Rong-Chong-e Daal & Mother's Day

Mother's Day definitely deserves a post, some stories and some food.

The reason for creation of a mother is clear from my last post, right? 

I was neither joking nor did I make that up. It is a fact and I believe in it strongly. Usually this belief and realization only comes much later in life . Not at 8 or 16 or 25! Things which I took for granted as HER DUTY when I was young, gradually metamorphosed with years and experience into genuine admiration and thankfulness. I realized (specially after giving birth myself) that this is a relation which is far beyond anything as mundane as duty. ...it is the umbilical bond that is designed to love and care and fight for her child..expecting nothing in return. 

A mother with her unconditional love- God's best gift to mankind.

This is getting a bit filmy, I know. But honestly if the above script reached the hands of a 1970s hindi movie director, this would have been the scene when the child would be singing "meri ma..achhi ma..bholi ma..." while the mom (Nirupa Ray, in most cases) would be coughing away to glory due to poverty and lack of medicine. 

Typical but hit. You would be watching with tears in your eyes.
If I had continued writing a few more lines on these lines, it might have even ended up in a more glamorous one like the one and only "Mere paas ma hai!" scene. 
Super hit! You would be clapping and watching the movie 25 times.Who knows?
(Unrelated, unnecessary information, but have to share: I love Amitabh Bachchan!!)

However, nothing like that happened.

It was Mother's Day. My parents are visiting us in Holland. I went to meet my Mom at my brother's place. She looked at me and said,

Ma: Ektu janla-r kache aye alo-te. Mukh ta dekhi. 
(Please come towards the window in the light, let me see your face)

I did.

Ma: Tor chokher opor abar ki shob jeno hoyeche....shei liver er problem theke noyto? 

(There is something on your eyelids, hope it is not the liver problem you had before!)

Me: MAaaaaa..that is MAKE UP -- Eye Shadow Ma!!!

So much so for wearing eye makeup on Mother's Day.

After the initial laugh is over, I have to say (in her defence) that she has not seen me so much with eye make up before. I never NEVER used it in my youth.

But things have changed. With the years (some of you might call it AGE) came wisdom and eye shadows. Part of life.

I also got a wonderful gift for Mother's Day. It is a hand painted clay piggy bank painted by the small hands that I love the most in this world. With the lovely gift came a lovely letter, heart shaped, pink, best handwriting..what more does a mother want? Opened the letter with lots of excitement.It read:

"To the world's best mom..from the WORLD's BEST SON"

and I thought it was MOTHER'S DAY!!!
;-)

Ideally this post should have a recipe from my Mom. But she will come to stay with me next week...so once she is with me...Lights ..Camera ..Action! I promise you.

Till then, lets eat something I cooked for you.
I cooked something very tasty, very colorful and very healthy (like a good mother should especially on Mother's Day).

Rong-Chong-e Daal 
Daal (Pulses), in my home is another gift of God to mankind! (Ok,ok, after Mothers unconditional love, Mutton Biriyani, Red wine, waterproof eyeliner, TomTom, etc....)
If there is a bowl of daal in any form in my fridge, I feel very relaxed. I solve problems at work, I attend meetings, I pick up Arno from school, I phone my car garage etc --all of this with a smile on my face just because there is "daal in the fridge". The reason for such relaxed mood is because even after a busy day I can just make some white rice, cut some salad and with the "daal in  the fridge" , I can serve a super dinner. If my mood permits, I can even convert the super dinner to a bit of a Michelin-starry-type-dinner by  just frying an omelette with it!
.....and on top of all that, if like a "good" mom, you can add some vegetables to your "daal in the fridge"..
Wa-La. you are SUPER MOM certified. For sure!

