Digging into the past

There are very few things that I can hold up for show-and-tell when it comes to my past. Most of my memorabilia lies gathering dust in a dark cupboard about 9000 miles away. Even in that collection though, I don't have much by way of tangibles. What I do have are photographs. Photographs that were supposed to last through my lifetime, but have instead faded and come unhinged from the albums into which they were carefully pasted.

My parents' wedding, 1956

Not many people in that wedding picture are alive today and perhaps they, too, like my parents left behind rusting eyeglasses, fading pictures, and a few solitary possessions that their families hold on to.

KK Brand

When a nomadic life became ours through our calling, I took with me what I needed to sustain us for the next couple of months, at the most. A pressure cooker with its inserts was the only essential item in my suitcase. The rest I would do without or I would find suitable substitutes. If push came to shove, I would leave my pressure cooker behind, too. My memories, I knew, would go with me wherever I went. I did not need tangibles, show-and-tells.

threads

It was only when we decided to grow some roots that I realized that I had left home with four suitcases, a pressure cooker and my memories. And, a void. I began to want to hold, to touch and to relate; more so as my child grew older, away from extended family who might have filled her in on her father's motorcycle escapades or her mother's exciting safaris, or brought to life the grandparents she never knew, including their travails and triumphs. I began to want those very things that I had shunned as unnecessary and I swore that I would bring them back with me on my next trip.

engraving

Priorities shift over time and it's a fine balance between want and need, as it was on that proverbial next trip home. There were six suitcases this time, more space that only proved to be amazingly inadequate because now every memory had not just a tangible form, but a measurable weight to go with it. Needless to say, I came back with fewer things than I wanted and a deeper void than before.

One of the blessings I brought back with me was a kitchen tool that had been gifted to my mother by my Dad's best friend. It has her name and his name engraved on it, that is how I know. Was it a wedding gift? I don't know. But what I do know is that this man was our only claim to fame for a very long time. He had worked with Kamal Amrohi in the making of the film, Pakeezah, or so the legend went. I can't find his name in any of the online references to Pakeezah but apparently his name is there in the credits. Suddenly, there is a need watch the tragedy queen Meena Kumari throw herself on her bed and lip-sync hauntingly mournful songs.

handle

This kitchen tool is made of brass. It is heavy and becomes heavier when its cylinder is filled with dough. I can see my Dad standing by the stove, turning the handle to press the dough through the holes into hot oil. My sister and I did our share, too, as my mother could only supervise this part of the annual faraal preparation for Diwali.

holes

My heirloom has four discs, the three pictured above and a fourth with a star-shaped hole.  It can be used to make chakli, ganthia and sev of varying thickness. I don't have lymphedema nor do I have arthritis but already, it is too heavy for me because of other reasons. Medha will have memories of her Dad standing by the stove, turning the handle while her mother stands close by, giving instructions.

the whole picture

There are modern versions of this tool and then there are shinier, lighter remakes but for some reason, the faraal never tastes the same. Maybe because it lacks the invisible but vital ingredient: memories.

Click: Heirloom - which one?

Oooh! Chakli, Mumma?
I hope so. Saturday morning, ok?  
I can't wait
and she was gone.

Saturday morning had other plans for us and those who depended on us. There were no Belgaum-style chaklis made this weekend for IFR: Memories, just tylenol, ibuprofen and endless bowls of soup.

Snow in summer

I love red. And black. Except I went with white. I took pictures of these raspberries in the dog days of summer - almost a blur for us as we have swapped weather with Seattle currently. In the upper 90s and almost 100 in Seattle whereas it's in the low 50s and 60s out here with lots and lots of precip.


How I love fall in summer! There might even be some fresh summer snow in the high country.

Snow in summer

The second pic is my entry to Bee and Jai's Click: Bi-colour. I prefer the first pic but the white background could be anything. In the second pic, the berries are dusted with powdered sugar. White sugar on a summer berry. Snow in summer. Get it?

