So, get ready for a grand family feast with some delectable fire roasted nachos .

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
PER SERVING:

• 4 3/8-inch disposable aluminum pie pan
• 1/2 cup tortilla chips
• 1/2 cup Cheddar or Monterey Jack
• Toppings, such as diced tomatoes and bell peppers, sliced jalapeños, and black beans
• 12- by 16-inch piece of foil
• Salsa (optional)

Method:
1. Combine all the ingredients in the pan. Then seal it in foil (a double layer if you’re cooking over an open flame) as shown, folding over the extra foil at the top to make a sturdy handle to poke a stick or tongs through.

2. Hold the packet over a campfire or set it directly on a grill to melt the cheese, about 10 minutes. Let the pack cool briefly, then open it carefully. Serve with salsa, if desired.

Main Ingredients:

Potatoes: 1 medium
Eggs: 2
Dried Parsley: 2 tbsp
Vegetable Oil: 1 tbsp, for frying
Salt: /8 tsp (or according to your taste)
Pepper: /8 tsp (or according to your taste)

Directions:

1. Peel and shred the potato.

2. Beat the eggs in a medium size bowl.

3. Add salt, pepper, dried parsley and shredded potato (preferably in the given order) and mix well.

4. Heat the oil in a medium size frying pan over medium-high heat.

5. Pour the batter onto the frying pan. Fry about 5 minutes on each side or until pancake is golden brown.

6. Cut the pancake into two halves and serve each with salad and/or fresh fruits.

Ingredients

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup walnut halves

Method 

1. Melt the butter or margarine and mix all ingredients in the order given.
2. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes in a 9 x 13 inch greased pan.

Dish: Chicken with Tangerines

Ingredients you need:

10 g raisins
1 tablespoon Madeira
1 chicken [1300g] (ready for cooking)
1 teaspoon red sweet pepper
2 tablespoons oil
1 clove of garlic
1 can tangerines (190g)
125 ml bouillon

1 tablespoon Soya sauce
1 tablespoon starch flour
0.5 teaspoon ginger (powdered)
50 ml cream
10 g sliced almonds

How to cook:

Soak raisins with Madeira.
Cut the chicken in 4 portions and season with salt, red pepper and
pepper. Heat the oil in a pan and roast the chicken for 10 minutes.
Fill bouillon with tangerine juice up to 250 ml. Chop the peeled garlic
very fine and add to the bouillon. Pot-roast the chicken with bouillon
for 30 minutes. Add raisins five minutes before pot-roasting ends.
Arrange the chicken pieces on a plate. Make a sauce with bouillon and
starch flour, season with Soya sauce, ginger, salt and stir the cream
under the sauce. Spoon the sauce over the chicken. Decorate with
sliced, roasted almonds.

Cook, eat and stay healthy…

For pastry, you need:

• 2 cups sifted flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2/3 cup shortening
• 4 tablespoons ice water

For Filling, you need:

• 6 large, tart apples
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar substitute
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Celsius.

Combine flour and the salt into a bowl. Cut in half the shortening
with two knives or a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse
meal. Cut in the remaining shortening until the size of small peas.
With the help of a fork, stir in just enough ice water to bind the
crumbly mixture together. Dough will ball and follow the fork around
the bowl. Turn the dough out on a floured board and roll out half to
fit a 9-inch pie plate. Put the dough in the plate.
In a bowl, stir the sugar substitute with the two tablespoons of flour,
cinnamon, nutmeg, and one-eighth teaspoon salt, mixing well.
Wash, dry, peel, core, and quarter the apples. Then slice the fruit and
add it to the sugar mixture. Mix well. Transfer the fruit to the
pastry-lined pie plate. Dot the fruit with the two tablespoons of
butter.
Roll out the remaining dough. Slash the pastry to allow the vent. Or,
if you prefer, cut the dough into one-inch strips of pastry and weave
for a lattice top. Either way, place the pastry on top of the pie, and
press firmly around the edge. Bake it for about fifty minutes, or until
the crust is nicely browned and the fruit is tender. Serve warm.
Your sugar free American apple pie is ready. Enjoy eating!