I used:

• Yellow Moong daal : 1 cup
• Fresh Spinach  leaves: 1 bunch
• Carrots:       2 large (chopped in big pieces)
• Green peas:  1/2 cup (optional)
• Tomato: 1 large
• Ginger: 1 tsp (cut in very small pieces)
• Whole cumin: 1 tbsp
• Sugar: 1 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Turmeric powder: 1 pinch
• Cooking oil: 1 TBSP
• Ghee:  1 TBSP (optional but surely makes a difference)

Ready -steady- cook:

1. Dry roast the moong daal till a few of the grains change to brown. Be careful not to over cook. Switch off heat as soon as you get the lovely smell of the roasted moong.

2. In a large bowl boil the carrots , spinach , tomato and the dry roasted daal with some salt, turmeric powder and sugar.

3.Let is boil till the daal becomes totally soft.
4. In a separate pan heat the cooking oil. Add the whole cumin seeds and the ginger. Saute for a few seconds and add the boiled daal .
5. Let it come to a boil.
6. Adjust salt to taste and switch off heat.

7. Add the ghee , stir well and cover.
8. Serve with white rice.  (Make an omelette if you have time...cut some salad for sure)

Lamb tagine and a preponed Mother's day

When God was done creating most of the things like the mountains and the rivers and the trees and the MEN, he realized that something was missing. He needed something to hold these things together. He needed to make a creature who can take care of EVERYTHING that he has created.

Whether it is the laundry or the shopping list or the parent teacher meeting or the allergy to nuts or the misplaced i-phone charger or the swimming lessons or the cousins birthday ...whatever...this creature  must be able to handle EVERYTHING.
With such severe functional requirements, like any other project leader, HE too panicked.
I am sure there were sleepless nights, unfinished drinks and  black circles under HIS eyes.
But God being GOD, he finally had a solution. A perfect one. Ahem....
He created a creature called the "MOM". Problem solved.
Choice of such a popular/exciting/controversial/interesting topic today was triggered by two incidents at home.
1. The man of the house snored away to glory last night. Kicking, elbowing, pushing, pinching....nothing worked. The snoring Olympic continued uninterrupted through a terribly-coughing son and a sleep-deprived mom's struggle to pacify the son. Finally after some cajoling and some scoldings, son ended up in parent's bed. Early morning, the alarm went off. The man turned in bed, looked at the sleeping son beside him and asked with a surprised look  " eki ? Arno ekhane?" (Oh! Why is Arno here in our bed??)
Wife gave back "the looks" and decided to write about this in her blog.
 

2. Later in the day, I was sleepily shuffling through some advertisement brochures announcing discounts for "Mothers Day", which is three weeks away. Suddenly the living room door opened and A-senior came in (yes, yes the same one who won the Olympic snoring gold medal last night!!).  He called Arno, both of them went to the hallway..whispered something and then Arno came in with a  box , a smile and a "Happy Mothers Day Mama"!!

A lovely gift for me... a tagine....reminded me of our Visit to Morocco last year!! 
The snoring Olympics of last night was kind of forgiven....although for one moment I did feel that the above two incidents were somehow related!!! "the looks" worked?  Mothers day gift three weeks before time???hmmm...

In Morocco, almost all dishes were served in tagines. I fell in love with them. Specially two of them have lingered on my taste buds for the last two years. A Lamb with Apricots and a Chicken with Lemon. I only needed a tagine to try them out.

Wish fulfilled.  May God bless the snoring champion.!!!!!

Here is the one with Lamb....the Chicken will come later..stay tuned.

 This setting looked so green that could not help a click.

Lamb Tagine with Apricots

I used:

• Sunflower oil: 2 tbs 
• Lamb :     1.5 Kg (Shoulder cut in small  pieces)
• Onions : 1 large onions, 
• Garlic  :   5 cloves paste
• Garlic: 2 cloves chopped
• Apricots : 150g quartered dried
• Ginger: 1 tsp (paste)
• Cinnamon, 1 tsp ground c
• Cayenne pepper :1 tbs
• Cumin powder: 1 tbsp
• Tomatoes :  200g tinned chopped
• Chicken stock:  150 ml
• Coriander:  to garnish.
• I also used a pinch of turmeric (optional)

Ready ..steady ..go!!

