10 reasons for no recent blog entry

1. In the work-life balance, blogging took the last place
2. My mind doesn't come up with ideas for blogging, it is too full with work issues
3. Online games is the home page on my browser. The moment I open it to connect to my blog, I get distracted by the games!
4. I forgot about my blog, April is about the time that the NY resolutions start to fade :-)
5. my mind is blank.
6. I'm tired of typing, I want a touch screen word processor.
7. It is easier to watch TV or read a book.
8. my mind is blank (did I say it already?)
9. It's summer, who wants to sit in front of a computer?
10. I can't finish this list, let alone write a blog entry.

The Winning Edge

What makes an Olympic medalist? This was the recurring question in my mind as I watched the Winter Olympics this February. Is it sheer talent? Is it the ability to work hard? Or is it the availability of top class equipment? All athletes competing at the international level have abundance of all the above qualities. What then makes a winner? After watching individual sports for sometime I've come up with my own non-scientific list of qualities that a champion has. Let me share the top 3 with you today.

1.Passion and determination to win
2.Ability to focus
3.Mental strength

Let me illustrate these with some examples.

Ask any medalist and they'll tell you that they wanted to win very badly. They'll tell you that they never considered not winning. Think about it for a while. The minute you bring down your standards, you'll stop working as hard. So it is wise to completely eliminate that possibility. Michal Phelps has won 14 gold medals, the highest by any Olympian. Yet he wants to compete in the London Olympics, In a recent interview he said that his passion for winning is still alive.
Surely, nothing can beat that!

Of course, competitiveness needs the ability to focus. The vigorous training schedule, the stress of the actual competition and the glare of publicity tend to take your mind in a hundred different directions. But to stick to the master plan and execute requires a single minded devotion and a laser sharp focus. The altercation between the top 2 male ice skaters in the 2010 Olympics comes to mind to illustrate this point. The Russian skater Plushenko was making big waves with his statements regarding a quadruple jump. This was something that wasn't in his rival, Lysacek's routine. In almost every interview leading upto the competition, Plushenko would bring up the jump. He insisted that without it, a skating program was not fit for a men's competition. Lysacek didn't raise to the bait, he stuck to his routine and won gold. Asked later about the media pressure he admitted that he had taped a note on his mirror which read something like “Mind your Own business” Talk about focusing!

It takes mental strength to overcome a physical injury caused by a sport. Then to come back to compete and win in that sport takes greater toughness. Svidal, a Norwegians skier suffered multiple fractures on his face and a 15” laceration after a serious skiing accident. Eleven months later he won 2 events in the same venue. Most people would have been happen to function normally after accidents. It would also be considered normal if they avoided the accident site. But to compete and win internationally and do it in the same place as your accident – that requires mental toughness beyond normal. That takes a champion.

I'm not an erudite commentator of sports, But in it like life in general, determination, ability to focus and mental toughness define the winning edge.

Olympics & NBC

Olympics - a sporting feat that brings together athletes from all over the world, fighting for individual glory even as they proudly represent their country.It must be wonderful to be part of that environment.

NBC - the only network that will make the viewers on the same time zone watch the games in time delayed broadcast!

The other gripe I have with NBC is that they insult the viewers by pretending that the broadcast is live. They'll show figure skating for 2 mins, break for 5mins of ads. Then they'll cut over to a different sport because the skaters are on ice for their practice. Give me a break! I know the result of the competition. Here the network is trying to build suspense! It would be very funny if it were not a waste of time.

I guess after watching their coverage, I know more about NBC's programme lineup (parenthood, marriage ref etc) than the Olympics. Hats off to NBC. They have managed to make me lose interest in the winter olympics, me - an avid olympics fan!

I've to say it is a feat worthy of a gold medal.

roasted corn and chipotle soup

My resolution to try new recipes has become a family venture now. Help!

I've my husband and both kids hunting for recipes everywhere. It is boring now if I cook my regular set of dishes. Let me set the record straight and tell you that the number in that list is by no means small.

I'm now constantly making trips to the grocery store to shop for new ingredients. For this soup, it was chipotle chili. I'm also richer by one cool cooking gadget. It is a specialty tool for removing corn kernels from the cob. It looks like a peeler and works very nicely.

The story for this recipe goes back to summer of 2009. We went to Santa Fe, New Mexico for the July 4th weekend. We enjoyed the trip very much. In fact we could try out some new restaurants too. For a vegetarian, this is usually not the case while traveling. Venka still remembers the names of the restaurants that we visited. Southwestern cuisine lived up to all the hype, even for us grass eaters. We tried this soup in Santa Fe first. So when I was looking for new recipes, Venka researched and found the recipe. Maybe by next year he'll go the extra mile and cook it too :-)

So here it is, Roasted Corn and Chipotle Soup.
This didn't taste exactly the same as what we ate in Santa Fe. However everyone liked it and I've made this twice already. Just go easy on the chili if you like it mild, it can be very spicy.
The recipe is from the Internet, modified a bit by me.

Ingredients:
5 ears fresh corn, husked
2 red bell peppers
2 jumbo russet potatoes, peeled
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, cut in small dice
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 cups vegetable broth
2 canned chipotle chiles, removed from their sauce, seeded and finely diced
2 tomatoes, cut into small dice
Salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Directions:
Roast corn directly over a gas burner, turning until all kernels take on a smoky hue.
Cut kernels from cobs, reserving 2 cobs.

Roast bell peppers, turning as skin blackens on each side. Place roasted peppers
in a plastic bag; seal and let steam while you prepare other ingredients.

Cut 1 potato into small dice; set aside.

