early morning? late night.

To most 5 AM usually means an early morning....for me, however, just another late night!

This is actually a really, really short post, but I just needed to share it with you. :)

Rukhaiya had to wake up early in the morning (3:45 am, to be exact) so that she could eat before the sun rose, for her whole fasting thing tomorrow. Like a good roommate, I'm always there. Slash, she invited me for breakfast because she knew that I'd probably still be awake....how true.

So, for breakfast (notice the lack of capitalization because this breakfast was nowhere near as extravagant as The Breakfast), she just made eggs, and I got this brilliant idea for making croissants, considering we've had a Pillsbury can thing chilling in the fridge for quite a while... (coughZachJeremyandRestOfApt302cough)

However, you know me, I can't just make normal croissants. Nah. That'd just be too easy! So, I decided to put a little cheddar cheese in each of the croissants before rolling them :)  I have to admit, all inspirational credit goes to Brendan, who had been fussing with me earlier to make him Cheddar Bay Biscuits. (and to Brendan: yes, you earned the biscuits. I'll make them for you soon! and to everyone else....don't worry. I'll take pictures. lol)

To be honest, I wasn't going to take pictures of these and share them....but after they came out, they just looked SO CUTE (and frankly speaking, so imperfect) that I couldn't resist!

See? Look!

patience is virtue.

This is probably a lesson that my mom has been trying to teach me for a while now.  And if she knew that all it would take was some food for motivation, she'd probably would have used it to her advantage earlier!

Well, I know it's been a while since I've had a posted anything on here, so I have a lot to update you on.

I could talk about the Breakfast of the Champions that Rukhaiya and I put together after pulling an all-nighter just talking about life.  This breakfast (oh, it just doesn't feel right when I don't capitalize it...so, Breakfast, it is!)....so, this Breakfast consisted of vanilla-cinnamon pancakes, hash browns, scrambled eggs, and bhindi (aka okra? for those, non-Indians reading this...). Everything was super delicious!

Don't tell Rukhaiya, but I actually never ate the bhindi....but I'm sure it also tasted delicious....

the entire Breakfast

the hash browns

the delicious made-from-scratch pancakes

the bhindi

So, after that....actually, I think it was a few nights before that, we had a dinner for champions. It was EPIC. Essentially one of my friends who had been severely busy the last two years of his life....too busy to come over and have a home-cooked meal cooked by yours truly, finally made time to come over for dinner! And, since he is Rukhaiya's and my friend, we both went berserk and cooked essentially as much as we could....probably not the natural reaction of two 19-year-old girls, but it's whatevs-evs.
We enjoy cooking! .....alright, so we made palak paneer, egg curry, chicken curry, and Thai string beans stir fry and fried rice. Oh. My. God. That was seriously one of the tastiest meals I have eaten in my entire life.....SO good.

see what I mean?! it even looks epic!

And probably lastly, I will describe to you tonight's meal. Quite simple, but still quite tasty. So, I made a shrimp curry, which took probably around 20-30 minutes to cook....not bad at all.

But that wasn't it. I know, I know--any meal that can be made in 30 minutes clearly isn't complete. So, we rectified the situation by making pakoras...a very time-consuming food to cook, with what the besan-mixing, oil-heating, vegetable-cutting, and pakora-frying....

However, it was all worth it...see?

pyaaz (onion) & zucchini pakora

oh, and Rukhaiya made this AWESOME sauce/chutney thing....she mixed Maggi Hot & Sweet sauce, dhuniya (coriander) chutney, and ketchup together to make a delicious dipping sauce for the pakoras.

yummy!

Also, this blog has served as a slight reality check....that I cook a lot. Hm. I wonder if that needs to be changed....

LOL JK. yeah, that's not happening any time soon :)

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. ;)

Today my lunch story is super short. I made chicken curry, and it turned out better than I thought it would. It's kinda mean to mention it then not show a picture, especially seeing as this is a photo blog....so here's a picture.

Obviously, the picture didn't turn out that great, but it tasted pretty delicious.  And I guess at the end of the day, it's the taste that matters more.  However, despite the photo fail for lunch, I still have an epic picture to show you!