I made Jen's raspberry and lychee panna cotta with these raspberries. I didn't have fresh or canned lychees so I used 2 cups of lychee juice, added 3 tbsp sugar and boiled it down to a syrup. Medha loved it. This was the first time I have had panna cotta and the raspberries with the lychee flavor made it more enjoyable for me; otherwise, I don't think I am much of a panna cotta fan. To me, it tasted like a smooth flavored version of the rich cream (saaya) that would float to the top of the milk pot in India - something I meticulously strained out before using the milk, something my husband loves to slather on a slice of toast with a good dose of sugar and chomp into over the kitchen sink. Apparently, it doesn't taste the same if it's eaten at the table. Whatever.

Stacked, birthday parties and roses

Nothing to waffle about

For CLICK: Stacked, I dug into my archives and pulled out this picture of waffles that Medha made me take in the first week of 2009. She had made breakfast and wanted a picture of her waffles, all stacked, with a dab of butter and as she poured syrup over them. "Just like in the magazines, Mumma!" she said. She was mighty thrilled with it. So off it goes to the Jugalbandits as my judge's entry for CLICK.

Medha celebrated her golden birthday earlier this month: 11 on the 11th. She was super-excited about it and, unlike last year, wanted to celebrate with a birthday party. I prefer to keep her parties small and simple. That means not more than 5 girls in all and no sleepover. I won the first battle but lost the second. She wanted a repeat of the Backyard Campout Party but gave in to roasting marshmallows and making s'mores for dessert instead.

We baked a carrot cake from The Joy of Cooking and then quibbled over what kind of frosting: cream cheese or sprinkled sugar. No prizes for guessing which one I was leaning towards! When it came to making the cream cheese frosting, she realized how much easier it is to simply sprinkle the sugar over the cake and promptly presented it as her idea. I pulled out all the colored sugars and sprinkles I had and we used them to decorate her birthday cake. I then displayed great creativity when I used a metal skewer and wrote Happy Birthday, Medha on the cake with great flourish.

She was somewhat happy. I think. We covered it carefully and left it on the table on an increasingly hot evening. Never do that because, you see, powdered sugar dissolves into the cake. Like so:


This carrot cake was the second best carrot cake I have ever had. After much giggling and talking in sentences where every third word is "like" and every other phrase is "you know", the girls went with me to Louisville's Street Faire for some fun. They jumped, they flipped and came away with their faces painted.

We had a minor family emergency which led to the cancellation of the marshmallow roasting session; but it's generally been agreed that we will do it another time before summer is done. They played Guitar Hero and ate ice-cream without any complaints. The next morning they made some crafty mementoes to take away with them.

(She is the teeniest of the lot but my driveway has a reasonably steep slope making her look even smaller.)

Thanks to The Cooker for this fantastic idea! The girls first painted and decorated 6in terracotta pots and then potted sun-loving annuals in them. To make these, you need:

• 6in terracotta pots and saucers
• Several bottles of bright paints (I bought acrylic paints)
• Foam stickers, buttons, dragonfly charms and similar embellishments
• Hot glue gun
• Pebbles to line the hole in the pot, or not
• Compost and top soil
• Annuals like marigolds, salvia, phlox (more shade than sun), verbena and any other flowers that thrive in the sun.

1. Turn on some music, anything but Taylor Swift.
2. Paint the pots first and allow them to dry.
3. Decorate the pots.
4. Plant the flowers.
5. Watch their faces light up at every stage.

In lieu of birthday gifts, Medha asked her friends if they could sponsor our friends John and Lisa for their Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, if they were so inclined. Or donate to a charity of their choice. John and Lisa walked 39 miles this past weekend and were only $2 short of their goal of $1,800 each.

Medha declared this to be the best birthday she has ever had! In many ways, it probably is! And rightly so. For golden birthdays come only once in a lifetime.

Oh. See that climbing rose bush in the picture of the girls holding their pots? Yup, I made gulkand. There's a real recipe, after all. Over on The Daily Tiffin.

Disjointed in Spring

Spring in Colorado looks like this:


and this:

and allergies. I've been sneezing and with each year, it gets worse. That cottonwood up the street does not need to exist. Period.

