Back to Pre School basics - Red & Blue makes Purple. For almost a month I had been brainstorming to cook something purple or black. Harini’s (sunshinemom) FIC event of this month almost made me loose my sleep. Whenever there is a challenge, I do not feel like cooking something which I have done before. It is always more fun to experiment & come up with something new. Thats the whole purpose, isn’t it?
With the holidays around the corner, every one is in preparation mood I bet. I am seeing neighbors have started putting up the lights & christmas decorations (which is a constant reminder to me that i should start ours soon). The shopping malls are already decked up and sparkling… red contrasting with fluffy and shimmering white of the snowflakes, & Santa Claus doing his magic with the kids. Here in Dallas, one of the malls even has a machine which is churning up snow every few minutes, all over Santa’s North Pole and the children are running around so excited to get some flakes on them. Everyone is enjoying…. It indeed turns magical at during this time of the year.
“Breadline Africa is an internationally registered charity that seeks out partnerships of hope and growth in Africa.” Breadline Africa launched its Blogger Bake Off, which is an online campaign aimed at connecting people to care, at getting bloggers to talk to their communities about poverty in Africa, and at having these communities to donate to Breadline Africa.
Kulfi, or unchurned Indian ice cream (without eggs), is a summer must have that you can whip up at home without an ice cream maker. It’s rich and creamy made with pure milk (traditionally & the milk is boiled down to reduce to half its amount), and it’s usually full of nuts in some form. The most common flavors are malai (plain), badam (almond), Elaichi(cardamom), jafrani(saffron) and pistachio. The nuts and the flavors are added to the reduced milk, boiled for some more time, cooled and put in moulds & frozen. Kulfi is traditionally sold on the street in India, in terracotta molds (matkas) that impart their own beautiful flavor. The dish is of Pakistani or may be even Iranian origin brought to India during the Mughal rule.
I remember the time when back in India many moons back we used to live in a joint family. My grandparents, uncles, aunts & cousins all lived in a big house, ate all together in one long dining table. Sunday afternoon lunches were always beautiful times when everyone was home, relaxed & talking for hours over food. Even tho’ I might have been only about 6 or 7 years old, I still remember that one of the dishes used to be mutton curry or chicken curry. The hot steaming curry, used to be placed at the center of the table, & all us little kids eyed it with utmost enthusiasm, while waiting for our turns.
Talking of Dum Aloo…There are some hundreds of ways to make Dum Aloo. In West Bengal it used to be a must dish served for weddings with “Radhaballavi” (lentil stuffed puri), and I loved the slight & subtle sweet taste of that kind of dum aloo.
Also during fall/winter time, when there would be small new baby potatoes, & the peas in the shell, my mom would make peas kachori and dum aloo with the bite size potatoes. It used to be an all evening activity when we would all sit and shell the peas and rub the potatoes to skin the already peeling skins.
Life is Beautiful, Satisfying, Fun, sometimes Sad & indeed a Challenge. Sometimes it also reminds you to be thankful for the little things, to be alive, to be able to share, love & laugh with family & friends. I am Thankful to be here to share this post with all of you today. Last tuesday I had an accident while I was getting by daughter back for her preschool. I got hit by a car from my left. Thankfully we are all safe, not a scratch on my little one & nothing on me except few burns from the air bags. Our car is gone & we need to get a new one. But we are here, all unhurt. Now thats something I should appreciate right? esp. when on the other side of the town on the same day one lady got hit by cars twice in a row and passed away. (more…)
Goan cuisine has very strong Portuguese & Iberian connections. The art of baking bread was brought to Goa by the European Missionaries. The bread came to be such an essential part of a Goan breakfast that there came a time, “towards the end of the Portuguese rule, when every village had its own local bakery.” Goan bakers adapted the European influence and added local ingredients to their bread giving it a very distinct Goan flavour. They used to use toddy instead of yeast for leavening.
Every evening as I make my cup of coffee, I have this craving for something sweet with it. A biscotti, a slice of cake… & often times I think of the white fruit cake with the colorful candied fruits in it that we would get from the local bakeries back at home. That was long long time back. But certain tastes & aroma stay with you irrespective of the years in between. When I read this recipe, I almost visualised the cake we would have, for the picture given for this was white and the recipe asked for red cherries.
And a Sweet Little Incident… Here it goes:
The other day we were going out for dinner. For once there was some peace in the car. The 2 kids were not fighting, each of them busy doing thier own things. I noticed that my 2 year old had been looking out of the window for quite sometime, when she cried out ”the moon, the moon! mama the moon is broken. Someone broke the moon…” She was definitely very upset about it. A few days back she had seen an enormous orange full moon, and now all of a sudden it was just a slice. I wish I had an as imaginative an explaination as her beautiful mind. Later on she herself figured that the cloud must have bitten a piece out of it, since the cloud is the only thing that can reach it!!
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