Cooking for pleasure

I love food, and I love cooking for pleasure. I am always on the lookout for easy to do recipes that I can try on weekends. Nowadays, if I don't try cooking something new on a weekend, I feel a little disappointed; especially after I got a new microwave oven.
Microwave ovens are real cool things. They make cooking nice and fun, and owning one opens you to a completely new vista of dishes that you normally cannot do without one. Only last week I tried baking a couple of pizzas, and it came out pretty good for a first time. I could never try out things like pizzas and muffins without an oven. Besides being able to bake, you can really speed up your cooking when you microwave.
Now today is a typical sunday. I wake up and find that there is nothing for breakfast. Typical opportunity to notch up something nice. So, I decided to make a grilled sandwich variation today for breakfast.
Now there are some things that you must always have at home if you want to avoid the irritation of actually going down to the grocery shop when you want to cook something: potatoes, tomatoes, and onions are an absolute must. Even if you are not trying to do something fancy, these things are required almost everyday at home. Since I wanted to make sandwiches, I wanted bread, butter, cheese and capsicums. Thankfully my brother got these things for me while I did my initial chopping and frying. This is when I realized that one should always have butter and cheese at home (atleast I should).

I wanted sprouted moong dal, but there was no time for that. I checked my fridge and I luckily found boiled potatoes. Good. You always need some good binding agent when making sandwich. So, I peeled the potatoes, mashed them and put them in a wok. Added a dash of salt, red chilly powder, and a little oil. Then I fried this mixture for a while cos I don't like the raw smell of boiled potatoes.
I chopped the tomatoes, onions, and capsicum into small equal sized pieces. Added a dash of salt and pepper and microwaved them for 1 minute at 100% power. (Boy I really like the smell of those crisp capsicums when they are very slightly cooked.)
Next I applied some butter on a bread slice and spread some of my boiled potato mixture on it. Topped this with some of my tomato, capsicum, and onion mixture and sprinkled some grated cheese on it. Note that this is an open sandwich, in the sense that it is only a single slice of bread without one on the top of my stuffing (?) mixture.
Now this was ready to be grilled for about 10 minutes (or till the cheese melts). Boy, when the 10 minutes were over, and when I opened the door to the oven, I was greeted by an inviting smell of crispy capsicums and melted cheese. It turned out pretty good....crispy bread with a nice topping of veggies bound by the layer of mashed potatoes, topped by melted cheese.
Served with some ketchup and accompanied by some coke....a perfect start to a nice Sunday.

Cooking for pleasure

I love food, and I love cooking for pleasure. I am always on the lookout for easy to do recipes that I can try on weekends. Nowadays, if I don't try cooking something new on a weekend, I feel a little disappointed; especially after I got a new microwave oven.
Microwave ovens are real cool things. They make cooking nice and fun, and owning one opens you to a completely new vista of dishes that you normally cannot do without one. Only last week I tried baking a couple of pizzas, and it came out pretty good for a first time. I could never try out things like pizzas and muffins without an oven. Besides being able to bake, you can really speed up your cooking when you microwave.
Now today is a typical sunday. I wake up and find that there is nothing for breakfast. Typical opportunity to notch up something nice. So, I decided to make a grilled sandwich variation today for breakfast.
Now there are some things that you must always have at home if you want to avoid the irritation of actually going down to the grocery shop when you want to cook something: potatoes, tomatoes, and onions are an absolute must. Even if you are not trying to do something fancy, these things are required almost everyday at home. Since I wanted to make sandwiches, I wanted bread, butter, cheese and capsicums. Thankfully my brother got these things for me while I did my initial chopping and frying. This is when I realized that one should always have butter and cheese at home (atleast I should).

I wanted sprouted moong dal, but there was no time for that. I checked my fridge and I luckily found boiled potatoes. Good. You always need some good binding agent when making sandwich. So, I peeled the potatoes, mashed them and put them in a wok. Added a dash of salt, red chilly powder, and a little oil. Then I fried this mixture for a while cos I don't like the raw smell of boiled potatoes.
I chopped the tomatoes, onions, and capsicum into small equal sized pieces. Added a dash of salt and pepper and microwaved them for 1 minute at 100% power. (Boy I really like the smell of those crisp capsicums when they are very slightly cooked.)
Next I applied some butter on a bread slice and spread some of my boiled potato mixture on it. Topped this with some of my tomato, capsicum, and onion mixture and sprinkled some grated cheese on it. Note that this is an open sandwich, in the sense that it is only a single slice of bread without one on the top of my stuffing (?) mixture.
Now this was ready to be grilled for about 10 minutes (or till the cheese melts). Boy, when the 10 minutes were over, and when I opened the door to the oven, I was greeted by an inviting smell of crispy capsicums and melted cheese. It turned out pretty good....crispy bread with a nice topping of veggies bound by the layer of mashed potatoes, topped by melted cheese.
Served with some ketchup and accompanied by some coke....a perfect start to a nice Sunday.

