The long summer of travel gave me a long break from cooking and baking, but last week I made up for lost time. It was a big week for food sharing; the stove and oven worked overtime.
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| Restocking the veg crisper tray |
Work dinner: We hosted a visiting scientist (also a good friend) and a few work colleagues. It was a busy weekday and the menu was simple- Indian comfort food- with emphasis on the conversation and company rather than laying out an elaborate meal. I trotted out familiar favorites- dal makhni, a mixed vegetable and paneer subzi, jeera rice, raita. Appetizers were simply some packaged snacks- pudina lime peanuts and bakarwadi. Dessert was vanilla ice cream topped with mango puree from India- from my parents' tree that they get processed into packets for us. So that was special. It was nice to sit out in the porch and talk- the backyard owls showed up and were duly admired.
Bringing a meal to a bereaved friend: While in India I heard the sad and shocking news that a good friend/neighbor had died suddenly. We were knitting buddies and I had a nice friendship with her over shared interests. I'd stop by now and then to borrow a needle or just chat, and we'd text each other recipes and pics of knitting projects. She was a big dog lover. With her husband, she helped us several times by keeping our Dunkie while we were on vacation. She will be sorely missed.
I brought over a meal for her husband and her sister who were working on all the endless stuff that needs tackling when a family member passes. Dinner again was basic comfort food- dal makhni (I'd made a big batch), paneer pulao, a salad of radish, cucumber, carrot with my favorite Maharashtrian-style dressing of crushed peanuts, lemon juice, salt, pepper, minced cilantro.
Another birthday cake: My son celebrated his 10th birthday in India last month. He wanted a small birthday celebration with his two close friends here, and we did that this weekend with a birthday sleepover- a 23 hour party. It included 2 outings- one to a trampoline park, and one to the botanical garden play area. (A lake beach picnic was also planned, but the lake was contaminated with high levels of bacteria...so, we turned right back.)
My son requested a chocolate cake with caramel frosting and a caramel sauce. Caramel is his favorite flavor lately. I showed him this recipe and it was duly approved. It was easy to make:
- make one single layer 8 inch chocolate cake
- make caramel sauce while the cake was baking
- make a buttercream frosting, add some caramel sauce at the end to flavor it
- frost the cooled cake
- drizzled caramel sauce on the frosted cake
- add some frosting swirls and a border
- top with unwrapped rolo caramel candies.
My verdict: I really, really wish I had made my usual ermine frosting and added caramel, rather than making this buttercream frosting from the recipe, because it was just too sweet and one-dimensional. Note to self- ermine frosting ONLY from now on! The birthday boy, though, oh, he was delighted with the cake. Told me it was just what he dreamed of, said it looked like something you could buy in a store, told me the caramel sauce was exactly the kind he loved. I think it was the candies on top that won him over!
Bringing a meal to a new mom: I became friends with one of the middle school teachers last year while volunteering at some school thing. She spent some years working in SE Asia after graduating college, so we had a lot to chat about. She had a baby a couple of weeks ago and I offered to bring a meal. I still remember the meals people brought me after I had my kids- you're so hungry those first few postpartum weeks and barely functioning. It is nice to be able to do this for another new mom. I usually cook a few dishes on Sunday afternoon, and I took her what I made yesterday- rajma, jeera rice, egg curry, cabbage subzi. And some of the birthday cake!
The nice thing about making a big batch of food is that we could share it with a neighbor who dropped in for dinner. Our son is frequently at their house swimming in their pool and staying back for dinner, so I was happy to reciprocate for once.
Finally, this is a meal from one evening when we were not socializing- just a bunch of things from the fridge put together...kale dip from TJ's with baby carrots, cauliflower roasted in the air fryer with sriracha sauce, avocado toast with boiled eggs.
The other big highlight from this week: The kids started the new school year- my daughter is in her first year of high school and my son is in his last year of elementary school. The familiar rhythm of work and school is now launched and we are all quite happy about it.
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I've written short posts on fitness themes ("moments of fitness") on the blog in the past couple of years, and one such post talked about the ups and downs in the fitness journey that are pretty much an inevitable part of life- I think of them as playing a game of snakes and ladders. Well, in the last two months, I encountered a long snake. There was a complete break in my own exercise routine as I abandoned any attempts at regular exercise during the 7-8 weeks of travel. Other routines around sleep and diet were also affected.
Now, I'm taking my own advice and getting back to my familiar schedule slowly. Last week, my goal was a 30 minute morning workout at home + walking whenever possible. From Monday to Friday, I used the videos from Fitness blender free 5-day challenge for busy people, day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5. I am very sore but it felt energizing at the same time.
I also took walking breaks at work (especially after lunch) and V and I have resumed our walks after dinner, although we managed to do those only once or twice this week. Still, it felt good to have an average of 9000 steps last week, which is more activity than I have been getting.
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I often listen to podcasts while walking, and an interesting one from this week was this NPR/Fresh Air interview with a woman who spent 37 years visiting her mother in prison and has written a novel based on her experience.
While it felt like a hectic week, I found time to lie back on the couch and watch a mini-series on Netflix, The Bombing of Pan Am 103. I feel like I've heard of "Lockerbie" all my life, and learned a lot about the details of this incident and its aftermath. It is incredible to think how the fate of a tiny Scottish village changed in a second as a fireball fell from the sky.
Tell me your highlights from the last week!
