Some photographers have real talent, they have the knack to take amazing pictures in almost any situations. Check out these galleries on Times website! Interesting stuff! 
especially the picture of this young Highland cow, it is so cute!
(http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/)
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo is what you would say if you saw this!! Its beautiful, simple, and a very light dessert.
Believe me, I am not kidding. Ayse Gul made it first time for us. It was soooooo good! So naturally, me being a fuudie, had to get the recipe. So here it is, I dont have the perfect measurements, but I will correct later if required. Nurhan showed me how to make this, it was also her first attempt, but it turned out perfect!
Ingredients:
4 eggs, yellow and white seperated
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 Arabic/Turkish/expresso coffee cup oil
1 Arabic/Turkish/expresso coffee cup water
cornstarch (dont have exact measurement)
baking powder 1 tsp
vanilla essence 1/2 tsp
For the tang-y sauce:
tang about 4 tbsp
cornstarch about 2 tbsp
water enough to make a syrup
Kraft whipped topping 1 box thawed
cold milk about 1/2 cup or more
Method:
In a bowl, using a hand blender, beat the egg yellow for 4-5 minutes. Then add the sugar, beat well for few more minutes. Add the water and oil, beat again 
(The more you do it, the fluffier and lighter it will get) Finally, add the cornstarch, flour, vanilla and baking powder. Beat till everything is mixed well. Beat the egg white separately, till its fluffy (a long time my friend! Now fold this egg white gently in the cake batter. Bake in a greased (9X13 inch) pan, until done. (Use a toothpick to test)
While the cake is baking, make the tang sauce. First blend the tang, cornstarch and water till its smooth. Now stirring constantly get it to a boil. Boil for a couple minutes. Let it cool.
When the cake is warm, pour the cold milk evenly on the cake. Let it cool completely.
Now spread the whipped topping on the cake, then pour the cooled tang sauce on the whipped topping. Ta-da done!
Let me know how it turns out.
Optional: You could put canned peach slices on top of this cake for added decoration, or sprinkle dessicated coconut.
Nurhan suggested you could use strawberry tang to make pink topping for the cake, then decorate with sliced fresh strawberries. I was thinking Lemonade mix would also work well (It would taste a bit like key lime pie)
I think I am the last one, but no problem, its that time of the year again friends! Go Shoppin!!!!!! Sales are going on almost at all places, if you have Gabriels, check it out, they have additional 50% off the clearance, I also heard JC Penny is givin out bargains, so what are you waiting for….come on…..off you go!
p.s. dont forget your purses/wallets and have fun!
You must be wondering why do I have a post about beauty/hair…what does this topic have to do with food?
Guess what!!! Everything!!!
For beautiful thick hair, eating right is every bit essential as choosing a good shampoo, infact more so!
Also, for bad eaters like myself, we need to take Vitamin B supplements. It is proven to be wonderous for your hair. It not only provides nourishment to your body, but also thickens your hair. Dont believe me? See for yourself. I found this article online. Click here or go to http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art1798.asp to read it.
So bottomline is, eat right, take supplements, and be beautiful from top to bottom!
Again Badi Mami’s A-grade recipe, for making chicken, so simple, so delicious, and so easy; just marinate it and then let it cook. Now dont you think it deserves 5 stars?
Ingredients:
10 pieces chicken (I like to use legs and thighs, but whole chicken is great too),
salt as per taste,
3-4 tbsp yoghurt,
garlic cloves 3-4 pcs (grated) (‘lasan’)
ginger paste 1/2 tsp
Green cardomom (5-6 pcs, ground) (‘choti elaichi’)
Brown (big) cardomom (3 big ground) (‘badi elaichi’)
cinnamon stick 2-4 small pcs, (‘daalchini’)
1/4 tsp turmeric (‘haldi’)
1/4 tsp cumin powder (‘jeera’)
1/4-1/2 tsp chilli powder (‘mirchi’)
fresh cilantro, few handfuls, finely chopped,
1 big onion chopped into thin long pieces,
3-4 tbsp oil for cooking
Clean and wash the chicken, and put it in a strainer, to drain off the excess water for about an hour. Put all the ingredients listed above, on the chicken (except oil and cilantro) and mix well overnite, or a day for best flavor.
