time I also didn't know whether it was lunch or dinner. Soon after the meal our son started sleeping. My husband was still awake. I slept on and off. My husband told me that, he would sleep a lot after reaching the hotel at Changi airport. I asked him not to be very optimistic, because our son was not going to sleep in the hotel room, because he was already getting some sleep in the flight. Anyway, after getting down at Changi, we checked in at Ambassador hotel. As I anticipated that my son would not go to sleep, that happened. He already slept in the flight , and he was full of energy when we went to bed at 2 o'clock at night as per local time. We booked the hotel for 6 hours. We desperately wanted to sleep, but our son was full of energy, refused to sleep. He had been literally jumping on my back before falling asleep. The alarm rang at 7 in the morning. We sprang out of bed and quickly got ready. We left the hotel at 8 in the morning. Actually we wanted to avail the Singapore bus tour to see the city. Unfortunately we didn't get three seats for bus tour which usually starts at 11:30. So, we booked three seats for the tour at 2:30. From 8 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon was a long time, especially when there was nothing to do. My husband wanted have a brunch, so that we didn't need to have food before going to Singapore tour. It was real challenge to pass time. I think we walked to and fro within the airport. There was nothing to do. I was eagerly waiting for the Singapore tour, because I missed the tour 4 times before. My husband wanted to take a foot massage , but I didn't allow in the fear of missing the tour. 

Anyway, at last we went to board the bus. To our great disappointment , it was raining heavily outside. It really dampened our spirit, I understood that our tour was going to unsuccessful.  We couldn't get good photographs of our tour. Anyway, amid heavy rain our tour started. The city was really green. Everywhere, I could see only green and green. In such a small place they could maintain the environment. One striking feature I could see that all the big trees were covered by many kinds of parasites. Like my last visit Dubai, here also I could see the architectural beauty  in all modern building. Among the old parliament building the typical colonial architecture could be seen. Anyway,  most disappointed moment to me was not getting chance to get down to see the Singapore symbol, the Marlion. In totality,  the tour was quite disappointing. My husband and I both agreed that we would come back again here to see the city in depth.

Again our waiting start for last flight from Singapore to Kolkata. My son fell asleep just before boarding. He was so tired that it was inhuman to make him stay awake. I also fell fast asleep. Suddenly my husband tapped me. I woke up and saw he already stood in the line to board the plane. My poor little one had to wake up for the security check in. He cried all the way, and after check in he again fell asleep.  Anyway, after boarding our son even didn't have his dinner. I finished the last movie what I was watching last. After that everything was hassle free except getting our suitcase. We had to wait more than 45 minutes to get our suitcases. At last we reached home at 1 o'clock in the early morning. 

Chicken vegetable stir fry

Actually I cooked this very dish long back. Probably I cooked during the months of December. I wrote down the recipe also. But the funny thing was that, I couldn't find the picture. Today while I was just browsing the pictures in my laptop, I suddenly have found out the photo. I quickly upload the recipe here for you. 

The summer break 2015

Summer vacation has already started. The little one is in officially grade 2. Oh, he is growing to fast. He is very excited to go to next grade. But my parched mind yearns to hold my little baby in my hands forever.  The school ended with a School ending party at a nearby park. All the kiddies enjoyed a lot there. They just got wild when we reached the park. From running to digging holes in the sand, they enjoyed every kind of silly activities. We all parents and teachers became tire at the end, but they were all full of energy. After coming back, kids didn’t want to inside the classroom, because they missed the recess time. So, they wanted to play in the school park again. Oh! all the crazy little cute kiddies!!

Digging hole in the sand

 Anyway, next two months is going to be a big challenge to me. I’ve to keep him engaged and entertained. I know, that is going to be very tough to me. Though I thought to make plan for summer vacation way ahead, but I didn’t do that. My sluggishness pulled me back to do that. Now the summer has already started, and I’ve to make an impromptu plan for him. I thought of buying some things for his crafts , but I forgot buy those stuff. Now, I’ve to improvise with whatever things I already possess or I must go to go store with him. As he is growing up, it is becoming difficult to shop with him. With all his unfulfilled demands, every time he becomes grumpy after I finish my shopping.

