The last few days of 2014 are upon us. The vow to do better in 2015 is on many lips. Resolutions are being drafted, and plans to keep up with them shaping up. And I am pretty sure a few of you have vowed to eat healthier after a month of decadence.

I know the thought crossed my mind, it does every year.

I'm not much for resolutions myself. I don't really keep up with them. But, I like the idea of starting with a brand new calendar, and a brand new planner. There is something really amazing about holding a diary that is yet to be filled. Filled with appointments, to do lists, events, parties and goals. And the feeling that everything is possible because it hasn't been written yet.

In truth, I rely on a calendar on my kitchen door to write all these important date, school ones in particular. And if you haven't done so already, go check and download the free printable calendar I created for you guys this year.
But, spending more and more time on my blog, the use of a day planner arose again, stronger than ever. For these, I am fairly old fashioned, I need them bound, and compact enough. It has to be a one page a day one, because I inevitably end up jotting down a lot more than a few lines. And, it needs to feel pretty enough (don't judge).

I tried these new age digital calendar, planners and what not in the past. And it was an epic fail every time. I simply can't stay focused and on task without weight and volume, preferably of paper in my hands. Appointments, goals and tasks have less weight, less power and less authority on me through a smart phone, computer or tablet. In fact, neither do ideas.
I can't make constructive drafts in the digital dimension. Drafts have to be on paper, where I can strike paragraphs, doodle, scribble and ramble and then scrunch the page away to throw in frustration when it doesn't go my way.

I am 2015 ready, equipped with a printable calendar (well already printed), a day planner, and I even put my Christmas decoration away already.
This post will be the last one of the year, I plan to spend the last few hours relaxing. So, I am wishing you all a Happy New Year.

See you in 2015...

I spent many years trying to get a decent whipped cream out of the standard Amul Fresh Cream, in vain. A certain frustration shared with anybody who like to dabble with continental cuisine in this country. But, alas, the standard cream coming in its oh so familiar blue carton was all that we had on the local market (imported ones did came at a hefty premium).

This is no more, Amul, the well known dairy brand, has finally come with a new cream with a slightly higher fat content. Because, to those of you who aren't familiar with continental cuisine, the percentage of fat is crucial to pull out certain dish. The Fresh Cream we had all along was a 25% cream, which is the one that works best for sauces and gravies, and at the most will do as a runny topping on a fruit dessert.
To pull a thicker sauce, a sour cream, and a whipped cream that will start holding its own, you need at least 30% of fat in it. The higer the fat amount, the stiffer your end result will be, and we usually use 50% cream to get stiff peaks on a cake decorating cream.

This new Amul cream, has the required 30% to start solidifying when beaten. But, don't expect to end up with the type of cream that will work in a piping bag on you cakes. Also, don't attempt to get a decent whip without this tool :


While it is possible to hand beat a cream with a good old fashioned whisk, it takes far more speed, energy and stamina to do so on a lower fat content. If you want a fluff that holds with this particular cream, you are going to have to use an electric beater at the highest speed setting for at least 5 minutes. Which is the time it took me with the hand held model above to get the adequate stiffness one looks for in a whipped cream.

You know your cream is ready once the beater leaves creases and folds that hold their own and when you can cut a line in the cream with a knife without the line fading away. Then you can or scoop it on top of a dessert or freshly cut fruits (in this picture this is pomegranate seed).

In the end, this cream is a fairly decent one that will help you pull basic desserts and dips. We might have to wait a bit longer for a cake decorating whipping cream to make it's entrance on the domestic market. But for the first time, a strawberry and cream dessert is something that can be made and enjoyed at home at a reasonable price. The 200ml pack is priced at 40 rupees and yields enough to generously top 5-6 cups of fruits.

2016 Update

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Christmas came and went, like it does every year. And like most years it was a happy one, full of cheers, food, merriment and more food. It never fails to bring a smile to my face when I hear Ishita screaming "Santa came!!!!!" in the wee hours of the morning. And from my state of sleepiness and start element at having been awaken with a a squeal, my "Oh really?" sounds even more credible.

This year, she wanted a rocking horse, and Santa has truly worked some amazing magic (don't you dare saying he doesn't exist). For weeks I looked online in hope of finding one big enough for a 5 years old, in vain. The only ones that would do were imported from the US and came with ridonkulously high price tag. I kid you not I was working ways to tell Ishita that Santa might not be able to bring one because he only make them for small babies and not big girl. This lead to her pointing out that one of our friend has a red plastic rocker for big kids. Alas, from IKEA, and impossible to find in India.
And when I was about to just persuade her to make a wish list for Santa to choose from, one of my friend posted a picture of her own IKEA rocking toy on Facebook, selling it at the very reasonable price of 500 rupees! Needless to say I went for it, brought it home in a covert operation, hid it in a Bathroom and waited to see Ishita's face on Christmas.

A day later, she is still pretty much glued to it, rocking away and loving it.




But that is not all that we did on that day. Christmas is my family is not just about the kids, never has been. In the West, this is family and friends time, and celebrating togetherness. And for us, so it was. I took Ishita out in the morning to Krispy Kreme to buy a box of doughnuts while DH slept the morning away. Simply because I saw during the week that they conveniently came up with holiday themed ones and I wanted to enjoy the day without overworking myself in the kitchen. This was the best move, and we might as well make it a tradition from now on. The short auto ride on a pleasantly cool Mumbai Winter morning was enough to make us in the festive move. Bitting into oven Fresh Santa shaped doughnuts with a steaming cup of tea just about drove the point home.

