Kesaria (A Saffron flavored sweet delicacy) AND Many Thanks Are In Order...AND Independence Day Parade Pics

That's me, enjoying a hot cup of my favorite lemon grass tea along with buttery crisp Shrewsbury Biscuits and Bakarwadi straight from my beloved bakery, back home :)

OOPS! forgot to upload my picture, so that makes it just the tea tray with the goodies ;) .......
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No nonsense, Real biscuits mind you! Not low fat, not fat free, not sodium free, no substituting butter with water (sheesh! is that even possible? ) :) Suffice to say, these are not your flax seed cookies....LOL, they are the real McCoy :)
All thanks, courtesy The Cooker! And here's to The Cooker for taking me along for a walk down memory lane :)

Many Many Thanks to Sweet Sia, Archana, Laavanya, Prema & Athika for these beautiful awards!
Thank You Ladies for these cute buttons!

All the bloggers who take time out of their busy schedule to click pictures, post recipes and encourage others with their comments definitely ROCK, in my dictionary, and you know that!
A big Thank You to each & every blogger who takes the time to comment on my posts, makes me smile :)

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Keeping in the tradition of passing these on, I would like to pass the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award to:

Aarti - Aarti's Corner

Priyanka - Lajawaab
Sukanya - Hot & Sweet Bowl
Ramya - Mane Adige

Kribha - En Samayal Pakkam

Pravs - Simply Spicy
Mytheree - Try This Recipe
Lakshmi K - Veggie Cuisine
Madhavi - Veggie World
Saju - Chachi's Kitchen
Raaga - The Singing Chef
Anusha - Talimpu
Lata - La Gourmet Chef
Shilpa - Aayi's Recipes

Madhu - Ruchii

Swapna Susarla - Tastes From My Kitchen

I would like to pass on the Schmooze Award to:
Archana - Tried & Tested Recipes

Asha - Foodies Hope

Sig - Live To Eat
Sia - Spice Corner
Trupti - The Spice Who Loved Me
Kajal - Kajal Dreams
Tee - Bhaatukli
Musicals Kitchen
Coffee - The Spice Cafe

Bee - Jugalbandi
Laavanya - Cookery Corner
Prema - My Cookbook

The Cooker

Latha - Masala Magic
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I would also like to Thank Bureka Boy for not only guiding me to buy a grinder but also finding a great deal on the web for the same, is that cool or what! Thank You Bureka Boy! You Rock!

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Just realized that I do not have very many sweet dishes on my blog, so thought of posting one of my favorite, quick to make desserts.
Kesaria

4 cups milk

1 lime/lemon

pinch kesar(saffron)

1-2 tbsp sugar

2 pinches elaichi(cardamom) powder

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1. Heat 3 cups of milk, bring to a boil.

Note: Whole milk gives a thicker texture to the sweet, but 2% works well too, here I've used 2%.

2. Add juice of half a lime and stir. Let curdle. Add more lime juice if the milk does not curdle. Let rest for 5 minutes.

3. Add half portion of kesar into the hot mix.

4. Drain the whey and collect the chenna into a bowl. The mix must be moist, do not strain all the whey like in paneer.

5. Add the remaining cup of milk, sugar, kesar & elaichi powder and blend in a mixer.

6. Add into individual bowls and refrigerate for 4/5 hours till set. Whole Milk sets very well.

7. Enjoy a delicious chenna based light dessert!

Recipe adapted from here.

Here are some pictures from the 60th Independence day parade held on Sunday the 19th August, in one of my favorite cities, NYC!

Enjoy.....