Ike’s blog

Kolkata 016

After Victoria Monument I was given a tour of some of the old buildings. The state buildings look just like Westminster Abbey. I also saw the post office and soccer fields. We then headed north to Dakshineshwar temple.

Dakshineshwar Temple

The road up there was just as fascinating. Leaving the city to the older, more densely populated, and poorer areas. Sad when the funeral procession came by; body is open in a glass enclosed flatbed, surrounded by flowers, heading to the crematorium. Buildings are old. Lots of hand construction. Crowded buses. My guide points at some shady neighborhoods, a pet market, a school for statistics. Getting closer and the streets get more narrow with vendors selling flowers, religious artifacts, and sweets. I see some buildings decorated with swastikas, one with the star of David. My guide tells me that these are all common symbols here, either Indian or Hindi.

At the temple, we left our shoes off in the car and walked bear foot. The sight is striking. Women dressed in bright colors carrying small children. The poor, some of them missing ligaments. I am the only foreigner, yet they all ignore me. We make our way into the temple area through a metal detector.

Unfortunately photos are not permitted in the temple. It is an open area with a main temple on one side, a gathering area, and several smaller temples. I don't know the religon to tell you what I was really seeing, but it was fascinating just being there and watching the people. We were able to walk along the walls where I snapped some photos of the temple and a bazaar. Evidently, there used to be a lot of monkeys in one area but no longer.

Next up, lunch.

Victorial Memorial Kalkota

I fell asleep last night at 3am and had a wake up at 8, still tired but not wanting to waste my only free day. A shower felt great. I then went to the buffet breakfast which reminded me a bit of my breakfasts in Chennai and the ones Michele and I had in Thailand. There was the American breakfast on one side, the Indian one on the other, and a separate fruit area. Guess where I went?

I don't recall exactly what I had. A potato dish, some rice heavy on the cardamon, and some breads. All good.

I met my driver and my guide and showed them a list of things Subrata had recommended. Our first stop was St Paul church. It was quite nice, but there was a service going on so we didn't stay long.

From there we headed to Victoria Monument which was truly amazing. A beautiful building, but it was the art inside that grabbed my attention. Paintings of the old Calcutta mixed with British influence. One painting shown British Generals standing next to Indian leaders. Another showed a tiger hunt. There were swords and other weapons of war. There were historical timelines with too much detail to absorb. We walked the grounds a bit and took some photos.

Here is the coolest video

A small collection of photos of Fall in Westchester NY.

Some pictures from my recent trip to Cape Cod.

Nauset Beach

Toys on the beach

Dad and son

Paul with Ronan, Boston Sept 2007

Yesterday Michele and I took the kids to Albany and said our final good byes to our friend Paul Sanders. Paul passed Wednesday morning after battling illness for several months.

It's hard to sum up Paul's impact on our lives. Michele and Paul were best friends and met on their first day at Binghamton University. Parties, movies, tv watching, restaurants were all regular activities for us in college years. After college, we visited Paul in Boston numerous times for Halloween parties, fireworks (ooh la la) or just eating out. Paul always new the best restaurants. Paul was in our wedding party and even stayed with us in NY for a couple of months. When he moved to San Francisco we visited him and we took a trip out to Vegas with him and his parents. Ronan knew him as Uncle Paul and took a liking to him immediately. When Ronan learned of Paul's passing, he was sad and asked us who would make him new CDs.

Paul lived to live. He moved from apartment to apartment, city to city, job to job. He pretty much ate at restaurants and his refrigerator was always empty. Brunch was Paul's big thing. Everyone knew him in whatever neighborhood he lived in. He gave personal gifts. He was interested in what you were doing.

Good bye Paul. There's not much more I can say. Please add a comment if you know Paul.

I spent last week working in Chennai, India. My hotel was about 50 meters from the office. Here is what the walk looked lie on a typical morning.

Yes, we pulled it off. Barely. It was worth it, and here's how we did it.

First, kept the invite list relatively small. We invited twelve and have to say that anything bigger would have been very difficult. In addition to just having enough space, you'll have to think about the size of your oven so that you can fit everything you plan to cook in one shift. Remember that for every child you invite, there will be at least one parent coming with them.

We chose a simple menu of pizza, smoothies, and ice cream sundaes. We found kids pizza kits at Bed Bath and Beyond and ordered chefs hats online. I bought whole wheat pizza dough, grated cheese, and tomato sauce from Trader Joes. You'll also want to pick up some small shallow alluminum pans and a can of vegetable spray. For the smoothies, I picked up pineapple, strawberries, and mango which was just what looked good in the market. In retrospect, I'd recommend against strawberries since kids may be allergic, but we lucked out. I'd also recommend sticking with fruit that won't brown so you can cut them ahead of the party. For the sundaes, I picked up sprinkles, chocolate sauce, granola, whipped cream, and cherries. Oh yeah, and the ice cream. I stayed safe with vanilla and chocolate. We also had a family member bake us some of her famous brownies.

After getting the kids seated, we handed out the chefs hats and let them decorate it. I rolled out each pizza dough and cut them into four pieces, then put the sauce and cheese into small dixie cups. We wrote the kids names on the pans and sprayed them with vegetable spray before handing them out. Each child got their materials to make their pizza and off they went.

Or so I thought. Some of the kids made nice pizzas, but others including my son decided to take the rolled out dough and mash back up into a meatball. Their pizzas looked like small tomato-cheesy hamburgers and took a long time to cook.

While the pizzas were in the oven, I brought out the fruit and a blender. I let the kids tell me how much of each fruit to put in the blender. I blended the fruit with water and not milk or yogurt in order to avoid allergy issues. By the time we finished the smoothies, the pizzas were ready to take out of the oven.

After lunch, we brought the kids into the living room for some games. This gave us time to clean up the table and set up the sundae bar. We didn't do anything fancy. We sang Happy Birthday using the brownies, then cut it up and served them as the base for each child's sundae. The other parents helped with the ice cream and condiments.

All in all, this was a success. If you decide to have a cooking party, keep it small and simple and you'll have a blast!

I picked up pumpkin tortellini at Piemonte Home Made Ravioli (also see here) last week and got home too late to stop by the grocery to pick up fresh sage. So a traditional butter and sage sauce wasn't an option and I was looking for a plan B.

I started by melting a stick of butter, then added some crushed cashews for texture. I let them fry for a couple of minutes, then added a pinch of cayenne, a half teaspoon of chili powder (New Mexican), two table spoons each of apple sauce and maple syrup, salt and pepper. My measurements are not exact. When the tortellini was cooked, I added them to the sauce along with a couple of ladles of pasta water. I let this cook for a few minutes, then added some chopped parsley.

You might think this is an odd combination, but it worked well. Sweetness from the syrup and apples, spice from the chili, and texture from the cashews. Yum. A big hit with my four year old. I only wish that I had snapped a photo.