Blogging out Hunger~We Can't Let This Bank Fail!

Bloggers unite to Fight Hunger in New Jersey

My dear friend Deb of Jersey Bites invited me to join in this campaign she is coordinating on behalf of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey — the largest food bank in the state. As you are probably well aware, the Food Bank is in desperate need of donations this holiday season. With bare shelves and demand for food among state residents far out pacing supply, the FoodBank is in danger of being unable to meet the needs of New Jersey’s hungry.

More than 35 million Americans, including 12 million children, either live with or are on the verge of hunger.

One out of every five New Jersey families does not earn enough to afford the basic necessities – housing, food and child care – although 85 percent of these households have at least one family member who is working.

In New Jersey alone, an estimated 250,000 clients will be seeking sustenance this year from the state's food banks. But recently, as requests for food assistance have risen, food donations are on the decline, leaving food bank shelves almost empty and hungry families waiting for something to eat.


The situation is dire, no more so than at the Community FoodBank of New Jersey (CFBNJ), the largest food bank in the state, where requests for food have gone up 30 percent, but donations are down by 25 percent. Warehouse shelves that are typically stocked with food are bare and supplies have gotten so low that, for the first time in its 25 year history, the food bank is developing a rationing mechanism.

As the state's key distributor of food to local banks – serving more than 500,000 people a year and providing assistance to nearly 1,700 non-profits in the state – the stability of replenishment of the CFBNJ is essential to ensuring that individuals in need have access to food.

To really understand the serious need for donations, just click on the link below and take a minute to view the video.

If everyone could just do a little, it would help those in need a lot. To help, people can:

• Make a monetary contribution: Visit www.njfoodbank.org
• Donate food: Drop off a bag of food at your local food pantry.
• Organize a food drive: We can help explain the logistics of starting a food drive. Just call 908-355-FOOD.
• Help "Check Out Hunger:" Look for the "Check Out Hunger" coupons at your local supermarket and donate. No donation is too small!
  
• Please look for the $1, $3, & $5 donation slips at A&P, Food Basics, Foodtown, Genuardi’s, Kings, Pathmark, ShopRite, Super Fresh and Wegmans. 100% of your generous donation in the stores or at http://www.checkouthungernj.org/ will come back to the FoodBank and make a real difference in the fight against hunger in New Jersey.

Over 100 bloggers have united to fight hunger across the Garden State. Together we can fight against 'HUNGER'.

We’re hoping our efforts will compel everyone to do something, anything, to help.

Blogging out Hunger~We Can't Let This Bank Fail!

Bloggers unite to Fight Hunger in New Jersey

My dear friend Deb of Jersey Bites invited me to join in this campaign she is coordinating on behalf of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey — the largest food bank in the state. As you are probably well aware, the Food Bank is in desperate need of donations this holiday season. With bare shelves and demand for food among state residents far out pacing supply, the FoodBank is in danger of being unable to meet the needs of New Jersey’s hungry.

More than 35 million Americans, including 12 million children, either live with or are on the verge of hunger.

One out of every five New Jersey families does not earn enough to afford the basic necessities – housing, food and child care – although 85 percent of these households have at least one family member who is working.

In New Jersey alone, an estimated 250,000 clients will be seeking sustenance this year from the state's food banks. But recently, as requests for food assistance have risen, food donations are on the decline, leaving food bank shelves almost empty and hungry families waiting for something to eat.


The situation is dire, no more so than at the Community FoodBank of New Jersey (CFBNJ), the largest food bank in the state, where requests for food have gone up 30 percent, but donations are down by 25 percent. Warehouse shelves that are typically stocked with food are bare and supplies have gotten so low that, for the first time in its 25 year history, the food bank is developing a rationing mechanism.

As the state's key distributor of food to local banks – serving more than 500,000 people a year and providing assistance to nearly 1,700 non-profits in the state – the stability of replenishment of the CFBNJ is essential to ensuring that individuals in need have access to food.

To really understand the serious need for donations, just click on the link below and take a minute to view the video.

If everyone could just do a little, it would help those in need a lot. To help, people can:

• Make a monetary contribution: Visit www.njfoodbank.org
• Donate food: Drop off a bag of food at your local food pantry.
• Organize a food drive: We can help explain the logistics of starting a food drive. Just call 908-355-FOOD.
• Help "Check Out Hunger:" Look for the "Check Out Hunger" coupons at your local supermarket and donate. No donation is too small!
  
• Please look for the $1, $3, & $5 donation slips at A&P, Food Basics, Foodtown, Genuardi’s, Kings, Pathmark, ShopRite, Super Fresh and Wegmans. 100% of your generous donation in the stores or at http://www.checkouthungernj.org/ will come back to the FoodBank and make a real difference in the fight against hunger in New Jersey.

