Chile Crisp Fettucine Alfredo, Books and Movies

January is coming to an end, but the winter weather chaos continues. We are looking at our second consecutive weekend of icy weather, which in the South usually means a total shut-down, with impassable roads and power failures. Last weekend's storm Fern was milder than expected. We did not lost power; however, we were iced in on the weekend, and schools only reopened on Wednesday. 

On these unexpected school days off, the main challenge is keeping our 9 year old entertained, and we are always grateful when we can pool childcare with his best friend's parents, with the two boys playing together at one or the other house. They have grown to be great friends of ours, and we especially love going to the occasional trivia night together, leaving the kids at home to entertain each other. 

On the long MLK day weekend, we let the boys play video games together and snuck out for a game of bar trivia, only to find the place packed with no tables available. So we walked down the street to our local board game cafe and had ourselves a couple of happy hours playing Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit. (We were determined to get our trivia fix one way or another.) 

The food, though. We were hungry, the place was understaffed, the orders were mixed up, the sandwiches were overpriced and dismal. Ours just isn't a town with great restaurant options, especially if you happen to be vegetarian. Other than going out for casual enchiladas or a Thai curry, if I want something good, I have to put in some effort and make it myself. The day after our outing, I pulled up my folder of saved recipes and decided to try a new recipe, to treat us to something different. 

I found the Fettuccine Alfredo with Chili Crisp & Spinach recipe from NYT Cooking, which was perfect as I had some fettucine in the pantry. While I don't have an NYT Cooking subscription, they occasionally unlock recipes, and I had saved the recipe when it was available. You can find the recipe reprinted on this blog. It is a simple recipe that almost makes itself, but unusual in the way it combines Italian elements (pasta in a cream sauce) with a Chinese condiment, one that happens to be beloved in my household (chili crisp). 

There's nothing difficult about this recipe, but it is a special occasion recipe for us, because it is very rich! Fettucine is boiled until tender. The sauce is just butter and cream and chili crisp. Baby spinach is tossed in to wilt in the heat, then the sauce is finished with the cooked pasta and a shower of parmesan cheese. For once in my life, I followed the recipe very closely, only bumping up the quantity of spinach. (You know how quantities of spinach wilt down to nothingness.)

This pasta dish was great in a special, restaurant-quality way. It is one that I know I will make again. Chili crisp is one of those condiments that brings (which is to say, BRINGS) the flavor, and the contrast with the soft pasta and cream sauce is unexpected and delightful. Oh, and leftovers reheat well. Our kids did not like this dish so V and I ate it happily all by ourselves. 

* * *

Here are some recent tidbits from the world of books and entertainment:

On a snow-day movie night, we watched the 1992 classic sports-comedy movie, A League of Their Own on Netflix. It focuses on a time in American history when professional baseball players were away at war, and the very first women's professional baseball league was formed to keep the game going and the money flowing in. This movie has an all-star cast, including Madonna, and Tom Hanks as the reluctant coach, with his famous line, "There's no crying in baseball"!

Funny enough, this very same women's baseball league was mentioned in the book I read next, The Briar Club by Kate Quinn, published in 2024. It is a work of historical fiction (and a murder mystery), set in the 1950s in a women's boardinghouse in DC. Each chapter focuses on the backstory and life of one of the residents, and the book as a whole covers female friendships and an unlikely community formed via a weekly dinner club against the backdrop of national events and the culture at the time. I highly recommend this book- it was an easy and fun read while still covering some deep themes. There is history and there is mystery and there are recipes. The storylines all comes to a satisfying conclusion. 

Also, this month, I read the classic 1915 novella, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. The original is written in German and the version I read is translated expertly by Susan Bernofsky. V asked me if the book is Kafkaesque, and yes, yes, it is LOL. A traveling salesman named Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a giant insect. The text is very easy to read, but what's interesting about this book is the meaning behind the text and the surreal quality of it all. It is one of those classics where you read the book which has a simple enough (albeit bizarre) story, and then you read interpretations of the book by people who are literature experts and then you think about the book for days.

My son loves reading comics (in fact, to my chagrin, all he reads is comics and graphic novels) and Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes comics are a particular favorite. My husband has a whole collection of these and our son is devouring them. Which is why I was pleased to come across this comic and accompanying text about Bill Watterson. It is truly worth reading! Watterson gives some wonderful advice about making one's own path in life, and reminds us that a job title and salary are not the sole measure of a human's worth. I think of this kind of philosophy often, as I work a humble job that I love but which impresses no one, but leaves me with plenty of time and bandwidth to read, blog, volunteer, and indulge my many hobbies. 

I only recently learned about something called "blackout poetry" - how interesting! I'd like to find some text and try my hand at this. It sounds like something a non-poet could do as a creative exercise.

* * *

The sewing continues. I decided that instead of chasing after new fabric, I should make more of an effort to use up my fabric stash in the first half of this year. I own a few pieces of block-printed Indian cotton, and one piece had enough yardage to make my first collared shirt. 

The pattern is the Donny Shirt by the Friday Pattern Company. It is well-known in the sewing world as a great first-shirt pattern, with a few lovely features like a fully enclosed yoke (where I got to try the "burrito method" for the first time) and a lightly gathered back. 

The pattern had very good instructions, but I also relied on their video sew-along, and also generous bloggers like this one for their additional advice. Making this shirt was a rollercoaster of emotions, from the excitement of seeing the enclosed yoke emerge to the panic of seeing, at one point, that while the front of my shirt looked correct, the back had the wrong side of the fabric facing out. Then came the job of figuring out what I had done wrong, and unpicking and redoing it. Finally, the relief at getting it right, and the simple child-like joy of trying on a shirt that I made ALL BY MYSELF. If you want to inject some low-stakes drama in your life, I highly recommend taking up sewing! 

