Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking

Author: Susan Cain

When I read the title of the book, I thought that this is going to tell me ways of how introverts can exert their power. In some sense it does but it is not predominantly about that. It talks about everything related to introverts and exercising your power is probably just another chapter. This is where I was a little disappointed because I was coming with different expectations. What I did like is that after reading the book I realize that being an introvert is normal. That you don’t have to feel guilty if you don’t want to be amidst a group of people (read party). That sometimes you prefer to sit in a corner and read your book.

I learnt quite a few things from this book. It talks about how a long time ago the culture in US was the Culture of Character. What people appreciated most was your character and hence that is what you focused on. Then in the 1900s it changed to the Culture of Personality. What people looked for was how outgoing you were. How comfortable and confident you were talking to people around you. This is what led to the promotion of extroversion. Kids in school are encouraged to participate in group exercises, public speaking and so on. The more you speak up, the more you are heard. Be it in college or in work place. Extroversion is more or less correlated with leadership in everybody’s eyes. People have ignored that not everybody is born alike and not everybody appreciates these extrovert activities. Because extroversion is valued, everybody strives towards it whether they like it or not.

The author also talks about how different races have different degrees of extroversion. Asians as a race are quite introverts (of course this doesn’t mean that all of them are but more people are introverts than extroverts) while Americans by virtue of their origin are not. Most Americans were immigrants – they came from far away lands. This fact implies they have to willing to be travel to new places with new people. Asian culture on the other hand promotes introversion. Kids who talk less and read more are admired more. This is why Asian students take some time to adjust in American universities where they are expected to speak up and in a group setting.

Further, introversion is not just related to people. Just as they shy away from new people, introverts also shy away from new things. They like to take baby steps.

That said it doesn’t mean you will never find an introvert doing anything extrovert. If they have a passion or love of something that requires them to go out of their boundaries then they will do that. They will find it a little taxing though because it will take them a lot of effort and energy to do that; and for that they will have ways to recover their energy back.

My takeaway from this book is – we should identify introverts around us and accept them for who they are. More so with the kids. If there is an introvert kid don’t push them towards extrovert activities. Expose them slowly to new things and people. See what they like. One would wonder why wouldn’t the same advice go for extroverts. Well it does except that people are more accepting towards extroverts than introverts in today’s culture. It is easier to see why someone would want to go to a party vs why one wouldn’t. It’s easier to accept that doing things in a group is fun vs doing it alone. How many times have you seen a lone traveler and wondered to yourself why did they come alone? What fun is that? That is the reason we need to be more accepting of introverts.

Dry Veggie manchurian

I love indo-chinese food and especially all kinds of manchurians! It’s just so yummy! Another friend of mine also likes manchurian so I thought why not make some and then all of us can savor it! I found this recipe by Tarla Dalal (she’s my trusted source for most Indian recipes – except south Indian recipes). I wouldn’t say I followed the exact proportions, just went with ballpark measurements.

Ingredients

For The Manchurian Balls
2 cups finely chopped cabbage
1/4 cup finely chopped spring onions whites and greens (I didn’t have these so skipped them)
1 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup cornflour
1/4 cup plain flour (maida)
2 tsp finely chopped green chillies
1 tsp finely chopped ginger (adrak)
2 tsp finely chopped garlic (lehsun) (skipped this as well since wasn’t sure if DH would like the taste of raw garlic)
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper (kalimirch) to taste
oil for deep-frying

For The Dry Sauce
2 tsp cornflour
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp finely chopped green chillies
1 tsp finely chopped ginger (adrak)
1 1/2 tsp finely chopped garlic (lehsun)
1/2 cup finely chopped spring onions whites and greens
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp red chilli sauce
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper (kalimirch) to taste
1 tbsp finely chopped spring onion greens

Method:

1. I chopped the cabbage and carrot using a food processor.
2. Combine all the ingredients along with 2 tbsp of water in a deep bowl and mix very well.
3. Divide the mixture into 14 equal portions and shape each portion into a ball (if you find it difficult to form balls, sprinkle a little water).
4. Heat the oil in a deep non-stick pan and deep-fry the balls, a few at a time, on a medium flame till they turn golden brown in colour from all the sides. Drain on an absorbent paper and keep aside.

