Happy Pongal |
A snapshot of the Recipe. |
Some of the germinating seeds. |
Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. ~Dale Carnegie
Happy Pongal |
A snapshot of the Recipe. |
Some of the germinating seeds. |
https://www.etsy.com/listing/730462480/november-subway-art |
Apple Tree |
With this magic in the air, I am sharing few pictures of my garden patch. I have tomato plants transplanted here that we started as seeds back in Feb of this year. Once they were about an inch tall, we transferred them from plastic pots. Below is a mediocre snapshot. The taller plants in the center row are the tomato plants and the ones that are lined up at either side of the tomato plants are the kohlrabis. The last empty square patch is for our beans and peas. We have placed a wireframe beside the square patch that lines up nicely with the white fence board. This will be a good supporting framework for these plants.
Tomato and Kohlrabi |
Below is a picture of our pomegranate trees. They are like maybe 4 or 5 years old but haven't started bearing fruit yet. What a bummer :-(. At this point, I see them diligently shedding leaves in winter and coming back to life in Spring. I am wishing that one day they will bear fruits.
Pomegranate |
Composting - terracotta pots |
Today has been such an exciting and wonderful day. 🌞 We had lovely warm weather and it was just the perfect day to be outside. So perfect that I had to walk on the grass barefoot 💖. I was in a state of peace while walking on the cool grass. I spent my whole morning cooking in the garden. Cooking, you might wonder? Well yes, I was cooking up absolutely scrumptious compost, a.k.a Black Gold! Compost isn't rich in N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium) which one may encounter on a fertilizer label. It acts as more of an enricher/soil conditioner, making nutrients more accessible to the soil. My plan was to layer the ingredients in a terracotta pot just like lasagna layers and await for the compost to be ready in 3-4 months. Smell is an excellent indicator of when the compost is ready. If it has a rich earthy smell, the compost is ready; if it gives off an unpleasant odor that means it needs more time to mature. This is my second year pitching in to our family composting project. I gathered up all the ingredients that I needed to make my compost from various organic materials scattered around our backyard. I used one tall tub of food scraps, two tubs of homemade compost (leftover from the previous year), two tubs of green leaves, two tubs of dead plant material, one small tub of earthworms, one big box of regular garden soil, and finally some water.
Ingredients Needed |
Step 5 - Adding dead plant material for carbon (dead leaves, twigs, branches, coco peat) |
I made a resolution this year to make a blog post once every month. This is my second post for the month of February and I’ve kept pace so far! (though two months isn't much of an accomplishment). I'll be glad if I can keep the streak going until the end of the year. This month I have lined up a few things for the blog.
Book Review : The Einstein Prophecy
The book 'The Einstein Prophecy' is a supernatural thriller/mystery book, set in the year 1944. I picked this book from the many free titles offered by the Kindle Unlimited store, the title being catchy enough to grasp my attention. With vaguely predictable events, the story didn't keep me on edge. Despite that, the book kept me engaged and interested with its characters and the way the story was written. In the story, Europe and the United States are engulfed in World War II. Lucas Athan, an American army lieutenant, was assigned with another fellow soldier to recover a sarcophagus from an Egyptian tomb, located in an iron mine outside Strasbourg, Germany. The sarcophagus was shipped to Princeton University for further study, which unlocked various strange mysteries about the box. The presence of the ossuary would produce terrible occurrences from thin air, as the researchers would soon find out.
The study was conducted by Lucas and his aide, Simone Rashid. Simone was an Egyptian professor turned brilliant archaeologist who originally discovered the ossuary, with the help of her father. During these events, Lucas gets acquainted with Professor Albert Einstein, his next door neighbor and a professor in the Princeton campus. Einstein is secretly helping the US military to develop the atom bomb before German scientists. Einstein knew of the chilling horrors that this super weapon was capable of creating. Later, it is found that Einstein's work is not only of interest to the war powers, but also to the ancient power that is hidden in the sarcophagus. This power seemingly has a role in the development of the bomb, making Einstein its main target.
Overall this book is an impressive read. The first half was captivating, and the work of different scientists and mathematicians like Albert Einstein and Kurt Godel kept me very intrigued. I felt transported into a different world, the book being a good assembly of reality, fiction, and fantasy, all at the same time. Despite appreciating the blend of genres encapsulated into the novel, I tend to read books that are purely their genre.
Broccoli Cheddar Soup:
Ingredients:
Broccoli - 4 cups, chopped
Carrots - 2, medium sized
Large onion - half
Garlic - 7 cloves
Heavy whipping cream - 2 cups (whole milk, heavy or light cream, or half and half can be used as well)
Mild cheddar - 2 cups finely grated (most recipes call for sharp cheddar)
Cayenne - 1 tsp
Salt - add to taste
All purpose flour - 2 tbsp
Mustard - 2 tsp
Water - 4 cups
Recipe:
1. Chop up the broccoli into small florets. Cut the carrots into paper thin slices.
2. Finely dice the onion and garlic.
3. In a heavy bottom pan, add 2 tbsp of butter. Once the butter melts, add chopped onion and carrots then saute for around 5 minutes. Once the onions and carrots are a slightly translucent, add the garlic and sauté till fragrant. Then add half a tsp of salt.
4. Add in the all purpose flour and saute for a couple of minutes.
5. Add in the water and heavy whipping cream. Once it starts simmering, add the broccoli. Cover the dutch oven or the heavy bottom pan with a lid and cook for 15 minutes. (The broccoli needs to be soft and not overcooked. Open the lid after ten minutes and check for softness. If the broccoli isn't soft enough, cook for another 5 minutes.)
6. Add the mustard and cayenne pepper.
7. Turn off the heat and add the cheddar. The cheddar will dissolve into the soup.
8. The soup can be served with croutons. Serve, and enjoy!
This year we jump-started our garden project early, with a batch of tomato seeds.
Step 1 - First we removed the tomato seeds from the packets, and lining them up in a napkin. We then sprinkled each napkin with water. (Jan. 18, 2021)
Step 2 - Once the seeds were sprayed with water, we slid them in Ziploc bags. (Jan. 18, 2021) We stowed them away in a dark place and kept them covered with a cloth so sunlight wouldn't pass through.
Today is Jan 18,2021. It is a federal holiday here in the United States marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King was born on January 15,1929.He is known for his civil rights movement and peace movement. He believed in non-violence and was also inspired by non violent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. And he delivered the very powerful and iconic "I have a dream" speech on the steps of Lincoln memorial on August 28,1963. The message conveyed through this speech is so beautiful and powerful. I have provided the audio link below for bloggers and non-bloggers interested to hear this speech.
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/i-have-dream-address-delivered-march-washington-jobs-and-freedom
Below is my January recipe share- Banana Chocolate bread
ripe bananas - 3
sour cream -1/4 cup
butter -1 stick melted
eggs - 2 eggs
sugar - 1 cup
vanilla essence 1 tsp
Dry ingredients
all purpose flour -2 cups
baking soda - 1 tsp
salt - 1/2 tsp
Optional Ingredients
semi sweet chocolate chips - 1/2 cup
walnuts - 1/2 cup fine chopped
Procedure
Mix both the dry and wet ingredients . Incorporate until well mixed. Make sure there is no dry flour left in the bowl. Add in optional ingredients and stir. Bake at 350C in a loaf pan for 1 hr. Cool for 15 min before cutting into slices.
Below is my 1000 piece puzzle that we started after Christmas and finished it on MLK day!!! Thanks to my sis who inspired me to start this puzzling activity. To be honest it is quite addictive and I am extremely happy it is complete today. I am so ready to commence my next project ..."Growing Tomatoes from Seeds".