My Beautiful House...

"What I love most about my beautiful house, is who I share it with"

Let me tell you a secret - my house didn't look like this last week - it was a weird orangey brown, that I had kinda sorta gotten used to. When it came time to paint it, I was ready to go with status quo- honestly who wants to go through the hassle of deciding on a different color palette - definitely not this girl...and I had my hands full with work and home already to add in yet another layer of complexity. The husband put his foot down and said he couldn't live with status quo and we decided that plagarism was the best compliment we could offer our wonderful neighbor (she lives on the same lane) and had just re-painted her house and we decided to go with her palette - let me tell you we didn't know about approvals et.all from HOA etc...and thus began our HOA horror story. It's all fixed now, our house is a shade different from our neighbor's and our color palette was retro-actively approved by the HOA but here are some learnings from the experience that I wanted to share with you. If you live in an HOA community, this would be particularly of interest to you .

1. If you are going with your existing color palette, all you have to do is find the right painter for painting your exterior - do try to get 2-4 paint quotes and recommendations from your neighbors. We went with a local painter on recommendations from our neighbor and couldn't be more happier with his work. 
2. If you are planning on changing the color of your house - get the approved color palette from your HOA, then submit an architectural change request, only start the painting after you have approvals from your HOA in writing ( be ready that you could get a denial if your color is too close to your  neighbor's and have an alternate color palette selection). If you do not follow this process you might be asked to repaint your house (works out anywhere from $8000-10,000) or fined a penalty.
3. Once you have approval and have painted your house - Enjoy your beautiful house! Your exterior paint lasts anywhere from 7-10 years! So pat yourself on the back on a job well done.

Two weeks back -  I had posted a blog post on one of my cooking hacks - my Indian ( life-saving) Mother Sauce. I make this by the truck load in my Instant Pot. I had a number of notes and private messages on what I used this mother sauce for - so today I am going to post my son's favorite recipe - Aloo Matar Paneer. I have a friend AB who said she has never ever made the combination - she has made Aloo Matar and Matar Paneer BUT never the three together...I gave her a wink and smile and said...do you like the two...she said - Yes...so  I said - why not think outside the box 😜

Aloo Matar Paneer

What you need?

1. 4-6 tablespoons Mother Sauce
2.  1 table spoon Punjabi Garam Masala ( I use Roopak, but go with your favorite brand)
3. 1 lb Paneer (cottage cheese, I used the Nanak Brand)
4. 1/4 lb Peas ( Trader Joe's)
5. 1/2 Lb of boiled, peeled and quartered potatoes ( I used the red ones from my farmer market haul)
6. Ketchup, Cinnamon  (optional but makes a difference in taste)
7. Salt to taste
8. Chopped Cilantro to drizzle on later

How to make it?

1. Turn your instant pot to Saute
2. Add the Mother Sauce 
3. Add 1 through 5 and mix well ( about 1/2 minute)
4. Add about 1/2 cup of water
5. Turn on the pressure on manual 3 minutes, no release
6. Open and now add Salt, Ketchup and Cinnamon to taste
7. Add the chopped cilantro
8. Enjoy with Rotis/Brown Rice/ quinoa.

Would love to hear how this recipe turned out for you....or about your HOA adventures.