No gain without pain...

After one hell of a 'roller-coaster ride' kinda vacation in India, we got over the jet lag in a couple of days as expected. Having had lots of people around us all the time during our vacation, you surely would understand that we are missing being around people. I have to confess that I have always been very emotional about India ever since I left in 2001 but as years are passing by that feeling has been increasingly growing. 

Anyways this time while in India I had my eyebrows done and once again put myself through that horrible pain. All it takes is 10 to 15 minutes, but it is most difficult to endure the pain, the tears and the non-stop sneezing. Each time I swear on my tears that I am never going to put myself through this misery again. I know all the men out there are not going to understand a bit of what I am saying, my suggestion consider yourself lucky you don't have to do one. Tell me, are you going to listen to the person who is plucking the life out of you? Seeing me in pain the lady decided to give me the same old tip "you need to do this more often, you just cannot have it done once in a while and wish its not going to hurt". I know I know lady...but how am I gonna find that time to drag myself to some 30 odd miles drive just to go through this misery every 3 weeks? Not because I enjoyed listening to my tormentor's little speech on making the eyebrow threading more regular, somehow I decided this time that I am going to make it a point to be more regular. 

If you think that I stuck to my decision of being more regular, you don't know me well yet. Yes the decision was forgotten as soon as the hectic life started back home. The other day I was dropping Mollu to the bus stop, when one of the fellow Mom, decided to start an unusual chat with me. She came right next to me and asked "Did you get your eyebrows done?". Huh !! I never thought that the eyebrows had made such a big impression considering the fact that my eyes are hidden behind those glasses that I wear. I was suddenly proud that I had my eyebrows done and she had definitely reminded me of the resolution that I had made in India. I told her that I had it done from India during my vacation and also gave her the short story on how I won't be able to continue doing it as the only place I know is about 30 miles drive from our place. To my surprise the eager Mom said she knows a lady who does threading and the best part, she lives near our neighborhood. She even invited me to join her in the evening to have it done together. Evenings are always hectic at home, so I decided that I'll hold on to the card of the eyebrow lady and visit her over the weekend. 

Threading image

Fridays evenings are the most lazy evenings in my house, the evening chai session usually goes on for hours with catching up on some Indian News. Like I said we are getting more and more homesick/emotional about India. The card of the eyebrow lady was lying on the side table reminding me that it has been more than 3 weeks since I had done my last threading and its time to prove that I am determined enough to have threading done regularly. The card read Sunetra Tope, a marathi I analyzed.

Finally I decided to break through my laziness and picked up the phone to call the lady. 5 minutes of talking to her over the phone I had myself an appointment yay!! The lady lives right next to our neighborhood in a house somewhat like a mansion. I rang the door bell thinking 'why would she be threading when she lives in such a huge house'. Also I had just $20 bucks with me, which I thought was enough for a threading service before seeing the house. I was a little scared now that I was inside the house. My first question to the lady was, how much does she charge for threading? Her answer put all the missing pieces of the puzzle in place. She enjoys meeting people and does threading for the fun, and so doesn't charge anything for it. If someone wishes to pay for the service, she just donates it to the temple. Wow, I have never heard anything like this in India or here. I still cannot believe I found a very good friend that day. Yes, we had a great fun evening at Sunetra's place and even ended up having dinner with them. No points in guessing what was our favorite topic during dinner. Yes it was India. :-)

My first destination - Bhilai

Arjuna's rath in Civic Center

Our ordeal with mosquitoes continues. We are still struggling with the jet lag…but with those precious long afternoon naps (after a sumptuous home made lunch), I do confess "I am loving it". Actually there are not many mosquitoes here inside the home but due to some odd reason those present get attracted to Rhea and me. Others at home including Jee are not even a bit bothered by these godforsaken terrible pest. Back in my college days one of my best friend used to be troubled a lot by the mosquito bites. I remember she used to say its all because she has "Royal blood" and that's why mosquitoes get attracted to her.

So I can also say that Me and Rhea have the "Royal blood" inside us too. Rhea, with lots of training tries real hard to keep herself from scratching the insect bite but at night she somehow scratches them and says "its real hard not to scratch". Back in Orlando we had picked a particular insect repellent spray which claims to be natural with an implied green bottle and also explicit notes on its effectiveness against a wide variety of insects. We have the leading Indian mosquito repellent "All-out" plugged in in every room, its effectiveness can be questioned as we still see and hear many stray mosquitoes in the room in good health enjoying their recon missions.

