Ginger-Garlic Paste

When you start cooking Indian food, you'll notice a few ingredients repeat themselves. One of those is ginger-garlic paste. It's delicious! I've been making Indian food for a little over five years now and I've noticed I'm becoming a better cook. This has nothing to do with me. It's the fact that I've seen the light!!! Or rather how delicious food can be and I've used some of the techniques I learned in making signature Indian dishes in my everyday meals. I've started using ginger-garlic paste in just about everything! It deepens the flavor and adds a bit of a kick. You can go straight to your local Indian market or you can make it in your very own kitchen. I like to make it because I know it's fresh and like I said we use it all the time. Ingredients:Whole gingerWhole garlicOlive OilDirections:Cut the skin off your ginger and chop it up into chunks. Smash your garlic and take the skins off. Add equal parts ginger and garlic to a food processor and then add a bit of olive oil. Puree. Add enough olive oil for the ginger and garlic to become a thick paste. Make sure you add a little at a time because you can always add more if it's still too thick. 

Your Inner "Greatness"

As you all know, Joel travels quite a bit for work. He had a bit of a break in travel the last week or so, but he's getting really busy the next two months. I'm due in December so he's trying to get all his travel in before so he can take some time off. It's definitely worth the next few busy months for help later. I'm still not entirely sure having three kids under four is possible...These little boys sure miss their daddy when he's gone. We decided to take a little family trip to Vancouver, Wa. We packed it full of some super fun things!Bollywood Theater was by far my favorite! It was delicious! If you're in the Vancouver, WA area you have to go and tell me what you think!!! You walk in to see a Hindi movie playing and stand in a super long line. The word is out. This place is a hit! Don't let the line scare you, their service is amazing!!They use authentic Indian utensils and dishes. If you were to go to a restaurant in India, you would see the set up in the picture above. They even have a little modern flare to some of the dishes. Everything we got was spicy. On purpose. Oh man was it amazing. Don't worry, they have white friendly, not so spicy food as well. Liam wasn't as thrilled with the heat level. I kept giving him these cucumbers in yogurt to help. Nothing was helping. He was getting upset and I made a final attempt to give him a cucumber. Joel saw what I was doing and stopped me. "Babe, you know those are really spicy right?" Umm..... Nope. I'm a "great" mom. I finally gave Liam regular yogurt and it fixed it all. After I tormented him. Come on, I know you all have them. Those moments where your inner "greatness" comes out. Share your stories!  

Pappu Recipe

At what temperature do you send your kids out to your sprinkler or kiddie pool? I lived in California for about ten years and swimming weather there is completely different than swimming weather here. There it would be at least 90 before you'd even consider swimming. Here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest... Well, it was 70 today and my kids were outside in the sprinkler and pool. Crazy?  Yes, but they loved it and I know countless other kids were doing the same thing here.  We also made some yummy pappu! Which was also one of the very first Indian dishes I learned how to make. It is a delicious lentil dish that you serve with rice. It's easy to make and everyone I have ever made it for loves it. Do you want to know another great thing about this dish??? It's gluten free! I have a few lovely friends and family members that are gluten free and this is a go to dish when they come over. Their are a few different variations of this dish. The one I make was taught to me by Joel's dad.Ingredients:2 dry red chilies (you can also use red pepper flakes if it's all you have)1/4 an onion chopped2 tbs butter 3 tbs olive oil1 tbs black mustard seeds1 cup lentils (I use urad daal)1 chopped tomato1 tsp turmeric1 tsp chili powder4-6 cloves of garlic diced finely5 cups of water1 tsp salt1 tsp cumin seedsDirections:Wash your lentils. Put the lentils in a bowl and fill it with water. Use your hands to mix it all around. Strain the water and repeat until the water is clear.In a medium sized pot, combine your water, onions, turmeric, chili powder, and lentils. Cook on medium/high heat. Cook the lentils until they're soft. Next, use an emersion blender or an actual blender. Blend all the ingredients until smooth. Your mixture should be the thickness of a good hearty tomato soup. Put the mixture back in the pot and keep it on low. In a separate small pot, heat your oil, butter, and garlic on medium heat. Once the oil starts to bubble add your dry chilies,cumin seeds, and mustard seeds. Turn it to medium low and stir. The garlic cooks quickly so you want to make sure you are watching. When the mixture turns golden, add it to your lentil mixture. Add some salt and your tomatoes.Cook on low for about 20 minutes and serve with rice. 

Half Indian Toddler Problems

A toddler's life comes with many difficulties. People don't let you do whatever you want, discipline your younger siblings, eat cookies all day, and the worst of it all... they don't always understand what you're saying so clearly. Now, try being half Indian and half White on top of it!

We've been slowly teaching Liam and Levi little Telugu words. I only know the ones Joel and his dad have taught me. I've tried to look a few up online, but I was only met with hysterical laughter after I used one of my internet taught words. They were either completely wrong or I was using them in the wrong context. Joel sure got a kick out of it. 

As we started to teach Liam some of the Telugu words, we ran into a problem. So many of them sounded like something else in his toddler vocabulary. 

Annum

Rice is served with just about every Indian dish so we have a lot of it around here. When we told Liam what the Telugu word for rice was he just looked at us and laughed. 

"Mom, this isn't annum, it's rice!"

He thinks it's hilarious because he calls our cousin Autumn, annum. When we tell him he's eating annum, he thinks we're teasing him. 

