Suzhiyzam

These little sweet dumplings are made with bengal gram/kadalai paruppu mashed with coconut and grated jaggery. They are commonly referred to as suzhiyam or suzhiyan in Tamil. There are one of the traditional dishes that are made during Diwali nombu as part of offerings to God. But never mind to enjoy them with warm with a hot cup of tea, that too when its raining and cold outside.. :)

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Jelabi

Here comes one my favorite sweets which I love to eat anytime and how much ever I want.. :D This is one of the few stuffs which me and my hubby love to enjoy together. It's his favorite sweet too.. Anytime he goes to the Indian sweets he will buy a few pieces for us to enjoy it. I was searching for a simple recipe to try at home. Then came the posting of Jelabi recipe in Show me the curry. It sounded very simple and it was the instant version of jelabi recipe making use of yeast. So with no more time to wait I mixed in all the ingredients and squeezed the bubbly batter into the oil to get my yummy jelabis soaked in sweet syrup. This recipe was great hit and we liked it. I am sure to try this again and next time will try improving on the shape of my jelabis.

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Happy Saraswathi pooja - Sakkarai pongal/Sundal/Vadai

 Happy Saraswathi Pooja/ Ayudha pooja to everyone. Today being the pooja, I was busy making all the food that have to be offered to God as prasadam. This list includes the Sakkarai ponga, a sweet dish make with rice and jaggery, sundal and vadai. Its a custom in my MIL's place to make only masala vadai for pooja and not the usual Urud dal vadai. I too followed the same tradition. Apart from this prasadams, we also offer rice, paruppu(cooked toor dal), ghee and vegetables of our choice.This pooja is specially referred to as 'Sakthi poojai' in our place and usually performed in the evenings after the sunset.

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Happy Vinayagar Chathurthi - Puranam Kozhukattai/ Rice flour dumplings with Coconut filling

Happy Vinayagar Chathurthi to everyone!!! Today we celebrated Pillayar chathurthi with the traditional menu including plain kozhukattais, puranam kozhukattais, sundal, venn pongal, vadai and payasam. Also this year I made pillayar idol myself with the modelling clay and it turned out great.. And I was really happy to celebrate pillay chathurthi with our home made pillayar idol.. :)

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Mango Carrot Badam Halwa

Today I had a chance to know about the Sizziling Summer Contest, when I was browsing. In an idea to join the event, I searched my kitchen and found having few mangoes. I didn't want to make the usual mango shake or the mango juice.. Thinking what can be done.. May be some sweet using mango.. How about mango kesari.. Nooo.. Mango burfi.. Its still a no.. Then came the idea of mango badam halwa..

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