Last night after 2 days of struggle with the mosquitoes, we decided to give our very green Orlando bought mosquito repellent spray a try. Result: next morning Rhea was very happy and did mention that mosquitoes didn't bite her and her old boo-boos are not that itchy any more. Its also because of her trust factor for the American spray I guess. She has this strong trust on the pink calamine lotion that we usually use as anti-itch. Magically the itch goes away as soon as I apply the pink magic potion.

Murukku

Anyways, after fighting another bout of scratching and itching Rhea woke up from her afternoon nap two days back saying she wants to go back to America. Ammachi (Jee's mom) gave her a bowl full of some home made nibbles murukku and pakavada to cheer her up. Half an hour later she was back chirping, playing happily and enjoying the evening with her cousin.

Bhilai Steel Plant

PS :- There are scary stories of chicken-guniya and dengue fever making rounds around this small town of Bhilai. Actually I guess the medical world here have started labeling any ailment now as a viral variant of this new evil epidemic. I hope these things doesn't affect our rest of the vacation. Fingers crossed.

Mallu going green...

Being a mallu(Malayalee...people from the state of Kerala, India) we cannot live without fish curry. Nobody can put a price on fresh home made fish curry. In spite of living so close to the harbor we cannot see ourselves to go to the sea food wholesale shop near coast in a minivan with a humungous picnic icebox like some of our hard core Mallu Friends do. Our friends bring in their favorite fish in insanely huge quantities and savor it over the next few months with every meal.


Actually Jee and I would have even survived without fish curry but now our ABCD 6 year old has become an ardent fan of fish curry. Growing up I was not that big of a fish curry fan but yeah I used to be a big fan of fish fry. My all time favorite being sardine fry (mathi fry). The only link I could imagine with my daughter getting the fish curry liking is firstly the mallu genes. Secondly both her Grandpas are fish-in-any-form enthusiasts. Its amazing how she would not even look at a pizza and love anything that I cook. Most of our friend's kids prefer pizza or a lasagna over regular home cooked food.


Yeah believe it or not, she would rather eat at home than go out for dinner. I am the 'bestest cook' in the world if you ask her. In fact her enthusiasm for fish curry made us reinvent our interest in it. From buying fish once in a while to every week. From cooking in a regular steel kadhai (Indian wok) to using a chatti (earthen pot). Am I going green?  


Our fish shopping is mostly done in Costco which has a decent collection of fresh fish with a little higher price than a Chinese store perhaps, but unbeatable quality.

Last year we asked one of our friend to bring us a chatti when they were visiting Kerala. Luckily the chatti made its trip from Kerala to Orlando safely and ever since has been a precious part of my kitchen utensils. I don't know how but the fish curry does taste better when made in a chatti. Last time we visited India we saw a clay pot being used in a bakery to store yogurt. I had immediately decided to buy a few pots to make homemade yogurt. I do make yogurt at home but I knew the yogurt will be thicker and more creamier when made in clay pot.

Fiery fish curry.

Homemade creamy yogurt.

Earthen pots.

Somehow we couldn't get those pots when it was time to come back. When we visited Atlanta and our friends took us to Cherian's (A genuine Mallu super grocery store), we saw these cute small pots, that can be used to make yogurt. If you want to make Mishti Doi or Shrikhand (sweet yogurt dessert in Bengal and Gujarat respectively), I swear you can skip the step of getting rid of the excess water when you use the yogurt made in earthen pots. 


I heard this news about Indian railways, when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the minister, serving chai in kulhads (clay pots). Just image how this will boost our indigenous cottage industries. I hope it still exists and I get to drink chai in kulhads on my Rail journey this time during my vacation. BTW the vacation ticker says 7 more days to go...can't wait...

After introducing kulhads (earthen pots) for serving tea at railway stations, Union Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav has decided to promote indigenous beverage mathakola (butter milk) among the commuters. ‘‘The railway authorities should ensure that the mathakolas are also made available at the railway stations for the commuters as an alternative to soft drinks,’’ he said on Sunday night during a brief stopover at Allahabad on his way to Delhi. (Courtesy Times of India 2004) 

I think Indians can definitely show the westerners, who are so much dependent on paper plates, plastic spoon for easy life style, how to go green and save the planet. Frankly I feel very guilty if I waste even a small piece of paper. The creamy yogurt, and the fiery fish curry does reminds me that going green tastes good.