Over 100 bloggers have united to fight hunger across the Garden State. Together we can fight against 'HUNGER'.

We’re hoping our efforts will compel everyone to do something, anything, to help.

American Butter Corn

Its been a long time I am updating my blog. We/I took a break and life was pretty busy, moving to a new apartment and settling down took us two tiresome weeks. Excited about our new apartment, it has a balcony.... and can't wait for Summer!!

Any one who recently visited India will know about this famous theater snack which is so popular amongst all the ages. Yes, I am talking about American Butter Corn. is famous in most of the movie theaters all across India especially in Andhra Pradesh. Some how I managed to bring that taste here, I make this for prasadam/offering to Saibaba. This recipe has less fat from one tbsp butter, It is a good source of fiber as we make from fresh corn and here goes the simple recipe.

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American Butter Corn
Recipe Source: My Own
Cuisine: Global
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Makes: 4-5 people

Ingredients:
3-4 fresh sweet corn
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp butter
salt as per your taste
4 cups of water

Method:

• Bring 4 cups of water to boil, to this add salt. Break fresh corn into two or three pieces and boil the cobs for 10 mins.
• Peel corn from the cob.
  
• Take a saute pan, heat it on medium high, add butter to that. Now add corn, freshly ground black pepper, pinch of salt and chilli powder.
  
• Mix well so that excess water is evaporated, at the end mix in some chopped parsley or cilantro. You can play with the flavours here by adding different kinds of herbs and spices.

Wish you a Happy Diwali

Hope this Diwali fills your year with joy and continues to brighten the rest of your life

I wish all my friends, my readers a very

Happy Diwali.

Festival Food ~ Chivda

festival food ~ Chivda

Its been a long time I was away from blogging. There were few things to attend first and blogging took a back seat. Diwali is here so I took this opportunity to write a post related to Festival Food. Festivals are always celebrated with much zeal, pomp and show in Bombay. During Diwali when you step into that multi-storied apartments you can smell, shankarpala, karanji, chakali, ladoo etc etc from everyone's kitchen.

'Faraal' ~ Festival food as is called in Marathi is made with so much of love and passion and distributed to our friends and relatives on the day after Diwali. All the three of us used to help my mother in the preps of these fabulous Faraal and some times used to eat the raw dough made for Shankarpala.

Chivda is a traditional Maharashtrian snack made for Diwali and is called by many different names across India. Chivda is a combination of toasted rice flakes, roasted peanuts, cashews, dalia and any of your favourite ingredients. In general it is a mixture of so many different flavours and definitely reflects the diversity of cultures in India, now here is the recipe. Chivda tastes good if you make it with thin poha.

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Chivda
Recipe Source: My Mother
Cuisine: Maharashtrian Cuisine ~ Indian
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Makes: 20-25 people

Ingredients:
10 Cups thin rice flakes, thin poha/atukullu
¾ cup peanuts/chanakayalu
¾ cup dalia/ chutney dal/putnalu
¾ cup cashewnuts/kaju/jeedipappu
½ cup raisins/khishmish
¼ cup curry leaves/kadipatta/karvepaku
¼ dried coconut flakes/ sukha khobra/endu kobbari
3 tbsp toasted fennel seeds/badi sop
1 tsp red chilli powder/karam
2 tsp turmeric/haldi/pasupu
4-5 tsps sugar
2 tsps salt as per your taste
5 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

• Sift thin poha in batches to remove any powdered flakes, otherwise it may result in powdered Chivda. It is always good to sift them through bigger filter to get rid of small powered poha flakes.
• I fry them batch wise in a large kadai. Heat 2 tbsp of cooking oil, add 1 tsp of turmeric and immediately add 5 cups of rice flakes/poha. Start stirring so that all the poha flakes are evenly covered with oil and turmeric. Fry them on medium flame and make sure not to burn poha by constantly stirring and folding the poha flakes.
  
• Remove once they are done and repeat the same steps for the second batch. Place them in a big mixing bowl or on a large sheet of paper.
• Now fry individually in a teaspoon of oil roast cashew nuts, peanuts, dalia and curry leaves. Pour them over the fried poha flakes.
• Dry toast coconut flakes and fennel seeds and add it to fried poha flakes.
• Lastly add raisins/ kishmish, red chilli powder, salt and sugar and mix them properly with the other ingredients and fried poha flakes, check for salt and sugar. Take special care not to break the poha, when you mix it. You have to handle them delicately.
• Box it in an air-tight container and Chivda is ready to serve/ share.

I cannot end this post without mentioning about the recent loss of our dearest family member, my brother-in-law on 7th Oct 2008. This dedication goes to him as he loves Chivda so much.

"There will always be the presence of his absence and it can never be filled" May his soul rest in peace, Amen!