Broccoli for Breakfast

Seems like these days all the cooking revolves around using up what’s left from the garden! We had our first frost over this past weekend and all the remaining vegetables in the garden needed to be plucked and brought in. I have two brow bags with green tomatoes ripening on top of the kitchen cabinet. There are about 2 dozen butter gourds waiting to be roasted on the counter, along with some bell peppers, chilies and hyacinth beans. The last of the broccoli has been waiting to be used up and this morning I decided I can’t let them go to waste. So I did a quick stir fry of them with some garlic, ginger, almonds and coconut - breakfast is ready!

Spooking the Sparrows

I love all my backyard birds - even the house sparrows that flock in dozens & empty the feeder I refill in about 20 minutes flat, even when they kind of yell at me when the feeder is empty. recently I bought a bird feeding station kit where I can hang about 4 different feeders, it includes a suet cage and a tray and also a small bird bath. I also got a woodpecker feeder for adding peanuts and sunflower seeds. 

The problem was some of the sparrows decided they liked this feed better than their regular mix. It was fine for the most part, but they were aggressive towards the woodpeckers and the nuthatches. The poor downy woodpecker below, tried and tried, but couldn't get a morsel when the sparrows were there. 

After a lot of research into sparrow spookers, I settled to make a Magic Halo! Most of the commercially available ones are for keeping away all birds and this is the only thing I found that helps to keep sparrows away from feeders. I used a plastic bowl, drilled a few holes in it and dangled 6 jewelry wires from it. And it really worked like a magic! It's been a few days since I have put this up and the sparrows are sticking to their feeding station. Almost all the other birds - woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees and a few red-winged black birds and grackles have been visiting the woodpecker feeder without having to fight with the sparrows! Every once in a while there is an errant sparrow on this feeder, but they hardly stay on. 

A blurry photo from inside the kitchen doors to show the sparrows sticking to their station & the ground :) Now I am tempted to get one of these stations for the front yard too!

Frontyard

Today the suet feeder in the backyard was empty - with so many birds at the feeders, it seems like a daunting task to keep all of them filled all the time! The White Breasted Nuthatch was having a tough time competing with the other birds on the regular feeder and managed to discover the feeder in the front yard. He even managed to bring a friend along today & this is the first time I have seen 2 of them at the same time. 

The doves also love the front yard more! Sometimes its useful to have the red-winged black birds (female in the picture below) come around to splash some seeds on the ground for the doves.

Downy Day

Among all the visitors to the backyard, my favorite is the Downy Woodpecker - the smallest of all the North American Woodpeckers, he is elusive and I have to sit still for a while before he will land on one of the pear trees. Last week he found his favorite suet in the feeder & gave me a chance to get some nice shots...

...till one of the blue jays chased him away for a bit! He came back & hung out for a while and I only accumulated about 5 dozen pictures of him :)

Fur, fur, Baby!

The sparrows have learnt to expect a hoard of soft fur when the dogs get shed in the backyard. They wait for me to finish shedding and as soon as the dogs run away, they swoop down to fetch their treasure. Eyes on the prize, they completely ignore me & the camera...

Backyard Birds

Recently I have taken to having my DSLR camera with me when I sit out in the backyard with the dogs. We have set up a few bird feeders and a couple of bird houses. It's been wonderful to see so many different birds come to the yard and there's also quite a few of them nesting! Here are some clicks from a couple of weeks back...I am hoping to keep this blog alive with at least posting a few pictures now & then :)

Dessert Planning

I am having guests again this year for thanksgiving and I have been so happy the last couple of weeks since finding out! And of course, trying to figure out what to make for the big dinner. So many different dishes are being considered and finally I decided on the dessert today! Yay!

I made this Coconut - Orange -Caramel flan in 2012 April for a party. Version 1 was made in small ramekins in the microwave. It was slightly dense as I forgot to add the milk, but still very delicious.

 

The bigger piece was made in a quiche plate in the oven and was perfect. Almost everyone had at least 2 pieces and one friend had 5 :) Hopefully it will turn out as well when I try it the week after next! Now I have just got the soup and a couple more dishes to decide...

 

Composting

Three months in the new house and we finally have a compost bin. A joint project between my dad, Shankar and I! Hopefully Kalki will not try to get in there and the bottom wooden box should keep the smaller critters away. Its 3x3x4 feet and cost under $15. Took us about 30-45 minutes to put it together. Happy Composting!

Guest Babies

We had two beautiful American Robins fledge from their nest last week. The nest was by the rose plant on the arbor in the backyard. Yay!

 

Playing with Yarn

Though I learnt to crochet years back, I hadn't been working diligently on any projects or finishing the one Afghan I started. Recently, with the inspiration from the fund raiser, I have been working with the yarn I have accumulated and making neck warmer/ scarfs. The rose colored one is the neck warmer I am sending to one of my friends. I also added three buttons to it and it is made from a wool / acrylic blend yarn. The middle lavender with silver strand one is more lengthier and made of a acrylic/rayon/nylon yarn. The most recent one in awesome gold/orange is actually made with two different skeins of yarn - I just pulled them together through the hook. 

