Eco-friendly Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations

The Ganapati at Mrudula & Venugopal’s house looks like marble. These days, marble Ganapatis seem to be popular, with environmentally conscious people wanting to celebrate the Ganesh Chaturthi festival without causing pollution.

Ah! The fragrance of boiled groundnuts

Groundnut seller, Richmond Town, Dec 2014

One of our favourite childhood snacks. Ever so often dad would bring home these big newspaper cones filled with kadalaikai, that he’d have bought from a pushcart doing a round of the neighbourhood. As soon as he entered the door, the room would be filled with a fragrance like no other. I wish I could catch that smell and put it on the page to linger.

Using watermelon rinds

Anyone who does composting knows that the remains of watermelons, consumed every other day in summer, could fill your compost pots in no time. Cows love the watermelon rinds. Feeding cattle-edible food to cows is a great way to reduce the burden on our composting infrastructure, and it also ensures that we minimise what we call “organic waste”, but for this you’ll need to find a cow.

As the name suggests, watermelon is mostly water – 92% in fact. Not many are aware that apart from the red fleshy part of the watermelon that we all love, the rest of the watermelon is edible too. It is rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals. It is recommended to those with high blood pressure, as also to those who want to maintain lower levels of sugar and cholesterol. Just google search and you’ll find all the benefits of watermelon.

A blue 12

For his 12th birthday, Gautam wanted a blue cake. A blue cake with yellow icing!

Dad and brother Sid had a lot of fun baking the cake. Yes, they did everything from beating the eggs to taking it out of the oven! And after, Mom put a quick layer of icing on it. It turned out quite well…

The proof of the pudding is in the eating!

To bake this yourself, check out the recipe here.

 

Mango hedgehog

Mango eating can be made fun for children.

Delicious!

Potato wedges

A quick and healthy snack!

The Best Sponge Cake In The World

What goes in