Friday, May 28, 2010

Adventuring :: by mama

Kiki and I went on a little adventure the other day, with our friends Christine and Ingrid.  Ingrid was looking for a costume for her husband to wear to an "Arabian nights" themed party, so off we went, to New Elephant Road.     

New Elephant Road is a very long road in the older, central part of Dhaka.  It seems to be divided into general sections, with each section featuring a number of shops all selling the same type of thing, from carpets to china tableware to shoes.  We went to the section that sells mens' wedding attire.  Bangladeshi men (or, I think, at least the Muslim men) wear long, heavily bejeweled brocade coats to their weddings.  Also, turbans.


And sparkly, curly shoes.


While Ingrid looked around and tried to find a turban that would fit her husband -- not easy in a country where the men are substantially smaller than the European average -- Christine and I found ways to keep ourselves entertained.  We examined the less sparkly (but still essential) wedding items, which included underwear, soap, and colognes, many of which seemed to have the word "sexy" in their names.  Then Christine discovered something far more entertaining: putting funny things on the baby taking pictures of him. 


Kiki caught on to our plan pretty quickly.  Note the suspicious look he is giving Christine.


He did seem to enjoy the baby-size turbans.  I wonder what would be an appropriate occasion for these?


New Elephant Road is not far, but Dhaka traffic is terrible, so this was a daylong expedition.  These photos made it all worth it.  Oh, and Ingrid did eventually get a turban for her husband, too.  Success all around.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Kaya the designer :: by mama

Chris and Kaya recently acquired something that is a first for both of them: custom suits.  Chris, for his part, only has one suit, the first suit he had ever owned, purchased in 2002.  It is the suit he has worn to every wedding and formal occasion since then.  We'll be attending our good friends Mike and CJ's wedding this summer, so we decided that it was time to have a new suit made for Chris and, while we were at it, why not one for Kaya as well?  It's not weird for a 4-year-old to have a custom suit, is it?

I explained to Kaya that I was going to look up some suit designs on the Internet, to print out and give to the tailor.  He declared that he would design his own suit and promptly got out the markers and paper. Here is the design that he came up with.  Note that it incorporates his two favorite colors, in the form of a pink jacket and purple pants.


We explained that we would do our best to accommodate him, but that suit fabrics normally do not come in pink and purple.  Thus commenced our family excursion to the tailor shop, where Kaya chose his own shirt fabric and we then jointly chose a coordinating suit fabric.  Here is a sneak peek at the final result.



Stay tuned to see all of us (okay, three out of four of us, because Kiran will most likely attend the wedding in his standard attire of a onesie and maybe pants) in our new clothes this summer!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

A stranger takes over my kitchen :: by mama

Does anyone recall the brownies that I made for Chris's birthday? No? Chris and I remember them, oh so fondly. They were among the best desserts I have ever had, brownie and cheesecake in one. We had half the tray on his birthday and froze the other half, and then we had them nightly soon after Kiran and I returned to Dhaka in January. Personally, I think every new mother should be given a tray of those brownies, at some point, by somebody. They would be the best baby gift ever.

Anyway, I recently re-visited the website where I found that brownie recipe and realized that, lo and behold, this is a really good website! With really yummy-sounding recipes! I think I may be the last person on the Internet who was not aware of this website. Clearly, I had some catching up to do. And so it began.

First I made the arroz con leche. I remembered to take photos during the prep phase, but then something happened and all of a sudden the whole pot was gone. Oops. Chris and I ate it in the dark of night. We had one bowl each for four nights in a row, late, after both boys were finally asleep. When it finished, I was sad.



Then I made these brownies, which were so good that I already wrote a whole post about them, and I was no longer sad.

I did also make the espinacas con garbanzos.  I made it twice, once with the tomatoes [average, and too much like every other chickpea + vegetable recipe around] and once without [lovely, because it allows the breadcrumb sauce to stand out, and what is better than fried breadcrumbs on vegetables?].  I will definitely make it the second way from now on.

Back to the brownies. From the brownie recipe, there is a link to a recipe for rigatoni with eggplant puree, so then I made that. This is a really good recipe for us, because our oven has no temperature controls, so it is either at 0F or 400F, the latter being the perfect temperature for either burning your dessert or for perfectly roasting your vegetables. So I roasted the vegetables and put them in the food processor to puree. Kaya, or rather Scuba Superman, helped with this step. (Ignore the messy kitchen, please, and just focus on the fabulousness of his outfit.)

The result was delicious.



Moving on, then I tried the baked kale chips. This attempt was hampered by the fact that we do not have kale in Bangladesh. I tried some green amaranth leaves instead (surely a close relation to kale... or not) and found that it didn't really work as promised. They were crisp, yes, and salty, and Chris happily ate the whole bowl, but I think I need to keep experimenting with that one, perhaps by finding something more similar to kale.

Next. Wait, have I mentioned that I am obsessed with this website? I am. So, next, I made the thick, chewy granola bars. My mix had almonds, raisins, peanuts, cashews, dried apricots and chocolate chips (brought from Bangkok, oh, beloved Bangkok). 


These were a serious hit, especially with Chris. In his world, it seems that being a phyical education teacher + training for a marathon + generally being a guy = constant hunger. These are filling and, more importantly, really good, worlds better than anything you have ever eaten out of a package. I was actually amazed at how much better they were. Really good.

Finally, I just had to make one more thing. The post about the st. louis gooey butter cake was so effusive, the praise so abundant -- "showstopping," she calls this cake -- that I thought I really had to make it. I made the cake the first time a couple of weeks ago and was, shall we say, underwhelmed.  It was fine, but certainly not showstopping.  However, I kept thinking about it and how it just did not live up to the description, and so I decided to try it again.  This time, I took the cake out of the oven just a little earlier, and it made all the difference.  The topping was soft, gooey, and just the right amount of sweet.  Chris had four pieces in one evening.  Yet another hit.


All of this deliciousness makes me wonder, what else have I been missing all this time?  Does anyone have suggestions for more cooking websites that I would enjoy?  I think I might be hooked.