Cooking is a lot like love!

Dinner time and kids cry out, “No more the same ‘boring’ food.”
So out comes the Master Chef cap to try out new recipes. Part taste buds, part TV channel ‘Food Food’ and part healthy innovation gives rise to Chole Burger and Lip-smacking Cheese Macaroni.

Cooking is a lot like love. Deciding what to make, choosing ingredients is like falling in love. Regular pakoda or healthier chole burger vis-à-vis dinner date or movie night.
Well, for the chole burger, it’s very simple. Soak some (chickpea) chole over-night. Take these chole, one small onion, salt and chilli powder and grind in a mixie. Then shape the batter as medium sized patties, dip in cornflour paste and deep fry.

Now this is the exciting, ‘being in love’ part as the anticipation is just brimming. The mouth watering wait like the dreamy smile evoked by the lovely memories and the skip of the heart as the clock ticks towards the next date.

As the cutlets cool off on a tissue, I call to my daughter to assemble the burger. My daughter is only eager to do her bit in the kitchen J. Add the cheese slice for extra love and you can choose healthy green chutney for the tomato ketchup. Much like the dark brown eye liner instead of the killer pitch black one. Don’t forget the dash of lip gloss for a simmering date!

Daughter settles happily with a burger she assembled. I cut the tomatoes smaller as they are easier to bite.
Then comes the third part of the love relationship. The cleaning up, phew! This is where the beauty fades off and stains are hard to remove. Habits are seen clearer than the mole of the soft silky cheek. The complaints simmering like the hot oil in the pan and batter sticking everywhere like the incomplete words after a bad fight! Well, a cleaning up it does take and a good scrubbing too!
So you clean the kitchen, family helps with the table. Healthy meal for the kids, sweaty brows and a tiring smile.
A love affair like nothing else!

Another mouth-watering love affair!


With cheese, broccoli, pasta, olive oil, red peppers, salt, pepper, atta (for good health), butter, milk and lot of cheese again. A simple white sauce with atta frying on warm butter dissolving into milk and cheese. Sauté broccoli and the peppers add the boiled macaroni and veggies before you let more cheese melt in.
The plain macroni with cheese with for my cheese loving son!   
 

A letter to myself, 10 years hence

Dear Anu,

How are you? I mean really how are you doing, holding up with life’s many surprises and uncertainties.  Are you still making plans and researching about them? Trekking? Dressing up? Dancing ? Playing Scrabble?  I really pray you are! Are you popping tablets now and checking your blood pressure? I’m dealing with the first signs of low pressure and haven’t checked my cholesterol but I’m well and kicking and kicking like a horse! Pray you are regular on your pap smear test.

Have you made your will? Remember you wanted our daughter to inherit. 

I never planned too far in life but let me remind you, it’s been a good ride. I think I’ve come a long way from where I was ten years back. Hard to visualize how you are placed but can’t imagine the years leading upto it; be any less of a roller coaster ride!!!

Have you got your big stone house , a garden, natural cooling, arty exhibition, 2-month holiday in Himachal, hiking Machu Picchu, solar cooker, curly hair and a big dog (not exactly in that order).  Remember the under –water experience? The camping , cycling thrill,  Do get more in your kitty. Sure the world has geared up to your age.

I got those Godfather earrings made last year and the fringe this year. I think I look like Priyanka Chopra. I stop a minute to guess what your wardrobe may be looking like now. Have you abandoned colours and the boho-chik look with age? Guess you think of matching it with your greys, no escaping them now!

How is the anti-plastic war going? Aren’t you glad you started composting early? Give anything for my children to take it up with passion and devotion. Our arty-craft collection is still packed in bags saving it from our son; lest he destroys them systematically. First unscrew the accessories then bang the object on to the TV or the washing machine and then mandatorily execute the head. 

Are Ranbir and Katrina still together? With children I suppose. Right now they are boring us with their widely known secret of being together. Kangana is ruling with scripts as good as her acting. Shah Rukh still running on the box office and Salman’s out! But our darling Aamir Khan, just rules.  

Saina Naiwal is world champion and the e-commerce is taking the entrepreneurial world by storm.

Maggi is hit with high lead content. Wonder when the top soft drinks get some serious checking. 

Globalization coming home with internet and a much alert, aware populace and the advent of smart cities. What’s the new thing in money, do credit cards still exist? Don’t forget to note your card number safely in your diary, I mean the ‘write- with- pen- on- paper- dairy’.  

Now, we come to the heart beat of our lives. Children  (yes smile but right now, they are driving me crazy)

Does our daughter ask all those questions still? At 6 and a half, she is already the responsible older sister and very creative. Our son is the hyper one but knows how to get away with mischief with his puppy eyes and warm hugs. Have the years affected them? Do they back-answer and slam the door? I have  the “Mummy will do what she wants”, policy right now. Can you still get away with that? Would like to know how long that worked!

Pray they are laughing as much as they do now. Pray the hugs continue. Do you understand all their jokes? Their music and their need to disagree? Patience , they’ll grow out of it. Right now I’m force feeding them, Kumar Gandharv, Kishori Amonkar, ABBA, R.E.M, Bryan Adams and John Denver 

They sing “Jungle, jungle baat chali hai” with joy. And no I don’t force ambition on them.

Have you had ‘the talk’ with your daughter and your son (for that matter)? Daughter listens, just be calm but firm. Son the naughty type but I make him thank God for his sister in his prayers. Is he chivalrous? As of today, I don’t know if he should open the door for a woman or just be. But one thing I’ll always tell them, no ideology for family. ‘Drop your work/party and pick family’s bag, broken door, flat tyre, strained ankle or belated birthday’.  Would give my right arm to hear you say, I did a good job! 

Age it seems makes you bitter. Are you meditating out of it (cause that was the plan). Is hubby tired of travelling or is he still booking away? But yes, the plan was to travel and dance, so dance away! No second thoughts at fifty!!!

Is it lonely at home sometimes or the walks and the talks take away all the time? Do you sleep, crib, knit and scrabble more now? Just don’t get bitter. And if you have to get a walking stick, just get the most fancy and stylish one.

Yours always,

Anu