1. Marinate lamb in the ginger paste, garlic paste, cumin powder and cayenne pepper.. Keep aside for 2 hrs.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan and brown lamb in batches. When browned, remove and put aside.
3. Add the chopped onions and garlic to the pan on a low heat. Cook for a while till they are soft.
4. Add the apricots, tomatoes and lamb. Add the stock just enough to cover the meat.
5. Bring to boil, season with coriander and cover with a lid. 
6. Cook on low heat for 2 hours.
7. Garnish with lots of coriander and serve either with couscous or rice.  

I served with tasty Couscous which A-senior made. Another reason to forgive the snoring Olympics.

 

    This is how it looked when it started to cook.

 

                                 

 This is is how it looked after it was done.

 

 

KALLOL junior in "Khelar Putul"

Yes, we "KALLOL junior" have done it again. After gaining confidence from "Abol Tabol Shopno", we the "Khude Kallol" have gone up on stage and rocked it again!

It was indeed fun. 

Fun to rehearse together.

Fun to play together.
Fun to perform together.

Fun to be applauded together.

ক্ষুদে কল্লোল   (Kallol junior)

একটু নাটক, একটু ছড়া,
আমাদেরকে জড়ো করা |
একটু কঠিন একটু সোজা,
অনেক কাজ তবে অনেক মজা|
কখনো বা বুঝি না মানে,
হাসছি কেন কেউ কি জানে?
তবে একটু মোদের বুঝিয়ে দিলে
 হাসি তখন সবাই মিলে ।
মনে মনে বাড়ছে টান ,
আবোল তাবোল-এর অবদান।
দূর বিদেশে থেকেও মোরা ,
বাঁচিয়ে রাখব মোদের গোড়া ,
পুরনো নতুন মিলে মিশে
সুন্দর দুনিয়া গড়ব শেষে ,
বিলোবো খুশী , ছড়াবো হাসি
আমরা global ভারতবাসী ।।

The target was to bring the kids TOGETHER and enjoy the TOGETHERNESS. I think we have succeeded. After the final performance, one child walked up to me and asked, "when is the next rehearsal?" .That is big evidence, right?
 

As the curtain opened and the lights switched on.....oh what a scene! A room full of kids dressed up as the most beautiful toys that you have ever seen. 
Smart, sweet, handsome, cute and beautiful ! --OUR kids !
Kids who put in so much effort to make this happen!
KALLOL junior! Khude Kallol! Well done...we are so proud of you.

Now for the plot and the performance.
With the advent of super technical games like Wii and Play station and DS and what not, the charm of simple toys are gradually vanishing. Kids have been exposed to so much action at their finger tips (literally) that simple, stationary and soundless toys do not appeal to them anymore. The plot is of such a toy shop in a small town where the shopkeeper is frustrated and unhappy because he cannot sell his simple toys anymore. Everyday, he and his wife still opens the shop with hopes of selling some toys. They look at each toy and wish that the toy  could do a bit more to attract customers. With each such wish, the toy comes alive and performs. Finally their wish is granted and a customer comes and buys all the toys of his shop!!!
What a performance !!!Each single toy, "woke up" at the right cue and walked up to the microphone and performed their best. Brilliant! We had flawless recitations, cool guitarists, smart keyboard players, humorous actors, beautiful dancers, classical violinists... 
Yes, the kids were undoubtedly the stars. 
But the adults who helped were no less.
A-da, makes sets with passion and it shows...brightened up the stage totally.
K, arranges and plays the music..one big box of flickering lights and buttons totally under his control.
T has personally visited each light (up on a ladder near the ceiling), hence he knows them so well that magic happens when he switches them on.
T, on my request became the prompter. But at one point , I was so so so off the script that she said, "ki prompt korbo, kono line-i to bolcho na script theke!!"[ What shall I prompt, you are not saying ANY line from the script]. I hope she will still prompt next time.
S controlled the curtains perfectly. No rehearsals...first time..instant hit!  I recruit him as our curtain-man from now on.

