Starbucks and I - a relationship

Life is about little experiences with the smallest of all things, for me its food, music, Booz, my iOS devices and to fuel them -> COFFFEE 
though I got cursed a zillion times for taking an apartment that faced the street, I still absorbed it for the love of the look of the Starbucks logo as soon as I rolled-up the blinds.


Step 1: Take the Stairs
Step 2: Cross the street
Step 3: Order the fresh brew: mah pick was the "Venti Fresh Ground Bold black coffee"

PIck the "Bold Pick of the day" 

Step 4: Turn on the Macintosh and do your stuff

Approx 3$ for a Venti and 2 bucks for the Grande...never got the Tall, never satisfied with the Tall Bold.

...jump start the day with this, until you had to drag that forced bachelorhood arse back to the corporate world.

I call this love at first brew :)

Starbucks: Something that has become a part of me, a relationship with caffeine from the hills of columbia, fresh ground coffee, or as we call it kaapi.visit visit http://www.starbucks.com/

I got all the possible merchandise from the shelf, all un-accounted from Latsy.
the best pick of the merchandise was the signature series crucible cup, got 2, broke 1 and was able to retain 1 that i use until now when am drafting this post, sipping a non-Starbucks beverage out of it

3 things that I love and would remember of Starbucks denting my life in may ways:

1) The Brand, the vibe about sitting inside the Starbucks Coffee Shop is like a stress buster for me
2) Have written the best of the blogs and waited in the streets of NewYork / Targets with a Starbucks Cafe embed... waiting for Latha to show-up to take the metro or even drive back from New Jersey to Maryland.
3) Never miss a chance, if I have to step in there time and again...Got my self a card and refill that time to time.

Goes without saying that I can flaunt Starbucks over and over and over again, just as I upsell-cross sell every iOS device and its creator.
..Just as I loved the CAFE COFFEE DAY (CCD) back home..am sure that the transition from Starbucks back to CCD would be seamless..

Here's a look at the Merchandise and my Starbucks card's, I have a Twilight retreat and also a Starbucks RED CARD that helps do that little bit for society.

Also a little towards paying it forward to the society with the Starbucks RED CARD

Every time you pay with your (STARBUCKS)^RED Card*, we make a contribution to the Global Fund to help people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa. With your help, we’ve already generated contributions equaling more than 18 million daily doses of medicine. 

I think...u got the reason, why I call this a RELATIONSHIP and not mere COFFEE

Am back: after a paradigm shift :)

After a long break, am opening my blog doors again for my much awaited followers. Its been a while, life was tipsy for sometime with a lot of ups and downs, pre-pregnancy -> Neev -> Post pregnancy, not me but the better half...but in the shades of the USA, it doesn't matter who is pregnant, its a mutual chase to be there, being your own relative 360 degrees. 

But yeah, keeping that aside, the Facebook time-line was the typical broadcast of the events that clustered 2011 and 2012 until now.
Food, Shopping, BooZ, recipe's, recommendations from folks on Camera's, Camcorders and what not, it was fun.

...I have been letting it out on Facebook many times that I'd restart blogging, as I love to do it, but kept procrastinating..
...

What's going to be the fun part?

1) Recipes from "Joyee's Kitchen: Cooking an F5 on your brain"
2) Chatter about the Buzz, sarcasm in the metro-sexual life
3) Experiments with the Nikon DSLR - the bumpy ride
4) Trivia from the rock'n roll gods of the 70's, 80's and the 90's
5) Bitching generally about the dark side of consulting- this one is to watch out for
....and more jamming of the Heavy Riffs

So watch out for grafitti that flavors this poster and keep rocking and smilin...u need that the most and even if green tea sucks, shove it down that throat :)
...cheers and join the Buzz'n chatter

Facebook has become a part of my life

....People have started to use the Facebook like a crazy engine...what makes it so addictive..you need to use it to really go about understanding it.
I am a fan and I love the interface though some people deem it as intruding privacy.
..How can you call it intruding privacy, when you yourself have created your FB profile and friended people around...people should stop complaining and start looking at the brighter side of things. It has made life a little more exciting from the mundane aspect that we all channel into.

