Secret of Beautiful Smile

When it comes to smile, the first and last choice stops to none other than Madhuri Dixit. Most of us are fans of Madhuri's smile. Many of us wants to have a beautiful smile and for that healthy teeth is very important. 

During the early 1960s when we were kids, we never had these fancy toothpastes. Our mother use to give us Dantamanjans and Tooth powders. But believe me we rarely use to face such a problem of gum bleeding and trust me we rarely faced to teeth and gum problems. 

Gums play a major role not only in your dental health, but in your overall well-being. I remember a college friend who had habit of chewing tobacco. Inspite of we all telling him to leave this bad habit, he continued and gradually developed gum problems. After undergoing lot of treatments, he could overcome the problem. But then never touched tobacco again. 

The main reason for increasing gum problems today is also due to change in lifestyle. One of the reasons for development of gum disease is smoking. The medication of diseases like Diabetes, Cancer etc. also have negative impact on the health of gums.

In olden days, we use to cure the gum problems with home remedies. For eg. for swollen gums, sea salt was the remedy. By dissolving a small amount of sea salt in a lukewarm water and gargling reduces the problem of swollen gums. Also, eating fruits like Oranges, grapes, papaya, strawberry etc. that are rich in vitamin C also helps in curing gum problems. For curing infection lemon and salt is also the best remedy. 

Today, we are well equipped with modern solutions for dental and gum problems. We may also seek help from professional dentists for our problems. But what I feel is that prevention is better than cure. The best thing to avoid these problem is to follow some simple steps like :

A. Maintaining oral hygiene by brushing your teeth twice a day with good toothpaste like Colgate. 

B. By including lot of fruits containing Vitamin C and Vitamin D

C. By gargling daily with Salt water or Lysterine. 

D. Avoid smoking, chewing tobacco.

Trust me, even these small little precautions do make a lot of difference in your personality and give you Smile like Madhuri Dixit. So take care and keep Smiling!!!

I am sending this entry to Colgate Total PRO- GUM HEALTH, Indiblogger Contest

  

Traditional Ambe Dal

During the month of Chaitra, there is a traditiona of celebrating Haldi-kunku in Maharashtrian homes. And during this Haldi kunku, Ambe Dal and Panhe is served.  My diary features this traditional recipe of Ambe Dal. I do not have any photograph of this currently, however will upload soon.

To make Ambe dal, you need

1 cup Chana Dal

Hashes of one raw mango

A cup of grated fresh coconut

Green Chilies paste to taste

Chopped Coriander leaves

Sugar to taste

Salt to taste

For tempering you need,

3-4 tablespoons of Oil

mustard Seeds

Hing,

Turmeric Powder

You have to soak chana dal overnight in water before you start making Ambe Dal.

Grind Chana Dal coarsely and add the balance ingredients except tempering. Mix everything.

For tempering heat oil in a kadai and add tempering ingredients. Pour it on the Ambe Dal and mix.

Ambe Dal is ready to serve.

Serve it with Mango Panhe.

Bael fruit Moramba (Jam)

Moramba means Indian jam . ‘Mor’ means ‘murane’  in Marathi and which in English means ‘Soaked’.  Generally in Maharashtrians it is made of raw mangoes. However, my diary has a unqiue recipe of Moramba made from Baelfal or ‘Bael’

The main Ingredients required include :

One Kg ripe Bael

One Kg. Sugar

Lemon juice to taste

2 tspns Cardmom powder

1 teaspoon Salt

To make the Jam, open the Bael fruit. Grease your hand with oil and remove all seeds and stringy part of fruit. Separate the fruit from the outer shell, cut into small pieces. Then make sugar syrup of one-thread consistency. Once done add lemon juice. salt and Bael and continue cooking till the syrup thickens. At the end add Cardamom powder and mix. Cool it and store it in an airtight jar.

To know more benefits of Baelfruit, visit Wikipedia.

Image Source : Wikipedia.

Sandalwood Sharbat

Sandalwood or Chandan is considered as sacred and holy in Hindu mythology. However, it has various other medicinal benefit. It gives cooling effect to body, , boosts memory and improves the concentration. It also improves blood circulation and is somewhat useful in controlling diabetes also.

Visit Wikipedia for the benfits of Sandalwood

My diary features this Sandalwood Sharbat, which is made from sandalwood powder. It is readily available in the market.

To make this Sharbat you need

50 gm sandalwood powder

2 kg sugar

1 and half litre water

1 tspn rose water

How to make chandan ka sharbat :

Soak sandalwood powder in water for 24 hours. Heat it for 20-30minutes. Then strain the water. Now add Sugar into the Sandalwood water and again cook it.  When the syrup gets one thread consistency add rose water. Cool it and store it in bottle.

While Serving add some chilled water.

This will be a great Summer cooler during this season.

Mango Pickle

During Summer season, you get good mangoes and this is one of the finest recipe of making pickle I found in my diary.

To make Mango pickle you need 
1 Kg. raw mangoes
100 gm red chilly powder
1 cup mustard powder
2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 cup fenugreek seeds
2 teaspoons turmeric powder
1 1/2 cup salt (Dry roasted)
1 tablespoon Hing 
2 cups Vegetable oil

To start with, cut  mangoes in small square blocks. Heat 2 tablespooon of Oil in a pan and add
fenugreek seeds. Saute it for 10-15 minute and make fine powder. 

Then heat 2 cups oil in a pan and add mustard seeds and turmeric to it. Keep it aside for cooling

Mix together red chilly powder, methi powder and mustard powder in a bowl. Pour cool oil tempering on it and again mix it. Add raw mango pieces to the masala. At the end add salt to it and mix.

Transfer the pickle into glass bottle. Pour thin layer of salt over it.  This will last for almost a year. 



Image Source : Wikipedia

Lavender Massage Oil

The massage oil I have given here is for General Body Massage. Massage Oils are nutrient for the skins and strengthen the nerve fibres. There are many good effects of massage by using this massage oil. To view more benefits of Lavender, please visit wikipedia. 

To make the general massage oil, you need

Ingredients:
50 gm Sesame Oil
10 drops Lavender Oil 
10 drops Rosemary Oil

Method:
Slightly heat the Sesame oil and add drops of Lavender Oil and Rosemary Oil in it. Use it for general body massage.

The Sesame oil is useful for curing Cough and Lavender Oil is a pain reliever. It is also effective in the relief of Joint and Muscle pain.

I hope you will find this post informative. 

Fond Regards,
Kumud Nandini

Image Source : Wikipedia.

श्री गणेशायनमः

श्री गणेशायनमः 

During my youth, I had a habit of jotting down all kind of useful and rare information on various topics. After a period of time due to various other engagements, I could not continue with the same. However, I was  pleasantly surprised when few weeks back, while cleaning my cupboard I found these diaries.

These diaries are from late 1960s and early 1970s. When I opened these diaries I found that the information contained in the diaries could be of lot of use. So I decided to create a blog and share the information with the whole world. 

My old diaries have information about Ayurvedic medicines, Old recipes, medicinal uses of household ingredients and many more. 

I hope you all will find my blog posts informative and useful. 

Fond Regards,

Kumud Nandini