strawberry or mango daiquiri versus strawberry or mango margaritas...

some days it feels like I'm on a constant holiday.....

our weather is just perfect for a daiquiri or margarita on the balcony in the late afternoon...

 I know I make good strawberry daiquiris !!....and with my mother visiting of course I've made some...

questions is which one is the best ?....which one is my favourite ?

difficult one...

do you know which one is your favourite ?

these drinks are really easy to make...you just need strawberries....preferably fresh ones but frozen strawberries are just fine....lime juice, rom and crushed ice....

that's it

you do need a good mixer though....here I have my handmixer and I so long for my 

kitchen aid mixer...

if you want to make a margarita instead you need tequila and also some triple sec....

yummy....and so easy to make virgin....

mango season is here so we can get many different kinds of mangos....

it's just prefect since the drink is just so good...well,if you like mangos that is...

easy peasy to make these ones also.... you need mangos, some lime juice, rom and crushed ice for the daiquiri....

mangos,tequila,triple sec and crushed ice for the margarita...

mix mix 

enjoy

so which one is your favourite ?

best way to find out is to try them out...

little tip though...don't try them all in one afternoon....

a daiquiri a day keeps the doctor away !

let me know which one you prefer

Thunder and lightning and STRONG winds

not a very pleasant morning

but some of my swedish friends here immediately wrote on facebook that this means SPRING...the season spring, that is....

that sure felt good to read but since I've had a cold since a couple of weeks back all I could think about was  how to stay warm and  how to get this darn cold off my back

  I got a gift the other day that I hope helps, a box full off Kinu's...what a great gift !

Kinu's looks like an orange but is not....it's bigger than an orange, juicier than an orange and also sweeter than an orange....

I guess the month of january is the month when everybody tries anything to stay healthy...well, almost...

a good tip is to get enough vitamin C in your body and what better way than to make your own morning juice...it tastes so much better when you do it yourself....no extra sugar and other additives in this one I tell you...only Kinu...just the colour of this one makes me happy !

remember, you have to take care of yourself...spring is just around the corner....

Hope you have a wonderful day and don't forget your vitamins C's.

Fierce competition, juju berries and the sun on a straw !

While driving home from work today I saw these vendors 

all lined up and I thought " this is what I call fierce competition"

….. it was just so cool to see all the wagons lined up…I saw all these wheels and then I saw the fruit...

when I first got into the car my driver wanted me to taste these kind of berries…jujube or indian plums…

I didn't like the smell of them, so I was a little hesitant to taste…it was sweet and sour…nothing I will go out into the hills here and pick though ( like I would here anyhow with jungle cats and leopards around )…Pawan is really thoughtful and knows that I do like to try new things so…some I like some I don't.

when we where getting closer to home I looked up and saw this beautiful sunset…and thought today I will be fast with my camera....you see the sun sets so fast….it's like it's falling into the ground…..but I managed to get one nice shot…well, at least I think so…..I got the sun on a straw….

got me thinking of picking wild strawberries and putting them on a straw in summertime….and now it's christmas….confusing…anyhow, the house you see in the background is actually where we live.

See you tomorrow..I hope….

Christmas flowers turned into Christmas chillies.

I was out to get some white christmas flowers for our balcony…but when I got to the nursery

I saw these chilli plants and decided to go for chilli instead !!??…and since I can actually use them when I cook….so I guess we'll be chilling this Christmas…hahahaha…I know…I'm so funny…

who can resist this purple variety..I was warned though…really hot-spicy mam !

ok..guess I need construction gloves when cutting up these ones…

then I got whitish-red ones and she said "a little less hot but hot"…guess I only need cleaning gloves for cutting up these ones..and finally

these are just normal ones, so I guess I can stick to my old ways?..just a plastic bag on my hands?….if normal in India it often means hot-spicy in Sweden….I'll let you know on a scale how hot the different ones where..maybe like the jalapeño scale?….hmmm I wonder for how long the hot stuff sticks to your fingers….you see I wear contact lenses ! or maybe there's a remedy to get that hot stoff off your fingers…does anyone know?

I'd prefer if I'll get some advise from someone who has actually used the really hot purple chilli and if anyone can tell me the name of it. ( I think it is the purple tiger chilli )

I visited a guava orchard.

On the outskirts of Gurgaon I visited a guava orchard …

it reminded me of the apple orchards back home….the difference is that it's the beginning of december and if I want to stroll around on an apple orchard in bloom in Sweden you have to do that in may-june and then they are harvested in september.

guava,pera or amrod are different names of this fruit and now it's harvest season so I see guava vendors   

wherever I look almost….I didn't know that you should eat the guava with black salt so when the vendor offered me some salt in a tiny little paperbag to go with the guavas I was surprised...

we did try it with salt just not black salt… I used my herb salt instead and it was good….