We tend to think of coding and engineering as hi-tech and activities like sewing as simple and not particularly impressive, but the truth is that assembling pieces of flat fabric into a 3-D structure takes some solid intelligence and skill. This simple shirt pattern was breaking my feeble brain at times as I struggled to visualize how the steps went together. I have a new appreciation for how technical sewing is and how clever tailors and seamstresses and designers are. 

* * *

If anyone has tips on must-do things in Chennai (culture, restaurants, stores, fabric shopping), please share them with me. I might be spending a few weeks in that part of Southern India later this year, and I'm excited at the prospect! 

What were your highlights from January?

Vegetable Tofu Shawarma, Shredded Tofu, Mandarin Orange Cake, a Leafy Sweater

Veg Shawarma I

This has inadvertently turned into a tofu-themed post. But these recipes from the last week are keepers, and I want to share them and record them on the blog, so here we go-

Every now and then, friends will send me links to recipes they've loved. My grad school friend L A few months ago, she texted me a link to this recipe for Jeanine Donofrio's Eggplant Sheet Pan Shawarma. We bonded 25 years ago over a shared love of home cooking and vegetarian food. This midwestern girl fed me sambar on those dreary evenings while I was writing my dissertation round the clock. The recipe she recommended is a vegetarian take on the deeply meaty dish, shawarma.  

What gives the dish its distinctive flavor is the shawarma spice, and the recipe in the link shows how you can make it in a minute or two, simply by mixing a few spices that we commonly stock in the pantry- ground cumin, smoked paprika, ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground turmeric.

It is interesting to see how spices that I use every day create a completely different flavor profile when remixed in different proportions. It is such a great spice blend. The other interesting thing is that I love both sweet potatoes and eggplant, but had never thought to put them together. This is precisely how I like getting out of cooking ruts, not necessarily with new techniques and ingredients, but using staple ingredients and familiar techniques in a slightly different way. 

These are the components I used for the first veggie shawarma bowl:

• Eggplant and sweet potatoes roasted with shawarma spice
• Veggie meatballs
• Sliced cucumber
• Tahini yogurt sauce (made as per the linked recipe)
• Cilantro

Shawarma tofu

I made another shawarma bowl this week, with the addition of tofu. The tofu shawarma was inspired by something I read online on a cooking forum. The marinade has soy sauce, lemon juice, shawarma spice mix, and a bit of olive oil. The person who suggested this also suggested peeling firm tofu using a potato peeler into thin slices so that it becomes similar to kebab meat. I found that this was time-consuming so I cut simple batons. The marinated tofu was pan-fried- incredibly flavorful. 

The second component was the shawarma spice-roasted sweet potato and eggplant. I used the air fryer this time. Something about this combo with the spice is really good- warming and cozy. 

The other two components of the bowl: tahini yogurt sauce and massaged kale salad. All of it put together made for a grand dinner. 

Veg Shawarma II

* * *

I first came across the concept of grated tofu on Johanna's blog Green Gourmet Giraffe last April. Somehow, I had never thought to shred tofu before! We buy the hi-protein tofu from Trader Joe's, and high protein just means that lots of water is squeezed out and the tofu is extra-extra-firm. The dense block of tofu shreds like a dream on your average hand-held box grater. No need for squeezing/ pressing. No need to pull out the food processor. 

Tofu fried rice

In cooking, how we prep the ingredient makes a big difference for the final dish. A raita tastes quite different depending on whether you use large-diced cucumber or small-diced cucumber or shredded cucumber. Onions bring something quite different to a curry depending on whether you cut them into slices, large dice, mince them, or blend them into a paste. In the same way, grated/shredded tofu feels different in a dish compared to tofu that has been cubed neatly versus tofu that has been torn into ragged pieces (the latter is excellent for soaking marinade into crags). 

I had some leftover rice, and I used half the rice and half the shredded tofu to make a quick fried rice with the usual suspects- cabbage and assorted bits of veg, soy sauce, ginger, garlic. The tofu "disappears" into the rice. I served it with kale and a homemade peanut sauce.

The following day, I used the other half of the rice and tofu to make a quick tofu veg pulao for our lunchboxes, using the usual spices and some peas and carrots from the freezer. 

* * *

We cleaned out our pantry last weekend. It was a task scheduled for winter break, but between the lazing and the unwinding and the lolly-gagging, who had time for it? Anyway, we has no plans last weekend and worked together to empty out the pantry completely, wipe it down and restock it. 

I found a can of mandarin oranges that needed to be used up. When it comes to cooking, I so rarely follow recipes closely. Faced with a fridge full of ingredients, I can easily cook up something by look/feel/experience alone. Baking is different for me. I've never made a cake off the top of my head.* I seem to need the crutch of a recipe for baking. Finding a recipe with canned mandarin oranges but without boxed cake mix took a fair bit of digging but I found this one that looked simple enough.

Mandarin orange snack cake

Simple it was. One bowl, basic ingredients, and the batter was ready long before the oven was even preheated. This kind of snack cake is ideal for a beginner baker. 

It has the typical egg, sugar, flour, fat (oil here), a flavor- vanilla, tiny bit of salt, baking soda, and an addition- mandarin oranges. It goes to show you that simple baking does not have to be time-consuming.

