Peppermint tea is a speciality tea having well tested healing properties for flatulence, skin irritations and itching, cold and flu and tension headaches.
It was just when we were having some nice Assam Tea today with hot vadas did I realize I needed a virtual tea break as well!
Well the Vadas were quite a story. Having packed all the boys out of the house, I had planned to shower as quickly as possible and make them a royal tiffin. But plans run amuck when you have a book in hand, don't they!
And by the time I had finished "The Snow Child" and pried my mind off the wonderfully original canvas of Alaska that it had painted in my inner eye, the boys were back home, hungry and grumpy. So I had to frantically search for an instant recipe and rummaged around loads of blogs, finally consolidating many recipes of "instant vada" into my own ingredient-restricted one.
And here it goes: 15 minutes of soaking some toor dal and chana dal in hot water - 5 mins of soaking some aval ( rice flakes) - coarse grinding of the dal with red chillies ( and/or green chillies) and ginger- mashing the soaked aval (after removing all excess water) - adding the ground mix to mashed aval along with finely chopped onions, some rice flour, some gram flour, some grated coconut, coriander, curry leaves, salt to taste - making balls of the firm mixture and flattening it ( flatter is better than fluffier) and deep frying in oil to a crispy golden brown (takes longer than normal vadas). The vadas were very crisp and gone in a jiffy ( maybe because hunger levels were in RED!). At least it only took about 30 minutes to prepare, cook and clean :o).
Maybe the other reason why the vadas disappeared so quickly was because of the interesting episode that we were watching on TV. It was about parallel universes - how every thought that originates in your mind creates a new reality: a new YOU, as real as you, existing in a parallel universe, something that you are not aware of at all. Like you go to a theatre and ponder on which movie to watch, you end up watching every movie you think of, but as other realities - the YOUs that you are not aware of.
The program was quite mesmerizing, but only until the point where we started speculating on our thoughts, after which we broke into a laughing frenzy. Like something as simple as a "to pee or not to pee" dilemma creating two realities. (You can imagine what all disgusting things the boys would have thought of involving poking nose, using the byproduct of poking in multiple ways and such gross thoughts and their realities).
I was quite bemused by my "should I blog now? Naah, maybe later" thought triggering frantic "me"s blogging away like mad somewhere else in an alternate reality. Bet the blogs are much much better out there, since I always "think" about making the blog better and more presentable!!
And how about the thought processes of those realities who think they are the actual realities?! Or the thoughts about the thoughts themselves :o0!!.
DH tried getting preachy telling the boys that this is why they should never have desires, as they keep creating new issues of the self and which means it would be all the more tougher to attain nirvana. To which DS1 promptly replied, "But every time I suppress the desire, there is going to be a reality which would live the "express desire" instance, so I am creating a new reality anyways"!
Quite an interesting concept with loads of physics involved. As long as the Universe remains a mystery, there are going to be a million theories ( and so, a million Universes?!?).
Anyway, since my other reality today has chosen the not-to-blog life, bet she is getting her beauty sleep right now. Wonder who else exist in that universe with her! Dare to take a guess? Remember, every thought COUNTS! ;o)
It was just when we were having some nice Assam Tea today with hot vadas did I realize I needed a virtual tea break as well!
Well the Vadas were quite a story. Having packed all the boys out of the house, I had planned to shower as quickly as possible and make them a royal tiffin. But plans run amuck when you have a book in hand, don't they!
And by the time I had finished "The Snow Child" and pried my mind off the wonderfully original canvas of Alaska that it had painted in my inner eye, the boys were back home, hungry and grumpy. So I had to frantically search for an instant recipe and rummaged around loads of blogs, finally consolidating many recipes of "instant vada" into my own ingredient-restricted one.
And here it goes: 15 minutes of soaking some toor dal and chana dal in hot water - 5 mins of soaking some aval ( rice flakes) - coarse grinding of the dal with red chillies ( and/or green chillies) and ginger- mashing the soaked aval (after removing all excess water) - adding the ground mix to mashed aval along with finely chopped onions, some rice flour, some gram flour, some grated coconut, coriander, curry leaves, salt to taste - making balls of the firm mixture and flattening it ( flatter is better than fluffier) and deep frying in oil to a crispy golden brown (takes longer than normal vadas). The vadas were very crisp and gone in a jiffy ( maybe because hunger levels were in RED!). At least it only took about 30 minutes to prepare, cook and clean :o).
Maybe the other reason why the vadas disappeared so quickly was because of the interesting episode that we were watching on TV. It was about parallel universes - how every thought that originates in your mind creates a new reality: a new YOU, as real as you, existing in a parallel universe, something that you are not aware of at all. Like you go to a theatre and ponder on which movie to watch, you end up watching every movie you think of, but as other realities - the YOUs that you are not aware of.
The program was quite mesmerizing, but only until the point where we started speculating on our thoughts, after which we broke into a laughing frenzy. Like something as simple as a "to pee or not to pee" dilemma creating two realities. (You can imagine what all disgusting things the boys would have thought of involving poking nose, using the byproduct of poking in multiple ways and such gross thoughts and their realities).
I was quite bemused by my "should I blog now? Naah, maybe later" thought triggering frantic "me"s blogging away like mad somewhere else in an alternate reality. Bet the blogs are much much better out there, since I always "think" about making the blog better and more presentable!!
And how about the thought processes of those realities who think they are the actual realities?! Or the thoughts about the thoughts themselves :o0!!.
DH tried getting preachy telling the boys that this is why they should never have desires, as they keep creating new issues of the self and which means it would be all the more tougher to attain nirvana. To which DS1 promptly replied, "But every time I suppress the desire, there is going to be a reality which would live the "express desire" instance, so I am creating a new reality anyways"!
Quite an interesting concept with loads of physics involved. As long as the Universe remains a mystery, there are going to be a million theories ( and so, a million Universes?!?).
Anyway, since my other reality today has chosen the not-to-blog life, bet she is getting her beauty sleep right now. Wonder who else exist in that universe with her! Dare to take a guess? Remember, every thought COUNTS! ;o)