Ingredients

Method 

• Squeeze soya chunks and crush them with jalapenos and cilantro. 
• Brown this mixture in oil in a large skillet on medium heat for 5-6
  minutes, add salsa or crushed tomatoes, corn and seasonings. 
• Layer 1/3 of the soya mixture, 1/2 of the tortillas and 1/2 of the cottage cheese in inch baking dish. 
• Repeat layers, ending with soya mixture. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and olives. 
• Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes. 

 Ingredients:
1 cup Soya Nuggets
1 small onion (optional)
Half cup cooked rice (leftover)
2 to 3 green chillies
A few sprigs coriander leaves
Salt to taste
Dry bread crumbs or 1/4th cup rava

Oil for shallow frying

Method:

Cook the Soya nuggets in salted boiling water for about 5 minutes. Rinse under running water, drain and squeeze dry.

In a blender grind together the boiled Soya nuggets, onion (if using), leftover rice, chillies and coriander. Add salt to taste.

The above mixture will have a dough-like consistency. Shape into
cutlets. Coat with breadcrumbs or rava (semolina). Shallow fry on both
sides till crisp. Serve with ketchup or pudina chutney.
 

Well, it not my personal opinion but the findings of the new US research. Navtej Kohli Interest blog features the entire report:

A new research suggests the older a man, the greater the likelihood
that his bride will be significantly younger – whether that man is
wealthy and educated or not.

“If you look at guys who do marry, the poor guys marry down in age
just as much as the rich guys do,” quoted Paula England, a Stanford
University sociologist and co-author of the study.

“That was kind of surprising to us,” she added.

Men in their 40s tend to marry women who average seven years
younger, and men in their 50s are marrying brides who average 11 years
younger, according to England’s research. Interestingly, men in the 60s
tend to marry women who are 13 years younger.

However, in first marriages, men are typically a couple years older
than women, but the older men are when they marry, and it doesn’t
matter whether it’s a first or a second marriage, the more years they
marry down, the research highlighted.

England and research partner Elizabeth McClintock of Stanford said
that the male ideal of beauty is found in women in their early 20s, and
that ideal remains fixed for men no matter that they themselves are
growing older.

“Women may be a little more indifferent to age than men are because they are not judging people as much on looks,” she added.

I’m back again with my another favorite recipe on Navtej Kohli Blog:

PREP TIME: 20 Min
COOK TIME: 2 Hrs
READY IN: 2 Hrs 20 Min
SERVES: 8

INGREDIENTS

* 1 (2 to 3 pound) whole chicken

* 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
* 2 medium yellow onions, quartered
* 1 bunch celery with leaves, cut into pieces
* 1 (16 ounce) package baby carrots
* salt and ground black pepper to taste
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt, or to taste
* 5 eggs
* 1/2 cup water
* 1 teaspoon salt

* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes

DIRECTIONS

1. Place chicken in a stock pot, and add enough water to cover. Pour
in the chicken broth, and add celery and onions. Season with salt,
pepper and garlic salt. Bring to a boil, and cook for about 1 hour to
get a good broth.
2. When the chicken is cooked through and tender, remove it to a
platter and let sit until it is cool enough to handle. Strain broth,
and discard celery and onions. Return the broth to the stock pot.
Remove chicken meat from the bones, chop or tear into pieces, then
return it to the pot also. Bring the broth to a boil, and add carrots.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together the eggs, water and salt. Gradually
add flour until the dough is firm enough to form a ball. You may need
more or less flour. Pat the dough out on a flat plate. Using a butter
knife, cut slices of dough off the edge of the plate so they are about
2 to 3 inches long. Allow them to fall directly into the boiling broth.
4. Once the carrots are tender, the soup is ready. Sprinkle with parsley flakes and serve.

So enjoy the meal!

