Happy Feeling :)

How the Queen's milestone b'day at the start of the month got pushed to the day before yours truly's b'day, i will not know. I am not complaining either...Departure Lounge made for an apt setting - jalapeno martinis and prosecco cocktail gave the evening a jump-start. Food was excellent - considering we must have tried almost everything on the menu - would love to whip up such crispy yet cooked brussel sprouts with chili and lime. MeltingPot for dessert was a let-down but i had my fill of chocolate covered straw-berries.

On the day itself, friends sprung a surprise. Thanks to LilC else they would have been stranded in the cold trying to wake up aspirin grogged self. Must say, they are a good-cooking bunch (not to mention artsy)...my first taste of Appams with potato stew, vermicelli upma, poori-sagoo, jalebis and an apple spiced cake with delicious sauteed apples. Amid all the cooking and eating, BigC posts a note for LilC...as if she could read and if she did, as if she'd listen...something tells me she made the note after checking it out for herself - "Don't Touch! Don't Lick! the CAKE!" Given the busy times at work, it was a happy feeling knowing they took out so much time. N made a pumpkin chocolate cake. Closed out with 2 spookalicious parties - what 12 year old requests "her" arugula salad for a b'day treat and how can it not be done justice given all the pomegranates and persimmons flooding the stores?!

All in a day's mail

It was a happening day as i went about the mundane task of sorting through the mail - Baby Appu's announcement card with a box of belgian chocolates, hand-painted postcard from H&M's travels south that took a month to reach, BigC's pony thank-you card from her friend and a hand delivery of Cranberry Gojju. Having missed my chance to make this last year given the short supply period of fresh cranberries, the first sight of them at the grocer's had me reaching for them with a purpose. As i asked the friend for the recipe, it turns out she had made it that very day and ferried some over so i could taste as i cooked.
season oil and saute 12 oz cranberries in it for 5-10 mins until mushy.
Add 2.5tsp salt, 3 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp chili powder, 3 tsp MTR rasam powder and cook for another 10 mins. Voila - lipsmacking goodness.
Cooked pepper chicken after a long time for a non-veg potluck. On a sunny sunday afternoon in October,  it transported us back home with the Biryani coming very close to Mom's.

Of cakes and flowers

Baked cherry upside down cake for over-the-hill requestor and sourced some flowers for his birthday girl from the garden. Baked with the neighbor kids - making their favorite blueberry muffins and snickerdoodles. Refreshing to see such small things make them so happy.

Skamania Lodge

With the sun making for a real spring-break, cashed in on a long overdue voucher at Skamania Lodge in the Columbia Gorge. It was an impromptu break on a sunny blue-skies day with hubby picking up from work in the middle of the day...felt like kids sneaking out. Beautiful hiking through bare, silvery aspen/birch groves watching turtles sunning on the dead logs and trilliums lighting up the forest floor, smores and rocking chairs by a crackling fire and salmon three meals a day made for an enjoyable jaunt. The "bridge of the gods" definitely lived up to its name with an ethereal haze over the river.

A surprise

Cooked up pav-bhaaji for a surprise birthday party after a long time. Remember to never use the south-indian brands of the masala.
Stopped in for a quick dinner at Bethany's table - LilC got down and close to the dog - zoey and followed it right under the tables - the asparagus with balsamic vinagraitte was a hit even with the kids.

Spring concert

BigC's dance school put on a show at the Spring Festival at the Walter Performance Center. Celebrated Sis and B's bdays at Imperial with sis getting carded. Duck meatballs with prunes had all 3 scraping the plate. If only the quail could have been well-fed, it'd have made for a great grilled bird.
Shivaratri had everyone gorging on uncooked fare at S/A's - mix of finely chopped fruits with light custard/icecream is always a winner with adults and kids.

Fleeting february

A SuperBowl chaat party, oscar night rather evening in pajamas with a refreshing Mediterranean salad and more of the blueberry muffins with chai, a crafty valentine's, bowling nightmares, poker night with  beginner's luck, cheapest girl's night out and dinner at Andina to celebrate a newly wedded couple have made for an eventful yet fleeting February

Winter fun

Made these almost-perfect blueberry muffins for a couple of ardent blueberry fans. Perfected them with a streusel topping. For something that begs to be eaten out of the oven, its a plus that its a quick and simple recipe. Even made some as the chai boiled up.        There was also an all oil recipe that i just cannot seem to find again to save. S took BigC and LilM to watch the nutcracker by OBT.

