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.

Spinach & Tomato Pasta and Surviving Without Mommy

Mommy has been gone on her visit to Bombay for 4 days now, and Daddy and I are getting by fine, though I do miss her and I'm realizing just how much she keeps everything together. Up till today Daddy and I have been getting by on all the leftover Indian food she cooked up to make sure we don't starve (my favorite yellow daal, cabbage subzi, methi...) but seeing as today was Thursday and so I would actually have nothing to do after school, I decided to make pasta. I looked at recipes for some guidelines and ideas but in the end I decided to just throw together a bunch of ingredients and trust it would taste good.

While I boiled some whole wheat penne (about 250g), I heated some olive oil (1-2 tbsp) on low heat, threw in some minced garlic and chopped onions, sprinkled in some red pepper flakes, and plopped down a spoon (1 or 2 tsp) of sun-dried tomato paste just as the onions began turning translucent. By then it was all giving off such a lovely smell (in my opinion, the smell of frying onions and garlic is simply irresistible) and I tossed in some frozen spinach (about 8 "nuggets"). I mushed and mixed when the spinach got soft, then added 1 can chopped tomatoes (next time I'd go for fresh- canned tomatoes taste awfully acidic and tinny), a few splashes of balsamic vinegar, and some salt & pepper. I stirred in the pasta not long after (I don't like the taste of over-cooked-down tomato), plopped some in a bowl, grated some fresh parmigiano-reggiano (bought from Spinney's after school- I spent nearly an hour there and only bought about 5 things) on top, then topped with salt and plenty of pepper. Made about 3 servings.