The other day I watched the IFFA awards and Priyanka Chopra received a special award as she is involved in the NDTV's Greenathon cause. I loved what she said while receiving the award 'Consider the whole planet your home and do your bit'. Those of you who are reading this blog are more than welcome to suggest me ways to be environmentally green in routine home activities. I have added a go green poll below the post, please participate.

* Mallu stands for Malayalee...people from the state of Kerala, India

Saturday breakfast...

Usually Saturday mornings I struggle to  decide what to make for breakfast. Luckily on Friday evening I had a plan and soaked some kadala(kabuli chana, chickpea) for making Jee's favorite breakfast puttu and kadala. 

Puttu is a breakfast dish that is popular in the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as in areas of Sri Lanka. It consists of firm cylinders of steamed ground rice with layers of coconut. It is served with other side dishes such as chickpea curry or banana. (courtesy Wiki). Kadala curry is a traditional spicy Kerala dish made with the native Indian dark peas with coconut curry.  

Norm is to make puttu with the nadan kadala (native Indian pea, dark small ones) curry, but Jee likes kabuli chana curry (chickpea) with puttu. As soon as I woke up Saturday morning, I came to the family room and switched on TV to check the match status. The 2nd test match between India and England is ongoing and we have it live in a cricket live channel. Before I forget I pressure cooked the kadala and rushed back to the comfy sofa to check the scores.

This is the part where a regular blog will add the ingredients list and the steps to make kadala curry but not me. I hate writing the ingredient list and steps. I guess I don't see myself writing food blogs. I never follow a recipe step by step anyways...

Dravid 'the wall'

After our morning tea, I cooked kadala(chickpea) curry as Dravid 'The wall' kept his cool and saved India again with an amazing century. The elliptical we have in our study is squeaking. Jee is exercising while watching CNN news. I hate it when he is so punctual and manages to find time and energy for the fitness regime. I mean good for him but it reminds me that I am not doing anything about my health. On top of that he keeps nagging me about my laziness and  lack of exercise. blah blah blah. I hate myself for not doing any exercise and considering that 'brisk walk break' I take at work as "exercise". Back to breakfast preparation puttu was ready in no time.

By the time Jee was back from his workout I had already plated puttu and kadala in a plate for him to take a picture to add in the blog. Indian tail order is falling apart in the 1st session as usual. Saale gore log... Bhajji was clearly not out. Like Gabbar Singh would have said bahut naainsaafi hai. Clearly Indians asked for it, they didn't want the Decision Review System (DRS). From having a firm grip in the match after a great 1st day looks like we are back to balance with England.

Saturday Brunch

Chirrata puttu

The other day we went to a friend, Helen's place and she made us puttu in a completely new gadget (atleast for us) from kerala, it didn't look like the conventional long cylindrical one that we have. Instead it looked like a coconut shell half aptly called chirratta(coconut shell half in mallu). I loved it and it is in my shopping list when we visit Kerala this time. I accidentally deleted the picture that I took that day so heres one from the  web. Long back we were travelling from Chicago to LA and had this long cylindrical puttu maker in my baggage. As it was post 9/11 time I remember we were asked a lot of questions about this funny looking gadget we had in our baggage. 

Puttu maker

The breakfast was served with a smile and decree that its a brunch so no more cooking in the afternoon. 

Space coast

We live just 30 miles west of the iconic Cape Canaveral. Yes, its the same one from where NASA launches its space shuttles (not anymore though). This means believe it or not we just have to peek out into the sky from our backyard to watch the launch. So we are used to the launches and the landing  accompanying "sonic boom". This one time we were  returning from an outing and saw people gathered on the side of the road not far from our neighborhood to watch the shuttle launch. We decided to park our car by the curb to join the fun. The whole sky lit up as the shuttle went up roaring..

Talking about sonic boom, I still remember during our initial days here, the day we heard a loud explosion outside and were too scared even to peek out from our house fearing that it might be gunshots. When we came out, the street was deserted...it was late evening...no sign of anything unusual. Then suddenly we remembered the shuttle was scheduled to land at NASA that evening and what we heard was the sonic boom. 