And of course we exchanged gifts just before breakfast. Ishita got a cute outfit from us, DH got a Spider-Man notebook from Ishita, and a Godfather special edition set from me. While I got a purse from DH.
Then we prepared for our evening dinner, buying chicken, drinks and snacks as we had guests, and I made some Bourbon Chicken this year (except with rum as we had no bourbon around...works great regardless). I caught up with my family on Skype and then we spent the whole evening in good company before calling it a day at 11.30pm

On this Boxing Day, I am just relaxing, and subsiding on leftovers. And this weekend we have some family coming over for a few days. Don't expect too much Blogging from my part until the New Year. I make a point of relaxing as much as Incan during the Winter break.

So once again, I wish you all a Merry Christmas. And for all those not following me on social medias, a belated Merry Christmas.

Brunsli means brownie in Swiss German, and is the name given to one of our traditional holiday cookie. Like most cookies, the ingredients are simple, and the technique fairly straight forward (non expert bakers can pull them off easily).
They are like most Christmas treats in my homeland made with ground almonds. What makes these a big favourite is their deep rich chocolate taste and chewy consistency. They are made with the darkest chocolate you can find and afford, and some cocoa powder is added to the mix. They also contain a splash of Kirch, which is a Swiss cherry spirit, but worry not, the alcohol content evaporated during the baking process, so they are completely kids friendly. If you can't find Kirch (not sure it is even possible in India) a splash of brandy or better yet rum will do it too. If you are really against the idea of using any spirits, you can add a splash of lemon juice or a bit of vanilla essence instead.

Also keep in mind that the dough has to be refrigerated for several hours, ideally overnight so that the flavour develops and soaks the almond powder properly, so plan accordingly.

So without any further blabbering, here is how to make said cookies :


Ingredients

500g ground almonds (almonds with skin)
300g sugar
4 egg whites
200g Dark chocolate (I use Cadbury Bourneville, but if you can find darker, do it, the darker the better)
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1 pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 pinch of clove powder
3-4 tsp of Kirch (or brandy or rum, if not using alcohol, 2tsp of lemon or a few drops of vanilla essence)
A little white flour if the dough gets too sticky to work.

1) Mix the sugar, salt, almonds, cinnamon and cocoa powder in a bowl, add 2-3 tbsp of white flour at this point too, you might need more latter, but the little amount of flour will absorb the excess moisture while mixing the ingredients.

2) add the 4 unbeaten egg whites to the dry ingredients and fold in to have a wet texture. The egg whites act as a binding glue that will harden and keep the cookie together while baking.

3) cut the chocolate in small pieces and put in a microwave oven proof bowl, microwave for a few seconds at a time and stir in between to melt evenly. Add a few tea spoon of hot water once melted to make it more liquid. You can also melt the chocolate in a double boiler by placing the bowl in a pan of boiling water, but it will take a bit more time.

4) Immediately pour your hot melted chocolate in the cookie dough mix and stir immediately adding the Kirch or liquor. Form a dough. This part gets a bit messy, the dough will be sticky, do not look at a non stick soft consistency. It is not supposed to be. But the dough should hold its own without leaving huge clumps on your fingers, so if this happens, add a little flour at a time until you can lift the dough ball of the counter without it breaking apart instantly.

5) once that consistency reached, wrap your dough in a piece of cling film and put it in the fridge for at least 4 hours, overnight being better. The dough needs to steep and develop its flavour. You can also at this point freeze that dough and keep it for months until ready to use.

6) when ready to bake cookies, preheat your oven at 250 degrees Celsius and line your baking trays with baking parchment...you absolutely NEED baking parchment, greasing the pan and dusting with flour won't work too well.

7) roll down the dough which you brough back at room temperature to about 8-10 mm thickness (yes they are thick cookies) and cut shapes out with a cookie cutter of your choice. Place on the baking tray and bake for about 4-5 minutes

You'll know they are ready when the edges will start browning slightly. They are still going to be soft at this point. You need to let them cool completely for them to be hard on the outside. After a few minutes out of the oven, remove them from the baking tray and let them cool on a cooling rack.

Once cool, transfer to a cookie tin or airtight container, enjoy whenever the fancy strikes.

It's not the same.

The very sentence on ever expatriates' lips when the topic of Christmas come on the table. It is not the same, and this is an irrefutable truth.
The problem, is that finding the exact thing that makes it "not the same" is a ghost, a shadow, an endlessly chased but not reached rainbow. Nobody has been able to pinpoint what it is that makes Christmas so different in India.

The Climate might seem like the obvious elephant in the room in this odd game of "spot the difference". But, it isn't so. I have friends who come from tropical areas, or even the Southern emisphere. Places were Christmas hardly means dark, gloomy, cold and possibly snowy time. Yet even for those who grew up in an equally warm climate and evergreen surrounding, it is not the same.
I have been in India for a little over a decade now, and I am just really starting to grasp it.

What is not the same, is the very core of it, it's vital essence and spirit. But what makes that so hard to pinpoint is that said core and spirit is as unique as one's DNA. Just like there are no two snowflakes that are alike, there are no two Christmasses that are the same. Each person has their own, and their own meaning for it. Christmas is a live spirit one that probably live in each celebrating soul.