Spring also brings back scurrying creatures. Pistachio's chubby grandson, Kaju-Kismis. Or KK the villian. Or Dammit-Just-Get-Off-My-Roof.

I've followed the path of that cob, from my neighbor's corn plant to my frontyard in fall, to the backyard in winter and now, hidden in a hole in my dogwood. This is my Judge's Entry to Jai and Bee's Click for Spring.

News flash: Starched cotton saris and a dryer are not friends. Make sure that visiting relatives from India are apprised of this deep rift.

For Smita: I haven't forgotten about the gajar halwa recipe. I've been buried in snow, work and now, starch. I hope that carrots remain in season by the time I post it!

And, you want to read about our hike to Mirror Lake in Yosemite National Park. You have to.

Cheesy

I know you won't believe me but it's true! I have had a moong dal recipe lined up all month but the post never happened. Life has been hectic and weekends more so, with skiing and/or snowshoeing every weekend of January right through Valentine's Day.

Happy skier

Lots of fun is had out in the mountains but ski clothes a huge mound of laundry do make. Another huge pile, I should say, because I am never caught up with the week's laundry. Every day, I promise myself that today I shall run the washer and dryer until there is no piece of clothing or towel or rag left unwashed, but those darned Fabindia kurtis drive me nuts. They bleed and cannot be washed with other clothes. I hate wet bathroom floors so handwashing and line-drying is out of question, especially in winter. It's out of question in summer, too, because the powerful Colorado sun bleaches those vegetable dyes. That's my excuse anyway. If you have better excuses I could use, submit them as a comment and I'll try to design a suitable virtual badge as a prize for the best one.

In between never-ending laundry, I did manage to have some foodie and crafty fun with friends. Kitt did the honors with the food shots and I had fun with our tripods.

Are you my Mommy?

Now, why couldn't the Click theme have been wine? Or bottle? Or glass? Or something Australian? Or what Bee does best? Bitch would have been so perfect for any or all of these.

But, no! It had to be cheese. Le sigh.

So I made French Onion Soup instead. I had some aged Gruyere cheese that was begging to be used and the recipe from The Joy of Cooking didn't scare me too much with 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of olive oil. The soup was just fine but the pictures? Poo!


The only thing they lent themselves well to was a diptych. But poo there, too! (The smart ones will know what I am talking about.)

With the Gruyere gone, the aged handcrafted habanero cheddar cheese beginning to look slightly moldy and the deadline fast approaching, I decided I would 'phone it in' by sloshing some delectable HFCS-free store-bought Raspberry Chipotle sauce over a triangle of cream cheese and shoot it to death, while my child lay in bed shivering with high fever. Such is my addiction to this thing called Click.

To whomsoever it may concern, the picture directly above this paragraph and immediately below the preceding paragraph is my entry for this month's Click: Cheese.

Back to the sick child then. Yes, the poor child is sick but she had a really great week. Her school had its first play ever and it was the delightful You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Medha does not believe in being seen when she acts or dances or sings. She prefers to make a difference behind the scenes and so she, along with 3 other talented kids, did the music during scene changes. The cast was made up of about sixty 4th and 5th graders who practiced on Wednesday and Thursday mornings before school from September onwards. They had two main casts with three performances and boy, what a show they put on! It was hard to believe that these kids were between the ages of 9 and 11. Here's a short clip of Medha playing the Charlie Brown melody.

The moong dal recipe? It's coming. As soon as I finish making dinner for my famished and sick family, doing the dishes and the laundry, and my article for The Daily Tiffin that was due yesterday.

Jai Ho!

Late! Late! Late!

I know! The last date for Click Red was January 30 but I've been a little under the weather and so busy that I don't know which side is up or rather if it's still today or if today is now yesterday.

Life is still whizzing past me and I am in a perpetual state of trying to catch up. I feel old. I feel slow. Mostly, I am tired and overwhelmed. My lifeline has been these unassuming Goji berries or Chinese wolfberries that Manju of Three Tastes sent me a while ago.