A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created by the supersonic flight of an aircraft. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion.(courtesy Wiki)

Last week we were still in our bed at around 6 am when we heard the boom again. Now we have become more used to this sound and we immediately knew NASA's shuttle is back safely. Though NASA's space shuttle mission ended on 21st of July, if you are crazy about space and shuttles you can still visit the Kennedy space centre to view all the launch pads.

You might have seen the place even if you have never been here, in that not so hit SRK(Shahrukh Khan) movie 'Swadesh' where the bollywood stud plays a NASA Engineer. I still don't understand how he manages to make his stupid movies hit but good ones go unnoticed. 

Growing up I was a big fan of the show 'I dream of Jeanie' a comedy sitcom from 60s which is a popular rerun in some channels. That show was also based on a NASA astronaut finding a Jeanie bottle during a turbulent landing. The Jeanie possesses some magical powers that she uses to make things appear/disappear just by blinking <twingg>.

Rhea, being a Florida born loves beach and goes absolutely crazy when she is in water. We always have a hard time to get her out of the water. Hence Cocoa beach is a family favorite outing that we enjoy every spring and summer.

Palette and brushes

Perks of being married to an Artist...I can always be the first one to see the latest of his creations. I also get to be his toughest critic. The best part is to watch the process...see how the image becomes more and more real right before your eyes. 

Last night Jee was searching for something in the kitchen. After about a few minutes of looking he finally showed me an Ikea bowl that had a crack in the edge and said 'I am going to use this since it has a crack'. 

In 10 years I have seen many of my kitchen patharams (bowls and plates) disappear in thin air. Most of them previously used for painting purposes now sit in storage somewhere in garage.The Ikea bowl now sits in the dining table near the Artist. It is being used to clean the brushes. At least this time he asked and I know where my patharam is. It had a crack I have no say in this!!

I knew what this patharam is going to be used for when I saw him taking it to the living room. This is the most decorated part of my home and over the years has stayed the same, the reason being no one uses it. I mean how often do you get formal guests at home. Recently Jee has started using it as a study with all his drawing/sketching/painting  equipments placed in the formal dining table. 

The subject

Anyways, I peeked into the living room to take a look at the latest creation. From a distance it looked like a the initial stage of a portrait. I am used to seeing this stage. You cannot make out what it is going to be eventually. But I saw him looking at the picture hung in the nearest wall and I knew what it is. Yes it is  going to be a portrait of our daughter. 


The subject being a picture I had captured on Mollu's first day at preschool. I was in a hurry to reach work but still wanted to capture the moment so I ran behind her near the drive way to get a picture of her. 


Throughout my undergrad I used to admire the rebel Archis (Architecture students), the talented lot. They had these cool 'out of this world' image that I used to look upon. The image of them carrying their T scales and the plastic cylindrical sheet storage tubes, famously called puttu-kutti for its resemblance to the puttu maker, is still fresh in my mind. We used to always count on them for any artistic requirements. They also were our alarm clocks during the exam times as most of them used to work late nights to finish their drawings.


I have an Archi in my home now and he is meticulously working on his latest project, the portrait of our daughter. After days of running behind and pushing him to finish it, finally it is complete...

Leaving you all with the images of the process of portrait making...Enjoy.

The brushstrokes..

A step back to inspect. 

The ambidextrous Artist

Perspective.

After day one...

After day two...

The portrait.

Do you know Computer Science...

Have you ever been in a situation where you have to make someone understand the basics of Internet which you usually take for granted as you do it every day? Last week I had been in this situation not once but twice. The Good Samaritan in me helped a friend in her 70s to set up her email account. She came to my house asking if I knew "Computer Science". In my first try the email account name that I picked for her was not available. So I suggested her to think of some random favourite number so that she can easily remember. She startled me by saying 'Kunje, social security theratte?' meaning lets use her social security. 

There was no use explaining to her why not to use SS in the account id. Instead I encouraged her to think of any other number that she can easily remember. Finally she was ready with a number that she could think of...no prizes for guessing it was her birth date. Once the email account was ready she wanted to send an email. I hit the compose button to demonstrate and waited for her to give me the email address, instead she said 'I love you'. With extra wide eyes I blinked at her asking 'alla auntie who do you want to send the email to?'. 'To Mary' came the innocent reply. Now what do I say to that!!! I smiled back and tried hard to explain that you need to find out Mary's email address to send her an email, maybe next time you talk to her you can get her email. I know now that Mary is her best friend ;-) that's the answer to her security question. oops...did I reveal too much!! Just kidding you guys don't know her id anyways...

