Discover Prompt : Day- 5

Day Five Prompt : Dish

When I hear Dish My mind thinks of sweet or Spicy

Never did I Imagine the actual bowl light or heavy

Which is such a shame my mind only thinks of food

Serving platters get no credit for their fancy look

Food served in a pretty plate makes a difference

I write this from my years of experience!

Daily Prompt : Spicy

In response to the prompt : Spicy

When it comes to food, I like it  spicy. One day, my husband and I with our two good friends decided to have Sheesh Kebab for dinner, my husband bought beef and cleaned and sliced the piece of meat into small thin slices. Our daughter was a year old. I cooked a mild flavored chicken dish for her.

Our aim was to make the beef sheesh kebab spicy. I was in charge I used a good amount of cayenne, a quarter teaspoon of cloves, some cinnamon to enhance the flavor, fresh ginger and garlic paste. We marinated the beef mixture for about two hours.

We lived in an apartment in Montreal, we didn’t barbecue in the kitchen, to avoid the aroma in our bedroom, and living room.

The only proper place to barbecue was the balcony. I had the beef ready, my husband grilled it, we brought the kebabs in the dining room and I set the table.

I put my daughter in her high chair, and served her chicken with some rice, she noticed we were eating something different, she made a fuss, she wanted to eat the kebab, not the chicken. I said, ‘Selina the kebab is hot, you cannot eat it.’

She refused to listen and stretched her little hand for the meat. I thought she’d stop eating once she tastes it, she continued eating and  pulled  her tongue, because it was so hot. I tried to convince her the chicken is better, but  she refused to eat it..

I had to surrender  and prayed she won’t get sick.  We had a wonderful time eating the sheesh kebab. It worried me because my little kid wanted to eat the kebabs that were too hot for her!

……………………………………… 🙂

Writing 101: Thing’s I’ve Learned

Today, let’s write a list. Write your own list on one of these topics:

1.Things I Like

2. Things I’ve Learned.

3. Things I Wish

I have chosen the topic:

Things I’ve Learned:

1. Do not give Advice to a friend.
2. Always agree with a friend, even if you know she is Wrong.
3. Be patient with seasons, Winter is always followed by Spring, unless you live in St. John’s.
4. Always keep your bottle filled with water, if you need to Discipline your kitty.
5. Stay away from spicy food if you are allergic to “Cayenne.”
6. If you want your Doctor’s secretary to ‘Smile’, give her gifts at Christmas time.
7. Always ‘Smile’ when your guests arrive.
8. Never say ‘No’ when your guests volunteer to do the dishes.
9. When inviting friends to your birthday party at a restaurant, be ready to pay the ‘Bill.’
10. Stay away from ,Religion,’ or ‘Politics,’ when you have company.
11. The above is a list of things I’ve learned.
12. I hope to get feedback from the participants, thank you for reading it. 🙂

 

Friday Food Feature

Today’s post has some photographs of food I cooked  to post on my blog:

The first one is photos of flat fried bread we call pooris.  I took some pictures of them before frying.

The recipe for this is:

1. cream of wheat–3/4 cup
2. wheat flour- 1 cup
3. yoghurt-8 tbsp.
4. clarified butter (or salt free butter) 6 tbsp.
5. salt- 1tsp.
6. Method:
7. Mix all these ingredients to make a dough.
8. Cover and leave it for one hour.
9. Roll out the dough and cut into small round pooris.( you can also divide the dough into small balls and use the rolling pin to make individual pooris.
10. Deep fry until golden brown.
11. 
12. the above are the fried pooris
13. You can serve pooris with mixed spicy vegetables
14. 
15. Recipe:
16. Frozen peas and carrot vegetables- 1 cup
17. 2 small potatoes , slice them into small pieces.
18. 1 small onion diced
19. two tablespoon oil
20. salt – 3/4 tsp.
21. curry powder- 2 tsp.
22. cayenne powder- 1/2 tsp.
23. ground garlic powder- 1/2 tsp..
24. put the oil in a wok and heat it, add diced onion in the hot oil, stir until the onion pieces  are transparent.add salt, curry powder, cayenne and garlic powder stir for one minute, then add the potatoes, when the are soft enough not mushy add the cup of frozen mixed peas and carrots, stir and leave them for about seven minutes.
25. You can also serve poori with halwa, which is sweet.
26. 
27. recipe for halwa:
28. cream of wheat – 1/2 cup
29. butter – 2 tablespoons
30. sugar – 1/2 cup
31. water- 3/4 cup.
32. Method:
33. toast the cream of wheat, in a saucepan over the heat on the stove at medium heat, let it turn light brown, add butter, stir when it mixes with the cream of wheat, add water slowly when it doesn’t look grainy, it means the cream of wheat is cooked and it’s time to add sugar. Stir thoroughly,until the sugar dissolves with the cream of wheat. Halwa is ready to serve in a serving bowl, garnish with sliced pistachios and almonds.
34. some more pictures of poois, vegetables:
35. 
36. 
37. I hope you will like it when you try it.

DP Daily Prompt: Spice of Success

If ” failure is the condiment that success gives its flavor”( Truman Capote) how spicy do you like your success stories?

I like my success stories to be spicy enough to satisfy my ego. I may or may not have written about this story before, I like reminding myself I am very lucky.

Sometime ago my husband got a job in a small hospital in Newfoundland, while he’d be away all day at work, I stayed at home with very little to do. I looked at it this way, how many times can one spend time cleaning and dusting, it was only two of us and the house needed cleaning once a week.

I was bored, I applied for a teaching job the principal said: “you are over qualified.”

Where I came from higher the qualification the greater are the possibilities of getting a job, one thing made me happy i.e the thought, we were only there for two years and after completing the second year we’d be back in Montreal where our good friends lived.

A year was barely over, when one day I received a call from the superintendent of the school board, he wanted to come to my house to see me. I was surprised to know he wanted to come to my house to see me.

He came with the principal of one of the schools, they asked me a few questions, told me they had vacancies for two teachers, one in grade four and the other one in grade seven. I was asked my preference, I favored grade four, I was told they’d let me know in a day or two.

Before I went upstairs I looked out and found both of them discussing something, I was about to go upstairs when the door bell rang. I answered the door and saw the superintendent, he informed me that they’re pleased to hire me to teach the fourth grade.

I was delighted, soon after my husband called, I gave him the good news and this was the beginning of my teaching career!

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/dp-daily-promp…ice-of-success/

DP Daily Prompts: Nosey Delights

From the yeasty warmth of freshly baked bread to the clean, summery haze of lavender flowers, we all have favorite smells we find particularly comforting, What’s yours?

This month my favorite smell which is particularly comforting is food, any kind, spicy,non spicy, sweet, sour you name it, I like it.

When I wake up in the morning I’m disheartened when I see the clock tells me it’s eight in the morning, I sit on my comfortable couch and begin counting how many more hours I’d have to wait to smell and eventually eat the food. Would you believe it’s another twelve hours before I get to smell and eat.

While I wait I turn on the TV and watch the food network, there is a show called chopped and another one is ‘Cut throat Kitchen’, this one is amazing how the chefs do everything to get ahead of the next person. It’s helpful to me, my time passes quickly.

Yesterday the sun set at 8.53 pm which meant it was time for me to eat. After fasting so long the craving for food suddenly disappeared.

Permalink: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/07/17/dp-daily-prompts/

DP Daily Prompt: Ring Of Fire

Do you love hot and spicy foods or do you avoid them for fear of what tomorrow might bring?

If I’m ever given a choice between spicy or bland food,my choice would be spicy, there is no doubt about it. I grew up in a family where any kind of meat,fish , or chicken was cooked with a lot of spices. I also ate green hot chillies with my food.  The chillies did not agree with my stomach but I did not stop eating them until I got sick. Every time I was sick I promised not to eat those green chillies, it was an addiction  I could not give up completely. 

