I HATE Sundays; it means so much more work!!!

Bah
I'm back from a Sunday, and actually feeling peaceful at work. ACTUALLY.

Despite the bitch of a boss and bummer colleagues who always dump me with work on go on vacations -- I've got loser written all over my forehead -- I'm just finally breathing deep in office.

It's a nasty thing to say, but come on, you MUST have felt it too... sometimes, ok...at least this one time....
You know, really, I must have said this several times on my blog, but almost on every Sunday I thank god that I don't stay at home everyday and can get away from it all by going to "work". I mean, really, office and its tensions are there too. But sometimes they seem minuscule. Women who stay at home all day, everyday, must be getting frustrated with all this at some point in time. I do it for just an entire day in a week, and I do!

Hubby came back from a  long tour, so it was good that we were all together at home after a real long time, when all of us had a holiday. But the day was so much slogging ......

There was and elaborate breakfast and lunch to be cooked (had to pamper hubby who hadn't had 'home food' in 10 days), there was the folding of the laundry, just some basic cleaning up in the kitchen, doing a check in the fridge to  put away old stuff, make space for more stuff, put away veggies and sorting greens for the next few days, li'l fellow's tantrums to tackle, lazy hubby to scream at, take Sonny to the park (raining, so run!), visit hubby's relatives (yes, that's slogging/task), come back to a lonely dinner with Sonny (hubby just fell asleep without dinner) and the worst part -- putting away all the leftovers/dishes after the Sunday dinner. That's really the worst thing.

After which.....aaargh...Sonny wanted to make a collage, so sat cutting coloured paper while half dozing off.
And in between all this, I was desperate, desperate to read -- while i couldn't get to read much of the morning's paper because Sonny sat on it, i so badly wanted to read this graphic novel my dad gifted me, Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist -- A Graphic Novel. I between all this, I managed to finish it. Yipeee!!!
But how hard i struggled (Apster., I promise I'll do that post on reading/books that you tagged me for. Promise :-*). And I felt so bad for myself. Didn't watch any TV, and really struggled to read the book (was feeding Sonny while reading a large part of it, or was cooking and reading).

Honestly, whoever was talking of Sunday as a holiday wasn't thinking of women like me....

A recipe for capsicum barda palya

Ok I have a recipe after a long time.
I'm sure many people must be making this, or variations of it.

But i'm so thrilled mine turned out great today and I must put it down for myself. I used to make it earlier but in the past three years, for some unfathomable reason, I had stopped.

Including a dal in a subji/palya is a great way for me to mask the taste of a vegetable you don't like (i would love to try this with cabbage which i hate in the cooked form). It also adds volume when you're short of any vegetable. And most importantly it easily adds protein to your day's requirements.

What you need:
Capsicum - 4, chopped medium
Onion - 2, chopped
Kadle bele/Channa dal - a small cup
Green chilli -one (more if you like your food spicy)
Curry leaves
Coriander
Ginger
Jeera
Red chilli powder
Turmeric
Lime or amchoor powder
For seasoning -- mustard, jeera, oma/ajwain, uddin bele/urad dal
Salt and sugar to taste

Method:
1. Soak the channa dal for two hours. Drain excess water.
2. Pop it into the mixer along with the chillie, some chunks of ginger, some jeera,  salt and sugar to taste, turmeric, a dash of red chilli powder, curry leaves and coriander (chopped)
3. Grind it (DON'T ADD WATER), but just enough to make it a grainy grainy  mixture -- don't let it become a paste. It should be chunky...it's ok if you see some unground pieces of dal in it as well.
4. Heat oil in a pan/kadai/bandle, splutter the seasoning (you can vary it and add all you want).
5. Fry the onions light brown.
6. Add the dal mixture and cook it well too (it cooks pretty fast). Cover and let it cook, but keep stirring or dal may stick.
7. Add the capsicum.
8. Taste and check to adjust salt /spice levels. You can sprinkle on some red chilli powder if it sin't giving you a kick ;-)
9. Sprinkle on some drops of lime or add some amchoor powder to add the tang. Cover for a short while and it's done.

King of the kitchen: stereotypes be damned

I'm so glad my dad's broken the stereotype. He's bought Sonny Boy his first play "kitchen set" -- you know the one with a little gas stove, cylinder, mixie, a rolling pin and board, a frying pan et all. It's a gift that makes its way into a little girl's hands much faster. Actually I'm slapping myself for not getting it myslef for him much earlier. Maybe I'm a perpetrator of the stereotyping myself :-(

But Sonny's just freaking out absolutely. He's always loved the kitchen, and kitchen utensils are high up the rank when it comes to "toys" (and I hear every mom say my kid too plays with vessels all the time, so there must be some magic about the kitchen and cooking).

Now he's busy rolling out little chapatis for us all and making "mommu" for everyone in the house. He likes to feed us straight out of the pan...I'd like to try that sometime, really ;-) His other hot favourite dish -- making us all some "neer" dosa -- he takes some water and ladels it out on a plate and lo! Neer Dosa ready.

The mixer, though, is his first love. He keeps saying a loud "juiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" and fiddling with his hot orange mixie. He seems so proud of it. He's been showing great interest in cooking -- I hope it lingers on and he becomes one of those guys who can make himself a decent meal when he wants to, not when he's forced to (there are very few such men in our family, mostly some uncles).

He loves the knife. He keeps asking for it, saying he'll cut vegetables for me and give. So yesterday I handed him a plastic spatula, told him it's a knife, and gave him a carrot. He sat down to cut it, and after some frustrating efforts, came back very irritated and told me "This is not a real knife...it's not cutting. Give me the real one!"

He loves washing the rice and daal when I'm getting ready to cook it. He loves washing up pulses, he loves stirring the sprouts when I leave them on the dining table.

Basically, the maid is his favourite person now, so he imitates her washing clothes, sweeping and swabbing the floor. He absolutely loves "CLEANING", and will take any kitchen cloth and start scrubbing the cupborads.
Yipeee three cheers to my Sonny Boy!