Thu_Feb_21_07:01:26_PST_2019
April was a glorious month- yes, it was my personal worst allergy season of all time (I discovered for the first time how scary it is to be so congested that one is gasping for breath; let's just say I have much empathy for people with asthma) but all that was outweighed by the fact that my sister and her family came to visit
Two little cousins met for the first time and spend 10 days playing, singing, dancing, squabbling over toys, splashing in a little wading pool (best 15 bucks I ever spent), and visiting every playground in a 10 mile radius.
Cooking and Baking
Farmer's Market season is on and we went one sunny Saturday morning. I was thrilled to find Spring garlic- do you know what that is? It is just like Spring onions, but the shoots come from garlic rather than onion. The taste is subtle and garlicky- sounds like a contradiction but really that's how I can best describe it. In India, we'd get this every once in a blue moon and my aunt and I made scrambled eggs with it. This time I used it in a veggie and omelet noodle stir fry. I still think scrambled eggs are the simplest and best way to showcase this seasonal specialty.
This was a long-bookmarked recipe- brussels sprout fried rice from Post Punk Kitchen. I added heaps of vegetables and only a modest amount of rice. And crushed peanuts instead of cashews. So delicious! The coconut oil really does add a nice touch to this dish.
A friend e-mailed me a recipe for no-bake energy bites. Well, basically these are mini ladoos made with raw oats, peanut butter, honey, coconut, flaxseed, chocolate. You just mix a bunch of ingredients and form small balls. I tested the recipe on my colleagues at a work meeting and they gave it two thumbs up. Lila also gave it a metaphorical thumbs up- her fingers and thumbs were busy stuffing two ladoos in her mouth simultaneously! Here's the recipe.
And carrot cake. It was not too sweet, moist and just about perfect. Instead of a 9 x 13 sheet cake, I made 2 circular 9 inch cakes and froze one for another occasion a couple weeks later; it thawed beautifully. I'm always happy to find freezer-friendly recipes.
Reading
I read an exceptional book this month- The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee. The author is a cancer physician-scientist who happens to also be a gifted storyteller- a rare and wonderful combination. He narrates the story of cancer from the very beginning, weaving in history and biology, medicine and politics into a masterpiece.
This is a work of non-fiction with more twists and turns than your average detective story- I breathlessly read it in three or four evenings. Parts of the book are dense with biomedical jargon which might not be a breeze if you don't work in biology/medicine (I do and I thought he handled complex concepts very well) but truly, this book is worth a read. Because I'm betting that this terrible disease has affected most of us in one way or another and it is worth learning more about where we are and where we came from, vis-a-vis cancer.
Also, I read this thoughtful piece of reporting:
Two little cousins met for the first time and spend 10 days playing, singing, dancing, squabbling over toys, splashing in a little wading pool (best 15 bucks I ever spent), and visiting every playground in a 10 mile radius.
Cooking and Baking
This was a long-bookmarked recipe- brussels sprout fried rice from Post Punk Kitchen. I added heaps of vegetables and only a modest amount of rice. And crushed peanuts instead of cashews. So delicious! The coconut oil really does add a nice touch to this dish.
And carrot cake. It was not too sweet, moist and just about perfect. Instead of a 9 x 13 sheet cake, I made 2 circular 9 inch cakes and froze one for another occasion a couple weeks later; it thawed beautifully. I'm always happy to find freezer-friendly recipes.
Reading
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| Image: Goodreads |
This is a work of non-fiction with more twists and turns than your average detective story- I breathlessly read it in three or four evenings. Parts of the book are dense with biomedical jargon which might not be a breeze if you don't work in biology/medicine (I do and I thought he handled complex concepts very well) but truly, this book is worth a read. Because I'm betting that this terrible disease has affected most of us in one way or another and it is worth learning more about where we are and where we came from, vis-a-vis cancer.
Also, I read this thoughtful piece of reporting:
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