Hard work

When I first created this blog I seemed to be brimming with enthusiasm, to say nothing of inspiration. Now, it has been ten days since my last post. I have realised that blogging is hard work once the initial enthusiasm has faded away. Adi had said as much in the beginning, but as usual I chose to ignore his words. But he was right. Now that I have discovered that blogging is hard work, I am planning to have a schedule. Probably set one day of the week aside as my blogging day. Maybe I shuld blog every Tuesday. This way it will give me a week to think of things to blog about. And if there is a schedule to maintained, maybe Calliope will smile on me once again. One can only hope.

Food blogs and friends

I know I waxed eloquent about food blogs yesterday and yet I feel that my tribute hasn't done justice to how helpful they are. As usual, I was browsing through food blogs today and made a wonderful new find. Injipennu's Ginger and Mango. It is a really good blog of mallu recipes. Authentic mallu recipes. Ooooh! what a find. Though there are a lot of non vegetarian recipes on the blog, I still found enough veggie recipes that delight my foodie soul. The recipes of quite a few things I used to shamelessly scarf down at my friends' places during my childhood have been posted on her blog. Now, I just can't wait to try my hand at some of those recipes. (drool drool) Unfortunately, my characteristic laziness to go grocery shopping and Mayuri's (the Indian store here in Bellevue) lack of veggies in stock have led to a nearly empty refrigerator and a craving for mallu food that has to be satisfied. Now it looks like I have to wait till the weekend arrives to satisy this particular craving.

I could of course, drop into friends' places and scarf to my hearts content. A good thing that Adi has good friends here who (hopefully) don't mind not so little me dropping in solely with the intention of having some good mallu food. (If they do mind, they are too polite and nice to let me know that.) I just love those people. Dileep and Praseeda, this is my tribute to your gentle and understanding souls who put up with me solely because I am married to Adi. And to your hospitality and wonderful company during a weekend, not to mention yummy food at your place.

Muses and Apsaras

I just created this blog today and this is the third post. Looks like Calliope is sitting right on my shoulder and inspiring me to express my self today. (should I compose an ode to her?)Or maybe it is just the excitement of going home, or of creating a blog. Talking of Calliope, I wonder if the muses have any additions to their ranks. I mean of late there seems to be more prose than poetry in this world (pun intended). So I wonder if the muses have changed their areas of specialisation or if they have recruited more nymphs for positions like "muse of internet blogging" or "muse of emailing". No offence to Calliope or the other muses of course. I mean when we have Erato, who is the muse of erotic poerty, why can't we have muses for blogging or emailing? I would really need a muse for emailing. Calliope, Zeus bless her, seems to desert me whenever I sit down and try and mail one of my friends. I try and think of something nice to mail about, but what is nice or exciting about waking up in the morning and going through your routine for the day? If you did something exciting like bungee jumping for a living, then you might have something exciting to write about. But I guess after the first two or three jumps, even that begins to pall and becomes routine. So the point I am trying to make with this rather long winded explanation, is that I don't know what to write when I want to email a friend.

Thinking of muses again, it is surprising how we so readily take to Greek mythology. Greek mythology is great, fun to read and quite complicated too. Rather like our own Indian mythology. But, so far, I have not come across muses in Inidan myhtology. Unless we equate our Apsaras to the Muses. Greek Mythology has nine muses now though it started off with three: Aiode, Melete and Mneme. We but have four Apsaras (that I can remember now) Urvasi, Menaka, Rambha and Tilottama. I guess these are the most famous of our apsaras, delighting Indra and his court with their graceful dances. No wait, Indira's court has 26 apsaras. But so far I have never heard of any of them performing specific functions like being the muse for something. Hmmm...a good research project to undertake. I guess I shall hie to it!

Cooking and Food blogs

Like I said before, I have been cooking for some six months now. I find it a hassle still. Even though I am a foodie(as evidenced by my ample figure) and cooking was one of my hobbies, I still find it hard to cook everyday. Of course, everyday means every weekday. I don't cook on the weekends. Who does? Even if it is just five times a week, cooking still bothers me. The point is, me being such a foodie, I prefer authentic meals. None of this fusion jazz like broccoli sambar or artichoke dal for me. I am sure that these things do have a certain appeal, but I shudder with horror when I hear things like this. Which brings me back to my quandry. How to make yummy food a la Mummy! I never paid any attention to how she made a lot of things which I took for granted...like palakura pappu(Spinach dal), kakarkaya(bitter gourd) fry, dosakaya pachadi and so on. All I paid attention to was how much I could eat, how much was left and if I could have more of it for dinner. After coming here and forced by my own "foodieness" to cook, and not being intrepid enough to experiment on my own, I turned to the good old standby for information; the internet. And then I discovered the world of food bloggers.

I went crazy for a few days, drooling all over my laptop when I read their recipes and saw the photographs that accompanied the recipes. The long forgotten hooby of cooking reared its head again. Since then, I have been constantly surprising Adi (my husband) and myself with my cooking. And contrary to what you might think, the surprises were all pleasant. Of course I have the numerous food bloggers to thank for them. So this is my tribute to all those cooks and food bloggers who have the patience to experiment with new recipes, the talent to cook yummy food and the thoughtfulness to post their recipes on thier blogs so that lazybones like me can have some good food.

One of the blogs I go frequently to is Indira's Mahanandi. She is from the same state as I am from. Andhra Pradesh. And it is well known that we Telugus are crazy about food. Her blog contains recipes for the food that Mom made at home. I always refer to her recipes whenever I want some yummy Andhra food. And I seem to want some yummy Andhra food most of the time. Other times, I crave some yummy Kerala food. (yeah yeah! I crave yummy food. Period.)The fascination for Kerala food is because I grew up in this delightful place called Trivandrum. It isn't so great now, but it was a paradise when I was growing up. Lush, green and beautiful with an age old charm that only truly old cities have. And for some Kerala food, it is either ask Adi to cook or refer to Ammupatti's thoughts. More than her recipes, I like the way she talks about Kerala Iyer culture. Her blog is truly a joy to read. As for other recipes, I always go to Mahanandi again. Indira has a comprehensive list of food blogs on her site. So it is easy navigation for me.

I really wonder what I would have done if all these food bloggers weren't there. I know for sure that I would be having the same few tired recipes over and over again. Thank you Indira and Bhagavathy and all the rest of you food bloggers.

Going Home!

Well, I am happy to announce that I am going home! Back to Glorious India. I am leaving the unimaginative and cold land of the US of A and going home to hot, dusty and colourful India. Even if it is just for two months. I can hardly wait. Of course I have to shopping cos I want to get my friends something from here, but shopping for friends is pure pleasure. A labour of love indeed. Unlike shopping for relatives, who give you a list of things when they hear that you are going home. Some relatives, like my Pinni are so great that I don't mind shopping for them. But others are just too much. Anyways, I am not about to let those people spoil my fun.
Apart from looking forward to the shopping, I am aslo looking forward to the food at home. Now that I have been cooking regularly (albeit reluctantly) for six months or so, I have a newfound respct for Moms. I get all bothered and flustered when I have to cook some Dal and Subzi once a day. Moms did that for years, and did it three times a day. Made something for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And on weekends, snacks with tea too. They are simply amazing poeple. And they made such YUMMY food too.
How can I forget the coffee at home? Mom's signature blend of Peaberry, Plantation and Chicory, freshly roasted and ground used to fill the whole house with its aroma as it percolated in the filter. If I close my eyes, I swear I can almost smell it again. Ah! I just can't wait to be home...sung in the tune of Lion King's "I just can't wait to be king". Oh, I just can't wait to be home....