I love the smell of the guavas…I keep them out in a big fruit bowl and it kind of smells citrusy like….

hmmmm

but they do look like some kind of apple-pear fruit…if anyone wonders what I payed for a kg of guavas it was 40 rupees including the salt…alltså 4 kronor…ganska lagom tycker jag.

Hope you have a wonderful day dear reader !

Singhoda or water fruit anyone ?

also known as water chestnut....

today was the first time I laid my eyes on fresh ones .....

I just had to try .....so I bought a couple....

peeled them and inside is this soft nut....

.... crispy and good....

My driver told me that they are only on the market for about a month and a half....

monsoon fruit 

ooops ! I just read that they should be eaten in moderation .......they are extremely laxative in nature

Good to know !

Addictive smoothies and this weeks dose of Art

It's wednesday and soon I'm off to the American Embassy School for todays practise.

( today we have time trials 100 backstroke by the way )

At least once a week I stop by the

it's a wonderful cafe' and they have the most addictive mango smoothies......and when it's hot as it is here every day it tastes so good.....inside the cafe' there's lots of paintings...

this one caught my attention last time

Sorry about the light in the corner but it was bright in there......

Walking into the campus at AES is like walking into another world by the way.....and I like it ....I recognise it and I feel at home and everything feels easier around there....when I walk out through the gates I'm back in India straight away....

hmmm.... can't wait for that smoothie...

A sunday morning postcard from my life in India

Juice anyone ?

      the juice vendors I see all over ......

You got to love the sign !

Have a wonderful sunday wherever you are.

Guava or amrood anyone ?

I don't think I have ever bought guava before moving to India....and I'm pretty certain that I have  never tasted one fresh either....

the most frequently eaten species, and the one often simply referred to as "the guava", is the Apple Guava....and it can be eaten as an apple....the whole thing...I did peel mine though....

I think they kind of look like pears.....or something in between an apple and a pear...

here in north India guava is also called amrood, possibly a variety of armoot meaning "pear" in Arabic and Turkish languages.

guava is full of nutrients.....a single fruit contains about four times the amount of vitamin C as an orange.

So a guava a day keeps the doctor away.....

Golden dates

Today was the first time ever that  I bought and ate golden dates......

sweet and so good ....I learned that they grow in the southern parts of India

on a palmtree like this...

apparently every tree can harvest between 50-80 kg of golden dates !

I must try the other fresh dates also.

Love smoothies

So today after my so called workout  I made a mango-banana smoothie for breakfast.
A smoothie is also a good healthy breakfast.
Depending on what you put in it of course.

I had a mango, a banana , 1/2 dl low fat milk and ice. Mix it all together !

So good...

I think my favourite fruit is

litchi.....so today I bought almost a kilo of fresh litchis

I know that I tasted my first litchis back in the 1960ies some time but those where canned ones. I was just a little girl.......I still love them and they are better fresh without the sirup.

The litchi season is now in may and june.

Since he also had mangos of course I bought some ......a mango a day keeps the doctor away...

Healthy breakfast

or at least part of a healthy one.....

As promised yesterday here's the melon( looking like a pumpkin ) and the green almonds. The almonds are soft and a little juicy and full with energy .

Do you eat a healthy breakfast every day ? I know too many that think they will loose weight by not eating anything in the morning.(so totally wrong).....and the worst part is that a lot of kids does not eat anything at all in the morning. Can a growing body and brain function without any fuel ? No !

The king is back.....

but no not the mango ! This morning I saw a kingfisher for the first time. The bird that is....the beer I have had lots of times. For all you out there who don't know.....Kingfisher is Indias number one beer.

And of course they have the bird as their logo....anyhow,

 this morning by the pool I saw this blue bird so I grabbed my phone and I managed to get two,not good but...pictures of this shy bird before it flew away.

I will definitely bring my camera along and try to catch the king in a better way.

The King is here

well, at least the king of fruit is here. In todays Gurgaon Times I saw this article that I have to share with you all. I knew that mango is the national fruit of India but I didn´t know how many different kinds of mango there are. I guess these are just some of them. Axel and Elisabeth you have got to come back because we have lots more to try!!!Somewhere I read that there are over 1000 different kinds of mangos all over the world.Don´t know if I want to try them all at once !

(So that you can see all I have devided the picture into three pieces)

Doesn´t it look delicious ?

Guess which one I bought today ?

Do you think they will get abstinence from the lack of mango ?

I wonder if Axel and Elisabeth will get abstinence when they leave India ? They love mango and have been eating everything with mango in it. I wonder how they will cope in Sweden ?

Fruit for the eyes

I see the fruit vendors every day on Golf Course Road on the way to Kunskapsskolan. ( DLf Phase 1 behind Sahara Mall ) I can feel the taste of the fruit just by looking.

The yellow fruit he´s holding up is actually Physallis. ( an american lady told me they are called yellow raspberry in the us ? ).