Rode to Rhode-Island!!

Solitary Mansions + Vigilant light-houses + Picturesque harbors + super delicious seafood = Rhode Island!

How fantastic was our Sunday with Bhakti and Suraj in Newport, RI !! Bhakti is very dear to both of us. She is my college senior and Mr. Husband's work friend. So having her with us for a whole day was double delight!

The day started with awesome seafood lunch at "The Landing Restaurant" on Newport harbor. New England is Mecca of Sea-food lovers. People here can't get enough of their Lobster n Chowder! At the lunch, Mr. Husband skillfully ate his 1 1/4 pounds lobster. Somehow I don't like Lobster that much. (I know its weird, I know I'm silly and I know that I may be the only person in fish-eaters world, but seriously, I don't understand what's the big deal about it.) Probably because I've tasted better sea-food before! :P

It was last day of the "J-Class Regatta", entire Newport Harbor was crowded with sailboats. We got to see few one-of-a-kind sailboats anchored there. This one in particular was so huge, they said it was as big as a football field! This was world's 3rd largest sailboat! See how tiny the regular motorboat looks in front of this giant!

Next thing on our plan was trip to nearby Winery. We got few minutes late and missed it. Our men couldn't look at their wives sad faces! So they took us to another winery. This too was equally beautiful. The wine lovers enjoyed wine tasting and the teetotals shopped a little in nearby nursery.

We had booked this narrated ferry tour called 'Amazing Grace". This one hour ferry ride, listening to - the tales of Newport history, the stories behind every lighthouse, the anecdotes about husbands building 120-people-seater dinner table for their party-lover wives, the heroic tales of Ida Lewis - RI's first woman lighthouse keeper - was the best part of our trip

We ended our double date as we started it. We had awesome dinner at "The mooring" which is right on the Newport harbor. Relishing delicious food with serene sunset at the background is something to be experienced, not to be written about!

Thanks Bhakti n Suraj for such a warm company! We would love to have you guys over again!

Fun-filled-action-packed weekend!

Hello lovelies!!

If you are on my side of the world, you must be aware what weather.com did to all of us this weekend. Till Friday, we thought it was going to rain on Saturday. Everyone had made up their minds about lazy-gloomy weekend. We were no different. Most adventurous thing on my list was grocery shopping at Stop'n'Shop. But then came Saturday morning, all bright and sunny and cheerful! I wasn't ready to waste such beautiful day choosing right kind of toothpaste!

So we got dressed and went to this super cute nursery cum mini golf place on Rout 9, called "The Green Thumb".

I never knew that I would enjoy mini golf this much! Mr. Husband was playing pretty good, but I kept winning every game using my art of, well, cheating!!

There's this tiny little lake on the way to our office. We always talked about coming there at sunset. After tiring sessions of mini golf and an awesome afternoon nap, we ended our day witnessing beautiful sunset!

Sometimes its nice to not have big plans for weekend.

Papaya raisin cake!

Usually our Sundays start with planning for Special-Sunday-brunch! And almost 99% I
cook something hot n spicy n well, non-veg!

But this Sunday my apartment is filled with sweet aroma of Papaya Raisin cake!

For the cake top, you will need:

Papaya - fully ripe, finely diced - 2 cups

Lime juice - 1 spoon

Raisins - 10-12

Butter - melted, 2 spoons

Sugar - 2 spoons

For cake:

Butter - 3 spoons

Sugar - 5-6 spoons

Eggs - 2

Flour - 6-7 spoons

Milk - 4-5 spoons

Salt - 1/2 spoon

Baking powder - 1/2 spoon

Cake top: Pour lime juice over diced papaya and let it stand for 15 minutes. Heat butter n sugar in 8" cake pan. Coat the cake pan with butter-sugar mixture. Spread cake pan bottom with papaya. Decorate with raisins. I chose black ones so that they will stand out nicely on papayas gorgeous yellow-orange color. Keep the pan aside.

cake: In mixing bowl, mix melted butter and sugar. Add eggs to it and mix well till it gets a nice glaze. Add salt, baking powder. Add flour spoon by spoon along with milk. Keep mixing. When the mixture gets to desired consistency, pour it over papaya raisin coated cake pan.

Bake on 350 F for 35-40 minutes.

Once cold, tun upside down. Enjoy with whipped creme and raisin syrup!

Memorial day weekend

Remember how Mr. Husband has promised me fun-filled-weekends when I used to be sad and lonely in Mumbai? This weekend was the start of my fun-filled-action-packed weekends.