• Preheat oven to 350F
• Typical temperature for cakes and cookies
• Lightly spray a 9x9 baking dish
• Typical size of baking dish for a small cake yielding 9-12 snack-size servings
• In a bowl, beat 1 egg
• Add moisture, leavening, richness
• Add 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tbsp. oil, 1 tsp. vanilla
• This makes the wet-mix portion of the batter
• Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. baking soda
• Salt in tiny amounts enhances the flavor of sweets, baking soda provides the leavening/rise
• Add 1 can mandarin oranges, drained, mash it in
• Suddenly, a plain cake is an orange cake
• Bake for 20 minutes or so, until a toothpick comes clean or with crumbs attached
• Can also press lightly on the surface of the cake; if it springs back, it is done

On the warm cake, I drizzled a glaze- this I did not need a recipe for, it is just powdered sugar mixed with a bit of heavy cream. This is just a wonderful little snack cake. I might have to stock up on a can or two of mandarin oranges to make it again.

*Come to think of it, the one cake I could make without a recipe is the first one I learned to bake as a child- where we weighed out 3-4 eggs, and then used that same weight of butter, flour, and sugar. This is the concept behind "pound cakes" (1 lb of each main ingredient). However, it is a greasy and heavy cake, and I prefer modern cake recipes which have slightly different proportions.

* * *

A year ago, I knitted a Summer Ella sweater for myself (I posted a WIP, that is, work in progress pic on this snowy day post.) This sweater was fun to knit and has been a joy to wear. 

I made my sister the same sweater green as a birthday gift last month, starting it over the Thanksgiving break and finishing it over the winter break. Again, it was a most enjoyable knit. I even made it in the same Norwegian cotton-linen-viscose yarn (Sandnes Garn Line) but in a green colorway- Matcha- that I like even better than the one I made for myself. Green is a good fit for the leaf lace, after all. 

I'm rooting around for my next knitting project- one option is to make a pile of dishcloths from a lot of cotton yarn that I have lying around. The other option is to cast on a sweater, for which I have several candidate patterns. 

Tell me your highlights from the week!

Food with Friends, Elodie Dress, Fitness Audit

Jan 1 dawned with a bright morning and clear skies. I met my running buddy K for a "first sunrise" run-walk by the local lake. It was a quiet and peaceful start to the year. 

Sunrise and contrails

* * * Food with friends * * *

Caramelized
onion dip

I can't remember the last time I stayed up until midnight on New Year's Eve. This year we were invited to the home of friends for a small gathering of three families. I made the appetizers, caramelized onion dip, served with potato chips and baby carrots, and vegetable puffs or fauxmosas- puff pastry encasing a samosa style filling of peas and potatoes. These vegetable puffs are always a hit whenever I make them. 

The caramelized onion dip was simple to make but turned out great- caramelized onions seasoned with salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar and herbs mixed with some cream cheese and sour cream. 

Puff pastry samosas- a #1 crowd-pleaser
recipe 

Our hosts made the main dish, which was a build-your-own-bowl style buffet with an array of roasted veggies, kale cooked in coconut milk, beans, chicken for the omnivores, a variety of toppings, and three homemade sauces. It was delightful. Dessert was brought by the third friend, and it was equally delightful- an upside down orange cake with cornmeal, served with whipped cream. 

Our three girls are close friends, and while we ducked out and came back home around 9 pm, they had a sleepover and watched the last episode of Stranger Things which was released that night. They were very disappointed with the ending, from what I heard. I haven't watched this show at all.

Overnight yeasted
waffles

On New Year's Day, I had K and her family over for brunch. V made overnight waffles- Mark Bittman's recipe which makes the most amazing, light-as-air waffles. Our twist to the recipe is to sub some of the AP flour with cornmeal and almond flour for added taste and texture. 

I made hash brown casserole and the Jan 1 staple- greens and beans, a Southern superstition for good luck in the new year. I made kale salad and black eyes peas coconut curry, roughly this recipe. We had fruit on the side, and lemon berry quick bread brought over by K. And plenty of coffee to wash everything down!

Later on new year's day, my other friend invited me over for an early dinner- her spouse and sons were at the beach and she took advantage of a blissfully quiet house to have three girlfriends over. Again, it was a greens and beans menu- chana masala, my black-eyed peas, rice, raita, vinegary collard greens, hibiscus tea and a thin, rich slice of her aunt's famous pound cake. Let the record show that I did everything in my power to ensure good luck for the coming year!

When I arrived for dinner, the three of them were writing down stuff on slips of paper. It turned out to be a "burn list" ritual. We sat down and wrote our regrets from the past year on slips of paper- not just regrets but things we wanted to leave behind in the old year such as situations and events that caused fear and anger- and threw the slips of paper into the fire pit, symbolically starting the new year with a fresh slate.

All these gatherings with friends made me deeply grateful for the community we have here. 

* * * Elodie dress * * *

I bought a wrap dress pattern (Elodie from Closet Core patterns) months ago but have been waiting to get to a fabric store 30 minutes away and buy the material needed to make it. We finally made it to the fabric store earlier this week and I was about as excited as a kid in a candy shop. It is a gigantic warehouse with oversized rolls of fabric packed to the rafters- pretty overwhelming- and the folks there were kind and helpful. 

However, it was overall a disappointment. I was looking for apparel fabric, mostly cotton blends. Usually, fabric bolts have fabric content and laundry instructions listed- essential information. None of the fabric rolls in this store were labeled! You had to ask the staff about fabric content, and then the store clerk tested the fabric by lighting a corner on fire. True story! That's the burn test for fiber content. But it is only say if the fabric is fully synthetic or has some natural fiber content. It really doesn't take the place of a proper label. 

The vast majority of the fabric in the store was fully synthetic- aisles and aisles of decorative polyester, polyester jersey and home decor fabric. I think this is a wholesale warehouse that mostly sell to professionals- such as interior designers and costumers. If one were making dance costumes or prom dresses, this place is magical.

I did manage to find one fabric- a cotton blend in a black print- that looked (to my inexpert eyes) like it would work for my dress, and was happy to have fulfilled the reason for the trip. I might go back sometime and dig some more- they did have a roll or two of linen, and some denim- but overall, I'll have to look for fabric in other stores in the area, or buy online, or wait until my next trip to India. 

