Need urgent ideas soon. Please help.

here are my parents favourites

kitchen appliance- bed bath has identical jars to keep on kitchen cabinet to store sugar, salt etc. my mom took those and loves them.

gold in usa- goto any indian jewellary shop, if u buy small items like ear tops or ring ori pendant not much u will loose by buying here. i bought pendants for ny niece many times.

breakfast- rava dosa is the one i used to make fir my parents, my mom loves it as she never made by herself in india, it can be easily made.

good job u thought of ur parents, kudos

 

For the gift ---a vegetable chopper,compact grill,electric kettle,coffee maker

For breakfast----
1. sweet pongal,ven -pongal &vadai
2. idli,kesari,vadai
3. If non-veg could opt for an Meat curry with dosa or idli or appam

a sweet is a must for celebration ,you could opt for mild payasam for diabetic or diet conscious parent .
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Kitchen stuff:
The vegetable chopper (Get it in Bed Bath and Beyond), Kitchen towels (the only thing in this country my mother absolutely loves), spice rack

Jewellery - any Indian jeweller will have 22K gold stuff. Alternatively, you can get decent looking diamond jewellery in 14 and 18 carat in any of the local jewellers (Got my mother a diamond ring for her birthday on her last visit)

Breakfast: Depends on what they like to eat. If it is Indian, no matter how expertly your mother makes it, it would be a pleasure for her if you were to make her favorite dish. Just make sure the table is set well and decorated with your best china / crockery so that its not just another breakfast. Additionally, if there is a sweet that they both like very much, you can get small favor boxes from Hobby Lobby, put that sweet in it, tie it up with a pretty ribbon and keep it at the table at their spots. If their favorite sweet is a liquid (kheer for example), get small fancy plastic dabbas. Use acrylic paint, and decorate with their initials on it and keep the kheer in that for them.

 

That is super sweet that you want to do this for your parents + your hubby being supportive of it.
IDK about everything else I would say as far as kitchen appliances go if she is going to end up taking it to India with her I would suggest anything from bed bath and beyond. If she has a house of her own here I would suggest buy her something she would use the most, if she loves cooking than a new stove, if she likes baking a new oven, if she hates doing the dishes a dishwasher, etc. Other than for breakfast depending on what area of India you are from there could many different things. I would say Poha, Utthapam, Theplas, Upma, Parathas.

 

DKI,
I have been looking for a good chopper for a while now. BB&B has a bunch of these. Is there a particular one you had in mind...can you give more details or a link?

Yahooo,
very nice idea. No suggestions but you have plenty already I think. And sorry to hijack your thread.

 

This is the chopper I was talking about. Works especially well when chopping potatoes and onions. I use it for many of my veges which are harder. Also good way to get the rest of the family interested in helping out in the kitchen.

Vidalia Chop Wizard - BedBathandBeyond.com

 

1Sandhya,

When you do complete the celebration, please share with us what you did and what their reaction was. Thanks!

 

Just a little word of caution about the Vidalia chopper, Sandhya...

I have had 2 of these choppers and it could be totally my mishandling... but both times, the hinge kind of thing that holds the top part, the part that you slam over the vegetables.. it broke. And if that breaks, it becomes pretty useless because that lid has no where to rest. But as I said, it could completely be my fault at not knowing how to handle it properly. Otherwise, it's a pretty neat tool to have, especially for chopping onions.

Yahoo... one kitchen gadget that my aunties back home really liked was the coffee grinder that they use to grind their spices. I think it was available in 220Volts too and I took a bunch of them. They found it useful, especially to grind cumin and pepper for rasam or little things in small quantities, without having to take out the mixie all the time!