Since one of my friends is visiting and is in town for just this week, Zach, Sabeen, and I went to dinner at Lemongrass. No, my picture is not food from Lemongrass (although that was tasty as well).
In celebration of the HARRY POTTER MIDNIGHT PREMIERE tomorrow!!!!!!!!!! Sabeen made butterbeer!!!!!

oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. First of all, it was SO delicious. My mouth is watering now just thinking of it. It was the perfect amount of oversweetness, and the amazing taste of caramel and just poured into a cup of joy.  And of course, being the loyal Harry Potter fan she is, Sabeen bought a butterbeer mug from Harry Potter World in FL, a place that I have yet to visit. So, for the photo shoot....we used her mug, her wand (I KNOW. how awesome. she has a wand. I'm SO jealous.), and her backdrop of books.

I'M SO EXCITED FOR HARRY POTTER. Even though it's totally sad, because it completely symbolizes the end of our childhood as we know it, I'm just so pumped for this movie!!!  Can't wait to watch it :)

dessert > dinner. don't deny it.

I cooked Indian food two nights ago. Mattar paneer, in fact. It's actually my favorite food, so I enjoyed it.  (not as much as my roommates though. you'd think they'd never had Indian food before with the way they were fawning over it....and they're Indian!) Nah, they were probably just surprised I could make it. and to be honest, I was too. But here is a picture to appease your taste buds.

Anyways, you'd think my Indian dinner would be a pretty big deal, seeing how delicious and flavorful it is, but for me the dinner was completely overshadowed by the dessert.

See, it occurred to me yesterday that I have neverrrr uploaded a picture of my famous parfaits! Trust me, these are so delicious. The only reason I wouldn't eat one is just in case it's too healthy for me or something. But on the plus, it never really gets boring, because we switch up the fruit or something and add little somethings for variations! Like, sometimes I'll add chocolate...or bananas....or kiwis.....

Just the amazingness of yogurt, granola, honey, and fruit all organized into layers of happiness. Sigh. Well enjoy the pictures!

  

Great, now I want a parfait. Thanks, guys.

oh, it's just lunch. nbd.

so, the original plan was to have dinner....with like 6 people...

yeahhhh--that didn't work out. but I had already planned the menu and bought the stuff, so I (soooo sadly.) had to make do with a gourmet lunch with Katie!

and of course, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't make you jealous of my amazing meals share the joy of amazing pictures with you!

so, enjoy!

Alright. If you can't tell (which to be honest, if you can, that's pretty awesome, because the dish is not very apparent by the pictures), this is a three-cheese chicken penne florentine. There are ....ironically enough, four cheeses, chicken, penne, and florentine! no, no florentine, just veggies. But it tasted quite delicious; just ask Katie.

Also, amazing breakthrough in my life. For a while now, I've been struggling with the get-out-of-my-kitchen syndrome.  A very rare condition that runs in my family actually of not being able to cook with other people helping.  However, today, I was able to actually co-cook with someone! Special applause to Katie, everyone!

Okey dokey! Until next time!

my life so far...

Since this is my first post, I'm going to go ahead and update you on what you've missed in my life!

I'm Prakriti, and I'm studying Computer Science at UVA.  I enjoy sleeping, cooking, and photography--the latter two of which will be extremely apparent by my pics.

So, the main reason I'm starting this blog is because I recently got a new phone (HTC Incredible 2--honestly quite an incredible phone) and something I'm really excited about in this phone is the amazing 8-MP camera this phone has.  This blog is meant to be a photo blog on which I'll post pictures I find unusually picturesque. :)

I hope you enjoy browsing these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

a bridge/beach about 20 minutes from where I live, while sunset

more of the beachy part of the bridge/beach :)

And now for the food pictures....prepare yourself for the inevitable salivation!

If you enjoy Indian food, you'll like this. It's a dish (the term "dish" used loosely, considering it's an appetizer usually found in roadside stands in India) called pani puri.

Essentially, for those who don't know, pani puri is....well here, read about it yourself!

Now, for those who are interested in other foods as well, I made pizza last night! from scratch, sooooo delicious! My friend and I made a honey-wheat crust, created a tomato sauce using my mom's tomatoes from her garden, and put cheese (obviously), more garden tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, olives, and parmesan cheese as toppings.  Trust me. Super delicious. If I could upload a file of deliciousness for you, I would.  Tasty feelings like that need to be shared to world.  Even wars would take lunch breaks.

doesn't it look so good?? *sigh*

And that's all I have for you tonight.  I know that was a lot for one day (...at least it felt like a lot for me), but I had to update you on all the good pics from my phone! From now one, they'll probably come in installments of two to three pics per post.  Hope you follow me!