Camp and Calories with Rabri

The son is going for a camp from school.

11 yr old going away for 4 days.

Without parents.

First time.

Lot of excitement at home.  

The Bengali mother, although extremely tired from the weekend's Bengali New Years program, decided to make "luchi" for the camp going son.

'Aha...Bhogoban jane camp e ki khabe na khabe' (poor boy, God knows what food he will get at the camp).

Haha!

No, these were NOT the thoughts that raced through her mind.

While rolling out each luchi, trying to make them as circular as possible, she realized that she HERSELF was actually craving for luchi for sometime. The camp-going son was an excuse.

The son, who is born and brought up  in Holland loves luchi with "alu-r torkari". He was therefore overjoyed with the "luchi" news.

A-senior, smiled (a broad one) when he heard the "luchi" plan.

A foodie family...no doubt about that.

After a happy luchi meal, mother and son focused on packing. A-senior parked himself on the sofa and appointed himself as the supervisor. The camping list which has been hanging on the refrigerator door for the last four weeks was spread on the table, carefully looked at, each item ticked off the list as it went into the camping bag. 

The sleeping bag, the raincoat, the walking shoes, the pillow, .....and THE TORCH!

The torch somehow got the maximum attention.

The mom tried to convince the boy to take the torch that was already there at home. It was quite a slick-looking small modern torch.

The offer got rejected....Apparently it did not look like a CAMPING torch!!

Learning 1: The torch is the most important thing for a first-time-camp-going 11-yr old.

Packing was almost done.

The last item was a pillow. The parents had really taken the pillow more seriously than the torch. So a "camping" pillow was bought. A very nice one which you can blow up into quite a reasonable size and softness without bursting your lungs. Amazingly handy. So small. So convenient. So exciting.

I remembered the one from my childhood.  Dark brown Duckback. One had to almost empty his lungs to get some decent air into the pillows. We always carried it on our overnight train journeys.

A-senior blew into it and showed off the soft pillow with utter pride. He did it twice to demonstrate what a good choice the parents had made. The mom narrated her childhood air pillow story and mentioned how much better and more camp-friendly this pillow was.

But the teacher had instructed them to take normal small pillows and nothing in the world (no matter what the camp-excited-parents said) could change that!!

Finally the "normal" pillow won.
Learning 2: Never try to impose your own camping wishes on your child.

The Mom asked while packing "Do you want to eat something special when you are back from camp?"
A-junior replied, "Sheddho bhat!! [Boiled rice with eggs and potatoes]"

Learning 3:  Bangaliyana is in the blood. 

The bus came. The boys lined up with excited faces. The parents lined up with excitement-mixed-with-concern faces. The fathers checked the luggage, the mothers huddled around their kids giving last minute instructions "Sleep well (as if camp is about sleeping), Enjoy well (as if they wouldn't if not told to),  listen to your teachers (of course!)"

The bus left. All the parents kept waving. 
The mom could not see the son through the dark window glasses......but kept waving too...sure that an excited boy in the bus was waving back.
Learning 4: When your boy goes camping for 4 days, he surely has grown up. Accept it.

Rabri  

If you are one of those people who count their calories everyday, then this is the right moment to leave the blog and go for a run. This recipe is laden with calories, thousands of them. It is also laden with taste (specially if you love sweets). 
I am not a sweet lover but realized that I wanted to make Rabdi because I love Malpoa. The two of them go together.....
The cooking part is pretty simple, but the main ingredient is patience!!
No, a diet-rabri does not exist, do not search the net!!!

Ingredients:

• 2 liters Full milk
• 3 spoon sugar
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• Finely sliced almonds
• Few strands of saffron

Ready steady cook:

• Boil the milk at high heat in a heavy bottom pan.
• Wait till a layer of cream appears. Move the cream layer to the side of the pan with a spatula.
• Let the milk boil again and a fresh layer of cream appear.
• Move the cream layer to the sides again.
• Repeat this step till the milk is reduced to 1/3 the initial volume. [warned you about patience!!!]
• Add the sugar, the cardamom powder and the almonds.
• Now scrape the cream from the sides into the milk, mix well, cook for 2-3 minutes and then switch off the heat.
• Add a few strands of saffron.
• Let it cool down and then chill in the refrigerator.

