Earth Day Giveaway and Mother's Day

I am few days late to wish everyone a Happy Earth day but everyday should be Earth day.
This year to celebrate Earth day, I am giving away reusuable foldable tote bags with your purchases in my Etsy shop

Even the small steps we take to reduce the number of plastic bags we use can make a huge impact on the plastic wastes. I know several plastic bags do get recycled, but that costs energy too. So why not walk around in a fashionable tote bag at your local farmer's market with a resusable bag?

Every purchase of $50 or more gets one of these tote bags for FREE

And every purchase of $100 or more gets an upgrade to these animal print bags.

And don't forget, Mother's day is just around the corner!

These lidded teacups are sure to make her happy.

HURRY UP! This offer is valid only till 30th April!

Mother's Day Sale

The one thing that my mom loves is a good deal! And I am sure there are many like her.

So if you haven't shopped for your mom yet, this is a great opportunity to make her proud with a good discount.

Purchase any item in my shop and get 25% OFF shipping.
Any two items and you get 50% OFF shipping
Any three items and get 75% OFF shipping
Any four or more items and absolutely FREE shipping.

Just mention "Mother's Day discount" in Message to Seller when you purchase.

Discounts will be given as refunds via paypal as soon as payments are made.
Items will be shipped via USPS Priority Mail or Fedex ground.

Act fast as this deal only lasts till May 2nd, to ensure that your gifts reach in time for Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

I have two new great news to share this morning.
Firstly,... wishing my Mother a very Happy Mother's Day. And what better way to wish her, than to have her featured on Etsy's "This Handmade Blog"!! This is a picture of me with her when I was only 10 months old.

Charan of creativewithclay: "When I was a kid my mom ran a boutique store in India specializing in clothes for brides and bridesmaids. She dragged me along whenever she needed help. I never really enjoyed doing the billing or taking orders for dyeing fabric, etc., but she told me to just do it and there will be something I will gain from it. What fascinated me was the color in fabric and helping people choose matching or contrasting colors for their outfits. I enjoyed helping them decide what embroidery designs to pick and working with tailors to give them new ideas and patterns."

Secondly,... I am the winner of the teapot challenge on the Etsy Mud Team

It is such an honor to be part of such a great group of talented potters online. Lots of beautiful teapots, so do check them out. Also when shopping on Etsy for pottery, search for "emt etsymudteam" and you will see beautiful collection of pots by talented potters on Etsy.

Travel Entry: Homemade Tandoori Paranthas

This is not exactly a travel entry, but it is something I learnt on my trip to India. After eating the tandoori breads, naans, kulchas, paranthas (also kind of bread) in India, I really wanted to get a tandoor for home. The problem is that they are big and bulky and are not favored to be transported all the way to the US. There are some available in the US but the costs are very high.
In this trip my Mom taught me how I can make the naans and paranthas at home in my pressure cooker. I tried this out at home and you can see they came out very good.
Below are the step my step instructions with lots of pictures.
Basic ingredients are wheat flour dough made from two parts flour and a little less than one part water. It shouldn't be on the very soft side and refrigerating for an hour helps. Also we need some ghee (clarified butter), but I use margarine instead. And some dry flour to assist in rolling.

Apply a little butter on hands and roll the dough in small 2 inch flat balls. I can fit four of these in the pressure cooker, but here Iam showing three.

After dusting with some flour, roll these into approximately 5 inch round with the rolling pin and smear a tablespoon of the clarified butter and sprinkle with a tablespoon of flour. Sprinkle some salt as well. You can put in minced garlic or herbs at this stage too if you want to add more flavor.

Then fold this in pleats till you get a long narrowstrip of folded dough and butter

Then roll this from one end and you will get the following ball of dough.

Again with some flour roll it into a 5 inch round. You can see the layers and these will crisp up similar to puff pastry.

Now for the tandoor, I use my big aluminum pressure cooker. The main thing about tandoors is that they need to get really hot and retain that heat. This has thick walls which help in retaining the heat and the aluminum helps in getting it real hot. So place it on the big burner on high and let it heat real good.

Now place the pressure cooker on the side and slap the bread on the side. To make it stick first apply a little water on the back side of the bread before slapping it on. Turn the pressure cooker and apply all the breads.

Now we invert the pressure cooker over the heat and keep the heat on medium now. If the bread close to flame is browning first then you need to reduce the flame.

This takes approximately 2 minutes for the bread to cook and there you have it. Remove it with tongs. It comes off very easily if the pressure cook was very hot to start with and if it is cooked all the way. Serve hot with butter. :)

I am so grateful to my Mom for teaching me this. Happy Mother's Day! Now I just need to watch my waist line. :)

Do give this a shot and let me know how it works out. If you have more suggestions or ideas for tandoors, feel free to comment.