Gifts of love.
From my dear cousin in Malaysia.
For Anusha Aayush’s nichayartham.
Zoom in to see the personalised A A and date 28/9/2020 and the care with which she has concocted 3 unique blends Oriental Opal, Violet Valentina and Spiced Orange.
Note the brass spoon, personalized puzzle, silk tea infusers.
So blessed and grateful for family.
Dinner.
After a day of classes from 8 to 2.
A masala chai to perk me up, house chores, then,
Vegetarian Lasagna.
Layers of fried onions, Portobello mushrooms, charred leeks, capsicum and fresh spinach leaves,
Topped and filled with tasty and mozarella cheese,
Smothered in a gorgeous tomato basil parmesan sauce.
Generous sprinkling of italian herbs and chilli flakes.
A quick lunch prep after family spring cleaning.
As in family spring cleaning the house
not me spring cleaning the folks, which truth be told, we should engage in some times.
Daughter’s friends came home to discuss artistic pursuits.
Catered for vegan and non spicy preferences.
Made
Creamy lentils with coconut milk;
Creamy mashed spinach with tomato, ginger, coconut milk.
Roasted eggplant and potato.
Rasam/lightly tempered lentil soup with tomatoes, coriander leaves, ginger, crushed black pepper, green chillies, oranges.
Tofu and mushroom chilli fry.
Chick pea and potato kuzhambu/gravy.
With yoghurt and leftover green apple mango pickle.
Dec 5th.
A Day to remember with gratitude.
The day my daughters and I landed in this country.
15+ years ago.
They were 10 and 5.
And today this place is Home.
This land of the white cloud,
Aotearoa,
New Zealand,
a spiritual place of beauty, peace, love,
Welcomed us with open arms, and made us Her own.
Don’t get me wrong.
I love my birthplace land of milk and honey, Malaysia; my beautiful island, Sri Lanka; and the land where my soul resides, India.
But here is where we have grown as a family.
Here is where my baby girls have matured into lovely young adults.
My husband was here before us, 6 months earlier, had started work, set up home, and met us at the airport with a huge white polar bear for the little one and a kiwi bird for the older one.
Every year since then, on this day, the younger one holds a wee birthday celebration for the polar bear. He has been wrung in the machine umpteen times, lost a little weight and permanently remains flopped on her bed.
National Anthems and School songs get me in the chest.
I cannot sing the National Anthem to date, without a lump in my throat and tears welling up in my eyes.
So I don’t.
I stand steadfast, clench my fists and blink rapidly through the “God of Nations at Thy feet, In the bonds of love we meet,..God defend New Zealand”.
All through the English and Maori versions.
So today, rose a little early. Coffee. Stared out the kitchen window at my garden.
Family got down to some serious spring cleaning. We tend to Spring clean, come Summer 😎. Dusted, vaccummed house, cobwebs, back of fridges, TVs, cupboards, got something in part done.
Showered. Prepared lunch. Daughter#1’s friends came home to discuss some artistic pursuits. Was stoked that they had lunch with us. Prepared dishes for some culinary preferences – vegan, less spice.
Rested, made some tomato chutney, along with dosa batter prepped yesterday, with a new dosa kal and spatula, to take to newlywed friends who’d invited us for dinner.
Draped this indigo soft linen, with matching blouse. An easy drape, a colour as happy as cloudless blue skies. An artist’s palette of royal blue, grey, white, beige, weaved with gay abandon, in line with this beautiful country’s cloudless blue skies, blue seas against brown green hills, plains and meadows.
A Saree of Gratitude, Dreams, Hopes, Fulfillment.
Photo clicked at friends’ home as I was relaxing on their la-z-boy recliner after a lovely dinner of pasta, salad, broccoli, mushrooms and dumplings.
Got Daughter#2 to click one more in her yellow bedroom when we got home.
An old photo has me, seated on the edge of my kidney shaped pool on New Year’s Day 2020, a water lily peeking out, bubbles floating around, above me, not bursting, symbolising my hopes and dreams.
When you only have an hour or so
After work,
And you have to cook, shower and take a class,
And you have a quarter cucumber
And a small block of fresh firm tofu,
You make..
Nasi Lemak.
A Malaysian favourite.
Best served on a banana leaf.
Though a plate would do too.
Coconut milk rice cooked with ginger and screwpine leaves (daun pandan).
A chilli hot sambal/chutney.
Fresh sliced cucumber.
Fried peanuts.
Fried vegan anchovies – fried dried mushroom stems.
Marinated fried tofu in a rendang paste with toasted grated coconut.
Forgot the greens. A kangkung/ong choy would have been good.
A lunch.
Asparagus with garlic and bright red chillies.
Vegan lemon chicken with fresh red chilli, fried shallots.
Pineapple curry with chilli, cinnamon, cardamoms, peppercorns.
Small onions kuzhambu/gravy.
Vegan stuffed prawns with onions.
I love to feed birds. As do most of you I’m sure.
I don’t have bird feeders strung from my trees. In fact, that would most certainly ensure my garden remains clean and neat.
