Thanksgiving Dinner!!

I have been in the US for 11 years now and I have been to only one American style Thanksgiving dinner so far. Most of the times, it's only vacation/shopping and never has it a been home cooked meal. At least until this year.

L and I have been married for 5.5 years and this is our 6th Thanksgiving together. L decided that it was high time to make a traditional (also vegetarian) dinner at home. She managed to prepare a delicious 6 course menu for us for dinner. The menu comprised of Green bean casserole, creamy polenta with spinach, baked asparagus with pistachios and almonds, fried potatoes, blueberry sauce and dinner rolls. Each of the these items need at least a post on their own to elaborate how good it was. They were absolutely delicious with the blueberry sauce being the clear winner followed closely by the rest

L also made some cheese quesadilla for Vidyuth. Vishruth had to be content with his paruppu saadham :-)

Overall it was a night/feast to remember!!

Happy Thanksgiving

L had a Thanksgiving potluck at work today for which she made some awesome mix-veg-aval-uppuma and cucumber raita ( I took the same for lunch too)

We had a potluck at my work last week for which I took (read "bought") some plum cake :-)

L also made some rava kesari for Vidyuth, which she couldn't make for his b'day due to lack of ravai. Vidyuth and his best-friend-at-home Akruthi immensely enjoyed the same

Here's wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!! We don't have special plans and we plan to just catch up on - sleep, talk time (L and I, not with kids), some of the Deepavali movies and a few other things....

Without a Trace

I love watching TV shows that deal with cops investigating crimes. Among my favorites are "Law & Order SVU", "Law & Order" and more recently "Without a Trace". I happened to catch a show of "Without a Trace" that really moved me, without a trace of doubt:-). It was about a missing person, a 17 year old guy, and how they actually find him eventually. They initially inform his parents, based on initial leads, that their son may be a drug addict and could have died when a deal went wrong and several other parent-shocking speculations.

The cops then discover a dead body matching the profile and description of this missing person. They inform the parents of the missing guy and ask them to come to morgue to make a positive identification. From this point on the next 10 minutes of the show was really very gripping and moving. The actors who played the role of the parents were so brilliant it was almost impossible to believe that they were acting. The subtle emotions, the crisp dialogues etc were really well executed. Anyways, eventually when they do see the body, as I had prayed, it turns out that it is not their son. They eventually find their son who has been kidnapped and he returns safely to them. Not all the shows have a happy ending, but this one inspite of falling in that category, really moved me a lot

Prayer brings victory - in good times and bad times

Like I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I'm not a very religious person, but I certainly believe in the existence of a supreme power above that controls everything that happens in this world. Like most of the mortals out there, I too think of God only when there is a problem. May be that attitude of mine should change. May be I should think of God more often. May be that's why He has been giving me enough to worry about (for the last 7 months in particular), that I keep thinking of Him all the time now. Funny that I now find time to think of Him when all these days when the times weren't this bad, that I conveniently forgot about His existence. May be this is a signal for me learn to pray in good time and bad times. May be this is a reminder to be thankful for what I have and not lament about what I don't. May be this is a reminder to me of my high school's famous motto "Prayer brings victory". Now that He has manged to gain my attention, I want to share a prayer that has helped me stay afloat in troubled times before

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference

In Love We Trust

I read this quote recently and wanted to share it with the readers of this blog. "You can trust someone without loving them, you can't love someone without trusting them"

It's a very true statement and full credit goes to the person who thought of the above

Vidyuth's Birthday Party

Vidyuth had his 4th birthday celebrations at Kids Castle, a kid fun/activity center with lot of interesting stuff for kids and some terrific pizza (more on that later). The only thing that I don't like about the place is that they give you the room only for 1 hour exactly to cut the cake, eat the food. You can then relocate to the common area and the kids can play for as long as they possibly can, but you have to vacate the private room within 1 hr.

With the guest list being mostly Indians observing IST timings in a PST city, things actually got a little tense. This is inspite of the evite clearly telling people to arrive by 12:20pm so that the party can start at 12:30pm. Though we had the room from 12:30pm to 1.30pm, most of the guests arrived only around 12:55pm. Vidyuth cut the cake around 1.00pm and then for the next 30 minutes all of us feasted on the cake (Tres Leche from Safeway) and Pizzas (Pav bhaji pizza, panner tikka pizza, indian veggie pizza, cheese pizza) before hurriedly vacating the room to the common area

With Vishruth crying throughout, L (having leg and stomach pain) and I were taking turns holding him and he eventually dozed off on my shoulder and I took the liberty to lay him down on a friend's stroller so that I could grab a bite (or slice??)