For the sauce

1. Combine the cornflour and ¼ cup of water in a bowl, mix well and keep aside.
2. Heat the oil in a broad non-stick pan, add the green chillies, ginger, garlic and spring onion whites and greens and sauté on a high flame for a few seconds.
3. Add the soy sauce, vinegar, tomato ketchup, red chilli sauce, cornflour-water mixture, salt and pepper, mix well and cook on a high flame for 1 minute.
4. When you are ready to serve (do not do this ahead of time):
1. If there was a gap between when you made the sauce to when you are ready to serve, the sauce would have thickened. That is how cornflour is. So add some water and heat it. Bring it to the original consistency.
2. Add the manchurian balls to the dry sauce, toss gently and cook on a high flame for 1 minute.
3. Switch off the flame, add the spring onion greens.
4. Serve immediately.

Animal Farm

Author: George Orwell

I was looking for books to read when I remembered that I’d been wanting to read Animal Farm for a long time. I had heard a lot about this book so when it finally came up in my library queue, I was so excited! This book did not disappoint me – it was so interesting! The edition that I had, had a preface about George Orwell – what his political inclinations were, how he came about to write this book, his writing style etc. That was the icing on the cake! Fun fact – George Orwell was born in India (to his british parents). It turns out this story is a satire on Soviet Union. To me it felt like this is how most of the world works.

George Orwell’s writing style is very easy going while at same time it’s not as casual as having a conversation. It felt like just right to me. Left to myself, would have loved to finish this book in a few hours but you know how life goes! The story is about a farm where there are a bunch of animals. They have a human owner and his human employees. The humans are detested by the animals for they do not treat them well. No surprises so far. Some animals sow the idea of a rebellion amongst all the other animals and while the animals feel that they would never be able to do such a thing, one day they drove the humans out of the farm and became the owners of the farm. Since the animals don’t like humans and the other farms are run by humans – they do not interact with the other farms. They would like to spread their word to other animals on these farms that they can also take over their farms. However, that doesn’t happen. At this point, it was a true democracy – for the people, by the people and of the people. All the animals are very happy because they are all equals. Everybody (mostly) works equally hard, they get bumper harvests, are well fed and very happy. Slowly and gradually, as time goes by, without anybody realizing some animals get more power and better status than other animals. They now have a leader amongst them who dictates who does what and how the farm should be. This change in dynamics is so interesting to read and love how the author has shown the progression. I will leave the rest for you to read.

While reading the book, I was thinking isn’t this how real world is? Which is what made it all the more engrossing. Highly recommend reading this book!

Vacationland: True stories from painful beaches

Author: John Hodgman

I came upon this book when I was searching Amazon for some book in the humor category. I feel it’s always so hard to find books with humor. There are so many thrillers, drama, etc but humor – nada! This book disappointed to me. It was not like Where’d you go Bernadette or Sex Lives of the cannibals. It was more regular conversational humor – that you and I would add to our conversations. The author talks about his life at his vacation home – how it come about to be, what were his experiences and so on. Honestly nothing much to say about this book. It is more of narration but a funny bit here and there.

Whole grain brownies

These brownies are so delicious that you will hardly notice the difference! I always try to substitute all purpose flour with a whole wheat flour when possible. Only if the taste is not much compromised. I feel that there are so many avenues these days through which we consume all purpose flour that it’s better to avoid when possible. This recipe from KAF is a keeper! I baked half a batch of the recipe and then froze some. I also skipped adding the chocolate chips to avoid making it overly chocolatey – DH doesn’t like it then. To brownie purists I would say that it’s not there isn’t a difference but these taste really good!

