The Best

Post by Ranu

I used to wonder what it meant, if someone said, ‘this is the best.’ It took me a while to comprehend what the exact meaning of those four words that crowded my mind, really means.

I got my chance when my husband went looking for a car he wanted to buy. He bought a magazine named ,’Consumers Report.’

My husband spent six months reading about various cars. Every now and then I’d question him, ‘hey did you find the best car?’

He’d give me a look which seemed to say, ‘Do not disturb me. It’s too complicated for you to understand.’

Then came the day when he wondered about the colour, obviously he found what he was looking for. He couldn’t decide on the colour so he asked me, ‘what do you think?’

In two seconds I said I like burgundy. From his look I knew he didn’t like my preference. He tried to make it a bit sweeter, he gave me a lot of examples why burgundy is not suitable for the climate in this country. He said because of the weather, he believes the colour lemon would be perfect. You’d be able to see it in snow or fog. I did not agree but kept my mouth shut.

Next thing I saw was a Ford Fairlane lemon colour car arriving in our parking lot. My husband was ecstatic not only he bought the best car and also his favourite colour lemon.

A month later, we got ready to move to Newfoundland. My hubby was the driver. Each mile he covered he was praising his car.

We were on Quebec highway the sunlight was gone and evening set in. It was dark and the narrow two lane highway was scary, suddenly there was a thud sound and the car’s fuel indicator turned to zero. It was a cause of worry, luckily we were near Nova Scotia, in a few minutes we found a garage. The guy at the place exclaimed your fuel indicator is bent. You must pay attention, if the indicator shows zero, it means the gasoline is half full.

Cautiously my husband drove to the ferry, which would help us get to Port Aux Basque. After arriving in Port Aux Basque, we realized there were ten more hours left to get to Gander, which was our destination.

We were taken to a hotel where we stayed for a few days. When we settled in my husband took the car to the Ford’s dealer. They could do nothing.

After five months in Gander, we had a stormy winter. My husband noticed the power steering of the car was tight in the morning. He had to turn on the ignition and wait ten minutes in the car for the steering wheel to loosen up.

Once again he took it to the dealership and the reply he got was, ‘Doc we cannot fix it.’

I could not help but remind my dearest hubby, ‘lemon is the best it is visible in snow and fog!’

………………………………………… 🙂

Daily Prompt : Nuance

In response to daily post’s prompt : Nuance

The story of the yogurt salad

Once my husband  was preparing a yogurt salad, he used all  the ingredients required for it, somehow  it did not taste right. My husband asked me,  ‘what do you think is wrong?’

I’m not an expert on how to make anything taste better, but that day something clicked in my brain. I told him perhaps a tinge of sugar and another squeeze of  lemon may do the trick, initially it had no taste, it was as bland as it can be. I was confident it certainly will whip up  some flavor in the dish he so carefully prepared for our guests.

It was the first time my husband agreed to follow my advice, he added a dash of sugar and squeezed some more  lemon juice,  guess what? That subtle difference, was all he  needed to improve the salad.

……………………………………… 🙂

 

My post on lemon and lime pickle

Lemon and Lime Pickle

A few weeks ago, I went to Costco to buy some groceries. While walking along the aisles, I saw bags of fresh limes and lemons, what’s more important was they were so cheap. I thought of the supermarket where one lemon is a dollar and not so fresh. As soon as this thought entered my head I picked up a bag of lemon and a bag of lime.

When I came home I looked at the bags I was guilty, I bought these bags of lemon and lime and couldn’t figure out how I’d use them. Two whole days went by and my fridge was full of lemon and lime, I didn’t even use one, immediately I thought of the quote; “Penny wise pound foolish.”

I always used this quote to make fun of my husband. I gave it some thought and wondered was it possible to pickle them, I didn’t have a recipe. I turned on my computer and typed, “Epicurious. com, lime and lemon pickle recipe.” Within seconds there were a whole bunch of recipes, I had most of the spices and other ingredients, I just needed some mason jars. I bought them from Walmart.

