Myriad Musings

One teenager, one small child and the two of us make for very odd eating schedules.  The rather odd hours S. and I keep adds to the oddity (odd adds to oddity, repeat 10 times);  Basically, at any given time in our home someone is very hungry and someone else, usually the cook, me, is very sleepy/tired/unwilling to cook at all.   The net result is, Ash, being the sweet boy that he is, will be satisfied with Bananas, S. will eat anything and Gau will demand junk and junk only.   One goto snack is cereal, homemade ot store brought.  Honey Bunch of Oats is the most preferred cereal at our home but it's carbon foot print must be enormous!  From time to time, I get up caught in the "Be Indian Buy Indian" slogan of yesteryears and want to buy only locally made products from Indian companies, not MNC in India.  The 24 Mantra ones are OK, but not what I would call a resounding success with Gau/Ash.  I have to chop up nuts, fruits and add a fistful of...

It rained cows and horses Sunday night, Monday morning 6 am felt like 2 am. DH who pretends to go to bed at 9.30 just to put my younger one to sleep, always ends up asleep by 10 and awake early.  I think it is just old age.   He listened to local news and found schools were left off for the day.  Yay! I woke my older son around 8.30 yelling I overslept and he is late for school and he will have to miss his Physics midterm.  He woke up in shock and said no problem he will brush and get dressed, I can drop him at school.  Exams start only at 9.   I let him rush to the bathroom and got busy making the marbled cake to dam the  flood of righteous anger that would follow my little trick ;) This is one of the few Nigella Lawson recipes that work perfectly for me.  I had to tweak a little of course, it is in my DNA.  It is still a little over the top, but what the heck, you live only once.  I have tried both the mango versio...

Apple Orange Cranberries :) My baby (pre-schooler really) has not yet started pre-school, but the alphabet bug has bit me quite hard.  The weather was rainy, the day was Sunday, my raison d'etre for proper sunday meals had left early to catch the termite killer, so I was just sitting around listlessly wondering what to cook, if at all.  Then a part of the Sanjeev Kapoor book set caught my baby's eyes and he asked for a sandwich from that book. These are fancy-schmanzy sandwiches made on my baby's request, but, without troubling to read the recipe or find the ingredients to make the recipe.  Soft paneer made with 1/2 litre milk and 1/2 cup yogurt 1/2 cup walnut dry roasted and coarsely pounded 2 - 4 oranges juiced, about 1.5 - 2 cups juice 2 tbsp sugar divided 1/2 cup dried cranberries 2 apples 1 packet white/wheat bread  (need about 8 - 10 slices) Mix the paneer, 1 tbsp sugar and the walnuts Bring the orange juice, cranberries and the remaining sugar ...