Weekend in Vegas ...

Last Thursday I met up with Aarti in crazy Las Vegas for a fun weekend. After an on-time flight from Indy (thank you Southwest airlines), I found myself at the very 80s looking McCarran airport.

I had already heard of Las Vegas being called the gambling capital of the world, but I was unprepared for the sight of rows and rows of slot machines that entice the most risk averse person to bet a few cents and try his luck.

After picking up our bags and a rather long wait for the cab - we headed to our casino hotel. A quick check in and we were out to check out the casino.

Las Vegas is a wild place - but I didn't know that yet. The next morning, my brain was in inertia, and had a late start to getting onto the strip. The first sight I remember was the replica of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris casino ...

Over the next few days - we walked the malls, saw an amazing water ballet show at Bellagio called "O" from the famous Cirque Du Soleil troupe. We had front row seats and ended up getting completely soaked during one of the water acrobatics. Brrrr ... that was rather wet and uncomfortable, but the show was awesome. The acts underwater and the somersaults ... phenomenal.

Vegas by night is a colorful, glizty place. The "strip" as the Main Street in Vegas is referred to is full of people in a party mood.

Vegas is a crazy party place - but for some reason, I'd be happy to stay away from it. It felt dated and sleazy rather than vibrant ... am sure the many gambling enthusiasts would disagree, then again - to each their own!

Healthy Lunch ...

This Saturday, after finishing up some chores - I came to my question of the day ... What do I cook today? Happened to see an ad on TV featuring avocados, and since there were a few sitting in my fridge - decided to whip up - Avocado Bruschetta for lunch.

It was easy to make, all I did was -

Chop up some onions, grape tomatoes, green chillies.

Add a teaspoon of lime juice & salt to taste.

Let the mixture sit in the fridge.

In the mean time - Brushed some bread with olive oil and rubbed a shredded garlic clove on it.

Toasted the bread in the oven.

Chop up an avocado and added it to the onion-tomato-chillies mixture. Add some finely chopped corriander and mixed it up to let the flavors mingle.

Once the bread was done, layered the bread with the avocado mixture and garnished it with a sprig of mint. Voila ! A tasty healthy meal was prepared in minutes. :)

Weekend in Colorado

Off to Denver ... A long awaited weekend with my cousins. Four of us had planned to meet up in Denver and drive on to Aspen. Since this tied in with the 4th of July Independence day weekend, it was perfect timing.



Two of my cousins were flying in from Portland, while one of them drove from Snowmass to Denver to pick us up.



The flight was delayed by a bit, and so was my cousin who drove to the airport to pick me up - so it was perfect timing.

Inspiration ...

This weekend - I was suddenly inspired to pick up my brushes and paints that had been packed away for a while ...

Still reminiscing of my peach picking trip - here is a picture of the painting inspired by my visit to the peach orchards.

Doing my bit for the community ...

Up at the crack of dawn ... I found myself scrambling to get to office to be there in time to participate in a community service day planned by my organization.

It was hectic but a good experience. We visited one of the Chicago inner city schools and taught students about the importance of doing their bit for the environment. When reading through their curriculum, I realized that I could do some of the things that I was teaching about ...

Simple things - turn off the lights each time you leave a room. Switch off the TV if no one is watching it. Unplug devices once they are done charging. Simple tasks - but if all of us do our bit, it would definitely make a world a greener place!

After this day spent working with the children, I'm determined to implement the green tips in my own life. :)

Eating like there's no tomorrow ...

The title of this blog is not what I did at this restaurant - but the possibility that I could. The name of the restaurant - Fogo De Chao. Their specialty - grilled meats. This is a chain of Brazilian style steakhouses, serving various kinds and cuts of meat. For the vegetarians reading this - stop here, lest the rest of this writeup gross you out.

For the others - this is an experience not to be missed. The experience begins as you enter the restaurant and are greeted by a extensive salad bar. The salad bar in itself could suffice for a restaurant. This is well stocked with the regular greens, dressings, mixed salads - but also has a sampling of Mediterreanean style tabouleh, feta, mozarella & fine cheddar cheeses, fine cold cuts of meat. It's easy to go crazy here. Some of the others with me had been to one of these restaurants earlier - so warned me against filling up at the salad bar.

At the table warm rolls of melted cheese centered bread awaited us. Again - very easy to fill up on these too!

Now for the main course - Each diner is given a coaster with 2 colors - red & green. When you are ready to eat - turn the coaster to the green side up. As if by magic, waiters bearing seasoned grilled meat of various kinds on trays and skewers appear at your side. Each one explains the kind of meat they are serving. Gauchos are the traditional Brazilian skewered meats, racks of lamb, grilled lamb chops, beef ribs, filet mignon, chicken drumsticks, seasoned sausage, grilled chicken slices. Each table also has unlimited sides of polenta(type of fried potato), fried bananas and mashed potatoes. The fried bananas are used to cleanse the palate between different styles of meat.

Once you think you have been served for the time being - turn the coaster to red and the food stops bombarding you. Once you think you are ready for the next round, switch to green ... A prompt waiter replaces your plate and the onslaught begins.

At the end of it - beef ribs, the lamb chops and the sausage were rated the winners. However, this was not the end of the meal. Desserts - flan, molten chocolate cake and papaya dessert followed. The papaya dessert is supposed to be a digestive (how something mixed with ice cream can aid digestion is beyond me). My vote for the best dessert went to the flan. It was awesome.

So - to all my carnivorous friends ... if you are getting on the Atkins diet or just craving some good grilled meat ... Fogo De Chao is the place to go!

Peach picking in Alabama ...

Memorial Day ... Whew a long weekend finally! This time I was off to serene Birmingham in Alabama. Visiting my friend A, who decided to move here. This time I will even get to see A's sprawling new house that just completed construction. I'm looking forward to the weekend - and although I think it will be hectic (which weekend with friends isn't?) This time the plan is ... that there should be no plan. Try to keep it as laid-back and chilled out as possible.

So far, it has been a peaceful relaxed weekend in Birmingham, Alabama. Yesterday we found ourselves driving to Clanton county for a day of peach-picking. This area is popularly called the Peach County given its abundant peach orchards. As we drove in, we were greeted by rows of peach trees laden with ripe red peaches. Some of the trees were so laden with fruit that they had split the tree in half.

We were fairly large number of people, since A has this knack of coordinating and organizing poeple, so that you always end up with a big group. Overall, with kids running amok in the orchards the result was pretty chaotic. The orchards were awesome, you could pick and eat as many peaches as you liked. Biting into the first (albeit unwashed) peach was not only delicious, but refreshing as well. After this, I ate more peaches than I put in the basket! It was a rather warm day - and in a few hours we were all ready to get into a cooler place.

We stopped by a wayside deli at Durbin farms to pick up a quick bite - the sandwiches here were surprisingly delicious. Headed back laden with peaches - we had a lot to show for a day of peach picking!

The day the river turned green ....

Spring is finally in the air ... After hibernating through winter, I ventured downtown on Saturday with a friend. The occasion was St.Patrick's Day, the day they dye the Chicago river green! As you can see - they pick the brightest green dye and add lot of it into the river. Am told that the river retains the color for about 2 weeks.

Despite the clocks moving into summer time, the weather still seemed rather wintry - with cold wind blowing across the river. Since both of us had left our hats behind, we found ourselves in the nearest Walgreens' picking woollen hats with "Chicago" written across the top.

I would have really liked to get a green St.Patrick's Day hat - but, hey when your ears are freezing off your head, choice loses the battle with comfort in a minute. Check this tree - what do you think is the background ? Green grass - take a closer look ... its the green Chicago river.