Bliss from Bliss

I know...long time.

So I recently placed an order with Bliss...yeh the spa and body products company.

It was pure...Bliss. I'm a sucker for marketing and pretty packaging.

It came in a beautiful box. You must admire it with me.

Oh and do I love samples!

They came aplenty, and everything came with adorable cloth Bliss bags, which should come in handy when traveling.

So since the products seemed great, I thought the spa should be great too! I checked out the website to see what facials they offered. Did I mention I am in desperate need of one. So they had many options, but all of them $200+. Ouch.

Well maybe when I'm rich. Or we're not in recession/inflation/whatever excuse for the economy.. Or gas doesn't cost more than my car. Or rice and flour don't cost more than twice they did last year. Ouch again.

Dear future president/eight ball/ tomkat (Umara's special navigation system):
Will I be rich?

Sameera

Chicken Pulao Rocks!

I heart chicken pulao that I get at my friend's pakistani homes, especially Amina Chief with her very spicy, very flavorful, absolutely dreamy pulao. Yesterday I decided to try my hand at it and found a good recipe online that I made several adjustments to. The end result was delicious!

I'm posting the recipe with my adjustments here:

Chicken Pulao

3 cups rice

1 cup natural, low fat yogurt

1 whole chicken

1 large tomato, diced

2 medium onions, sliced fine

2 potatoes, diced into 1 inch pieces

2-4 green chillies, chopped roughly

chili powder to taste

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 star anise

2 tsp whole cumin

2 inches cinnamon

2 large bay leaves

3/4 teaspoon coriander seeds

2 cardamom pods

1 inch ginger and 4 garlic cloves, pureed

3 tbsp sunflower oil

Salt to taste

Handful chopped cilantro

Handful chopped mint

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In a large pot, bring the oil to heat over a high flame. When it is hot, add the whole spices.

As they sizzle up in seconds add the onions and fry for five minutes until golden brown.

Then add the ginger and garlic and fry for another five minutes until the whole mixture goes a darker shade of brown. Add the turmeric, chili powder (optional), the chillies and the chicken.

Stir vigorously for five minutes until the chicken is brown all over. Now, add the yogurt and leave the chicken to cook on a high flame, stirring regularly to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. If it does, add a little water.

When chicken is halfway cooked, add potatoes and tomatoes.

After 10 minutes, stir in the rice and fry for a minute or so.

Add about 4.5 cups to cook the rice.
(Very important: If the yogurt has let out a lot of water, then adjust how much water you add here; you don't want to end up with too much liquid or mushy rice.)

Once you have done this, don’t stir the rice because it will get all mushy.
Turn heat down, cover and cook until rice is cooked through. Take a peek to make sure there is enough water once or twice.

When the water dries up and the rice is cooked, the pulao is ready.

Add cilantro and mint and serve with raita.

Next up on the book club list...

The next book club read is "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan.


Here is the review from Amazon.com:

Amazon Significant Seven, January 2008: Food is the one thing that Americans hate to love and, as it turns out, love to hate. What we want to eat has been ousted by the notion of what we should eat, and it's at this nexus of hunger and hang-up that Michael Pollan poses his most salient question: where is the food in our food? What follows in In Defense of Food is a series of wonderfully clear and thoughtful answers that help us omnivores navigate the nutritional minefield that's come to typify our food culture. Many processed foods vie for a spot in our grocery baskets, claiming to lower cholesterol, weight, glucose levels, you name it. Yet Pollan shows that these convenient "healthy" alternatives to whole foods are appallingly inconvenient: our health has a nation has only deteriorated since we started exiling carbs, fats--even fruits--from our daily meals. His razor-sharp analysis of the American diet (as well as its architects and its detractors) offers an inspiring glimpse of what it would be like if we could (a la Humpty Dumpty) put our food back together again and reconsider what it means to eat well. In a season filled with rallying cries to lose weight and be healthy, Pollan's call to action—"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."--is a program I actually want to follow. --Anne Bartholomew