Christmas is like this old friend you get to see once a year, it is familiar, warm, comforting, and honest. For some, it cannot be without eggnog, for others it is incomplete without a chill in the air or a an 8 feet tall real tree. Some swear by twinkle lights, other prefer candles. it frequently means sharing, and being in a crowd of sorts. Yet some feel more comfortable in solitude.
In truth it doesn't really matter what it is, as long as it makes sense to one, and one alone. My Christmas means Swiss cookies, casual gathering of people and simple yet hearty continental food, and red green and gold decorations. To each their own.

When you are an expat, Christmas, that old friend, suddenly reminds you that your entire world has changed in a very drastic way and over a really short period of time. Christmas cease to be that comforting, rarely ever changing buddy. It instead hand you the mirror that let you see how much you and your life has changed, just like that. As I said, Christmas is an honest spirit, and brutally so at time.
This is what makes the holiday so hard on my lot, this is what takes time to cope. I found out that of all the festivals,many traditions I grew up with, Christmas is the one that forced me to introspect the most. Asking me to ask myself very difficult questions :

Who are you? What's your baggage? What do you want to keep? Throw? What are your priorities? What do you want to become? What's your future like?

These are frightening questions. Questions that most will try to avoid being confronted with. They are very personal, and intimidating questions. Questions that do not have a right or wrong answer, or a quick one for that matter. They are the kind of questions you could ponder over a lifetime, or more.
Having to answer them, or rather attempt to do so, force one to constantly reassess their lives, reinvent things, and create new normals. When you move accross the globe, you change, often not really realising it.

And change is scary.

Over the years, I went from dreading Christmas, hating it for being different and not "right", to finally learn to make peace with it.
One simply cannot stay mad at an old friend for simply mirroring their own shortcomings. That, after all, would not be fair at all.

I did introspect, reflected, and reinvented things. I picked up elements of my culture I could not do without, incorporated new ones I was willing to adopt and created a new version of Christmas I can call my own again. I came to be very grateful for that lesson the holiday gave me over the years.
And, sure, it isn't the same anymore. But enough time has passed that I am not even sure I really truly remember what it once was.
You see, old memories tend to fade away when new more vivid ones take their place.

So, yes, it is NOT the same. But I no longer see it as something bad. It just take time to get to that point to get to appreciate it; and a few coping strategies I will perhaps share one of these days.

The month of December is always rich in events, meetings, parties, gatherings and cooking sprees that I often find myself with a lot of blog posts ideas and too little time to really post it all before the season passed.
I spent all of last week preparing for and throwing a party at my place. And then, recovering from it over the weekend. So much so, I ended up forgetting about an ornament I made for an ornament exchange for an earlier party this year.



I had plan to share this easy little project earlier, forgive me for the delay. The good new is that it is so simple you could still make one, or a few for this Christmas.
All you need is some felt, some fabric glue, and...you guessed it 3D liner paint, aka glitter paint (yes I know, I use it a lot...that's my thing). If you feel crafty enough, and I did, you can even use some glass bead on a threat to finish it, but trust me, the ornament looked totally fine without too.

Oh and yeah you will need a little cotton, I used the make up removal pads, but you can use the surgical cotton available at your chemist too.



Cut two identical shapes in your piece of felt first, I used circle for that one, but I have made a star in the past too.
Then, place the cotton in the middle of the first piece, and apply fabric glue all around. In generous amount might I add, the felt will soak it up and you want to have enough glue to hold the two pieces together. Place the second piece of felt on top of the first one, and use clips to keep them together while the glue dries. Like this :



Once the glue is dry (give it an hour or so), remove the clips, and use 3D liner paint to draw your design. I did a snowflake, but really if you don't like them, feel free to draw just about anything. I did draw on both sides, so I had to let it dry before flipping it over and repeat.
Then if you have some patience, you can threat a string of tiny glass beads and use a quick drying glue like "All Fix" from Pidilite (the transparent solvent based type) to glue it around the edge of said ornaments.

Last but not least, use a piece of wire, string or ribbon ( all work well) to make a hoop to be able to hang it to your tree.

All in all you will spend about one hour of being actively working on said project if you are into details.

I got a busy weekend, filled with the usual errands, a morning walk by the shore, and Saint Nicolas. I baked my usual ginger bread cake. And because we were so busy, and Ishita was so exited, we did put the Christmas tree up earlier that the 6th. I took it out of the wardrobe on December 4th, DH came home early, we played the Christmas album from Boney M (don't judge, I grew up on that one...it is as much part of Chriatmas as Milano cookies). I immortalised our 2014 tree edition in picture and swore to find the time to take day light pictures later.


The daylight picture however, never happened. My cat had other plans regarding the Christmas tree. I grew up with cats. Cats who all ignored the tree royally beyond just getting away with one or two paper ornaments. None of the cats I ever had growing up ever felt the need to attack the tree in any vicious ways. So when Mittens started showing an interest in us putting the tree up, it did t really clue me in just yet.


See? Just normal kitty curiosity. Curiosity I nipped in the bud when she tried climbing the undecorated tree. I sprayed enough water on her to leave said tree alone until Sunday night. Then she got bored watching Star Trek on TV with me and attempted to climb it once or twice. I took her away each time and she went back to ignoring it. She attempted the climb again several time on Monday morning, each time we shooed her away, until she made a break for it while I was in the kitchen frantically packing a school bag to make it in time for the school bus (we were running late).
That is when I heard a big crash in the living room, followed by Ishita screaming Maaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaa. I ran there only to find what I expected to find: the tree on the ground, ornaments everywhere (fortunately all plastic and u breakable), my cat still walking on the collapsed tree and my daughter starting to cry because the tree was down.