Ingredients:

• 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cups light brown sugar
• 3/8 cup Dutch-process cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour, organic preferred (I used the Indian atta that I always have on hand)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a small pan; I used an 8” X 8” pan but even that was big for the half batch. Bread pan seemed to small. So if you have anything in between use that. Line the pan with parchment paper if desired.
2. In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine.
3. Return the mixture to the heat (or microwave) briefly just till it's hot (about 110°F to 120°F) but not bubbling. Don't worry if it separates; just stir it briefly to recombine a bit. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.
4. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, and stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder if using, and vanilla.
5. Add the eggs, stirring till smooth.
6. Then add the flour and chips, again stirring till smooth. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
7. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes, until a cake tester or sharp knife poked into the center reveals wet crumbs, but not raw batter. The brownies should feel set on the edges and in the center. Remove them from the oven, and cool completely on a rack.
8. Cover and let sit overnight before cutting and serving; this gives the bran a chance to soften and become "invisible" in your mouth. I was guilty of tasting it the same day – hard to resist brownies!

Chutney powder/pudi

I’ve been on a roll making instant mixes and powders! Don’t ask me why because I don’t know myself Maybe because it’s been a long time since I did this. As part of my list of to-make-instant-mixes/powders was also this item – chutney powder/pudi. DH loves chutney pudi so I thought it would be nice to try making it at home. That also gave me a chance to try doing something different! I used the recipe here. The proportion called out in the written recipe is a little different than the one in the video. I followed the written directions. The result was a yogurt box full of chutney pudi! Will probably last us a year The taste is really good – the mix of tamarind, jaggery and chilli has got out well. It’s a little on the spicy side – so next time I will reduce the amount of chillies by 1/3rd. I might also increase the curry leaves quantity.

If you’re using your vitamix to grind this – I can’t say about the full size version, I have the S50 – then do so in small quantities. If you put it all together or even half of it, it’s not going to work that well. I know the hard way . Eventually I split it into 5 batches I think and that worked very well. So impressed with my Vitamix

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chana dal
• 1/2 cup urad dal
• 2 tsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 10-15 curry leaves
• 2-3 tbsp jaggery
• big lemon sized tamarind
• 1/2 cup dessicated coconut or dried coconut
• 25-30 byadgi chillies (they are mild chillies)
• 1 1/4 tsp salt

Method:

1. Dry roast the chana dal for about 5 minutes. It gets a little brown in color.
2. Dry roast urad dal for about 2 minutes till it also gets a little brown in color.
3. Heat the oil and add mustard seeds, curry leaves and chillies. Saute till mustard seeds splutter and the curry leaves become crisp. Turn off the heat.
4. Add the dals and the rest of the ingredients to this and mix well.
5. Let it cool.
6. Grind to a powder. Leaving it a little gritty is good.

Dhokla

This fail-proof dhokla recipe is indeed fail-proof! I had bookmarked it a long time back but couldn’t try it because I didn’t have citric acid. The recipe calls out that it is important to have citric acid. I had tried other dhokla recipes without citric acid and they didn’t come out that well. Actually they were also without Eno. So hard to say if one is more replaceable than the other. Nonetheless, I’m glad that this turned out just perfect. DH and I both like dhokla and we both like snacks which is why I’m always on the lookout for healthy snacks. Since dhokla is a healthy snack, I always wanted to get it right so that I don’t have to depend on ready mixes. Not just for their availability at home but also because of high sodium content in ready mixes. I halved the recipe called out and it was great for 2 of us (probably a little extra but it was so yummy that we ate all of it!). You can see how nice and spongy it has come out!

I made the dhokla in a rice cooker. I put around 3/4 cup of water in it. Put in the utensil with the dhokla batter – make sure you elevate this so that water doesn’t get in during steaming. When the rice cooker turned off the dhokla was done. I modified the recipe just a tad.

