I am back

Hello to all my readers from the past and new ones to be. I have been away for long long long time! It almost feels like I took a sabbatical! The last time I posted was from Nashville, Tennessee and today I am posting from Savannah, Georgia. Yes we moved to south of USA, almost into Florida; so Disney World is like 3 hrs!!! Great time to move so close with a 2.5 yrs old toddler at home!

Ganesha - Acrylic

YES! My dear son Aarav is grown up and guess what, he started his preschool just yesterday! Now, that should explain why I am back here on my blog! :) From Nashville to now, a lot has changed and happened! We moved to this new place but have a bunch of old friends from India, so for the first time, it feels good and close to home here in USA. This movement makes me be in the same time zone as my brother is Boston! 

Crab Shack - Watercolor

I jumped back to my painting hobby and have taken it up a few levels up this time around...now when I look at the paintings I did 8 yrs ago, they look like some kid in 4th grade did them.

Dancing Lady - Watercolor

I started with Watercolor painting and slowly moved on to Acrylic paints. I have started painting on CANVAS! Now, that I hadn't even dreamed of. As always, my husband is pushing and encouraging me to go for big..do canvas ...do oil painting! Do big stuff. But I know my limits and I try to set smaller achievable goals...so far I am doing stuff I see on the internet, ideas that come in my head and I look for them and see if there is something I can replicate! There is lots to learn on YouTube, many tutorials and lessons that help me improve each time!

Traditional Indian Man - Watercolor

Friends only wonder how I manage to get time to paint with a toddler at home. Well the secret is that I do all my paintings late at night, after the kid and husband sleep at 10! I paint till late like 2 or 3 am! True Artist style! J

Buddha - Acrylic

We recently went on a long 5 week vacation to India. Had my son meet all possible relatives in both our families, had his hair removal ceremony. That was pending since his birth and he had really long hair..looked like a cute girl. Now he looks like a perfect BOY!

Spanish house - Watercolor

The past year without the blog has been so busy with raising Aarav, moving to new city. He has been growing up so fast! Learning things so quickly. He speaks English and everyday I hear something new and we are surprised how quick these kids can learn and speak! He is so thorough with the letters and numbers and rhymes. He's reading story books from the library! I am so proud of him!

Poppy field - Watercolor

In 8 yrs of our marriage, I never had a driving license in the USA. Thanks to my growing son and his needs to school I had to get it done...I am glad I did. Now I have a driving license and today it truly felt like the typical American lifestyle. Woke up at 6 am to drop my husband at work, came back and got my son ready for his school, dropped him, stopped at the post office and mailed off Rakhis to my brother and now back home; waiting to step out and get my son back in 2 hrs! Now I know what the other ladies meant by freedom after getting a driving license!

Cheers to taking more responsibility and of course freedom! J

Aarav’s FIRST Birthday celebration

WOW! Almost 6 months since I have posted anything on my blog. I had been very busy in the first quarter of this year. We had planned a visit to India to celebrate my son’s first birthday with his grandparents. Last year, we had left India abruptly and came here to Nashville. We hardly have any friends here.

It was my thought from the beginning that we should celebrate Aarav’s first birthday with both his grandparents. I mean first birthday is the special one…the next birthdays will happen.

"Super why" blueberry cake

I wonder if I mentioned earlier, but he is a fan of this educational cartoon program “SUPE WHY”. So we decided to have a super why themed party; for which I pretty much bought all the decorations here in the US. His birthday banner, balloons almost 100, the super why character cut outs, plates and cups and spoons and fork – all with super why cartoons on them.

I had my brother-in-law in India to help and co-ordinate the party. I stayed there for 6 weeks; 3 weeks each at my in-laws and my parents in Baroda and Pune respectively! It was a trip to remember. Both his grandparents waited eagerly to meet him, play with him. 6 weeks flew by so fast! Well his entire first year has gone by so fast! He got used to seeing so many new faces all the time. He used to get scared and feel shy…by the end of my trip he learnt not to cry seeing new faces; yet didn’t go instantly to any new person. That is probably common to most kids.