This tree was old. We bought it in 2008, and it has been through 4 moves, and rusted through 4 Mumbai monsoons. The stand was plastic, and in the past 3 years I spent a great deal of effort gluing it back together before each Christmas decoration session. This year, I knew it would have been its last Christmas in our home as I was resorting to folded newspapers to prevent it from tilting too much (it was still tilting). What I didn't expect though was my cat climbing it. And when it crashed, I expected to be able to put it back up and redecorated it while Ishita was in school.

That never happened. The plastic stand was broken beyond any possible repair and I had a semi-historical kiddo to get to school. Kiddo that was distraught at the idea that Santa would not come now that the tree was kaput (no idea where she got that idea though).
I did some quick thinking, dropped Ishita in the bus, then ran back upstairs to grab my purse, and hopped into an auto. Direction my favourite craft and stationary store (they sell tree and ornaments for Christmas). I found a nice 6 feet tall tree (a foot taller than the old one), threw in a couple of extra ornaments and tinsels to fill the extra foot of space and made it straight back home to redecorate the tree.

We don't want Santa to ignore our home just because the cat killed the tree right? More than anything I didn't want to deal with Ishita being distraught seeing no tree on her way back home. So I went on working on the 2.0 version of Xmas Tree 2014



Tree that the cat attempted to climb almost immediately and which attempt resulted in getting sprayed with water (memo for next year, keep a small Holi water gun for Christmas...) The new tree has a more sturdy and far more stable metallic stand, which hopefully will mean no fatal crashes. It is also taller and fluffier, which just serve to show how old and scrawny our old tree had become.
Ishita returned home feeling happy the instant she saw that the tree was back. actually relieved was more the way to describe it. Christmas was not ruined before it ever got a chance of happening, Santa will still come, and she gave an earfull to the cat about it, lecturing her on how the tree was off limits...we can hope it didn't fall in a deaf kitty ear...

Meanwhile, I have a busy week ahead, as I already announced on Facebook and G+, don't be alarmed at the possible lack of updates.

Festivals from around the world are as deeply rooted in ones culture as they are in religion, if not more. If you just look at Christmas, you won't find two nations with the same sets of traditions, stories, beliefs, and food. Often, each families have their very own interpretation of cultural traditions that shall be passed down generation and shall not be altered in anyway.

I myself have become even more aware of that fact since moving to India, and heaven knows I did struggle to get it to feel familiar. This is in time of festivities that expats of any cultural background is bound to feel homesick. Give me one expat that hasn't struggled even a little with homesickness during holidays, and I'll show you a liar. This is how it is.
I have had a lot of people ask me if I go to Church on Christmas Eve since I moved to India. They usually are a bit puzzled by my resonant "No" to that question. Because it seems that one has to be Christian to celebrate Christmas, yet I don't consider myself so. I was born in a Christian family, in a Christian culture country, but I am not a believer. Nobody in my family really ever was to be fair.

You see, in most of Europe, traditions such as the Christmas tree, Santa, the Yule log, and lighting of candles are far far older than Christianity, all these were elements of the pagan Winter solstice festival. Our age old mythology just got merged with Christian tales over time to form what is known as Christmas today. This the reason why the holiday is so strongly associated with snow, pine trees and flying reindeers when in fact Jesus was a Middle Eastern guy who grew up in a part of the world that had more sand than greenery, and not even the shadow of a snowman. But to convert Europeans, one had to relate to them.

Yes, many European, myself included do celebrate the holiday in a very secular way. In my family, it has always been a time to celebrate our loved ones, and bond in what is otherwise a cold, gloomy and dark month...the darkest of the year. In Switzerland it is dark from around 5pm until 8am the next morning, and you get lucky if you see the sun at all behind the thick nearly constant cover of cloud. Northern Europe has even less daylight, with areas closer to the North Pole barely seeing any light at all. This kind of environment shapes people, and their culture, this is how deep rooted it can get, no matter what you call it.
When I arrived to India, the difference between the Summer solstice and the Winter one suddenly seemed to have vanished altogether. The climate was different, the seasons too, it was hard to figure out how to make Christmas work in that setting.

But I made it work, simply because I want my daughter to know that half of her heritage lies in a country that sees harsh Winters and dark nights, that half of her is part of a different set of stories, traditions, and culture. A place were we believe in finding beauty in an evergreen tree when all the others seemed to have died. A place where kids are told about a magical entity that will give them goodies in what would otherwise be the darkest time of the year, a symbol that there is good in every situation. But more than everything, that there is more than ONE story on the theme of light vs darkness. That there is more than one way to celebrate family, that there is more than one culture in this world. We celebrate light, family and prosperity with Diwali first, then two month later, we celebrate, light, joy, family and Winter with Christmas.

This is how most interfaith and intercultural families roll. In the "masala" community I belong to, we all have no problem mixing two cultures, and creating a fusion the rest of the year. BUT when it comes to holidays...ANY holidays celebrated by one or both parties, we stick to the classics and do not deviate from the traditions.
For me, like many other masala couples, that means there is absolutelty NO Indian elements in my Christmas menu and munchies. Likewise there is absolutely NO continental anything on the menu for Diwali, or any Western traditions for that matter. My friend Tina explained it quite well on her blog.
This might seem very odd to anybody not being in an intercultural relationship, but this is the kind of very essential balance we need to find.