Back home, I was excited to work with my new fabric and started on the whole dress-making process. I washed and dried the fabric. Printed the pattern, assembled it and cut out pattern pieces. Cut all 20 pieces for the dress- a bit tricky and time-consuming as the fabric was slightly slippery/stretchy. Watched a very helpful sew-along and followed the pattern instructions one step at a time. It took several hours over 2-3 days, but yesterday afternoon, I sewed the last mile-long hem and finished my first dress. Sewing a garment is practically instant gratification compared to the longer process of knitting a garment. 

The fit is great and the dress is perfect for wearing to work. Wrap dresses are flattering on a variety of figures. The busy black pattern is hiding a multitude of wonky seams. I can see myself making this dress again in different fabrics! 

* * * Fitness audit * * *

It is that time of year when many resolutions are made. If you have 2026 goals that involve exercise and fitness, you might like today's moment of fitness, which is all about doing a fitness audit of your life. 

Instead of giving information, I'm assigning homework, which will involve finding some peaceful time for reflection, and a pen and paper or a blank document on your computer to jot your thoughts.

This fitness audit will help you to assess where you are and where you would like to go from here, using 20 questions. Not all may apply to every person, but you might find some that are insightful for you. 

1. (Exercise history) Starting from my teenage years, what forms of exercise or sports have I tried? 
2. (Exercise history) Are there activities I’ve done before and loved that I would like to try again? (for example, swimming/ dance/ yoga/ badminton...)
3. (Current health status) What is my current health status? 
4. (Current health status) Do I have any medical limitations that I will have to take into consideration, such as injuries or chronic conditions? 
5. (Current fitness level) Do I feel comfortably fit, flexible and strong in my everyday life, doing common activities such as climbing stairs, hauling groceries, picking things off the floor? 
6. (Current exercise habits) How often do I exercise, and what types of activities do I do? 
7. (Knowledge) Do I know how much exercise and the types of exercise I should be getting at my age?
8. (Barriers) If I don’t exercise as much or as often as I want to, what is getting in the way? Boredom? Time? Consistency? 
9. (Lifestyle factors) Do my other lifestyle factors support exercise? Do I fuel my body with nutritious food? 
10. (Lifestyle factors) Do I get adequate sleep? 
11. (Lifestyle factors) Do I rest and recover between workouts? Am I being over-zealous and overtraining?
12. (Mindset) How is my exercise mindset? Am I being realistic in how fit I should be at my age? 
13. (Mindset) Am I comparing myself to others? 
14. (Access) Do I have access to fitness facilities or equipment or safe places to walk? 
15. (Access) Are there resources that are available that I'm not tapping into, such as a workplace gym?
16. (Social circle) Do I like to exercise alone, or would it benefit me to have someone else exercise with me?
17. (Social circle) How could I find a workout partner, coach, or supportive community?
18. (Social circle) What are my friends doing for exercise? Could I text or call them and ask? It might result in ideas and inspiration.
19. (Goals, aspirations, dreams) What do I dream of doing in terms of exercise/fitness? What is my short term goal- for the first half of 2026?
20. (Goals, aspirations, dreams) Do I have any long-term goals or bucket list items related to fitness or exercise, such as participating in a race or climbing a mountain? 

Use your own answers to these questions to-

• Identify your fitness strengths
• Identify your fitness gaps
• Set a few doable goals or intentions for 2026

My own goals are the same as last year- getting stronger, building muscle, and improving my body composition. I'd like to do a couple of 5K races as an incentive to keep running regularly. As much as I wish I could take a dance class or two each week, it is unrealistic to fit that into my life at this time.

Share your own goals and resolutions if you like, related to exercise or otherwise!

Holiday Cookies, Goodbye 2025

It has been a lazy holiday week around here, with some reading, baking, knitting and tidying, and lots of aimless lounging on the couch while watching TV. On a Christmassy theme, we watched Klaus, the 2019 animated comedy (Netflix), and The Nutcracker (Tubi), a recording of The Royal Ballet of London performing at Covent Garden in 2000.  

2025 cookie box

Detective-priests seemed to be the other theme as I watched the latest Knives Out mystery movie installment Wake Up Dead Man that came out recently on Netflix. It is an entertaining, cinematic movie featuring a Catholic priest, Father Jud, with a dark past, making a fresh start and getting himself involved in a closed-room mystery. Also, I'm rewatching the British drama series Grantchester, set in the 1950s and featuring the young, maverick vicar Sidney Chambers and his detective friend Geordie Keating investigating local murders. I am constantly distracted by the women's clothing in this show- the classy style of the dresses and sweaters. 

To psych myself up for holiday baking, I watched the latest installment of the Great British Baking Show. The standards are absurdly high- baking without recipes in the technical challenge, making showstopper cakes as big as a table....one of the young contestants was participating in the show while sitting for medical school exams! 

This year, my cookie baking was modest with 5 varieties- something with chocolate, something with spice, a shortbread, a decorated cookie, and a fruity cookie. These are all very easy and do-able recipes. 

1. Double chocolate crinkles 
2. Snowballs, also called Mexican wedding cookies and by many other names 
3. Crispy gingersnaps
4. Cranberry almond biscotti
5. Spritz cookies

The 2025 holiday cookie line-up

* * *

The year I learned to decorate cupcakes

It is that time of year when the annual round-ups and best-of lists pop up everywhere. NYT had a fun article covering random favorite things of the year. Here is my own incomplete and idiosyncratic list:

Wine bottle bag

Best new hobby- garment sewing. I haven't had much time to go further than the 3 garments I made from the online class I took, but I'm hoping to go to a fabric store soon and start on my next sewing project, the Elodie dress. 