Quarter remaining potato and cover it with water in a small saucepan. Cook
until tender, about 15 minutes. Mash this potato coarsely with a fork; set aside.

Melt butter in the pan, add onion; saute until translucent, 7 to 10 minutes. Add garlic;
saute a few more minutes.

Deglaze pan with the broth. Add reserved corn cobs, diced and mashed potato, chipotles and tomatoes.
Bring to a boil; season with salt and pepper. Simmer until potato pieces are cooked through, about 25 minutes.

While soup is cooking, peel peppers. Discard seeds and membrane and cut flesh into small dice.

Remove cobs from soup and add corn kernels, roasted red pepper and cream. Simmer until heated through, about 5 minutes.
Adjust for seasoning.

Serve with warm tortillas/rotis or bread.

Serves 12.

Note: You usually can find canned chipotle chiles in the Hispanic food isle in supermarkets.
Remove the peppers from their sauce, wash and dry them if you like them milder. Then slice them in half. Scrape off the seeds and mince into a pulp.
Any remaining peppers, when kept in sauce and tightly wrapped, will keep well in the refrigerator for a few weeks.

3 Idiots

Before talking about the movie, let me tell you about the difficulties I had in scheduling the outing.
All the movie buffs in my friend circle had already seen the movie.
The ones who hadn't couldn't find a common time frame to see it. But I was determined that this didn't become another "Slum Dog Millionaire" - thanks to all the non-stop discussions about slumdog, I knew all the scenes of that movie before seeing it!

Oh! the good old college days when it was easy to find friends to see a movie. All I had to do was to decide to watch a movie a few days before an exam! Everyone was waiting for an excuse to put down the books.
For some reason, a popular movie was a good enough excuse :-)

But I digress. Back to the movie. I liked it, would have liked it better if it was shorter. I had tears in my eyes for most of the movie, sometimes due to laughing too hard and sometimes because of some poignant moments. The movie did bring out some valid points concerning the education system in India. To a large extent, those
problems are present in the school system in the U.S. too.

Let me make my point regarding the US school system as I'm going thru that with my kids now. How does any system cater to the majority of its client base with a single process - by targetting the average. By definition, most of the students are average and conforming to a single point of view. The K-12 school system caters to them just fine. It is the kids who fall at the edges of the bell curve that have an issue, Or the kids who learn in a non-traditional way. Of all the non-confirming kids, the schools work better with the kids who are below average. This helps the school increase their scores and they are rewarded for improving. How about the kids who learn quicker? They are left to get bored. As far as I can see, no effort is made to tailor projects to their pace or issue more homework. I've tried speaking to the teachers and things improve for a short time before sliding back to the routine in a short while.

What is the solution? I haven't found one. Unfortunately, the movie didn't come up with one too. A short mention of an alternative kind of school is no answer. Perhaps there is no solution. Perhaps home-schooling is the answer. Perhaps supplementing with after-school activities is a way to go.
Or perhaps getting bored is one of the ways for a creative mind to come up with different ideas.

Only time can time. I can only pray that the result is to my liking.

green apple gojju

Blog regularly.
Well, that’s my resolution for the year. I’ll mostly write about my other resolution, trying new recipes. New is defined as something that I've not tried before. However don’t look here for recipes – it may not be in your best interests. There, now that that is out of the way, let me give you an account of my first experiment.

We have a green apple tree in our backyard. How it grows in our house is still a mystery to me. We don’t tend to it or pay any attention to it, still it grows and thrives. I wish my kids learnt something from that tree. Well, that’ll be my next year’s resolution – instill apple tree values in kids!

Back to the recipe, I decide to cook the apples for my first new dish. My husband picked 5 apples from the tree and put them on the counter. Apples from the backyard, in a new dish. I did feel a bit like Martha Stewart then.
Forget the fact that I’d no idea what I’ll do with the green apples!

Sweet, sour and a bit tart - I'm talking about the apples here. What could I do with them? Gojju came to mind, so I tried my version of it with apples. Surprising it turned out well. So I'm off to a good start. The recipe follows just for the record.
I eye-balled the quantity of the spices, so what I have here is an approximation.


Ingredients

5 green apples
handful Grated coconut
4 red chillis
3tsp dania
2tsp urud dal
1tsp methi seeds
3tsp Sesame seeds
a large piece Jaggery
1tsp tamarind paste
Salt to taste
a pinch Turmeric powder

For the seasoning:

Oil
Mustard
1 Red chilli
few curry leaves

Directions
1.Roast red chillis, dania, urud dal, methi, & sesame seeds. Allow to cool and grind to a powder.
2.Wet grind grated coconut and turmeric powder along with the above ground powder with sufficient water.
3.Cut the apples.
4. In a large saucepan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chilli.
5. Add the apples to the oil and cook till half done.
6. Add the masala paste to the apples and continue cooking. after a while add the tamarind, jaggery & salt.
7. The gojju is done when the apples are fully cooked.

Why Blog:
It's a good idea to figure out the "why" before venturing on anything new. Keeping with this philosophy, I decided to work out my reasons to start blogging.
I started counting the advantages of blogging,

I needed a hobby that didn't require me to be a millionaire,
I can read & write,
I can put sentences together that are grammatically correct (most of the time),
I can do it from home,

the positives are many. So the idea took root.

That was the easy part. Knowing how to put together sentences doesn't help you much when deciding what to write about. Ability to read & write isn't enough to find a worthy subject. As I found out the hard way, creative writing explores your attitude and the ability to view small things is a different light. I've begun to question my every opinion, try to capture all thots travelling through the gray cells of my brain.

My kids will appreciate this. No more nagging from me while I try to call to order my "not-so-random" thots :-)