"Super Why" theme party

We bought a Samsung tablet only to keep him busy on the plane with Super why episodes. Well actually I was travelling back alone with him, since my husband had only a 10-day vacation planned for himself. But my son as before too, did not trouble me at all. He pretty much slept though both ways.

By the time we started to India on March 18^th, he had picked up walking. He would walk 5-6 steps and then put his hands down instead of crashing badly. And by the time I returned he was a perfect walker! He got enough space and opportunity and people to take him out walking in India.

"Super why" coloring activity for kids

He played a lot with his grandparents, especially his grandfathers. He bonded with them easily. May be because they would let him play freely, as against grandmothers who like to cuddle more often; with his age of being a rebellious walker! J

My grandmother was there to spend time with him tooJ. She of course could not dare to pick him up, but she enjoyed playing with him at a distance.

As per Indian traditions, we successfully displayed his skills where he showed where the fan, light, moon, airplane, birds. Now it’s a coincidence that all his answers are the same – up, towards the sky! But he knows them correctlyJ. He got to see lots of birds in India, he pretty much screamed with joy every time he saw them. I thoughtfully taught him actions to “how do birds fly” and “how does fan work” – some new entertainment for the grandparents and more stories to brag aboutJ.

Color imaginations

Nowadays he has learnt to say few words – choose (shoes), train, truck, tar (car), dog. He can show A to D on the picture chart, Apple, Ball, Car and Dog. And off the sequence Onion, because he played with it often in my mom’s kitchen.

Those are the important updates from recent months. All in all, beautiful start to the year. 

One of the best things about Aarav’s birthday was this idea I implemented – a diary with hand-written best wishes from all near and dear ones on the occasion of his FIRST birthday. Something he will have to read when he grows up. I hope he will enjoy it as much as all the well-wishers did!

Christmas Day - Cook Out Special

Opryland Christmas Lightings

My husband had a big official vacation period at work, 24^th Dec to 1^st Jan! We decided that we did not want to go out of town vacationing, considering we have a 9-month old and also that it’s chilly and freezing most of the days. My biggest concerns are by son’s food; as I give him homemade food everyday using Cerelac while on a trip needs a bunch of arrangements. So why not just skip the travel. Moreover, we haven’t seen much of Nashville yet.

Intricate lighting job!

So my son turned 9 months on 24^th and 25^th was my mother-in-law’s birthday. So I decided to make a common cake for both on 25^th. 24^th we went out to a resort close by, The Opryland. It’s a huge area with hotel and recreations, not to mention it’s probably designed for the richest class of people. But they have a free entry to watch Christmas lighting…for 20mins..beyond which you pay for your car parking.

It was freezing at about -2 degC and we for some reason decided to go and watch the lightings along with my husband’s colleagues. 10 mins out of the car, walking through the lighted area and my hands were numb from holding the camera and clicking pictures. I instantly got a fear of my son falling severely ill; though we had 3 layers of warm thick clothes on him. The place was small enough to drive around in your car and enjoy the lighting so I told my husband that we’d just drive around and leave. Nothing’s more important that my son’s good health. We all rushed back to the car and drove around.

Lights and Birth of Christ arrangements

So Christmas lighting's at the Opryland was a 15 mins event for us! But it was pretty beautiful. They could make it more colorful though! And since we were already in the area and the Opry Mills Mall is right next door, we thought lets go into the Mall and let our son play in the play area. He loves it there. He’s quite social as in, he smiles at other kids around him, goes close to them, doesn’t touch them though. He is always the youngest child in the play area..every other kid there is a walker or much bigger! So sometimes I feel sorry that my son is crawling around and watching other kids walk and run all over the place! He’ll get there soon, he’s quite close to walking. These days he is leaping a lot or raising his hands in the air as if to stand up…raises himself to ever elevated piece of furniture, box, wall, fridge, bath tub!

Buns brushed with milk, ready to bake

Pretty much everything is closed on 25^th Dec in the US..may be some stores will stay open exceptionally. So we knew we’d be stuck at home all day long, no place to go out. I already had plans of baking a cake. So decided to multi-task and use the oven at a stretch and bake couple of things, spicy savory buns – Iyengar styled added to the cake job!

