Pesky head  cold. It’s back again which has meant two days of relative bed-rest (BO-RING). I don’t have much patience with just sitting around “getting better” so of course I decided the solution would be to cook something…and then something else….and maybe one last thing (don’t you worry, I washed my hands often and kept all my germs to myself). So, I bake myself into a tizzy and then need to find a way to dispose of it all…good thing I still have my appetite!  It started with a delicious adaptation of this cauliflower soup (minus the cheese sauce) topped with crispy bacon and served with grilled cheese. Then it was homemade shortbread…don’t judge me…I have a very reasonable explanation…I needed to test the recipe before the Christmas baking extravaganza and see if the toaster oven will cooperate (it did…test complete). And finally, bagels. Rather spontaneously inspired by 1) the amazing 17-year old dynamo behind The Sophisticated Gourmet and 2) a conversation with a colleague about how hard bagels are to find in Kathmandu (I agreed with him until I produced a perfect 8 bagels on the first try…take that Kathmandu…not so hard to find after all!). Being sick isn’t so bad…oh wait…yes, yes it is…all that baking was just a clever distraction from the head cold. Ouch…time to take a nap.

• Marigolds. This time of year is an explosion of natural colour all around the city. But the brightest and most perky of all the blooms are the cheerful and holy marigolds. They bloom from every roof terrace, balcony, and doorway. They are the flowers that make up the ceremonial garlands for honouring people, they are sprinkled over heads as a blessing, and are strung in great long chains over the tops of almost every entrance way in Nepal. The door chains are a good luck practice and they are only replaced once a year during the Dashain and Tihar festivals. They are hopeful flowers, standing tall and eager, to greet me each morning on my walk to work. I love this greeting and will sincerely miss their cheerful vibrant colours when I return to the land of grey skys and rain. I might just have to source myself some indoor pots in fact – it can no longer be Fall without marigolds.  Plus, added bonus, they are a natural mosquito repellent!

• Roasted peanuts in the shell. On a hot afternoon this week Sujata and I dashed out to run some office errands. Along the way back we stopped at one of the street fruit stalls for a snack. New to the table was a big pile of freshly roasted, still in their shell peanuts. Sujata bought a large newspaper-cone full for us to share. As we wandered back to the office and munched on our peanuts I got the full details of how to crack and eat these little gems. I discovered that Nepali wisdom (or maybe myth is a better word for it) insists that peanuts only be eaten in the cold months due to their “heaviness in the stomach” AND that you should not drink water right after eating them or they will give you a stomach ache AND they rare meant to be a social snack, shared with a group of people sitting in a circle in the full afternoon sun, not at other times of day. So many rules for the humble peanut! I followed all the rules and thoroughly enjoyed the whole nutty experience 🙂

• City Park. In the centre of Kathmandu is a large and full enclosed field. In monsoon it is a green oasis of grassy space. In the dry season it is brown and dusty, reminiscent of a vacant lot. Open and free space in Kathmandu is hard to find. So much green space is hidden behind tall and well bricked walls. But this park in the middle of the city provides much needed space for any citizen to take a moment and soak up the last sunny rays over a picnic, play a pick-up game of cricket or soccer, take a quick jog around the dusty track, or (if you are up early enough) partake in a public yoga class. It reminds me of the traditional form of the commons, a space belonging to everyone. It isn’t as pretty as you would imagine most city parks to be, often overgrown and the barbed wire fencing at the entrance looks rather menacing. But at sunrise and sunset, as I make my way back and forth to work, I appreciate just how this small piece of public space is so important for so many Kathmandu residents.

• Photos that speak. After slowly sifting through the photos from our 4 week vacation with family I came to the realization that there are some images that simply capture the feeling of a place, the emotion of the moment, or just the essence of the experience.  In fact, they are such a strong memory that they deserve their own note of appreciation and gratitude.  So, here is a selection of photos, taken during our trip, that I believe you will hear speak (with my captions, just in case you want to know what they said to me).  Credits to R and my parents who took the majority of these stunning shots.

Well, I am back – one week late but I have already forgiven myself for that and hope you will too.

It was a spectacular vacation – hard to even know where to start in describing it all.  To ease myself back into the regular blog posts and writing I thought I would start with a quick tour through our vacation through the eyes of my mom.  During the trip, she wrote a 10-part series of elegant, descriptive, and thoroughly delicious emails about her experiences here – R is now uploading them to his blog and adding photos.  The first one is here. And the second one is here.  The rest will be coming over the next few weeks.

I will be back this Friday with my weekly gratitude post 🙂

This week, I was passed along a wonderful blog treat from my dear friend bakergirl – she tossed me the One Lovely blog award!