All the rest proudly and happily clapped and encouraged us from the audience.
Now, with so many kids, their instruments, the microphones, the set and the toys on stage.....the script demanded for adult presence on the stage...for control and safety. That is how Panchur baba (shopkeeper) and Khendir ma(his wife) were born, in the script. Both turned out to be equally bad in memorizing the script. Between you and me, one had his script in his "hisheber khata (notebook)" , the other had the script stitched on the back of her duster!!
Anyway,the way they were talking on stage, mainly about sharing work loads in the family, it was clear that they were both married people in real life, quite accustomed to the daily khit-khits and did not need a script to continue!! Their real life partners smiled from the audience as they recognized bits and pieces of the conversation.
Panchur baba struggled a bit with his moustache while Khendir ma definitely suffered from a very misfitting hair cut!
But all ended well and alls well that ends well.

Look at the fantastic toys we had in our shop....

Hoping to continue like this for years to come....ALL TOGETHER....
Are you guys with me??
 

The special recipe for Junior Kallol  will follow soon.....

No story is complete without food and no food is complete without story.

Lamb "talli"...Whats in a name?

A name means a lot. Whether it is the name of a person or a film or a poem or a recipe..proper naming does have an impact. Do you agree?

Example 1: Interesting names -- a very smart and creative sales strategy!

 We were traveling to Jamshedpur from Kolkata. we stopped at a roadside Dhaba (hungry as always, specially when in India). The menu card had all the regular north Indian and the south Indian dishes. But what appealed to us MOST was the names of the dishes. I had to take out my camera and take some snaps. Even after ordering our food, we continued reading the menu card...and ended up ordering more. See for yourself....

  Example 2: Interesting names-- helps you visualize.

 I am acting in a play where I play the role of a village/small town shopkeepers wife. My name is ..actually I do not have a name..I am called "Khendi-r ma"...For most Bengalis, this name immediately evokes the vision of a middle aged woman, hair tied high over her head, yellowish saree, a frown on her face, irritating voice...

 

That is exactly my character. (Ahem, I mean in the play!!).

The point is, this visualization is only possible because of the name "Khendi". I bet you cannot conjure up such an image if my character was called "Leela-r ma" or "Neha-r ma" or ..."Pompi-r ma"!!

Names matter.
Who can give me an example 3?

 Anyway, on lines of what I tried to say before, I ended up in naming todays dish as,

Lamb "Talli"

Thora sa jhoom loon main....are nare nare na...
;-) 

 You are absolutely correct. The lamb is indeed "TALLI".

The man((A-senior) cooks the red meat at home (needless to say that he needs to have a single malt in hand while doing so).Whether it is the Biriyani or the New Zealand lamb racks or the grilled lamb chops....red meat is HIS department. I almost never go there...my meaty-expeditions end in chicken. But last week, I was looking for something new...I ended up liking some recipes which demanded red wine. Now since I had NEVER before used wine in my cooking..I thought this would be new challenge for me..and went for it!

Give it a try my friends.....the last drop on the dish was lapped up!

I used:

• Lamb :1 Kg  cut into 2 inch pieces (I used boneless)
• Carrots: 2 large chopped obliquely (if you want to make it healthier!)
• Lemon juice: 2 tsp
• Garlic : 6 cloves  chopped.
• Rosemary : 1 tbs dried
• Extra-virgin olive oil: 2 large spoons
• Onion : 1 large chopped
• Green chilli: 2 chopped (I used the not-so-hot ones)
• Tomato:  1     chopped
• Fresh coriander : 1/2 cup chopped
• Bay leaves: 2
• Cinnamon: 1 stick ( ~ 2 inches)
• Chicken stock : 1 cup
• Black pepper : acc to taste
• Salt
• Red wine (full bodied): 1 cup

(I believe) Drinking the same wine while you are cooking also adds to the final taste.   