This is done by sonny boy..without any help

 
Though I thought of many crafts, but I’m not so much convinced that he is going to love them. First of all, he only loves planes, trains, ships, machines. And I cannot find any craft related to all those things. Whatever I like, he doesn’t like to do. After all boys will be boys. I’ve find out something which he will like to do. Once I told him whether he will like make a dinosaur book (As I’ve kept some dinosaur pictures in my collection. Actually, I always keep any thing from movie ticket to magazine cuttings for projects.) I know the real challenge will be writing part. Actually, my plan is that, we will stick the pictures on pages and he will write about those dinosaurs. He has a really good knowledge about dinosaurs, but the problem is , he doesn’t want to write at all. If I ask him to write half of the page, he will write so big, that he will fill half of the page with only 2-3 sentences. If I ask him to write 5-6 sentences, he will take more than 2 hours to finish that. Isn’t that crazy? 
Next challenge is to arranging play date with his friends. I know he will enjoy playing with his friends, but that is tiring to me. Actually, I’m always to do something, I don’t enjoy much chit-chatting with others. Don’t think I don’t chat with others. I do. However, after chatting for few hours, I always feel that I wasted the time. Am I crazy? I think I should relax, and enjoy chatting with others, forgetting my household chores. 
But the summer is not going to be very much relaxing to me. As, my sonny boy has already joined swimming class. So, I’ll take him there. But I’m excited. I’m looking forward for his swimming class. Hope he is going to be a better swimmer at the end of the summer.
This summer, still we in dilemma , whether we will go for any vacation or will just stay at home. Hopefully we will go to somewhere. 

Zucchini Fritters

Neither we’ve idea how a zucchini plant is nor about the produce a plant can give. So, we planted several zucchini plant in our backyard. As a result we are getting a large amount of zucchinis. Now it’s really a headache to me, how to consume all of them. I’m trying to innovate recipes with zucchinis to make interesting. At least no one will squeeze nose when I put the plate with some zucchini item before the family members. So, I’ve tried to make something like onion fritter using zucchini. The zucchini fritters were indeed really delicious. 

Ingredients:
One big zucchinis (or two small ones)
One very small onion
One inch ginger
Two-three green chili (you can add more, if you want more hot)
Salt to taste
Half tsp. chili powder
Pinch of turmeric powder
Enough besan (Bengal gram flour) to make a tight paste
oil for deep frying
Lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and black salt for serving
Method:
Finely chop the zucchinis. I made a mistake, I cut them in little thicker pieces. Finely chop the onion. Grate the ginger. Take a big bowl, then mix all the items, except beasn. Keep the mixture for 10-15 minutes, covering with a lid. In this 15 minutes juice will be come out from zucchini. So, you need not add any water to make a paste. Fold the mixture and add besan little by little until the mixture becomes a thigh paste. Then heat one cup of oil in a heavy bottomed wok. Wait until the oil is smoking hot. Take golf ball size paste and fry them . Fry 2-3 one at a time until red.
serving:
Take a patter. Spread 3-4 lettuce leaves. Stack the fritter on the leaves. Thinly slice tomatoes and cucumbers. Arrange them around the stack of fritter. Sprinkle black salt over the patter. Serve hot. 


 

I'm back

Lately I lost interest on updating my blog. The reason is really unknown to me. I won’t tell that, I’m too much busy to write down, or I don’t have anything to write. There are so many things to write in my blog. In fact I’ve  already wrote three of my travel stories, but I’m not feeling the urge to review them , and upload. Anyway, I think in near future I can overcome my sluggishness and can upload my exciting travel stories. Even I’ve written down some recipe which I’ve tried. But I didn’t post any of them. Why I’ve lost interest in posting I don’t know. However, I’m trying had to keep my hobby alive, and write something down. 

Wild flowers are blooming wildly in my backyard

My husband and I currently very mush interested in gardening, rather we are obsessed with our garden. Through out the day and night we are talking about our garden. What vegetable we can grow, which kind of plant we should buy for our garden, always come into our conversations. 

