Without Reservations

This is the second time I am here in the United States. My relationship with this country is not all love love. Yes, I do love it for some reasons while I actually dont for many other reasons including the one that I am so far away from the souls that are close to me. The first time around, I missed everything about me and my life as I knew it, before coming to this country of abundance. This time around, I did sufficiently prepare myself to all that awaits me, both good and bad, in this foreign land. Even beyond it all, I think I was'nt prepared for a situation, without the presence of my dearest friend, Ap. A situation that is magnified in distance by geography and hours. It is not such an easy task to fill in such a huge gap. And that is precisely what this wonderful book, "Without Reservations" by Alice Steinbach managed to do by building a beautiful bridge across this huge distance with the utmost ease. When reading this book, it felt like reading or rather talking to Ap, all along. I did'nt call her or talk to her anytime when I was reading this book, lest I call her at the wrong time and end up disappointed.
 
This is not the first book that I am reading of this author, but surely the best of the three written by her and the two read by me. (The story of the first book I read back in 2008 is for another day) This being a travel book, it takes us through the alleys and side streets of some of the beautiful cities and small towns of France, Italy, London and Cambridge. Beyond the places visited through this book, the varied experiences of the author and the people she meets along the way is what is so endearing about this book. In the process, it took me through my own life experiences, the people who have been part of it and gave a fresh perspective to these experiences.

I have had some great takeaways from this book, but I worry if I can share it all here, since it might become a copyright issue. :) Felt like I was rewriting half the book to myself again.

"As I set out each day, I felt like a young child again, one who had'nt yet learned the rules of manmade time: the rules of clocks and calendars, of weekdays and weekends. Except for the primitive markers of day and night, time lay ahead of me in a continuous, undefined mass. I began picturing it as some kind of strange but friendly beast whose appetites and desires were unknown to me."

"Is belonging that simple? A matter of attitude? Or is attitude just another form of self deception?"

"I do not believe in regret, Regret is an illusion. It depends on what might have been. And that is a waste of time"

"At home I had friends like this, women with whom I could exchange in bold shorthand strokes whole parts of our shared history. It was what I missed most on this trip: my women friends. I could always count on them to boost me up or take me down a peg when I needed it."

"She found the life that suited her, I thought, closing the book. Work that interested her, a house she loved, good friends who came for tea and of course, the company of her cats. It was a simple life but by no means an unsophisticated one."

"It is your time, not your money that you should spend wisely."

"Real friendships, are as rare as happy childhoods." :)



"Fugit hora, memento mori - Latin phrase translated means, 'Time flies, Remember you must die' Why do they say that on tombstones? Would it not be more useful to say that 'Time Flies, Remember you must live'?"




Footnote: As the world goes round and round, think it high time, each one of us realises, Time Flies, Remember we must live. Incidentally, Alice, remembered to live until March 13th, 2012.

Baking my own Cake

Cakes and Cookies are the specials I do when I come to the United States. Nothing elaborate. Just the basic ones. I understand that it is no big deal to do the same in India. All one has to do is get a decent oven which is exactly what I have not done so far. So when I did think of baking as soon as I came here, I was lost because I did not have a recipie. And as they say for Baking, you just follow the recipie. While I started my hunt, I was provided results of all exotic cakes from the regular blogs I visited.

Finally I did end up with a video which provided an easy way of baking the basic sponge cake, but to add to my agony, did not provide the measurements. So I ended up making my own cake with my own measurements except the number of eggs. By recording this, I will not be wondering the next time I decided to bake a cake. This cake came out fine and so this will be the way I bake this cake henceforth.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Cane Sugar - 1 cup
Baking Powder - a pinch
Salted/Unsalted Butter - 20 gms
Eggs - 4 Nos.
Vanilla Extract - A few drops

Method:

In a large bowl, (Place this bowl into a bigger bowl/tub with hot water. Warm water enhances the air bubbles created due to the beating process) beat eggs using an electric beater at speed 2 for less than a minute. Add sugar and beat at speed 1 till the mixture becomes a nice soft fluffy mixture. The batter should not sink when lifted. It should leave a ribbon like line when lifted and made lines by the beater.

Once this stage is reached, add the vanilla extract and mix lightly. Sift in the flour and baking powder mix and fold it in the beaten mixture. Care should be taken to do this process gently. Once the flour has blended well with the mixture, add melted butter and fold the batter with the butter. At the end of this 'Oh so gentle process', the final batter should be light and fluffy. Pour the batter into a greased pan.

Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Pop the batter pan into the oven and bake it for 20-25 minutes or check for the cake to rise.(Mine got a wee bit overdone since I was'nt too sure of the bake time. Will keep doing it till I get it right. :) Also open to advice) Check for the done stage and enjoy it with your family tea time. Else layer it with frosting and make it into a delicious cake for any special occasion.

M3 - The Macaroni Mushroom Masala

Ooooh!! I am full.. Hmmm.. Of course I will be, if I decide to cook something and slurp it in a jiffy.

Fact is, I am a person who goes to dig the well when I am really thirsty. This time around it was hunger. Since I didn't have to cook lunch for my hubby today, I lazed around till about 1.30 in the afternoon not doing anything about lunch. Thought I could just about manage with something, when my stomach decided something else and my mind set me in motion, albeit late. Cooking rice was out of question for one person and my mind was in no mood for wheat. So I jumped on Macaroni, though it isn't one of my favourite items until now, that is, when it is mixed up with some yummy Mushroom Masala which was inspired by this recipe by Spicy Chilly. It did turn out to be an easy and delicious gravy (in this case sauce) that can accompany just about any main course. So here I go to record it, in case I end up with another day like this with a hungry stomach and a stubborn mind. When I say this, it may not be just mine.. :)

Ingredients:

Macaroni -1 cup
Olive oil - 1 tsp
Sliced Button Mushroom - 250 gms
Red Chilly Powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric - a pinch
Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp

Saute and Grind 
Sliced Onion (Big) - 1 Nos
Cut Tomato - 2 Nos
Garlic Cloves - 4 Nos
Ginger Garlic Paste - Half tsp

Way to Go..

In a pan, heat oil, sufficient to saute the onions and garlic cloves (I added them for an additional flavour for the macaroni. You can just do with the ginger garlic paste alone if you wish to). Once the onions have softened, add little ginger garlic paste and saute till cooked. Add tomato and saute till soft. Let it cool and grind it to a smooth paste.

Bring water to a boil in a pan and cook macaroni with enough salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Once cooked, drain water and keep it aside.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan and saute sliced mushrooms till it starts leaving water. Add turmeric powder, chilly powder, coriander powder and a little salt until all of it blends with the mushrooms. This should take just few mins. I read somewhere about a renowned chef saying that mushrooms have to be sauted until they release all their moisture and are slightly crispy. But I'nt too sure I like it that way. So I let it be a little soft. Be free to choose your way.

Coming back to where we were, add in the ground paste and sufficient salt to taste. Mix it with the mushrooms and let it cook covered for sometime. Sift in a little pepper powder, mix well and let it cook for 2 more mins.

To serve, layer macaroni and mushroom sauce on a plate or mix it in a bowl and enjoy the slurpy goodness of Italian pasta, the Indian way.







Footnote: As a side dish for Indian breads or rice, add two green chillies when mushrooms are sauted for added spice and garnish with finely chopped coriander while serving.

Disclaimer

Well.. This is something that I have decided to do before I start posting big time on food. (Thats what I hope to do to help myself in the process)

Okay. I have not been made a great cook or with the ability to dish out different items out of my head. Well, I doubt what I can dish out of my head. Anyway.. But I have to cook on a daily basis and with regular, albeit forced training for the last few years since my marriage, I have been able to manage the survival of a minimum of two human beings at any given point of time. And to also note is that, one of the two is quite demanding on the perfection of taste. :) I leave it to you to decide who.. This, I have been able to do, primarily with the existence of the huge blogging community and the numerous videos posted online. I grab it from here and there and tweek it to our family tastes and have survived my tests.

So far so good. But the problem arises when I try to redo the same dish again and my painful memory fails. Of course I keep a record of what I took from where but at the end of the day, when I do decide to cook a particular dish, I see myself exploring all the recipies once again. This has become more complicating with the increasing number of choices. So I have decided to create a catalog of my own so that I can refer to it immediately as and when I need it.

While doing this catalog, I promise to refer back to the website from which I have taken the original recipie or to my friends or family from whom I have learned to cook the particular dish. I am not aware of any particular procedure that I have to follow for this process, but my guess is that when I credit the person from whom I have sourced the recipie, I am doing good, for both of us.