Happy Belated Birthday Lord Ganesh

I am so happy to have found a fine blog Simple Indian Recipes.

I was looking for Pumpkin recipes. Fall And Winter are the seasons to eat Squash and Pumpkin. I share my find with you, cher Reader.

I found an entire page of Pumpkin recipes that truly go from Soup to Nuts. You want to go there if you cook for Vegans and Vegetarians at Holiday time. I plan to make a Curry. See a recipe for Pumpkin Burfi below.

I am so happy to share Lord Ganesh made in Pumpkins for your enjoyment. This year Diwali falls on October 24.

Sweets are part of the annual Diwali Festival of Lights. Pumpkin burfi made out of vari tandul and boiled pumpkin, sugar, ghee. I will be back when I know what the English equivalent of the Indian ingredients is to translate.

Ingedients:
1 cup Red pumpkin boiled and smashed
1/2 cup Vari tandul
1/2 cup Grated coconut
1/2 cup Sugar ( +/- as required by you)
1 cup Water
1 pinch Kesari colour
2 drops Vanilla essence
3 tbsp Ghee + little for geasing the plate
1/4 tsp Cardamom (elaichi) powder
2-3 pinch Nutmeg (jaifal) powder
1 tsp each Charoli and Charmagaz
1/2 Cashew (kaju) pieces for garnishing.

Method:
1. Heat ghee in a kadai, add the vari tandul and roast the same as you roast for the sheera.
2. When it changes the colour to brown slightly, add 1 cup of water. Cover and cook till the water is dried up in slow flame.
3. Add the sugar, boiled and smashed pumpkin, grated coconut, and kesari colour. Keep stirring and cooking till it leaves the kadai.
4. Add elaichi powder, vanilla essence, charoli, charmagaz and mix well for another two minutes.
5. Transfer it into a greased plate. Allow it to cool. Cut into desired shape. Garnish with cashewnuts and serve.

Variation: with mango pulp, apple pulp, papaya pulp.
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 45-60 minutes
Serves: 5-6

My Dad's Long Drive in the Country Car Songs

My Mom and Dad loved to take long car trips. We all sang on long car drives. Sometimes we had a radio and sometimes we did not. We sang these songs anyway. Con brio.

We always stopped at an ice cream stand that looked like an ice cream cone. Roadside attractions in the 50s tended to look like what they were selling.

We would drive down the Delaware River sometimes. At the end of one bridge you could get charcoal broiled hot dogs and real root beer from the window of an old frame house that edged the road. 

Everytime I hear one of these songs, I am transported to happy. Love you, Dad. Miss you every day.

ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE ~ Johnny Mercer & The Pied Pipers (1945) (live recording). Words by: Johnny Mercer - Music by: Harold Arlen - copyright: 1944

Minnie the Moocher is a jazz song first recorded in 1931 by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, selling over a million copies,

St. James Infirmary Blues, sometimes known as Gambler's Blues, is an American folksong of anonymous origin, though sometimes credited to the songwriter Joe Primrose (a pseudonym for Irving Mills). Louis Armstrong made it famous in his influential 1928 recording.

Louis Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an Italian-American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the late 1920s, then leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the 1950s, and a pop-rock band in the 1960s.

Merry Christmas Cat

cat haiku

You never feed me.  Perhaps I'll sleep on your face.  That will sure show you. You must scratch me there!  Yes, above my tail!  Behold, elevator butt. The rule for today:  Touch my tail, I shred your hand.  New rule tomorrow. In deep sleep hear sound  cat vomit hairball somewhere  will find in morning. Grace personified.  I leap into the window.  I meant to do that. Blur of motion, then --  silence, me, a paper bag.  What is so funny? The mighty hunter  Returns with gifts of plump birds --  your foot just squashed one. You're always typing.  Well, let's see you ignore my  sitting on your hands. My small cardboard box.  You cannot see me if I  can just hide my head. Terrible battle.  I fought for hours. Come and see!  What's a 'term paper?' Small brave carnivores  Kill pine cones and mosquitoes,  Fear vacuum cleaner I want to be close  to you. Can I fit my head  inside your armpit? Wanna go outside.  Oh, poop! Help! I got outside!  Let me back inside! Oh no! Big One  has been trapped by newspaper!  Cat to the rescue! Humans are so strange.  Mine lies still in bed, then screams;  My claws are not that sharp.

mail welcome: admin @ strangeplaces.net

Trashcan Potatoes - Guest Author La Motocycliste

Over the weekend, I tipped over the trashcan, and harvested enough French Fingerling potatoes for a good meal for two.

Growing potatoes in a trashcan is fun and easy. In case you think, "Potatoes are cheap, why do all this work?" price heirloom varieties at Whole Paycheck sometime.

A lot of communities have gone to high tech trashcans that can be emptied by an automated garbage truck. This leaves the householder with old trashcans, which can be used for low tech urban potato farming.

The first step is to locate a sunny spot. Potatoes are not really choosy, but they do like sun and water. If your sunny spot is over a patch of dirt, cut the bottom off the trashcan with a Sawzall or a hacksaw. If your sunny spot is over concrete, drill drainage holes in the bottom of the trashcan. If the trashcan is really disgusting, clean it up a bit.

Next, put your trashcan on your chosen spot and fill it with four inches of cheap potting soil with a handful of bone meal mixed in. Head off to choose your potatoes. You need about a quarter pound organic potatoes per trashcan. Look for potatoes with nice big prominent eyes. If you have potatoes that have started growing in your pantry, use those.

Cut up the potatoes so you have one or two eyes per piece. Many people leave the potatoes out overnight to skin over, but I have never bothered. Put the pieces about six inches apart on top of the dirt in the trashcan, then cover with another couple of inches of potting soil and another handful of bonemeal. Don't bother to tamp down. Water so that the dirt is as wet as a wrung out sponge. Cover the trashcan with a piece of chicken wire or an old screen to keep critters out.

Keep the dirt moist, and in 2-3 weeks you should see sprouts. Potatoes grow along the stems, so when the sprouts are 8 or nine inches tall and have nice glossy leaves, shake some more dirt along the stems. The plants will grow towards the light, so keep covering the stems as they grow. Keep them watered and the potato plants will grow for about three months. Eventually they will die down. Stop watering. When the plants are deceased, knock over the garbage can and pick out your potatoes.

Note: Reposted from dkos. For those who learn more easily from seeing than reading: