Krishna Jayanthi my most favourite festival

[COLOR="Purple"]Hi Friends!

Had been wanting to start this thread a couple of days ago but then………. due to paucity of time, coming late. I know you will excuse me.

Krishnajayanthi had been my favourite festival because

I always reminisce with joy the good old days with Paati (when we were in a joint family) how all the elderly women get busy on that day preparing the house for the pooja, the kolams, preparation of delicacies, the joint chanting of slokas and singing of songs. Only once in all these years, I remember, the cheedais burst while still getting cooked in oil. Since then every year, there used to be sort of warning to any chitti or periyamma or cousin or even me (from my mom!) to be careful while preparing the cheedais. This year ofcourse Shekarji was the first one to advise me to be careful while preparing them. He also gave me the option to buy these delicacies from Sri Krishna Sweets. But as I told you earlier, how can I not take the trouble of preparing the items my dear Lord likes.

Please excuse me, every time I do the mistake of clicking the snaps only before the pooja and not after the pooja. As you know, the moment pooja is over, everyone rushes to have the Prasad. So I too forget the snapshots post pooja.

I am attaching the cheedais clicked for your viewing. Apart from this the items that I offered as neivedhyam but missing in the photos are Thenkuzhal, Aval, Vennai, Pink colour paal payasam. Believe it or not, Sudha literally fell on my feet to express her appreciation of the payasam. This time though I did not allow the milk to reduce in volume for a long time, I am myself surprised at the pink colour of the payasam . I think the trick worked. I had taken a fist full of rice for 1 lt. thick milk – fried it a little in just 1 tspn of ghee and then pressure cooked it for 8 whistles in 0.5 lts milk while simultaneously boiling another half a litre milk with sugar and then just mixed the two and gave a boil for 5 mins.

I always make like manjal pillayar out of both the cheedai maavu and keep haldi kumkum and do namaskar praying it should come out well. This time apart from doing this, I prayed to my Paati that my vella cheedai should get the exact texture like how she makes – crisp from out and soft from inside and that uppu cheedai should not burst and taste crisp.

Everything was loved by family and colleagues and I felt so happy at their enjoyment.

Another thing that I love about this pooja is drawing Krishna’s feet. This year Sudha drew them. I did only the outer kolam at the flat entrance. And then listening to all Krishna devotional songs. Since CD player is not working properly, I had downloaded many songs from Youtube opening several tabs and played them and enjoyed to my heart’s content.


Hope you all enjoy.
[/COLOR]

 

Thank you Bhargavi for your first fb.

I remember last year when the vella cheedai alarndhufied, I was singing thaamarai pootha thadaagamadi!!!! becos the cheedais did not stay in one place and blossomed like a flower. What u say is true. Till we remove them and do neivedhyam, we do not know how they have turned out.

 

Thank you aunty for the kisses and the pat.

Nowadays since i travel a lot, Sudha's concern is increasing by bounds and she's always willing to lend a helping hand.

There is one show on NDTV have you seen - I don't know his name - he is a great foodie - he tastes the items that people cook - show comes on week ends. Before onam she heard and saw the preparation / recipe for aviyal, kootu kari and all in typical malabar style. She is craving to cook them coming Sunday. Let me see.

 

Hi Aruna,

Thanks for being here. The darker one is the sweet version - we are safe while making it. The golden brown is the salt version called uppu cheedai. If these balls are dropped into the oil before the moisture content is absorbed, then while getting cooked they tend to crack and burst out of the kadai!

Yeah these are really mouth watering!!

 

Thank you sir for your comments. Yes. Rightly said, this year I too missed the rains. Generally it rains on Krishna Janmashtami. Nice to know you were blessed to spend the divine day at Puri this year amidst rain. I too enjoy the `payas' always.