Your mantra in life must be simple to accept Social networking..if you need a dope or two, please watch the movie Social Network featuring the life of Zuckerberg...All these Drop out brilliances have made these great products mainly because of being the wanted men amongst the women out there in their teen spree.
Main reasons behind these great inventions are again women :)
So without wasting much time, lets get into the act, create that profile and get going, it will suck you, 6 hours straight in the first 4 weeks of engagement and then for 7 hours then reach 10 and then slowly cascade it down to a regular 2 hours a day...I have got bored of other social networking sites, but this one has still kept me connected.
I collaborated with at-least 10-15 people on the Kannada Rajyotsava day and bitched about how much we miss the bangalore air and all that, but the truth is that, Facebook has become like my nagging voice to put out whatever I feel like...
Give it a test drive, if you are new...
...Keep the momentum on..if you are a regular FBooker
....Enhance the culture..reach out to the masses with your voice
Make most of the engine...at-least when its out there waiting for your time as the only tangible investment


cheers...Joyee

The Lasagne with a desi touch

Guys...start to the new WIFI without wife till october season, best way to start it is with my cuisine..am sure that my followers would definately like anything thats cheezy..
....Pawan this is for you...The Lasagna with the desi touch..make it this way..believe me it will definitely meet standards
The other day when Pawan and Abhijith came home with their better halves, I had made the Italian Lasagna with the desi touch..Though latha was extremely apprehensive that it should be served with dinner..The visitors had the confidence in my delicacy.
So What's the desi touch...lets understand below.We will go the italian way until we drfit a direction to go the Desi way.
..Getting into basics, lets divide the Lasagna cooking into 3 phases
Phase 1) Preparation of the pasta contents that go into the heart of the Lasagna
Phase 2) The cheese wrapping
Phase 3) The Baking


What do we need (Ingredients) ?

1 packet of MTR Penne Pasta, uncooked
200 Grams Paneer (Desi shift), 1 Onion (Desi shift), 2 tomatoes
1 cup alferedo sauce (for Desi shift, use AMUL cheese), Amul/Britannia Cheese Singles 2 packets (Foodworld / any other place, rectangular ones)
1/2 cup water, 2 cubes of Amul Butter / Olive Oil
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs (Desi shift for vegetarian use Tofu instead)
2 teaspoons chopped basil,1 Tsp Garam Masali (Desi shift),5 beans, 1 capsicum, half Brocolli,1 teaspoon salt,1 peeled and sliced Garlic,1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper,Aluminium Tray, Silver wrapping foil

...The Cooking
Phase 1) Preparation of the pasta contents that go into the heart of the Lasagna

1) Heat 2 teaspoons of Butter or Olive Oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic, diced onion, capsicum, beans, Paneer,Brocolli, BASIL and Tofu until they are semi cooked, the smell of the content will definitely give you a semi cooked feeling, dont forget to stir the contents with the garam masala seasoning of 1 tsp, this is the desi touch to our much loved Italian Lasagne

2) Boil the Penne Pasta with 1 tsp oil so that they dont stick to each other for 5min until done, then drain the water from the Pasta and wash it again with Cold water

3) Put the Pasta and the Amul Cheese 1/2 Cup (1 box of Amul cheese) into this and cook, put the crushed pepper and stir continuously, in case you have red chilli flakes with you, drop one or 2 into them. In the last, if you have the Shredded Mozzarella cheese, please put that into the mixture and also the contents of 2 smashed tomatoes that you have hit in the blender, cook for about 15min

4) Cool down the mixture and keep it seperately

Phase 2) The cheese wrapping

1) Wrap the bottom of the Aluminium Tray with the Amul / Britannia cheese singles until you dont see the aluminium foil, to give a thicker crest put 2-3 layers to make the side and the bottom crust thick

2) Put the Contents made in Phase 1 into the crust made with the cheese singles

3) Ensure that the Pasta is well settled inside the crust made with the cheese singles

4) Cover the top of the Pasta with the remaining Cheese singles in an innovative way like they make the apple pie, giving it a bird nest sneak trough look, ensure that the Pasta below isnt seen from the Cheese singles covering.

...You have now set the Dulhan to take the vows of the wedding...lets proceed

Phase 3) The Baking

1) Pre-Heat the Oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit in the Convection Mode (In India, that would be about 120 degrees centigrade approximate)

2) Place the Aluminium Foil tray into the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the top singles melt to slight brown. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes after you remove it from the oven before serving.

Important piece of advice..dont be desperate to taste it hot, once your tongue burns, you are screwed...Good things come to people who wait and am sure that you can wait until its cool enough to be edible, so what are you waiting for....Go Make the Lasagna with the Desi Touch :)

BTW, dont stop yourself to meat it, we have un-meated it since most of our lasagna lovers are vegetarian, make your pasta base as freaky as possible with whatever stuffing you desire....

