A long list of mithais was captured in a previous post - http://www.kavita.kutchvalley.com/?p=253.
Even though mithais are easily available in indian grocery stores and tasting fresh mithai from india is not uncommon these days(we have so many folks who keep visiting India that you get a chance to eat those 
)
But still one may want to make some mithais at home for various multiple reasons. Our parents and grandparents used to make so much mithai and still make at home.
I make ghughras and khajur pak. I love mohanthar and have tried making it various times, but doesn’t come as good as my moms 
. Do you make or have tried making some of your favorite mithais at home? Which are the mithais that you typically make?
About 3 hr train ride from Thane, Deolali has become mini Kutch. There is an air force cantonment in the area. It has almost all the facilities that you get in a city and also a village like feeling if you drive 15-20 min. away from Deolali/Nasik. I am sure many of you must have been to Deolali. Lam road is the main road on which many sanitoriums are there. Popular among Kutchis are “Devji Khetsi” and “Devji Ratansi”. Now many Kutchi families even own their apartment in a society or even a bunglow.
There are many places one can visit from here. Few places where we have been:
Khandoba Tekri : There is a small temple on the Tekri and a park at the bottom of the hill.
Dada Saheb Udhyan: They have a nice park and a fountain show at night. Also a Buddha temple. It is at the bottom of a hill from where you can go to Pandav Leni caves.
Pandav Leni : They are caves – Buddha monasteries. It’s 20 min trek ( with proper stairs) up to the caves.
All above places are about 20 min away from our Popular sanitoriums.
Garghoti museum of minerals and stones: We have not been here. But have heard very good reviews.
DharmaChakra : It is uniquely located among the foothills of few mountains. On the way to Deolali while going by road — it comes about an hour before you reach Deolali.
Gajpantha: It is another Tirth about 30 min away form Deolali. One has to climb a flight of high steps to reach to the top. Haven’t been here but again have heard good reviews.
MuktiDham is another popular temple with all Hindu Gods in Nasik. One can also visit the market are here.
People also go to Shirdi from Deolali.
In our recent trip to Deolali, we visited farms where Dudhi, Spring Onion, Wheat, Cilantro, green and purple grapes, Guava crops were grown. Grapes and guava are the main crops of Nasik.
There is a bicycle rental shop on Lam Road. We had rented bicycles for 2 days and kids had fun riding it in the senatorium. Also a very famous and very old Health Juice Center is there outside “Devji Khetsi” sanitorium.
In short – Deolali is a very popular place for relaxation and getting a short break from Mumbai.
I heard about 125CR-250CR ghee boli for pratistha of Shri Jeerawala parasnath bhagwan in Rajashthan temple. Don’t know the perfect amount and ghee boli is on hold. The person for this boli is manekchand gutka. If anybody has more concrete news please share..
Proud to be Jain..
any body knows about kadu kariyatu ? how to make it? what is the name of power and if it is available in Indian grocery stores?
any idea about any other such food/drinks like karela?
Rajesh Khanna breaks his silence, accuses James Cameron of his latest blockbuster Avatar being a copy of Kaka’s 1983 Bollywood masterpiece Avtaar.
He supported his argument with following proofs,
They copied the POSTER!
They even copied my paralyzed hand.
Shabana’s faraway look, copied again.
Do you need more proof…?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Social Updates
Status Updates come to KV. Here are the additions which can be done by the “Add a Status Update” option from the “Add Content” Menu.
1) You can now provide a status update on KV. You can optionally tag your status update with certain keywords like (music, news, deal, etc) for an icon to appear next to your status. We will add more keywords and icons soon. This feature replaces the “Kya Deal Hai” and “Aur Anya Samachar”. Now just use “deal” or “news” in your status update.
2) Sometimes you may find an interesting tweet which you want to share. In such case just provide the username of the tweeter and we will grab the latest tweet from that user for you.
3) Sometimes an interesting tweet may not be the latest one from that person. In such a case, grab the unique id of the tweet (a numeric one) and paste it. we will grab that tweet for you.
4) If you are a regular tweeter send us your username and we will automatically grab your tweets on an hourly basis.
There is so much information going around in the social world. And it makes sense for some of that to flow to KV also. :-).
Coming Soon:
1) Comments on the above status updates. You will be able to comment on them.
2) More Icons and better presentation.
During the long weekend we went to Safari West in Solano County near Santa Rosa. Dimple had found out about this place through her R&D. It seemed something different and fun for kids. So we decided to try it out.
At its core its an exciting three hour, safari drive through which you explore the wildlife preserve, traveling in an authentic safari vehicle. Before getting on the safari, they take you around various cages where birds and other little animals are kept. The cheetahs are kept in a cage also and can be seen during walking tour.
Cheetah in the cage
The Safari ride itself is about 2 hours. They have a seat on top of the driver which gives an awesome feeling. Each safari vehicle takes around 12 people. They stop the vehicle 2-3 times for folks to exchange the top seat. The rainy season is not a good time to go since some roads may become muddy and they may skip that portion of the tour. So choose a nice day and go. They have 2 tours: 10am and 2 pm. And you need to reserve before going.
Rhinos
Our guide was fantastic (Stephen) and had good knowledge of the animals. We saw Giraffes, Ostriches, Rhinos :-), Zebras, Antelopes, etc on the safari. A ostrich came right near my face one time. :-). It followed our jeep for some time.
The Safari Vehicle
It may not be Africa, but it’s close! With animals roaming and running free outside your safari jeep this safari escape is the closest it comes without requiring a passport.
Our Tent Cabin
The other part of Safari West is that you can stay overnight within the preserve. They have nice tent cabins with electricity and heat (no TV). You cannot take your own vehicle to the cabin. So you have to be driven there by their vehicle. Some of the cabins are quite near the entrance though. So you can easily walk. We had a cabin with the view of the giraffes and other birds. It was awesome. The Cabins are a bit expensive at 200$+ per night. But it is worth it just for the experience.
They offer dinner through reservations but we took our own dinner. And good for that since I dont think there were many veggie options in the dinner. However they have free hot chocloate in the dining hall which was great in the cold night.
They took the giraffes inside a hut during night but they returned in the morning. In the morning we saw some people offering the giraffes grass and we started it too. We had so much fun with feeding them for 15 mins. Then the safari guy came and said we are not supposed to feed them. I suppose its ok to feed them once or twice but not for extended periods. So keep that in mind :-).
Dimple feeding the giraffes
Kairavi feeding the giraffes
Overall it was a good unique experience for kids and its a good weekend get away. If you just want to do the safari you can do it in a day trip also. If you are staying overnight, then you can explore city of Santa Rosa also.
Website: http://www.safariwest.com
View our Complete Photo Set here
The TwitterWorld and Facebook world are ablaze with comments pouring in from everywhere.
Capturing some of those comments here.
“There are two kinda batsman in the world Sachin Tendulkar and the rest….”
“commit all your crimes when SACHIN is playing …coz even GOD is watching him play”
realpreityzinta: ” Sachin ! You are my hero ! You make us so proud Team India rocks because Sachin shocks the opposition !”
kjohar25: “His name is TENDULKAR and he is a LEGEND!!!”
juniorbachchan: “SACHIN. Master, idol, LEGEND!!! ”
How long 2 Gallon of milk last in your household?
What’s your method of restocking?
Purchase more then 2 gallon at a time? Get new one as 2 is getting over?
Or do u have some kind of home delivery, Milk purchase pool set up?