Anyways I now know that its her birthday next month on the 5th and she is turning 70 that day, gathered all this information just by creating an email account for her. Jee and I have decided to surprise her with something on her birthday. I also created a google document 'quick links', with all the websites she would like to visit, so that she just have to hit the url and won't have to memorize the website urls. :-)

Now the second incident was also kind of similar when I helped a friend Smitha move on to Gmail from Microsoft outlook. Poor lady! she was confused with so many features all in one page. I could see her perplexed face eagerly wanting to know all about google features. She was making sure she is using all the features without missing even a single corner. She wanted to expand the left pane in Gmail to see her labels clear enough to read. Now I haven't thought of doing that myself all this time since I moved to Gmail. Point is who cares, its just a mail service, use it to read and write mails. She once announced that it looks like the whole world is on facebook, where do people find time for this?? Rightly so another friend Praveen who was there that time commented...'if you are not in facebook you are considered socially inactive!!' 


I am strictly not making fun of anyone here...just a few funny observations that came along my way and made me smile. I hope it does the same for you. At least they are trying hard to keep up with the tech savvy world.

A decade of togetherness...

It began as any other work day for me. Last night when I called home my parents reminded me that it was my 10th engagement anniversary. We had thought about this milestone some time back. But, as usual when the day came we both completely forget, at least that's what I thought.

After lunch is the worst time at work for me and all of my colleagues. We work 9-6 and after lunch its 5 more hours before we can go home.  Those 5 hours is the hardest part of the work week. 


So as usual we were all busy working at our station when Michelle, one of our colleague from other room came to our room and pointed out at us. Four eyes were on her looking for answers..whats up?? Suddenly a lady appeared from behind with a huge Bouquet of red roses, nicely arranged. She moved forward to my desk and presented the lovely bouquet to me saying "Happy anniversary ma'am". I could see all the guys saying smiling at me. "Its her birthday or maybe anniversary"... some one said, "wow... nice" someone else said and they all started clapping. 

I was so flushed, I have seen this happening in movies and TV but never thought it will actually happen to me. Anyways, I  thoroughly enjoyed all the attention and let everyone know that it was my 10th engagement anniversary. Proudly, I placed the flowers next to my desk, there was a card attached in the bouquet which read " 10 wonderful years of life together...Re :-) Jee".  Many happy thoughts, and moments from past floated in my mind at that instant. I was so elated that I stared at the beautiful bouquet without blinking and answering to all the queries of my very curious colleagues at the same time. Luis, the most curious among them reminded me to call Jee. 


Oh yeah...I need to call him... :-) 


For the rest of the day anyone and everyone passing by our room  would pause upon seeing the lovely flowers.. "Hey, what's the occasion??". I could read the surprise in every ones eyes when I told them that ours was an arranged marriage, a concept that the folks here find hard to believe. All the discussions revolved around how one usually proposed to their spouses. It was interesting to know that it was always the guys who proposed to their better halves only after getting a hint from them. "Its either propose or get the hell out of here" said the experience of a man married for 34 years, who wandered in to our room when he saw the flowers. 


I had the company of those wonderful looking and great smelling flowers for the rest of the day and those 5 hours passed more easily than it usually does...

Impromptu Pav Bhaji dinner...

Thursday afternoon I decided to go to the nearest gujju(Gujarati) grocery store to do some grocery shopping. Ashish, my colleague also wanted to go with me to buy some food for lunch. Once inside the store I quickly picked the things I needed for home. I was thinking of making pav bhaji over the weekend so had to pick a pav bhaji masala mix. Browsing through the masala isle, I was looking for my current favourite Shaan pav bhaji masala, a brand of spice that is available here. Seeing me hold the packet in my hand Ashish said sarcastically "You know I don't buy any of these Shaan spices as they are ....".  I said I know but I don't care where it is made as long as it makes my pav bhaji savory and mouth watering.

Last time I made it was some 2 years back when the local mallu (Malayali) church group were visiting my home for Christmas carol. Its a tradition to offer the carol group food/snacks and donations to show gratitude for visiting the house and singing those carol songs. 