Now bakergirl knows a thing or two about good food…we all know that.  But what she is also incredibly talented at (and something not everyone would know) is that she is VERY good at appreciating people. She regularly does kind little things to make everyone feel appreciated.  SO, I wasn’t really surprised to see her appreciating other bloggers but was I tickled to be appreciated!  So wanting to follow the kind-hearted ways of my bakergirl pal, I too would like to honour 8 of the the best of blogs I know with a ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD.

All my Friday gratitude this week goes to these talented writers, dreamers, critics, and artists – may the words always flow eagerly from your fingertips so that I can continue the pleasure of reading your thoughts and feeling inspired by you!

• the rex-files.  He may (or may not…oooooh…mysterious) be my husband and he blogs with intelligence, wit, and perspective on anything and everything (particularly technology, photography, the environment, or information management).  And as cheesy as it is to pass a blog award to your husband (damn…there goes the mystery!) he deserves it!
• Burnt Lumpia.   In my quest to add Filipino food to the repertoire after marrying into a Filipino family the excellent and creative (and incredibly humourous) ramblings of Marvin have satisfied just about every culinary Filipino need I have ever had…now if only my Filipino husband really likes Filipino food!
• Desert Candy.  Mercedes has inspired a strong urge in me to cook more Middle Eastern food…REAL Middle Eastern food – not your run of the mill hummus and pita.  Her recipes are easy and delicious!  Keeps me dreaming of all the recipes I look forward to trying when we leave Nepal!
• SmellyBlog.   Anyone who knows me well knows that if I could live my dream it would be to become a perfumer.  So, I can’t help but devour the blog of Ayala.  A resident of my adopted home town, Vancouver, and a talented perfumer who can describe a smell so vividly you can almost smell/taste it!  She is living proof that my dream could one day become a reality.
• Everybody Likes Sandwiches.  Also a Vancouver blogger who I stumbled upon while looking for a good cabbage recipe.  I found one.  And many many many other appetizing, healthy and seasonal recipes that seem wholesome and real.  I resonate with her lifestyle, her food style, and her sense of style.
• Pinch My Salt.  Stumbled here as I was looking for a recipe for making cheese and found so so much more.  Nicole is a fabulous cook and an excellent writer!
• Sailu’s Kitchen.  These days, I am understandably obsessed with finding recipes and blogs related to good Indian and Nepali cuisine.  I am afraid that if I don’t perfect some of my favourite recipes I will be lost for what to eat when I leave Nepal!  Sailu’s Kitchen has provide great inspiration and a stock-pile of delicious recipes that I will make forever.  The kind of recipes that are destined to become family favourites 🙂
• My husband cooks.  I read this blog out of complete admiration and awe…some day I dream my husband will surpass me in cooking ability too 🙂  Until then, I revel in the fact that her husband cooks the most delicious food and they both share it with us!  Now if only I could get my husband to read this blog…

Last week we made what I think may have been the most mouthwatering curry I have ever made – the addition of cashews and yogurt made for such a a rich and sumptuous taste.  I have no pictures (I am a terrible picture taken when I am cooking…too much going on and not enough hands!), but the recipe is below.

The recipe came from a small local cookbook, the proceeds of which support a local technical school, Kumbeshwar Technical School for low caste and economically deprived people.  A good meal for a great cause!

Mushrooms and Paneer in a Cashew Yogurt Curry

Serves 4

500g paneer, cut into ½ inch cubes.  If you can`t find paneer, you can substitute halloumi cheese or easily make your own.
½ cup cashew nuts
1 large onion, chopped
½ cup thick full-cream yogurt
½ tsp turmeric poweder
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp coriander
2 Tbsp ginger and garlic paste (equal parts ginger and garlic pureed with a bit of water to make a paste…this is the foundation of all Nepali curries)
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 cup fresh diced tomatoes
Oil
Salt

1. Soak cashew nuts in water for about 20 minutes until they feel soft.
2. Pour a couple tablespoons of oil in the pan and fry paneer until it is golden brown and crusty on the outside. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Add to the pan chopped onion and fry until golden brown.
4. Put onions, soaked cashew nuts and ½ cup water into a food processor or blender and puree to a thick paste.
5. Into the same pan as before add 2 more Tbsp oil. Once oil is hot, turn down the heat and add all the spices, the ginger garlic paste, yogurt and the cashew puree and fry for 4-5 minutes.
6. Add mushrooms and diced tomatos to the pan and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid sticking. The curry should be thick but if it sticks to the pan add a small amount of water.

Spent last weekend floating down the Trisuli River with a great group of friends.  Two full days of rafting with the night in between camping on a lovely sandy beach along the river.

