Here it is!!!!

I had invited a close friend’s family over for dinner on friday evening and we both were also invited for a Golu [more on this later] that same day. I came back from work at 4.00 and had to go to an optometrist at 4.30. I gave this list to better half to get by 5.30pm.

Bay leaves, Saffron, onion, corriander. I knew I wanted to cook Saffron rice since it is very good for pregnant women and also I could participate in

Ingredients:

1 tsp Saffron

cloves 8

cinnamon sticks 2

Bay leaves 4

Raisins 15

Whole Almonds 10

Peas - 1.5 cup

Rice - 2.5 cups

Ghee 1 to 1.5 tbsp

As soon as I came back knowing I had a 20/20 vision , I took out my rice cooker and put 1 tbsp ghee. Meanwhile, I halved the almonds and rinsed rice in a basin. As soon as ghee warmed, put in all the ingredients excluding peas and rice. I microwaved the green peas for a minute. Once the spices and nuts were fried, I added peas. In a minute, added the rice as well and fried for 2 whole minutes. Added 6 cups of water and covered the cooker with lid. Let it be to get this yummy

Also, I wanted to cook something in Paneer since some of us are vegetarians and the "Singing chef’s" earlier neighbor had said if not meat atleast Paneer(cheese) should be served to guests to honor them

I had these ingredients:

1 big onion chopped, 1 half yellow bell pepper diced, 1 half red bell pepper diced, paneer, 2 tomatoes finely chopped, ghee, 1 pack of masala from long ago and cilantro

Add Ghee and paneer to wok. Then add diced bell peppers.

I had forgotten to add onions till then, so I added it now like this:

Then I realized I needed spice and hunted this out from refrigerator’s long-forgotten shelf:

Then, the dish was way too dry, so thought of adding this:

Add a half cup of water. Let it be on simmer. Add salt and more ghee .

Then as the gravy thickens, garnish with cilantro to get this:

ALL THIS TIME MUNI WAS DOING THIS

We were all done by 6.30 pm. Oh, I forgot to mention we also had white rice in cooker on the stove. Seasoned it after we came from golu. Vanilla pecan ice-cream was in fridge, all in all we were done.

Yesterday, I got off work at 8.45 pm. But I knew I wanted to spend time with my daughter. However, I did not have the energy to up & down with her. So we went for a movie: Ratatouille. Nice movie. Rat doesn’t steal, kid doesn’t lie and avoids alcohol, although unsuccessfully. Female lead tells how much harder she had to work to be in a male-dominated industry and morals hidden all over the place for kids to learn. Coincidentally Sanjoo also got to meet Shravya, with who she has Saturday morning swimming class. Both of them were awake till 12pm.

Woke up at 9 am today, did some pattern recognition and yoga, all with sanjoo, left for work at 9.30 am, on A SATURDAY MORNING. Now that this has become a part of life, I don’t even complain any more, for the past 2 days , not long enough.

It is a nice rainy cloudy day, office is on the corner of two major highways, Dallas North Tollway and Hwy 121, overlooking Ikea. Our Director has made a batch of nice strong coffee. Here, talking with people from the world is worth staring at a projector rather than Disney serials. I scared people from PWC by saying "boo" when they were deeply engrossed with numbers, we ended up laughing so much. Also scared more people on the way to collect some print-outs. Am I not being professional enough, always wonder! I am also the one on the floor who hides people’s treasures like stapler when they are away from their cubes.

I do enjoy my life. Gladly, I also have the means to make a living out of it.

Love lots…

PS: I am wearing the T-shirt Jaysu got me from London to impress the people who came from London to make my weekend