Gift Ideas for Family to Carry from USA

Three years ago I wrote a blog post on gifts from USA for family back home and shared ideas on what to buy from America for family members in your home country.

I traveled to Bangkok and India again few months back and this time, I have some more ideas on what to carry for families.  And this time, I have divided the gift suggestions into categories and some quick notes.

Colorful Mixed Salad

I have eaten a lot of dishes from the Apple headquarter's cafeteria in Cupertino, California.  From their pizzas to pastas, from their healthy juices to mango lassis, from their Indian food to Mexican quesadillas.  But of all their foods, my favorite is their mixed salad.  You can choose the ingredients and dressings to build your salad, and if you choose it well - you can enjoy a crunch-a crisp-a soft-a sweet-a tangy and a lot of flavors and textures in each bite.

Mixed Salad Recipe

I do not try to recreate their salads when I make salads at home now, but the way I make salads has changed.

Quick Vegetable Pulao Recipe

Ever since I started handling my twins on my own, my workload for cooking and cleaning has increased multi-fold.  So I’m trying to prep a little faster, make things a little simpler, and cook a little quicker these days.  While two years back I used to do a lot of things from scratch and use individual whole spices and follow all the detailing, it has changed quite a bit now.  So when I made this quick vegetable pulao one day – instead of adding black peppercorns, cardamom pods, bay leaves, and all those whole spices for pulao – I added some garam masala powder that is made of the similar spices that go in pulao.  Taste was not entirely compromised upon, just prepping and cooking time was.

vegetable pulao veg pulao