Wedding Anniversary - Lake Tahoe

Anniversary Cake White sponge cake with strawberry filling Whipped cream frosting



Lake Tahoe from Heavenly gondola

Idly and Sambar

Idly:
Wash and Soak 3 cups of rice and 1 cup of urad dal in two seperate bowls.
After 5 to 6 hrs grind into a fine paste and transfer to steel vessel.
Keep oven in warm for 10 minutes and switch off the oven.
Close the vessel with lid and place the vessel in oven and leave to ferment for 8hrs.
Stir in sufficient salt and now the batter is ready for dosa or idly.
Apply oil to the idly plates and pour the batter.Stack the idly plates in pressure cooker and steam for 10 minutes.

Sambar:
Vegetables - 1 cup(Cho cho,sunburst pattypan squash)
green chilli - 1no
Tomato - ½ no
Tamarind paste - 1 tspn
Boiled toor dal - 2 cups
Curry leaves - 4 or 5 leaves
Oil for seasoning.
Salt to taste
Cho Cho Sunburstpattypan Squash Sambar:
Put oil in a pressure cooker and add mustard seeds,red chillies,curryleaves,asafoetida for seasoning.
Add chopped onions,green chillies and fry for a while.Add chopped tomatoe and chopped vegetables .
Stir for a while and add sambar powder,turmeric,tamarind paste ,salt according to taste.Pour water and close the lid.When steam starts coming add boiled toor dal to the mixture and close the lid and put the pressure.
Switch off the stove after 3 whistles.
Allow to cool the cooker and add coriander leaves to the sambar and serve in a bowl.
Look here for one more idly recipe:
Idly with Vadaicurry
This recipe goes to EFM Theme - Breakfast Series hosted by hostess Sri of Me and My kitchen .

Whole Wheat Gojiberry Cookies(Egg less)

Goji berries are lying in my kitchen shelf for the past 2 months.Actually Goji berries can be added in granola,cakes,muffins and cookies too.Tea was good with the gojiberries decotion on a rainy day.I made cookies with whole wheat flour,mixed nuts and dry fruits along with pre soaked goji berries.
Info about goji berries .


Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour - 2 ½ cup
Rolled oats - 1 ½ cup
Brown sugar - ¾ cup
Maple syrup - ¼ cup
Baking soda - 1 tspn
Vanilla essence - 1tspn
Butter - 1½ stick
Salt - a pinch
Nuts- Almonds,Pistachio
Dry fruit - chopped Apricot
Gojiberries - 1 cup,pre soaked in hot water
poppy seeds - 2 tbspn
clementine rind - 4 tspn

Making:
Grind Rolled oats along with brown sugar to a fine powder in a blender.Add oats mixture,vanilla essence to Whole wheat flour along with all the dry ingredients except Butter.Bring butter to room temperature and add to the whole wheat mixture.
Pre heat oven to 375 deg. Whisk until the mixture comes together.Add a 1 to 2 tbspn of milk to make it a dough.Divide into a 1½ " size balls. Grease the palms and press each ball into a flat disc and place it on a lined cookie sheet. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes until edges are slightly brown.
Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack after 5 minutes.
Store in an airtight container lined with a parchment paper .
Shelf life - 15 days.