Iyengar styled Savory buns - edible gifts!

My husband wanted to cook Dal Makhani for a while, so I planned to use the “25^thDec-stuck-at-home” day for it! Soaked and pressure cooked it for him and by lunch time he served me a delicious lunch of Hot Rice and Dal Makhani…such a comfort food on a cold wintery Christmas Day! I spent the afternoon baking an amazingly light white cake and Iyengar Khara buns that I devoured so often in Bangalore!

Super yummy Dal Makhani made by my husband

To sum it up,  Christmas day turned out to be a cook-out day. We ended it with meeting a friend of mine from Pune who was relocating to Michigan. We visited them with some Christmas gifts and Spicy buns for the two lovely girls they have!

Memories for future

I am not sure if I mentioned this earlier on my blog; mostly not! In the early weeks of my son’s birth, my husband came up with a cool idea – creating an email account for him; and mailing him from now on, anything. It could be updates about him.

I liked the idea and I created a gmail account for him. And since then I have mailed him...quite a few times! In the early weeks of course it was difficult to find time really, and later there were so many developments, I moved back to my home in Bangalore, then to the US…etc. So while adjusting to these changes, I lost track of mailing him.

After 5 months I today mailed him. Subject – Some updates J. I mentioned all the transitions and milestones he has been accomplishing since my last mail. One of his recent behaviors is that he is kinda scared of the mixer and vacuum noises! He wasn’t like this when we moved here. I use the mixer everyday to puree his food to feed him. So it’s unavoidable! And the times when I have to blend for dosa/idli batter; it’s crazy!

He is not a crying baby, he very rarely cries..but for the mixer and vacuum he cries terribly. Yesterday, my husband was with him and I warned him that I need to blend the tomato chutney so he is going cry now when I turn on the mixer! And as expected he burst into tears and loud cry..even with my husband being right next to him.

He was seeing me across the kitchen counter and still cried. So my husband and I both got a thought-that he might not be scared of the sound really; somewhere in his tiny mind he might be thinking that mommy is getting hurt L. May be that is why he breaks into a loud burst of cry! Like any 9 month baby he is very attached to me.

I have tried holding him and turning on the mixer to show him what it is and where does the noise come from. It’s my way to get him familiar with things; like I used to hold him and stand in front of the Indian pressure cooker to show him where does the whistle noise and white mist comes from. Somehow the fear of mixer noise is not going away.

Very often we think what he could be thinking! Since he was little my husband has been fascinated by this – what do babies think? If there was some device to find it out! 

So hopefully these mails will be fun for him and us in future to read!

Sunday “Shudh Desi” Brunch

Yes, as planned yesterday today’s Sunday brunch was ever comforting pure Indian delicacy – Pav Bhaji. The bunch of Pav (dinner rolls) were waiting all night. I woke up at 8am and started off prepping all vegetables. Also got to use the complimentary food processor I got in my Oster kitchen mixer/blender package for the vegetables. Made my vegetable chopping so quick, with my husband’s help we quickly finished cleaning and chopping all the vegetables and set up the cooker! Aarav was busy crawling all over the kitchen floor around our legs. He also got his share of vegetable mix for lunch!

11 am and Sunday brunch was ready. Buttery pan-roasted Pav with spicy yummy steaming hot bhaji with a garnish of crispy onion and green cilantro and a dash of lemon juice! What a hearty warm meal for cold Sunday! That’s a good end to the long weekend of Thanksgiving!

My Father’s perfect recipe for the Bhaji, for those interested!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pav-Bhaji: for 10 persons.

Ingredients: Vegetables– Capsicum, Carrot, Green Peas, Green Beans, Cauliflower, Tomatoes, potatoes 250 gram each and one onion.

Spices – Ginger- 10gm, Garlic – 10 gm (10 –15 pieces), four green Chilies, Tamarind - 2–3 gm, pav-Bhaji masala, Sambar masala.

Wash nicely all these vegetables before cutting and cooking.