I boil 1 tsp of these goji berries in 2 cups of water until the water boils down to 1 cup. I drink the water like one would herb tea. It has an earthy flavor which I find very comforting. The berries plump up and soften and get a texture almost like raisins. In fact, they taste like a less sugary version of raisins. I relish these as I sip my goji berry tea and I can feel my energy level being revived.


Goji berries should not be consumed raw. They can be cooked and then used as a substitute for other types of berries in cupcakes. I haven't yet done that as I am stuck on tea. I have added goji berry water to miso soup for an additional boost on cold wintry days.

I'm sorry I haven't replied to your comments on my last couple of posts. I promise you I have read them all and chuckled over them. You make my day when you leave me a comment, so thank you very much!

I'm sending the first pic to Click as my judge's entry. I have taken better pictures but lately time seems to be in short supply so this has to be it.

The Concept Rocks

Cenk, Lara, Sabra, Nika and Nina think the Concept rocks! My Steamy Kettle won the first place in SUPERCLICK 2008: Concept.



Thank you all very much!



I am totally overwhelmed and absolutely speechless because there were 108 amazing entries in all. I feel honored. The hour I spent in the middle of the night with a worker's light focused on this whistling kettle was well worth it! My husband wrote me off as a total nutcase while the next morning, Medha wondered why she had had persistent dreams of a train on a railroad track.









Join me, once again, in saying: Woo hoo!



You know the drill...

Riddle Me This

Yes, it has come to that. A quiz. But it should be easy for you know-it-alls and you smart image searchers since I cannot confuse you with tricks like these.

So, who am I?


Here's another view of me and my clan.


Is there a prize? Not for you there isn't. But remember my steaming kettle?

Cenk, Lara, Sabra, Nika and Nina seem to like it steamy, too! My pic won the first place in SUPERCLICK 2008: Spectra. Thanks to all the judges! Needless to say, I think you have excellent taste!



Join me in saying: Woo hoo!

Now go on over to Jugalbandi - but don't forget to come back here, we're in the middle of a quiz - and see who else made the top 10 for Spectra and rocked the first year of CLICK. Kudos to Bee and Jai for making CLICK such a fun event and also for putting up with my rubbish in general!

Summer fades away

It's been a hot and hectic summer for us. A family reunion, a road trip that included cabin and tent camping, the aftermath, and summer camps for Medha that included a cooking camp. I now have a very enthusiastic helper in the kitchen. We are now into the third week of school and all the extra curricular activities will move into full throttle from now on.

Even though it isn't officially fall, we're slowly slipping into fall-like weather. The nights are cooler and while the days are warm, they aren't as hot as summer. And it is still perfect weather to watch summer fade away, armed with a drink and lots of bug spray out on my patio.

My drink of choice lately has been very reflective of summer and bright colors! Blue Haze.

• 2 oz vodka
• 1 oz Blue Curaçao
• 1 oz Triple Sec
• Lemonade to top off (entirely optional, according to me, as it dilutes the drink!)
  
• Slice of lemon or orange as garnish

These colors remind me of The Daily Tiffin makeover. If you haven't seen it yet, you should check it out as soon as possible. Hats off to Suganya and the DT team for putting new fire into a blog that is an amazing resource for tips on healthy living.

I wasn't sure if this should be my entry to CLICK: Citrus, for which I am fashionably late. I can't even claim to be operating on IST because that is 11 and half hours ahead! But since I am a judge and my entry will not be scored, I am hoping the CLICK Gods will forgive me my offline commitments!

I seem to have hit an all time low this past month in the department of inspiration. I've taken pictures of lemons and oranges before, many times. My two favorites are:



The first of these two is my second most interesting picture, has the most favorites and comments amongst all of my pictures on Flickr. It was, however, largely ignored when I submitted it to DMBLGIT.

The second one could have been executed better and I hope to get to it one of these days.

I did want something more and I think I hit it with this picture, which I call Lime Light.


It's different from my usual high key and since I do love to be in the lime light, in the virtual world, I think it is a fitting entry to CLICK: Citrus.

Now, if I weren't so late, I'd ask you to do your bit and post your entry soon. You still can, just make it something crusty, ok?

