One of Those Days

Ever have one of those days that just straight-up suck?

You know, one of those days where pretty much everything that can go wrong does go wrong? Heck, even the things that can't go wrong still end up in shambles!

When you feel like everything in your life must be conspiring against you like some kind of big cosmic practical joke.

Yesterday was one of those days, here's a little glimpse...

In the morning the toilet clogged BIG TIME.While attempting to unclog said toilet I managed to spray sewage water all over the bathroom, myself, my husband...i'll just say household items got ruined.

We've been fighting a diaper rash with Penelope so I've been letting her move around without a diaper for periods throughout the day. Well she ended up peeing in the middle of the kitchen floor while I was cooking lunch...ok, we got this, quick and easy cleanup and then i'll throw her diaper on. While I'm cleaning her piddle puddle she moved across the room and decided to do number 2. Yes, I said it. She crapped on the floor. Do I have a puppy or a baby? Sometimes I get confused. On to the next mess.

Not much later, Abhi ran down the street to buy a plunger at Home Depot, thinking I was upstairs when I was actually outside walking to the dumpster. I got locked out of the house (while cooking the same lunch) with the burner and pressure cooker on whistling in the kitchen....ummm yeah...can someone say burnt lentils?

Sometimes you just need to take a moment. Not even a whole minute. Just a moment to breathe. Pardon my French but this calm little reminder to breathe in the good shit, breathe out the bullshit was just too real for me yesterday. Aaaahhh. Better?

There were a lot of other little doh! moments throughout the day that had me thinking that I was stuck in a bad infomercial,"but wait, there's more!"... but I think we get the gist here. And besides, that's not the point. The point is, what do we do with days like these? Moan, groan, and trudge your way through it so that we can live to write a blog post about it? Sure. ORR...we could try a different approach.

Be thankful.

When I'm down in the pits over everything that has gone wrong, what helps me to snap out of my woe-is-me stupor is to remind myself of all that is GOOD in my life. I remember that my family and I are healthy, we have everything we could possibly need. I see my husband laugh, or my baby full of wonder as she discovers something new and I'm reminded that these precious moments trump all the crap that went on minutes before. God has given me everything I could need to live a joyous, healthy, fruitful life.

The perfect life doesn't come without bumps, bruises and pee puddles. Instead it accepts the messes for what they are, cleans them up, and says thank you for the Lysol wipes.

The Wrong Kind of Milk In Our Coffee

Our neighbors now collectively own FIVE animals of the cow variety (2 cows and 3 buffaloes). When I first moved here there were only 3, but recently the cow and buffalo have been popping out babies. Aside from having a really cute cow baby to pet, there are other 'products' that come from the birth of a cow/buffalo.

After the cow gives birth, its milk is different than regular, plain-ol' cow's milk. For a few days its milk has a higher quantity of fats and vitamins than it normally would. People can also drink this milk and in fact, many people really like it. To make a special 'treat' with the new cow's milk you just boil it and add raw sugar. Once its boiled it separates into liquid with small pieces and becomes a light brown color, called Khees. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Khees, though I don't hate it either. Its just one of those things that throws you off mentally when you hear what it is, even though the taste isn't bad. Actually, the first time I ever met my in-laws they served me Khees. I had never heard of it before and judging by its texture and taste I was a little scared. Though, I was even more scared not to finish it so that my in-laws' first impression of me wouldn't be that I'm a picky eater! Ha!

ANYWAYS, our neighbors so graciously bring us Khees every time their cow or buffalo has a baby. Usually when they bring it, it has already been boiled and changed color. This time when they brought it, it was still in its normal white milk form. So this morning in my sleepy stupor, I reached into the fridge to grab the milk for mine and Abhinav's coffee. I performed my usual half-asleep ritual of making coffee for the both of us without a second thought of what I was doing. We both sat to read the newspaper and drink our coffee, when suddenly my mother-in-law came in the room and asked me a strange question. "Jess, how is your coffee today???" I drink coffee the same way everyday and she never asks me how it is. Why now? With a funny smile on her face she showed me the two different bowls of milk. "You made Khees coffee!" I tasted my coffee and realized I had used the Khees milk instead of regular milk. Which, does not taste the same AT ALL.

The strange mistakes that I could never make in the U.S. surface all the time in India...hmm :)

Piaz Ka Parantha

Since I've come to India my mother-in-law has taught me a thing or two about Indian cooking. One thing I've learned to cook, though don't particularly enjoy making is this piaz ka parantha (aka onion flat bread ). It tastes really good but can be a little tricky to make. Here's how:

Step 1: Gather your necessary tools

Top  pan (tava), Right tongs, Bottom board and rolling pin

Step 2: Mix wheat flour and water to make dough. Roll into balls. (see above picture)

Step 3: Chop onion into small pieces and add red chili powder, salt, and green masala powder (I don't exactly know what makes up the green masala, maybe I'll update that later).

Step 4: Roll the dough ball slightly and add a heaping spoonful of onion mixture.

Step 5: Fold the dough closed (like a  Chinese won-ton or dumpling) so that all onion pieces are inside the dough. Again roll the dough out flat (preferably in a circular shape), being careful that it doesn't break because of the onion.

Step 6: Cook on flat pan on high heat, about 1 minute per side, flipping 2-3 times. Once one side is cooked and flipped, add ghee (clarified butter) to each side and cook for a few seconds.

After the dough is fully cooked, you're done! You can eat it lots of different ways; plain, with butter, with plain or sweet yogurt, with pickled mango, the list goes one but I haven't tried any other ways... :)

There's no final picture (maybe because I was in such a hurry to eat?) but it pretty much looks like the picture above.