Belated Wishes

Here's wishing everyone a long-overdue "Happy Deepavali"!!

I remember a few years ago, even before kids, I told Pup, "This coming so-and-so day is Deepavali." He said, "Oh? OK!"
And that was it. Most years, a quick prayer, and some fruits took care of most of our festivities, including Deepavali! Not very proud of slacking in our traditions, but come to think of it, I think I lost interest way back...When we all started growing up and moving out!

In our younger days, Deepavali used to be such a grand affair. My mom and grandma with some help from my 2 aunts (dad's sisters), made enough "bakshanam" (a.k.a. goodies) and "marunthu" to last our huge families for weeks - 10 kids and about 8 adults. The shopping for clothes, the crackers, the obscene amount of bakshanam we ate without a worry about loading carbs, calories, or fats...sigh! Fun days they were!!
All of my cousins came over to our place and we had a blast! Literally, during Deepavali...I'm just going to say "Diwali" now - easier to type ;)

Slowly, everyone started growing up, out-of-state colleges happened, then weddings happened and it was simply not the same anymore!!

That is really not an excuse for not having the Diwali spirit, I know! When either set of parents visit us, we do celebrate very well. By celebrate I mean eat a lot, buy new clothes, and eat some more.

I did buy new clothes this year, for the girls at least. It was Sunday before Diwali, and we went to I-HOP for breakfast, like we do every few weeks...On our way back, we decided to celebrate Diwali. When we got back home, made a paste of "nalangu", applied it on the girls feet and then applied some oil while murmuring a "Thank-you God for Everything" prayer. This was really exciting for the girls...

While T1 and T2 were having a bath, I attempted to make the ever-popular 7-cup cake, which turned out to be neither 7-cups nor a cake :)
I decided to reduce the 3-cups of sugar to 2, reduced 1 cuppa ghee to a little less than 3/4, added maida and besan in my own quantities...
The only thing that was true to its measure was the milk.
Oh, and my cups were not really "Cups"...they measured maybe 2/3 of a cup, so I made just enough :)
Could I change the recipe anymore???
I know it all right?

But the joke was on me. The 7-cup cake turned out to be a Whatchamacallit Halwa. I was too scared to let it sit on the stove for too long. So I promptly removed it right after the concoction stopped sticking to the sides - hence the halwa consistency. But it tasted pretty good! T1 "tried" and finished one, which is great - she is very resistant to trying new things. T2 gulped most of the 20 or so pieces over 2-3 days, and against our will, so did Pup and I.

I must have sounded totally obnoxious to a few people by how I shuddered at adding all that ghee! Really!! Come to think of it, over the past few years, I have either made Kheer or chakra pongal, or those quick n easy microwave-cooked halwas (carrot halwa, beetroot halwa, chikoo halwa...), neither of which really require more than a teaspoon of ghee...
Or I've conveniently used store-bought goodies and ignored the fact
:)

Bygones..cooked and eaten! Enjoyed while it lasted!

So ya, that was our Diwali this year.