This week, I did whip up a quick wine bottle bag from this free pattern, to take some wine and cookies to my neighbor's boxing day party. It was a fun little project using some cute seasonal fabric from my stash.

A huge sewing-related surprise this year was that my husband learned to sew. He had some old scientific posters that he wanted to upcycle into tote bags. Back in the day, posters (sheets that are approx. 3 x 4 feet) were always printed on paper and you carried them to conferences in a big unwieldy tube. These days you can get them printed on a synthetic fabric and fold them- much more convenient to carry around and store. Anyway, with a bit of help from me, and some video tutorials, V made a few cute tote bags from his old posters and enjoyed learning a new skill. He has since been mending his own and our son's clothing- sewing is a very useful hobby and even beginners can make minor repairs and extend the lifespan of everyday clothing. 

Best self-care- an evening routine of herbal tea, no screen time, magnesium supplements. I've been dealing with intermittent insomnia (yay, perimenopause) and this has helped quite a bit. 

Best keeper recipe- crispy gingersnaps. It made my day to see my kids enjoying my homemade cookies- not that they don't like the food I make, but they vastly prefer store-bought snacks over anything I make. It is hard to compete with ultraprocessed food. But they are begging me to bake these again.

Best new kitchen purchase- air fryer. We use it several times a day for everything from re-heating food to making quick sandwich melts, roasted veg and non-fried appetizers.  

Best thing I made all year- roasted pistachio ice cream. There's a special joy in nailing a recipe or technique, and making great homemade ice cream (and using my neglected ice cream machine) was a very rewarding endeavor this year. 

Best technique learned- decorating cupcakes. I wish I learned this simple technique decades ago, but better late than never. It is handy to have a standardized, crowd-pleasing recipe for good cupcakes, tasty frosting, and presentable decoration (easy, minimal skill required) that I can make for just about any occasion. Pictured above are some rose-hydrangea decorated cupcakes that I made this summer while my parents were visiting. 

Best new activity- line dancing. This year our youngest is old enough to stay home on occasional evenings with his sister, and we have been going out a little bit more than we used to. Line dancing was a memorable evening with friends. 

Best old activity re-discovered- trivia nights. V and I loved trivia nights in St. Louis and even before then. This year we went to bar trivia a few times, including one very fun evening (our son was away on his first overnight field trip- another milestone) when we won second prize- the theme was "disasters" LOL.

Best author discovered- Carlo Rovelli, a theoretical physicist who is a wonderful science communicator and writes books for the general public on the subjects of quantum physics and its intersection with philosophy. I read two of his books this year- Reality is Not What It Seems (2014) and Helgoland (2021). 

Helgoland is a slim book that packs quite a punch. Rovelli says, "Rather than explaining how to understand quantum mechanics, I explain why it is so difficult to understand" and he goes on to explain it beautifully. It was interesting for me to read this book in the space between 2025 and 2026, as it is exactly 100 years since the discovery of quantum theory, which is thought to have come into existence between 1925 and 1926. Yes, this is no new-fangled theory but the basis of many of the latest technologies that has not been proven wrong in a century of experimentation and close examination. 

I might write a longer summary of this book one of these days, but the premise of the book, as I see it, is this: Classical physics and our own perception leads us to believe that the world is made of things, of objects. Quantum theory (which is not mere conjecture but a solid science) makes us abandon this simple idea. It says that a thing exists only through its interactions. The physical world is a net of relations. Objects are the nodes. The best description of reality that we have found is in terms of events that weave a web of interactions. It shows that the solidity of the physical world melts into thin air. 

The inside book cover jacket of Helgoland says, "Rovelli makes learning about quantum mechanics an almost psychedelic experience", and I find this to be so true. Not just about this particular book, but many of the books I read this year on the subjects of quantum physics, philosophy, and neuroscience (Being You by Anil Seth being another exceptional read.) When I read these sorts of books right before I sleep (my typical reading time), my mind is in a different place and I drift off to sleep with a feeling of awe, turning over ideas in my head, picturing concepts I've just read and trying to make sense of this universe. This is much more pleasant than the usual, decidedly more mundane things that are on my mind when I go to sleep- the next day's schedule and endless to-dos. 

For me, 2025 was an exceptionally good year for books. They gave me solace and enriched my daily life at a time when the news is so bleak. I read for pleasure, any genre I like, as much as I want to. I don't track my reading seriously, don't complete reading challenges, and I don't hesitate to put a book down if it doesn't vibe with me for any reason. 

It was fun to peek at my annual stats generated by Goodreads and see my 2025 books at a glance.  Apparently, I've read 47 books and they are an eclectic mix- memoirs, mysteries, assorted novels, and a whole lot of non-fiction. I loved so many of the books I read this year. 

What are your own favorite things from 2025?

Gingersnaps, Ragi Dosas, Running Water

Gingerbread house

December 21- winter solstice. For the first time in a long time, I have 18 whole days in a row off work, achieved by stringing together six vacation days, six holidays, and six weekend days. And we're not traveling, so I get to be in my own home without any real agenda- a true luxury. 

The usual holiday activities are ongoing. This morning, the kids assembled a gingerbread house. I love this kit from Trader Joe's. It is well-fabricated and dead easy to assemble. What I also love is that it comes with four little creatures- a deer, squirrel, fox, and owl- and we have all four of these living in our backyard! 

How this year has sped by. Ever since the kids finished the last school year in May of this year, it has been a case of one-thing-after-another with barely any time to sit back and breathe. It has been a mix of some very good things, some stressful things, and many good things that were also stressful. 