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Besan (Chickpea flour/ Gram flour)
• 3/4 tablespoon Sooji (Semolina)
• A pinch of Hing
• 1/2 tablespoon Sugar
• Salt to taste

Wet Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon Crushed ginger and green chilies (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon Citric acid
• 1 teaspoon Oil
• ~1/4 cup water (get pouring consistency)
• 3/4 teaspoon Eno (fruit Salt)

For tempering

• 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
• Curry leaves (I skipped these since I didn’t have them)
• 1 teaspoon Sugar
• ~1/4 cup Water
• 4-5 small Green Chilies
• 1 1/2 tsp Oil

Method:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients.
2. Add all the wet ingredients except Eno to the dry ingredients.
3. Beat the batter (with a whisk) well to incorporate air.
4. Get your steamer ready. If you’re using rice cooker, add the water to it’s bowl.
5. Grease your dhokla mold with some oil.
6. Now add Eno to the batter and mix well.
7. Pour the batter into the mold and steam. After adding Eno, you shouldn’t keep the batter. If you want to make multiple rounds, add Eno to the batter for one round, steam it and then repeat.
8. Let the dhokla cool for half an hour and then take out of the mold.
9. Cut it into pieces – cut like you would cut cake with a back and forth action and not a up and down stroke.
10. Prepare the tempering:
1. Heat oil in a small pan.
2. Add mustard seeds, chillies. and curry leaves.
3. When mustard seeds splutter, add the water.
4. Now add sugar.
11. Now pour the tempering over the dhokla. Dhokla should be all wet.
12. It’s all yours to devour!

Hot cross buns

“One a penny, two a penny hot cross buns” ! Have you heard that song? I learnt it in my childhood but DH had never heard of it. So I guess it wasn’t all that popular. Before easter, I saw ads and recipes every where for hot cross buns. This is the song that came to my mind . Given it’s popularity, I figured it is the thing to make on easter. I hadn’t baked anything new in some time and was looking for a new recipe to try. So on it went on my things to try on the weekend. My buns are missing the classic “hot cross” part of the hot cross buns but DH didn’t really care for it so I skipped it

I haven’t tasted them before so I can’t say how close they are to the real taste. They are sweet like the tutti fruti bread we used get back in India (although that was simpler in taste – this cinnamon and a few other spices) and closer to the cinnamon raisin bread (but much lighter on cinnamon). DH really liked it! The dough is hard to work with and hence hard to shape; which is why you se all the buns so oddly shaped and of various sizes!

I halved the actual recipe which meant there was a little extra yolk than the recipe actually called for. Hard to say what was the impact of that. I also substituted apple juice with orange juice as that is what I had in stock. You can also look at more detailed instructions for the same on their blog. Do not compare their photos with mine!

Ingredients:

BUNS

• 1/8 cup apple juice (I used orange juice)
• 1/4 cup mixed dried fruit (I used cranberries)
• 1/4 cup raisins or dried currants
• 5/8 cups milk, room temperature
• 1 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk (save the white for the topping)
• 3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1/8 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 5/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

TOPPING

• 1 large egg white, reserved from above
• 1 tablespoon milk

ICING (I didn’t do this)

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 4 teaspoons milk, or enough to make a thick, pipeable icing

Method:

1. Line a 9” circular pan with parchment paper.
2. Mix the apple juice with the dried fruit and raisins, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave briefly, just till the fruit and liquid are very warm, and the plastic starts to "shrink wrap" itself over the top of the bowl. Set aside to cool to room temperature. Note: If you worry about using plastic wrap in your microwave, simply cover the bowl with a glass lid. I used glass lid here.
3. When the fruit is cool, mix together all of the dough ingredients (including the eggs and the egg yolk from the separated egg); hold out the fruit for the time being. Knead the mixture, using food processor, until the dough is soft and elastic. It'll be very slack, sticking to the bottom of the bowl and your hands as you work with it (greasing your hands helps). Mix in the fruit and any liquid not absorbed.
4. Let the dough rise for 1 hour, covered. It should become puffy, though may not double in bulk. Since it’s cold out here I kept it in the oven.
5. Divide the dough into billiard ball-sized pieces, about 3 3/4 ounces each. A heaped muffin scoop (about 1/3 cup) makes about the right portion. You'll make 6 to 8 buns. Use your greased hands to round them into balls. Arrange them in the prepared pan.
6. Cover the pan, and let the buns rise for 1 hour, or until they've puffed up and are touching one another. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 375°F.
7. Whisk together the reserved egg white and milk, and brush it over the buns.
8. Bake the buns for 20 minutes, until they're golden brown. Remove from the oven, carefully turn the buns out of the pan (they should come out in one large piece), and transfer them to a rack to cool.
9. Mix together the icing ingredients, and when the buns are completely cool, pipe it in a cross shape atop each bun.

