(Early) Thanksgiving

Since Shirin and Gabriel will be with his family in Florida for Thanksgiving, we will be celebrating our Thanksgiving this weekend. Lisa also came home this weekend for the same purpose and stopped by to give Shirin some cute baby clothes. She couldn't wait to buy baby clothes and judging by the ruffles on those yellow bloomers it had better be a girl!
Aww.. such cute little shoes.

Doesn't everybody's Thanksgiving start off with some Diwali decorations?

I know Buddha isn't your traditional Hindu Diwali decoration, but my Buddhas are actually candle holders and added the necessary South Asian flair. The outer candles are actually orange (not yellow), white, and green, for the colors of the Indian flag.

Tomorrow we make the switch to cornucopia, pilgrims, cranberry sauce and fake turkey. Isn't life great? I'm Indian at Diwali, Persian at Norooz, Austrian at Christmas, and American at Thanksgiving.

Ash (Soup) For Gabriel's Grandma

These pictures are from the first visit between families, before Shirin and Gabriel got married, perhaps 2004. We decided to cook Persian food at our house and bring it to Gabriel and David's apartment. Everyone was a good sport at trying the new dishes, and we had fun making it for them. Gabriel's Grandma particularly like the soup and mentioned wanting the recipe. Of course I never remembered to send it, but recently she reminded me and I'm glad she did!

Brendan, Anahita, and cute little Grandma Ester.

David and Gabriel. No picture of Shirin.. she must have been taking the pictures.

Gene and Rita.

Saeed and I.

SO......

Be careful what you ask for Grandma Ester, because not only will you be receiving the recipe but Shirin and Gabriel will be bringing you some of the finished product when they come down for Thanksgiving. These are the ingredients you will need.

You will receive a copy of the recipe on the left - that's the one I follow too! And you will receive a few of the non-American ingredients as well, such as the reshteh (Persian noodles), dried mint, and the kashk, a thick yogurty type substance. Notice the well stained pages. That's a sign of a well-used and, therefore, good cookbook.

The soup should be made in a big pot (pot on right) but you'll need to cook the lentils separately first in a smaller pot (left.) For the other beans I cheat and use canned.

The finished product: Ash-e Reshte

To serve, don't fill your bowl to the top because you are going to add the kashk (white stuff on left) and the topping (right) made from onions sauteed in butter and mint.

Add some kashk to the hot soup...

.... stir to mix...

... sprinkle on the topping.

Nooshi Joon!

The Towel Monster

Since her arrival as a kitten Shahbanu has had a thing for fabric, especially towels. If she sees me walk in with a basket of clean towels she follows me till she can climb in and start digging around. This day was no different. I emptied the towels on the bed, folded a few, and then lost my rights to the remainder.

As I walked around to the other side she watched me closely.

Sure of her possession she poses regally, and then ...

... turns her head to let me know I'm no longer a threat.

Since the bath is a prelude to a long nap, I know that I've lost and should just come back to finish the job later. Sweet dreams Banu!

Happy Diwali!

Friday November 9th is Diwali, or in Southern India, Deepawali. I've learned that this is the Festival of Lights which is celebrated by lighting thousands of small oil lamps, or diyas. From what I've read, the burning of these diyas is a form of expression to convey a person's happiness. It's also a way to pay respect to God who is the source of our health, prosperity, knowledge, financial stability and peace in life.
The Festival of Diwali is supposed to bring a person hope of discovering light amidst darkness, happiness in place of sadness, and love when surrounded by hatred and violence. The tradition of lighting the lamps reflects Hindu mythology's idea that light signifies goodness and vitality.

The tradition of lighting lamps in the form of diyas and candles comes from several stories in Hindu mythology. The most famous is the story of the return of Lord Ram after defeating the evil Ravana and spending 14 years in exile. His homecoming was celebrated with the lighting of diyas.

