On today.

I took a day off today.

I slept.

Ate. Yes. I ate like I haven’t eaten this whole week. Which is so not true!

Watched TV.

And packed for S’s wedding. Packed the blingy blosues, shiny slippers, nice crispy silks and the sexy chiffons. Packed jewellery, make up, perfume and lots of good cheer.

We are off to Jaipur tomorrow. Will post next week. Hopefully with lots of pictures. I am looking at a very colorful weekend with dancing, singing, laughing and some drama.

So long!

On these family times spent

There is something oddly comforting about spending an evening with someone who knows me ever since I was born, knows my mum since when she was born and knows my dad ever since my mum and dad started dating. She knows the stories, the complications, what is funny and what is not. She knows exactly where I would want to eat in Dilli Haat and can order for me. She speaks my language, understands family jargon- “obari” (that house), “chhutki” (the youngest one) and the likes. She knows why my front tooth is the way it is and why I sleep on the left side on the bed. She has seen me going from diapers to school uniform to graduation to the day I got married.

 

Sure there have been fights, disagreements, periods of silence and the usual family drama. But when she comes to Delhi I always sprint from wherever I am in the city to go and meet her.

 

That’s my boro mashi. My mum’s eldest sister. Such a good evening I had with her. It had been so long! Tra-la.

 

 

On some sudden free time

I had some “Me” time today. Something I haven’t gotten since the beginning of this year, I think. So here’s what I did-

• Bought fresh veggies

• Got some flowers for the house (I picked some Gerberas initially but the guy at the store advised me against it saying they won’t last too long. So ended up buying carnations.)

• And I got books! And I must say, I got a very good deal at the tiny little Tekson’s in Galleria. It is my favorite bookstore in the area, they have a good collection and even if you don’t find a book they call and inform you the moment they have it in the store. See, all these for INR 1489/-. It helped that the O’Henry Collection was only 80 bucks! I just couldn’t stop myself!!

Then I hopped back home, arranged flowers, put the veggies in the fridge, the books in the shelf and looked up a recipe here (I always look her up first for recipes and follow her directions to the T). This time around I didn’t have marinated chicken and couldn’t find the cornflour and the soy sauce and the ketchup (!!!), so here’s what I did-

1. Threw some chicken pieces (about ten of them cut into “chilly chicken pieces”) with some vinegar, salt and sliced onion (half of a medium sized one) in the pressure cooker. Steam cooked it for about ten minutes.
2. In the meanwhile, sliced up the rest of the onion, got some ginger paste out of the fridge and poured a little bit of white oil in a non stick saucer.
3. After the oil was smoky, I put some whole pepper (I think I put around ten of them), waited for the aroma to come out, put in the rest of the sliced onion and fried it till it turned translucent.
4. Put in about half a tea spoon of ginger paste and chopped green chillies (two of them) and fried the mixture. Was careful not to let it stick to the pan.
5. After the mixture smelt of ginger and chillies, put in the chicken pieces and fried them a little till the chicken was coated with the paste and was slightly browned on one side.
6. Put in the chicken stock (there was not much of it), brought it to boil and sprinkled some freshly ground pepper after turning the heat off.

Voila! Dinner was ready. And tasted good too! Pity I don’t have a picture of the finished dish.

***

It felt good, you know. The flowers, books and cooking. Something I hadn’t done in the longest time. *Sigh*