Sabudana vada in paniyaram pan: low-fat yummy snack!

Sabudana vada or khichdi are popular during the navratris. DH and I both love both the dishes! During this navratri once I made the traditional fried sabudana vada – it was so good! Heavenly :)! The next time I thought of trying sabudana vada in paniyaram pan as I’d seen on youtube. I was interested in reducing the amount of oil consumed as well as trying a new dish.

1. Create the mix for the sabudana vada as you normally and then shaped them into balls. Balls should be a little smaller than the size of the holes in the pan because the vadas are going to puff up.
2. Heat the pan on medium flame.
3. Drop 1/4 tsp oil in each hole.
4. Put one vada in each hole.
5. Every minute or so keep turning the vadas, so that they cook on all sides. They will puff up and get a crisp brownish exterior.

They are crispy only as long as you eat them fresh. While they may not be crispy later, they are still very tasty! So try them out and I’m sure you’ll like this new low-fat snack!

Creating the mix for the sabudana vada:

You need:

• Potato – 1
• Sabudana – ~1/2 cup or less
• Chili powder – 1/4 tsp or to taste
• Green chillies (optional)
• Roasted and skinned peanuts (optional)
• Salt – 1/2 tsp or to taste

1. Prepare potatoes: Boil one potato and mash it.
2. Prepare sabudana: Take around 1/2 cup sabudana and soak it in water. I typically add as much water as required to be around 1” above the surface of sabudana. Soak for around 3-4 hours. Once you see it is puffy, drain the water and put it in a colander to remove all water.
3. Mix all the ingredients together.

Little Fires Everywhere

Author: Celeste Ng

Mia and her daughter, Pearl, had been leading a very nomadic life so far. Moving from one place to another in a year or two. Eventually they came upon Shaker Heights in Cleveland and thought that they should settle here. They rented an apartment from the Richardsons. Mia was an artist and so that she could pay for her supplies she did some odd jobs here and there. She earned barely enough to keep both of them fed and sheltered.

Life of the Richardsons was on the other end of the spectrum. They had always lived in Shaker Heights, had well to-do jobs and led a very cookie-cutter life. They had 4 children – Lexie, Trip, Moody and Izzy. One day Moody meets Pearl, they became friends and this is where th story starts. Life of Mia, Pearl and the Richardsons slowly starts to inter-twine. While Mia and Mrs Richardson lead a very different life and are very different personalities, they have some very similar motherhood patterns. They let their children be. Except that Mia is not as judgemental as Mrs Richardson. When their presence in each other’s life started increasing, that is when it started to get complicated. And that is when Mrs Richardson investigated Mia’s past to find anything that would be damaging.

It’s a very intriguing story and if life did not get in the way, I would’ve liked to spend a full day to read this book cover to cover. It was always hard to keep it down. Highly recommend reading it!

This is how it always is

Author: Laurie Frankel

Loved reading this book! Would have liked to spend a day just reading this book! I actually took it on our vacation which is where an accident happened to the book and I had to pay a fine to the library. I was not very happy with myself for the accident not so much because of the fine – I read a lot of books from the library so I’m gotten much more benefit from it – but that this why I always worried about taking library books with me on vacation. Regarding what happened – I put the book and the water bottle in the same bag. Somehow the bottle’s cap was loose and it leaked water. Worst part was that the bag’s bottom was water proof so the water accumulated rather than leaking out of the bag! Anyways, you learn from your mistakes.