Lavender, lavender everywhere

Lavender showed up in my mail box, thanks to Bee.


My poor mailman must have loved delivering this package. He probably didn't sneeze his lungs out for a change and instead inhaled a wonderful bouquet. I will ask him the next time I have the courage to go out and meet him; after the last package of masala he delivered, I am still hiding from him.

I loved the aroma of lavender. I can now identify that wonderful whiff I get from my neighbor's yard every time the wind blows with it something other than the smell of grilled hot dogs or seared meat.

The mint in my yard was also begging to be annihilated picked and lovingly used. What?! You are surprised that mint grows in my yard? It fulfills all the required conditions. Which also means it is an obnoxious weed whose roots can travel for miles under the soil.


So yes, I made tea. Not just an infusion but real tea.

Lavender Mint Tea

• 1/2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers
• About 2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, loosely shredded by hand
• 1/4 tsp orange pekoe black tea leaves
  
• 1 cup boiling water

1. Combine the herbs and the tea leaves in a teapot.
2. Pour boiling water into the teapot and allow to steep for 3-5 minutes.
3. You can have it hot with honey or lemon. It is delicious.
4. Or you can cool it and have it over ice. Again, with honey or lemon, as you wish. Either way, remember to strain it before you enjoy it!

This lavender had a lovely sweetness about it that the tea did not need any honey or lemon. In any case, I have my tea sans sugar or honey.

This tea can be had as a simple herbal infusion if you skip the tea leaves.


The last photo is my entry to Click: Coffee and Tea

Grow Your Own? Whatever are you talking about?!

Update: I am also sending this refreshing tea to the Flower Power Girl, Rachna of Soul Food, who is hosting JFI this month. The theme is Edible Flowers.

Are you missing out on the fun here at IFR? Subscribe to my feeds using Google Reader or Bloglines. Taste of India seems to be having some problems with getting the latest updates on my feeds.

Oil

My entry for CLICK: Yellow for Bri.

Help make a difference in a fellow blogger's life:

Adblock

The fund raiser continues until July 15. There are amazing prizes waiting for a bid.

Summer...

June has been a very hectic month. We took a road trip over 9 days that took us to Moab, Utah, onwards to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, back to Colorado via a brief stop at the Four Corners National Monument. We camped in a cabin at Mesa Verde and in tents at the Sand Dunes. I was wiped out at the end of it all but very content.

While I was away, all of you were busy, too! You made the fund raiser CLICK: Yellow for Bri a huge success!

Adblock

There aren't enough words to express the gratitude and overwhelming emotions that come to fore when I look at the little widget above. So I will simply say: Thank you!

The fund raiser will continue until July 15, 2008. So if you would like to donate, I would urge you to do so even though the goal has been reached. With the actual inflation being much higher than the reported inflation, every little bit will continue to help. Don't hold back as there are some really terrific prizes that haven't seen a bid yet! Especially in the Photo-Video section. Like the Gorillapod, the Lowepro Camera bag, the online subscription for a Photography Magazine and the increasingly popular Flip video camera.

And if you are like me and you haven't clicked yet, the deadline is fast approaching: Monday, June 30. So pick up that camera now!

June is also the month that Farmer's Markets in our neck of the woods really get going. Louisville now has its own little Farmer's Market. The official grand opening was yesterday. I missed it, of course. But I did make it to the market. And look at the loot I came home with.

Any clue how much I paid for all this?

So That There is a Tomorrow

Even though tomorrow never saw the light of day for my Gujarati dal made with kokum, I like to think and work towards a tomorrow for all the important things in life. And that is what I have been busy with. A brighter tomorrow. At least that is how I like to look at it.