Both Jee and I have this north Indian connection as we were born and bought up in Bhilai, so we are used to both south and north indian style food. We can have a poha for breakfast, meen curry(fish curry) with rice for lunch and then roti(Indian flat bread made of wheat) and sabji(mixed vegetable curry) for dinner.

Anyways back to the carol thing, so considering the north Indian link I usually make pakoras and chai as they usually visit us during tea time. For a change 2 years back I decided to make pav bhaji. Oh yeah usually the caroling starts here during the lent time and so the food/snack should be strictly vegetarian. I was skeptical about its reception when I was making it but in the end it was all over and hard core mallus were raving about its taste even though they didn't know what it was.

When I reached home after work and we were storing all the grocery items in our little pantry, we thought of making pav bhaji for dinner. Jee rushed to the nearest grocery store to buy some hot dog buns to be used as pav for our pav bhaji. I added all the veggies(potatoes, cauliflower, bell pepper, peas, carrot, or any other of your choice) in a cooker with half cup of water, meanwhile I heated a pan and added a dollop of smart balance(butter substitute) and tossed in some diced onions, ginger and garlic. When the onions are golden brown, in goes two diced tomatoes and 3 tablespoons of Shaan masala. You can also add more according to your taste. 

Bhaji

Next I added those cooked veggies into the mix and mash the whole mix with a potato masher to get the desired consistency. 


I also toasted the pavs after I applied some liberal amount of smart balance on them. Voilà pav bhaji ready....

Pav

Just 'coz Jee wanted to show off his paintings...can you spot them?

Dinner ready

Reviving TKM bond

A few months back I was trying to manage my Facebook account by moving all relatives to a "Relative group" and all friends from my Grad School, TKM to another "TKM gang group". I was quite happy with the organization and was thinking now I can post selectively. Some of the newer generation kids I know use this new feature in Facebook to post which they don't want their relatives to see. I have to admit I was not aware of this feature till someone added me in a relatives group few months back. Anyways, I didn't know how Facebook groups worked and started adding friends from TKM one by one to that group not knowing what was happening behind the scene. All my friends were getting Facebook update behind my back saying I am adding them to a group called TKM Gang. 

After a few days I started getting all these Facebook messages/wall posts from TKM friends saying thanks for adding them to the group. This is when I came to know about my accidental fame. I accidentally revived the TKM group and gave them a platform to communicate easily. For the next few days I enjoyed the fame and was the sole admin not knowing that there were loads of people waiting to join the group waiting for the sole dumb admin to approve and let them in. 

Next day I noticed the "gang" members screaming their lungs out in the newly created Facebook group to add those friends of ours who are waiting to enter. This is when I realized my blunder and quickly made some of the more vocal and more social friends admin and gave them access to allowing more friends to walk in.

Anyho, apart from those funny blunders, which still makes me smile when I think about it, I definitely revived some life to my TKM gang. Now I have something fun to read about every morning when I have some breather time at work. 

Honey Lemon Tea

Its been more than 2 years since we started drinking honey-lemon tea instead of the regular Indian kadak chai with milk. I was not a fan of drinking tea or coffee from the beginning. Jee who is an ardent tea lover encouraged me to start drinking tea only because he wanted his 2 cups of tea, every morning and evening. So I started drinking tea and got addicted to the 2 cups a day instantly.

Jee, the Internet research guru, did some research some odd 2 years back and found that when we add milk to tea, it looses its anti-oxidant qualities (BTW I need to confirm this myself). 

Anyways, he kind of convinced me, the hard way, to change our tea with milk to more healthy honey-lemon tea.  I revolted initially and used to hate drinking the honey-lemon tea. Mornings were fine but evening is when I missed the Indian kadak chai the most, especially after spending some 8 odd hours keeping myself awake at work. 

It took almost 2-3 months for me to stop missing the Indian kadak chai and get used to the more fancy and healthy (it seems) honey-lemon tea. Here's how we brew our honey lemon tea...

Boil water in a pan and add the desired amount of tea leaves to suit your taste. We use Tetley brand loose tea and are quite happy with the flavor. In the tea cups add some honey and lemon juice according to your taste. Strain the hot tea in the cups to make your steaming cuppa tea.

Honey and lemon

Black tea

There are some rainy days when we crave for the regular Indian kadak chai to go with pakoras but we are still very loyal to our newly found love for 'the honey-lemon tea'.

Honey-Lemon Tea

Aloo Paratha mission: Jee to the recue..

