Hello Everyone!

Wish you all a very Happy Pongal!

It’s the first festival of this year at my home and its one of my favorites. Just like all festivals, we stick to a vegetarian spread and each festival has its own winning dish. For Pongal, it’s the traditional ever-delicious sweet Pongal (a dish cooked with rice, mung lentils and jaggery), Kara Pongal (spicy version), Paal Pongal (simple version with just milk and rice), Avial (a mixed vegetable dish made with coconut as base), crispy vada (deep fried lentil goodness), pumpkin fry, rasam, sambar, papad, sundal and rice. There are lot of other dishes, but these top my must have Pongal bites.

In addition to this, we also decorate our home with red flowers (roses, hibiscuses), sugar canes, turmeric plant and rangoli. We also buy a new red color cloth to place under and around the main idols of worship. The reason for using red is because it’s considered as the color of prosperity and love (or in other words in my home… it’s the color of/for god). I think that’s one of the reasons why most women drape themselves in a red silk saree on their wedding day in my state. So, to wish all of you a lot of good luck, prosperity and love, I would like to share this hibiscus which I had captured a couple of months ago. I hope you enjoy it. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