The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Author: Kim Edwards

An extremely engrossing and well-written book - that's what it is! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and it was always so hard putting it down!

The protagonist is referred to as "the memory keeper" in the title as he captures all his memories through photos. His wife delivers twins - a girl and a boy; but the girl is born with Down Syndrome so he asks his nurse to take away the newborn to a home, thinking that he can save his family from all the misery by being away from the daughter rather than being with her. However, pain and misery start knocking at his door in less than 24 hours of his daughter's departure. And this was just the beginning. The story revolves around how the lives of every member of his family gets a volte-face because of his one mistake!  

Bottomline: Excellent read!

otConfessions of a Shopaholic

Author: Sophie Kinsella

This is from the famous Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. I'd reviewed another book from the series earlier. It was the tone of that book which prompted me to read more in this series. Sophie's writing style is lovable. Her characters are so well-defined.

In this book, Rebecca Bloomwood (the shopaholic) plunges deep into debt and to reverse that she makes several resolutions, read books and what not; but nothing seems to be helping. Instead everything seems to be helping her get more into debt. Everybody around her seems to be getting successful and striking gold; except her. This and the haunting debtors depress her. She decides to take refuge at her parents' place for sometime. On going there she realizes that her frivolous advice to her neighbors robs them a huge amount! This turns out to her advantage.

There are times when I feel like tearing my hair looking at what Rebecca is buying and the way she's going about controlling her finance. There are so many times when I just can't stop laughing out loud!

The one take away message that I got from the book - (apart from obviously that one should be in control of one's finances) success will kiss your feet if you work whole-heartedly. However hard you may work but if doesn't come from your heart, it lacks the golden touch.

Bottomline: A very good read.

"The Lion's Game" and "The Night Fall"

Author: Nelson DeMille

Just so you don't mistake the title for the name of one book - these are two books. I went on a Nelson DeMille spree and ended up reading two books back-to-back by the same author even though I'd vowed not to do so. The reason I don't want to do such a thing is that I get bored of that author because each has a set pattern! However, I guess it was providence which led me to read these two.

Both these books are on the ATTF (Anti-terrorist Task Force); the hero is a part of the ATTF and the whole story is spun around his solving a terrorist attack.

"The Lion's Game" is centered around a terrorist attack which involves the life of hundreds of passengers on a trans-atlantic flight and the personal revenge of the terrorist. It was okay.

"The Night Fall" is again about a flight (which makes one wonder if flights are the only targets of terrorist attack?!) which drowned in the Atlantic. I liked this more because of the smart deductions by John (the hero).

Overall, both are not great but they're fine for a cafe-read.

Bottomline: ok read (and half a star more for Night Fall)

Peanut chikki/brittle

[Sorry, these are the last three pieces that were left.]

My DH and I, both are very fond of peanut chikki. So it made perfect sense to try making it at home. Not that this was the first time; we'd made it once before but that was so long ago that I'd forgotten how I made it. So I used the recipe from Chachi's kitchen.

I used 250 gms of jaggery and around 400 gms of peanuts. We had a packet of Trader Joe's Old fashioned blister peanuts (unsalted) which we used for making this chikki. If you haven't had these peanuts and are a peanut aficionado then let me tell you these are extra long and extra crisp virginia peanuts! One of the best I've tasted! So I put the jaggery into a pan and heated it on medium heat. Added 2-3 tsp oil. Kept stirring it till it changed color. We crushed the peanuts in the food processor. Mixed it into the melted jaggery and immediately spread the mixture on a greased plate (greased with oil). Flattened it with the help of a flat bottomed bowl (katori). Grease the bottom of the bowl so that the mixture doesn't stick to it. Let it cool. For us, it took a long time. Then cut it into pieces. It makes a boxful of chikki!

Homemade pizza!

 

I came across this wonderful recipe once again through King Arthur's blog! You can find the link to the original recipe here. The dough makes two 12 inch absolutely delicious pizzas! Of course, we can't compare them to Sammy's pizzas but for home-made ones they're the best!

We made one pizza the same day while we refrigerated the rest of the dough for later. So that proved that we could make the dough and refrigerate it for future use. I didn't have the Italian style flour so I simply used all-purpose flour but even then we found it pretty good!

Here's the recipe:

2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon Pizza Dough Flavor (optional, but tasty)
1 tablespoon King Arthur Easy-Roll Dough Improver OR Baker's Special Dry Milk OR nonfat dry milk
3 cups (11 ounces) King Arthur Italian-Style Flour* all purpose flour
3/4 cup (6 ounces) lukewarm water
2 tablespoons (7/8 ounce) olive oil

*Substitute King Arthur 100% Organic White Whole Wheat flour for half of the Italian flour, if desired.

1. Mix all of the ingredients to make a soft, supple dough. Knead for 5 minutes. Add more water than specified if your dough is not soft.
2. Divide the dough in half, cover with lightly greased plastic wrap.
3. Let rest and relax for 15 minutes (or for up to an hour or so; work it into your schedule as you see fit). I kept one for only 30 mins or an hour but the other one was out longer. It fermented much more so I think you should give it as much time as it needs to ferment well.
4. Grease two 12" squares of parchment paper.
5. Use your greased fingers to press each piece of dough on the parchment into an 11" to 12" circle about 1/8" thick. I used a rolling pin to roll the dough into a circle.
6. Brush or spray the crusts with olive oil, and let them rest for about 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 450°F (with a pizza stone inside, if you have one).
7. Place the crusts with their parchment directly on the stone, or onto a baking sheet. I directly placed the parchment paper in the oven.
8. Bake till they're just starting to brown around the edges, about 4 minutes. It's for a really short time; you just want to cook the top a little bit so that after you add the toppings the top of the crust doesn't get soggy.
9. Remove from the oven, top with whatever you like. We used readymade pizza sauce, grated mozarella, chopped tomatoes, green pepper and onion!

A shop and a cause

The shop: The Paper Shop.
The cause: an orphanage/old-age home in India.
How are they connected:
Sometime back I'd setup a shop at Etsy (a place to sell handmade stuff), The Paper Shop. Recently I visited an orphanage/old-age home in India, Nethaji Mercy Home, and since then I wanted to do something for them. So I decided that I would use my etsy shop for raising funds for this home. Below is a picture (borrowed from their website) of the children from the home:
On the extreme left and right is the couple behind this home. It was so amazing to meet these beautiful people; they treat all the children as their very own and have devoted their life to the care of these children and the old-age people. On seeing such selfless service, I felt there could be something that I could do and came up with this idea: a dollar ($1) for each item sold at my Etsy shop, The Paper Shop, will be donated to this home.

How you can help?

1. Of course by shopping at The Paper Shop.
   
2. Spread the word: Word of mouth publicity - tell your friends about it, it would be great if you could publish a post on your blog (if you have one) linking to my shop or this post.

There's a link to my Etsy shop on the right of my blog.

Sins and Virtues

I read this verse in Naradapurana (this link just indicates what Narada Purana is, my source is a book by the Gita Press) and found it not only very profound but also beautiful; I've translated it in english too for the benefit of all.

अकीर्ति के समान कोई मृत्यु नहीं
क्रोध के समान कोई शत्रु नहीं
निंदा के समान कोई पाप नहीं
असूया के समान कोई अपकीर्ति नहीं
काम के समान कोई आग नहीं
राग के समान कोई बंधन नहीं
संग अथवा आसक्ति के समान कोई विष नहीं


English translation:
There is no death like ill-fame
There is no enemy like anger
There is no sin like libel
There is no stigmata like jealousy
There is no fire like desire
There is no binding like affection
There is no poison like attachment