And of course if you too have some delectable recipes to share, feel free to post in your comments

Long before Christian era, the Greek merchants thronged the markets
of South India, buying many expensive items amongst which spices were
one. Epicurean Rome was spending a fortune on Indian spices, silks,
brocades, Dhaka Muslin and cloth of gold, etc.It is believed that 
the Parthian wars were being fought by Rome largely to keep open the
trade route to India. It is also said that Indian spices were the main
lure for  crusades and  expeditions to the East .
                         
Today when spices cost so little, it is unbelievable that they were
once a luxury and that men were willing to risk their lives in quest of
them. It was in the year 1492 A.D., that Christopher Columbus
discovered the America. Five years later, four tiny ships sailed
southward from the port of Lisbon, Portugal, under the Captain Vasco Da
Gama. Like Columbus, Vasco Da Gama was also on a hunt for a new route
to the spice lands of Asia. While Columbus failed to achieve the goal,
Da Gama succeeded. In a two year, 24,000 miles round trip, he took his
ships around the continent of Africa to India and back to Lisbon. Only
two of the four ships survived to reach their homeport. These two ships
brought back a cargo of spices and other products worth 60 times the
cost of the said voyage.

The spices of the East were valuable in those times, During these
Middle Ages, a pound of ginger was worth a sheep, a pound of mace worth
three sheeps or half a cow. Pepper, the most valuable spice of all, was
counted out in individual peppercorns, and a sack of pepper was said to
be worth a man`s life. Da Gama`s successful voyage intensified an
international power struggle for control over the spice trade. For
three centuries afterwards the nations of Western Europe – Portugal,
Spain, France, Holland, and Great Britain – fought bloody sea-wars over
the spice-producing colonies.

By the year 1000 Arabians had conquered  the Indus valley ,
what is now India. They brought the cumin and coriander that mixed with
Indian pepper, ginger and turmeric make up the base of so many South
Asian dishes. It was this combination of spices that centuries later
British sailors spread throughout the world as curry powder. In India,
Arabian traders got the rare and exotic spices of the Far East from
local spice merchants. India had spent the previous two millennia
spreading its culture to the Spice Islands of the east. Arabian traders
were able to make good money supplying these spices, even with the high
prices paid to the Indian middle men, not only to their countrymen back
home, but to Europe as well. These traders of spices paid for the Art
and Education for which Arabia became famous in the present day.. In
many ways the culture of Arabia loved studying and learning different
things. Many great Greek and Roman plays were translated in Arabic, so
too were the geographic writings of Pliny and Ptolemy telling of the
general location of the tabled spice islands.

As Arabian astronomers charted the stars in order to study them and
understand mans relation with them, they realized these same charts
could be used for navigation. Soon they were sailing to what is now
Indonesia and Malaysia to purchase spices directly, bypassing the
Indian middlemen. By the middle of the 13th century Arabian merchants
were regularly visiting Sumatra for cassia from the slopes of Mount
Korintje. .While travelling they would stop at little villages and
towns that had fresh water resource to refill their water supplies. At
these stops the merchants would barter their cumin, coriander and
saffron and speak and preach of their religion as well .The tropical
climate did not suit the saffron but coriander now plays an integral
part in so many dishes across Indonesia. The religion, which they
preached while bartering spices did even better than the coriander,
with Indonesia today being the world`s most populous Islamic country.
Compared to the Hindu belief in a caste system spread earlier by
traders from India, it seems  the Islamic belief that all were
equal in serving God really hit a chord with the people of Indonesia.

In nutshell, the fascinating history of spices is a story of adventure, exploration, conquest and fierce naval rivalry.

The people of those times used spices, as we do today, to enhance or
vary the flavors of their foods. Spices were also flavor disguisers,
masking the taste of the otherwise tasteless food that was nutritious,
but if unspiced, had to be thrown away.  Some spices were also
used for preserving food like meat for a year or more without
refrigeration. In the sixteenth century, cloves were used to preserve
food without refrigeration. Cloves contain a chemical called eugenol
that inhibits the growth of bacteria. It is still used to preserve some
modern foods like Virginia ham. Later, mustard and ground mustard were
also found to have preservative qualities. When spices were not
available people went hungry because they could not preserve their
foods to carry them over to the winter. Such was the importance of
spices those
days.