When I moved to Gander with my husband,there was no such thing as green chillies, the locals did not know them and it was not available. So my obsession with chillies came to a screeching halt. What was available in the store was black pepper and salt. I couldn’t imagine cooking with salt and pepper only, so we asked our friends in Montreal to send us some of the spices we use in our cooking.

This is how things worked out for us as far as cooking goes,there was no other issue, we took trips to the mainland each year and bought our supplies and clothing. 

We moved to the capital within a few years,here we can buy anything we need,all kinds of fruits and vegetables and spices too.

The only food I eat without any spices is steak,to me it ruins the taste completely.

Image from wikipedia

 

k: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/dp-daily-prompt-ring-of-fire

Writing Prompt: History Of Language

Write a piece of fiction describing the incident that gave rise to the phrase, “third time’s the charm.”

Amy and Bruce were playing scrabble. The first time they played they were close,Bruce was ahead by only a few points. Amy was disgusted, she thought she’d win because she had a larger vocabulary than Bruce.

 She challenged him to play another round, she was certain there is no way Bruce will win the second time. Both sat and play was on, Amy made careful note of her points,at one point it seemed Amy would win,she had more points than Bruce. Bruce was relaxed he didn’t care who’d win. Amy picked some letters, her face turned red when she checked the letters, they were Q,J,and X, she had used up her letter U and I. Chances of using Q,J, and X was minimal. when they deducted the points of the letters she couldn’t use, Bruce won the second time also. Amy gave up,she stood up to leave.

Bruce convinced her to play one more time, he said, “You know third time’s the charm.” Amy did not believe in these phrases, but sat down reluctantly to play one more time. 

This time it was taking longer to finish the game, Amy was tired and lost interest, but Bruce kept encouraging her. Each one picked up their last seven tiles. Amy checked hers, all her tiles were looking good, if she could use her strategy well,chances were good she could win.

It seemed Bruce was too serious,did he get letters he couldn’t use, well he had the same fate as Amy,he could not use all his tiles and ended up losing.Well he said, “Didn’t I tell you third time’s the charm.” 

Whatever, Amy said, “I’m hungry let’s  go to “Burger King” and have some spicy burgers.”

k: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/writing-prompt…ry-of-language

DP Daily Prompt: Pour Some Sugar on Me

Sugar is great, had I not known how it  stealthily comes to make me eat it and then does all the evil things to me. Can I make a list,why I think so?

Sugar ruins my teeth, it causes my blood sugar to rise, it makes me gain weight, so I cannot really befriend sugar. As tempting as it is I have to think about my health before I give in to a slice of cheesecake or chocolate coated cashews.

When I was young I did not like sweets,I was always in favor of eating spicy nuts,sour berries, tamarind coated with cayenne and simply green chillies with my rice.

I’d get vicious stomach ache  after a week, I’d promise myself and my family I’d never touch the hot stuff.

Addiction tied me down, I couldn’t eat anything without some green chillies, the cycle continued hot chillies tummy ache and my promise to stay away from the hot stuff.

Then I entered into the land of matrimony, my husband loved sweets he’d always ask what’s for dessert,while eating supper. I’d try to keep him away from sweets but could never succeed. I started eating little at a time and discovered this stuff is not so bad. I was liking it more and more. Instead of giving up spicy food I added another thing which was equally bad for me.

Now I wonder who is responsible for my bad habits,I’d say Mom introduced me to spicy foods and my husband for eating sweets.

You want to know  what is my favorite dessert or what is my favorite salty snack. I’d say none of them. They are bad for me.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/daily-prompt-pour-some-sugar-on-me/

Writing Prompt: Far From Normal

I lead a normal life I think.

These are the six things about me,whether they are unique,exciting,or just plain odd things I’ll leave it to you to decide.

1. I can only watch my favorite sports if my favorite team is playing.

2. I am superstitious.

3. I love talking to my pets whether they understand me or not.

4. I have a weakness for spicy food.

5. I enjoy spending time writing the daily prompts.

6. I  wait patiently to read Bronx Boy’s post. I learn a lot from it. It is also entertaining.

The above are the six things about me.

Here’s Nelson.