Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Alexis's Tag .

Awesome, Amazing Alexis has tagged me.. so here i go..



1. Most desired celebrity

Masculine.. sexy.. intelligent.. Adorable..warm..tender..
sensitive.. sense of humor.. He is the best...




2. Want to do this some day
Swim in the sea... don’t think I will ever do it..
After my drowning experience I am scared of water..






3. Want to visit this place
Mount Kailas and Manasasarovar...
Hindus view Kailas as the abode of Shiva, and for them
it is a goal of pilgrimage.
Mount Kailas (22,028 ft, 6,714 m), the famed holy
peak, is situated to the north of the Himalayan
barrier in Western Tibet. This legendary snow-shrouded
rock dome is one of the most revered pilgrimage sites
for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Bonpos
(Pre-Buddhists)
At the slopes of Kailas, a
stream is said to pour into Manasarovar and from this
lake, flow four of Asia's great rivers the Indus, the
Brahmaputra, the Karnali and the Sutlej.
I would love to visit there and dissolve in the
majestic silence... heart wrenching solitude and sheer
wilderness..



4. Random Favorite

Arundhati Roy..

Bold, intelligent, beautiful, spunky, straightforward,
has her own awesome style..
I fell in love with her on reading the first paragraph
of the ‘God Of Small things’…

Monday, July 17, 2006

My Mom's Cooking..

Kappa and Mulakupottichathu

Steaming cylindrical pieces of creamy white ‘Malabar’ kappa with crushed onion, crushed green chili /red chilly laced with coconut oil and salt..
Ooh..! My tongue burns in pleasure filled memories of those monsoon evenings as I soothed the spicy taste with hot coffee…watching the rain drops pattering down..

Ice cream
Milk, egg vanilla essence sugar.. Beaten and cooked over a water bath and poured into ice trays and chilled.. That was ice-cream for us.. Frozen and crunchy or smooth and soft.. We licked it up.. Greedily.. Like puppies..

Prawn fritters

Prawns marinated in spices dipped in corn flour paste and deep fried.. We gulped it down in dozens..

Pidi and chicken mulakuchar

The ultimate comfort food.. Globules of rice powder dough cooked in coconut milk and mild spices paired with very spicy chicken curry with fried and grounded red chilly.. Delicious.. Delectable. It is still my favorite dish..

Appam and mutton stew.
Soft lacy white appams with a bland ( she didn’t add much spices) mutton stew in thick coconut milk.. She prepared it for all those Christmas and Easter breakfasts.. Still do.. ( Appams are ordered these days)my sons pig out on them.. I too shamelessly..( That’s why she orders them these days I think..)
:))

Pal payasam
Just milk, rice, cardom, sugar.. I still don’t know how she managed to concoct that delicious semisolid stuff that filled us with heavenly sweetness

Inji kari and Manga kari

The steaming hot kanji, mangakari and inji Kari she made on Good Fridays.. Made us obsessively gulp down the lunch… our stomach growling after the breakfast that had been skipped..

Snehamoru
Light yellow bland buttermilk she made lovingly when our tiny bodies or minds were hurting. Along with plain rice it never failed to soothe out or troubled bodies, emotions or soul..

Cakes.
Rock cake, sponge cake, lazy daisy cake, lemon cake, chocolate cake,
I remember the aroma of the cakes baking in the oven filling our home … welcoming and tantalizing us.. on those long lost evenings as we walked into our garden after a hard day in the school..

Ribbon rice

The ultimate gourmet dish she prepared for special occasions.. Basmati rice, prawn with thick gravy, coriander chutney.. All these layered and baked.. To form a multicolored layered dish.


Bittu’s mamma tagged me.. Im supposed to write ten dishes that I miss from my moms cooking..and I enjoyed doing it..

Yes I miss my moms cooking…While I was a child she used to painstakingly try out new elaborate, exotic dishes while we waited in bated breath for the end product. Somehow she doesn’t do that now.

I enjoy cooking.. But I don’t have the patience to try out elaborate dishes.. I stick to simple yummy stuff.. 'Life is too short to stuff a mushroom’ That is my motto..

My mom is different.. Her ‘life’ is her family. She is so focused on cooking and caring for us..

My eyes are moist as I write this.. She injured her fingers in the grinder today while she was preparing breakfast.. Lacerated wound… two fingers with split nails.. Wound ha been sutured.. She is on antibiotics and painkillers.. She stays 200 km from me..I couldn’t go to her.. I just monitored everything over the phone. She should heal in a few days..

I can’t help thanking you mom.. For all the hours you sweated over the stove.. Stirring.. boiling.. frying and baking.. Burning your hands, cutting your fingers, scalding your cheeks. Eyes watering and sneezing over burning spices.. To quench our hunger.. Tickle our palates and make us grow…

people i wish would take up this tag..
silverine
alexis
geo
sarah
velu

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Reading in style...


My son is reading the newspaper .. inspite of having such a comfortable chair he prefers to sit and read like that.. and of course it is the sports page ..
:))

Sunday, July 02, 2006

wisdom..


"Be quick to listen,

Slow to speak,

And slow to become angry."

-proverbs( the bible)

I love this chapter in the bible.. It is a treasure- house of ancient wisdom thats relevent in our daily lives today....but its not so simple as it appears..
I wonder if Iwill ever be able to master the one given above..
:))