Sunday, January 8, 2017

Quite Sunday and pickled onions!



After the morning tea, the camera lying on the table was calling me to shoot something. I had planned to make pickled onions this weekend and since I had all the ingredients and the quietness, it was time to create.

The ingredients:
- 20-25 small onions
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- Salt to taste
- Pinch of sugar
- 1/4th spoon soy sauce (for the added color)
- A glass or ceramic container that is non-reactive to the vinegar



The hardest part is peeling the onions! But once done, just rinse them in water and add all the ingredients in the glass jar. I added some red chillies too for the color.


And now refrigerate the onions for 2-3 days before you can enjoy them. Shaking them every few hours will help all the onions marinate evenly.


And it is a bonus if the food matches your flowers ;-)
Happy Sunday!

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

What to do and what not to do in 2017



What I want to do this year:
- Buy exotic plants and plant them in unique pots - create zen gardens and bamboo gardens (basically an upgrade from the fairy gardens that I was so fascinated with a couple of years back). Specially need to get my hands on some monstera/ swiss cheese plant this year! 
- Appreciate art. This interest kind of started in 2016 when I started buying small miniature pieces of original paintings - but hope I can learn more about art and visit more art museums.
- Read poetry.
- Limit eating carbs and fatty foods for dinner - eat more of the rainbow.
- Complete a work-related professional certification. Read more professional journals.
- Watch some TV soaps that are totally brainless and that are not the serious mysteries/ political drama type Netflix/showtime series. Sometimes its the best way to relax after a hectic day at work!
- Drink more tea/green tea.

What I don't want to do this year:
- Continue the fairy garden - I think I had it for 2-3 years now, and since I have not been doing a good job lately of the constant upkeep, I want to decommission the project until sometime in the future.
- I don't want to visit any more antique malls for spending time on weekends. This was a huge craze in 2015-2016; finding treasure and bringing small (but beautiful) junk home. I think I have collected enough unique pieces now to take a break from this for a while.
- Have a sweet tooth and take 3 pm vending machines breaks at work. 
- Sleep for 10+ hours. Sleep in the free time and sleep late on weekends and sleep longer on weekdays.

Now lets see what I actually do this year! ;-)