Thatha

Obviously, the "th" is always hard for a kiddo to say. Liam calls Joel's dad Sasa instead of Thatha. It's never been a problem until this weekend. I gave him chips and salsa for lunch. He asked me what the salsa was. No this is not the first time he's ever had salsa, but it's the first time he's actually paid attention to it. I told him it was salsa. He just stared at me. 

"If you say I'm eating my Sasa one more time, I'll tell daddy."

I tried to explain the difference between Thatha and salsa, but he told me to go into time out for not listening instead....

Naan

Naan is the delicious Indian flat bread that we always find an excuse to make around here. It. is. delicious. We didn't make it with an Indian dish one time for my family and they all looked at us like we were insane. Naan is definitely not a hard word to say. However when you're family is always making naan jokes, it gets distorted quickly. What are naan jokes you ask? Oh, let me tell you. 

As a response to someone asking you if you had any naan. "Nope, I've had naan." 

"I'll have naan of that." 

You can see where it goes. It's one of those jokes that happens at least a few times during all of our Indian dinners. Even Liam is doing it! He has no idea why it's so funny, but he loves saying naan while running around the house laughing. 

I wonder if Indian families sit around the dinner table making naan jokes during dinner. Oh yeah, that's probably only something us whiteys do...

We Went "Camping!"

One of the big jokes last year with our family was Joel planning a camping trip. He, my cousin Beau, and cousin Kyle went camping together. Let's just say it was an evening of camping on an illegal camp site (which they found out later), going home early to play video games, and eat pizza... 

He tried to plan multiple trips over the summer only to make all the preparations and not go. Something would come up or they couldn't agree on a spot to go. My family is definitely not one to let it go without teasing mercilessly over the following months. My cousin Chase got wrapped up in a family joke and his response was, "Of course it had to happen in this family! Now they will never let it go!"

This year we decided to make a stand and actually go camping!

Our first attempt... Camping in the backyard. Hey, that's a two year olds dream! We also wanted to see if the tent we got would hold up through out the summer. 

The evening started with tent flying. Or realistically, Joel and I trying to fly a kite for Liam only for him to stomp away yelling, "You guys never let me do my kite!" Hey kid, that kite was really hard to fly! Not to mention there wasn't a ton of wind and it was impossible to put together, but don't worry stomp off pouting after we spent thirty minutes tripping over ourselves attempting to fly your dumb kite. We finally gave in and said have at it even if it flies off. 

He thought he was the coolest two year old out there. 

At the end of our kite flying adventure, my one year old Levi walks over to me holding. my. camera. I ran over, inspected it, and didn't see any damage. Then I tried to take a picture... Something fell off inside my camera.

I took it out and it's still taking pictures fine, but I figure it was in there for some reason... The cheap side of me says keep taking pictures until it stops entirely and that's probably what I'll do. 

Levi LOVED the tent. He ran around and fell onto his back for ten minutes straight. As for the rest of the night? Well, let's just say Liam did great. He was worried about monsters for a bit and then grabbed his sword. That was enough to put him at ease. Levi on the other hand... He was up every hour. He's definitely not our best sleeper, but he's been sleeping through the night this week. He woke up every hour asking for water. I guess "camping" takes a lot out of you. 

Now, Levi and I are awake in the house and Liam and Joel are still sleeping in the tent. I'm pretty sure Liam is going to try and live in the tent along with my Survivor Man Husband. 

So. Are we ready for camping. Possibly everyone except for this sweet face. 

Our May Adventures

If you live in a place with constant sunshine all around you, you will never understand Pacific Northwest problems. We, here in the PNW, experience a few short months of summer and almost an entire year of clouds and rain. What do we do when the sun rarely shines?RUN OUTSIDE IN A SWIMSUIT AND SOAK UP THE VITAMIN D!!!Yes, that's right. The temperature doesn't matter because the sun makes it feel glorious. We get a little sick of the Vitamin D pills, light therapy, and daydreaming of a rain free day. This week the sun has been out and every single person in the PNW is out and ready to enjoy. My boys have been loving this nice weather! We've had so many adventures this week. The boys have been living in their pool. Inspecting "terrifying" itty bitty bugs.Being as cute as can be. Eating "Elsa snacks." Yes, Liam is still obsessed with Frozen.Then of course Levi's adorable new Zoolander face he makes when he's told to do something he deems ridiculous.Levi wasn't quite sure about the beach.Then he went for it and never came out! At the end, these little cuties decided they were too cold and hungry to move until they were served hot dogs.What's a fun post without my favorite Liam quote of the week?"Liam will you pick mama a flower?""Mom, there are no more flowers," as he stands next to this.....

On My Way To India

Sometimes, and it seems more often these days, we have no control over timing. I just got done with an 11 day work trip where I was at the following:

·      Resurgence 13

·      Veritas Apologetics Conference

·      The Gospel Tour

Brittany and the kids drove down to Seattle to pick me up and we are staying at a hotel, since I leave from Seattle the next day to jump on a 14.5-hour flight to Dubai and then a connecting 4-hour flight to Hyderabad, India.

It’s been almost five years since I’ve been to India. My memories of India are filled with incredible food, heat, stray dogs, and bright colors surrounding the landscape. Five years is a long time and every time I have gone to India, something significant has always changed. Things don’t stay the same and at times it can be shocking to see how much change can occur. In my mind, India should have stayed frozen the way I left it five years ago.

I’m excited to see my grandparents, their ministry, and spend time with friends and family. One of the things I know is that I will absolutely love my time in India. One thing I remember, as a kid, was the last few days of every trip to India. I would get incredibly depressed leaving! I grew to love the culture, the people, and the food.

More to come while I’m in India!

Check out my last trip below.

-Joel Muddamalle (The Indian Husband)