Then to cook, just heat few tbsp oil in a pot, and add chicken, then let it come to a boil. Turn the heat to medium and cook, stirring sometimes, till all the water is gone, and it looks shiny/oily. Taste, add some salt if desired, and garnish with cilantro, eat with pita/rotis or rice.
I am not a hard-core meat eater, but there is just something about shami kebabs that I cannot resist!!! They are just so darn good!
Yasir’s badi mami (who taught me how to make Aloo Gobi) gave me this recipe, we were visiting the Buchh’s on the weekend, and I ate a zillion kebabs.
I am going to make it myself, today as soon as I finish writing. My fingers are crossed tightly, I hope they come out atleast edible!
So let me not waste more time, and lay out the recipe for all of you.
Oops I almost forgot to add, if you are not a meat-eater, then you can make these kebabs with chicken too! Isnt that cool. Actually thats what I am going to do, make them with chicken tonite. Also you can mix your choice of meat with chicken. Its a very flexible recipe.
Ingredients:
2 lbs meat/chicken/meat and chicken, meat can be goat, lamb, beef (i think Shami kebabs are mostly made with Goat meat, its called mutton in India),
3/4 cup chana daal (split chick peas, a kindof lentil – yellow in color),
salt as per taste,
garlic cloves 3-4 pcs (grated) (‘lasan’)
Green cardomom (5-6 pcs, ground) (‘choti elaichi’)
Brown (big) cardomom (3 big ground) (‘badi elaichi’)
cinnamon stick 2-4 small pcs, (‘daalchini’)
couple pinches turmeric (‘haldi’)
cumin powder (‘jeera’) 1/2 tsp
fresh cilantro, few handfuls, finely chopped,
a couple green hot peppers, finely chopped,
1 onion finely chopped,
2 eggs
water for cooking,
oil for frying
Method:Â
In a pressure cooker, or any deep cooking pot, put the chicken/meat, lentils (chana daal), salt, garlic, cardomom powder, cinnamon sticks, turmeric, cumin powder and water (not too much water). We have to cook all this, till the chicken/meat falls off the bone. When the water is almost gone, then pull out the bones, with your hands. In a food processor, blend this, until you get kind of minced meat, not completely like a paste.
Remove this in a mixing bowl, add egg, onion, cilantro, and pepper. Mix and you will get a sticky dough. Now make little flat patties out of this, and shallow fry them in oil for sometime, it make take sometime to be fully cooked.
Thats it, done! Sounds easy, hmm, I will tell you later if it really is as easy as it sounds.
I dont know how to exactly spell this, but its a turkish recipe spelt bidibidi (the i’s dont have the dots i think), basically there are little balls made with bulgur (fine cracked wheat) and some spices, and the base is a thick tomato sauce, with yoghurt garlic topping. Sounds good? Hmm…it tastes even terrific! Thanks Hacer for patiently letting me take a zillion photos!!
Now I took down the recipe, got carried away while eating them, and finally forgot to bring the recipe, I am pretty sure, I have all the ingredients listed below, if I miss out on something, I apologize 
I will get .the exact recipe from her tomm, and edit if needed, I promise.
Ingredients:
For 4-5 people
bulgur 1 1/2 cup,
hot boiling water 1 1/2 cup
1 egg,
1 onion grated,
salt,
black pepper,
red pepper,
paprika,
oregano
4-5 tbsp all purpose flour (‘maida’)
5 cups water boiling
1 tbsp tomato sauce,
3 tbsp oil,
2 tbsp butter,
little cold water,
1 big cup yoghurt,
2 cloves grated garlic
salt
Method:
I think I have listed all the ingredients, Look at the pictures for the steps.
First soak the bulgur in the hot water for 10-15 minutes. Then mix the grated onion, egg, spices, flour and salt. Then start pinching out little pieces of them.
