Come Spring and the shops and markets are filled with gorgeous, fresh Spring veggies! I love this time of year!

Both my sons love carrots and this is when they are sweetest and crunchiest! So, besides just eating them raw, I make them into Carrot Pickle or Gajar Ka Achaar. This simple, easy to prepare Indian pickle tastes so delicious with plain rice and Daal (lentil dishes), it's hard to stop at just a little! Gajar Ka Achaar keeps for a month if not refrigerated and 2 months if kept in the fridge so it is best made in small batches.

Are you one of the many who plan to give your Mom the day off from cooking on Mother's Day? Good idea! My kids are not old enough but when they are, you can bet I'll be dropping not-so-subtle hints that they do exactly that!!

If you decide to go the exotic route you've got to try Indian cuisine. There's so much to choose from and let's face it, no matter what you cook, your Mom is bound to be impressed! I've got heaps of suggestions no matter which meal you want to prepare - breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner! Some of these are even good for Dads to try with their kids. Hmmmm.... now that gives me an idea....

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The common factor in most Kadhis (a mildly flavored, tempered style of curry) is that they are tangy, tempered and vegetarian. To temper means to season hot cooking oil. The oil is heated and a mixture of whole spices added to it and cooked. This tempered oil is then added to the dish. The tangy flavor in Kadhis comes either from yoghurt, buttermilk or tomatoes.

Kadhis are made very similiarly in most parts of India. What differs slightly though, is the ingredients used in each region. North, South, East or West, Kadhis make a tasty addition to any meal. Most of them taste best with some kind of rice dish. Try these:

• Pakodi Kadhi
• Sindhi Kadhi (pictured above right)
• Tomato Kadhi
• South Indian Kadhi

_{Image © 2008 Petrina Verma Sarkar licensed to About.com}

Believe it or not, my otherwise food-wise fussy four-year-old, loves Spinach! It's a good thing too since getting him to eat most other veggies is a struggle. While there are a few that I just let him "see and eat" whether he likes them or not, I am also constantly trying to think up ways to sneak others into his food... you've got to pick your battles.

Anyway, talking of spinach, it's in season right now and in my opinion, nothing beats fresh, seasonal produce. All of these spinach dishes are really yummy and so easy to make, you've got to try them:

• Palak Paratha (a good way to conceal spinach in their food so your kids will eat it!)
• Palak Ki Subji (pictured right)
• Palak Paneer
• Palak Ki Daal
• Sai Bhaji

_{Image © 2008 Petrina Verma Sarkar licensed to About.com}

So I am on a diet! It never fails to amaze me how easy it is to put weight on yet how hard one has to work to get it off. I need to get some off double quick! My diet involves not eating sweet stuff during the week. Why sweets only? Because sugar is my 'weak spot' - I have, what I affectionately call a 'vicious' sweet tooth. If I feel like something sugary, I MUST have it. If I don't, I will keep thinking about it till I do! Then after going around thinking about it for a few hours and denying myself, I will succumb and have it anyway! So the way I figure it is, why bother, just give in when the urge hits! As you must have guessed by now, this diet is tough. The results however, are showing on the scales! Yippeeeee...

Anyway back to the sweet stuff, the range of it in Indian cuisine is mind-boggling. I reckon if you made a different dessert everyday for a few years you'd still only have tried a fraction of them! There's absolutely delicious Gajar Ka Halwa (pictured at right) from the north, Payasam from the south, Rasgulla from the east and Shrikhand from the west.... I could go on and on and on... but I probably shouldn't. Don't want to bust the diet.

I recently received an email from my childhood best friend Anjali! We had both moved and lost touch, so it was lovely to hear from her again. She had come across About.com and found me on it! Makes you wonder, what did we do before the Internet? Anyway...

Anjali mailed and asked if I could please send her a recipe for Besan Ka Laddoo. This is our little joke since her mother makes the best Besan Ka Laddoo in the world!! I should know. I grew up eating them. Every now and then I would turn up and plead with Aunty to make them for me... and she would, bless her.

Okay, now having made that trip down memory lane.... Anjali's email made me long for some Besan Ka Laddoo so I made up a batch. Make some... just to see what I am going on about. You'll love them too.

_{Image © 2008 Petrina Verma Sarkar licensed to About.com}

Often, when I have friends over for evening tea, I like to make up some Bhelpuri (or Bhel for short). This fresh, light puffed rice 'salad' is quick and easy to prepare. The colorful, fragrant ingredients like tomato, coriander and lime juice, make it the perfect spring food. Tangy, spicy chutneys jazz Bhelpuri up so that you won't want to stop at just a little.

Bhelpuri in fact, has iconic status in western India! In Mumbai, vendors do brisk business preparing and selling it at every street corner! Its fame and popularity is no longer limited to this part of the country though and it is found pretty much all over India now. Bhelpuri's eastern Indian counterpart is called Jhaal Muri. This is spicier and contains signature east Indian ingredients like mustard oil. Both these delicious foods also make good entrées to a meal!

_{Image © 2008 Petrina Verma Sarkar licensed to About.com}

They form the backbone of any Indian dish. Without Masalas (powder and paste spice mixes) - pronounced muh-saa-laaz - what would Indian food be? Bland, boring, tasteless.... Since Masalas are an integral part of Indian cooking, learning to make a few will greatly enhance your skills at turning out a tasty Indian meal.

While they always taste best when made fresh at the time of cooking, most Masalas can even be made ahead of time and stored in an air-tight container, your fridge or freezer. I usually prepare the paste masalas and freeze them in ice-cube trays for days when I am just too busy or tired to bother with making things from scratch. When they're set, remove them from the trays and store in labelled freezer bags. When you need them, just pop a couple of cubes as required, into your dish and follow the recipe! Convenient huh?!

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So you've been invited to a meal at an Indian home. You're thinking, "Oh my! I don't know a thing about Indian food traditions! What do they eat? How do they eat? Do they sit on the floor? Will I be expected to eat with my fingers?!"

To start with, you came to the right place. I'll answer all those questions... and some. Before you know it, you'll be dining like an Indian! Let's get to it.

Did you know that under the creamy surface of yogurt live millions of bacteria? The good news is, they - Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. casei, L. reuteri and Bifidobacterium bifidum - are extremely beneficial for you! Not only does yogurt give you 40% of your recommended daily dose of calcium, its friendly bacteria also restore balance to your diegstive system. It can cure stomach ailments like ulcers, salmonella infections and food poisoning! For those who suffer from lactose intolerance, yogurt is a gentle alternative as it digests more easily than other dairy products.

If that's inspired you to go out and buy a huge tub, look for one that bears the label "Live and active cultures" and give these tasty yogurt-based dishes a shot:

• Curd Rice
• Dahi Gosht (lamb in yogurt sauce)
• Dahi Vada (savory lentil doughnuts in spiced yogurt)
• Chatpata Channa Raita (chickpeas in hot-sour yogurt)
• Mint Cucumber Raita (pictured above right)
• Curd Chilli
• Sweet Lassi
• Mishti Doi