...Pawan...specially you need to let us know, how did you fare on the second attempt.

This is how it would look once done

Chaapa Pulusu aka Fish Curry (completely andhra shytle)

...Its been again a while now since I visited my dashboard, my white slate...sorry followers
Too much pressure with settling down..in the new place, new job
Coming to the specifics, Debjani was threatening me to put this recipe, ever since she tasted the chaapa pulusu that I made for the very first time on the request of my ex-roomie venkat....
Good things come to people who wait, so here we go...


Supporting Facts and Figures
99% of the Bongs are chaapa (Maach) consumers, for us its more of a religion than just food...
Lats, my wifey loves fish, sometimes more than she loves me, thats well made (when its well marinated and fried)
Being a bong, its too difficult to stay away from 4 letter words, one of them being FISH :)
...I am not being too dramatic, but whenever 2 bongo bondhu's meet, a word of tribute is definitely given to this lovely coastal creation of God.
Jumping straight into the recipe now...folks
Chaapa Pulusu - Andhra Fish Curry 

all do we need (Along with patience):

Any Fish, preferably (cat fish) 1 Kg, Mustard seeds -2 small tbsp,

Cumin seeds - 1 small tbsp

Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 Spoons

Tamarind pulp or paste 2 cups,

Onion - 1 big, 

Curry leaf - 1 stem, 

Methi powder-1/2 tbsp , in-case u dont have the powder (4-5 seeds should do), 

Tomato 2, 

Oil - 5 tbsp,

Turmeric powder - 1/4 spoon, 

Coriander powder- 1 tbsp

Red chili powder -3 tbsps, 

Salt (as per your taste, eat less salt, you'd get the Blood pressure from something other 
than salt)

• Use any utensil but should be wide enough to fit all of your fish in that as one layer. Preheat it for one minute and add oil, mustard and cumin seeds and ginger Garlic paste. If you can put shredded Ginger Garlic battered in a traditional way, that gives an extended taste
• After that add curry leaves and onion (cut in long big pieces), after 3 or 4 minutes add tomato.
• Keep warm and add tamarind paste and a 1 1/2 cup water, turmeric, red chili power. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes in medium heat.
• After you see the soup thickening add salt (you can add it any time), coriander powder, Methi (fenugreek powder), and fish (big pieces) one at a time (not over lapping) and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, till they are soft.

Cooking time: Preparation time + prelude: 45 mim

I always believe that you need to garnish, its like wearing shoes, its a hygiene factor, as you see in the picture, don't forget to put fresh shredded coriander leaves on the curry surface.

After this you just need to do one thing, EAT EAT EAT and finish it. Am sure your mouth's watering

A small word of advice, it tastes better the next day than it was on the first day.

...post the comments once you've made it

Cheers, Joyee

How it looks when done:

www.pandora.com : Your own radio station, will blow your heads away

Lets take the attention towards the next best thing God has given after food and women.
....any guesses?, the answer:  MUSIC
.....You should really try this one out, it plays your mood undoubtedly, it rearranges the logic based on what you want to listen at that moment. you dont like something, let the station know, it wont even play it ever for you.
Multiple options to slice and dice the genre, the music, the artists that actually frenzy you...
Jinesh asked me to onboard this a while ago, I dod almost a month back and thought I need to share this with like minded souls, its not rock or heavy metal frenzy, it works for diverse music genre.


Like they say "a song is worth a thousand words", I made this up, hence....get going without much graffiti to read
Go ahead go open your Pandora box, create the stations and get rid of listening music from your hard drives


the site : www.pandora.com


It looks something like this, happy listening folks

Wife and WIFI : The life that's today : Its all about priorities, we set

The last 6 months have been a mashed up mixed emotion period, challenging, tough, exciting, talking to wife, cooking, parties, wife's accelerated short visit, Most of the valuable time in life goes smearing the internet like "innocent jam splash on an infants lips and cheeks".

Naukri has taken the backend to quite an extent :(

...Again what are we arriving at?

...On the flip side, people always are running after what they dont have..if you have ever noticed, we always run after the tings that try to run away from us, seldom is the situation that , "something runs into you"

Today's post is slightly sensitive and definately contains a message....