The Dads picked another great day for skiing this holiday season - fresh powder and even BigC can tell what a difference it makes and enjoyed skiing in not so freezing conditions. Closer home, the Moms picked the last day to check out the zoolights and perfected the timing on the 2nd try. LilC's enthralled reaction to the lights and the lit-up steam engine ride was well worth it.  

 

Merry times

Cookies by BigC using the kit she snagged at H/M's naughty Santa party

Santa brings dresses and a puppy

Keeping Busy

With the school getting set to shut down for the winter break, BigC brought home the guinea-pig and LilC would not stray away from it introducing everyone who came home to it and telling everyone about it. BigC is putting some of the bendaroos to use forming them into bugs, giraffes and cupcakes. She's knit an endless piece that Amma cleverly folded up and crocheted the sides to make into a bag for "Nisha". Nisha's one lucky doll with Amma also knitting her a winter dress/hat and making a silken dress. .

mehendi just in time for BigC's PKK dance

Deck the tree

Since BigC's 1st Christmas, it has been the norm to get a tree her height the week of thanksgiving and have her deck it up. The first couple of years were a trial with potted trees that we'd then plant in the garden and soon it struck that we'd have one too many conifers. Having made our peace with cut-trees, this year was the year to try cutting her own with Appa. Moi wanted a blue tree but, it was dark by the time they got there and me thinks they brought home the first tree they could find - a green bushy one complete with creepy-crawlies. LilC enjoyed her 1st tree arranging and re-arranging the lower half of the tree until it was time to take it out.

BigC's summer-camp also had a winter fused-glass session that we decided to try and ended up making some ornament give-aways.

Finally had enough people to try out the "Mechoui" at Marrakesh. Being a Monday, the restaurant was able to accomodate our last minute request. LilC got up on the low table and danced to the arabian music playing in the background - making up for the missing Belly-dancing element. Justice we did to the dish, as we only had a couple sandwiches worth of leftovers. The chef even accomodated a couple of vegetarians in the group!!  

in the garden - mandevilla blooming into November

Puppets and chaat

Armed with an arsenal of recipes from Mom's collection of yet-to-be tested recipes, some unknown sources even, it was decided that chaat party it would be for LilC's b'day. The guest list kept growing and on a wet November day, the main-door had to be blocked to ensure we could fit all the people in. A last minute surprise trip by bro/sil meant we'd be firing on all cylinders even with P's almost fractured ankle - a station for masala puri (R), for dahi-vada (P), for waffles (A/V), for orange-juice (R). The piece-de-resistance being B's cake with meringued tops, complete with marzipan bugs, bird and cuddly bear crafted by LilM and the much sought after "ganja" infused tea, fought to the very last drop!!

When visiting MoMA, had picked up a set of balloon animals that were too cute to resist. The older kids put these together and there was just enough for each of LilC's friends to take home. Penney's puppets put on a show "Lilly, the catepilly"  but LilC couldn't care more or less except for the "bussesly".

Giving Thanks

The holiday frenzy is on. Blueberry pound cake from Suzanne Goin, as always a hit, with A's parents- used frozen wild blueberries this time. Its also the time for persimmons and pomegranates and another of Goin's salad recipes that B had me make for girls' holiday lunch last year. No-one minded eating healthy like this. Its also the time when artists open up their studios and we got to see one really neat studio where she'd pinned up all her inspiration.  

On one of the Anthropologie visits, BigC had fun making reindeer using candycanes at their art station.

in the garden - chocolate persimmon tree in its first year

Sparkle and rejoice

 

The cadence of festivals has been well-paced and very enjoyable this year. Just in time for Deepavali, unexpected time-off from work meant it could be celebrated the way festivals are meant to be, on the day of the festival without having to dodge work despite taking the day off. With the sun shining in and out, managed to get some fall cleanup done alongside all the preps. Abundance of mums in the fall garden resulted in rangolis inside and out. Beautyberry, cosmos, chinese lanterns, peppers and even some persimmon twigs made for some fabulous fall displays.

