Winner!

I learned something today: I don't like random drawing give-aways. Even though I used a random number generator to determine who'd get the fingerless glove prize, I still felt sad! I want to give fingerless gloves to all of you! Kinda like that old Coke commerical, but less detrimental to your health.

So, do keep you eye on the blog from time to time, cause I'll do other give aways, but they'll be of the contest variety :)

In the meantime, the RNG chose: Comment number 3!

Comment number 3, come on down!!

Mel, I'll mail these out to you in the next day or two. Enjoy! 

You know I rock because I'm wearing wool!

I haven't had a give away on the blog in ages and ages-- mainly because I wasn't really using the blog anymore. But India got me back to it, and I'm thinking to try to keep it up for a while. And since we could all use a little more love in our lives, I figured to combine the two and give away some knitting on the blog! Plus, now that summer is here, what better time than to give away something warm, hand knit, super fly, and made of wool?

No better time. Clearly. You'll be preparing for the cold (winter is coming, amiright?), looking cute, and making someone smile. 

Here's what's up for grabs: a pair of fingerless gloves, knit by me from soft, squishy merino wool yarn in a color that's a cross between orange juice and gold-- in other words, these gloves are made of happy. 

They're perfect for cozying up to a mug of coffee or tea!

Or, because they are fingerless, you can write in your brand new, blank journal without fear of cold hands! Also great for reading books, playing video games, posting on Facebook, watching cat videos, or otherwise wasting time on the interwebs. And remember: summer time is overly air-conditioned time! 

Here they are in all their glory, along with my fantastic props.

So now you know what I'm offering. But how, HOW do you get them??

It's simple, really. Leave a comment (by, say, June 2) telling me who you'd like to give these gloves to, and telling me why that person is awesome/needs some love/should be cheered up/is in desperate need of fingerless gloves. Assuming I have more than one comment, I'll probably use a random number generator to choose a winner. And then I will pop them in the mail to that person, and, because you were such an great friend to nominate them for such a nommy prize, I will send you a matching pair. Because I made two pairs :) And because I love you. 

Rainy farmer's market days always get me down

Mainly because this California girl still has a deeply ingrained dislike of being outside when there's water falling from the sky. It's not right, man. Water from the sky = take shelter.

But sadly, water falls from the sky pretty frequently in these parts, and lately it's been doing so on Thursdays, which are farmer's market days in our village. Of course we're still stuck at about 3 farmers at our market (dwarfed by the 10-15 non-farmers who sell various items at the market) but that's not my point at the moment.

My point is: I need more rhubarb. And the place to get it is the farmer's market. And it's rainy again. But my need for rhubarb will surely prevail and I will brave the weather and walk downtown. Or possibly I'll beg Robert to go and slay the mighty rhubarb and bring me back its carcass, a deed which would earn him many kisses and admiring sidelong glances.

And why is my need for rhubarb so desperate? Well, I'll tell you. Aside from the fact that rhubarb is one of the tastiest plants known to grow on this earth, I also make a delicious syrup from it. And that syrup is the basis of my favorite late spring/early summer cocktail.

Rhubarb Awesome

1 part gin
1 part rhubarb syrup
1/2 part lemon juice
basil leaves

Put all of the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with some ice. Shake it vigorously. Pour into a glass (be sure to include the basil leaves!). If you're making it for me, include the ice as well. Glory in the joy that is the Rhubarb Awesome. 

Bru, I haz it!

First off, big thanks to Vims, Bhama, and everyone else who suggested that I try Bru for my south Indian coffee needs! No surprise, but you guys were quite right.

This afternoon I opened my door and found a package on my doorstep. It was from T, and it contained two pounds of Bru! That woman is a hero.

I pretty quickly set about testing this product. The first thing I noticed was that it smelled more or less like plain ol' coffee (it's a coffee-chicory blend). It was also very finely ground, and tended to clump. I put some in my trusty south Indian coffee maker, boiled water, poured it on, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

It took ages to brew! Way longer than the other coffee I'd used. Eventually I semi-despaired and did a little knitting my sweater sleeve. I must've seemed somewhat out of sync with reality I suppose...sitting and knitting a wool sweater while I wait for my hot  coffee to brew when it's 88 degrees out. But eventually the coffee was done, so I mixed it with hot milk and sugar poured it into tumblers and Robert and I tasted it.

The moment of truth.

It was good! Much better than the regular American style coffee I'd tried the first go. Was it true south Indian flavor (or better yet, Prakruthi quality) in every way? No. Hopefully some of that can be chalked up to my newb status, but even if it never gets better this coffee was pretty good. It tasted of India and made both me and Robert happy.

So, hooray for blogs and friends! Without you all I'd still be wandering, lost, in a south Indian coffee-less universe!

Coffee news!

I have several coffee notes this morning.

The first is that my dad loves the south Indian coffee maker I got for him! He has a couple other non-electric coffee makers (a french press and a Costa Rican coffee maker), and wasn't sure that the south Indian one would be all that different, but was very gracious about it all the same. Then he used it, and called to tell me how different the coffee made in it (in the traditional south Indian way) was! So that was very exciting-- for both of us!