For many of us, we have absolutely no ambitions whatsoever to shed our own culture, or ask our partner to do the same. I myself always will be from Switzerland, and my husband will always be from India, regardless of what passport we could possibly hold in our future, or where we could possibly live. He has absolutely no desire to shed his Indian culture, I have no desire to snip my own roots. And when it comes to the few festivals we observe, DH is the master of ceremony for Diwali, and I am the master of ceremony for Christmas.

So to paraphrase my friend again, there will be no Paneer at my Christmas table, or dal, or chapati, or masala anything. Christmas came to mean the celebration of my roots on top of celebrating the season and my loved ones.




Read more stories from ladies in intercultural relationship regarding Chrismas: 

My Masala Life: We do not eat Paneer on Christmas or Turkey on Diwali: Things we do not Mix
American Punjaban PI: Christmas in My Intercultural Family

Attached moms: My Christmas in India: Blended American traditions, found

It's that time of the year again! And true to tradition, I am baking batches of Swiss Christmas cookies. Mailaenderli are that big Classic in my homeland, everybody loves them, for their rich buttery and zesty taste and their warm golden hue. They instantly bring back childhood memories of eating the raw dough, and the smell of them baking spreading to the whole apartment.
They also stand for simplicity, they are made with only 5 ingredients, and the dough can be made well in advance and kept in the freezer until one is ready to bake. And you don't need any mad cooking skills whatsoever to pull them off...none!


You don't even need that much space to make them...look at my kitchen above, I have been baking them for years in my small Microwave/convection oven (using the convection mode that goes without saying). I have a knack at having one tray baking in the oven while the other is getting filled with the next batch.

To make the dough you will need :

250g of salted butter (if you are using unsalted one, add a pinch of salt to the recipe)
225g of caster sugar
3 large eggs
the zest of two Indian lemons (or the zest of one regular sized lemon if you live in Europe and US)
600g of plain white flour (maida)

Just before backing, for the egg wash :

2-3 egg yolks

1) Leave the butter at room temperature for a little while, so that you can beat it to a cream more easily. You can do that with a fork, or an electric whip if you have one (if you bake often...buy one, they are cheap and a real time saver)

2) Add the sugar and eggs to the butter and mix well to combine. Grate the lemon zest and mix well again.

3) Sift in the flour and knead to a dough. You should end up with a very soft dough that is greasy, but not sticky, it should stay in one ball, not get stuck to your finger. At this point, you may need to add a little more flour to get the desired consistency.

4) Wrap in cling film and keep in the fridge for an hour. At this point you can also just shove it in the freezer where it can stay until you have the time to bake, it keeps well in the freezer for a few months.



Once you are ready to bake, take your dough out of the fridge or freezer, and let it become soft again. Preheat your oven to 200 C and line two oven proof trays with baking parchment. Get your egg yolks ready in a small bowl.

Roll down your dough to a thickness of about 5mm and start cutting shapes out with cookie cutters of your choice and place them on one of the baking tray



Once a tray is filled, brush the cookies with egg yolk using a pastry brush (or a teaspoon if you don't have one, it works fine too). Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the egg wash has a nice golden hue.

While one batch of cookie is baking, continue filling the other tray, chances are you'll have that second one ready just when it will be time to get the first batch out of the oven.


Transfer the hot cookies straight to a cooling rack using a spatula or the pliers used to flip chapati rolls, and continue shaping cookies using the now empty tray to process the next batch...keep on going until you run out of dough. This is that easy!

Once all your cookies have cooled down, transfer them to an airtight container or a cookie tin.

December is here, and with it, another edition of my traditional Advent calendar. I posted a teaser earlier last month, showing 24 little paper cups that I painted in copper and gold.
I have now completed the project and the first little present got opened this morning. I initially thought of making little handles out of wire and turn these cups into mini buckets all tied to a string. but then I remembered that push pins do not exactly go easy in these walls, and the weight of the finished calendar could easily pull them out. There was no way I would hunt down a handyman to put two holes in either.

So I put on my thinking cap, and came up with the idea of gluing the cups to strips of sturdy craft paper and tape said strips to the wall :


Before I came to that gluing part though, I decorated each cup with a strip of washi tape, and wrote a number with....what else...glitter 3D glue (yes I know I use it a lot, and no no no I won't sign up for glitter glue anonymous). Once that was done, the cups were ready to be glued to the strips of papers.
I decided to stick to candies and chocolate for this year's presents, and I wrapped them in 24 little bundles and put on inside each cup late last night...after remembering that...crap November was in its last few hours. Seriously, where does the time fly?

And of course because the strips of paper alone looked a bit blah once on the wall, I felt the need to cut out Christmassy shapes out of the Christmas themed craft paper I already used for the wreath. And it goes without saying that I once more took my collection of glitter glue out (seriously Pidilite, I could be the brand ambassador for these...think about it).

In the course of last week I got involved in quite a few Holiday themed projects. and, there is probably more to come, if you didn't know it already (and I am sure you did), I am big on Christmas, this is the only holiday from back home I do celebrate, and the one I really don't want to see dying, hence the madness that goes every year offline, and on this blog.

