Sweet Potato Casserole and Boozy Chocolate-Banana Ice Cream

Today was the first day back to school after vacation, and it wasn't as difficult to get back into the routine as I had anticipated. It may have something to do with the fact that the SAT is done and over, so I have a huge load off my shoulders.
My uncle Maneesh was in Dubai for business, so he came over for dinner today. Now, a few days ago, during vacation, mom and I had bought some sweet potatoes because I had an intensely urgent craving for proper Thanksgiving food. I've never had sweet potatoes, since I never liked them, as far as I can remember. Now that my tastes have changed, I get excited about trying all these new foods. I had looked at countless sweet potato recipes, dreaming of the warm, fall flavors that would bring back the nostalgic tastes of fall in Boston. Finally, the day had come that I would be able to try out one of those recipes!
The sweet potatoes came out well, not too sweet, and warm and comforting, even though I tweaked the recipe to make it a bit healthier. I probably ate a third of the whole thing, in addition to the delicious quinoa stir-fry my mom made. The cooking didn't stop there, though. I also made some no-ice-cream-maker-required, boozy chocolate-banana ice cream from David Lebovitz's site to get some use out of an overripe banana. I just tried a bite, and it's not too bad, for my first ice cream attempt!

Thali, Bread Pudding, and the SAT

I haven't cooked this much for ages! It's kind of nice, especially because I'm not worrying so much about making "healthy" or low-calorie treats. If it's dessert, it's gonna have some calories. And chances are, those calories are gonna taste delicious.

As promised, we went out for thalis after my SAT diagnostic test. I've been doing SAT classes with this notorious SAT coach, MR. KHAN, and he had all his students drag their tired selves to school to take 4-hour diagnostic tests almost every morning during vacation. But as of yesterday at 1:30 PM, I am done with the SAT! Scores come out December 22, so, depending on whether I decide to retake it, I'll know if I'm done forever.

Back to the thalis. They were delicious, as usual, combining all my favorite parts of different thalis into one uber-thali! It didn't hurt that there were FOUR desserts either.

On Thursday, my mom invited her friend's family over for dinner. She cooked up a lovely spread of Indian dishes, pulao (rice with cloves, onions, and some other lovely fragrant things), palak paneer (pureed spinach with cheese curds), bharta (eggplant), and aloo-gobhi (potato-cauliflower). My descriptions don't do the dishes much justice, but I guarantee they all have such great, complex flavors from the spices. Indian spices work magic on food. Someday I'll master them...someday.
The responsibility of desert naturally fell on my shoulders, as I have the biggest sweet tooth in the family. But it's really quite close between me and mom. After seriously deliberating for a while, I decided on bread pudding, which would conveniently utilize the stale bread left on the counter. I was devastated (okay I'm exaggerating), however, to find that a slice of bread was growing a fine colony of mold. I figured it would be best to chuck the rest, then set out to buy some replacement stale-bread and ice cream. In the end, the bread pudding came out wonderfully. It was a bit boozy with whiskey-soaked raisins, but so nice and custardy that I couldn't stop eating it. Everyone else seemed to like it, but I couldn't have cared less. I thought it was great, and nothing else mattered.

Sometimes you must make french toast

I've been getting a bit restless lately. It tends to happen on the weekends, after just one day of no school (and none of the stress that comes with it). With nothing to worry about, I have nothing to keep my whacked-out brain occupied. And so, I drive myself crazy.

I'm actually surprised I lasted this long. Already 5 days into vacation (yes, I just counted it up on my fingers) and it's JUST starting to hit me. Well, I have kept myself distracted by playing around with the camera, since Mom decided she wanted a sort of photo shoot of the house.

Of course I've also been watching at least an hour of How I Met Your Mother and spending hours drooling over the various food blogs I follow (or used to follow, back when I had time for such luxuries) each day. You know, gradually turning myself into a vegetable. A vegetable who really likes food.

So today I woke up thinking that I needed to get out and do something different. Actually I think I had a dream about it, and of course, once you have a dream about something, you just can't get it out of your head. I was planning to propose to Mom that we go out somewhere to eat (in my world "going out" and "doing something" always entails some form of eating or food appreciation), but we have plans to go to Rajdhani for thalis tomorrow. Think the best, cheapest, most satisfying buffet you've ever had- except you don't even have to get up to get the food. No no, with thalis, the food comes to YOU.

Although I really couldn't wait another day to go out for thalis, I agreed that having thalis two days in a row is just a little excessive.

But sometimes, you must give in to the insistent voice in your head of your stomach demanding something exciting and a little beyond the usual routine.

Sometimes, you must make french toast. Raisin-walnut french toast with caramelized bananas, to be exact.

Now let me tell you, this raisin-walnut bread (which I'm sorry to say I didn't make at home) is fantastic. We must buy it from Waitrose/Spinney's at least once a week now. It's just so lovely: the subtle sweetness of the raisins, the perfectly browned and rustic crust, the warm undertones and indulgent crunch of the walnuts. And with bananas (and sometimes peanut butter or honey) it's like some crazy-good banana bread that you didn't even need to break out the mixing bowls for.

Before I forget, it's time for my blog resolution. Even though it's not New Years yet, I feel I'll actually stick to it if I type it out and publish it.

So. I am really awful at keeping up with blog posts. It's not that I don't have anything to write (I will always have some lovely food to rave about), it's that I just cannot find the time to sit down and make myself be good about it. I commend all those people who stick to their blogs and write at least once a week (especially those people whose blogs I read and get rather upset at when they don't provide foodie entertainment for me every day). So it is now my resolution to be like them. Write, photograph, eat good food (like I don't already!) every day.