Life has been full of surprises over the past couple of months. I touched briefly on how cancer has touched our lives again on A Mad Tea Party, which has since reverted to being the fabulous blog it used to be, heart and soul intact! Suddenly, everywhere I turned, there were more and more people I knew that had cancer of one kind or the other. Our school district lost a feisty young drama teacher Tracy Ayers, whom we supported through our prayers and thoughts as she waged a battle for her life. An online acquaintance, Gloria Craney, also passed away in April. Her cancer remained undetected because she did not have adequate health insurance to pay for the hideously expensive treatment she so deserved. Close on its heels came the news about Bri, a young woman with a bright future who has made a difference with her beautiful, well-written and inspiring vegan blog. All these women reminded me of my mother and her struggle with cancer. There came a time when the doctors at Tata Memorial Hospital in Bombay, India, told me to take her home and make her comfortable because there was nothing else they could do for her. We would do the same if she was our mother, they said. They laughed and talked derisively to my sister to who flew down from the US to convince them that there was still hope and that things could be done to improve her quality of life. When it looked like we were hitting our heads against a wall, my sister took a very risky personal decision and insisted that I bring my mother to the US for further treatment. And I did. We had no health insurance. No-one would cover us from India and it was even more bleak in the US.

But, because both my sister and her husband are doctors and well-known in their respective fields, the only thing we paid for was three MRIs. $750. My mother was seen by the best neurosurgeons, orthopedists and oncologists in New Jersey. She received radiation, denied to her in India, and was back on Tamoxifen, the then wonder drug. Everything was gratis, except the medication. Unbelievable but true. Armed with written recommendations, we returned to India to find that the doctors were now more open to addressing her case. My mother had a second hip surgery and she lived a reasonable quality of life for more than 2 years thereafter. If we had given up at that time, her condition would have deteriorated very quickly and we would have lost her even sooner than we did. I wish I had known of alternative therapies then. I had access to the Internet through a gracious friend and I surfed using Lynx - anyone remember that text-based web browser? - using a s-l-o-w dial-up modem connection. Information was hard to come by.

Things are different today. There are alternate therapies available. And I don't think the insurance agencies have a right to deny these to anyone who seeks them but they do. They have their own long list of reasons. They take our money and then they tell us which treatment we may or may not have. It's grossly unfair.

Bri was diagnosed with breast cancer two and half years ago. A mastectomy, chemotherapy and two years of relatively good health later, the cancer is back. It has metastasized to other parts of her body. At the age of 15, Bri lost her 41-year old mother to the disease. Now, she’s waging her own war against breast cancer. Bri is going through intensive chemotherapy and other treatments and needs to focus completely on healing and finding the treatment that works best for her. Her health insurance does not cover holistic alternatives which she would like to try.

The team organising the June edition of CLICK has organised a fundraiser to help Bri and her family meet her out-of-pocket medical costs for the period of one year.




CLICK is a monthly theme-based photography contest hosted by Jugalbandi. This month's theme is: YELLOW for Bri.

Yellow is no longer the color of cowardice; it is the color of hope and enlightenment. Rightly so, as it is a very happy and joyous color. Through the work of the LiveStrong Foundation, it has also come to signify the fight against cancer.


Take a picture of anything where the main color is yellow. It can be an ingredient, a dish, a concept, cookware, a location - anything in a culinary setting.

The deadline for entries is June 30, 2008.

The fundraiser will continue until July 15, 2008.

The target amount is US$12,000. So this is an appeal to our fellow bloggers and readers to help us achieve this goal. As of writing this, and within 3 days of the event announcement, you have already helped raise over US$3,872 towards the goal of US$ 12,000. The Brownlow family and the CLICK team are simply overwhelmed by your response. It underscores the fact that Bri deserves a chance to explore all options, even if her insurance company thinks otherwise.

There's a raffle with exciting prizes on offer. After viewing the list, you may make your donation or by using the Chip-In button on this or any participating site. Once you have donated, fill in the form at the bottom of this page to tell us which raffle prizes you would like to bid for.

Your donation can be made securely through credit card or by Pay Pal and it goes directly to Bri's account.

This month's photo contest also has two special prizes!.

You can support this campaign in many ways:

• by donating to the fundraiser,
• by participating in CLICK: the photo event,
• and by publicising this campaign.

I sure hope you will do at least one if not all three!

