Yes - you read that right - "Yoga for foodies". I am an avid yoga enthusiast and also a foodie. So what better than to combine the two and make a fun friday night out event. The basic idea is simple – we go out every friday evening to do some yoga to burn off all the toxins accumulated from the week and to relieve the stress and give the body some much needed stretching (so you can be ready for a big weekend). And after a good class of yoga, to treat ourselves to a hearty dinner and chat with friends in a local restaurant. This is part of our endeavor to promote yoga through YogaAnywhere.org and local yoga studios. 

Happened to buy the iPad today from the 68th and Broadway apple store in New York (you have to go see it - its awesome) and the whole experience of buying it was tooo cool - i walked in, asked one of the sales guys to get me one - which she did in a minute. and the whole thing was the size of a book and neatly packaged. and then the rep just took my card and swiped it on the iphone! the receipt was emailed from the iphone itself and all in 2 mins!

And now i am just playing with the device - swiping, rotating, zooming, pinching and much more - including just oooogling!

Here are some screenshots of the apps and stuff i have been looking at - the device has clear, crisp image and video rendition and is just meant to consume stuff with more focus. and the typing was actually better than i had thought - i was able to type the first blog and post it using the wordpress app from the device itself !!! below re pictures of how ifood.tv looks on the iPad!

If you are among the millions of women who suffer from Fibroids then you may want to look into this minimally invasive new treatment, Laparascopic Radiofrequency Ablation under clinical investigation.

In case you are wondering what uterine fibroids are, here is some primer info.

-Fibroids (also called myomas, leiomymoas) are  a common muscle cell tumor that grows in the wall of the uterus. It often causes increased bleeding and pain with menstrual periods. - The cause of uterine fibroid tumors is unknown. - - Millions of women suffer from uterine fibroids, also simply known as fibroids. 80% women develop these tumors during their lifetime. 70% of Caucasian women and over 80% of African- American women develop uterine  fibroids  by the age of 50. - About 25%-30% of women have Fibroids that cause symptoms . These women may experience heavy menstrual periods, menstrual pain, abdominal enlargement, pain with sexual intercourse, increased frequency of urination and simply, a feeling of fullness.

Just a week or two ago, Extraordinary Measures, starring Harrison Ford and Brendon fraser was released. This movie is based on a book, The Cure, by Geeta Anand and is about the struggles of a couple who go all out to find a cure for their sons's rare disease (pompe's disease) along with a scientist. And that got me to write this as despite efforts only 14% of Americans know what clinical research/trials are.If you or your family or loved one has a medical condition (say prostate cancer) and you are looking for new/experimental treatments, then you may want to look into clinical trials. Clinical trials are studies done to investigate new treatments and in many cases offer hope to patients who may otherwise not be getting cured from existing treatments. In fact no drug/device can be approved without such studies and by participating in such studies, one can get several benefits such as;1. Get access to latest treatment for free2. Receive expert medical care as part of the study for free care

 

I have been at my friend, KG's house in Pasadena, CA. KG is nothing less than an awesome 'Food hacker'. He is a super code hacker and brings the same approach to cooking. Hack out different dishes, break a dish into components (like you do with software) and then bring it all together. Thats what he says about cooking. In the last 10 days KG has hacked out quite a few amazing recipes. Like today he made a full mexican meal for us. Tosatadas and tortillas with Guacamole, salsa and queso Here are some pictures.

 

First, without much ado, Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. Hope this is a memorable and joyous occasion for you and your families. Today while going through some Turkey recipes on the site, i bumped along the 'Spice Rub Turkey with Pineapple and Mustard Glaze Recipe by Chef Vikas Khanna".  And this brought back

Making Pasta on a Sunday Afternoon and Experimenting with the Sauce I really havent made serious pasta before. It just happened that there wasnt much left in the kitchen except some pasta and some canned stuff. So i ended up experimenting and making Pasta with a sauce of cream of mushroom.  The fun part was experimenting with the sauce. So basically i heated some butter, added some milk, garlic and pepper (sounds pretty weird) and when the mixture had heated up, i added a whole can of cream of mushroom (campbells). To add a bit of tanginess mix in some Tomato and Basil sauce and kick the whole thing up with some garlic pepped. And then after a while you put in the cooked pasta. Thats it.

Have seen a lots of great recipes and videos here. But one important ingredient in all recipes is making sure you have a clean and healthy kitchen and that its organized. Even though i am not much of a cook, i have seen that being organized and also cleaning up as soon as you cook helps a lot. For me, cleaning up goes almost hand in hand with cooking. Infact, i rarely eat what i cook, without taking care of the bulk (if not all) the utensils! Here are some great tips about being organized in your kitchen. Saw this on the GetHealthyHarlem.org website, a great community-driven resources on health and wellness targeted to people in Harlem.

The Big Christmas Lunch!

The Finale.

 

So after the preparation and the appetizers, finally it was time to make the real thing.

Making Lasagna So the big deal was to make lasagna. All excited to be donning the hat of the chef today (i really dont know how to cook ) things begin to go wrong from the start. The kitchen oven is not working. The guests are due in 1 hr and the oven is not working!!

The Big Christmas Lunch !

 

As i mentioned previously, we decided at the last minute to have a Xmas lunch at a friends place. So after all the shopping, poring though ifood videos to learn how to make things, it was Xmas morning and time to get cooking!

However, things arent always that easy. Got up a bit late (11.30!) and that left only 2 hrs to get a lot of things done, including the big lasagna. Next, we found out the oven was not working - caput! the whole lunch seem to be in jeopardy because of that - but we recovered - more on that here when i describe the lasagna story!

Getting the Appetizers Ready

To get something going and since friends were due to arrive in 20 mins, i decided to get the appetizers ready. These being some of them.

Crackers with Melted Brie Cheese