Festive season #1 for 2014

[Edit: Guess what? I was nominated for Best Personal Blog of 2014 for Nepaliaustralian's 2014 Blog Awards !! I am so honored to have been nominated; vote for me if you want to, but please read all of them because the others nominated are wonderful!]

I know I neglect this blog a lot these days. Sorry ! :( The last few months have been a flurry of activity; basically I haven't slowed down since early September. I drove (solo) to Portland twice - once for a rehearsal and once for my singing school's recital. I drove to Seattle last weekend with a friend to see St. Lucia in concert, which was amazing. They are fantastic musicians and it was worth the eleven-hour round trip.

In between that was festive season #1 - Durga Puja, Diwali, and not one but two college fests that I sang for. Here in our small town, Durga Puja is generally 'observed' over two days in the community in a relatively small-sized get-together with pushpanjali, food, and a cultural program that consists of those of us who sing, dance, recite etc. doing just that (unlike some bigger cities who bring in musicians and movie stars from Kolkata to be the evening entertainment.) For me, who has never experienced a 'real' Pujo season in West Bengal, it is mostly a chance to reunite with friends and make promises to meet up more often, some of which get kept, and to meet new people who arrived in August, who are still making themselves at home in the area. One day I am sure I will get to see what is missed so much by others, but that day has not yet come.

Also during the puja season, I like to cook, and cook a lot. All Bengali food, obviously. This year I made alur dom, cholar dal, luchi, sooji halwa, labra, and a chicken curry, among other things that now I forgot. I ran out of steam before attempting mutton or fish; I am much better with veg food than nonveg anyway, so it was perfectly fine :)

Diwali week again was busy, though I wasn't really expecting it to be. I went to not one but two Lakshmi Pujas on the same day, and the days before and after were spent meeting and greeting friends and making sweets for said meet and greets. I wasn't even at HOME on Diwali and the lights I had so carefully put up on the balcony went unlit that day.

And the college festivals - both were at our local university - India Night came first, the week after Durga Puja, then Bangladeshi Night the week after Diwali. For India Night, I sang Iktara, from the movie Wake Up Sid. (And no, I don't have a video yet.) Bangladeshi Night was more involved; I sang three folk songs as part of a small chorus with two guitar players, and provided the percussion via my electronic tabla app. I was also asked to help with makeup, and spent much longer than expected in the sound check - between all these things, I didn't sit down for nearly four hours at a stretch. Both festivals went absolutely wonderfully and great memories were made, but I certainly did fantasize about a nice, quiet weekend doing nothing but sitting in bed watching Cosmos on Netflix!

Which, of course, has not happened... because festive season #2 is quickly approaching with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years coming up. We're still trying to figure out with A's schedule if we will travel or not this season but right now it's looking like no. Even if we stay here though, it will still be a flurry of parties, visits, baking, decorating, and gift-giving. It never stops, and I think I kind of like that. :)

Oh, and I dressed up as Pusheen the cat for Halloween.

D.B. and me for Halloween - the dark angel and the fat cat. Also, glitter.

Fall Garden Update

It's too late in the season to take any good pictures, but here's how my first summer where I actually grew my own plants went:

Methi: My methi plants (fenugreek) grew from seeds and they were perfect. I grew two batches in a large pot and harvested and used both. It was a great start to the year, and I should have kept doing it throughout the summer. I'll definitely be growing this again next year.

Mint: Flourished like crazy for months and months. After three tries, I got a cutting to grow and now it's living happily in Portland with my friend Renee. Unfortunately, about a month later, the plant was root-bound and the stems got woody and leaves shriveled up. I cut most of the stems and loosened the root ball, and I hope that the few little leaves that are left will turn into something, but it may be too cool and cloudy now. Hoping for the best - and learned a lot of lessons for next year!

Rosemary: Perfectly happy plant. Hope to keep indoors during the winter. The only real issue we had was that A. wanted to cook with it nearly every week and so we harvested it down to a single stalk! It's growing back though and he's just going to have to wait a little while.

Marigolds: The ones that I grew from seed never flowered - they grew very, very tall with a lot of leaves, but no flowers came. I still think they kept a lot of insects away. I have what look like buds on the ends of the stems now, but still no sign of flowers; plus it's very late in the season; I'd be very surprised if anything were to come of them now. But I really wanted marigolds, so I bought some that looked a little tired at the nursery and decided to bring them back to life, and they certainly came back, in brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and even a few red ones. I have a few blooms left and even a couple of buds, and hoping they hold out until Diwali; I would love to make a garland with whatever I have left. It's an early Diwali this year, but in this weather it may still not be early enough.

Basil: I bought a basil plant on a whim, and the summer was very good to it. I harvested the leaves a couple of times, but in the end it had the same  problem as the marigolds; the stem grew very long and eventually the leaves got smaller and smaller. I didn't repot it properly; I think I should have put it in a different pot.

I think I will grow all these again next year, but with a few changes. I'll buy marigolds that have already flowered for sure. The mint and basil will go in significantly larger pots. The rest, I hope I can just do more of what I did this year and they'll grow bigger and better. Not a bad start for someone who's really not very good at outdoor things!

What a Virgo does on her day off work

I just got done with a 2200 mile round trip mega-vacation of awesomeness. But I will not post pictures of that right now. Mostly because I forgot to take very many pictures. After the kind of vacation where you forget to take pictures, you really need a vacation from your vacation, so I took one today - and spent the majority of the day organizing my spice cabinet and pantry.

The organized cabinets, which contain (from bottom) tea and other drinks,
sweeteners, and spices I use almost daily; other useful ingredients like
corn starch and kosher salt (and medicine, to make sure it stays out of
the light), spices I use on a less regular basis; and on the top, extras
of everything stored so they are easy for a short person to access.

On the inside of all the cabinets, I have written what is on that shelf.
So now my husband can't make excuses that he can't find things.

Close-up of the list of spices stored on my "I use these all the time" shelf

The organized pantry. Hard to believe that just a few weeks ago I was
throwing things in randomly and shutting the door fast so they wouldn't fall out.

I've found that it's a lot more fun to cook when you're organized. I already did three of the four utensil drawers, and now the pantry, so hopefully this will lead to less stressful cooking that takes a lot less time! Now I can concentrate on getting fresh and healthy ingredients and making tasty food, while also knowing exactly what I have so that I don't go out and waste a ton of money buying extras of things that are hidden in the back of the pantry or cabinet somewhere. Not like I've ever done that, of course, not once or a million times ;)