This week, I am in full on craft mode. It dawned on me that this is the last week of November (can you believe it?). I have to finish the advent calendar by this Sunday. But I did make a special ornament for an ornament exchange at a party I am attending this weekend, and from then onward, the mood was set.
All warm and geared up, I decided to get into a little project I had in mind to decorate the top of that new chest of drawers that sits in our living room.


I knew I wanted a new wreath. We already made one last year, and I plan to reuse it on the same door. I just wanted another one, one more refined and less child-crafty looking. After spending a little time on Pinterest for inspiration, I ended up making the one above. Following several ideas I found and compiled them into one.
I used a big paper plate for the base of my wreath, the cheap type you find in most stores in India. You know the ones that have a silver foil lining inside and are still untreated grey cardboard on the outside...these ones!
I cut out the center following one of the conveniently embossed lines, and because I wanted to take advantage of the silver foil, I pushed the inside out (just reversing the embossing that gives the plate its shape). You can of course take whatever plate you want, and even paint it if you want the base to be a specific colour, after all, some of it will peek through once you are done with the project.


I then used the Christmas themed craft paper I bought last year. I cut long strips in an assorted lot of patterns, and pasted them one by one on the paper plate base. I repeated the process on two rows.


Once I was done with the paper strips and let it dry properly, I used 3D liner glitter glue. You know, to put my usual finishing touches...I use 3D liners a lot, I love them, that is my thing. Finally, once all that glitter got dry, I used some Christmas coloured cable string to conceal the unevenness at the edge of the opening in the middle. I used plain old white glue to do it. I used the same string to make a bow loop to hang it on the wall.


It is then that I realised that I'd better put it up already. instead of shoving it in a wardrobe until next week. And that is the first year I officially have anything Christmassy out before the start of December.


Needless to say I am working on several other small things to make the space below and around the wreath a bit more festive. That will make for more pictures later on...

Momos, dim sums, dumplings...they go by many names and will always remain one of these Asian cuisine favourites. In our home, this is one of Ishita's favourite food. Between her and I we can easily eat a dozen and call it a meal. That is how much we love them, if that means anything.
Sadly, no matter were you go, you will end up spending way too much money for really not much. For the dumplings fanatics that we are, making them home becomes a very viable option. And they aren't even that hard to make.
Time consuming? A little bit. Hard? Nope, not at all. Not with a little practice, and certainly not with this nifty little tool :


This little kitchen gadget is a pasty mould, in India they are often known as Gujiya moulds as they are usually used to prepare the pastry of the same name. You will find it in most stores that sell kitchen items. Mine is part of a set of four in various size, so that I can make tiny dumpling (the one above is the smallest), bigger puffs and pasties, or even giant hot pockets backed in the oven. They make my life much much easier each time I am making some stuffed dough items, and they are just about ideal to make momos without messing everything up.


Before I acquired that nifty little tool, I used to make them round, spent a lot of time making sure the bottom was thicker to prevent the dumpling from breaking in the steamer, and always ended up with stuffing stuck to my hands, and spreading to the whole work surface. They were also taking much more space in said steamer and cooking enough to feed us all became time consuming. Considering we eat these often enough, I am all for simplifying the process as much as possible. Because this is the part that is really the trickiest with dumplings. The stuffing is easy to pull and you can pretty much put whatever you want in it.

In this recipe, I made plain chicken ones, but I made vegetarian one in the past, they even became an instant hit at my in-laws place last Diwali.
I can't tell you how many dumplings this recipe does really, it depends the size of said dumplings. With our little mould, it yields a LOT, enough that we usually don't make them all in one meal, I store the remaining stuffing in an airtight container for the next day.

Ingredients:

For the dough : 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (maida)

Stuffing :

- 400g chicken keema (ground chicken)
- 2 medium large onions
- a piece of ginger the length of your thumb
- 2 tbsp corn flour (known as corn starch by many)
- a pinch of salt and a splash of soy sauce

How to:

1) in a bowl, mix the flour with enough water to make a smooth elastic dough and cover and set aside.

2) peel the onion and ginger and throw in a mixer grinder to make a paste. Then in a mixing bowl, combine the ground chicken and onion paste evenly, add the salt and soy sauce and mix. last but certainly not least, add the corn flour. This step ensure that the water in the mix is absorbed, this will prevent the dumplings from filling with juice during the cooking stage and prevent the dough from breaking apart once you remove them from the steamer...do not forget the corn flour!




3) I use the steamer basket in my rice cooker for this, but you can use a bamboo steamer, or put a sieve inside a sauce pan. What matters is that the basket does not touch the water and sits high enough above it.

If you are using a plastic or metallic steamer, lightly spray it or brush it with oil first, to ensure the dumpling won't stick to the bottom.

Start making your dumplings. Take small balls of dough and roll them down to a disk shape on a floured surface. At this point, I am giving you the mould technique, because that is the easiest. Place the disk of dough on the mould, and add enough stuffing to fill the center. Fold and press hard to seal the dumpling. Remove the excess dough and repeat. Place each dumpling in the steamer's basket.

4) place the steamer basket into a pan that contains a little boiling water at the bottom and steam for about 4-5 minutes.


Enjoy them hot, with some soy sauce on the side. It goes well with a salad or some steamed veggies.

I sometimes add green peas to the chicken stuffing, or grated carrots, you can really adjust the base chicken stuffing to your taste, the only thing to mind is the water content in the stuffing, so if you feel yours is a bit runny or you see any water in it before cooking, add a little more corn flour.

