WHAT DO I MAKE...

Ingredients: Whole wheat spaghetti - half box (150 gm) Baby spinach - cut -1 cup Onion - diced - 3/4 cup Red bell pepper - diced - 1/2 cup Green bell pepper - diced - 1/2 cup Dried cranberries - 1/4 cup Olive oil - 4 tbsp All-purpose flour - 1 tbsp Milk - 1/2 cup Method: Boil spaghetti pasta as instructed on the box. In another pan, saute onions in olive oil. When translucent, add green pepper and stir for a few minutes, add red pepper and spinach and a stir for a few more minutes. Add all-purpose flour, cranberries and 1/4 cup milk and cover and cook for 6-7 minutes at medium heat. Add pasta and stir for additional few minutes. Add remaining milk and switch off the heat and cover the pan for a few minutes before serving. You may add grated cheese on top before serving if you wish.

This is a signature tam brahm dessert and a slight variation of "chakkarai pongal" (chakkarai literally means sugar in Tamil but the dish is made with jaggery), it's a popular choice of sweet for festivals. Here is my mom's recipe for this dish. Ingredients: Jaggery (or vellam in Tamil) - 1.5 cubes (most Indian stores carry the dark jaggery that comes in cubes and the bag actually says "south indian jaggery") Rice - 1 cup Moong dal - 1/4 cup Water - 3 cups Milk - 1/2 cup Nutmeg powder - 1/2 tsp (I grate fresh nutmeg, it's more flavorful) Cardamom powder - 5 pods Cashews - 8-10, halved and roasted in ghee Golden raisins - 8-10, roasted in ghee Pressure cook the rice and dal along with the water for about 3 whistles. When it's done, remove and mash well. If you let the rice mixture cool down too much, it might be difficult to mash it, you could use a hand blender in this case but make sure it's a rough "pulse", do not grind/mash it to a