An example of the third category- my daughter was a dancer in a production of "The Grinch: Musical". What a fantastic production it was, how wonderful for these young performers to get this amazing stage experience, and what a joy to see her in several dances. But getting this child back and forth to the endless rehearsals and performances (4 shows over 3 days) while managing her meals, sleep and school was pretty stressful! 

Another recent dramatic episode started two weeks ago when I came home from work to find no running water in the house- the water company has turned it off due to a massive leak in the main line going from the city supply to our house. An emergency plumber was called, and four days of basically-no-running-water later, a new pipe was put into place. Apparently, this is just one of those things that happen when you live in a 65 year old house with bits of infrastructure reaching the end of their lifetime. 

I had to laugh bitterly at the irony of it all. I'm militant about not wasting water, yelling at my kids to take shorter showers, all of that...and in the space of a few days, unbeknownst to us, we lost a swimming pool's worth of water in the leak, effectively neutralizing my water conservation and then some. Such is life! I never take my life's conveniences for granted, but I am doubly thankful for running water these days. 

* * *

The first try- hockey pucks

I started my cookie-box baking last weekend with what I assumed was a soft start- an easy, well-rated recipe for crispy gingersnaps. 

I did everything correctly, or so I thought, testing that the baking soda was active, even weighing out the flour instead of measuring by the cup, and somehow the cookies did not spread at all, turning out like hockey pucks. I was dismayed. Tasty, though! My only change to the recipe was to add a teaspoon of ground cardamom along with the other spices. I still don't quite know what I did wrong there.

I tried the recipe again this weekend, working even more carefully than before, and the cookies decided to cooperate, with a couple of them even spreading a little bit too much and merging into their neighbors. This time, I rolled them in some crunchy, crystalline turbinado sugar. 

Crispy gingersnaps

These cookies are SO GOOD. In fact, they are a convincing dupe for our family's favorite store-bought cookie, Trader Joe's triple ginger cookies. From the ingredient list, my homemade cookies are a little different from the ones from TJ's. Those contain ground ginger, fresh ginger, and crystallized ginger (hence the triple ginger). The cookies I made contain only ground ginger, and additionally, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. However, I believe molasses must be carrying the flavor of both these cookies, because they taste pretty much identical. 

If you're a fan of spice cookies and of gingersnaps, I highly recommend this recipe. I can see myself making it regularly to keep around for the kids to snack on, and for myself for chai-dunking purposes. 

* * *

One of the things I will be doing during this winter is deep-cleaning and organizing the pantry, fridge, and freezer. A lot of this involves "eating down" these food stashes- using up bits and bobs and hoarded and forgotten ingredients. 

Among my Indian pantry staples are three flours, including besan (chickpea flour), rice flour, and ragi (millet) flour. They come in clutch for making instant dosas, where you basically mix the flour with water and make some savory pancakes/crepes. 

I've been using up the ragi flour with some instant ragi dosas. I mix ragi flour and rice flour with about a 3:1 ratio. Then I add some yogurt for tang and flavor the batter with minced onion, cilantro, green chili. Some salt and cumin seeds finish it off, along with enough water to make a thin batter. 

It is important that the batter be thin (thinner than you think it should be), because these instant dosas are poured in a different way than regular fermented urad dal dosas. With the latter, you ladle the batter into the center and use the bottom of the ladle to spread the dosa from the inside out. 

With instant dosas, you start pouring around the edge and work your way in. The thin batter forms a thin, lacy dosa. (There are plenty of videos online that demonstrate this method.) Be patient and let it cook and get crispy before flipping to the other side and letting it cook again. It takes a few minutes to make a dosa, but you end up with something crispy and tasty. We ate the dosas with a side of curried lima beans. 

So there you have it- my three tips for instant ragi dosas: make the batter thin enough to pour, pour it from the outside in, and be patient and let it cook and get some good color before flipping it.

* * *

I read a great book recently- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, published in 2013. I had this text exchange with my friend (we occasionally exchange books and jigsaw puzzles), and she let me borrow her copy. 

It is a hefty book, coming in at 900+ pages for the paperback; however, it is engrossing enough that I breezed through it in a few days. If you are looking for an immersive, richly descriptive story to read over your holiday break or during long winter evenings, I recommend this novel. 

This novel falls into the literary fiction category and won the Pulitzer prize in 2014. It is a bildungsroman (coming of age novel) and has elements of mystery. I won't say much about the plot but there's much I loved about this book, including the setting of NYC (although large parts are set in Vegas and Amsterdam), family dynamics, found family, the world and underworld of art. 

There were parts I didn't care for- like that whole stint in Vegas, holy cow; this isn't a light-hearted book by any means- but there are many sentences in this book that simply took my breath away. I would call this a modern classic, one that centers around a small painting from the 1650s. “You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.”

How is this week looking for you? Any breaks/vacations? Any baking? Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it! 

Thanksgiving 2025, Pumpkin Pie, November Travel

We're on Sunday of Thanksgiving week, and it has been, as per tradition, a long weekend of too much eating and drinking. It also caps off a busy travel month for me. I typically don't travel much at all, but this month took me on a five day trip to Canada and another five day trip to Mexico. 

The travel to Canada was for a conference in Toronto. It needed a lot of prep in terms of what my colleagues and I had to present at the conference, and also in terms of getting together a business casual wardrobe with blazers and button-down shirts and nice pants. My regular work outfits lean way too much into the casual side of things. Also, I had to acquire a heavy jacket, something we rarely need in the South. Toronto was getting its first snow of the season as we landed, and for a few days I got to experience real wintry weather. It was a great trip- I got to see colleagues that I usually only see virtually, and had lunch with some family members that I was seeing after 20 years! 