I served it with warm Malpoa. HEAVEN!!

A dilemma and a Meat Loaf

As usual, many things happened over the last few days.

Easter came with a short break, good food and great company.

The T20 cricket world cup came with happiness, followed by sadness and a determined decision to officially join the fan club of Virat Kohli.

The Brussels and Lahore incident triggered helplessness and left us not knowing what to feel anymore for these incidents.

The collapsed bridge in Kolkata triggered anger no doubt, but got replaced by frustration very soon after that.

.... and many more things happened.

Amidst all this, life went on.....at its own pace.

..and THAT my friend is the only good news.

Life has been designed in such a way that it never stops for anybody or anything. This actually gives us the strength to face it. We all know in our hearts that there will be a TOMORROW, no matter what!...and that keeps us going.

Monday mornings tend to make me a bit philosophical. On some days I blame it on the weather, on some it is purely the alarm's fault, but on most days it is the emotional stress of knowing that the Sunday is gone. A large cup of Darjeeling tea at home, a bit of complaining to friends on Whatsapp and a cup of the machine coffee at work usually brings me back to normal, ready to face the week. I am able to appreciate life again and smile at the various 'small' things that happen everyday.

The Gift of Life.

A-junior's best friend was spending the weekend with us.

Since he is yet another A, we shall call him AA-junior. 

On the Sunday, A-junior wanted AA-junior to accompany him to the cricket field (ongoing tournament which he could not miss). But maybe AA-junior wanted to sleep in or play at home. Although he looked quite decided on this but every time his best friend asked him to come along there were flickers of dilemma. It was a difficult decision, no doubt.

I really wanted to help the boys to decide. 

Me: Look, if you keep on thinking both scenarios, you will never be able to decide. Why not put both options on  the table together and take a firm decision?

Boys: Sounds good.

Me: Let me make the two options clear. What do you want? Do you want to go along for cricket and spend the day with your friend but stay on the sidelines? Or do you want to stay at home with me and maybe play a bit on the i-pad and help me with household things?

Both boys were silent for a while carefully weighing what the options were and what they were signing up for.

After a few microseconds,

AA-junior said, "Your question does not help at all. Both options are equally good and bad. It is like asking, do you want to be rich and miserable or poor and happy?"

Pin drop silence at my end.

It is easier to face a Monday with a philosophical mood rather than face the young these days!

These newer models are logical, to-the-point and crystal clear!!

Finally he stayed home with me.

;-)

Meat loaf

I have always wanted to make this meat-loaf. Somehow it did not happen. It sounded and felt and looked too difficult. However, on that specific day, I simply had a lot of energy and a lot of chicken keema at home. I geared up my courage and began the journey of making the loaf.

It came out beautiful and tasty.

A-senior gave me a wordless, big smile on seeing it on his plate. 

Ingredients:

• Chicken keema: 350 gms
• Fresh spinach: 1 large bunch (only chopped leaves )
• 1 cup carrots (very small cubes)
• 1/2 cup roasted red paprica(capsicum): optional
• 1 cup fresh coriander (chopped)
• 1 cup whole-wheat bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 large egg white
• 2 boiled eggs
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5-6 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 2 tsp tomato ketchup
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup cream
• Salt and black pepper

Ready steady cook:

• Heat one spoon of olive oil in a pan.
• Add the chopped garlic and onion and saute.
• Add the spinach. Mix salt and pepper and saute for a while.
• In a separate bowl mix all the other ingredients (except the two boiled eggs). Add the sauteed spinach to it.
• Mix very well.
• Preheat the oven to 250 deg C.
• Pack the mix in a oiled loaf can. 
• Half fill it and add the two boiled eggs in between. Pack the rest of the mix on the top.
• Bake for 45-50 mins.
• Slice and serve. (both warm and cold taste good)
• I served it with steamed brocolli and mashed potatoes.