Thursday, March 12, 2009

Channelling my Inner Amy


The best part of our time in Varanasi was getting to meet so many wonderful people.  Among them was Amy, a woman of remarkable talent, courage and quiet service.  Not only has she lived more or less non-stop in one of the most challenging cities on the planet for the last 8 years, she's raising 4 little kids, homeschooling, and supporting a man who's working hard, in the trenches.  In the midst of all that she has managed to create a home and family that was an oasis for us, in no small part thanks to the food that poured out of her kitchen.  (I am a food person and in my world, nothing says love like baked goods.)  She was such a comfort to me in Varanasi and now is a huge inspiration.   People, the woman rocks.  

Amy knew she was moving to India well in advance and decided that she'd figure out how to cook pretty much everything from scratch before they moved over here.  Bread, buffalo sausage, York Peppermint Patties, you name it, I bet Amy can do it.  

My transition to India was a bit more abrupt than Amy's and I have to admit that in the months before we moved I spent a heckuva lot of time whining about India instead of learning how to do what I'd have to do in order to cook here.  As a result, instead of consoling myself with familiar food and therapeutic baking I hired a cook and spent my first 4 months eating Manju's (delicious, love-filled) food and envying everyone I knew with an oven. 

Now that we're in Pune (and can deal with India a bit better), we are fending for ourselves on the food front and for the most part having a blast with it.  In the past three weeks I've baked bread, bagels, cookies, shortbread, 2 kinds of brownies, tried 2 crazy new dinner dishes and even made tortillas from scratch for the first time ever.  Chris knocked one out of the park tonight with Shahi Paneer made from left over corn salsa.  

On the agenda for tomorrow is challah for Shabbat, another batch of brownies and happy thoughts of Amy every time I open the oven door.  Wahoo!

Now if only I could figure out how to make cream cheese...

2 comments:

ehirunner said...

I get bagels and you don't because my wife is as Jewish as ________ Tevya. Sorry, world.

Lowell said...

Thanks for the kind words. :)

My mouth was watering, thinking about some of the Challah (spelling?) I have had over the years.

May Pune's best Challah enliven your taste buds.

Lowell