Myriad Musings

My days are crazy busy. nanny quit so my 19 month old is completely managed between my hubby and me, and work, especially research, has taken a back seat. Even so, I need a lot of planning to get up at 5 and still be out of the house with lunch and breakfast all cooked and stacked at 7.05 am. Since planning is definitely not my forte, I find myself downsizing the variety of grains and vegetables I cook to a bare minimal, easy to mange items. But, I have finally conquered food waste! Most days everything i cook is consumed within the same day. I have decided to start planning the week's Menu (atleast work week).  A good starting point would be consolidating current lunch box options, my starting point for the day's menu Other than the usual suspects - prep time, cooking time, balance, whether suitable for lunch box, i also need to look at how fast by son can eat the food.  His lunch hour is 25 minutes and he chews every morsel 60 times.  He rarely comes home with a e...

School has reopened for my son, so no more IPL until midnight and waking up at 10.30 AM :) The poor darling has classes from 7:25 in the morning and he has to leave by 7.05 even if we drop him off. This means I am at work by 7:45 and my PhD will finally get somewhere. He wanted a veggie burger for his first back to school lunch box. For the Patty: 3 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cooked 1/2 litre 3% milk made into paneer (I added yogurt to just boiled milk to make it) 1 small capsicum finely chopped 1 medium onion finely chopped 1/2 cup soaked overnight and cooked karamani 1 tbspoon chopped coriander Mash all above ingredients together and make into a dough Divide into 5 parts Shape each into a patty 0.5 cm thick cook on a well buttered pan on medium heat until browned on each side. I know this looks overdone, but trust me it was awesome according to hubby and too healthy according to baby Oh, The French Loaf makes lovely burger buns, not the dry kind I used to ...

We have been here for 6 years now and are finally looking into buying a flat here. We would prefer south chennai - Adyar,Besantanagar, maybe Thiruvanmiyur. Prices here are exorbitant! We keep revisiting the question of best city to settle down. S. would prefer coimbatore, me Bangalore and my son wants to stay put right here in Chennai preferably in the apt we have lived for the last 6 years. He thinks we should just persuade the houseowner to sell this flat to us. I have grown rather fond of Chennai in the past few years and I am increasingly disillusioned by the changes in Bangalore, so I reserve the right to mention the negatives of Chennai alone. Weather sucks big time. Most days you cannot dream of going out between 9 and 6, it is simply too hot! People are totally lacking in civic sense. From the hallowed grounds of IIT's guindy national forest to the innumerable supermarkets dotting the city, no one thinks twice about eating off of a plate/cup and just dropping it...

Oct 1st was a virtual bandh in TamilNadu. Virtual? Yes,virtual. The supreme court had declared government sponsored bandh illegal. So,the ruling DMK part and its octogenarian leader pretended to observe a peaceful day of fasting while calling off most essential services. The net result? People stranded at railway stations. Poor Patients coming into chennai, hapless. Loss of a day's wage for those who eke their livelihood from day to day A day of rest for the well-heeled and the over-payed with promises to compensate for the lost man hours on a weekend Free publicity for the DMK and the chance to fire a few volleys at the Enemy a.k.a anyone who objects to the poorly thought out Sethusamudram project. Now for the reason behind the bandh. The Tamil Nadu government, both present DMK and past AIADMK is keen on building a bridge in the Palk Strait, between India and Sri Lanka. The claim an economic bonanza This would destroy the Adam's Bridge, a natural formation in the ocean, destro...