Recipe: Mint Chutney

My first attempt at making the ubiquitous mint chutney present in oh so many Indian dishes was successful! Hooray! Being an American-born Indian girl, I've grown up eating an interesting mix of Indian and American cuisines and have experimented with my fair share of fusion dishes. While Indian food in general may not always be my favorite cuisine, Indian chaat and/or street-food will always make my list. I won't go into chaat specifics (I'll save that for a different post), but an integral part of the wonderfulness that is chaat is the chutneys used. Chutney can make or break any chaat and take it from being an average snack to a magical experience. 

Aside from chaat, mint chutney can be used in a variety of dishes and is going to soon become a staple in my fridge. I think my two favorite uses for it (besides with chaat and samosas) are with aloo (potato) sandwiches and with chicken (stay tuned for those recipes). 

Recipe: Mint (Green) Chutney

Ingredients:

-1 cup fresh mint leaves

-1 cup fresh cilantro leaves

-2 tbsp lemon juice

-1-2 green chilies, chopped (I used 2 because I like my chutney spicy)

-1 tsp ginger, optional (I'm not a fan of ginger so I didn't use it)

-1 tsp cumin (jeera) powder

-Himalayan pink salt, to taste

1.) Wash and chop 1 cup of mint leaves, 1 cup of cilantro leaves, and the green chilies.  

2.) Squeeze about 2 tbsp of lemon juice into the blender and added the mint, cilantro and chilies.

3.) Add the cumin powder, salt, and ginger to the blender, along with about 2 tbsp of water.

4.) Blend into a fine paste, adjust consistency to your liking by carefully adding water.

5.) Enjoy immediately or store in an airtight container (should last for 3-4 days).

SoCal Girl's BruWIN Victory

U-C-L-A FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

In case anyone hasn't guessed by now, I recently graduated from UCLA, and so this weekend was an AWESOME victory for us Bruins (for those of you that live under a rock, today was the epic UCLA-USC football face-off).



We (the "sons and daughters of Westwood") defeated our crosstown arch-rivals (the Trojans) for the third-time in a row. THREE-PEAT BABY!

So we get bragging rights for yet another year and will be celebrating our awesome victory for as long as possible. It's so much fun being part of such a HUGE crosstown rivalry (especially because I live in LA) and I can definitely say I'm so proud to be a Bruin.

Bruin Born, Bruin Bred, Bruin Till the Day We're Dead

Recipe: Parmesan and Spinach Orzo

So I was craving something creamy and carb-y yesterday, and decided to go with this Parmesan and Spinach Orzo recipe that I had found a few months ago on Damn Delicious. I know Parmesan and Spinach Orzo is meant to be a side dish, and it probably would have been a lovely compliment to grilled chicken or maybe even grilled salmon, but I definitely enjoyed mine as a main dish and don't regret it for a second. 

This dish is wonderfully light, and very simple to make. I actually had all the ingredients on hand, and didn't have to run out to grab anything which was so nice. I made the dish very close to the original recipe, deviating only when it came to the amount of garlic (doubling the amount required because I LOVE garlic). However, the next time I make this dish, I think I might leave out the onions because they added a somewhat unwanted taste and texture. 

Parmesan and Spinach Orzo:

Ingredients:

-1 cup spinach, chopped

-1/2 onion, diced

-2 tbsp garlic, crushed 

-1/2 cup orzo

-1/2 cup milk

-1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

-1 tbsp all-purpose flour

-1 tbsp olive oil

-Salt, to taste 

-Pepper, to taste

1.) Wash and chop up the spinach roughly and dice the onions finely

2.) Boil the 1/2 cup orzo in salted water according to the instructions on the packaging (about 7-9 minutes).

3.) Heat up the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Toss in the onions and garlic and cook until the onions are translucent/slightly browned (3-4 minutes). (I cooked mine for about a minute longer because I like my onions browned)

4.) Stir in the all-purpose flour and cook until it's slightly browned (1-2 minutes).

5.) Carefully stir in the milk and continuously whisk it until the mixture begins to thicken (2-3 minutes). Mine turned out a little browner than expected because I browned my onions a bit more.

6.) Toss in the spinach and cook until it wilts (2-3 minutes).

7.) Stir in the Parmesan cheese until melted (about 1 minute)

8.) Gently stir in the cooked orzo into the sauce and toss until thoroughly coated.

9.) Serve immediately and enjoy!

SoCal Girl's Halloween 2014

As stated before, Halloween is one of my favoritest holidays. I love every aspect of it (except for the spiders and clowns, of course) from the costumes to the candy to the haunted houses/corn mazes. I know I've already blogged about Halloween Horror Nights, Halloween Harvest Festival, and random Halloween-y recipes, but I wanted to share my costumes for this year (yes, there was more than one) and pictures from all the crazy fun costume parties and costume-related work events we've had this month.

I think the best part was I didn't have to buy anything. The vampire costume was from my and M's middle school/high school days. The gypsy costume was a combination of various eclectic dance pieces and/or Indian jewelry. And the flapper costume is actually a black work-outfit and the headband and feather boa were purchased at Jo-Ann's last year.

The creativity involved with creating costumes is the best part. My costumes were super simple this year and not super creative, but so many of my friends and coworkers came up with some amazing ideas and did a great job bringing them to life. The attention to detail, the hours dedicated to make-up, and the originality of the ideas was insane and amazing. Can't wait to see what next year brings!

SoCal Girl Goes to the Halloween Harvest Festival

Two of my friends and I decided to go checkout the Halloween Harvest Festival at a nearby community college since none of us had ever been in a corn maze before and really wanted to experience the terror of being lost in the darkness, surrounded by nothing but corn rows (okay, that's kind of a lie - I wanted to experience the terror but didn't want to do it alone so I made them come with me).



Anyways, as I was looking for scary corn row mazes in Southern California (we don't exactly have a ton of farms lying around in LA so I was surprised we even had one), I came across this one at Pierce College, which was close enough and had great reviews. We went around 7:00 pm and ended up staying till 11:30, mostly because we were having so much fun but also because we may or may not have gotten lost in the corn maze for a while.







                             

The Halloween Harvest Festival at Pierce College has three different "scary" attractions and a regular old gigantic corn maze. We got the 3-Haunt Attraction Pass, which gave us access to Creatures of the Corn, The Factory of Nightmares, and Insane Reaction, and then bought a separate ticket just for the giant corn maze.

"Creatures of the Corn" was a mini corn-maze-themed attraction, where you walk through a path pre-carved through the corn rows while scary things jump out at you and follow you, cackling endlessly in your ear. For the last leg of the maze, we were chased out by a maniac with an electric chain saw, so that was fun.

Then we did the Factory of Nightmares, which was by far the scariest. At one point, you're surrounded by a thick fog and can't see anything, let alone the exit or anyone about to jump out at you. Last was Insane Reaction, which was essentially a maze inside of a mental asylum with mental patients out to get you.

We decided to take a short break before entering the giant corn maze and checked out the rest of the festival. There were a ton of kid-friendly activities and lots of pumpkins and hay stacks everywhere. Live music was playing in a corner and kids were running rampant, clutching frozen lemonades and hot dogs. We decided to get some funnel cake, and it was beyond delicious!

Around 10:00 pm, we headed into the corn maze, and were given a map, showing the 10 different points we were meant to reach and tick off. Within a few minutes of entering, we were completely surrounded by corn stalks on all sides and couldn't tell one direction from another. It was insanely cool and so much fun!

(The Map)

The Halloween Harvest Festival at Pierce College was so much fun and such a cool experience. I definitely want to go back again next year, and kidnap a little niece or nephew off mine to take along!