All the kids had lots of fun and the parents had a tough time convincing the chilren when it was time to leave. All in all it was a really good party and Vidyuth enjoyed every bit of it. This concludes the 4th elaborate and successful event that we have organized this year - Vishruth ayushahomam, Vishruth B'day, Navarathri and this one.

Baking....Piece of cake (not for me)!!

This year I wanted to bake a cake for my Vidyuth's birthday. Considering my not-so-great culinary skills which L and the kids have been tolerating when L doesn't cook, I was quite nervous about venturing into baking. Somehow I mustered all my courage and decided to go ahead and bake one for him

I quickly checked with a neighbor who I knew could bake eggless cakes and jotted down a recipe for a Chocolate cake. Headed out to the supermarket and rounded up all my ingredients (225g AP flour, 100g butter, 1 can condensend milk, 1tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 2Tsp sugar, limitless melted chocolate, 1tsp cocoa, 1tsp coffee powder, 2-3drops of vanilla extract). Mixed all the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. Then slowly mixed them both together to make the batter. I had to add some milk to get the desired consistency. Baked it in an oven at 400F for about 30 minutes and lo and behold....The cake was done considering that the knife I poked it with came out clean

Before Vidyuth cut the cake, I topped it with some whipped cream and decorated it with loads of M&M candy as they are Vidyuth's favorite. We lit the candle and sang the b'day song and Vidyuth took the first bite. He and his best friend Akruthi enjoyed the top portion (read M&M and whipped cream) and didn't like the bottom portion (read the cake that I baked...sob..sob) and told me "appa, i don't like the cake" in his no-longer-annoying whining voice. I was certainly disappointed that he didn't like it but atleast I got a true appraisal without any sugar coating - which means that I will certainly get my act together the next time I bake a cake

L had some interesting comments - flour is overpowering the chocolate, bit hard for kids, overall pretty decent for first attempt and definitely reflected what I felt as well

We also gave some of the cake to Akruthi's parents and also to my neighbor who gave the recipe. The neighbor who provided the recipe actually said that she liked it. Not sure if she didn't want to criticize her own recipe or if she was just being polite

Anyways since I have gotten my feet wet (my eyes too since Vidyuth didn't like it :-)), I hope to make the next one better by making it a bit more kid friendly - use eggs for fluffiness, extra chocolate etc

Happy Birthday Vidyuth

My son Vidyuth is turning 4 today. Here's wishing him a very happy birthday and our blessings to him for a fun-filled day - Thatha/Patti, Appa/Amma, Vishruth

November Maadham

I usually like to watch any movie directed by Mani Rathnam and "Alaipayuthey" was no exception. I really enjoyed the movie for it's never-before-handled-theme and Mani's brilliant direction. One of my favorite scenes is where the house owner of place where Shalini-Madhavan live advises Maddy "Vittu kodukkanum pa...". Though the context in which it is told is meant for a spousal one, I think it's very true and pertinent in any relationship - between friends, mother-daugher, father-in-law-son, brother-sister and on and on....After all what is life without a little give and take (note that give comes before take :-)). Simply following this golden advise would solve most issues in any relationship. But are things really that simple like taking a Tylenol for a head-ache?? I guess not....

In case you wondered the reason for the title, it is taken after the "September maadham" song in that movie

First earth quake experience

We have made it a routine to visit the local Hindu temple on Tuesday evenings. (start digression) We are not very religious or anything like that, but firmly believe in a divine power that controls everything from above (end digression). We were planning to do that on Tuesday October 30th as well. L however had a bad headache and wanted to backout and suggested that I still go with Vidyuth. For some reason, I didn't want to leave her/Vishruth at home and go just with Vidyuth. I insisted that either all of us go together and or all of us stay back. I casually (I'm certainly not psychic) remarked "What if an earthquake happens when I'm away". So we decided to skip the visit and planned to do it on another day

We finished dinner and then around 8.00pm when we were all sitting in the living room, we felt that the floor was shaking. We initially thought that some kids were running real hard outside on the corridor but within secs we realized it was an earthquake. All the golu dolls that we still had on the steps were shaking and we just ran outside with the kids. We waited outside for a few mins and also noticed that our neighbors were outside as well

It was certainly a scary experience (though it was only 25-30 secs) but fortunately there was no damage of any kind. Most of the people in the bay area that I spoke to had experienced it as well

Happy Deepavali!!

Today is Deepavali (Festival of Lights). Though we typically wear new clothes, burst crackers, eat a lot of sweets/snacks, see all special programs on TV and visit relatives on this festive day when in India, today is like any other work day being in the US. Of course we relished on the goodies prepared by L for this occassion.

Best wishes for a very Happy Deepavali to one and all, and may peace, love, joy and prosperity be all around you!