I did.

Ready ..steady...go...yuk...hick....

1. Marinate the lamb with half the chopped garlic, rosemary and lemon juice. My patience allowed for 2 hrs of marination.
2. After that, drain the meat and discard the marinade and the water.
3. Heat the olive oil in a heavy bottom pan and fry the meat in batches such that they are nicely browned.
4. Remove the lamb and in the same oil add the bay leaves and cinnamon.
5. Next add the chopped onions and the rest of the garlic.
6. Cook and fry till they are nice and brown..
7. Return the meat to the pan. Lower the heat and add tomatoes,carrots, coriander and chilli.
8. Cook for 5 mins, add chicken stock and bring to boil.
9. Pour the red wine generously into the pan and keep it boiling for sometime to reduce the liquids........talli talli....lamb talli!
10. Add freshly ground black pepper and  salt to taste.
11. Serve with stock bread. 

Browning the meat first

Add the other ingredients

Tra la...THATS when the lamb gets "talli"

Serve with stock bread..

B-diploma and Cinnamon Apple cake.

Three very important things happened over the Easter weekend. Apart from eating, chatting and eating again...and chatting again...
1. Arno got his B diploma in swimming.
2. Arno claimed that he could spot "traces " of moustache showing on his face.
3. My nieces (C&A) baked a lovely apple cake.

Some highlights around these events...
1. We joined the crowd of proud parents with big cameras with even bigger lenses....frantically taking snaps of their little ones in the water.....clapping and cheering at their "show" while the instructor shouted instructions on the microphone.."and now ladies and gentlemen, a dive into the water, swimming through the hoopla and floating for 10 seconds...". The big difference from last year (when Arno went for his A diploma) was that more parents-with-cameras have been replaced by parents-with-smart-phones. So while the first category manually zoomed in and out, the second proudly did that on the screen with just the two fingers. A-senior, being from the first category proudly adjusted his camera lenses to get the right photo of Arno-in-action.

2. Now and then, we all say "time flies". But early morning when your eight-yr old comes to you with full confidence and announces that he can spot "traces"  of his moustache coming up, then I can assure you that time actually stands still for a moment before you can even think of the "time flies" remark!!! So thats exactly what happened to me. It took me some time to digest and react to this unexpected information. But off course my reaction of "WHAT?" was totally wrong because the expectation was clearly " YIPPEEE, YOU HAVE A MOUSTACHE!"

There was a sulky moment with a heart felt complain of , "Ma, you are not interested!"

However, some hugs and chocolate cookies later, everything was forgiven and forgotten, even the moustache.

(Between you and me: I did do a quick check while putting him to bed...there was indeed a faint blue-ish line....no..no..no...it must be the light!)
3. My nieces were visiting. It is so nice to have young girls at home...more colour and more giggles..two pairs of constantly-keen-ready-to-help-me-hands following me with.."mamoli, what can we do?". One of the Easter days, when I proposed, lets bake a cake, the girls jumped at the idea. (by that time the girls were tired of playing Wii, watching Cars, playing with the Lego.....the boy continued to watch the CARS for the ..I dont know...188th time).
We, the three girls, baked an apple cake.


Cinnamon Apple cake.

The recipe is originally taken from this site but adapted according to mood and availability of ingredients. 


We used:

1. Apples : 2  ( for topping) 
2. Egg: 2    (medium)  
3. All purpose flour:2 cups
4. Baking powder: 3/4 tsp
5. Baking soda:  1/4 tsp
6. Cinnamon powder: 1 tsp + 1/2 tsp(for topping)
7. Butter (unsalted molten): 6 tbsp
8. Sugar : 1 cup  ( I used granular brown)
9. Butter milk : 3/4 cup    ( I mixed 3/4 cup milk with 2 tbsp plain yogurt)
10. Vanilla extract: few drops

Cut the apples into thin slices. 

If you are a very sincere and hardworking person, you would want to remove the peel and then slice. We were lazy and did not but still the taste was very good ..so give it a thought before you put in the extra effort. 

