Happy New Year

Wishing my followers and readers the best of everything in this New Year. A Happy and Prosperous New Year to all of you.

Back in town

It is never easy to come back to reality after a vacation. What with piles of work around me at the office and at home! Being swallowed by so many issues, don't know where to begin!

But, I can't wait to share the food experiences I had at Spain and Portugal. Being a vegetarian was not easy, none-the-less had some excellent Port wine and vegetarian meals at both countries.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Hope everyone has a great holiday season.

I am going to be posting several new recipes when I get back here. Until then Adios!

Gift Wrapping

I made this big mistake of starting my gift wrapping just yesterday. Never seems to end. Under estimated the rolls I would need and went to the shop twice to get more. Lesson learned. From here on just place the gifts in those gift bags with some tissues. That should take care of it.

Of course, wine bottles are easy all around.

Bean Usili - Recipe of the week

Check out this week's recipe, Beans Usili. Look out for an announcement on my next workshop date.

Healthy crepe recipes

The origin of crêpes is French but there are several variations of it all around the world. I came across some incredible recipes and will post them soon.

Dosa or dosai is the Indian variation of the crêpe. And, in my opinion that is the best tasting crepe out there.

Love my new Gym

I have come to realize that there's one or should I say one more thing I cannot do without, and that's a good gym. I'd never heard of a gymnasium open 365/24/7/ days a year until now. I have been to this new gym at all times of day and night, and this place is always busy.

A spectacular facility, absolutely clean with state-of-the-art machines. It is also the size of a little town. Not sure how they keep it profitable. Through sheer volume and excellent membership pricing I would suppose.

The fun part of my exercise routine is also people watching. The crowd that comes here is fit and hip as if from some high-fashion city like Paris. It is quite inspiring because it makes you want to work harder and stay fit. Oh, one more star and that is their restaurant. It is also top-notch.

Gifts for the holiday season

I just found this out. The web site Harry and David has excellent gifts for clients and friends, or family. I have looked at this site in the past but was turned off by the prices. I had a lot of plans for shopping, but didn't venture out at all. Just used these online stores (amazon and Borders are good as well) and so far have taken care of a few of my friends and family. The prices are extremely reasonable too. I think the volume of online shopping at these sites have really brought the prices down and affordable.

A.D.H.D.

Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder - That's what it stands for. It's a mouthful! I had no clue what this was until some years ago when I started reading about it. There was a period when there was a lot of focus on A.D.H.D. in movies, talk shows, articles, you name it. Then, I began to think maybe I have ADHD and possibly almost everyone in my family has this neurological disorder.

After talking to parents and other friends, I felt every kid in a school had it and ADHD was being used as an excuse possibly by both parents, teachers and family members. So even if the kid did not actually have it he/she was getting away from being disciplined for the tantrums and bratishness.

With more reading and understanding of A.D.H.D., I’ve come to realize that we are using attention (or its lack) as a marker and a metaphor for something larger in society — for the multitasking, the electronic distractions, the sense that the nature of concentration may be changing, that people feel nibbled at, overscheduled, distracted, irritable. However, all these things are not A.D.H.D.

The actual disorder is very complex and has a lot of elements to it. There is a broad spectrum of this disorder and experts treat each patient or child differently. It is tough especially for parents who deal with children having extreme symptoms of this disorder.

I now understand how misled I was by several things I read or saw. A.D.H.D. is actually a serious issue but can be controlled by medication and other types of treatments.

Shopping for gifts

I have a few special people - neighbors, friends and a few family members for whom I buy gifts every year. As a rule I don't really buy anything for myself since I am against the herd mentality. Besides Christmas is not really my holiday.

Instead of wasting time walking the department stores, I've decided to buy a couple cases of really good wine and distribute. Of course, kids are excluded from this crowd. It is easy to shop for them. A few gift cards to clothing stores would be perfect. Now, the question is where do I find those wine shops like the 'Total Wines' store in Delaware? Any recommendations for which kind of wine?