Use a little water to wet your hands, then start rolling out little balls, Hacer can make 2 at a time.
Zehra, her 9 yr old can make them too. And she is really fast.
Nilufer a 4 yr old can make them easily!! (Now you all have no excuses, come on give this recipe a try, its easy, ask Nilufer)
On a tray, put clean newspaper sheets, then sprinkle flour on it, this prevents the little balls from sticking to the tray and to each other.
Now boil the 5 cups water and drop these little balls in it.
When the budhbudh are boiling, start making the tomato sauce, first boil the butter and oil together.
Mix tomato paste to this, and immediately add cold water, doing this will prevent formation of little balls.
Now about 15 minutes later, the budhbudh should be cooked, ofcourse to be entirely certain, pop one in your mouth and taste it. Also add about 1 tsp salt to this. Now add the tomato paste to this. Mix well. Boil another 3-4 minutes.
Beat the yoghurt and add the garlic and salt.
While serving, top the budhbudh with 2 tbsp of the garlic yoghurt. Enjoy!! Let me know if you had a good time making these with your friends
Guess what we had for dinner tonite? Bread and Palak pakoras, isnt that obvious from the title of this post
It is an amazingly fast, and an easy recipe, it took me no more than few minutes, to prepare these! I was surprised myself
Now the recipe:
Ingredients:
Bread cut into 2 pieces or chopped spinach (palak) or fenugreek leaves (methi) or chopped onions or chopped cauliflower or chopped green pepper. Ofcourse you can use potatoes cut in slices or paneer too.
Chick peas flour (besan atta) half a cup
Salt, little black pepper, red hot pepper (mirchi powder),
A pinch of asafoetida (hing) optional – if you have it, thats good, because I think it helps in digestion,
1/4 tsp baking powder (the secret ingredient – makes the pakoras crunchy)
Water enough to make a smooth batter
1 tsp whole cumin
(If you are making spinach (palak) or fenugreek (methi) pakoras, you will need 1 small finely chopped onion, and 2 cloves grated garlic)
and finally oil for frying (deep frying)
Method:
Start with the besan atta, and add the all the ingredients, except your vegetable/bread/paneer. Now dip vegetable/bread/paneer pieces in this batter one at a time, and start putting them in the frying pan. Fry both sides, till the color is almost golden red. I think I kept the heat almost med-high throughout.
Incase you are making potatoes/cauliflower pakoras, you might need to fry for a longer time, till its all done, ofcourse I would suggest Trial and error
Also to make palak/methi pakoras, you will need to make the batter a bit thicker, by adding lesser water, and also add the chopped onions and grated garlic to this. Then finally add the chopped greens to this. Mix, and then add with a spoon, as many as you can fit in your pan, to the hot oil.
Let me add, that paneer pakoras are my all time favorite!
Dont wait now, get up go try this, share with friends, as I like to do, or with your family, or you can enjoy them alone, reading a good book and a cup of tea! Perfect anyway!
We ate this with tamarind chutney, as we did not have cilantro/fresh mint to make the hot green chutney.
The picture shows dolma (dried eggplant stuffed with rice and spices). Gulay made them, and they were oh so good!!!!!!!!! Somebody was jealous when I said that
I think she had some extra spices from turkey, but it would be alrite if we leave them out.
Ingredients :
dried eggplant / dried green or red bell peppers (small sized, the top cut off, inside is scooped out, then finally dried) I wonder if we could use fresh ones :-S
washed rice,
onion chopped,
tomato paste,
salt, black pepper, red pepper,
dried mint, dried parsley,
water and oil for cooking,
lemon juice
Method:
Fry onions in oil, then add tomato paste to this. Mix and then add the washed rice, add a little bit of water and cook for 15-20 mins.
Now add the spices and the dried herbs to this. Mix and turn off the heat.
Now stuff the cup like eggplants or peppers with this filling, and start arranging them vertically in a cooking pot in one single layer.
Put some water, oil and lemon juice in this. Cover the pot, let it come to a boil, then simmer till all done. I dont know how much time this would take approx, I will clarify and edit this post again at a later time.