Eggs-periments of a wannabe cook..

A clear Sunday morning. My parents ditch me and go to Singapore. No,actually,I'm the saintly person who refused to go! Anyways,I've got 10 days at hand,a relatively empty fridge,a low stock of snacks,and a recently acquired large appetite. How does one get through 10 days of this condition? Well,I did. And I live to write about it too..





Day 1: Relatively good,since there was some sambhar from the previous day,lunch would be easy. Hmmm..Breakfast...Managed to make chapatis that are fairly round,though it has taken me years of prior practice with the belan to get them right. Hang on... Nothing to go along with chapati.. And I hate stuff like jam with it. And to my rescue comes- tadaa.... EGG! I make a sabzi with onions,tomatoes, coriander,chillies,and cheese. Quite sumptuous. Had the same combination for dinner too,having enjoyed the breakfast and all! :p


Day 3: Bored of having chapatis for 2 days. Tried my hand at a special uppittu. I don't know what got into me. Poured water like a madman,and ended up eating something that resembled porridge minus the good taste. And if I can call porridge tasty, this must've been quite a dish! hmmm..Lunch.. Again comes to the rescue-EGG! Made egg-fried rice that tasted quite good,and another meal accomplished!!



Day 5: Too bored of having to cook for 4 days now,I decided to have breakfast out. So nothing special there. Usual Mylari's masala dosa to the rescue.

Day 8: Several failed dishes later,I suddenly realised that there's a lot of milk left in the fridge. Hmm...Breakfast..!! :) I tried my hand at an old Mom recipe for French toast or something that resembles it. Used up the milk,but the reason I brought this up was because there my saviour was again.. EGG! A dough-like mix of milk,eggs and honey was concocted and bread slices dipped and sauted in oil. I pat myself for a job well done.

Day 10 (today): Bought Mushrooms yesterday as a pre-planned move. Today I made a mushroom omelette, diced mushrooms,tomatoes,chillies, coriander,cheese,soya sauce,and the all important ingredient- EGGS! Met a friend and shopped for vegetables with her.(Work done and roaming accomplished too! :) )
Since my parents are arriving tomorrow and all,I thought I'd make an impression on how I've been slicing and dicing all week. So I picked up a recipe for my most ambitious vegetarian task yet- Carrot halwa! Rich ingredient list-khoya(khova),milk, dry fruits,ghee and not to forget several hours of toil stirring it up. After what seems like an eternity to grate the carrots,the cooking begins. (I did not use eggs in this one,but it was a lotta effort,so I'll put it up anyways!) An hour or so later,the finished product is good. Not halwa really. Ended up more like a carrot kheer,considering I'd been genreous with khova and milk! But tastes yummy... Ahh...Relief... :)

Tomorrow will be the end of my 10-day boot camp on cooking,and life returns to normal. With my parents,I'm going to pretend that I intended to make carrot kheer and not halwa! After what seems like a month long exercise,I've survived my own cooking and have laid the stage for experimenting it on my parents too. I think I'll remember this diwali the most... Missing distant friends,grating carrots while neighbors were bursting crackers,playing around with ideas of starting a food-chain based on eggs(!),and several other random thoughts.

As I smack my lips on the last remains of kheer on my plate,I tell myself “There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes”. Kudos to the guy who said it first! :)

It's all about the money...Honey!

After a long hiatus,I finally found some heart to start up on an article...I thought my 'comeback' article must be awe-inspiring,must really bring out tears in readers (by being moved positively,of course!).. But then that's not me! :p

So here it is... The high funda, low on ideals thingie that makes the world go round.. MONEY..

With my buddies starting off their jobs and all,it's kinda nice to see independence seep into them within a month of work... At least financial independence...People who would once hesitate to have a By-2 tea at a kaaka's petty shop have suddenly developed benevolence towards corporate scum.. Not only are they spending money for things that are totally unnecessary,they seem to do a favour by letting you in the cash flow as well... As a mark of their solidarity in the friendship of course.. And I mean this in the nicest way possible...Nice being what I'd describe the Addams family to be...

It's kinda funny to see such a rapid transformation of normal sane people into zombies that moonlight as spendthrifts on weekends... I guess money does that to people.. :) What's funnier still is the fact that they make no qualms about the fact that they've changed...

Hmmm... I first perceived my own post as a bitter rant of a budding employee who's awaiting his long extended joining date.. :p But I guess that's about only a quarter of the picture.. It's quite hard to remain unchanged (God knows I'd love to!) when people around you, people you knew well once, are gradually changing themselves to 'fit in'.. I'm quite happy for having this opportunity to rethink aspects of my work life before I begin work..

As one of my good friends put it,"Sometimes putting a humongous amount of effort to achieve something is what brings you down".. An effort to fit in with our co-workers sometimes will take a toll on the person we ought to be... We let our thoughts, our selves to be swept away by this new wave that's sweeping batches of fellow-graduates to unknown shores... Wake up now friends..!!

In all probability I'll join you sometime soon,but for what it's worth, I know I've given it a serious thought as to what I intend to make of myself (as a person,not a professional!) at my job..

P.S: I don't intend to target this post to any friend of mine in particular...It's just an observation.. Feel free to express what you think of this...I mean the inactive readers as well.. :')