you're welcome world.
you should really be paying for what i'm about to share with you.

my husband is from india...and he loves to cook.
yeah, i kind of lucked out.

over the past 7 years of being married, i've definitely learned a lot of indian cooking, but my skill is nothing compared to his. for me cooking is still just a chore, but for him it's a passion.

there are so many indian foods that i never heard of or imagined growing up, but now i don't understand how i could have ever lived without them. they've become comfort foods to me. and the happy part is that most of them are kind of healthy too!



we do eat meat in our family, but just a couple times a week since there are so many great indian veg dishes. i could totally be vegetarian indian style...they have mastered it. my husband has totally broadened my vegetable horizons.

and now he has finally put together a collection of our favorite everyday indian recipes.

these are tried and true. i can promise they won't disappoint.
you better invest in a pressure cooker though.

so enjoy! maybe next we get get him to share his non-veg recipes! :)

VEG INDIAN RECIPES

if anyone is married to an indian, then cricket automatically becomes a part of your life.

no, not the insects.

i mean the sport. if you still don't know what i'm talking about, just imagine the mother of baseball on crack. in india its almost closer to being a cult than entertainment. let's just suffice it to say that indians are passionate about their cricket.


and when india plays it's arch rival...pakistan... that just takes the crazy to a whole new level.
especially if it's in the cricket world cup semifinals!

which is what happened today.
which is why i stayed up all night to watch cricket for 9+ hours in a theater with my husband and desi friends!


thank you to india for making it worth my while, and thank you pakistan for playing a truly great game! both sides should be proud.


now we're off to the finals...which india hasn't won since 1983!
i think i should get instant wife points for knowing that... :)

the notorious indian head bobble.
this is another funny cross cultural thing that i encounter constantly in india, and even in my own house. hehe.

does it mean yes? does it mean no? what on earth...

if you don't know what i'm talking about, here's a quick video explanation.



when my husband gives me the head bobble, it's often partnered with a 'hmmmm.'

to an american, 'hmmm' kind of translates as 'what?'
but to an indian, 'hmmm' is pretty much the vocal equivalent of the head bobble...
like the head bobble, more often than not it means 'yes'.

that's the thing with the head bobble. it can kind of mean what you want it to. but it seems most often to me to be a kind of reluctant yes.

in indian culture, if someone asks you to do a favor or something, it's impolite to say no...even if you can't do it. so my guess is that the head bobble evolved out of thousands of years of the reluctant yes, and the yes that is really a no. it's kind of inbetween.

you all know what i'm talking about. saying yes to be polite, but you know deep down that you're not going to do whatever you just said yes to. :P

anyways, i may have just made this thing even more confusing...
but i'm kind of starting to think that's the point of it. ambiguity.
you asked me a question? the answer is whatever you decide you want it to mean!
brilliant.

ok, so one of the major cultural things americans get freaked out about in indian culture is arranged marriage... i used to initially as well.

but after being surrounded by indian culture for a few years, i am starting to understand some of the benefits.

first of all, arranged marriage these days isn't really how people might imagine it.
basically family introduces people to each other, and if they find someone they like then they commit to the match and spend the next few months getting to know each other before they tie the knot.

rarely are there cases anymore of meeting someone the day of your wedding or something...and people usually have a say in who they will marry.

american parents try to match their kids up too...just in a less formal way, and with less authority.

as a girl in the usa though, dating can be a stressful way to find a husband. american men often don't know where they're going in a relationship. in some ways the indian method gives a lot more security. you're only meeting people with the intention of marriage...plus you have a little help.

deep down i think many americans want that...a less haphazard way of finding a spouse.
that's why we've come up with eharmoney and all those other matching sites, right?

to me the biggest difference between that and arranged marriage is the role that family plays. and that's a whole other issue.

i'm about to have to help arrange my sis in law, which is definitely a role i never in my wildest dreams would have imagined taking on! when it comes down to it like that, it still feels pretty foreign to me...

and of course i love a good love marriage! ;) and so do indians...just look at all the bollywood movies!

fall is in the air at last!

it's amazing how waking up to a crisp 55 degree morning puts me in such a better mood than walking outside and instantly starting to sweat.

fall makes me want to buy mums and pumpkins and drink hot tea!

and today i found yet another awesome thing about autumn...sukkot!

as in the jewish feast of tabernacles.
this is when jews live in tents (sukkah) for a week each year at the beginning of fall to remember the 40 years they were lost in the wilderness, and thank God for all his provision.

for lunch today one of my friends who is a rabbi invited me to dine with her in their family sukkah...and it was a super fun experience.


it got me to thinking though...why don't christians celebrate more jewish holidays?
so many of them have such special and messianic meaning behind them to a christian...especially passover. seriously.

in fact, when jesus had the last supper with his disciples and said 'do this in rememberance of me', i think he was especially referring to the passover seder, and the symbolism behind it.
he was saying, now when you come together to remember how God spared you from death by providing the sacrificial lamb, realize that the lamb was only a foreshadowing of my sacrifice for you.

i don't really think he was talking about taking shots of grape juice with crackers...don't get me wrong...i think doing communion is good...but maybe we miss part of the deep impact of it when we don't really think about the original context.

anyways...rabbit trail. just my two cents.

but seriously, maybe i can start a trend of my own.
weather this nice makes me want to build a sukkah in the backyard for sure...
or maybe i'll just go camping. :)