I'm amazed at how fast the past month vanished. The Parents were in town for a month and it felt like my sister and I'd become guardians overnight..in a fun way though, of course they get to have the final word always :) We had so many places to visit, endless hours of shopping to be done with Ma, tons of new restaurants to go sample, movies and plays to be watched, recipes to learn, get our favourite cakes and biscuits baked by Ma and to top it up we had our pups, Franny and Zooey vying for attention too :) Phew! Indeed a packed month, but we managed to squeeze in everything. Here's a snapshot of all the family fun. Oh and Ma and I even got meet our favourite television hottie ;-)
Our gorgeous Aunts, Ma's first cousins came visiting. The gurls met after a decade and it fun watching them talk marriage, kids, food, diets, dogs, other Aunts and Uncles heee heee..okay so a little gossip is harmless noh :) Look how lovely they look together. I got to sample my new macro lense and I love the way the pictures turned out.
I can barely type looking at these yummilicious pictures. Since we were kids in boarding school, the idea of tuck has just been such an integral part of our lives. We moved out of home very early on and homemade tuck has always been a constant. Pickles, ladoos, potato wafers, chocolate cake, butter shortbread and a host of Gujarati savouries are always something you'll get in the Damji household, whether its Bareilly or Bombay, Meera's pad or my kitchen. Notice the personalised packaging, well these are from my Ma's savoury business back in the 90s. She now does more of baking and catering for small gatherings. Its very tough to please this fussy Mama of mine cause her tastebuds are like none other. I'm pleased after years of sampling food at various restaurants for years, this time she did like a few things on the menu at Indigo! Now that's an achievement believe me! The poached pear salad turned out to be quite a favourite.
Now this treasure, the "Pickle wall of Fame" as I call it needs a mention on its own. Pickle making is something my Mama picked up from her Granny and Dad. There's no one at home fond of eating these except for Meera and me and of course the endless stream of guests who come home and take back bottles full for their children and grandchildren :) Pickle making is quite a painstaking and tedious process and requires hours of patience and not to forget precision with which the contents are mixed together. These are all the summer pickles so that means they're mostly mango pickles. My all time favourite is the tiny bottle on the top right of the picture. This one's made of nice juicy red chillies and garlic. Drooooool...:)))
My parents took to these babies really quick. The last they met them was when they were a few months old. But these babies are so full of love I tell you, they converted a total non dog lover like the Mister to someone who now yearns for them over the weekends. These kids are off to doggy camp with their Mommy in Alibaug this weekend.
That's all their stuff packed for the weekend. Happy coloured baggage noh :) Cannot wait to hear all about it when they get back this evening.
I'm spending time sewing and stocking up the shop for the festive season round the corner. I spent a whole month away from the sewing machine and boy I missed it bad. I'm going crazy this weekend making a list of cleaning and sorting to be done around the house before Diwali at the end of this month. I'll share some here if you'd like :) Did you catch the live feed of our very own Mangalyaan - our very own Mars orbiter mission last week? I was up at dawn like an excited kiddo on Christmas morning hahahaha What a proud moment. All those spectacled scientists are a different breed I tell you!
Hope you're all having a great weekend. Thank you for stopping by!
Much Love!
Runa