And then, yesterday, T called me. T is a devoted lover of coffee, and when we'd met for lunch and shoe shopping last week, I'd bemoaned my lack of properly south Indian tasting coffee. I'd also mentioned that my lovely blog readers had recommended a certain type of coffee, available at many Indian grocers, to me. There aren't any Indian grocers particularly close to me, so I was still living in a south Indian coffee-less universe.

So, as I said, T called yesterday. She was at an Indian grocery store, and had just sent me a picture. Was it the coffee I wanted?

It was! So she bought two bags for me, and I will collect them when I next see her, in a couple of weeks. Can you feel the antici..................................pation?

Today in New York

I saw several surprising things today, and did several surprising things myself.

I went down to lower Manhattan to meet up with some friends for a little shoe shopping and lunch. The first surprising thing I did was: not be late! I've been meeting my friend T at this shoe shop on this day for the past 4 years, and I've been late every year except for this one. We meet there 1-2 other times a year as well, and I'm always late then, too. So really, it was a banner day for me! And in fact, I was early. I got there, didn't see T, and was confused. Checked the time and...21 minutes early?? So I went to a nearby cafe and had a coffee while I waited, as it was too cold to wait outside. Actually I had half a coffee. It was huge, and I hadn't had so much caffeine in months!

While I was waiting I saw my first surprising thing: a man in a button-down shirt and sports coat, skateboarding down the street, drinking an ice coffee and being pulled by his dog.

The other surprising thing I saw was a guy using a pay phone. Using a pay phone. I didn't even know those still worked! I didn't actually see that til much later in the day, but wanted to get it out of the way, because it's not nearly so surprising as the next bit.

I did not buy any shoes.

Not even one pair. And there was a sale! T bought shoes, and M bought shoes, but me? NO SHOES.

I think I might deserve shoes as a reward.

Hot beverages, south Indian style

Neither Robert nor I were ever big coffee drinkers. My parents didn't drink it when I was growing up, so I never really thought about it until I was about 16. At that point my schoolwork became sufficiently demanding (at least during the busiest times) that my sleep was lacking, and I'd caffeinate myself up on a mixture of coffee, hot chocolate and raspberry flavored black tea. It was pretty damn delicious, actually, in addition to providing quite a jolt.

But, after high school I only rarely drank coffee. My dad did eventually succumb to coffee's charms (aided and abetted by my brother, who came home from Costa Rica with a traditional Costa Rican coffee maker as a gift for dad), and my brother has been an off and on coffee drinker, but although I liked certain types of coffee I didn't drink it daily, or even weekly. Robert never drank coffee.

At any rate, all that changed when we got to south India. South India has a long history of coffee drinking, and coffee culture there is both unique and deeply ingrained. Most Americans think of India and tea, not realizing that in the south coffee is of at least equal prominence.

And south Indian coffee is delicious. It's drunk in small stainless steel cups, hot and sweet. It wasn't long before we were drinking a cup or two every day. Of course we had no idea how to make it, so we weren't drinking it first thing in the morning. Instead we drank it after lunch, and sometimes after dinner too. I don't know if it was because of the time of day we were drinking it or if we were just lucky (actually, in Robert's case we know: he is a fast metabolizer of caffeine), but neither of us ever needed coffee. We just wanted it.

So before we came back to New York, I wisely hit up a stainless steel store on Sampige Rd in Malleswaram and bought a south Indian filter coffee maker. I bought some of the tumblers and davarahs too, for good measure. But what I didn't buy was coffee.

The day after we got back to the states we went grocery shopping, and I bought coffee at Trader Joe's, and ground it nice and fine.  A couple days later I tried making coffee with it in my new coffee maker.

Fail.

I mean, it was drinkable. It wasn't bad coffee. But it sure as shit wasn't south Indian coffee. It tasted American, and Robert and I were both sad. So off to the internet I went. What kind of coffee, available in the US, was closest to traditional south Indian coffee? I asked google, friends on Facebook, and sent emails to friends in India.

There was no clear consensus, and I've been waffling about what to do. Tiju offered to mail me coffee powder, but that would clearly be a stopgap solution, as I can't have him mailing me coffee every month! I think what I'll probably do next is try out one of the New Orleans blend coffees, as they use chicory, which is used in south India as well. But I might order the Mysore blend from the Deckan Coffee company. I just don't know!

Just for kicks today I tried making south Indian style coffee with some TJ's instant coffee. It was still pretty far from right, but it was closer than the coffee made with proper ground beans, which was a little depressing.

Then Robert mentioned that he was finding his tea unsatisfying. Because, you see, we didn't just drink coffee at Prakruthi every day...we often drank tea, too! And the tea was just as distinctive and delicious as the coffee. Since my coffee experiments were not going well I figured I had nothing to lose and gave re-creating Prakruthi tea a shot. To my delight, that went much better! It wasn't identical, but it was at least a worthy competitor. I think if I buy some nicer tea (I was just using bags of English Breakfast) I could get even closer. Tea FTW!

But you know what? I was totally right to buy tumblers and davarahs. Drinking out them, even sub-par, American flavored coffee, takes me back to Bangalore, and I feel happy.