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.  Grease and flour the bottom and sides of an 9-inch  cake pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, butter milk and sugar. Add butter and eggs.

Use an electric mixer to beat the batter for 2 mins.

 

 

Top generously with sliced apples and cinnamon powder. Also sprinkle some sugar.  

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Serve cake warm, with coffee of tea. 

  

C&A,  well done!!

Wrong career decision and Chicken-tok-a-tok

One fine morning , mother and son had a conversation.

This is the time of the day that mother son duo are in a rush for school and work but still manage to squeeze in valuable discussion once in a while about life in general.
(when the mother is not hyperactive or the son in a bad mood ..ok ok..the other way round)

Arno: I will work at Bart Smit when I grow up.   

(Bart Smit is one of the most popular toy stores in Holland whose target is to rob the parents of their money and sanity)

Mom (still sleepy): Why??

Arno: Then, I can get toys for free.

Mom  (Fully awake now): No NO NOOOO.. ..That is not how it works. Working in a company does not mean  that you get their products for free.

(desperate to explain more) Look, I work for Shell. I do not get oil for free to drive my car.

Arno ( 1 second of pauze): That is because you made a mistake. Instead of working at a Shell tank station , you joined the Shell offices!!

 

Two minutes of absolute silence. 

Mom, straight faced, proceeds towards daily activities with a plan of getting this conversation back on track later in the evening. This will need a cool head, clear thinking and limitless patience.

Products of Bart Smit.......except for the two large ones...

Chicken-tok-a-tok

Catchy names always catch attention!!!

Two reasons why this recipe happened on that specific day :

1. Early morning the ambitious me took out some chicken from the freezer to defrost with plans of "looking up a new recipe" in the evening after work. Left for work. The tired me returned from work in the evening and suddenly remembered I had a parent-teacher-meeting at Arno's school. The happy me came back from parent teacher meeting with  good comments for Arno and then  realized that the chicken needs to be cooked immediately since it has happily defrosted without realizing how MY day went. The lazy me forgot all about the "new recipe" plan and started throwing in ingredients together to make "something" with the chicken.

2. Had some ginger garlic paste  and a coconut milk can half open in the fridge.

 I made chicken-tok-a-tok. New name, new taste, family and friends loved it.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken  : 1 kg  ( I used boneless chicken ) 
2. Onion :     1 small diced.  ( had to use one because there was no more in my stock) 
3. Ginger-garlic paste : 4 tbsp 
4. Thai red chilli : 2  (I added to the ginger garlic paste)
5. Garam masala  powder: 3 tbsp
6. Coriander powder: 2 tbsp
7. Cinnamon: 2 sticks of 1 inch 
8. Cardamom: 3 pods crushed
9. Coriander leaves: 1/2 cup (chopped)
10. Kafir lime leaves:  7-8
11. Coconut milk: 1/4 cup.
12. Oil for cooking
13. salt & sugar

Ready steady go.......

• Marinate the chicken with ginger-garlic-chilli paste , 2 spoons of garam masala and 3 spoons of white oil
• Keep aside for 30 mins
• Heat 5-6 spoons of oil in a pan .
• Add the crushed cinnamom and cardamom. Also add one small spoon of sugar.
• Add chopped onions and fry till they are properly brown.
• Add marinated chicken and fry till  it becomes quite dry. 
• Add one spoon garam masala and 2 tbsp coriander powder. Fry a bit.
• Add the chopped coriander and the lime leaves.
• After 2-3 mins add the coconut milk.
• Add 1/2 cup water if it gets too dry.
• The final product will not have a lot of gravy...it will be "makha makha"..
• Enjoy with steaming white rice.   
•  

Photography by  D M..thanks....and yes, he got to taste it too!!

Roaming in Rome and Chilli olive oil

Parts of my history book came alive, parts of the Bollywood movies became real, parts of those colourful cook books sprung to life..........what a lovely place to be in......Rome.

