Mumbai

Sis-U pointed me to Sathyanarain's and Sanjay's blogs, and I've blacked out my header condemning the Mumbai terrorist attacks...

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.

Happy Halloween!

I'm always running behind on posts that I want to write...so it's no surprise that I'm wishing you now, few days after the fact...
Happy Halloween!

Ours started off a week before the Big day with a no-food, no-candy Halloween Party organized by members in our county's chapter of Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN). The main idea was to enjoy Halloween without having to stress about allergic reactions.
I offered to volunteer, though for the most part all I did was read emails going back and forth.
It was amazing to see the spirit some of these people have.
One had ordererd 50 medium-sized pumpkins and 50 sets of glue-it pumpkin decorations, another made 50 goody bags that kids could decorate,
one had put together a ghost poop race using packing peanuts (that's the only kind of nuts we'd see in our Party :)
and so much more!!
We decided to bring in something to drink - water, apple and grape juices, which were my contribution.
The venue being a Public library, all the children quietly paraded around before picking out their "Treats".
Again, no-food treats...but such amazing stuff, including halloween pencils, stickers, tatoos, straws, skeletons and so much more!
Over all, it was a wonderful 2 hours of fun...

I was in Chicago for a couple of days last week for a conference.
Busy (fun-busy) two days! Got to meet some Amazing Gurus in my field, up close!
The girls were completely co-operative and made it easy for dad to have a smooth sailing.
Dad outdid himself and held the fort effortlessly.
Mommy's now thinking she should do these things more often ;)
Seriously, I think it did us all some good and has made us appreciate each other more.

But I got back in time for the big day!

I was quite excited too, to get dressed up and all...
I was this witch-dracula person...or whatever it is you call someone with a cape and an evil-eye make-up!!
T1 and T2 were Minnie-mouse at the Allergy Network Party.
T1 changed her mind at the last minute and wanted to be like mommy.
So we put together a costume using a dupatta as a cape, a black velvet dress and some glittery make-up.
T2 remained as Minnie mouse, although she was Ariel at her school's Halloween party.
Yeah! We are big on Disney!!

So we paraded around the Court with Chip, Dottie and a few other kids in the block, while Pup stayed home distributing (no-nut) candy to our neighborhood kids...
We ended the evening playing (Pup and me struggling, actually) Rock Band at Dottie's.

That was our Halloween 2008.