New venue for WGA notifier

My brother: "Hey, my friend is getting a weird popup; it says that his copy of windows is not genuine. What to do?."

Me: "Ask your friend to turn off windows updates."

Bro: "What will happen if windows updates is turned off?"

Me: "Nothing!"

Yup, if you want nothing to happen, then turn off your windows updates. I am no supporter of piracy, but I feel that the cost of a genuine copy of Windows XP is a little too high in India.

The problem with most Indian users is that they don't know whether their copy of windows is genuine or not. Most of them have their windows updates ON by default. This went fine till the time Microsoft decided to push the WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) notifier through the windows updates service. This is when the notifier got installed on user PCs and it started pestering people saying that their copy of windows is not genuine. Well, the ideal thing to do when you find out that your copy is not genuine is to click on the Get Genuine button and get a licensed version. But that doesnt seem to be a viable option for poor people who cannot afford one . Well, the good thing is that Microsoft doesn't do much more than just inform the user of the status of his/her operating system, i.e. genuine, non-genuine etc. This doesnt cause you much more trouble than the occassional irritation of looking at the notifier popup (which can also be avoided using some hacks). Thankfully Microsoft isn't taking legal action against the erring users (as yet). So the situation is fine for now.

Consider this: The windows xp service pack 3 is underway. It will be available in a couple of months. Now imagine what happens if the WGA notifier is integrated inside the service pack 3? All users who install SP3, get the pesky notifier on every boot up (unless you work around it). This move will not be unanticipated since Microsoft already has GenuineCheck.dll integrated with most of its downloads.

So basically the users need to be aware that they are using pirated operating systems, and that windows updates and the service packs are not meant for them.

Where did I get this idea of WGA notifier integrated with SP3? Dont ask me.

New venue for WGA notifier

My brother: "Hey, my friend is getting a weird popup; it says that his copy of windows is not genuine. What to do?."

Me: "Ask your friend to turn off windows updates."

Bro: "What will happen if windows updates is turned off?"

Me: "Nothing!"

Yup, if you want nothing to happen, then turn off your windows updates. I am no supporter of piracy, but I feel that the cost of a genuine copy of Windows XP is a little too high in India.

The problem with most Indian users is that they don't know whether their copy of windows is genuine or not. Most of them have their windows updates ON by default. This went fine till the time Microsoft decided to push the WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) notifier through the windows updates service. This is when the notifier got installed on user PCs and it started pestering people saying that their copy of windows is not genuine. Well, the ideal thing to do when you find out that your copy is not genuine is to click on the Get Genuine button and get a licensed version. But that doesnt seem to be a viable option for poor people who cannot afford one . Well, the good thing is that Microsoft doesn't do much more than just inform the user of the status of his/her operating system, i.e. genuine, non-genuine etc. This doesnt cause you much more trouble than the occassional irritation of looking at the notifier popup (which can also be avoided using some hacks). Thankfully Microsoft isn't taking legal action against the erring users (as yet). So the situation is fine for now.

Consider this: The windows xp service pack 3 is underway. It will be available in a couple of months. Now imagine what happens if the WGA notifier is integrated inside the service pack 3? All users who install SP3, get the pesky notifier on every boot up (unless you work around it). This move will not be unanticipated since Microsoft already has GenuineCheck.dll integrated with most of its downloads.

So basically the users need to be aware that they are using pirated operating systems, and that windows updates and the service packs are not meant for them.

Where did I get this idea of WGA notifier integrated with SP3? Dont ask me.

ब्लोगगींग इन hindi

I just discovered this feature in blogger where you could post in Hindi. The good thing is that it works on phoenetics, which makes it easier to transliterate words into Hindi from English. Just type words like they would sound in hindi, and the software attempts to convert it into the hindi word. Its not perfect yet, but a pretty good attempt I would say. And whats more? It remembers the corrections you make; so you dont need to do them again and again.

अब सोचने कि बात यह है के कितने लोग हिंदी में पोस्ट करना पसंद करते हैं

Yup, I see the spelling mistake above. Shows that its not perfect yet. Still some kinks to iron out, but it feels good to be able to post in my national language.

ब्लोगगींग इन hindi

I just discovered this feature in blogger where you could post in Hindi. The good thing is that it works on phoenetics, which makes it easier to transliterate words into Hindi from English. Just type words like they would sound in hindi, and the software attempts to convert it into the hindi word. Its not perfect yet, but a pretty good attempt I would say. And whats more? It remembers the corrections you make; so you dont need to do them again and again.

अब सोचने कि बात यह है के कितने लोग हिंदी में पोस्ट करना पसंद करते हैं

Yup, I see the spelling mistake above. Shows that its not perfect yet. Still some kinks to iron out, but it feels good to be able to post in my national language.