eerie coincidence

As a part of my assignment I had to create an ad for a hotel to boost sales! (what else, IGNOU assignment writers at their best)
I looked through a conde nast issue I found in my old magazine chest and cut out a picture of a majestic looking hotel on a cliff overlooking what seemed to be miles of ocean. It was The Ritz Carlton, Half Moon Bay, California. Frankly, anything you wrote as a headline or a copy would have been a waste. The picture said it all. You suddenly wanted to be part of the picture.

I flicked on TV and decided to watch Discovery travel and living. In a feature on hotels, today's episode was on The Ritz Carlton, Half Moon Bay!!

Saturday..

Still doing my assignments.. groan. They get more and more bizzare.

Saw 'being Julia' yesterday. Annette Benning in all her splendor. All others pale in comparison. This was the second time I saw the movie. Loved every bit of it.

A is travelling again. He always manages to think of some interesting things for me to do every time he travels. This time having his Bose headphones delivered to Mumbai to some place en route the international airport. oh! and there is a small condition attached : the driver should not be sent to deliver them.

the bong leanings

I am not technically a graduate though I did sort of graduate from college many years ago. The course I did, did'nt make you a graduate though it did make you slog and pay much more than other undergrad courses. The government decided to correct that,and has now asked all the ex students to do a small course and get their graduation degrees. I enroled a couple of months back.
I am ecstatic! In my family you needed to be a post graduate to be considered human and a science graduate to be considered educated. I was neither. Though neither of my parent's ever made me feel that way, I always felt like the black sheep as far as education was concerned.
So after 10 years here I am furiously writing pages of assignments. The only things I have written in the last 10 years is lists, practice sheets for my 6 year old and cheques . This is an experience an half.
Though it has taken my multitasking to a new level, I'm not complaining. It is also taking me closer to a post graduate degree which I always aspired for .

The deadline for my assignments is the 31 st. I have completed 4 1/2 out of the 6 that I need to do. The last 1 1/2 are really dragging on. Groan!

My friends called me a quasi bong. Maybe that is why all this is so important to me.

paella for everyone

I made the paella for Shalu's party last week.I made loads of it. Shalu says her guests loved it.
I send a batch to Sumi as well. She and her mom had it for dinner one night. Her mom has had the real thing.. in Spain. She said mine was awesome and very close to the real thing. I scored well on that one!

The mighty paella

Sofrito










my paella- yum!

Cinderella got me some charming gifts last time she went to Spain. Some paella mix/seasoning, saffron and a fabulous cookbook. I read the book called ' kitchen in Spain' religiously. Somehow I was sort of apprehensive to do it the first time. So a couple of weekends back I mustered up the courage. The chorizo sausages and the serrano ham arrived, picked up dutifully by A from Selfridges food store on his way back from London.

The Paella, as I know has many variations. You can put practically anything into a paella : eels, wild duck, rabbit, snails, chicken, clams, squid whatever. A few basics one needs for paella : a flat bottom cast iron pan & short grained bomba rice (you can use any non starchy rice like arborio), some nice sofrito ( a mixture of sauteed ingredients that flavour the paella) so here goes..

Fiesta paella with chicken and shellfish

Rice 300g
stock/cooking liquid for rice 1lt
500g prawns
500g chicken peices
300g squid
150g pork (I used serrano ham)
garlic
green peas
tomato
chorizo sausages (2 in my version)
Saffron
pimentos

cook the prawns in boiling water. reserve liquid. peel some of the prawn and keep the rest as it is.
Heat the oil, saute the ham, squid for a few minutes.
Add the green pepper and garlic and saute. (your sofrito!)
Add tomato and increase heat.
Add the peas and the liquid (mine was a mix of chicken stock and prawn liquid)
Once the liquid starts boiling add the saffron and the rice. Add black pepper, salt and bay leaf.
stir a couple of times to distribute ingredients.
Lower heat till the liquid is simmering and DO NOT stir again.
once the rice has cooked, arrange the whole prawns on the top and garnish with the pimentos.
Wait till the liquid is absorbed and serve paella in pan and serve with a wedge of lime.
Yummy!