Lets Prepare : Vegetable Biryani

This Saturday I was in no mood to enter the kitchen. My darling husband guessed my "no cooking"mood and surprised me with yummy vegetable biryani.
Vegetable Biryani is a rich and exotic rice dish with spicy vegetables. It's usually served at parties as main course meal.

This recipe serve 2-3

INGREDIENTS

• Basmati Rice - 3cups
• Water - double the amount of rice
• Mixed Vegetable. Potatoes, Cauliflower, Beans, Grean peas, Carrot, Baby corn, Capsicum.
• Chopped Onion- 2 to 3 medium
• Ginger-garlic paste - 2tablespoon
• Chopped tomatoes- 1big
• Oil
• Ghee/Butter
• Salt 
• Sugar
• POWDER SPICES
• Chilly Powder
• Cumin Powder
• Coriander Powder
• Curry Powder
• Garam Masala (Found in any Indian store)
• Turmeric Powder
• Biryani Masala
• DRY SPICES
• Cardamom
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Bay Leaves

PROCESS

• Wash the rice. Marinate rice with biryani masala and keep aside .
• Take a pressure cooker and heat some oil.
• Add 2pinch of sugar.
• When the sugar turn golden, add chopped onions to it.
• Cook till onion turns golden brown.
• Next add Ginger-garlic paste to it.Mix well.
• When the mixture is cooked well, add tomatoes to it and cook.
• Add all the powder spices except Biryani Masala and keep cooking. Oh and yes don't forget to add Salt to taste !!
• Add water and cook by covering it.
• When the oil starts to leave the paste, add the vegetables and keep cooking till vegetables are partially cooked. Donot over cook the vegetables cause we are going to cook it more with the rice.
• Now pour the vegetable gravy into a separate bowl and clean the cooker.
• Put the cooker in heat and add 2 tablespoon ghee to it. 
• When the ghee melts, add the rice.
• Fry the rice well till it changes its color to golden brown.
• Next add the vegetable gravy and mix both rice and the vegetable well.
• Now add water to it. Be careful of the hot vapour.
• Mix it well.
• Add salt, sugar and biryani masala to taste and put the lid.
• Give 3-4 whistles.
• Vegetable biryani is ready.

Serve it with raita and gather some compliments from your guests.

Thanks for reading !!! Happy Cooking !!!

Beginners Series : Makeup Must Haves

hey beauties.....

Many girls love makeup and want to own their makeup collection.But as a beginner its always confusing for someone to buy the needed stuffs when the market is overflowing with a gazillion products.

So I thought starting a new series exclusively for BEGINNERS. Here we all will talk about the Beginner's needs and queries.
Lets start this by discussing with you guys the must have items which any beginner should own.

Before going into makeup must haves I want to just write a bit about some basic essential Skincare stuffs (not for treating any specific skin problem)

• CLEANSER : Will you ever want to draw on a dirty canvas !!! The same reason goes here. A clean face with give a good base for the products you are going to apply and will not cause any skin problems.
• MOISTURISER : There are different types of moisturisers available in the market. Eg. for specific skin type, with spf, tinted moisturisers (with some color/coverage), etc. You can pick one for your need and apply it all over your face before starting to apply any makeup.

Now lets start with the makeup !!!

FOR FACE and CHEEKS

• FOUNDATION/TINTED MOISTURISER : Many of us have uneven and blemished skin. So foundation evens out your skin tone and gives a perfect coverage. Again there are different types of foundations available in the market depending upon the type of coverage they give and the texture.You can choose a foundation according to your requirement. Remember to always try out a foundation shade and texture before purchasing cause if it does not match your skin tone, you going to end up looking horrible.

• CONCEALER : Concealers are for those extra coverage and are important to hide your flaws perfectly. If you have dark circles or spots or scars you can use a concealer to hide it. Always try a concealer shade before buying. A concealer should either match your skin or a bit light but never should be darker or very lighter than your skin tone. If you have a perfect skin, you can still use it for brightening the under eye area.

• PRESSED POWDER : After using all these liquid or cream it is very important to set it all. So a pressed powder sets all on to the face. It also helps get rid of oiliness and helps to hold the foundation and concealer in place.

• BLUSH : It gives a glow to your cheeks. You can choose any shade you are comfortable with. For beginners a PINK/PEACH shade is must.

FOR EYES

• PRIMER/BASE: It is very important to give a base to the eyeshadow to hold on to. Primers not only gives that base but also helps the eyeshadow color to pop up a lot more.

• EYESHADOW: The three basic eyeshadows for beginners are...
• Pearly white : This shade is very good for highlighting and also can be used as a lid color. Apply a tiny bit of it on the inner corner of the eye for instantly brightening.
• Beige or Nude or Champagne: Used to apply all over the lid. Even if you don't want to do a full eye makeup, still this shade with give a nice flush of color on your lid without making it all flat and blank.
• Matte Black : It is a great shade to smoke out a look by applying it on the outer V or outer 1/3 of the eye and blending it with the eye lid color. It can also can be used as liner. 
• You can go for a neutral eye palette. There are lot of them in the market. Its grt for every day look and is risk free. You can never go wrong with nude shades.

• EYELINER: You can go for black and brown. Black for intense look and brown for kind of a subtle look. You can either go for liquid liner or pencils. In my opinion liquid liners are a hassle to apply for beginners, so better go for pencil liners.

• MASCARA: I love mascaras. It opens up your eyes. If you dont want to apply any eye makeup, then just apply coats of mascara, it will instantly glamorise your look.

FOR LIPS

• LIP BALM/CHAPSTICK: Well its always necessary to moisturise your lips. Now a days you may find lots of brands coming out with tinted lip balms, with this you can moisturise your lips with a tint of color.

• LIPSTICK: There are tons and tons of shades in the market. For me the three basic color for starting a collection is NUDE, PINK/BERRY and RED.

• LIPGLOSS: It adds on a glow to the lips. I dont wear it all time though, but many girls swear by lipgloss and prefer to wear it alone too.

Now after all these makeup stuffs on your face, you need a MAKEUP REMOVER. 

Never ever forget to remove your makeup at night. Remove your makeup, cleanse your face and apply some moisturiser before going to bed.

I know there are so many other products but in my opinion these are the most essential products for starters. Do comment below and give suggestions !!!

There will be a detailed discussion of each and every section in my subsequent post, so stay tuned....

Thanks for Reading !!!

FOTD : Yellow Smokey Eyes

In my childhood, I was obsessed with Yellow. Most of my dresses were yellow or had something in yellow. I still remember my sis teasing me "Yellow yellow dirty fellow sitting on a buffalo ;)".
Today the look, I am going to do is dedicated to the "tease phrase" !!! Its a Yellow smokey eyes. It has Yellow as well as Dark Gray.

So lets get started !!!

• Start your look by priming your eye lids.
• Apply a MATTE BROWN to define your crease.
• Now take a DARK GRAY shade and apply it all over the crease till the inner part of the eye. (Refer pic to see where to apply)
• Take some MATTE BLACK shade on a pencil brush and apply it on the outer V. This will intensify the look.
• Take a clean blending brush and blend all the shades on the crease and take it above the crease.
• Highlight the browbone and blend all the shades well.
• Now take a BRIGHT YELLOW shade and apply it on the eyelid. Pack on the color and blend it with the the Dark shades.
• Line the upper lash line, lower lash line and water line with BLACK liner.
• Apply mascara and your eyes are done.
• Team it up with PEACH cheeks and NUDE lips.

I hope you like this look. Its dramatic yet very much wearable. 

Thanks for reading !!!