Disclaimer

The great thing about living in India, is that even after 11 years, you still get amazed and surprised, and still make great little discoveries. Such as this one :



Raspberries! These are fruits I did without for over a decade, the only one I ever stumbled upon in markets and supermarkets over the year were the ridiculously overpriced imported ones. Heck in the first few years I didn't even know berries of any kind were grown in India. That was until strawberries started making an appearance about 6-7 years ago. This was the time I started wondering if there were other berries produced in the country we were not aware of.
Then, a few years ago, after moving to Navi Mumbai, I came to know that raspberries were grown in Mahabaleshwar, a few hours drive away. Yet, no store, no fruit and vegetable vendor seemed to have them in stock. Each time I finally came across a pack, it came from Europe, and did cost about 3-4 time the price I would pay for them in Switzerland ( which is one of the European country with the highest cost of life already).

It is only this year that I came to know that it was possible to get my hand on some at a decent price in Mumbai. They are probably sold in Crawford market and to fancy hotels and restaurants across town, but provided you know the right person, and are willing to place a bulk order, they are yours. Hanging out with expats is what brought me to them. Because you see, we all talked about the fact that imported food is out of price (that's right even for those expats living on an international package). One thing lead to another and one lady heard of a supplier shipping berries straight from Mahabaleshwar to Mumbai, and provided our order would be substantial enough to make a delivery worth it, there was no problem for us getting them. Now, since we are a substantial group of ladies in my area interested in getting some, meeting the quota was more than easy. Beside, raspberries while having a very low shelf life at room temperature or even in the fridge, do freeze extremely well.

The season for them in India is fairly short from what we understood, October being the peak months, by November end they become scarce again. The one in the picture above are probably the last few of the season. But they have made way to the much longer and now hugely popular strawberry season.
What still bugs me, is that despite local producer shipping them to the city, most supermarket chains willing to carry the fruit, including Godrej's Nature Basket will only stock up on the imported ones. Right now my local store sell about 100g of them straight from Portugal for a whooping 600 rupees.
Mine came in a 150 g box at the price of...hold your socks...150 rupees. That is right! I paid 4 times less for them, they were local, and it was already a retail price, meaning the farmer and supplier did make money out of it.

Granted that raspberries in general do not travel well over long distance without being properly handled, and clearly can't be available everywhere in the country. How come still that in a city like Mumbai were local suppliers do ship ( Mahabaleshwar is about 5 hours by road from Mumbai), mass retailers will still prefer selling less fresh, and far less tasty imports from Europe? WHY?
I could understand if it was bridging a gap in the demand, or if the fruit was clearly NOT available locally. Why oh why rob local farmers from earning more? Why marketing these to expats thinking they are all made of gold and will buy them at any cost? Why this racket?
Raspberries will always be a bit pricier than strawberries because they are more labour intensive to harvest and pack, but they grow well in any temperate regions of the globe, and do not require a massive amount of space, this is the kind of crop small farmers could keep on the side of other crops to supplement their income.



Beside, did you know that raspberries are considered a superfood? They are jam packed with nutrients in a very low calories, low sugar and low fat form. Many scientific studies have been done about them and other berries. They have a very high vitamin C content, eating a 100g of them nearly meets half the daily requirement for an adult. Vitamin C is what helps boost your immune system, and in India they come in season just when the weather starts changing and people get more prone to falling sick. But their health benefits do not stop there, there has been studies proving that they have anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer properties. The are food of choice to keep your arteries young and plaque free, making them an ideal fruit to eat to keep cardiovascular diseases at bay. Having a low sugar and low glycemic index, they also are ideal to manage blood sugar issue, every diabetic in Europe will tell you that of all the fruits this is the one that gives you the most in one serving without running havoc on insulin and glucose levels. It even seem that they are now the object of obesity fighting related research.

Does that start sparking your attention? In a country were the city dwelling population is at increased risk of heart problem, diabetes educator and lifestyle diseases? India is the diabetes capital of the world already, doctors are pulling the alarm on the fact obesity is on the rise in cities, even more frightening, among children. What if, crazy idea I'll give you that, we do make the most of what nature has to give us where it is possible to do so?
All the while giving local farmers a boost and encouraging crop diversity...not such a crazy idea after all right?

This year I got my hand on them a bit late in the season, but next year I plan buying in bulk and freezing them. Like strawberries, they have become an instant hit with Ishita who loves them as much as I do.

The weather is playing a strange game of yo yo over here. We had some less humid days that pointed at a gentle fall into "Fall" and the promise of cooler days, then for some odd reason it started to get humid again, and a few thunderstorms and drizzles later were are back into Summer. This is draining, and everybody around here have dreams of long sleeved tops, socks, and sleeping in sweat pants (aren't we a crazy bunch over here?)
One of the joy of Winter to come, is that it means oranges season. Ishita and I can't get enough of them. The Indian one that is not yet available taste far more like the tangerines I was getting in Switzerland. Which is not to disappoint me as I have never been a super huge fan of the ones that are impossible to peel and taste bitter (the one called Navel oranges). The good new is that since last year, or local fruit vendors and the supermarket took on stocking baby mandarins to make us patient until the big ones arrive.