My cooking expedition started yesterday evening when Jee expressed the desire to eat some aloo paratha while we were discussing our dinner plans at tea time. We usually have regular roti/paratha for dinner. In past I had tried different kinds of parathas (spinach, beetroot, cauliflower) but aloo paratha remained one domain that I never tried. Actually all the kind of parathas I make are the ones where you can just add the ingredients right into your wheat floor, knead it and go forward. This is the easy style of making paratha if you ask me. Aloo paratha/cauliflower paratha are different, as one needs to make balls of the filling and roll it inside the chapathi dough and make flat round parathas (note: map shapes not allowed, if you want to make the authentic kind).

I was determined this time to make authentic aloo parathas and so after tea I started googling on how to make aloo paratha. These days I have started having more faith in young guns (newly married girls who google just like me to find recipes) venturing out cooking and writing blogs on the whole experience, in past when I used to google for any recipe I used to strictly trust ladies whose names sounded like ammachis/amoomas (Grandma in mallu) like a Mariamma or Thresiamma. Somehow it showed the years or experience and credibility. Anyways, I found this interesting blog site http://mykitchenantics.blogspot.com/ written by a mallu girl from London. The highlight of this post about aloo paratha was that she had even taken pictures of each step and the instructions were pretty easy at least when I read it. The aloo parathas stacked with a dollop of butter on top in the blog looked damn yummy.

After reading the blog I became more confident that I could nail this aloo paratha adventure this time. Jee was also super happy and came to inspect the progress every now and then. When I see him roaming near kitchen I know he is hungry and looking for food...reminds me of that song from an old show I used to watch..."pet mein chuhe kood rahen hai, cho cho chi chi bol rahein hain...". Means there are squeaky mouses playing around in my tummy. 

Back in kitchen I was busy collecting all the ingredients. Since I could sense the urgency in both Jee and Rhea, I hurried through the process and instead of dicing onions myself I decided to put it in the small chopper I have. The onion chopped fine but was a bit watery which I knew is going to create problems but then there was no time to fix the problem, I had two hungry people breathing down my neck !! 

Anyways I mixed all the filling ingredients and instantly knew there is something wrong as it looked like it had a loose consistency than the pictures in the blog. My worst fear came true when I started rolling the paratha with the filling ball inside, it started to break. It might be also because of the kind of potato that we were using. There so many varieties of potatoes available at the grocery store that I get confused all the time. It was so late for dinner and I was getting no where near the target. I was so pissed off with this that I started mumbling "see this is why I don't try these things here...hmm he wants aloo paratha for dinner..." etc etc.

Jee, who is much calmer than a 'jumpy me', came rushing to help. He suggested I  knead the filling with some wheat floor and make the regular parathas like I am used to making. So I started kneeding the filling with some floor and also ranting about why I shouldn't have started making these wretched things. In about 5 minutes I had a gooey but somewhat okay dough.  The authentic style aloo paratha was out of question now. I started rolling those gooey dough balls in to map shaped parathas as it was too sticky to roll. My expedition was falling apart, Rhea was getting impatient for dinner too. 

After making 2-3 of those map shaped parathas we gave our little daughter her dinner. Even though the parathas were shaped funny, they turned out to be very good taste wise.  The disaster recovery Jee planned turned out to be good and we managed to finish off most of the parathas with some yogurt and chili pickle. Yum...maybe it was also 'coz we were so hungry by the time it was done that it tasted like heaven. Overall it turned out great as the same was served for breakfast and devoured out fast enough.

Map shaped aloo paratha..

My brother who lives in Hyderabad tells me that his wife makes amazing aloo parathas. This time when I am visiting them I'll ask her to show me how to make those authentic kinds. 

Blood Vs Munchkins

Last week Jee was picking up Rhea from the summer camp in YMCA, when he saw the Red Cross blood donation bus parked outside. I don't know what came to his mind but he decided to donate blood and stepped inside the Van. A nurse greeted the little girl and asked her, "Wow,  you want to donate the blood, sweetie?".  "No, my Dad wants to?", said the scared little girl.

After about 15 minutes of Blood Donor History Questionnaire, including the questions on whether he recently visited any European countries or any countries in the developing world and a plenty on health history, she was ready to draw blood. The little girl was also given a background about blood donation. The Nurse explained, the wide eyed little girl who was pretty amazed by her father's decision to donate blood, that his blood will save three lives who are in need for blood. 

