Navratri Recipes: Sweet Corn Sundal

Another Navratri sundal recipe. This one came about serendipitously. I actually wanted to make something sweet that day but became late to make the offering so thought of making something with sweet corn. I made it like any sundal, but changed it up a bit. It also makes a very healthy salad or as a side for your main meal. S loved it so much that he made me make it again the next day.

Sweet Corn Sundal

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups frozen sweet corn
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1/2 tsp broken urad dal
  • 1/2 tsp white sesame seeds
  • 1/4 cup grated coconut
  • 1/8 tsp asafoetida powder
  • 3-4 curry leaves
  • 1 tsp green chilli paste
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • Salt to taste

Method:

  • Boil the sweet corn in a microwave for 5-10 minutes seasoned with some salt until the corn is soft and cooked.
  • Heat the oil in a pan and when it warms up, add the mustard seeds and let it crackle. Then add the urad dal and sesame seeds and stir for a while till the urad dal turns a golden brown colour and the sesame seeds start to pop. Don’t let them turn black.
  • Add the asafoetida and curry leaves and let the curry leaves become crisp.
  • Now add the green chilli paste and stir for a few minutes. Then pour in the cooked corn and let it stir for 2-3 minutes.
  • Check for seasoning at this point. If you are making this as an offering, then no tasting, please.
  • Drizzle the lemon juice and the grated coconut and switch off the flame.
  • Serve hot as a side dish or cold as a salad.

In My Hands Today…

To Have and to Kill – Mary Jane Clark

8527018Piper Donovan, an actress who has been having a hard time of it living in Manhattan, has returned home to her parents’ small town in New Jersey. She’s been helping out at her mother’s bakery, which makes it perfect that Piper’s close friend, Glenna Brooks, has asked her to prepare the cake for her upcoming wedding. However, things aren’t as perfect as they seem, and when there is a murder, Piper is determined to figure out what happened and protect her friend.

Poetry: Growing Old

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Growing Old

I look into the mirror and see the evidence
That probably I wish I didn’t have to but force myself to see

The strands of white mixing with the browns in my hair
Making me ever so often want to stop and stare

Is this is what growing old is all about, I mull?
Is it the physical changes or it is more mental?

Because while my body ages
My mind is still agile, still flexes and fizzles

So what is the definition of old?
The worldly definition keeps changing all the time

Is it what’s inside of you or what the world sees?
I don’t know the answers, do you?

In My Hands Today…

The Axe Factor – Colin Cotterill

17934616Since Jimm Juree moved, under duress, with her family to a rural village on the coast of Southern Thailand, she misses the bright lights of Chiang Mai. Most of all, she’s missed her career as a journalist, which was just getting started. In Chiang Mai, she was covering substantial stories and major crimes. But here in Maprao, Jimm has to scrape assignments from the local online journal, the Chumphon Gazette—and be happy about it when she gets one. This time they are sending her out to interview a local farang (European) writer, a man in his late fifties, originally from England, who writes award-winning crime novels, one Conrad Coralbank.

At the same time, several local women have left town without a word to anyone, leaving their possessions behind. These include the local doctor, Dr Sumlak, who never returned from a conference, and the Thai wife of that farang writer, the aforementioned Conrad Coralbank. All of which looks a little suspicious, especially to Jimm’s grandfather, an ex-cop, who notices Coralbank’s interest in Jimm with a very jaundiced eye. With a major storm headed their way and a potential serial killer on the loose, it looks like Jimm Juree, her eccentric family, and the whole town of Maprao is in for some major changes.

2018 Week 42 Update

Last week was quite a boring and unproductive week for me.

I did meet one organisation, whom I first met during the networking event during my back to work programme. The meeting went well, but the process is a long one, I will know if they want to meet me again only around 3 weeks later. Another place, where I met people want me to work on a six-month trial basis before committing to the role on a full-time basis. The role is basically a hardcore sales one, a role which I am not very comfortable with to begin, so I have asked them to wait a month or so till I hear back from the organisation I met with earlier. I have yet to hear back from them on this request of mine, but if it doesn’t work out, I’m okay with it since it was a role I was not very interested in, to begin with.

In other updates, the children end school this week and I have plans for them, not just with school work, but also want to involve them in the housework a bit more. S and I are also planning to give them a set of the house keys which will eliminate the need for someone to be at home when they are back from school. Hopefully, this will make them more independent and responsible.

Have a wonderful and productive week folks! I am hoping this is true for me too…