Adblock

Please participate in this month's CLICK Yellow for Bri, so that there is a tomorrow for this passionate and beautiful young woman and her family.

Thank you all so very much for all your kindness and your support.

Drab and smelly

I thought I would kill several birds with one stone... Stage a comeback on my own blog, for starters. Do Pel proud. (Anita, wipe that frown off your brow for it is an informal expression.) Introduce Medha to new tastes and smells. Take pictures like one obsessed - for Click - where it seems to be rather wind-y today.

I bought jackfruit. I paid $2.99/lb for this little chunk that weighed 2.35 lbs to be exact. Over $7. Plus tax. From which came maybe 20 pieces of pulp and even fewer seeds. Given how way too many bloggers had featured the jackfruit last year, I really don't know what I was thinking. No matter what I tried, the results were not enthusing. I even took some corny shots of the jackfruit in my dogwood tree with lovely bokeh in the background. The rind of the poor fruit started turning brown as every nook and cranny of my home quickly absorbed its sickly sweet smell. The natives also started getting restless, and were becoming increasingly biased against the fruit because of the odor fragrance. Then the sun did what it does every evening, a minute or so later each day now, and my home was infused with a warm golden glow.

Mothership

I also decided to push the boundaries a bit and make it look like nothing on this earth. Alien, if you will.

Alien

The jackfruit was done by this time, too! One critic called it drab, for lack of a better word. I was very amused because if he had been able to smell it, drab would have been farthest from his mind.

We ate the crunchy pulp after much rinsing. Milky sap covered my hands, my table, my plates and even on some parts of my camera. Intuitively, I rubbed my hands with vegetable oil and then washed them with warm soapy water and the sap washed off rather easily. That's a Handy Tip, people! I just don't fancy doing the same to my camera though.

I roasted the seeds but they weren't very popular. I am very hesitant to throw them into the trash. Maybe the birds will eat them?

The smell pervaded everything in the house. And to get rid of it, I did the next best thing: added another dimension to the smell. If the jackfruit is a sensational fruit from the land, then this is an exotic flower from the ocean. Baby cuttlefish. Come on! Stretch that imagination a little bit, will you‽

Flower from the Ocean - my entry for Click

Not everyone's smelly cup of tea. And certainly not spring bounty. But it is Au Naturel.

Cuttlefish are really mollusks and although they lack a skeleton, they do have a inner porous structure called the cuttlebone which is made of calcium carbonate. This provides them with buoyancy. Squids and octupi are also cuttlefish.

The natives became restless again, not sure which of the two was worse. Medha appreciated Jai's strategy of walking around with an agarbatti stuck to her nose. But it backfired when the strong artificial scent of jasmine almost sent her lungs into shock.

The cuttlefish is currently marinating in soya sauce, garlic and some mirin sauce. A quick stir fry might be in order, unless someone gives me a better idea.

I was trying to figure out which of these three pictures to send for Click - Au Naturel. Alien might be too weird, Flower of the Ocean is too strange and I can see several vegetarians being put off by it. And Mothership is just another staid shot of the jackfruit. I am not particularly inspired by any of these. Are you?

Updated: The Flower from the Ocean goes to Click. Thank you all for your input!

Stay a While, Won't You?

I know I've been gone a while and you want to know what I have been up to. Life has been brimming with excitement, as always. But, hang on. Let me put the kettle on, first. There! So much better!


But, what's the hurry...

A good cup of tea must be shared between friends, no? Let me get the teapot ready because I hear the tea kettle whistling.

Steaming - my entry as a judge for Click - Metal.

Get on with it, you say? In a minute! Let me pour the hot water into the teapot first.



Ah! Much better. Now sit back and enjoy that cup of tea and tell me which of the three pictures you like best. As usual, I can't make up my mind about which picture to send to Click. Not that it matters because I am a judge for the March event. But it's always nice to get your opinion. Me? I like them all but I do lean most towards the third one for many reasons. I love the little swirl of steam escaping from the spout, right under the whistle, and I also like to think that the picture represents me: ready to come back! So put your thinking caps on and let me know.

Update: The people has spake! #2 is it!