The cutest cat ever!

Yohoo people! How are you all doing? I am doing great. It was awesome to have Gina-the Candid RD, Emily- the healthnut and Nancy over yesterday. Its much fun cooking when people are open to trying new things and I enjoy cooking for friends. Thanks for all the good things you said about the food on your blogs. I think you've covered pretty much everything. FYI, the snacks I made in order are -Bhelpuri, Dahi (yoghurt) puri, Aloo tikki(potato patti) with garbanzo bean curry called chole, Paani puri and the dessert is called Falooda. The conversation did raise a few questions in my head, like, why is Indian street food called 'Chaat'? Chaat means 'lick' in hindi-the national language in India- so I'm guessing it means licking good food. The other question was why does ever dish have the suffix 'puri'? I haven't been able to find the definition for it yet. First, I thought anything puffed is puri- because the fried Indian bread made from a wheat flour dough is called p00ri and here the rice in Bhel puri is puffed and the puri in paani puri(the puffed water filled one) is swollen( I'm tired of using the word puffed). However, this definition could not justify the flat crackers in dahi puri. I'll let you know when I find out.
Veering off to a totally different subject, I adore Jamie's cat Enky! He is one of the nicest cats I've met- a great innocent playful companion, non smelly, a sweet mew and this is used only when we accidently step on his tail or when he wants to get in from outside. I have to really control myself from picking him up and making him sit with me. Here are a couple of pictures


Enky lazing on my bed


Observation of my each and every move from his vantage point


All out!

Today, we had leftovers from the party. Jamie made a nice cucumber sandwich for dinner- toasted buttered bread, slices of cucumber, fine chopped onion chopped cilantro and mint, salt and pepper and a dash of ketchup. It was sooo good. Most of the times, the simplest, freshest foods are so damn tasty. For dessert we had cake with a dollop of ice cream and raspberries. you really can't go wrong with a dessert like this- it was very good.



Today, Emily had forgotten her gift from Turkey at home. So she came home to fetch it. We were watching Nancy's picture book on Greece sitting on the floor. Of course, the cat tried to be the center of attention by sprawling himself smack in the middle of the book. He was pushed aside unceremoniously. The turning of pages was bothering him I think and he bit into a page! Now the book has two tooth marks on the edge. I was quite surprised. He'd never done that before. It was a nice afternoon with Emily though. I'll miss her very much when she's gone. I really like and enjoy my friends a lot. They make my life happy.
Other than this, I applied for 2 jobs, read about food allergies in the 'nourishing traditions book', listened to a 'Concert for George Harrison' DVD while reading. This was a concert for George Harrison by all the greats like Eric Clapton, Ravishankar, the remaining Beatles (Paul and Ringo), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Monty Python folks (apparently George was a huge fan of these folks)and Tom Hanks was there too. George Harrison was such a nice soul. I miss him. His son Dhani Harrison looks exactly like him! Jamie introduced me to this. You know you can get music concert DVD's from Netflix. I got a 'Queen live in Montreal' DVD and it was sooo good! Then I also saw one of Planet Earth DVD on Seasonal forests. I confess I slept in the middle. We usually turn our lights out when watching DVD'sand I guess that's what makes me sleep. Then I saw a little bit of Prez Obama's live press conference on Healthcare reforms. I'm not really sure of the details, but from what he says it seems like the reforms will enable doctors to make decisions with the patient in mind such that they do not prescribe treatments with their profit in mind (like prescribing a tonsillectomy, where a treatment with antibiotics will treat a case of sore throat). He also thought highly of the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland hospital. I apologize for my utter naivete in this area- it's so complex with so many tugging forces- doctors, patients, the insurance companies, republicans and democrats disagreeing, and even democrats among themselves disagree. Being a prez is hard- but I guess it's satisfying if you really want to solve problems and get some success. I have good feeling inside about Prez Obama. I'll end here.
Ciao folks! Have a wonderful day tomorrow