Last week Rome happened. Finally.

I am not planning to write ABOUT Rome ( thats too much and too easily available on google). The target is to write and share some of my experiences, some story telling about Arno and some mouth watering recipes for you all.

Some of the highlights:

1. Rome is wonderful.  Beautiful statues and majestic monuments are scattered around  in the city in the same way as toy cars are scattered in Arno's room. They are Everywhere!
2. Rome is delicious. Any food in any restaurant is super tasty. We ended up eating tons of Italian plain bread with olive oil which they serve as the side dish in all restaurants! The waiter's eyes said " you greedy couple, do you even have any space left to tackle the main course? THAT was a side dish!!"
3. The Italian language is like music.  People talk a lot and they talk in a language which is so sweet that it feels like music. The fact that talking is combined with a lot of body language as well, transforms it into an opera.
4. Rome has warm people. They smile, they chat, they swear (in musical Italian!),they make you feel welcome.
5. Traffic is scary. We, Indians, almost felt at home. Zebra crossings are pretty empty, people cross the roads anywhere, anytime.
6. Calendar of Christ is much more heard of than our ordinary January-February calendar. More people spoke about B.C and A.D dates than 27th or 28th  of February!
7. The Guccis and the Armanis and the Dolce Gabanas dominate. There was even an "Armani Junior" shop !
8. The pope resigned while we were there. Not our fault. We did not ask any difficult questions.

 

The moment we announced that we are going to Rome, Arno's first comment was, " Yippee, now I can have ONLY pizza for four days for all my meals". 
However, things turned out a bit different. After his second pizza in Rome his comment was,

"THEY do not make good pizzas here, THE FROZEN pizzas from Albertheijn (dutch supermarket) are tastier!!"

All I could say to that was.."Ssshhhhhhh".
Fresh-basil-fresh-tomatoes-fresh-mozzarella-thin-crust-pizza Vs thick-frozen-with-preservative-thick-old-salami-filled pizzas??? 
Forgive the innocent child ,  my Lord! He does not know what he is saying.....

                       

Arno was also not feeling very well during the trip. The magic of Paracetamol kept him going--poor guy! He complained from time to time about the "Huge rooms full of paintings ONLY, nothing to do" in the Vatican.  On top of that since we had a guided tour, all paintings had a story attached to it. Now for a eight year old, what does it matter if Raphael passed away at the age of 37 or Michelengelo was at the same time a  sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer!!!I tried to be a good mother and re-explain to him some of the stories which the guide told us. But whatever I said, I had the feeling that this little boy was moving with us from one room to the other in the Vatican expecting some kind of a theme park at the end! Look at him!!

O my God, how many more of these paintings?

But what a treasure house the Vatican is....the ultimate beauty being the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. For a moment one is left speechless. The enormity of the project coupled to the difficulty of creating something like this on the ceiling is almost unbelievable. How could someone draw all this?

 Now for a mouth watering recipe. I know this post has already become a bit too long hence I will share with you a very very short recipe. Infact I should not even call it a recipe. 

All restaurants that we visited during our stay in Rome served four things on the table as dressing.

1. Olive oil    2.Balsamic vinegar    3. Salt     4. Pepper.

But some of them also served a fifth dressing :  Chilli olive oil. 
This was really lots of red chilli seeds immersed in olive oil. Nothing more than that. But what a taste!! The first thing I did after coming back from Rome was to have this on my table. Recipe is simple.

1. Buy some dry red chilli seeds (I bought the red chilli seeds in Rome)
2. Buy some extra virgin olive oil .
3. Carefully open the cork of the oil bottle.
4. More carefully pour in the chilli seeds.
5. Observe (with or without camera) the red hot particles gradually work their way down in the bottle --beautiful.
6. Sprinkle a few drops on anything and everything. ( I am using it on sandwiches as well)
7. Enjoy.... 

Next time I will post a real recipe. Promise . Cross my heart.