Preparation: Fine chop capsicum, carrot, green beans, cauliflower and potatoes. Except capsicum cook all other vegetables in cooker till it whistles 6-8 times. Make paste of ginger, garlic, Green chilies and tamarind in mixer. Chop tomatoes in small pieces. Cut the onion in thin slices.

Making Bhaji: Heat a big pan/vessel. Put in100 gm edible oil. Once oil is warm add one small spoon mustard seeds in the oil. Add thin chopped onion and fry it till it turns little brown. Add chopped capsicum and fry it till half cooked (10-12 minutes). Then add above paste and fry for 2 minutes.  Add chopped tomatoes and fry it well for 5-6 minutes. Press this capsicum & Tomatoes well by some pressing tool like a masher. Then add vegetables cooked in cooker and mash it well with above tool. Add 25 gm pav bhaji masala and 25 gm sambar masala. Add salt as per your taste. Cook the whole stew for another 10-15 minutes. Serve with chopped coriander leaves and fine chopped onion, as you like.  

You can use other vegetables as per your choice and availability. If green chillies are big then use 2 or 3 only. Nicely mash all the vegetables till it turns in paste form or homogeneous mixture.

Bon Appétit!

French Croissants and Indian Pav!

Step by step - from left anticlockwise

I am late by a fortnight in posting about my croissants! I had been mentioning it for so long …and finally I took up what seemed like a herculean baking task. I kind of kept it as a mark of achievement; if I can make croissants then I am here to stay in the world of baking.

Final product - Croissants

Started off on the 2 day process from Friday morning, planning to have croissants for Saturday breakfast. Coming straight to the point, the final result of croissants were good.. I wouldn’t say excellent. As they were not flaky like I wanted them to be; the store bought croissants are flaky like puffs. My croissants were soft and buttery and yummy but not the exact texture I was aiming at. I have learnt a bunch of things that can be done differently next time, which can get me closer to the flaky croissants. For now, these are good to move on! I am proud to have reached this milestone on my baking journey!

Home made Pav bread - dinner rolls

The long weekend of Thanksgiving is on here and we are at home for 4 days. The weather here in Nashville is very very cold; as cold as -6 degC. And having an 8 month old makes it even more difficult to step out of the house! The second day was bright and sunny so we stepped out for some lunch and Indian grocery shopping. It’s been a while since I made Pav Bhaji and have been craving to eat it. But every time I want to make it, one of the vegetable is missing in my refrigerator! But this weekend I have all the ingredients to make my Father’s special Pav Bhaji! To make it more exciting, I decided to make homemade Pav, another first time baking experience. They are so so simple to make!

Shiny butter glaze top

So Sunday special menu is fixed – Can’t wait to get up tomorrow morning and cook up some yummy Bhaji to go with the Pav ready on the kitchen counter!

Hand of God

My cousin brother, who lives with my parents, sent me this picture the other day; with the email subject – Guess who? Who in the world cannot identify the hands of their parents; those hands that held you first time you were born, ones that taught you how to walk, ones that held you all through your growing years and will forever!

"Hand of God"

I replied right away that it was my mother’s hand.  As obvious as is her saree in the back…I still instantly recognized her hands, the particular shape of her nails, the wrinkles she lately has developed..all through her physical hard work. She is a working woman, working both at home and at the bank! In the recent months when I lived with her during the birth and early days of my son, I noticed how she is busy at home all the time. Always cleaning something, furniture, grains/lentils, kitchen, vegetables or cooking. Of course she does watch TV, her favorite Marathi serials. But in these times when life is so easy and quick she still does a lot of things the old way. My husband those days once said, “How much your mom keeps working. Every room she leaves is neat and clean”.

As we had a couple of chain mails on this picture, I remembered a phrase ‘Hand of God’. Sometime ago it was someone’s email password, I don’t remember who. That’s how I know this phrase. I thought it was a perfect caption for the picture.

I googled the phrase just to see where does it come from; came across Soccer’s Deigo video – Hand of god where he made a goal with his hand and won the world cup for Argentina!  I further googled to see if it had any mythological reference. Well it has in Jewish and Christian culture.

To me, the caption brought deeper levels of interpretation of this simple picture. J