So if you are a person who doesnt give a f**k about sensible graffiti, then stop right here....... dont read further

Debate...Debacle

Define Onsite?

Its something that you crave for as an individual atleast sometime in your career and bug your reporting manager until he yields :)

Why do you want Onsite?

Now, truth is a little difficult to accept, but I'm laying these points from my personal experience with rhetoric folks I've bumped into, while in Firang land, on priority let me put them in reverse chronological order

- Money is the driver, the conversion rates, the positive greed (necessity driven) to pile up is the fuelling fact for most, in short earn a quick buck

- Affordability and Quality of Life: getting international experience, facing clients, trying to shift employer for a lucrative package. If we are localizing US (then in short, a Green Card, a Posh affordable car, independence, 150-160K package)

- Choosing the Easy way Out: Running away from problems (problems: in-laws, challenges of putting up with relatives, running away from a past, forgetting a loved one

- Now the funnier part : Posting Pics on Orkut / Proving it to some people back offshore that "I'm lucky, you aint", trying to brush jealousy, dont try and hide that shady side of every human, if not you you would have come accross some folks who do so.....

Its all about priorities we set, I aint an onsite basher, dont get me wrong !!!!

Living outside is fun, seeing places, driving the best car to having the whip free independence is a welcome for anyone, Its just that, dont get too touchy of long distance relationships, having a loved one on-boad will add spice to the mundane life, where you will have Hubby or Wife along and not WIFI (connected to the internet, every second from the time you wake up till you sleep)

....redefine life, define it big !!!! define it for a short term plethora that will take you long term and buy that happiness that will take you a long way in life.

In the words of Steve Jobs "Connect the Dots", you'll know where you had to reach !!!

What do you think?

Mistakes can be tasty: Shredded Chicken Breast Roasted in Garlic

..People tell me that am a good cook, every person at office including my wife tells me that, does that mean am in the wrong profession ;)
Some people also want me to make this a frontline career path (Will they fund me: Yes I have potential investors ready)
Sometimes we should accept that tasty cuisines are a result of leftover raw materials and the need to convert them into another dish.
...Such a thing happened last week where I had left over chicken and some extra garlic, etc and an option to make another starter for a party hosted by us...It vanished in minutes
The result of that was what we ate called "Shreaded Chicken Breast Roasted in Garlic", goes by its name, very easy to make end to end 20min, thats it. people liked it and Sutapa, Shib's wife wanted the recipe as a follow-on, so thot you should go ahead and try it yourself.
Slogan: Bake it->Shread it->Fry it->Serve it->Eat it-> bur don't ever Forget it
You can eat it as a starter or make it a sandwich filling, the option is left to you.
I don't have a picture of it, but when I make it next I'll edit this post to give u a look and feel

...Not wasting much of your time, am dropping the recipe here
Whats it called: Shredded Chicken Breast Roasted in Garlic
What you need:
Chicken Breasts 3
Big2 whole Garlic
2 Green Chillies
4-5 crushed pepper or 2 tsp pepper powder
One Jalapeno
2-3 Spring onion shoots
2 tsp Soy Sauce
2 Tsp Butter / olive oil
Salt to taste as per your need Chopped coriander leaves for garnishing
Whats the Process: Microwave the Chicken breasts for 5-7min on one side Remove it after that and shred it with your hand to tiny pieces, tear the meat Fry the Garlic in Butter until it gets golden brown, then add the chillies and Jalapenos and the spring onion fry until golden brown Add the chicken pieces into the mixture, fry for 5 min Add the pepper, Soy sauce on the mixture and continue to fry for 10min.Serve on a plate and put the coriander on the served content Eat with some tomato sauce and Low calorie Mayo

...Happy eating :)
Dont be selfish, invite me

Times of India e-Paper

...Its while now since the time I made this page active. Only I am to blame, forget all that and lets move to what's the inner feeling today

...Am not one of those people, whose morning coffee gets tastier with a news paper in hand, or even waits in the morning to get that 14 -20 page thingy in my hand or thrown over my gates. Somehow even with latha asking me to be latest with the news paper, back home in India, It never interested me, I prefer to watch the news instead.

.....What am I arriving at

3-4 weeks back I was introducted (not that am totally unaware), "atleast read the timesof india e-Paper-Joy", its as good as reading from the actual newspaper, you can also be picky and choosy about what you want to read.

Trust me, I never had this passion to wait for a news paper to be released in India and me plugging RSS feeds to it-may be one of the first people to read it.

