Another question for the desis

Again this question can be answered by anyone, just thought the desi folks would relate!

Maybe some of you don't get bothered by this, but I really mind the system of making food in traditional indian households. I know everyone has their own system and that I'm generalizing, and as the number of kids increases or work schedules the logistics of dinner can change, but I've seen this system in both my Mom/Dad's side of the family and in G's family in India.

What I'm talking about is the lady of the house cooking fresh chappattis (indian tortilla bread) and serving them hot off the stove as they are being made. This means the lady has to stand at the stove while the rest of the family digs in.

This bugs me. I enjoy eating with everyone in the house. Together. On the table. Having someone at the stove makes me incredibly guilty and I can't enjoy the food I'm eating. It's almost as if they are a hired cook who do not deserve to eat first. And I do NOT like the idea of "switching." This means that one lady stands at the stove and cooks chappatis while the second lady eats, then the second lady switches places with the first lady while she eats. I enjoy sitting together & eating together, even if it means the chappatis are slighly less warm than they would be hot off the stove. Hello, there is a reason we have those plastic dishes with the lid that keep chappatis warm!

And it doesn't just apply to chappatis. I've seen it done with pakoras (fried veggie fritters) and all sorts of foods that require one to stand at the stove for sometime.

My MIL has talked wistfully of her desire to have me at the stove making chapattis while she eats. I don't mind serving anyone, but the idea of feeding everyone and then sitting down makes me feel odd...during the course of a meal I can get up and hand things/get things, but eating seperately feels weird. Of course, the man of the house (son, husband etc) is never expected to stand at the stove! And if they do, all the ladies should scream in delight.

One day, when Om is older and realizes what is happening around him, we will all eat at the table together. I will not allow chaos in my house with one person on the laptop, television blaring, another person in the kitchen cooking.

Pretty Breakfast

Was going through some photos and found a pic of the New Year's Day breakfast I made. Whole wheat buttermilk pancakes (eggless) with whole cream (from scratch) and blueberry topping. The drink is a home made vanilla cafe latte...it was delicious but fattening and took some time to let the vanilla bean soak into the milk.

Oh and vanilla beans are SO expensive! The cheapest I found was at Whole Foods (surprisingly, since they are so pricey for everything else). This will be a rare thing, because I refuse to buy this spice again unless necessary. I can invest in a bottle of vanilla coffee syrup instead. :-)

Other list of things I find ridiculously overpriced:

- Baby Corn (love adding this to everything)

- chopped nuts, i.e. pine nuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds.

- coconut milk (oh and why don't they make it in half can size? when will we ever use a whole can of it?)

- baby formula - the cheapo formula does not suit Om well...so we are buying the expensive stuff. I wonder what makes the difference in digestion?

Two days ago I made

Rajma (kidney beans in a spicy curry) from canned beans...and I've decided I like the canned version much better than the traditional fresh beans version!! Besides tasting better, you don't have to soak them over night or put them in a pressure cooker and mess up more pots and pans. The minute you think of having rajma for dinner, you grind all the ingrediants and spices and pop in the beans, cook for 15 mins...no long preparation necessary.

G and I also made soya nuggets curry...or at least we attempted to make it. The nuggets I tasted in India were made by my mom - in - law and were really tasty. However, the nuggets we made weren't so tasty and G ate most of them (since I swear he has dulled taste buds that can take anything). We had to soak the nuggets to get the smell out of them...while soaking I got reminded of my dog's food (it smells sort of similar ... isn't dog food made of soy too?) That sounds disgusting but in reality when properly prepared they are really good and healthy.

Nice Neighbors

Our neighbors are so nice in this apartment complex (apart from the crazy people above who enjoy rearranging furniture at 3am and have very heated arguments that make me want to stick a post -it note with the domestic abuse hotline number on their door). But I'm talking about the ones across the hall. Whenever they celebrate a Hindu holiday or are cooking something special, they knock on our door to let us know and often times share their dinner. Today they stopped by and asked me how many dosas (a south indian lentil crepe dish) we wanted. So cute! :-)

Moving and cooking (updated)

*** Okay so from now on the posts will be more POSITIVE and if I really want to rant and rave, I can post on another blog, this one will be solely for pregnancy and light hearted daily issues (fingers are crossed...I can't help venting!) but I've left this post here and just shortened it a bit ***

So we are trying to find a home to rent and move into possibly within the next couple months. We've looked at a few, and G preferred homes near his workplace. I really don't care where the location is, but I liked one particular home slightly far away from his workplace. It isn't terribly far, and the neighborhood is gorgeous and the home is incredibly sunny and bright. Plus, we would get to "practice" living more than 5 miles away from work...if we decide we can't handle it, we can always end our lease after a year.