The long weekend started with apartment shifting. We moved to a bigger place with balcony and everything!! So dayone was full apartment shifting and new place setting. But more on that later.

The actual weekend began on Day two. Our dear friend Alok was visiting this side of the country for long weekend, so we decided to see him in Boston. We had tickets of Whale Watching at 2 PM. We reached Boston around 1:30 and first thing we did was, well of course, we had awesome seafood lunch at this small street-restaurant called 'The Reef'. We shared our Shrimp pizza and Lobster slider. It was so nice eating out in the sun! Weather wise, it was by far, my best day in US!

We hurried to the harbour to catch the cruise. It was this cute 2 storey motor boat and we found this perfect spot to stand from where we could see entire sea in front of us! Then we clicked some pics, and again few more, and yeah, some more. They drove (drove??) us deep into the sea for almost 1.5 hours and let us enjoy the Whales swimming around the boat. I could only see few tail shots and few back shots of the whale, but going that deep into the sea and coming back to the harbor itself was so amazing that I had decided that I LOVED the trip in first 10 minutes of boarding the boat! I actually felt what they meant by 'wind through your hair'. It was really an awesome experience. Anyone planning to visit Boston, I would recommend not to miss this for the world!

We landed on ground around 6 in the eve. No need to tell that it was still bright and sunny. This is the first time I'm in the US for Summer season. I had always seen snow clad roads and sunsets around 4 in the eve. But this time it was all nice and bright and shiny and warm! I was psyched to see so many people on the streets. All I was looking at were cute babies in their cute prams (I had hundreds of 'awww moments' trust me). We spent a nice hour just watching the kids playing in water. Bliss!

Then went to our favorite Quincy market looking for souvenirs and good food (of course)!! There was 'Street performing festival' going on. I am really fascinated with these street performers. Doing their act in from of live audience who are not bound to like it (coz they have not bought any tickets) is real challenging. This one guy had cutest Russian accent. His act was more on funny side than adventurous!

The fabulous day ended with fabulous seafood (yes again seafood!) dinner at "The Kingfish hall" in Quincy market. I chose sake Tuna with mashed potato on its side, Mr. Husband had fried crab with seasoned linguine and Alok had, well, what he called it as Aquarium with linguine. His dish had almost all the seafood items in it!

We had a nice stroll on the harbour and wished that the awesome breezy night would never end!

Special thanks to Alok for such a warm company! We would love to spend time with you again!

Photoshoot!

Did I tell you that I Mr.. Husband is an awesome photographer? And did I tell you that I'm his most favorite model! :P

Tandoori Chicken

You know how Husband and I are food fanatics! As much as we like trying new restaurants, we L.O.V.E. cooking at home. This weekend we decided to go next level. We decided upon roasting a whole chicken in our very own oven!

Being an engineer by heart, your every move starts with research! We combed though Internet for good tandoori chicken recopies, and agreed upon the one from one of our most fav blogger - Pratik from Kha re kha

The recipe turned out to be awesome!! All credit goes to Pratik - the blog owner!

You will need:
Whole chicken, cleaned and skinned
GG paste - 2 big spoons
Yogurt - 2 spoons
Tandoor Masala (I used Everest) - 2 spoons
Chilly powder (optional) - 1 spoon
Lime juice - 2-3 spoons
Food color (optional) - a pinch
Salt and oil

Mix the spices, put yogurt and lime juice to it. Put food color, 2 spoons oil and salt to taste.
Make few slits on fleshy parts of the chicken and cover it with the marinade. Put rest of the marinade inside the chicken.

Marinate the chicken for few hours (we kept it overnight, I know, proud of us for controlling ourselves)

Preheat oven with broil setting (temp 500 F) for 15 mins. Roast chicken for 20-25 minutes. Then flip it and roast for more 20-25 minutes. Once you reach to the desired look, pierce a fork/chop stick/skewer through the most fleshy part of the chicken. Clear juice should be indication of perfectly roasted meat!

Serve it with mint chutney, tomatoes and onions!

Gifts gifts gifts!!

I have so many things to show and share! Husband knows that I don't like one-big-expensive-gift, but many-small-n-cute-ones! So when I arrived, he gifted me 3 things I always wanted Plus 2 super-cute things!

1. Kindle!!!!!
2. Pig shaped piggy bank
3. Turquoise key-chain
4. Wrestling Uncle Sam! Lol, I love it!
5. Twin keys to the Car and Apartment, Love u baby!