Next day I took out the limes,  followed the recipe, sterilized the jars, and poured the quartered limes that I mixed with the spices and other ingredients, I put the lid on and put them on my kitchen windowsill, hoping we’d have enough sunlight to infuse them, a week later, I tasted them, I didn’t like the taste, so I used more spices and all the other ingredients and mixed them, then   put them back on the windowsill. I left them there for another week. It tastes amazing now, I can’t believe I’d be so pleased with the finished product.

I applied the same technique with the lemons, now I have three jars of delicious pickle. I’m so glad I didn’t let the bags of lime and lemon to rot.

Below is a photo I took of my pickle. I wish I could share with my blogger friends.

 

Lime and Lemon pickle

Sunday’s feature: From Ranu’s kitchen, famous Bangladeshi dessert, Ras gulla blogging 101

Today I’m posting our famous dessert recipe and a photograph taken by me. I’m not a seasoned photographer, therefore there will be flaws for which I apologize. I have not practiced enough to make it perfect, sorry.

Recipe for Rasgulla(cheese balls in syrup):

Ingredients:

1. Whole milk- 2 litres
2. fresh lemon- 3 squeeze to get the juice , set it aside
3. plain white flour- 2 tablespoons
4. soft butter-2 tablespoon
5. Method:
6. pour the milk in a round pot with a lid(the lid will be useful later)do not cover, slowly bring the milk to a boil, when it comes to full boil, pour the juice of the three lemons, wait for a few minutes until the milk curdles and cheese is formed. Use cheesecloth to drain the water. When the water is drained completely, squeeze the cloth to make sure all of the water is drained and the cheese is lukewarm. Take the cheese  out of the cheese cloth and put it into a bowl large enough to be able to knead. Add butter and the tablespoons of flour. Mix it in the cheese and knead it. when the cheese is smooth and doesn’t crack, when you try to make into little balls, it is ready. It makes about eighteen balls.
7. Syrup ingredients:
8. Water- 6 measuring cups
9. sugar- three measuring cups
10. Use the same pot to make syrup, wash the pot thoroughly , pour the water and sugar and place it on the stove top, turn on the heat to medium, when the sugar dissolves turn up the heat to full boil, when the syrup is slightly sticky,put about nine cheese balls to avoid them from rubbing each other, otherwise the balls would break. Cover the boiling cheese balls in syrup at  high heat for five minutes. Turn the heat slightly, continue boiling for ten minutes this time, after fifteen minutes, turn down the heat to medium and leave the cheese balls for twenty minutes more in the syrup. The last  ten minutes turn the heat to simmer. While cooking you must make sure the syrup is not too thick, if it is have some plain boiled water and add it gently. Do not put too much.
11. After forty five minutes take the cheese balls out gently. At this stage they are very soft, it’s a good idea to wait about five minutes, and then take them out one at a time and place them in a serving bowl, save the  the syrup for the next batch.
12. Repeat the same method for the remaining cheese balls, when all eighteen are cooked put them in the same serving bowl and pour the remaining syrup over the cheese balls.
13. Enjoy!
14. …………………………….. 🙂

DP Daily Prompt: Waiting Room

“Good things come to those who wait.” Do you agree? How long is it reasonable to wait for something you really want?

I agree with the saying, I do not think if you want something really badly any time period is unreasonable, it can be thirteen years or more, the stars have to be aligned.

I will tell you why I wrote thirteen years. My husband was shopping for a car, he spent six months to decide which make or model he’d like to buy, he liked Ford better because this is what he read in the,’Consumer’s Reports’ a magazine that gave ideas of which model cars on the road is suitable.

Once my husband was satisfied with the model, it was necessary to know which color, he asked me which color do I prefer I told him my choice, he immediately brought out the disadvantages of my choice. He preferred the lemon color, and told me how the color would be visible when it is foggy or snowy, whereas my choice would make it difficult to see during the said days. I knew by his explanation he was leaning towards a lemon color car.

