quip of the day

Someone got my son a glow-in-the-dark sword similar to the kind in Aladin (the sword not the glowing in the dark bit ;) Prancing around with the sword, my son now fancies himself three musketeers and He-man all rolled into one.

This was our conversation in econut - translated into english:
Gau: Why dont thieves come anymore?
a-searching-the-disarrayed-aisles-me: mmmmmmm i dont know.
Gau: tell me why
Me : I dont know why!
Gau: ARe they extinct like dinosaurs?

That grabbed my attention at full throttle. Apparently he is hoping for a robber at our home so that he could fend him off with his glow-in-the-dark sword!

Ban PriyaGold 's fresh gold Juice!

It is funny how all the developed countries are realising the importance of eating less packaged food, more fresh fruits 'n' veggies and we are forging ahead in the opposite direction! Case in point: Priya Gold Juice advertisment on Pogo/Cartoon network channels. It is an ad for a brand of juices with no preservatives. Their shibboleth? The mom trilling "ab paani koyi nahi mangega" (no one will ask for water anymore).

The juice claims no preservatives used. I wonder what percentage of the populace notices the significance; it says only no preservatives, it doesn’t say "no added sugar or flavour or color". India is racing at breakneck speed to be the diabetes capital of the world and this company is adding momentum by adding more sugars to our diet!

Here is a incomplete list of reasons to ban this brand in our homes and refrigerators:

1. It targets kids who are in the 2 - 10 age group, highly susceptible to any suggestion.
2. It tells them it is cool to drink juice instead of water.
3. The mother recommends juice when the child asks for water!
4. It is probably loaded with extra sugars.
5. Drinking packaged juices such as these instead of fresh water and/or eating fresh fruits increases our ecological foot print.
6. Isn't "fresh packaged" an oxymoron along the lines of "fresh frozen"?

capitalist insensitivity?

Have you seen the SBI advertisement in The Hindu of late?

The first advertisement I noticed featured a poor slob dragging a very heavy cart laden to breaking point under a merciless sun beating down on him. The one featured today portrays another poor slob slaving away under the hot sun, washing a unending pile of clothes. The caption in both cases reads ex-pickpocket.

What message were we supposed to take from it? The ones I got were

• Images of Hades and greek lores of what hell would feel like - unending unrewarded toil.
• SBI ensures a bigger divide between the haves and the have nots?
• SBI ensures your financial well being at the expense of the other 80% of the country. Why aspire to material wealth when 80% of the country is living in squalor?
• The economy is shaky, remember the true face of India?
• SBI condemns pickpockets to a life of squalor and mindless work?
• A CPI(M) election peg : Capitalism sucks communism rules.
• Wealth and sensitivity dont belong in the same planet.
• This is how we waste the energies of able bodied youth in India?
  

Really, how can a picture of abject poverty evoke an image of financial comfort?

Havent the folks who made this advt heard the wrong picture gives a thousand wrong messages while the right one just might, plausibly give right message?

The advt, btw, pegs SBI debit card for a cashless world.

Gender Differences

Gautham's nature changes every day. He has suddenly gone from being something of a sissy to all boy - inventing games, climbing wherever possible, jumping off every conceivable spot, playing "tennis" w me or his dad for hours. Yet, he has lost none of the cautiousness that characterised his first attempts at walking; He seems to pick only do-able targets for his acrobatics.

He continues to dream really big though. He was showing off on his tricycle (He also does reasonably well on his bicycle w training wheels); riding with one hand, riding w one foot on the handle bar, riding fast and braking suddenly and quickly.
He suddenly wanted to know if there was a cycle race.
I asked what kind?
He said you know like formula I for cars.
I told him, yep there is, Tour De France.
His response? I have a cycle and I ride very fast, I am going to the Tour De France!

Though he has more girl friends than boys, he seems more deeply attached to his boy friends. When I go to pick him up, he makes me wait until Rithik's mom/grandma show up to pick him up. Meanwhile Rithik is happily ensconced in his air-conditioned class room and we (Gau and I) bear the brunt of the noon heat of Chennai. And once his mom does show up? they leave in a minute after hurried goodbyes. So we have been waiting in the hot sun for just another glimpse of Rithik after 3 hours of play! Gautham meanwhile wants to move his house or atleast his room right next to Rithik's!

Gau loves dinosaurs, in fact his 4th birthday cake said Happy Birthday Stegosaurus. Sowmya's mom got him a lovely dinosaur encyclopaedia for his birthday. Today he took it to school and gave it to Samyukt - "He loves dinosaurs and he will be my best friend if I give him this book." He and Samyukt are of a very similar disposition - clingy, easily drawn to tears, pretending to be animals all the time etc... Samyukt used to occupy the spot Rithik currently occupies in his favours.

He is not opposed to making fun of any of his buddies though - Rithik is currently Rithika and Madhav madhavi from the day he learnt the Rhyme "I am Madhavi from alleppey". I have no clue why he would think it is so funny to call a boy by a girl's name, but there it is.