The first two have the same 'Dew drops' pattern and the last one has a 'Tipsy cluster' pattern. The stitches are from the book "The complete photo guide to crochet" by Margaret Hubert. I have loaned this book from the library, but it is so good, especially with pictorial representation on the stitches that the book is making it to my wishlist! I might have made more progress on my crocheting if I had come across this book before. But right now, I seriously wish I could pick up skills with MATLAB as fast as I can with yarns & hooks :)

Krazy Kiddo

Off? Are you sure recliners are not for my comfort?

A Cause & A Venture

The right side of my brain has been more active recently, especially after spending my day with mathematical models. I have been inspired by my friend Sujju Prakash, who has been making jewelry as a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in memory of Dr. Prakash Krishnaswami from K-State. I am trying to help, in my own little way and as an added bonus I kill some of the boredom when Shankar is not around. 

I have a google site ~ Bee's Beads & Colors ~ where I am selling handmade earrings & my paintings & in a few days hoping to add some of my crochet stuff. All of the proceeds will go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Below is my productivity tonight after a day of wildlife, vaccines & models!

Amy in her new Pool

How else could she cool off in this crazy heat, after playing in the dog park?

Inspired by Africa

Here is one of  my latest paintings...the pattern is inspired by a ceremonial cloth from Africa, which was on exhibit at the Art Museum in St. Louis.  I was gonna paint a kolam on top of this after a this layer of glazing. Shankar likes it as it is. Hmmm.......

Acrylic on 12x12 canvas

Waiting for Friday

Its only Tuesday and I am already waiting for Friday, when Shankar is coming back home with my two birdies. The house is way too quiet without them - I know we like them even when they are screaming. I miss being greeted by Nikko even before I open the door, Pepper calling for me to come near her and wanting to get on my fingers. I even catch myself looking out for Nikko ready to jump on me when I come through the hallway :) And it is no fun having Shankar all to myself without the crazy competition for attention from Nikko!!!

Painting Landscapes

After years of playing with different paints on various surfaces, I finally got to sign up for a class on versatile acrylics at the UW Extension last week. The class for me was mostly about learning new techniques and get a better understanding on some of the stuff I already do. It did not help being the only newbie in class though. The first thing we did after doing the color wheel, tints & shades was to do a still life in black & white value. One of the hardest thing I have ever done! whew!

The next day we did our "master project" that you are seeing below. I didn't get to finish it till tonight. It was a fun time and I ended up asking a lot of questions to the instructor. I am kinda happy with the way it turned out. What I am not happy about is the foreground with the grass & shrubs. I love my dead trees and the sky :)

Boondhi Laddu

There are a few times that I take on a challenge of making something that even my mom hardly makes in the kitchen. Given the childhood memories of my parents inviting a couple of "chefs" to come help in preparing the sweets and snacks for Diwali, somehow making the traditional laddus and jelebis seem to be a big challenge to take on by myself. Trying to make boondhi laddu by reading recipes on food blogs and cook books definitely falls under the challenge category. Especially after it involved calling my parents for troubleshooting in the middle of their night :)

Here is how I made them: I whisked together about 1 cup of besan flour (chickpea) with water to make a thick paste. I warmed a few tsps of milk and soaked a few strands of saffron in it for a few minutes and added the milk to the besan batter. I then fried the boondhis by sending this batter through a ladle with holes in it over hot oil. The boondhis don't have to be fried crisp. In a separate pan, I made sugar syrup by boiling together 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water. I also added a 1/4 tsp of cardamom powder, about 1/4 cup of broken cashews and raisins fried in ghee to the sugar syrup. The final step is adding the boondhis to the sugar syrup, let them soak and after cooling for a little while, mold them to laddu shapes. 

The hard part for me was getting the boondhis to be perfect pearls. Mine turned out to be teardrops, of spheres with a tiny tail, no matter whether I diluted the batter or thickened it. Or whether I moved a little higher from the oil or closer to it. I have not made the laddu again to figure this out. I was simply joyed that the laddu was not breaking apart and held its shape. Overall, the taste was perfect and the kitchen was filled with the sweet aroma of ghee and cardamom :)

Our little Garden

After almost a month of getting things ready, we finally have a small vegetable garden now. Our landlords are avid gardeners, but the house is surrounded by ornamentals and they have never grown vegetables before. And so, we had to make a special patch in the backyard, and now we have the seedlings planted. I have a lot of swiss chard going and now that I am spending three weeks in St. Louis, I am hoping all my plants would be alive and well when I get back to Madison. I also have three varieties of beans, five varieties of chilli peppers, three tomatoes, one tomatillo and two varieties of eggplants in addition to a few kale and cabbage plants. And the spinach are happy in their pot :) 

Cozy Corner

Here is one of my favorite picture of Nikko taken in Owen, a couple of years back. He was hiding in Shankar's sweatshirt pocket and was curious what I was up to.

Dead Trees Next Door

This used to be the view from my living room window ~ minus the dude on the tree. Now the dead trees are gone! The view still looks good ~ minus all the woodpeckers that loved these three dead trees. And I miss scanning the trees for the peckers as I sip my morning coffee. On a cheery note, a pair of black-capped chickadees have taken residence in one of the bird houses in the yard :)