porcelain tile floor

Back to the kitchen - the floor is tiled, finally! It was a mess of plywood for way too long. We went with a neutral porcelain 12"x12" in a running bond pattern. I'll admit, I was a bit disappointed when I first realized that the floor I wanted was going to cost way more than necessary; I suppose the tile we ended up with is "safer" as far as general appeal. Now that it's in, I'm really happy with the decision. The lighter color helped the room feel even bigger and the fact that the pattern pulls your eye from side to side of the house, rather than front to back makes the kitchen feel fat and happy. An added bonus is that the end result seems to lend itself well to a house in Little Italy with a Tuscan'y feel.

A few items of note:
-When you're working with grout [and not wearing gloves] strange things will happen to the skin on your hands. It dried me out in a fantastic way. I was nothing short of reptilian for at least a week.
-People will tell you to invest in knee pads, but you won't because they're pricey and you think you can handle it. You can't.
-We rented a wet saw from the HD. I'm not sure of the other options out there, but this thing worked great.
-Cutting tile becomes annoying. Because we installed the cabinets first, we had to make more cuts than necessary. Most of the information I've read suggests installing the flooring material in a kitchen first. It's probably a good idea, but there are pluses to installing it last as well (e.g. less tile material). Our schedule dictated this decision.

A few in progress pictures before the final - to prove to Dan that Project Rowhouse is not some covert operation involving loads of contractors and designers.









No, I don't ask Jaxxon to be in every picture. This boy loves the camera - can you blame him?

Help Gaurav

Help Gaurav...

Why are medical treatments so expensive? Did you know it costs as much as 1.5 crore (US$ 333,000) to cure AML or Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a type of blood cancer? That, my friends, is the minimum projected cost! I just received this link from my brother-in-law. His colleague Gaurav, is suffering from AML, and time is running out. (The photos are of Gaurav with his family in healthier days, and the recent one in December)

Please visit this link http://www.helpgaurav.com/index.asp and help if you can... no amount is too small! His flat in Mumbai is up for sale as well.

If you are reading this, please help, and spread the word around. My Food Bloggers friends, we have a great many visitors ... it will be great if all of us can help spread the word through our blogs. Post the link above at your site. Let us pray for Gaurav's speedy recovery, and wish his family all the strength that they need now.

Teekhat Meethachi Puri & Panchmel Dal

As mentioned in my earlier post, here is the recipe for Teekhat Meethachi puri. I followed Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe. It tasted good. It makes a makes a good evening snack to go along with tea too. If you want to serve as a snack,you can fry it for a little longer time, so that it will turn crisp. I served it as part of the main course along with panchmel dal.

You need
whole wheat flour - 1 cup

semolina(rava/sooji) - 3 tablespoons

red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon

turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

carom seeds/ajwain/omam - 1 teaspoon

salt to taste

water to knead

Oil - 2 tablespoons + for deep frying

Method
Take a bowl. Mix wheat flour, salt, semolina, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, ajwain and two tablespoons of oil. Mix well.
Add water, little at a time and knead into a medium hard dough as you do for usual puris.
Pinch off lemon sized dough and roll into 3 inch puris or according to the size of your deep frying pan.
Heat oil in a kadai. When hot, deep-fry the puris on both sides till puffed up and light golden brown.
Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot.

I am sending the bowl of dal to Ashwini's Lentil Mela

The poori and dal combo makes it to Rathna's Made for each other.