Happy Deepavali!

Today is the Festival of Lights and I am in a jubilant mood!

I miss the festivities that come from being at home with family and friends - the abundance of food, the scent of incense permeating throughout the house, the non-stop flow of visitors popping in for a visit..

Lest the day felt like any other Wednesday, I woke up earlier than usual to whip up some Kesari - a sweet dish my mum would make at every festive occasion. I picked this over the many other sweets one would have today for its fool-proof recipe, much welcome if I am going be "toiling away" in the kitchen, half-awake at 7am.  

Said the ghee to the yellow colouring: "Nice hat."

Ingredients:

• 1 cup semolina (rawa) (available in health food stores and Indian grocers)
• 1/4 cup ghee (aka clarified butter) (available in health food stores and Indian grocers)
• 2 and 1/2 cups of boiling water
• a pinch of yellow coloring
• 1 cup sugar
• one tablespoon cardamom powder 
• 12 cashew nuts (cut into halves, to be pre-fried in ghee)
• 12-15 raisins (to be pre-fried in ghee)

Cashews and raisins drenched in ghee

Method:

• Pre-fry cashew nuts and raisins, taking care not to burn them like I nearly did!
• Heat ghee and lightly fry semolina on low-medium heat until fragrant and light brown
• Remove semolina from stove and set aside
• Pour boiling water into a separate pot with a pinch of salt and a few drops of yellow coloring
• Add sugar to the pot and let it melt, followed by the cashews and raisins
• Lastly add the semolina gradually into this pot, stirring continuously over a low fire until it thickens, ensuring that the mixture does not clump
• Transfer into a greased tray, to about an inch-thick and give it some time to firm up
• Cut into squares and enjoy!

I didn't wait for the kesari to firm up so the squares look distorted but goodness it tasted awesome and was a hit with the co-workers!

It's customary to dress up in new gear for Deepavali and this green skirt was the perfect thing to put on today! 

  

H&M skirt, Leifsdottir silk blouse

Anthropologie necklace, Banana Republic belt

Glitter clutch from Zara - which only came out to play after 6pm

That was the extent of my cooking for the week (month?)! We ended the day with dinner at our favourite thosai/dosa place followed by plenty of skyping with loved ones. 

Hope your Wednesday was as fun as mine!

Sushi and Lace

For our usual Friday date night, S and I headed north to the Upper East Side for Japanese. Our usual pre-meal research revealed that Sushi of Gari has been around for nearly 15 years with the UES location being the original and apparently the best of the three in New York. 

Now, anyone can write a review (sorry, Sam Sifton) so I usually rely on my highly sophisticated, accurately-calibrated ethnic-restaurant-review-indicator: how many of those dining in the restaurant are locals? Truth be told, SoG had a even mix of Japanese diners and what I can only assume to be UES regulars. In any case, that was good enough for us (swear I am not fussy).

We tend to over-indulge during these date nights, usually because it heralds the beginning of the weekend. Since we also try and squeeze in a workout before heading out, we are usually STARVING by the time we actually eat. So as much as we had the appetite for the omakase, I have issues with certain types of seafood and instead, we had all of the following: tempura, sushi, sashimi, miso eggplant, negimaki, plenty of sake and banana bread pudding (random, I know) to finish off.

via

The sushi was definitely the stand-out of the meal and we will make sure to order more of those at our next visit.

On other news, I took advantage of the early departure from work on Friday for Columbus Day to check out the new Conscious Collection at H&M and to deal with the 25%-off voucher which was burning a hole in my pocket. 

Gucci red pumps

I really don't care that I am a little vertically-challenged for this frock but I couldn't resist the truly exquisite cream lace detailing, which reminded me a lot of vintage wedding dresses. Besides, it was a bargain with the aforementioned voucher! 

Mimco Australia necklace

Anthropologie Beaded Synergy Clutch

Did anything in the Conscious Collection strike your fancy? Do you have a fancy restaurant-review-indicator-thingy like I do?

Indian Summer

Apart from the glorious weather, one of the things we celebrated last weekend was my first wedding in New York, when S' nephew got married at a beautiful reception centre in Long Island. 

The saree-tying took slightly longer than I expected which resulted in a mad dash the block down 34th street to catch the train to Mineola. Oh the stares we got ..

I love weddings - any reason to dress up in a saree really. Otherwise these beautiful outfits end up relegated to the suitcase stored underneath the bed. 

Tasar silk saree, vintage bag

Not that obvious but I had curls put in earlier that day at Saks

No Indian wedding is complete without plenty of food, drink and lots and lots of dancing! 

The bride in green with a smile that lit up the room

If you were keen, here is an pretty good video of how a saree is usually draped (bonus: it's made in Malaysia)!

Hope y'all had a lovely weekend too!