BIBLIOPHILES N GARLIC BREAD

Hi foodies!

How have you all been? Hope you guys had a lovely weekend and are re-charged to handle this week's work, schedules and stress. My weekend was great and fast. S & I registered ourselves with the local library and we spent a good amount of time glancing at the books and DVDs. We brought few home too. We love books a little too much. Books are amazing and they can do anything to you: make you laugh, make you think, make you analyze,importantly increases your vocabulary-there are zillion words unknown to us all these days!

My house is filled with both technical and non-technical books. He has books on digital signal processing, adaptive filter theory,communication systems, art of war, cast of characters , why we buy, and so on.My collections include Dan Brown, Khaled Hossini, John Grisham, Chetan Bhagat, Hilton Brown and offlate, I have started to buy books on recipes and diet.

S is a technical geek and he is too techie that he ends up correcting me in the market when I buy Macintosh apples as "No honey! its Apple Macintosh". I end up staring at him. Also he ends up counting stuffs in the order "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D....". Duuh! he he! :-) jus kidding. I am just overdoing. He isnt that bad but one thing is for sure, he spents hours at Fry's electronics and I go bonkers. I am more a novel-girl. I grew up reading Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys . I am sure girls who are reading it will understand. Yeah babes! Men are definitely from mars and we are from Venus. They are just too different.

I am currently reading "Shopaholic & Sister" by Sophie Kinsella. When I left India, my suitcase was half full with the books I bought from a sale in OXFORD ( a bookstore in Chennai). The store has a Cha Bar too. There is a whole lot of huge books on history, animals, heritage, countries, placed in the shelves. You can just grab one and end up reading it for hours with just a cup of coffee you ordered. They dont disturb you until its closing time :-). Isnt it that great?

Hey Chennaites out there!!! those who have not been there n those who love books (ofcourse loves Coffee!) just go drop in and it takes a heavy heart to step out of the store. This was one of the place S took me out after our engagement. I remember grabbing a book on "TRAVEL" and having Chocolate fudge and ice cream and discussing with him about the places to visit .Going on a date to a book store isn't great idea for others but for us : It was awesome :-)

So guys tell me: which is the current book you are reading? and who is your favorite author?

We spent most of our time watching those DVDs from library and last Saturday afternoon, we had a small BBQ party in the nearby park. About 10 of us met up, we made shrimps,chicken and veg. patties. The day was bright, yellow and sunny but was too windy. My eyes and nose ended up watering and I was just waiting to get back home to sit on my favorite warm couch with hot Chai and bread.

The post for today is home-style easy garlic bread. Its super easy to make and also super tasty to munch.I made them with few left over bread slices.

Ingredients

• 4 bread slices - cut diagnolly
• 2 tbs unsalted butter - soften
• 2 tbs parsley
• 2-3 garlic - minced
• Salt to taste

Method

• Mix the butter, parsley, garlic and salt well and keep aside.
• Take the triangle shaped bread slices and spread the garlic mixture over it.
• Pre-heat the oven to 325'F and broil the bread slices for 5 min and turn them over. Cook for another 3-5 minutes. Its important to keep an eye on them as they will get charred.
• Let them rest for 5-10min and serve hot.
  

Simple yummy crispy home-made garlic bread is ready!

CHANNA RICE N SOME SCIENCE

Well, I have been always writing about incidences from my life and good-old stories from others and so on in this blog. I am sure you guys would have been bored to death hearing about my sweet tales from my fairyland.

So today I am gonna write something different. Something important or related to each one of us. Knowledge is always powerful and its important that one stays informed and be aware of few medical happenings. Being a life scientist and a person who had worked with stem cells, I feel that I can provide little information on health issues through this blog.



Chemotherapy was declared as the only source of treatment for Cancer patients but today John Hopkins have announced that there is an alternative way.The treatment for Cancer always starts with Chemotherapy. It involves destroying both the rapidly growing cancer cells and also the healthy ones present in bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract and can also cause organ damage. It is true that the initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will reduce the tumor but prolonged usage doesnt result in further tumor destruction.

When the body is overloaded with these strong chemicals from chemotherapy, the immune system is destroyed and the body is exposed to different kinds of infections and complications.The body becomes weak and gets deprived of disease fighting ability. John Hopkins team has suggested that the effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not providing the foods that helps it to grow.Here is a list of food which can cause the cancer cells to grow back in a Cancer survivor's body. Note them and always stay informed!

CANCER AND FOOD

1. Sugar is a cancer feeder. Even sugar substitutes like Nutrasweet, Equal, Spoonful are harmful. So cancer patients/survivors please avoid sugar. Manuka honey or molasses (natural sugar subtitutes) can be used but only in small quantity.

2. Milk should be avoided. Milk causes the body to produce mucus especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer cells feed on mucus, so its better to substitute it with unsweteened soya milk.

3.Acidic environment is the best one for the cancer cells to live happily. A meat based diet is acidic. Meat (beef or pork) contains livestock antibiotics, growth harmones and parasites. These are harmful ones for Cancer patients. Meat protein is difficult for the body to digest and more so difficult for cancer patients as it requires the help of many digestive enzymes.Undigested meat left behind in the intestines becomes decomposed and leads to more toxic buildup.Cancer cells have a tough protien covering. A reduced meat or no-meat diet, frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells. Its better to eat fish and very little chicken. Easily digestible food should be given to them.

4.A diet comprising of vegetables, nuts, fruits, whole grains will make the body alkaline.Fresh vegetable juice will provide live enzymes that can be easily absorbed and reaches the cellular levels within 15minutes to nourish and increase the growth of healthy cells.

5.Avoid foods that have high caffeine (tea, coffee, chocolate). Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties.Drink a lot of pure water.

Thats my synopsis of what I read and understood about Food and Cancer from journals and internet.Hope it was informative. :-)

Before I go to my recipe today, I wanna share a small news about my recent gift. S gave me a new bike last week. I have decided to use it to nearby bazaar and library. Sometimes, its nice to be eco-freindly and at the same time stay healthy!

Here is my new bike with our cars in the backdrop.

The post for today has nothing to do with Cancer but has something to do with an event Monthly Mingle : Ravishing Rice hosted by Nags of Edible Garden, started by Meeta. Its a simple rice dish made with Channa and Indian spices. Here comes my entry for the event: CHANNA RICE.

Ingredients

• 2 cups Basmati rice
• 1 cup cooked Channa
• 1 onion - chopped
• 2 green chillies - slit
• 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1 cup coconut milk/ fresh milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbs oil/ghee
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbs coriander leaves

Masala

• 1 Cardamon
• 1 Bay leaf
• 2 cloves
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/2'' cinnamon stick

Method

• Soak the raw channa overnight and cook with 2 cups water for 1-2 whistles or use a store bought cooked Channa tin.
• Soak the 2 cups basmati in water for 20min and keep aside.
• Heat a cooking pan and add ghee/oil. Once they get heated up, add the masalas. Saute for 2min.
• Add the onions to the tempered oil and let it sweat. Now add the green chillies and ginger-garlic paste and give it a complete stir. Cook till the raw smell disappears. Mix in the cooked Channa and add the required salt.Add the soaked Basmati rice. POur in 1 cup of coconut milk and 3 cups of water. Give it a complete stir and check for salt. Sprinkle some coriander leaves.
• Cover the pan and cook for 2-3 whistle.
• Serve hot with raita and masala papad.
  

Note: Basmati rice cooking mantra - (1:2 = Basmati Rice: Water)