Myriad Musings

Ash's teacher tells me, almost apologetically, he comes only at 8.45 everyday, school starts by 8.30 could I please come a little earlier.  Immediately on the defensive, I complain how difficult it is to get Ashu up.  She says he claims to wake up at 6.00!  Well, he is fast asleep by 6.25 again :)  She then says, she knows how hard it is to make ash do anything but to please try.  I relate the censored conversation to Ash and he says I am the bottle neck.  (Ashu said "You are the bottle cock", a year ago,  the first time he tried to use the phrase ;) I owned up to my delays.  So, now, if Lunch is NOT packed by 8.15, I have to go later to drop it off.  Net consequence?  I make an extra trip to school and S. doesn't eat breakfast. I have sworn to  plan my meal the previous night, not follow any whim at 6.00 AM. do most of the prep work the previous night get up early Well getting up early is hard most mondays and off late I ha...

Nothing reflects the rising cost of fresh fruits and vegetables better than greens in Chennai, especially the slightly more North Indian ones like Methi and Palak.  Methi which had never exceeded 15 Rs now sells for a shocking 30 Rs on the streets of Besantnagar, on the rare occasions you actually find it!. I normally buy vegetables and fruits from the road side hawkers - even if the cost is a 10 - 20% higher, it is a question of survival of small businesses and hopefully the produce is a little more fresh and a lot more local.  I visit big stores for exotic produce mostly, this time I found Methi in Pazhamuthir Cholai at a lovely 10Rs a bunch!  I bought 2 and we have had methi everything this week - Methi Sambhar, Methi leaves in Paniyaram and finally yesterday Methi Thepla a.k.a Methi Paratha in my house. Gau has exams this week, he spends 2 hours in school writing the paper, then comes home and mopes around the house hardly studying and grabbing every second he can ...

Summer is HERE with its hellish heat, kids off school lazing around all day, envious me off to the lab where the ancient window Air Conditioners takes off every third day.  The kids would love interesting meals and I am loath to spend more than an hour in the kitchen.  Hubby has wisely chosen to eat at work this month. Meanwhile, I scrounge around for interesting recipes requiring minimal effort - the Perpetual Motion Machine of the cooking world.   This is my weekly schedule this summer - Cereal and Muffins/Quick breads or Cereal and Idlis for breakfast, rice + variety of lentils/beans/chickpeas+ vegetables+curds for lunch, One of my staples is the Olive Oil dough from Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day.  Nilgiris has stopped carrying Fresh Yeast in reasonable sized packages a.k.a. 100g.  I found Active Dry Yeast worked just as well!  Not just that, my Organic Atta produced no discernible change in flavour or texture, No More Maida in pizza! Yay! I did ...

This is going to be my mornings from now on.  Gau will eat a muffin before school.  I will bake muffins once or twice a week, in the morning.  Weekday morning at that.  My prep work should cover any chopping, grating, slicing, buying, gathering necessary for the muffin.   Morning work will be limited to mix pour and bake, between making breakfast and lunch for all of us. Muffins are not breakfast per se, they are more of a pre-breakfast snack for both the kids and the hubby.  The older one has breakfast at school, the younger one around 10 at home. My last veggie shopping trip, the little one demanded grapes.  This being off season for grapes the one I tasted made my mouth pucker.  I compromised and got him Indian Plums.  His crush on plums lasted until we got home and he bit into it. He quickly switched allegiance to the apples in the bag. This is a riff of a BBC Recipe .  I don't like plums myself - skin a tad bitter, flesh...