Contemplations and Ruminations

My colony back home is huge like a maze... with many winding roads and lots of pretty & some opulent looking houses. Its a great place to go walking and take in the sights, there are hardly any vehicles on the road and houses are gracefully adorned with flowering plants and the like. This peaceful and quaint little place transforms itself during the month of December, it literally glows with festive cheer. People put up stars that shine in the evening, Christmas trees glimmer from inside homes, the crib is set up and houses are aglow with serial lights. The whole air is abuzz with excitement and like this song goes... there's a smile on the faces of people passing by. Another ethereal aspect bout Christmas is caroling, this throws the excitement levels completely off the scale. I can't get enough of them during the Yuletide season, I play them continuously... my sister is named Carol since she was born on the 30th of November, the start of the caroling season. Anyway gett...

This is a dish that is served at almost every event in Nagercoil... sometimes when the main course is entirely veg, the non veg eaters are served small bowls of this delectable chicken curry and you can almost see their faces light up. Its one of those time time saver dishes that I love, gets ready in a jiffy... and its simply  awesome, right down to its soul (if a curry has soul that is) its so plain and simple yet sophisticated... reminds me of Socrates. History says he was kinda ugly and not that great to look at but he ended up being the most reasonable man of his time... and undoubtedly our time too. Anyway, getting back to the chicken curry...  Dice onions and saute them in a pressure cooker... Add some ginger garlic paste... And fry till onions become translucent. Drop in the pink chicken pieces... And stir them around till they become an even brown colour. Then add chillie powder and fennel powder... Add enough salt, water and pressure cook the chicken. Now tha...

So I went home recently to see mom and as usual it was a fun trip... here are a few pix's. The windmills... The sun just rising... Paddy fields... Visited the special school too... And hung out with the kids... I miss that.   Made some vegetable puffs...  I seriously love these... Tried baking Biscotti, they turned out alright... Melted some bitter Hazelnut chocolate to make a cake... Here are the Almond Biscotti's and the cake. Went to Holy Cross Convent, and visited the pretty chapel there... Inside the chapel...

I love this green peas curry, it reminds me of my grand mom's place in Mahim, Bombay. I remember eating it with kadak pav (this really hard crusty bread, that wonderfully soaks up a curry and you have to chew on it slowly to savour every molecule... ). I don't know why but my mom rarely made it at home while we were growing up, so it always remained a Bombay delicacy until I grew up and learnt how to make it and now I make it quite often. And it really is a time saver, you don't have to chop any onions or tomatoes... this dish is just gloriously easy and to borrow a phrase from KFC its finger licking good! First soak your green peas for at least 6 to 8 hours in water. I am assuming you know which peas I am talking about here, those hard ones you get in department stores (not the frozen or the fresh ones). Then pressure cook (don't use the same water you soaked the peas in, add clean water) it for 5 to 6 whistle spans. And you'll get something like this...  Here th...

A Psalm to hang above my door... made this using fabric paint and a piece of discarded cardboard. I've always liked this Psalm and I was wondering how to incorporate it into the room somewhere... So, is it legible enough...

A few pictures from my trip to Yercaud , its such a charming little place... you can almost expect to see Jane Austen characters walking about, its that lush and beautiful and sparsely populated. The word Yercaud comes from two tamil words 'Yeri' & 'Kadu' which mean lake and forest and that precisely sums up this hill station. There's a pretty lake and the rest is basically forest with a few coffee/orange estates thrown here and there. A little stream on the way... The rocky terrain...  A quaint little bench under the roots of a tree... The view from my room....  A sleepy little hamlet... Everywhere you look, you see sights like this.... Pretty flowers swaying on a breeze... Don't they look delightful... There were monkeys all over the place, caught this fellow staring into the room...  A little bridge connecting two rocky ridges... The swimming pool at the resort, check out those bar stools... pretty neat...

So it was a lazy Friday afternoon, and we (me, Sajeeve and Jude) were kinda bored so we decided to play this game and I had no idea it would turn out to be this sacrilegious. So if you are a religious fanatic please do not continue reading this... I am pretty sure the story we concocted is blasphemous in at least 3 religions, Jude (a cousin) seems to think so anyway. I was too busy laughing and trying to bring some modicum of sensibility (not to mention respectability) to the story but my cousin Sajeeve is blessed with a very fertile imagination and once he unleashed it there was no going back... So here it is...  Karen : She was moping the floor and singing along loudly with the radio. (I was thinking along the lines of a cute M&B... she a hard working woman and he a wealthy arrogant guy who gets drawn to her calm, strong & sensible nature) Sajeeve : But deep down she was contemplating if she could forsake her conservative principles. (This is when I knew the ‘cute f...

I just had to tell you bout Taylor Swift's new album ' Speak Now '... been listening to it the whole week and I have to say most of the songs are really good. The title track 'Speak Now' is my favourite song... its so cute and whenever it plays you can't help but sing along. I bet even the video is gonna be great, cause the lyrics tell a little story... bout this wedding that is goin to take place and Taylor is hiding behind the curtains preparing what to say when the preacher comes to the ' Speak now or forever hold your peace' part of the ceremony. Then there's 'Back to December' a song where she regrets breaking up with this nice guy, she realizes she loves him but its too late... I'd go back in time and change it but I can't. So if the chain is on your door, I understand. .. its a beautiful sad song. The only country sounding track is 'Mean' and I like Taylor's attitude here... she describes how she feels when people...

Due to popular demand (no, don't laugh... folks are really asking for it) I'm putting up this wonderful cake recipe too right on the heels of my last recipe. This cake is seriously good, it gets wolfed down in seconds, and the divine smell of cinnamon wafting through the house is in a way invigorating.  Ingredients: 1 cup maida (or all purpose flour) 1 teaspoon baking powder 3/4 cup castor sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 5 1/2 Tablespoon butter (roughly 40 gms) 1 Egg 1/2 cup milk 2 medium sized apples (peeled, cored and sliced) First combine half the powdered sugar with the cinnamon powder in a bowl. Also combine the maida with the baking powder in another container. The rest of the sugar and the 40 gms of butter go into another bowl. Drop in one egg and beat up the mixture. Now alternatively add the flour... and the milk stirring after each addition to form a nice creamy batter of pouring consistency.  Grease and flour the cake tray, pour in half the batter... Arrange...