I also had previously thought that G wanted to stay close to work so that in the event of a baby emergency he would be able to show up on a moments notice. This makes sense to me...He would also get to pop in and see baby and me more often during the initial newborn months. However, I've discovered the REAL reason G wants to stay close to work....and it all boils down to FOOD. (insert rolling eyes facial expression here)

And he admitted this fact, so it's not like I'm just coming up with it out of thin air. His mom will be here after the baby is born. His mom cooks Indian dishes almost daily. If he is close to work, he can pop in for lunch and eat his mom's food every single day. Living close to work has nothing to do with spending time with his new wife, or new baby, or even his mom for that matter...but it has everything to do with his craving for home cooked food.

He never comes home for lunch while it's just lil' ol me in the apartment, apparently because I don't cook lunch daily (I often just heat up easy stuff or make something quick). Here I am, thousands of miles away from my parents and home that I was used to...trying to adjust to a new marriage and a new pregnancy, and G would rather eat at work than come home (right now we are renting just minutes away from his work). I find this amusing now actually.

Cooking Light

Tonight's rant is about cooking. A little bit of history first. I'm an experimental cook, and since getting hitched I've tried cooking numerous items. Some tasty, some not so tasty. I'm currently at home and not working (well I am working remotely but let's not stray from the topic) so I feel even more pressure to actually cook decent meals at night for the both of us (three of us if you include the little salsa eating parasite inside of me). So today was a usual Saturday except that I have been having morning sickness that lasts until about 2pm daily, which doesn't always include barfing but always includes stomach aches and queasiness. G (hubbie) went to the gym in the morning (after popping dirty clothes into the laundry which I eventually had to finish and watch like a hawk since we live in an apartment). I couldn't figure out what to make for lunch for the both of us (key word is BOTH...when I was single I would eat the most random things like sandwich meat straight out of the bag or tunafish on crackers) so I made a frozen pizza. G came home and ate it without complaint. I decided that dinner should be a bit better so I took out the meat for kebabs to defrost. My kebabs have come out wonderfully in the past and praised by hubbie so I figured this was a good Saturday night dinner. Plus, I don't add eggs to the meat to hold it together as some people do, so I save on calories and serve vegetables, bread, and lowfat yogurt alongside.

Well G decides today is the day to start complaining about the fat content of our food. Normally I wouldn't mind at all, since I'm prone to worrying about my own weight when it starts to creep up....but I am annoyed because this was the first day I made a pizza in a long time, and, everytime we go out to eat at a restaurant or at someone's home, G eats like he's a refugee from some impovershed country stricken by famine. It's so hypocritical. At home he removes the fat free cheese from the veggie burger or eats only sherbert for desert. But at a friend's house he proudly proclaims how he's eaten enough for the next 3 meals and there is no sign of removing cheese or eating only low fat foods.

I mean, if you are on a mission to lose weight, shouldn't you be consistent?For example, let me summarize the eating on our recent trip to India. My philosophy is "save myself from getting sick but still try all the good food" and G's philosophy is "eat until it starts to regurgitate and smell up his breath." After our wedding, (we were there for 2 months, the first month was the wedding festivities and preps and the second month was visiting relatives). G gained a total of 12-14 lbs on this trip. I gained as well, but about 5 lbs and that was mostly due to eating alongside G. (I gained much more weight later in the States with the pregnancy etc.). I doubt I was hungry or starving one single day in India...everywhere we go, either to a relatives house or out sightseeing, there is FOOD. And Indian's snack like crazy before and after meals. I loved hanging out with my new hubbie and I usually enjoyed the roadside food. And I liked how G was enjoying himself as well. But geezus... Yes I still love my hubbie.

So today I put back the defrosted kebab meat and decided to eat whatever random food (refried beans) for myself and also heated a lovely weight watchers frozen turkey dinner. G eventually made pulav (indian rice dish). Go fig.