We first saw them last year when we were spending our vacation in Thailand and the day after we came back they were for sale at my local supermarket, at a decent price. They usually disappear quickly in our home, Ishita will eat them between meals, and ask to have them in her tiffin daily. And I do the same ( well not the tiffin bit obviously, since I work from home).
What oranges, any type of them are also great for, is decorate your home. Forget the flowers, the expensive candles, and cute figurines. Just put a big bowl of oranges on your table or on top of a shelf, or chest of drawer and you have an instant eye catcher. One that you get to enjoy with more than just your eyes. And by the time you get bored of them, chances are they will be in your stomach already.

You can of course use any fruit you like, I did similar things with cherries, lychees and apples. But in India, be mindful of the climate, a lot of fruits that would be fruit bowl material in more temperate climate hardly survive more than a few days outside the fridge in the hot and humid climate of Mumbai. Fall and Winter are the ideal season in this city to take advantage of them as a piece of temporary home decor.


Beside, what fruit spells Christmas better than oranges? In our home this is often the first piece of holiday decor we have up, or rather out. Add some candles around and you have an instant festive glow, not to mention there are ways to put these peels to good use once you ate the fruit and infuse your home with its warm smell...but I degress.

Growing up, my parents had a big fruit bowl sitting in the living room, between meals, this was the only thing my sister and I had the right to dig in freely, and placing it where the TV was meant we always ended up munching on healthy stuff while in front of the idiot box. My mom made sure to keep it loaded with seasonal stuff. I obviously repeated that pattern with Ishita, with one fruit bowl in the kitchen, the decorative fruits in the living room, and all the ones that really can't survive at room temperature in the fridge...at her eye level. Fruits are often the only snack option you will find in my home.

I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was awesome. I went swimming, then got my first seasonal coffee from Starbucks, and then I got a piece of furniture I ordered last week delivered, way before I was expecting it might I add.


This charming chest of drawer is from Urban Ladder. I have been eying it for a while, and it now replace that old, rickety, cheap laminate dresser that disintegrated further with every move we made. You know the one that got infested by termites recently, and as a result became even more rickety and unsafe than ever before. You know, the one that started as a cheap solution to our kitchen storage woes in our old flat in Bangalore, ended up in the damp servants room turned storage room in Navi Mumbai, only to migrate back in the living room 7 months later in Bangalore again, and then stayed there in the next two flats we occupied in Mumbai. The one I ended up painting in a last effort to make it look pretty...yeah that one :


Pretty isn't it? This picture was taken just before we left for Lucknow while I was playing around with the SLR camera. It was already falling apart, had its in are gutted by the termites and Ishita thought it was amusing to peel off some of the 3D paint decor on it. Notice how none of the drawer really close well and how it's only surviving door is coming unhinged. When we bought it in 2008 it had two clear glass doors, functional key holes, and the cheap laminate was staying put. It looked decent enough in our kitchen and acted as a cute little pantry cabinet. Fast forward to 2014, none of the drawer could hold more than a few sheet of paper without collapsing, and the sides have tear mark from where we taped something only to remove it later (yep the laminate came off that easy). To be fair it was never meant to be standing in the middle of a living room...ever. And considering we bought it for 5k from a road side furniture shop, I' actually surprised it even lasted that long. The termites infestation was the last nail in its coffin and simply accelerated our plan to replace it.


This is where Urban Ladder stepped in (and no this is not a sponsored post). I had been browsing their website urbanladder.com for over a year now. Drooling ohhhing and ahhhing at their hardwood furnitures that are oh so totally my style, planning my fantasy home around them, talking about purchases with DH (loves them as much as I do)...I knew all along that the day we would replace that old glass door cabinet, I wanted to do it with something from that site.
And after spending hours debating things, I ended up narrowing it down to the Lhasa chest of drawer, in teak colour finish. The chest of drawer is made of Sheesham wood, so teak is I repeat just the colour of the varnish. When I ordered it last week, they announced that the piece would be delivered by November 24th. Two weeks seemed a perfectly fine and reasonable price considering it is solid wood, and that they probably don't have all of these stuff in stock right away. The order slip also stated that they would get in touch with me to schedule the delivery once ready...fair enough.

What I was really not expecting was for them to call me this past Saturday announcing they could deliver by Sunday between 2-3pm, asking me if it was fine with me or not. Needless to say I was home on Sunday afternoon, and that it was more than fine for them to bring it then. When Sunday came, they called me again at 1.30pm to announce that they were on the way and would reach my place in the next half hour and asked me to confirm my address with them. 25 minutes later they were in my living room unpacking it, gave me a rundown on care and maintenance and left taking all their packaging along with them.

Now THIS is an outstanding service. They were punctual, polite, and considerate enough to take all the bits of plastics and cardboard with them. It is th first time it happens in India without me having to ask, or rather beg the delivery team to pack up their rubbish.
This is one online store I can recommend to you with closed eyes. They really make shopping for furniture easy from the start u til delivery. Hats off!


That simple chest of drawer completely changes the room, bringing in far more light in due to its lower height. And because it is wider and deeper than the old dresser it has far more storage space. My entire collection of DVD fits more than confortably in two of its drawers. All of my craft supplies, even the ones that were not in the old dresser before fits with room to spare for more in the remaining four drawers. I have plans to decorate the space above the dresser with pictures, but before that will go for a seasonal decor once December arrives.

All this made me half forget about the India in Pitcure series this Sunday, the picture I planned to use is watermarked and ready, I just didn't find the energy and time to sit down on Sunday to write anything. My mind was too full with new creative ideas for my living room to be able to focus on anything else, bear with me.