With Amma here, obbattu was inevitable. A work-potluck turned out to be a pleasant surprise with the sportive guys rising up to the challenge of bringing a dish they had cooked - rajma, vegetable korma, paneer burji, mushroom biryani and above all, vada pav - all equally tasty, portions need some more practise.
The obbattus were devoured standing around the table, in the traditional Bangalore style of eating obbattu first ahead of all the spicy/savory food. The dinner was then moved to picnic blankets on the floor with everyone sitting around the spread, passing around the food and enjoying the easy talk.

 Much against the green freak in me, we stocked up on some sparklers and flower-pots over July-4th for this very day. For the first time ever, the kids got to "enjoy" the fireworks...ie, with BigC pinching hard on her nostrils and staying behind the wind to stay away from the smoke and LilC up in Appa's arms. The consolation being this phase too shalt pass with precious nostalgic memories for later.

in the garden - mums
 

 

October Blaze

Hard to believe that October blazed by without a single post - all credit to the virus that brought down everyone and the treacherous back-2-work. Mum arrived from India just in time to help us through the sickness and her favorite festival - Dasara. We celebrated a week late with "Bombe mane" - display of dolls and the flowers from the garden were again the star. Even managed to sneak in an impromptu night of Dandiya.
Fall colors arrived overnite with enough rains for the entire year. BigC wanted to be a ghost and witch this year and the graduation gown from a decade ago was put to good use. The school convinced BigC to "beg" for money for UNICEF than candies and they were very successful at that - raised ~$20 and no wasted candy. Its also time for the b'day - wiser or not, definitely, older! Lunch at Mingo of chili prawn salad with the girls and hazelnut cake with roasted pears by B

in the garden - loaded asian pear tree

A Swift picnic

Weekends are a respite from the routine centered around BigC's school. This wknd we had more school to see with the fall festival. With the sun blazing down, it was not what one would expect but welcome. Evening temperatures are definitely Fall but, the days have been sunny and dry. Having signed up for the bake sale, i tried my hand at madeleines but in vain. After 3 batches of not chilling, over-baking and over-filling, it was decided to be mastered another time. Instead baked a peach-ginger tart and cherry-upside down cake which vanished in a hurry.
Took a picnic to see the Vaux swifts roost at Chapman elementary chimney. It was late in the season and despite not as many swifts, it was a spectacle of sorts with a few thousand showing up on their way south (all the way to central America!). Even witnessed a predator of some kind that was chased away by the swarm - a classic example of what a thousand drops could do. Towards the end, when only a few were circling around, the hawk did make a show and made away with a meal. As for our meal, packed a picnic of mushroom pinwheels, sprouted moong salad with oranges and apples and croissant caponata sandwich. Tweaked this a little with sauteing half the red-onions in the start with celery for some sweetness, added some chilli, cumin and garam-masala and only a tbsp of red-wine vinegar. Finished off with whole-wheat brownies that the friend made. The b'day celebration that the picnic was supposed to be getting a rain-check given the disastrous baking period.



in the garden - banana and asters in autumn evening light

Green Ganesha



B's Ganapati

Over the past few years, we have been blessed with a friend who's celebration of Ganapati is to be seen to be believed. There's no effort spared with an elaborate lunch and dinner - including obbattu. Her hubby has been making rather, sculpting the Ganesha from clay for 12 years now and the son made the "cool guitar-wielding" mooshika.
Ganesha is known to be Gana Priya - one who likes talents and there was plenty on display besides the sculpting itself.The mil embroidered a spread for Ganesha's table, the friend made tomato-chutney give-aways for Gowri-Jevan and the kids stamped brown paper bags to hold the jars. Friends brought Maharastrian style lemon pickle, dahi-mishti and pedas moulded as modaks. The rains have kept away means the flower-beds of marigold and dahlias have been on fire taking just one harvest of the front yard to make enough garlands for her. With the kids acting up, could not follow through on promise of more garlands and rangoli from back-yard.

At home, amid all the ganesha-hopping, tomato stashing and long-overdue work on the house, got around to making kadubus for the pot-bellied gourmand a little after, surprising BigC and S who then went on to mold the very forgiving pot-belly with an elephant face from turmeric. All of 10 minutes were spent with promise to do better next year. Only time will tell.





in the garden - lily bowl going strong with water hyacinths