I place food scraps on a banana leaf or a plate reserved for them.
And..
From the first bird-call,
My Zen-ny garden is transformed into
A Zany one.
Sparrows, thrushes, finches, doves, the occasional parrot or Pukeko, doves, magpies and crows, grey warblers, robins and tomtits..
They swoop down, chirping, whistling, cooing, trilling..
Love watching the bird meet through my kitchen window, sipping my strong coffee.
If I listen hard enough, I believe the conversations go like this..
‘That leftover vadai is yummy’
‘Hey share some..’
‘Oh oh watch Mr Black and White Minstrel (Magpie), he’s wanting some of this fried rice..’
Mrs Finch to Mrs Sparrow ‘Do you know who Nelly brought home last night? Sigh.. Mr Crow. Old enough to be her father. And the fellow had no manners. No worms presented and continually shoving food down his throat like there’s no tomorrow…’
And so on, so forth..
Then one day, decided to spruce up the garden and just dish out a bread slice or so.
They weren’t too thrilled.
And they let me know..
For days, months on end, nothing untoward had happened,
And when I reduced the offerings,
On MY petticoat,
Yes MINE, Only MINE,
Not daughters’, hubby’s clothes,
But MINE,
A splatter of BIRD POO! 😶
Am draped in a shocking pink heavy kanjivaram silk, with gold buttis, gold all over the body, and gold mangoes, peacocks on borders and pallu. For a quiet home Karthigai Deepam puja. Gifted by a friend a year or so ago during her son’s vocal arangetram. Absolutely stoked and grateful for this beautiful gift.
Not wearing that petticoat for sure, it’s back in the wash 😐
Payback time birdies! Game on!
Bounty from a friend’s garden.
Gifts of love.
Feeling grateful.
Spinach.
Mashed.
Spinach paneer.
Kale.
Sprinkled salt, chill flakes, olive oil, baked in oven.
Kale crisps.
Beetroot.
Next post.
And huge bright orange roses.
Bless their hearts.
Has been an eventful week to say the least.
Quite unwell last week.
Bad throat. Chesty cough. Lost my voice. Like I’d swallowed a frog.
Called the Healthline and had a lovely chat with the health worker on Soaps in the 90s. Was told I was not at high risk but to get a Covid 19 test done.
Uuggh! Pretty uncomfortable test done, home with antibiotics, cough mixes.
Daughter#1 frowned at the antibiotics.
Ignored her, felt better by early the next week but had to self isolate until test results arrived.
All cleared.
Full on at work.
A 2 day out of town visit up North on work.
Loaded office car with assessment equipment, 3.5 hours drive both ways due to crashes on various motorways.
Car radio was not working, so sang, no, screamed aloud, blasted air cond, munched on chips and nuts.
Met up with friends/work colleagues, dinner at a quaint Turkish joint. Had Vegan mezze platter of breads, dips, dolma, salads, a beautiful brinjal lasagna like dish and strong coffee.
A good rest at a lovely motel.
Wonderful fulfilling work days raising awareness, assessing, providing service, training.
Drove home a little drowsy but once again – air cond on high, screaming or singing, munching – got me home.
Unpacked, unloaded car, showered.
Polished off Daughter#1’s delicious bowl of vege tom yam spiced fried quinoa brown rice, had some green tea.
Got dinner sorted – coriander and tomato chutneys with dosas.
Over a huge helping of Miranda.
In a turqoise blue light kanjivaram silk with embroidered yellow cross sitches across the body, and red, orange, gold borders and pallu, draped a few days ago, when I visited some friends early in the week, after being cleared. Purchased many years ago, when in Chennai, on a music-learning trip. Photos taken hastily, as I’m trying to get out of room. 😎
Blessed healthy happy day Sakhis.
Out of town on work.
A long 2 days and a long, long drive home.
Got home to some leftovers of delicious quinoa brown rice tons of veges tomyam spiced dish, Daughter#1 had prepared.
Unpacked. Polished a small bowl of leftovers, had a steaming cup of green tea.
(No photos, sorry, forgot in my haste to eat).
Then, started on dinner. Chatted with a friend on the phone who asked why I wasn’t relaxing. Told her, cooking is quite calming and therapeutic for me.
Before I’d left, had got some dosa batter done.
The feeling of the soft powdery rice flour added to water.
Mixing in the sticky soaked ground white lentils.
So good.
Decided to make
A coriander chutney.
Roasted coriander seeds, cooled, ground to a powder.
Fried mustard seeds, urad dhall, channa dhall, curry leaves, dried chillies, black pepper, grated coconut in some gingerly oil. Added tamarind water, salt. Then blitzed them up, added coriander powder and ground to a chutney.
And
A tomato chutney.
Fried mustard seeds, urad dhall, channa dhall, lots of curry leaves, dried chillies, dried fenugreek leaves, chopped tomatoes in some gingerly oil. Added chilli and turmeric powders, salt. No coriander leaves in the fridge to add.
Ground to a chutney.
Made hot dosas, dipped in chutneys, over Miranda.
A good relaxing Friday night.
Bavani’s Happy Place 