I told him to buy the color he likes, it was his money and I did not want to be difficult. Two months after buying the car, my husband took a new job. He was driving on  the highways of the province of Quebec, the day was foggy, we couldn’t see what was ahead of us. My husband was driving at 60 mph, suddenly he hit something on the highway, it was a dead animal, he noticed his fuel tank was showing empty, he went to a nearby garage in Nova Scotia to find out if there was a leak in the tank the attendant checked it and said , ‘No but your tank is damaged, it’s slightly bent but your tank is half full.’

It was a brand new car,my husband was not too pleased to find out what happened. This was the first incidence with “Mr. Lemon” then in winter, first thing in the morning the power steering froze, it was hard to move it,the only thing that would help was to start the car and wait ten minutes to unfreeze, he took the car to the dealers they could not fix it.

So we told ourselves we’d have to put up with it because the company had no solution. Two years later there was rust underneath the car even though my husband diligently put it through rust check.

Whenever my husband complained about the car, I was quick to point out, he could not expect anything better from a lemon.

He managed to hold on to the car for thirteen years, ignoring my comments about,”he was penny wise pound foolish.”

After thirteen years he was ready to change the car, when he decided on the model, he asked me again what color would I prefer, I  reminded him I didn’t want to waste my time telling him of my preference. He promised he’d buy the color I want.

It took thirteen years but I got what I wanted!

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/dp-daily-prompt-waiting-room

 

 

365 Writing Prompts: You the sandwich

If the restaurant were to name something after you, what would it be? Describe it(Bonus points for writing a recipe!)

I think if a restaurant were to name after me it would be called Ranu’s Ras Malai. It is a dessert popular in Bengal. The ingredients are simple, you will need sugar, homogenized milk , half and half cream,lemon or white vinegar,butter and a tablespoon of flour.

Recipe for ‘Ras Malai’

1.Whole milk —2 litres

2. Sugar–2 cups

3. half and half cream–1 litre

4. fresh lemon juice or  white vinegar — 3/4 th cup

5. butter– 2 tablespoons

6.flour — 1 tablespoon

Method:

Heat the whole milk in a saucepan, do not turn the heat high, the milk will burn at the bottom, start with low heat until the milk comes to room temperature, raise the heat slightly high, avoiding it to burn at the bottom. When the milk comes to full boil, pour in the lemon juice or white vinegar, both will curdle the milk. When the water and milk solids separate, turn off the stove, take the saucepan off and carefully pour the milk solids in a cheese cloth. When the water is drained and the milk solids i.e the cheese is cool, squeeze out any excess water.

At this stage the cheese will be dry,mix it with one  tablespoon of flour and two tablespoons of soft butter. Knead the combined flour, cheese and butter, until it is soft and pliable. Start by taking a teaspoon in your hand and form into round or oval shape till you use all of the mixture.

Next step is cooking the shapes in boiling syrup of water and sugar mixture.

To make the syrup use the two cups of sugar and two and a half cups of water. In a sauce pan pour the sugar and the water, place it on the stove and let it boil for five minutes, then gently put the cheese shapes in the syrup while it is boiling, Do not put too many at once, the cheese shapes will increase in size, each needs room to expand, they must not rub against each other or they’ll break, boil for seven minutes and turn down the heat to medium low and keep it for 15 minutes,after fifteen minutes turn the stove temperature down to low to simmer for another 15 minutes.

While the cheese shapes are cooking, in a separate saucepan, pour the half and half cream, turn the burner on to low, when it comes to boiling point take out the cheese shapes from the syrup  gently  one at a time and put them in the cream.Give it enough time to soak in the cream, do not raise the heat.

When the dessert is cooked, pour it in an oval or round bowl. Slice a handful of pistachios and use it to garnish the finished product.

Ras means syrup

malai means cheese

Ras malai= cheese in syrup.

p://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/07/23/365-writing-pr…u-the-sandwich/