Adventures in tweenlandia

Jr., all of ten years old went to science camp last week!

She left on tuesday morning and came back friday afternoon. For the first time in her life, she spent close to three full days away from her beloved.....

iPad, iPhone, iMac.. We were not really worried about her missing her parents or her sister. The WiTHDRAWAL symptoms was what worried us. She managed fine, thanks to her wonderful teacher who acted as surrogate iPad and her friends who made up for the iPhone and the few creatures she encountered in the trails she hiked in Santa Cruz like a newt, banana slug etc. rounded off the entertainment.

After she came home she summarized the entire events of 3 plus days in one hour during our bedtime story telling and that got me to a few startling revelations.

They all got up at 6:30 AM because there was "flag".. "flag hoisting". It takes me 15 mintues to get her rear end out of bed starting at 7:30 AM on a normal day and twice that long on a weekend. So, I am planning to put a flag pole in my backyard and make her go do "flag" every morning.

No Flag? No breakfast! That should work..

Second, my darling now has an identity! As the narration was going on..

Jr. : We had these cabins which had like 10 people in each cabin and you know most of us desis were in one cabin and on and on and on..

Me : (did I just hear her call herself a DESI?!) Who were all in your cabin?

Jr.: Me, kid1, kid2, kid3,... and rattled off a list which included kids who had at least one Indian parent..

This is the first time I have heard her call herself a Desi !! So much for science camp. My daughter goes away for three days and comes back accepting her Indian-ness?

Last but not least, she took some really good pictures. Unfortunately she was not in a single one of the pictures. Guess she takes after dad for that one. We are waiting for her friends to share pictures of her.

Needless to say.. the first thing she did after coming into the house?

Look for the iPad!

Another wonder that happened? The little one admitted she did indeed miss her sister.. a little bit.. during afternoon playtime!

ps. San tells me that she looked for the iPad only after she had recited the one hour story after coming into the house.. we need more science camps!

Chakli aka Mullu Murukku (முள்ளு முறுக்கு)- do it yourself

We buy the Chakli (which goes by Mullu Murukku  முள்ளு முறுக்கு in Tamil) from the local desi stores. However there is one problem. It has sesame seeds in it. Everyone loves it including daddy who pretty much is restricted to eating a small piece for taste. 

So every now and then we make it at home with cumin seeds substituting for sesame seeds to give it a slightly different flavor!

Yesterday we had mom away from the house for a few hours and that was the perfect time to launch into the Chakli project with the kids. They pretty much did everything except the frying part. In a few years they will do that also. 

Two hopes as this video is posted

1. Folks who see it use it to make hot chakli 

2. some day Jr. and the little one play this back and make it with their kids (who knows if I will be around to watch that?! at least the video is there to remind them of good times.)

It is not expensive to make. Just time consuming. The end result is great! 

We also made a few bhajjis after the chakli was done to use up the oil that was still left. 

It has been a busy January with work, thoughts of work, a more regular Yoga practice and trying to catch up on sleep. 

Now Feb is flying by! It is almost Valentines day! Should make something special for my babies on Valentines day..

Snake Gourd Kootu (புடலங்காய் கூட்டு)

Snake Gourd (புடலங்காய்) is one of our favorite veggies. However finding it in the US desi grocery stores is very rare. It is very seasonal and we are lucky if we get it here for a few months and getting good quality snake gourd .. we usually give up. 

So San comes back home from Indian store with a surprise for me. Great quality புடலங்காய்! Since pepper kootu is my eminent domain, she asked I make the kootu. Told her will do it on condition that it will be videoblogged.

The little one forced herself into the picture by being videographer. After some point mommy took over the camera..

Making the kootu is the easy part. Finding the vegetable is the hard part!

Hope the video is of help to folks who are trying to make milagu kootu with Pudalangaai..