This next photo was taken from the blog of Rajesh Dangi called "Bangalore Daily Photo." He labels this entry "Deepawali Preparations" and indicates that these lanterns and decorations are some of the items one may buy for the celebrations.
The rest of the photos for today's entry are from TrekEarth.com, a site I've written about before. It allows people to upload their photographs for display.

I know those children are having fun, but all that fire in such close proximity makes me nervous!

The photographer's note for this next pic is that this a pooja (devotion) for the Goddess Lakshmi, who is very important in Hindu mythology. I've heard that one of her most important characteristics is her power to bring wealth, but there's more to her than that.

Some of the diyas can be incorporated into very nice artistic displays.

This design is a form of rangoli which is floor painting traditionally done with sand or powder. Typically rangolis are used for special occasions and I've seen some very beautiful, intricate designs.

The diyas are made from clay which hold oil or ghee and have a cotton wick.

Deepawali is also a time for gift giving and serving of sweets. This platter holds many tempting items! Priya gave me a container of kheer today. Yum.

Ganesh - the elephant headed son of Shiva and Parvathi- is believed to remove all obstacles to success and bring good luck and prosperity and keeps natural calamities at bay in the lives of those who worship him.

A diya seller.

This girl is drying the earthen diyas for use in poojas and various festivities such as Deepawali.
I hope that if I've made an error in this entry someone more knowledgable than I will make a helpful comment. Happy Deepawali - Diwali!

Pics From The Weekend

On our way to Athens we stopped at the Georgia Welcome Center and these signs struck my funny bone. As if pregnant mothers are disabled, they have a parking space right up front amongst the handicapped spaces while on the other side....

...the pets have one further away. I can think of many of our pregnant patients that need to take a stroll around the exercise yard along with their pets!

Soon after arriving we sat down to a nice lunch provided by Saeed's sister Nahid, who sent all this yummy food back with Shirin and Gabriel on the airplane last weekend. (Thank you Nahid!)

We enjoyed her food many times over this weekend.

Shirin is explaining the two pleura to Saeed (we have two membranes lining the inside of the chest cavity, one lining the boney chest cavity called the parietal pleuron and one covering the lungs themselves called the visceral pleuron; there's a small space between and these membranes usually glide with each other during breathing.)

While we go about our business Qui-gon regularly sits in the kitchen window. Notice the bamboo plant on the sill? Well, it was chewed down by one of the black and white kitties (Benjen I think) and later that day it was knocked to the floor and broke. The house is gradually being reshaped by feline accidents, but it's all worth it, right?

This little guy, Jojen, would periodically go into the guest bathroom and try to open the cabinet door. You'd just hear this "thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk." You can tell he wasn't expecting me to come at him with the camera!

Jojen is supposedly the shier of the two black and whites (because he was caught three weeks later than his brother) and you can see him about ready to run away from me....

... but he and I ....slowly....

...became friends!

Qui-gon on the other hand knows no stranger! He is a true love muffin. Here he's playing with his new toy.

Notice his black arm spot? It's his fur, not a dirty spot. He's giving away his parentage!

Here are the two brothers together. Benjen on the right, who is very lovey with Shirin and Gabriel, was not interested in making friends with me. It wasn't till Sunday that he let me pet him.

Treat time!

About the time the UGA football game was letting out we struggled through traffic to campus so Shirin could take care of her patients. While she was inside cleaning out his cage Saeed and I had the job of watching this cute little box turtle (with a feeding tube) as he spent some time outside soaking up some UV light.

He really just had one thing on his mind...

...walking to a secure spot to find some earthy stuff to burrow in.

When Shirin came out to bring him back in we had to tell her that that pile of leaves by the wall was her patient!

This is Sheila the bearded dragon lizard. She wasn't doing so well...

... but she was so beautiful. (sorry it's out of focus)

Sunday morning Shirin fixed us a good breakfast. Before we left we spent the day doing a few household chores and watched the movie, "Word Play." The weekend was over too quickly, so I guess we'll just have to go back! :-)