My husband and I worked together to make this retaining wall. And we planted Aralia there. We have plan to plant more Aralia under this Redwood tree to beautify the area. 

This year we are very much experimenting with our garden. Though we are almost done with the landscaping, still we are struggling to plant to right plant in right time. We already have gotten some successes. Our zucchini plants are doing very well, they already have given us some gigantic zucchini. Beans are showing their faces. Some of the annuals, and flowering shrubs are doing well. However, sad part is that, many of the plants died after planting. We yet to figure out what are the problems. 

Garden harvest: the foot-long zucchinis 

So, that next year we can get more success on our garden. Both of us are studying about gardening a lot. Previously we used to study about a whole garden, which consists of many plants. We really were at bay, and couldn’t figure out what actually could be done. Then  we made a list about our preferred vegetable and flower plants. Then we studied about them, where could we plant them, what are probable environments for them. So, now already we have inured out which plants we should buy. Further more, my found out all the way about the propagation of the existing plants. I hope next year we can make our garden, “Neighbor's envy, owner’s pride”.

Beans are coming out

In the month of April I went to my hometown. After coming back from there, everyday I think to posting in my blog, but everyday I end up not doing that. Anyway, my son’s school is almost at the end. Only two days are left. He is getting promoted to second grade. Now there is no such pressure of studying, so, I’m facing difficulty with him to make him sit and study. Anyway, different interesting activities are going on at school. Few days back I went to watch the concert at school. It was really nice to watch the little ones are performing on stage. Then we had a school closing party at the park. Though the children enjoyed their fullest, we parents really lost all our energy. But the children didn’t  loose a bit of energy. I always wonder, from where they all energy. If I had gotten a chance, I would have borrowed energy from him. Really, I always feel I need more energy to speed up my works. Anyway, before I forget to mention , my son’s school also invited me to attend the “volunteer social” at school. It was really an honor.  I usually help my son’s teacher a lot. I love to do that. Through out the year  I helped his teacher. At the end of the school year, the school authority usually invites the volunteer to attend the social. That was a token appreciation. 
Anyway, here it was the very much about my the tidbit of my past 15 days. I hope, I will again post regularly to my blog. Till then bye.

Chicken Salsa

One lb. ground chicken

Two stalk of celery

One carrot

One small onion

Two tbsp. of oil

Salt to taste

One cup salsa sauce

Minestrone style soup

One chicken leg piece

One cup boiled yellow peas

Two cup chicken stock (Homemade)

Two carrots

One medium sized onion

Four stalk celery

Two cloves of garlic

One tsp dried oregano

One tsp dried parsley

One tsp dried basil

One cup boiled pasta

One bay leaf

One medium sized tomato

Salt to taste

One tbsp. olive oil

Morning walk in Victoria Memorial Hall premises, Kolkata,India

Those who walk daily in the morning in the premises of Victoria Memorial Hall, to them it is just a daily routine. However, this is not the same to me. I left Kolkata years ago. Even when I was there, I leaved far from Victoria Memorial Hall, so, I never thought of going there in early morning.The other day something happened like this. 
11/30/2013
Suddenly the day before yesterday my husband wanted to go walking in the morning in 
Victoria memorial hall premises. I agreed with him because I also wanted get an experience of morning walking in the vast greenery there. I heard that many morning walkers gather there on every morning to get some fresh air and to do exercises. The morning breeze, in the green with aubade of birds creates a serene atmosphere in this oasis amid concrete jungle. Kolkata, which is one of most congested city in the world, and where this congestion is increasing day be day, getting fresh air is scarce. Just to get some fresh air, and to get rid of all the cacophony of a  metro, people throng here in the morning.
Before going there, though I understood that, it was going to be a great feeling, but after going there I found that, it was more than I thought.  