The travel to Mexico was pretty much the exact opposite in terms of outfits and weather- it was for a destination wedding on V's side of the family. Glitzy weddings and all-inclusive resorts are both very much out of my comfort zone, but here we are. Again, my simple wardrobe falls short whenever special events with dress codes come up. My sister bailed me out by letting me borrow a suitcase worth of Indian outfits, including a beautiful saree. It was balmy in Mexico and the pool was lovely. A couple of pics from this trip are at the bottom of the post. 

With all the travel behind me, I had only a couple of days to think of the Thanksgiving meal. Luckily, the menu for Thanksgiving is predictable from year to year. We hosted a small Friendsgiving with 6 adults and 4 kids crowded around the table. On Thanksgiving day, I cooked all morning. Guests arrived at 1 pm and V served up hibiscus-rum cocktails. We ate the big meal at 1:30, then went for a mile-long walk around the neighborhood and came back for coffee and dessert. It was a beautiful Fall day, sunny and crisp-cold. 

Here's our menu with linked recipes and notes. 

Vegetarian nut loaf

• Mains
• Vegetarian nut loaf. I used cheddar cheese instead of Swiss. This is an excellent holiday main dish.
• Gardein Plant-Based Turk'y Roast (baked right out of the box). I usually buy the one from Trader Joe's but learned this year that it has been discontinued. 
• Sides
• Mashed potatoes- no exact recipe, made in the Instant Pot.
• Southern macaroni and cheese
• Thanksgiving slaw- I used 50:50 green and red cabbage for color. 
• Vegetarian stuffing, made by a guest with carrots instead of celery- probably the best stuffing I've ever tasted. 
• Eggplant parmesan, made by a guest who is Italian-Australian- an authentic and delicious recipe, and much less heavy and cheesy than the Italian-American version.
• Cranberry sauce
• Gravy- this one I had to make twice as the first one was salty to the point of being inedible. So I made a second batch without salt and mixed the two.
• Desserts
• Apple crumble, made by my Australian guests.
• Pecan pie, brought by my friend.
• Pumpkin pie, described in more detail below.

* * * Pumpkin Pie * * *

Usually, I make a chocolate pecan pie at Thanksgiving. This year, my friend was bringing a pecan pie, so I thought of alternatives. My daughter loves pumpkin pie so we decided to go with that. 

I bake pies only rarely, so it sometimes feeling like I am re-learning the process every year. For the pie crust, I used this recipe and it is truly as easy and flaky as it claims to be. I used a food processor for the whole thing- 

Pumpkin pie

• adding a portion of the flour and all of the butter (and a touch of salt and sugar) to the food processor bowl
• pulsing until the mixture is sandy and pale yellow
• adding the rest of the flour and pulsing it in
• adding ice water a bit at a time and pulsing until the mixture clumps together
• patting and portioning into two pie dough disks and refrigerating overnight

The next day, I made the pie filling mixture using a whole can of pumpkin and this recipe. One pie crust was rolled out for the pie crust, and the crust was blind baked, then the filling added and baked again. Use the wobble test to see if the pie is done- if the pie has only a gentle wobble in the center, it is done baking. 

My daughter used a portion of the other pie crust disk to bake little decorations for the pie. They went on after baking. 

The pie turned out okay, but I was quite unhappy with the bottom crust which seemed raw and colorless even after blind baking. I had most of a pie crust disk plus half of the pie filling left, so on Friday morning, I decided to bake another pie and get the bottom crust properly baked this time. 

I did several things differently:

Bottom crust!

• Instead of a glass pie plate, I used an 8 inch metal cake pan (I don't own a metal pie plate). Metal conducts heat better than glass.
• Instead of baking on the middle rack, I used the bottom rack of the oven as it is closer to the heating element.
• I placed a metal baking sheet on the bottom rack while preheating so that the pie crust would land on a hot surface while blind baking. 
• I also did the blind baking for long enough that the bottom crust had a strong color. 

This time the pie turned out much better. (Too bad my guests had to eat the not-great version the day before.) The bottom crust was almost burnt but not quite, and all the crust was flaky and crisp and cooked through. I'm happy to have built a bit more confidence in my pie-making skills. 

Meanwhile, my sister sent me a picture of her pumpkin pie and I have to share it- just look at how pretty it is with the free-form, artistic decorations! 

My sister's beautiful pumpkin pie!

* * *

On Friday, we were invited to another Friendsgiving meal, and my friend went all out with an array of vegetarian dishes. My personal favorite was this roasted winter squash with citrus chile crisp- a recent recipe from the NYTimes cooking app. 

roasted squash- perfectly spiced

* * *

My favorite meal in Mexico was the traditional South Indian wedding thali served for lunch after the morning wedding- absolutely sumptuous, and it kept us full for about 24 hours. 

Wedding thali

A cute coatimundi on resort grounds

Now on to December, which promises to be busy with many projects at work, cookie-baking, gifts for teachers, and many events to attend. 

But also hopefully with a couple of weeks completely off work with some time to read and finally sew that dress I've been meaning to make for months. 

Tell me your highlights from the month of November! 

Rasmalai Cake, and Four Novels

Happy Diwali to all who celebrate! 🪔 I had plans to make some Diwali sweets and savories but time got away from me this year. 

October so far has featured our kids' fall break, their teacher conferences, and a bunch of volunteer activities- making taco soup for a potluck for the middle school teachers, working at a school fundraiser where we sell parking spots to raise funds for field trips, delivering surplus produce from a supermarket to a farm sanctuary for the animals, and teaching an Indian cooking class to a group of 15 lovely seniors. 

The one thing I did make for our small Diwali dinner was a dessert that I've been planning in my head for several years- a mash-up of two favorite desserts, rasmalai and tres leches cake. 

