Cooking Group Thing

Sorry for the delay on this!

As I mentioned, I'll be doing two meals: one from Indian Cooking and one from World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking. You can pick one, or do both, as the mood strikes you.

Note that I'm working from the newest version of Indian Cooking, but that my copy of World-of-the-East... appears to be older; I can't find a pub date for it. Page numbers may vary. If you have an edition that doesn't seem to have the specified dish at all, let me know and we'll figure something out. ...And just to forestall any complaints about my choices, I'll say right up front that I deliberately picked a dish with an ingredient I don't care for (okra), so I'll be right there with you in the 'trying new things.' ;)

From Indian Cooking, we'll do:

Shahjahani murghi (Mughlai Chicken with Almonds and Raisins, p96)
Sookhi bhindi ("Dry" Okra, p 152)
Basmati rice (p193)
Cachumber (Tomato, Onion and Cilantro Relish, p215) (She says that those who can't eat cilantro can substitute parsley)

From World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking (which has only Anglicized names, alas), we'll do:

Chickpeas with Garlic, Tomatoes and Green Chiles (p84)
Spinach with Scallions, Cooked in the Moghlai Style (p60)
Yogurt with Cucumber and Crushed Mustard Seeds (p218)
Naan (p278, or buy your own if you don't care for baking)

(I tried to follow Jaffrey's guidelines for putting together meals as much as possible -- with the slight hangup that she recommends many dishes per meal, and a) the boy and I just can't eat that much, and b) I think a list of six to eight dishes would be pretty overwhelming to people. :D But if you want to add in, say, a lentil dish to the former menu, or similar, please feel free! Alternately, if you want to remove a dish or two to make things simpler, also feel free.)

I am tentatively suggesting...

A roundup post date of September 10 for the first, Indian Cooking meal.
A roundup post date of September 15 for the second, World-of-the-East meal.

Which, of course, means that you can make the meal, post about it if you want, etc., at any time between now and the post date. (And if you miss the post date, it just means you won't get a chance to participate in the discussion. :) )

That should give everyone enough time to go shopping for ingredients and make a meal.

(no subject)

Dear body,

You are currently getting very good at sleeping for a solid 6-7 hours through the night! That's excellent! It's a tremendous improvement!

However, it would be nice if those 5-7 hours were not between 2:30 and 9:30 AM.

Can we try for more like... 12:30AM to 8:00AM? Plz?

Much love,

Your brain

Writer's Block: Pecking Order

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Oldest, by sixteen months. And... not at all, that I can tell. Everything I've read has said that eldest children are supposed to be the responsible ones, but unless my brother is hiding some really big secrets, I'm the family rebel. So I don't give it much credence.

Indeed, if I were to draw any conclusions from my sibling relationships, it would be that the biggest influence on me was having a sibling who was almost the same age as me. For as long as I can remember -- I have no memory of not having a sibling -- there's been someone else who had as much claim to my parents' attention and affection as me, someone with whom I had to negotiate, someone who I learned to fight, someone who I learned to ignore when it suited me, someone who could keep me company if I wanted it. Someone with whom I played "My Little Ponies Meet the Ninja Turtles" on the living room floor. Someone who was both my friend and my rival, and who I couldn't run away from even if I wanted to. Someone with whom I had long heated arguments about whose turn it was to use the computer. Someone who was my best ally, with whom I'd plot complicated strategies like "How to convince Dad to take us to the theme park next week" or "How to explain that, oops, we broke the CD-ROM drive." And someone who shared a lot of interests with me -- someone to go to the midnight showing of Star Trek: Nemesis with, and someone to go "OMG WORST THING EVER" with on the way home, and someone to say, "Hey, wanna stop at Wingers for buffalo wings and hot fudge?" at three AM and continue dissecting the Star Trek franchise over snacks and root beer.

Someone who was the right age to be my peer -- which sometimes meant cat-and-dog fighting, granted, but which also meant we were the right age to be friends.

I think that has a lot more to do with who I turned into than the specific order he and I were born in.

...I need to call my brother.

(no subject)

[From LJ, the Question of the Day: "Are you an oldest, youngest, middle, or only child? How do you think it has influenced your personality?"]

Oldest, by sixteen months. And... not at all, that I can tell. Everything I've read has said that eldest children are supposed to be the responsible ones, but unless my brother is hiding some really big secrets, I'm the family rebel. So I don't give it much credence.

Indeed, if I were to draw any conclusions from my sibling relationships, it would be that the biggest influence on me was having a sibling who was almost the same age as me. For as long as I can remember -- I have no memory of not having a sibling -- there's been someone else who had as much claim to my parents' attention and affection as me, someone with whom I had to negotiate, someone who I learned to fight, someone who I learned to ignore when it suited me, someone who could keep me company if I wanted it. Someone with whom I played "My Little Ponies Meet the Ninja Turtles" on the living room floor. Someone who was both my friend and my rival, and who I couldn't run away from even if I wanted to. Someone with whom I had long heated arguments about whose turn it was to use the computer. Someone who was my best ally, with whom I'd plot complicated strategies like "How to convince Dad to take us to the theme park next week" or "How to explain that, oops, we broke the CD-ROM drive." And someone who shared a lot of interests with me -- someone to go to the midnight showing of Star Trek: Nemesis with, and someone to go "OMG WORST THING EVER" with on the way home, and someone to say, "Hey, wanna stop at Wingers for buffalo wings and hot fudge?" at three AM and continue dissecting the Star Trek franchise over snacks and root beer.

Someone who was the right age to be my peer -- which sometimes meant cat-and-dog fighting, granted, but which also meant we were the right age to be friends.

I think that has a lot more to do with who I turned into than the specific order he and I were born in.

...I need to call my brother.