Kadai Paneer

I am very happy to come back to my blog after few years.  Yesterday I got a chance to cook Kadai Paneer which I always tasted at restaurant. It came out really well and I am sharing the recipe here

Ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 1-2 tomatos
• 1 big bell pepper
• Paneer
• Shredded garlic and ginger as needed
• Chili powder
• Jeera as needed
• Garam masala
• Salt
• Kasoor Methi
• Cilantro for flavor
• Oil as needed

Method;

1. Cut onion into small pieces

2. Cut tomato and bell pepper in big pieces

3. Cut paneer into small pieces

4. In a pan, put 2-3 tea spoons of oil

5. Add jeera, shredded ginger and garlic and sauté until raw smell is gone

6. Add chopped onion and sauté it together. 

7. Once the onion is sautéed till it becomes golden brown, add tomato and bell pepper together

8. Add salt, chilli powder and masala powder as needed

9. Mix it and let them cook for a while but not until fully cooked

10. Add cut paneer and mix well and cook together for few minutes. 

11. Add Cilantro and kasoor methi for flavor

Now, the kadai paneer is ready to serve!

Law and Order

Following law and order is the primary criteria in US which is not in India that makes me feel bad. The personal scandals of Arnold, Anthony Weiner is creating a bad impression and now Anthony is being forced to quit due to Law. Similarly this was the case with IMF head Strauss-Kahn was arrested for an sexual assault. This enforcement has to be brought in India. Though there are organizations like 5th Pillar, ipaidmybribe.com, Anna Hazare and other social activist are doing their best for anti-corruption. 

Wish the movement by them wins ! 

Visit to NH and Maine

For 2011 memorial day long weekend me and Venkk decided to go to New Hampshire and Maine. We stayed at Portsmouth which is a small town in NH about 250 miles north from New York City and that as a center we went to few other places. Portsmouth is a border place between NH and Maine. I was very much excited when we were driving towards York Beach, Maine that is 20 miles from Portsmouth. This is a harbor with lighthouse and unlike other beaches we cannot reach the water as its harbor. The day was very beautiful with weather almost in 50s and it was green everywhere. It was very foggy and the drive was very exciting. As this is the first long weekend after winter, visitors were there everywhere. Hampton Beach near Portsmouth was crowded and being cold day the water was cold as well


York Beach, Maine

The next day we went to Lake Winnipesaukee, NH which is about 2 hrs drive NW from Portsmouth. The lake was awesome which stretches for about 20 miles in length and continued by small lakes. The scenic rail road drive was exotic with hills, ferries and lake on one side and farms on other. We were between the nature's best place :). This is one of the good place for relaxing and enjoying nature

Thanksgiving Day

Yesterday was my 1st Thanksgiving in US with my husband. Though Thanksgiving is one of the main festivals in US next to Xmas, I believed that it is going to be a great celebration like Diwali in India. But it was a very quite day, I did not see much cars in the street and it is basically a day where all family members unite together and have fun with variety of dishes.


The day next to Thanksgiving is called Black friday and people go for sale from 4 am in morning, I felt 'aah' on hearing this and may be I should plan to go like this with a list of things to shop .. !

Web Security Vulnerability

Security in web application should be of high importance and adressed at the earliest as there is potential risk for third party hackers to gain access to the data shared by site's users. The data in web application generally goes through various components called application layer and web server and database layer. Security has to be covered in all the components.

Generally vulnerability occurs in web applications like webmail, online shopping where the user is allowed to give input to the site in various forms like in hotmail where user gives user id/ pwd enters the mail box and in other case like online shopping, e-ticket where user gives sensitive input like credit card #, these sites are very vulnerable for hackers.

Hackers perform this security vulnerability by various methods and out of them the most common method is:

1. Cross Side Scripting (XSS):

XSS allows the attacker to inject HTML or JS code into the victim's website source code. When the victim navigates through the website, the injected code by the hacker is displayed in the browser and the input given by the victim is hacked by the attacker in the backend. This is one of the most common application layer web attacks which exploits the trust user has for a particular website.

How to prevent: Though there are tools available to fix XSS, features like very clear source code in various templates instead of using escape function of JS in source code. Also, familiarize your application with other security features of your template system. Good testing practices with respect to XSS is advisable.

2. Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

When an web application requests the web server, a valid session identifier is created by the web server. When those session ids are authorized by the browser, a cookie is created. The cookie has the details about the application the cookie is active till the session expires. This process is utilized from the victim's browser by the hacker to gather information from the user like click button, send email etc. Hence CSRF is about exploiting the trust between the website has in its browser.

3. Denial of Service(DoS)

It is a form of attack where the web server or gateway is flooded with high volume of request so that the server cannot handle the requests or the server is shut down. The DoS is generally targeted at high volume consumer data like banks where the DB is constantly being used and the shutdown or sudden slowdown has major impact and the hacker can utilize the resources.

Preventing against DoS , these are the best approaches suggested by MSDN http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc750213.aspx

Lifestyle in India and US

I got married and recently came to US. As everyone use to have an attraction towards western countries, I also had an attraction towards US. But after being here for a while and being in the lifestyle of this country, there are some that's interesting and some are not. I started to notice and realize whats missing in India and missing here.There are many pros and cons for all age group living here. I am just writings the lifestyle between the two and not justifying :)

1. Learning opportunity is more in US and its how we utilise. Public libraries, bookstores, and of course 24/7 Internet.
2. General lifestyle is formal unlike India. Asking permission to close relatives and thanking to close relatives, after we come here from India and we are forced to change. We don't understand that we have rights not to ask permission and not to thank very closed ones.
3. India is a country that has more family and emotional values and conservative rules. The dependency factor exists still whereas US enjoys more freedom and independence.
4. There are many other lifestyle factors like meeting doctors only through appointments and getting doctors in weekends is very tough where as this is not case in India. If any problem, we need to call emergency, on top of all we need to have Insurance. If no Insurance, we are at risk. In India, we can just walk in at any hospital for health issue. We can lead without Insurance in India.
5. People involvement and mingling with others i.e., socializing is easy in India where as socializing is through electronic gadgets even its next door person. I feel the next generation kids are not going to see how our villages are in India and how they live still without Internet.
6. Am really wondering at the chain stores in US :). They are real craze, wherever I go, I see same Macy and JCP etc.,

I am sure you all will be knowing many plus and minus and I just realized to post a very few. I am still getting lot's points to write, but let me have it as a simple posting.

India and Democracy

By looking at the campaigns by regional and central parties in India for the parliament election 09 and the way the party leaders campaigned was like bargaining the citizen. I really wonder how educated Indians just tolerate the irregularities / corruptions by the leaders and get adjusted. It looks more of communalism, monocracy than democracy. More fake votes by parties in election booths and the election commission also helpless. Majority does not realise that we are in democracy and we have the rights to act against any misuse of law. More Indians oppose this situation in India and the young Indians has to come forward and correct this situation and make a call to the public to eliminate the corrupted leaders, money power,caste based politics etc.

Looking forward for a day when India is truly democratic ?

http://www.hindu.com/op/2009/05/31/stories/2009053150011400.htm