finally - roughing in...

...that is, we finally started. I don't have much advice on roughing in walls (i.e. framing) - ambition overcomes ignorance, right? Describing ambition is something I'll work on later, for now I'll just show a few pictures.

There are nuances to each and every room, especially in these odd and old - I mean unique and character'filled - houses. You should be thinking ahead like Bobby Fisher. Assess the entire room every five minutes and consider what you're working around.

Horizontal:


Vertical:

A little work, a lot of thinking - hopefully the rest of the week is productive as well.

Right now we're enjoying the crap out of this candle - autumn leaves by yankee candle.  It's a bundle of crisp fall leaves, cinnamon and Christmas tucked warmly into a granny-knitted blanket.  

furniture; internet stuff

I've been meaning to post about some furniture we recently got for a steal. A friend was moving to Los Angeles and unloaded just about everything she had. We were among the mob of benefit-reapers. Thanks, Nancy. Project Rowhouse has quite a bit more square footage than the previous house, so we're always on the lookout for random pieces of furniture. One item we were desperately in need of was more couch space for the current living area. The one we've had for the past few years can't get through the stairwell to the basement, but this one did - and we can eventually move it to one of the extra bedrooms where it doubles as a full bed:

Kanga brought out the devil eyes - watch out.

This desk is pretty sweet and fits in this open office area on the third floor.


We planned on having a hammer and nail filled weekend, but in the spirit of learn-as-you-go we realized some of the wall areas we wanted to keep had to be removed and redone. So, we ended up doing a lot more demo and cleanup. Hopefully productivity is in our future and I'll give a better update.

I did get around to organizing the internet router/hub/hard drive to it's hopefully permanent location. It had been resting in a beautiful nest of it's own wires, dust and chunks of drywall in the corner of the future kitchen. To prevent the possibility of something hatching from within we decided to clean it up and mount it:

Pazha Pradhaman.

A payasam/kheer is referred as Pradhaman when the main ingredients are jaggery and coconut milk. The basic recipe for any pradhaman except Palad is the same. The key ingredient like pazham/chakka/chana dal/moong dal is cooked in jaggery and coconut milk. Pazha pradhaman is a Kerala speciality where ripe Nenthrapazham is used. Make sure the bananas are very ripe, else you taste the raw flavor in the pradhaman.

Take two very ripe bananas and steam cook till soft. Remove the skin and slit the banana vertically. Remove the inner black portion. Mash the banana to pulp. You can pulse for few seconds in the mixie or use a hand blender.

banana puree - 1 cup

jaggery powdered - 1 1/2 cup

coconut milk extracted from one big coconut

chopped coconut pieces - 2 tblspn

ghee - 2 tablespoon

Extracting coconut milk
Grate the coconuts. Add one cup of water and grind in the mixie. Extract the thick milk using a cheese cloth. Add another 1 1/2 cups of water and repeat the step of grinding and extracting. You get a thinner extract of coconut milk. Once again add 1 1/2 cups of water and extract the last set of very thin milk. I don't use the store bought coconut milk. Its always fresh milk extracted. So if you are using store bought, adjust the consistency of the milk, accordingly.

Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a pan. Add the mashed banana and saute for few minutes.Melt jaggery with 1/2 cup of water. Strain to remove any impurities. Mix in the mashed banana puree to the jaggery syrup and the third coconut milk. Bring to a boil and let it simmer. When it starts to thicken, Stir in the second milk and bring it to boil. Finally add the first thick milk and remove from fire. Stir well to mix the thick milk added. After adding the thick milk, it should not be heated to avoid curdling.

In a pan, roast the coconut pieces in ghee till brown and garnish the pradhaman with the roasted coconut pieces. Usually cardamom is not added, but if you wish, you can add some cardamom powder too.

This goes to Sunshinemom's FIC-Brown.
If ghee replaced with some vegan butter, its a vegan sweet. And it joins the cleberation at Vaishali's vegan kitchen.

Award
Malar and Sowmya has passed on the Butterfly award for the coolest blog. Thanks Malar and Sowmya for thinking of my blog.

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