Creamy Chicken-noodle soup

Half pound boneless chickenOne cup boiled chicken noodlesOne carrotTwo stems of celeryOne medium sized onionOne tbsp. all-purpose flourOne tbsp. olive oilOne cup reduced fat milkOne cup shredded cheese (I used Mexican blend)Salt to taste Two-three cups (or more) water

Zucchini soup

One large zucchiniOne large onionSalt to tasteOne fourth cup sour creamHalf cup milkFreshly ground pepperTwo tbsp. olive oilOne bay leafPinch of nutmeg

Stuffed omelette

Three eggs (or half carton of egg white)Two tbsp. all purpose flowerOne fourth cup milk Salt to tasteOil spray
For filling
5-6 mushrooms
One medium sized onion
One small tomato
2-3 cloves of garlic
Half cup cheese (I used shredded Mexican blend)
Salt to taste
Two tbsp. oil (I used olive oil)

A day trip to Sausalito

Though I live near to the place, but I’ve never been in Sausalito before. I heard very much about the place. My of my friends who already visited the place, told me how exciting the place! So, for a long time I was thinking of visiting the place. So, I asked my husband to take one weekend there. After much dallying at last we could go there on one Sunday. After reaching there, I really understood, how much I missed till the day. When we reached there, we people were roaming around in bikes. I thought that, people of this small town love biking. But that was not. May be the people of the town love biking, but,that I don’t know, but the people usually come from other parts, rent the bike here and roam around there. 

On way to Sausalito

Sausalito is a unique and picturesque community, perched on a hillside between the San Francisco Bay and the Marin Headlands.
I spent the whole day with my family, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Before going there I didn’t check about the area to find out the attractions, so we just roam around the city, and everything came in front  of our eyes with its own beauty, I felt that, the place was just reluctant about the rat race of modern times. The Bay area, where every one is crazy about technology. No, the city is different, still it has the old charm. Every house is very beautiful. I feel that, everywhere is peace. Roads are narrow and hilly. The houses were peeking from the green. As the town is amid the mountain, one lane can be much higher than another one. Somewhere the roads are connected with steep staircases. Somewhere, the shops are much lower than the road. Lanes are really narrow. As the place is a tourist attraction, and not much places was there to park cars, we faced difficulty to park our car. After roaming through the lanes we finally found the good place to park our car on the side of the road. Not many vehicles were on the streets, may be we went on Sunday. But, I think the city is not crazy like the Silicon Valley, where everybody is running. 

A beautiful house on the hill top

As soon as we parked our car, my son started feeling very “hungry”. He didn’t give us much time to find out a suitable restaurant to eat. Actually, before going there my husband selected some of the restaurants, after reading the review on the internet, but our son didn’t give that much time to find out those restaurants. As I am allergic to sea-food, we had to exclude those. But, as the town is situated by the side of the creek, sea fish, crab, lobster are available easily. So, almost all the restaurants serve scrumptious seafood dishes. My husband, who is extremely fond of seafood, could not indulge himself with that, partly of my allergy, and partly for our son’s tantrums. We hurriedly chose one Italian restaurant to stuff our stomach with the flavors of Italy. We devour with panini, chicken carbonara, chicken enchilada. As usual my “hungry” son, didn’t eat at all. After that we decided walk along the side of the creek. That was great place for boating. People, who have yacht, usually park their yachts along the designated areas of the shoreline. As soon as my son saw those “boats”, he desperately wanted to ride one of them. We tried to explain that, those yachts are belonged to other people, and those are private. We couldn’t use them. 

Ferry building

However, he was tenacious to understand that. We just wanted to walk along the shoreline, but he annoyed so much, I decide to go back. Anyway, eventually we reached the Sausalito ferry stop. To keep our promise, we took ride on ferry from Sausalito to Ferry building , San Francisco. We had nothing to do there. So, after reaching there, we just turned around and took the same ferry, and came back Sausalito. My son, was satisfied, as at last he could ride the boat. After getting down from the ferry, we just started walking along the street. Suddenly, my husband showed me staircase. Just out of curiosity, we started climbing up the staircases, and we landed up on another street, just parallel to the first one. It was really amazing. As we walked along the street, we could see the backyards of the houses down the road. Residents had their own private staircases from the road to their backyard. The stairs are usually locked with small gate. Some where, residents have their parking garage on the top. From the garage they have their stairs to go to their house. Then we took a sharp turn on very steep road to reach the point where we started.