Two shout outs for the great trip.  The first, a local family run company, International Adventures Treks & Expeditions that organizes such adventures – Harka and his wife Emma are two of the best folks we have met here in Nepal.  He is a past Gurkha and Emma is an import from the Phillipines so we feel right at home.  They have joined us on our trips to Chitwan and rafting, so it feels more like family than anything else.  Second, Himalayan River Fun, our actual guides who moved us safely down the river, cooked fantastic meals, and hauled us all back into the raft following extended swims as we floated down the river.

A selection of some of the best photos and videos full of action and fun are uploaded here.   But a few of the extra special ones below for your viewing pleasure.

Sick sucks.  But sick also gives a weary brain some rest.  Perhaps sick is actually a physical manifestation of a psychological need to not think.  So, I was sick this week with a flu but in retrospect I think it was that my brain was sick of working overtime trying to understand, solve, and communicate.  So, I called in sick for 2 days and voila!  Distance from the problems and worries gave me new clarity and a renewed spirit to deal with them.

• Bananagrams.  One of our fellow volunteers has helped to cultivate an absolute ADDICTION to this simple, scrabble-like game.  We have taken to having rotating dinner parties at our houses and ending the evening with a “bunch” of  bananagrams games (if you thought that pun was bad, just wait till you see the bananagrams game vocabulary…split, peel…smoothie!).  If you have a love of word games I highly suggest picking this up.  Great for groups of 2-8.
• The return of good friends.  Many of the volunteers who arrived in Nepal with us have since disappeared to their often far-flung placement locations.  Next week we have our annual 3-day volunteer conference.  An opportunity for learning, sharing, and thinking.  But also an opportunity to reconnect with those dear friends who we just don’t get to see enough of these days.
• Egg salad. You either love it or hate it.  I love it.  And after such a successful tuna discovery last week I realized that egg salad was completely within the realm of possibility!  With power increases it is finally safe to have mayonnaise in the fridge and eggs are a regular staple of the diet here.  Freshly made with a hint of Dijon, slathered on whole wheat toast, topped with lots of pepper and a couple generous slices of tomato made the perfect lunch!  And if you are an egg salad hater (although I do remember that at most UBC meetings, when lunch was included, the egg salad was the first to disappear!) I implore you to give it another chance – zesty, filling, and wholesome.
• Deciding. No waffling.  No hesitating.  Just full, unbridled, unquestionable commitment.  Better when said aloud to someone who can hold you fully accountable.   Carpe diem in action!

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It was a frustrating week.   It was one of those weeks that crush the spirit, drink your energy for breakfast, and then spend the rest of the day hammering away at any sense of confidence, understanding and intellect that you might have left.  The smallest tasks seem daunting and the thought of climbing out of bed each morning is exhausting.

I will be the first to admit that I do try to keep these kinds of days to the minority – I hate feeling this way and hate living this way.  But I also know that some great self-indulgent and self-focused care can ease even the worst week into nothing.

So to indulge myself this week I will endeavour to honour those things that this week did NOT go wrong, did NOT make me feel like a puddle of sludge, and did NOT cause me to throw my hands up in despair…

• Mosquito nets.  In Kathmandu there are mosquitoes…not as many as in many places in the world and not of the malarial persuasion but still…they are a pesky and annoying addition to any dark and sleepy bedroom.  The constant buzzing, the surprise attacks just as you drift off the sleep, and the lovely red welts that decorate any exposed skin the next morning.  So, we bought a net for our bed.  With a few simple ropes we have now gently encased ourselves in a cozy haven, swaths of white netting romantically draping from the ceiling.  Aside from the intense and rather toxic chemical which make these nets killing machines, they are rather lovely and romantic.  And I haven’t heard a “bzzzzzzzzz” in at least a week.
• Emergency drills, while tedious, help couples communicate.  This week VSO Nepal undertook their annual security drill.  A scenario is sent from London in the morning and offices need to practice their emergency procedures.  This year the scenario necessitated the evacuation of all VSO volunteers.  Through my work in the VSO Office, I was helping to contact the Education volunteers about evacuation procedures but also took the opportunity to contact myself and ask myself to evacuate.  Meanwhile, at the same time, Rex was being contacted about his evacuation procedures.  Except, he was given two options: 1) have VSO fly you back to your home country or 2) have VSO  give you the money for such flight but instead take a vacation.  So, in the case of an emergency evacuation, Rex will have chosen to vacation in Thailand and I will be back in Canada…whoops…good thing we sorted that one out before an actual emergency!
• Gin.  and tonic. By Thursday, I had reached what I would call a gin and tonic crisis.  Hard to go wrong here…dependable and solid it made a mockery of my silly week and reminded me that sometimes the best medicines do come in a glass with a squeeze of lime.  Good thing that…
• …Friday was a holiday.  One less day for things to go wrong and the only day this week that found me eating pancakes, relaxing in a pool, and recharging the internal battery.