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Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, a staff writer for The Journal News/LoHud.com, covers several communities in Westchester County and writes about everything from local politics to schools to development issues. She joined the paper in October 2006 and expanded her byline to include Ramaswamy -- reportedly the longest byline ever. Previously, Swapna worked as a municipal reporter for the Home News Tribune in New Jersey and interned at the New York Daily News as a general assignment reporter. She earned a master's degree in journalism from New York University, where she was associate features editor of NYU's daily newspaper, The Washington Square News.
E-mail Swapna Venugopal at svenugop@lohud.com
My children are having a fabulous summer so far-—with two doting grandparents who have taken over the reins at home.
Granny (Patti) is a former art teacher, and spends countless hours creating and teaching Origami designs to the kids-—they are now expert makers of star box, parrot, elf, ladybug and numerous other designs.
The kids have also [...]
Our first harvest of the season included eggplant, arugula, basil and cilantro.
The kids joined me in putting together an arugula salad, and we decided to add red grapes and pine nuts for color and crunch. For the dressing, we whisked together olive oil, vinegar, Worchestershire sauce, paprika and a pinch of sugar. Delish!
Don’t want to jinx it, but I can hardly resist the first glimmer of hope in my organic vegetable garden. This is our second year, and buoyed by our beginner’s luck last year (click here for the earlier post), we went all out this time—with a raised bed and fence.
And the results, so far, are [...]
It would be no exaggeration to say that all the major Hindu festivals of Kerala are more about feasting than anything else.
So it was fairly easy for my parents to make sure that my sister and I, second generation Malayalis (as people from Kerala are known) growing up in Mumbai, had an appreciation for Keralean [...]
One of my favorite dishes, growing up, was a side of sauteed spinach with shallots.
It’s a basic, no-frills recipe that tastes delicious.
All you do is pour two tablespoons of coconut oil (any vegetable oil will do, but coconut oil makes it swoon-worthy) into a heavy-bottomed pan, and when the oil heats up, add a teaspoon of [...]
For brunch last Saturday, I put together an old favorite— grilled sandwiches with a spicy potato spread. It turned out to be a huge hit with my kids, and left me wondering how I had forgotten all about this childhood staple for so long?
Here’s the recipe:
INGREDIENTS for the spread
3 tablespoons Canola or other vegetable [...]
We were in India last month to celebrate my father-in-law’s 80th birthday. “Sathabhishekam”—as the traditional ceremony commemorating the ripe age is called—is considered a very important milestone, for one is believed to have seen a 1000 full moons by then.
Over the course of the three-day festivities—which included mehendi (henna) designs for the women and a [...]
Thanksgiving is just a week away, and I’m looking for inspiration to carve out a menu.
Loyal readers of my posts (yeah, the two of you) know that I run a vegetarian household, and will not be stuffing a turkey.
We’ve invited a couple over (who are also vegetarian and therefore will not be bummed by the [...]
For a person who hadn’t seen an apple orchard until last month, my mom’s always been a big believer in the maxim, An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
There was hardly a day when she didn’t pack an apple in my school lunch box. So much so that I earned the nickname “apple girl” [...]
Every couple of months, we drive down to Oak Tree Road, a street in New Jersey that straddles the municipalities of Edison and Iselin, for a slice of Little India.
A land where the grocery store aisles are crowded with women dressed in sarees, speaking a multitude of Indian languages. They jostle to sniff and squeeze vegetables [...]
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As most parents soon discover, feeding a family is rarely that easy, whether its nursing a fussy newborn or trying to get a hot meal into a squirming toddler (or attempting both at the same time.) And that's not even the days when work runs late, the main course burns, or your adventurous little sushi eater announces from now on she will only eat food that is pink. As parents ourselves, we've been there, done that, even learned a few tricks along the way. And we're pretty sure so have you. Maybe together we can make eating together as a family -- gulp! -- fun again.     Hema Easley has been a reporter for The Journal News since July 2002, first covering municipal government and then nonprofit agencies, women's issues and the South Asian and Muslim community in the Lower Hudson Valley. In her previous job, Hema was a correspondent for the Associated Press in South Asia. She lives with her husband and two sons in Orange County. Katie Ryan O'Connor, a Journal News editor and 35-year-old mother of three, never quite appreciated the work that went into feeding kids until she had to do it herself as a mother. If she had a food-and-kids philosophy it would be something like this: try your best to offer as much healthy food as possible, but sometimes fruits just have to be counted as vegetables and there are far worse things than chicken and spaghetti. Again. Tracey Princiotta, a 37-year-old mother of one, loves to cook, bake and eat, and is relieved that her son appears to be equally willing to chow down -- even if it's baby food and formula right now. Despite her husband's intense aversion to vegetables, she has high hopes of nurturing a true chowhound who will try everything at least once. And if all else fails, she's not above sneaking veggies into other foods. Marcela Rojas has been a municipal reporter with The Journal News since January 2003. She is a native of Putnam County and grew up eating Peruvian food. She didn't realize until she was 13 that rice did not come with everyone's meal. After several years of living in Los Angeles -- where she grew a fondness for Thai food -- she returned to Putnam County where she now lives with her husband and daughter. Zyla (rhymes with Lilah) just turned 1 in March and, so far (her mother is pleased to note), loves to eat everything. Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, a Journal News reporter, started her career as a journalist in 1999 after graduating with a master's degree from New York University. Before joining the paper in 2006, Swapna worked as a municipal reporter for the Home News Tribune in New Jersey, and took a baby sabbatical to care for her two children, now ages 7 and 5. She has currently outsourced feeding her children and husband to her mother, who is visiting from India. Her friend and colleague Katie O'Connor, informs Swapna that she wouldn't mind being fed Indian food by her mother, too.
 Randi Weiner has been a reporter with The Journal News since 1989, having covered police, government and schools in Westchester and in Rockland. An Ohio native and 1976 graduate of Bowling Green State University, she worked for daily newspapers in Ohio and Michigan before moving east. She has tended bar and danced in a beledi troup and sat on the boards of two community theaters. She plays mandolin with the Shamrogues, Connecticuts largest Irish band. Randi lives in Connecticut with her husband and has three children. |
Copyright ©2009 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties in New York.
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