Rasmalai cake has an eggless pistachio-cardamom cake, is drizzled with a mixture of rose-flavored milk, and topped with a saffron cream. You can see that I loaded all the classic Indian dessert flavors into this one. It turned out absolutely irresistible- very rich but not overwhelmingly sweet. However, if you don't like soggy cake, you won't like it, because a soaked cake in a puddle of sweet milk is kind of the point of tres leches cake. The colors of the cake are subtle and natural. If you want to ramp up the color for visual appeal, you could add a bit of green food color into the cake, and a bit of orange food color into the whipped cream frosting.

I've seen versions of rasmalai cake online and used several as inspiration, with this recipe as the base. Use dairy or non-dairy versions of ingredients as you prefer- I won't specify as they are interchangeable in this recipe. The recipe looks elaborate, and certainly it has a lot of steps and ingredients, but it is dead simple to make. The results will be worth it. I was overjoyed to finally get a chance to use some edible rose petals given by my sister! 

Rasmalai Cake

• Bake the cake
• Preheat the oven to 350F and spray a 9x13 pan with oil.
• In a measuring cup, mix 1.5 cups milk and 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar and leave aside to curdle.
• Place 3/4 cup roasted unsalted pistachios in a food processor bowl and grind to a fine powder.
• In a large bowl, mix together
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• Ground pistachios
• 1 tsp. ground cardamom (or more to taste)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• To the flour mixture above, add
• Curdled milk
• 1/2 cup neutral flavored oil
• Whisk gently (do not over-mix), pour into greased pan and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean.
• Soak the cake
• While the cake is baking, mix the following in a bowl:
• 3/4 of a can of condensed milk
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 cup almond milk 
• 1 tablespoon rose water
• Let the baked cake cool for 10 minutes.
• Take a chopstick (or similar) and poke holes all over the cake
• Ladle the milk mixture all over the cake.
• Let it sit for a few minutes, then cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours
• Frost the cake
• Chill a stand mixer bowl and whisk.
• In a small bowl, mix 2-3 tablespoons hot milk and a hefty pinch of saffron.
• Add 1.5 cups heavy cream and 3 tablespoons powdered sugar into the chilled stand mixer bowl. Whisk to soft peaks
• Stir in the bloomed saffron gently.
• Dollop the saffron cream over the soaked cake and spread evenly with a spatula
• Sprinkle with edible rose petals or crushed pistachios. Refrigerate until it is time to serve.

* * *

TV watching: In the past few weeks, I watched season 1 of A Man on the Inside on Netflix. This is a fairly new web series, a sitcom with a light mystery theme. A retired, widowed engineer is bored, and answers a job ad by a private detective. His task is to infiltrate an upscale retirement community and investigate the theft of a valuable necklace from one of the residents. The characters are a little stereotypical and predictable, but if you are looking for a warm and pleasant comedy, this will fit the bill. Another season is to come soon, and I plan to watch it. 

My son and I continue to watch the odd episode of Project Runway here and there, usually on rainy weekends. It is hilarious to hear his commentary. Last night, one of the models was sent down the catwalk wearing a rather shapeless dress on, and he says, "she looks like a grandma who's about to go to bed". 

* * *

Speaking of bed, this has been my bedtime reading over the past several weeks. It is a lot more fiction than I usually read, but it was good fun.  

• The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (pub. 2019)
• Why I picked it up- It was recommended on a reddit thread that asked for suggestions for books that describe everyday life in Britain, and I was in the mood for a mundane, slice-of-life kind of read.
• Genre- romantic comedy, what might be called chick-lit
• Plot- Two people decide to share a flat, indeed, a bed, while working opposite shifts so that they never have to see one another. They end up communicating through post-it notes. Complications ensue.
• Read this book if you're looking for- A light, breezy, heartfelt book. A quick read.
• Crooked House by Agatha Christie (pub. 1949)
• Why I picked it up- It was recommended on a reddit thread about the best Agatha Christie books, and I had a sudden yearning to read one that I either haven't read or read too long ago. This is a standalone book, not featuring Marple or Poirot.
• Genre- cozy mystery ofc
• Plot- A young man returns to England from foreign service only to find that his girlfriend's wealthy family is in shambles- the patriarch is dead from poisoning. Everyone would love for the old man's younger wife to be the murderer, but a closer investigation is necessary.
• Read this book if you're looking for- A delicious classic murder mystery with tension and a well-crafted plot. A quick read. 
• Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (pub. 2016)
• Why I picked it up- It was recommended on some reddit thread as being in the same genre as The Midnight Library and A Short Stay in Hell. 
• Genre- sci-fi psychological thriller
• Plot- A college professor lives a pleasant but mundane life with his wife and teenage son. One night, he is abducted off the streets and ends up in a different world. This book dives into the concept of multiverses.
• Read this book if you're looking for- A super fast-paced and highly entertaining thriller, but just don't think too much about the science.
• Stoner by John Williams (pub. 1965)
• Why I picked it up- It was recommended on reddit thread as a book in which nothing happens- a quiet, meditative novel. Stoner is simply the last name of the protagonist; not used in the same way as the slang word "stoner" as in drug user.
• Genre- classic novel, literary fiction
• Plot- William Stoner is born into a dirt-poor farming family in Missouri. He shows academic brightness, so his parents send him to the state university to get a degree in agriculture. Instead, he ends up getting a degree in English and becoming a college professor. His life unfolds in an unremarkable manner, and he stoically bears a series of disappointments.
• Read this book if you're looking for- A quiet and beautifully written novel about the human experience and how our decisions (such as who we choose to marry) can have such a heavy bearing on how life unfolds. How we sometimes end up being a minor character in our own lives. This is quite a depressing book.

As October winds down, tell me what you're cooking, eating, reading, watching.