Today, I feel closer to Bangalore and also love to read news, see the lovely graphics , which wasnt my habit earlier and am benefiting from it, dont laught at me, I know its something very normal to do, but I got this kick only after stepping into the act. I would really want to go some extra mile to "might be illiterates like me" to explain how to get started.

Hit http://epaper.timesofindia.com/, you'll see something like what you see below, just select the city and drop down -> select the Lite version, it loads better and faster.

Thanks a lot lats, to introduce me to this - "should be common habit",

...after publishing this post, I'd be reading the remaining additional supplements of Sunday's heavy duty newspaper.

...Have fun guys, and dont classify me silly, accept it, if you didnt know ;)

Birth of Rajiv and Ashu's Princess, the wealthy Ashira

Hi guys

Sudden change in plans, I had to stall my planned post to something more important to the planned and happy parenting fraternity.

This is indeed something which is very special to me, seeing my friends getting into the happy parenting days.

Finally Ashu and Rajiv are proud parents with theor daughter Ashira bringing that identity into their life, its a style statement as far as i consider it.

They have jogged into the 3 mode, but am sure this will spirit them to that next phase in life thats more demanding and beautiful.

As experts say, when the baby takes prrecedence, the love of the mother gets split b/w baby and hubby and hubby's love for the mother increases by 10 fold, coz men have lots of love to spread :-)

Look at the princess, isnt she charming, it brought an immediate F5 effect on my mundane monday morning blue'd sonday coming to a near end. Both me and lats are now geared up seeing Big B and Rashmi first reach the chequered flag and now Rajiv and Ashu

I wanna come to bangalore and take Ashira in my arms and hug her, she is a cutie.

A cutie pie thats made my day....

.....Happy parenting fellas

Cheers

Joyee

Introduction..... we are in, its live now, "Lats'n Joyees world as we see it"

Ahaaaa, 4----3-----2-----1------> Gooooooooooooo

....finallly am in the blog world now, was waiting for a reason to get in, what is the reason for stepping in late

work work and lots of work, had applied sudden brakes on me,

.....but now this is going to be a newspaper that am gonna edit atleast twice a week.

Am making this resolution prior to christmas and new year, which clearly means, this is a sure thingy and not one of those chronical new year resolutions that I make and break.

I was always told by people, why arent you getting out that website of yours, but a Google brand fanactic, me, chose to onboard them without going through too much pain of being creative.

Now the top few lines were boring, let me introduce the crux of the initiative.

...If you are looking at this site, rest assured, this will be restricted to the non work world only :-). as sweetheart says, dont irritate people with you cheezy one liners and also with your hyperactive libido, instead get on to writing, you'll civilize.

Here I am taking the constructive feedback of my better half and getting into the act.

So we will have one new proverb, "Behind every eMerging Blogger is his wife, kicking his arse to get writing sensible crap", Sensible - time will tell

A world purely around "We the people", our daily struggles, achievements, pitfalls, type fall higs and lows, sneak preview into the circle of life of close friends, Totee (Hall of Fame), a ramp up from skool days to the grown up feel until now, food, namma bengalooru life, Metallica, megadetgh, whitefield, weddings in the totee gang, inner circle, SIT tumkooru, BMS somarikatte, Inner circle, coffee day leisures, PVR, commercial street shopping, any normal life frenzy stuff, pacchi's baby, our jobs information technology, my infy friends on the other side of town Rajiv, Barney, Menaka, Ashu Big B, AJ, all the people i know.. list is endless

...a tale of what a husband and wife deal in a day to day life with friends, work managing relationships, children, education and managing Information technology driven metro sexual life...

........am sure you wont get bored, and will definately get you RSS fed onto us.

collage above brother, sisters, friends, critics and "sweetheart" will give you a "WYSIWYG" effect into the longitudanal scoping of this initiative.

Lats, this is the right forum to showcase what we truly feel about ourself and the life around us. lets grow from Kindergarden to Dec 2008 to see what went past our innocence to the frown ups that we are today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, then go on with 2008 + beyond and the future ahead

This completes my short introduction about this "inexpensive real estate space" to watch out in the days to come.

...I believe in a critic driven world, and trust me its one collaboratively intuitive place i want all of you to make it.

Next to come......"why I like whitefield,the best place on mother earth", from kindergarden to Dec2008....a splurge into the roadmap we lived YTD...

~Joyee, 22.Nov.2K8