Meatless Monday: prep work and Punjabi food

So, over the weekend, I decided to try the method outlined in this article for what promises to be a week's worth of healthy dinners. I went shopping, got everything set, and now look forward to "easy" and "delicious" meals that aren't too much of a hassle to put together (thanks to the plan-ahead stuff).

Luckily for my meatless initiative, there are two meatless options in the plan. I'm actually pretty excited for the english muffin pizzas. I'd forgotten about the "muffin-pizza" as a culinary genre. Weirdly, though, I couldn't find eggplant at the store, so I'll be subbing in zucchini instead, which I think will be just as yummy.

The other option on the program for this week is a vegetable curry. Which is great, since I'm pretty comfortable with curries as a general rule. I used to work as a home-health-care aid for an adorable elderly couple who happened to be from Punjab. Savitri usually wanted me to help her make meals, and so I absorbed a lot from her about spice-ratios and the building blocks of curries, dahl and sarson da saag. One of her daughters even let me in on one of the key tenets of "the curry way": constant stirring of the spices, tomato, onion and herbs to make the paste. Every time I make Indian food, smelling the roasting spices in the pan and the sharp coriander leaves, I think of Savitri and her family and my time working for them.

What about you? Do you have a dish or a type of food you make that has a story behind it? Do you always make brownies, or spaghetti the same way because of how your grandmother made it? Do tell.

book talk

Hey friends! Sorry that I'm a little late on this---but it finally is time again for Book Talk Tuesday.

I have so much that I want to talk about today, but I'll try to keep it brief ;)

First off, I have to confess something: I'm re-reading. I do this every now-and-then. My dad just shakes his head at me--he'd rather spend his precious book-reading-time covering new territory. But then, he does re-watch his favorite films...so I may have him there.

I am re-reading one of my favorite books on the writing process:

Heather Sellers is just a gem of a writer--the kind of lady I want to take me out for a cup of tea and tell me all of her funny and heartwrenching and warmly human stories. This book is a way to pretend; it has frank advice, humor and honesty about the writing process that is really (in my opinion) hard to find in these types of books. Plus, it has really, really fun writing exercises. 

I'm also re-starting this book of short stories, edited by Alison Swan. I've skipped around in it before, circling around the poignant story "Lake Huron's Tide" by my friend, Rachael Perry. This time, I'm starting at the beginning, and reading through. I already love it. "HOMES: Living with Lake Michigan," by Judith Minty, sucked me right in with its grade-school reference and at turns wistful, harrowing and wise tale. 

This will be, I think, the perfect book to take up north this weekend.

Today, though, a couple of new books caught my eye. There's this one:

The newest from Geraldine Brooks is set in Puritan New England and told from the point of view of a young female narrator, built around a "slender factual scaffold"--much like People of the Book. It was while reading the New York Times review that I made the connection: Brooks also wrote Year of Wonders, about the plague that my sister-in-law was recommending to me at Christmas. Hmmm, Geraldine Brooks, I am intrigued. And I can't wait to read more...

Last but not least, I heard the news that Pete Townshend is writing a memoir. Awesome.