When it comes to letting his girl friends take a toy/book home, i.e., borrow something, I have to beg, plead, cajole and threaten to get him to do it.


Is this because Sathish is the more lenient parent and I am the one who makes rules and enforces them? Or is it because he enjoys playing with his father more and he automatically feels his boy buddies are more fun? Is there a gender difference already at this tender age of 4? I am definitly not sensitive to it. I dont see any particularly girlish behaviour in Soumya/Sruthi. Raji has started playing "House" usually seen as a quintessentially girlish play.

Mystery stews

The last few days, I have looking at my vegetable basket and concocting stews based on the degree of moribundity of the vegetable in the basket; So yesterday we had Turnip with Turnip Greens and Black Urad, today we had a stew of Bottlegourd, Carrots and Ribbed Gourd with Masoor daal (Black and Orange). Surprisingly, Shockingly, Amazingly, they more then passed muster with both Hubby and Gau! Hubby has been threatening (playfully, I hope) to suck up any healthy meal I concoct into the new Euroclean vacuum cleaner we bought. He claims he does not want to see bown/red rice or any non-regular cereals on his plate; He begged for some regular white rice batter dosai. I only delivered on the last count ;)

Kombucha in Chennai!

I was meandering through some of the foodblog links I follow on Sunday. Somehow I ended up in a silicon valley article about how cool Google is even down to the cafeteria facilities for its employees! Then I read about one of their chef's making Kombucha and what an awesome health drink it is. The cook in me had to find out how to do it right here in Chennai and I actually garnered a few email addresses in Bangalore, Hyd, Mumbai supplying the yeast bacteria mix for making the drink. I was hemming and hawing over when and who to write for the precious starter when I had to run to my favourite organic store - Econut in Besantnagar - to buy more dates for Gau. They had bottles of kombucha in their refrigerator!
I rushed back home to see what this so called miracle food tastes like - a lil bit like highly diluted carbonated beer (or is all beer carbonated?). The vinegar adds a surprisingly fresh taste to the drink. Hubby loved it, I dont try such things on Gau.

Mint Pesto AKA Mint Pulao

Just like in engineering, I love certain concepts in food, Pairing a nut and a leaf (Basil and Pine Nut) to make an awesome sauce for pasta is one of them. Granted the awesome part may owe as much to the generous amounts of olive oil and paramesan cheese as the fresh basil leaves and nut; But, for those who have not savoured the real thing and those who live here in Chennai were Basil, Pine Nuts, Olive Oil and Parmesan are either hard to come by or atrociously priced, Pesto could be curtailed to just the leaf and nut. My version today was a pesto with a cup of tightly packed mint leaves and a quarter cup of sunflower seeds. I cooked rice and sweet potatoes separately; Made the indispensible tadka out of jeera, mustard, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf and onions in heated clarified butter; Mixed together the tadka, cubed cooked sweetpotato, 2 cups cooked rice, pesto in a huge mixing bowl. Ta Da! Mint Pulao Pesto Style.
BTW I used sunflower seeds because I have had some in my refrigerator for a while now; Next time I might try melon seeds and mint.

Wily Breakfasts

For months at a time my Son would demand Mini-Idlis and Sambhar for breakfast; Despite the boredom of having the same thing everyday I happily acquiesced - after all it is a very healthy, nutritionally complete breakfast; Especially when I make the Sambhar out of lots of vegetables and a different Daal everyday.
After his last bout of stomach flu he has changed course again. He only wants Bread for breakfast with Dana brand Cherry jam. I started adding a fruit or two, usually banana and apple to his breakfast, I switched to multi-grain bread from Leo Fortune or Wheatberry bread from Nilgiris. Now I am only struggling to get more protein into his breakfast. Peanutbutter Jelly goes down OK. Today I made Tofu Burji with "Cotton Tofu" from nilgiris. He gawked at the quaggy mess on his plate and declared he wanted no part of it. We sneaked quite a bit into his sandwich and he gulped it down happily. And I have met my soybean quota for this week :)

Tofu Burji

1. 1 large onion chopped fine
2. 1 large bellpepper chopped fine
3. 1 tsp jeera
4. 1 tsp mustard
5. 1 tsp red chili powder
6. 1 large tomato chopped coarsely
7. 1 packet tofu, washed and crumbled

• Heat oil, add the mustard and jeera.
• When the mustard pops add the onion and fry
• When the onion turns translucent add the bellpepper and fry
• Add the tomatoes as the onions brown and add salt to taste
• Cook covered until tomato disintegrates
• Add the tofu and chili powder
• Saute for a few minutes to bring together all the flavours.
• Serve with bread or rotis.

Tomorrow I am going to attempt some lentil-vegetable patties to go along with the bread.

For lunch we had yet another variation of the spice is right's Methi Chana. This time I soaked chana the previous night, pressure cooked it with tea leaves and turmeric powder. For the methi part, I used a bunch of fresh Ponnanganni Keerai lying in my fridge, wrapped in a newspaper for almost a week! This wrapping in newspaper draws out the extra moisture and keeps the greens from rotting and IMHO works out a lot better than the plastic bag idea most people follow. The greens were 95% fresh, I threw out the remaining 5%. According to most local lore, these greens are good for one's eyesight but are just a tad bitter. I also increased the besan used to 1/3 cup, dissolving it in a whole cup of water to get a nice creamy sauce with the chana and greens. Went down reasonably well with both DH and DS.

mind like a whirligig

Gautham's thoughts and speech are continuous and touching on every topic in his little world...
He found a foto of DH and me, he must have noticed he was missing; Now he wanted to know when we took the trip, before or after we were married. I have no Idea what brought on the last part of the question!
I changed the bedspread to something newly acquired on a trip to Pondicherry; he loved the colour. Then he wants me to buy lots and lots of new bedsheets. I asked him to quantify; his response? "As many as holes in the mosquito net".
His exuberance when we play together generally only spills into declaring "You are my best friend in the world". He tries to quantify that and comes up with some interesting similies - As much as a giant is big, as much as "Chennai" etc...
Since the weather is getting quite hot, I let him play in his bath for a looooong while. He came out very happy and suddenly declared to my thrilled, astounded, amazed, deeply touched Horror, he feels like Marrying me!!!!!! Oedipus complex, Freud et al be damned, I am just enjoying my spot in the sun.
He frequently breaks into song and dance these dance these days; Favourite is Bhangra to Usha Uthup's "I am Jaswinder from Punjab". Sometimes it is bits and pieces of hindi songs I listen to like "Din Dal Jaayen Hai", the hai evokes a paroxsym of laughter from me, offending him deeply. Just now, he ran up the stairs shouting joyfully "Hum challenge saath saath". He does have an ear for music. After listening to "Harivarasanam" by Jesudas, he watched a song from Chitchor on TV and wanted to know if Amol Palekar was Jesudas. I introduced him to the concept of playback singing. Now, he wants to know who sang "Suttum Vizhi Chudare", since it isnt Surya, who is only an actor.
He wanted to know if meenu Chitti works, I replied yes, but from home. That seemed to clinch his goals. He declared, I am like Hema aunty (Soumya's mom), I dont work; He will grow up and be like Raji Chitti , go out and work!
He had watched the Oswald episode where their outdoor camping trip gets rained out. He surmised drenched means getting wet! We were returning on our Nova, from our grocery shopping trip when he looked at the sky and declared it is going to rain looking at the very very lightly ominous sky. After a minutes of fretting over the possibility of getting wet in the rain, I got irritated and sushed him. Finally when we left a clothing store and started home, it actually did start raining! Thankfully, he is now at the phase were he enjoys a light drizzle so the 1.5 minute traffic light stop didnt drive us nuts.
There are a few coconut trees downstairs where the kids generall;y hang out and play. He snatched a baby coconut my neighbours kid found. It took all my wit to make him give it back. We had a little talk when we came back upstairs and I convinced him he needs to apologise and give her some of the candies from the box he got yesterday. He was the soul of goodwill, he helped me find a bag, slected some candies and walked back to her house and apologised. Then he demanded she give him something. I said he was in error, she doesnt have to. "But I said sorry AND I gave her candies" he wailed and cried all the way back up the stairs.
He is generally a joy to be around; I dont know why he turns into a lil monster when DH's parents (my in-laws) are around. Does he just feed off on my somewhat stressed state or does my MIL's attempts to take his side in every argument egg him onto tantrums? He doesnt behave as badly around raji chitti who spoils him rotten. She doesnt support me either, in my arguments with gautham, but, she gives him logical points to counter argue so the discussion continues to remain civil. After all, I can still, almost always, out argue my nearly 4 year old.

Working on my to do list

I made the oats bar from the chocolate zucchini web site! And considering this is the first of the month, I think I am off to a rousing start.

The original recipe is here

My version:

1. 2 cups rolled oats (I used Baggry's old fashioned)
2. 2 cups amaranth
3. 3/4 cup brown sugar
4. 2/3 cup currants
5. 1/3 cup chopped cashews
6. 1/3 cup whole chiroli (hazelnut would be a good substitute)
7. 2 tsp cardamom powder
8. 3.5 cups milk
9. 3 eggs beaten
10. 2 medium apples peeled, cored, sliced

• Mix items 1 to 7 thorughly, add items 8, 9, stir together
• Pour into a well buttered pan. Top with apple slices
• Bake for 40 - 50 minutes (I took only 40, the original recipe said 50)
• Cool and cut into rectangles

Review: My husband said it reminded him of panchamritham and ate 2; My son took 1 bite and gave up :( I personally liked it a lot, much better than store bought breakfast cereal bars.