Coming back to the book. It’s about a family – a father and a mother with a six kids. Everybody around them was surprised that they were having another one when they had their sixth kid. Sometimes they were surprised too. They liked to think that they were having yet another in the hope of having a girl. All their other kids were boys. So was the sixth one, Claude. However once he was no longer a baby, he was not so sure that he’s a boy. He liked to dress up like girls, play with dolls and so on. His parents believed in letting their children be what they are. They were opposed to him doing either. Initially he would wear dresses at home but change to boy clothes for school. One year he took a purse like lunch-box to school which perturbed his teacher a lot. Gradually it dawned on the parents that maybe their kid is a transgender. What follows is the story of a family who go through much trials and tribulations to work with that reality. Of course, it is the hardest for Claude.

What made me love this story is the way the author handled all the situations. Sometimes so real and sometimes just ideal – you wish every one would handle things this way. Rosie the mother is a doctor and very pragmatic. Even though she wants Claude to be his/her own self, somewhere down deep she just wishes that go back to what he is physically. Penn, the father, is a author/story-teller and just like he makes his stories take any turns, he is ready to do whatever necessary for Claude to be what he/she wants to be. Some conversations between husband and wife are so philosophical and fodder for the brain! In the initial stages when they’re discussing which way should they go, they both agree that letting Claude be her would be the right way if that is what he wants. Rosie says that that’s not going to be easy to which Penn replies that we never thought parenting would be easy. That easy is not what we’re looking for. Easy and the right way never go hand in hand. It’s not just the character of the parents, it’s the kids too. They’re always asking the right questions about their brother/sister. How they handle the situations. It teaches you that when life will have it’s twists and turns, they will be unexpected and hard to maneuver. Expect them to be hard. Once you know it will be hard, you will do the right thing. 

Highly recommend reading this book!

White Girl Problems

Author: Babe Walker

It has been a long time since I read a book full of humor. So one day I started searching on Amazon for highly rated books in the humor section. I believe I came across “White Girl Problems” then.

To be honest, I’ve never found a book as painful to read as this. It was as if I was reading chapter after chapter of nothing. Maybe the humor was not what I’m used to because I hardly laughed on anything in this book. I think the last chapter was probably the best. I could see how the situations could be so hilarious but the way they were expressed they didn’t seem funny to me. There were times when I felt sorry for the protagonist. Clearly that was not what I was expecting from this book.

I think FWP (First World Problems) or in this case White Girl Problems, would either irate you because there are bigger problems in the world to worry about or bore you because there are bigger problems in the world that interest you more. However if expressed rightly they do appear funny a lot of times! For example the meme below (courtesy: me.me) is funny to me:

Well if you have reached till here to still see what I say about this book then my recommendation is do not waste your time on it . The only good thing was that it didn’t take me too long to read this book.

Beartown

Author: Frederik Backman

I had read Frederick Backman’s “A man called ove” and really loved it! He is so clear in his mind on the character sketches and equally clear in his expression. You can imagine each and every character in his book as to how they would look, where would  they live and so on. That, I feel engrosses you completely into the story, you feel a part of it. He does not disappoint in this book either. The first book had some humor in it and I got this book thinking it would be too. Even though it didn’t have humor, it didn’t matter. The story was very entertaining and engrossing.

As the cover and title suggest, the book is about a town called Beartown. It has a run down economy, businesses and schools are shutting down. The only hope it has is (ice) hockey. They’ve had great players in the past and there are more in the making. Its not all about hockey though. It is about the lives of the people whose life revolves around hockey, directly or indirectly. Mostly a few school going kids who come from different backgrounds and how their background has shaped them. Maya, who loves to play guitar and would like to be as  far away from hockey as possible but her father is the manager of the hockey team and was himself a great player. Amat, from a single parent household who dreams of hockey day and night. Kevin the best player on the hockey team and from one of the richest houses in Beartown. There are twists and turns that keep you on the edge. All in all I would highly recommend this book.

