Its all about the small things

There’s something comforting about routines, with the familiar. And it invariably is the small things. My toddler wakes up in the morning and he no longer wants to be in his crib. He wants to get on to our bed, lie there and warble. Kick his leg against the headboard, against us. He is thrown if one of us gets up before he has finished with his baby-talk.
It is not just babies. For me it is getting up in the morning and putting on the water for my ginger lemon tea. Pouring it out into my old chipped mug that screams coffee on all sides. Sitting at the table, sipping the hot liquid, doing nothing, be undisturbed for a few minutes before the day begins. And I am happy. In control.

My morning cuppa.

A sweet and sour story

The husband goes for a haircut and comes back with a bagful of the smallest and cutest looking mandarins. My 14-month old would love these. We bought them one time before and he absolutely adored them. He can peel off the skin with his little fingers and eat them. The end result was a very sticky, but very happy toddler. When the little one woke up I opened the bag and handed a mandarin to him. Except he poked it a bit, tried to bite it and then threw it away. Strange. The little one has yet to meet a fruit that he has not loved. That’s right, any fruit, any shape, sweet or sour, chewy, juicy he loves them all. This is a first.

When I picked up the discarded fruit and tried to peel it, the peel would not come off. I looked closer and all the little fruits were oblong, did not have the mandarin-y shape to them. I cut one open and it was different inside. It tasted a little tart, a little sweet and I was eating the whole fruit skin and all. Obviously this was no mandarin.
The husband is sticking to his story. Tiny mandarins they are. Right. May be he read the label on the one next to these sweet tart ones. But mandarins they are not.
No I am not being uncharitable toward the husband. But his history with strange unknown fruit/veggie makes me think otherwise. A few years ago when he was based in New York, my husband and his friend M, picked up a durian thinking it was a variation of jackfruit. Yes. M took it home. I can only imagine the *stink* that must have pervaded her house. I hear there was a lot of name calling by the two friends. And M stayed at her sister’s for the night while the house got rid of the smell.
So what could this be? I munched on a few. I remembered having tasted a kumquat dish a long while back while visiting friends in Alabama. But I had never seen the fruit before. But Google gods confirmed my doubts. My taste association was bang on. Kumquat it was.
So the next day I decide to dress up the kumquats with some ginger, green chiles and curry leaves and sass it up with some panch phutana. Panch phutana (equal parts mustard, cumin, fenugreek, fennel and nigella seeds) pairs well with almost anything.

Kumquat khatta

Kumquat khatta or chutney

Heat 1 tbsp oil

When smoking hot, add
1 tsp panch phutana

Let the seeds come to a sizzle before adding
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
4-5 green chile
1 sprig curry leaves
Move everything around for 3-4 minutes

Add
1 lb quartered and deseeded kumquat
Add a pinch of turmeric
and salt to taste

Lower the heat. Cover the pan and let it simmer away for 5 minutes.


Now add half a cup of water.


Let it all come together and cook for 5-7 more minutes. The water will have dried up by now. And the fruit would be soft and cooked through. One thing I loved about kumquats is they retained their shape after cooking.

We had ours with aloo parathas.

Yellow hello or hello yellow

I am trying to teach my toddler colours. He has a play mat with red, blue, green and yellow coloured squares. I take his little hand put it on the different squares and go, blue, red, green, yellow. Sometimes when I say red he will say 'd' only with a lot of emphasis and it comes out like ddh, ddh. So far so good.

But when I say yellow he immediately puts his palm against his ear.

In his understanding yellow and hello are the same. And he is used to seeing his parents do a lot of hellos over the phone. So for yellow he walks around with his hand against his ears and a big smile on his face that says, 'I get it Amma.'

The other day we were in the lift with another gentleman who smiled brightly at my toddler and said 'hello!'

My son immediatley put his palm against his ear and smiled at me and at the gentleman.

And I went into translation mode...

Why?

My other half says that I spend a lot of time reading blogs.
Mister, I think. You don't know the half of it.
He would surely have a heart attack and then some more if he knew the extend of my addiction. I blog hop when I chat with family, when I try to teach myself Illustrator, when I am just hanging around the internet, its the last thing I do before I hop into bed. I could go on.
Seriously. Now is this a good idea to start a blog when I should be trying to curb my blog hopping?
Let's see if I take myself to new heights.