The sticker

On their way out the Nurse gave a doctor's coat to the little girl, who proudly wore it and with twinkling eyes declared "I am going to be a Doctor when I grow up". Nurse also offered some snacks to the blood donor hero and the proud daughter. The proud desi father declined with a shy smile and the ABCD (American born confident desi) daughter with no inhibitions accepted the offer and picked up some cookies and juice box for herself. They were almost going to step out of the van when the Nurse said "Wait Mr Jacob, I almost forgot one thing.". She reached for the small wooden caddy full of stickers and picked one, handed it to the donor with a smile.  

Their ride back home was filled with one-sided conversations like "Appa you are so brave!!", "I am so proud of you; your blood is going to save three lives". "I think you should rest for the evening as you might be tired". "We will ask Mommy to take good care of you". etc etc

The first thing when Amma reaches home from work hears is "Mommy, Mommy, guess what, Appa donated blood today and he saved three lives.". She was jumping up and down with excitement and proudly displayed her new doctor's coat and also showed Appa's sticker. Amma was also given instruction on how to take care of Appa as he has donated blood. I could notice in my little girl's eyes, that she was really proud of her Appa and he has become her hero. 

Next morning, I couldn't prepare lunch box for my daughter's summer camp and decided to stop at Dunkin' Donuts to get some lunch for the little girl. Rhea is a loves donut and was secretly wishing her Amma would buy one for her. While we were waiting for our turn in the queue, she kept reminding me "Mommy, I love these donuts.". "These small round ones, Mommy are also good. hmmm yummy!!". "Mollu, we are here to pick lunch for you. So no donuts, okay!", I knew she might skip her lunch if she gets donut. "Mommy, Marianna was eating those little round ones the other day, I wish I could have one of those for snacks, please please...pretty please". Somehow I changed my mind when it was our turn and bought her a lunch and some munchkins. Four is the minimum they sell, said the busy lady at the counter. 

With two bags, one each of lunch and snack in her hands, the little girl was extra happy and announced "Mommy you are so nice. I love you". I smiled back at her, thinking four munchkins later I am the new hero of my girl. The pint of blood that Appa had donated yesterday has taken  back seat now.  Step back Appa, its Mommy in the drivers seat now. ;-)

Change of plan...

Last Friday at work we were all casually discussing about our long weekend plans. I told my colleagues about my plans to do some Indian style BBQ / seekh kabab at home. My colleague Smith asked "You mean shish kabab right?". I really don't know the difference, I guess one is made with minced meat and another with meat cubes arranged alternatively with vegetables. Anyways I was planning to make the one with the minced meat.

After listening to the description, Smith asked me if I have ever had meat loaf. We have been in America for last 8-9 years and I have never had meat loaf. Smith said he makes meat loaf often at home and its quiet easy and is part of home cooking. You will find dishes like meat loaf or a pot roast in mostly diners and places where they serve home style dishes.

I have had seekh kabab in the past so I thought why not change the July 4th BBQ plan to bake my first meat loaf. At home we are all fan of Indian style recipes. So my search for a meat loaf recipe was 'Indian style meat loaf recipe'. I was not sure it a thing like that even existed, but to my surprise it does and even sounds better, when I saw the recipe. The recipe I used was from Show me the curry, managed by two ladies and business partners. I liked the recipe, so I printed it out but did some personalization of my own to suit the taste of my family ( I will post the recipe in my next blog)

Summer Salad

So the menu was decided. 

• Summer salad - assorted greens with raspberry, cocoa roast almonds, raspberry merlot vinaigrette dressing.
• Meat loaf with some ready made dinner rolls.
• Liver fry - recipe and idea courtesy Elizabeth Jacob.

The salad was an instant hit among us. Though Jee was excited about eating chicken Liver Fry, as he has seen his best buddy and namesake eating it more than once during the Skype sessions, he 'chicken'ed out at the last moment when the appetizer was ready citing google research on how liver is very high in cholesterol. Rhea ate a few bites but said she doesn't like it afterwards. Meanwhile Meat Loaf was baking away in the owen testing our patience.

Liver Fry

Meat Loaf

The star item came out very good, better than our expectations. The spices were just right and the taste, something we were looking for. Its like saying 'Anything you can do I can do better.' Definitely better than Smith's preference of meat loaf with minimal spices.