Luis de Santángel, chancellor to the court and longtime friend of the lusty King Ferdinand, has had enough of the Spanish Inquisition. As the power of Inquisitor General Tomás de Torquemada grows, so does the brutality of the Spanish church and the suspicion and paranoia it inspires.
When a dear friend’s demise brings the violence close to home, Santángel is enraged and takes retribution into his own hands. But he is from a family of conversos, and his Jewish heritage makes him an easy target. As Santángel witnesses the horrific persecution of his loved ones, he begins slowly to reconnect with the Jewish faith his family left behind.
Feeding his curiosity about his past is his growing love for Judith Migdal, a clever and beautiful Jewish woman navigating the mounting tensions in Granada. While he struggles to decide what his reputation is worth and what he can sacrifice, one man offers him a chance he thought he’d lost…the chance to hope for a better world. Christopher Columbus has plans to discover a route to paradise, and only Luis de Santángel can help him.
No, I am not leaving WP yet! Goodbye 2018 and hello 2019
It’s a bit later than I would have liked, but no time like the present to do this post. I for one believe that at least for the first two weeks of January, you are still finetuning what you want to do in the new year and so on that note, I am not late at all!
I ended 2018 the same way as I started it, with hope that the coming year will be better for all of us. 2018 was not a very good year for us, what with the children not really doing well in Sec 3 (which is considered a harder year than Sec 4) nor with me continuing being mostly a SAHM. I did get some relief in the form of some freelance work which I have been doing for the past few months, so I am grateful for the that.
2019 is a crucial year for us as both GG & BB will be sitting for their O level exams at the end of the year. This will then mark the end of their school years and once the results are out, will start their tertiary studies. What that will be, I don’t know at this point. They both have ideas, but these will be translated into reality only when the results come out. So my nagging mode is super on these days, so much so that BB just sighs in frustration all the time. But it is for his own good and he knows that, so he just grins and bears it!
This year, I decided not to make any resolutions which I will inevitably break a month or so later. Instead, I decided to use a couple of words to guide me this year and not stress out when I slip up. My words this year will be ‘Simplicity’ and ‘Productivity’. These words will guide me to lead a more simple but productive life this year. The words will also help adjust my goals and resolutions as the year goes by.
I also decided that I will try and change habits instead of trying to fulfil resolutions. I am currently trying to track 10 habits across different areas in my life. I hope I can do them every single day, but if I slip up some days, I am still ok with it. I will come back at the end of the year or the beginning of 2020 to say how I fared with changing habits.
So that’s my plan of action for 2019. I am hoping for a more simple, minimalistic and productive year for me and you!
What have you thought about and planned for 2019? I would love to hear from you!
On the morning that changes everything, Aruna Ahmed Jones walks out of her ground-floor Victorian apartment in London wearing only jeans and a t-shirt, carrying nothing more substantial than a handbag, and keeps on walking. Leaving behind the handsome Dr Patrick Jones, her husband of less than a year, Aruna heads to Heathrow, where she boards a plane bound for Singapore and her old life. Educated and beautiful, Aruna has a desperate need to risk it all. But why? Waiting for her is a messy past and a perfect past lover she had once abandoned without even saying goodbye – a story left unfinished – until now.
Aruna is not running away from home, she is running back to the home she always had before it became impossible for her to stay. Before her father, the only family she’d ever known, passed away. Before she tried and failed, to create a life and a family with her best friend and lover, Jazz. Before her doctor delivered a complicated psychological diagnosis she’d rather forget. After years of fleeing the ghosts that continue to haunt her, Aruna is about to discover that running away is really the easy part; it is coming home—making peace with her past, with Jazz and those they have loved—that is hard.
A special variety of Rasam, this one is made usually during weddings and is something we don’t usually make during a normal lunch. I have made this many aeons ago and so this week when I opened a tin of pineapple, I decided to keep aside some to make this yummy rasam.
Rasam is a spicy soup made in south India using tamarind juice, pepper, tomato, cumin and other spices and each household has their own unique recipe which they make on a daily or regular basis. Rasam has a distinct sour, peppery and chilly taste that makes it a true repository of flavours. Rasam is either eaten along with rice or savoured after a meal. The British also adapted this rasam and what is Mulligatawny Soup is nothing more than rasam. In Tamil, this word translates to “Pepper Water”
Rasam prevents constipation, is a powerhouse of vitamins and minerals, facilitates digestion, is rich in antioxidents, helps in weight loss, is an excellent food for patients recovering from illness and the best food when introding babies to solids.
Pineapple Rasam
Ingredients:
1/4 cup Toor Dal
6 rings of pineapple
1 tsp rasam powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 large tomatoes
1 tsp peppercorn
1 tsp cumin seeds
4-6 dried red chillies
1 tbsp ghee
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp asafoetida
Coriander leaves to garnish
Method:
Pressure cook the toor dal with 1/4 tsp turmeric powder and enough water till it is soft and mushy. Keep aside.
Chop 2 of the pineapple rings into small pieces and keep aside.
Chop one tomato into small pieces and keep aside.
Powder the cumin seeds, peppercorns and 2 dried chillies into a coarse powder and keep aside.
Blend together the balance pineapple slices into a smooth paste and keep aside.
Blend the remaining tomato into a smooth paste and keep aside.
In a largish pan, mix together the tomato puree, 1 cup water, the remaining turmeric powder and half the quantity of the blended peppercorn, cumin and dried chilli powder and let it start boiling.
When it comes to a boil, add the pineapple paste and rasam powder and let it continue to boil. Allow the pineapple paste and tomato puree to cook well.
In a separate pan, add the ghee and when the ghee warms up, add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to pop, add in the red chillies, after breaking them into halves, the asafoetida, rest of the ground pepper-cumin-chilli powder and saute it for 20 seconds
Add the chopped pineapple and tomato pieces and saute it for 2 minutes in a medium flame
Add the ingredients in the pan to the rasam which has been boiling all along.
At this point, add the mushed dal and mix well.
Then add 1.5 – 2 cups of water and keep the flame in a medium level until the rasam starts to froth. Finally, garnish with coriander leaves and remove from flame.
The delicious and spicy pineapple rasam is ready to serve. Serve with rice and an Indian dry vegetable stir fry.
Notes:
If you don’t have access to rasam powder, just omit it, the taste should be just as good.
You can also blend together some garlic pods along with the cumin seeds, peppercorns and red chillies for a different taste.
This is wonderful as a slightly spicy and tangy soup during the winters.
Rick Cahill was never convicted of his wife’s murder, but he was never exonerated either. Not by the police. Not by the media. Not even by himself. Eight years later, police suspicion and his own guilt remain over his responsibility in his wife’s death. When he meets Melody Malana, a beautiful yet secretive TV reporter, he sees a chance to love again.
When she is arrested for murder and asks Rick for help, the former cop says no, but the rest of him says yes and he grasps at a chance for redemption. But Rick’s attempt to help turns terribly wrong, and he becomes a suspect in the murder and the target of a police manhunt. On the run, Rick encounters desperate people who’ll kill to keep their pasts buried. Before Rick can save himself and bring down a murderer, he must confront the truth about his own past and untangle his feeling for a woman he can never fully trust.
Memories and Such 