Smarter Better Faster

Author: Charles Duhigg

As the punchline says the book is all about how you can be more productive and effective in everything that you do. While some things maybe applicable in the work environment alone, a lot of things people can apply to their personal life as well. Each chapter focuses on an aspect that you need to cultivate in order to achieve more productivity. It has plenty of examples to drive in the point and also a lot of techniques how one can inculcate them in their life. The author has collected data from many different fields and that makes the book very interesting to read. From GE to Google to Toyota to some high schools. It talks about how you need to have a high sense of motivation, a productive team, good focus, smart goal setting, ability to manage others and make informed decisions, how to be innovative and to absorb data.

There were a couple of things that were interesting. For example – how a team works is more important than who is in the team, a commitment culture goes a long way vs the startup culture, to make an informed decisions it’s important to know about the failures and so on.

Unfortunately the more I write about the book, the more I would reveal the content and that may take away from the joy of reading this book. I would highly recommend this book. It was very interesting, inspiring and full of great content!

Cinnamon star bread

KAF have a monthly bakealong where every month they share a recipe that the bakers can then make. I've always wanted to participate in the bakealong because just by doing it once a month I would’ve tried 12 new recipes! However you know how it goes. You may want a lot of things but you can only do so many. This recipe was posted for the Holiday bakelong in December. So when the opportunity presented itself – we had to take dessert to a get-together – I jumped on it and decided to try it out. KAF blog said that it is not as difficult as it looks and I took their word for it since you know KAF is my trusted baking site. Sure enough it turned out be quite simple and straightforward. It does take a lot of time because of all the periods when you need to let it rise but it’s not active time. So start well in advance – around 4-5 hours before you need it. Or freeze/refrigerate it the previous day. The result was very impressive and yummy! It was the star of the get-together I followed the recipe as it is without any changes.

Ingredients:

DOUGH:

• 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup instant mashed potato flakes
• 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
• 3/4 cup + 2 to 4 tablespoons lukewarm water, enough to make a soft, smooth dough
• 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

FILLING

• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar*
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions

1. First, measure the flour by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess.
2. To make the dough: Combine all of the dough ingredients and mix and knead in a food processor to make a soft, smooth dough.
3. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let it rise until it's nearly doubled in bulk. I kept it for 60 minutes and it was half way there. Then since it’s winter here and we do keep our house temperature on the cooler side I kept it in the oven with the light on for another 30 minutes or so.
4. Divide the dough into four equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, cover the balls, and allow them to rest for 15 minutes. Again I put it in the oven.
5. On a lightly greased or floured work surface, roll one piece of dough into a 10" circle. Place the circle on a piece of parchment, brush a thin coat of beaten egg on the surface, then evenly sprinkle with 1/3 of the cinnamon-sugar, leaving 1/4" of bare dough around the perimeter.
6. Roll out a second circle the same size as the first, and place it on top of the filling-covered circle. Repeat the layering process — egg, cinnamon sugar, dough circle — leaving the top circle bare.
7. Place a 2 1/2" to 3" round cutter in the center of the dough circle as a guide. With a bench knife or sharp knife, cut the circle into 16 equal strips, from the cutter to the edge, through all the layers.
8. Using two hands, pick up two adjacent strips and twist them away from each other twice so that the top side is facing up again. Repeat with the remaining strips of dough so that you end up with eight pairs of strips.
9. Pinch the pairs of strips together to create a star-like shape with eight points. Remove the cutter.
10. Transfer the star on the parchment to a baking sheet. Cover the star and let it rise until it becomes noticeably puffy, about 45 minutes.
11. While the star is rising, preheat the oven to 400°F.
12. Brush the star with a thin coat of the beaten egg. Bake it for 12 to 15 minutes, until it's nicely golden with dark brown cinnamon streaks; the center should register 200°F on a digital thermometer.
13. Remove the loaf from the oven and allow it to cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve warm or at room temperature.
14. Store any leftover bread, well wrapped in plastic, at room temperature for several days. Freeze for longer storage.

Enjoy!