Ramadan recipe for success

Sometimes when people find out I'm fasting for Ramadan, they have questions.

Someone recently mentioned to me that she thought we were allowed to drink water during the day. When I told her that we don't drink water OR eat anything while fasting, her immediate question was: don't you get dehydrated?

I'm a gadget head

I talk on an iPhone, get directions from a talking GPS, wake up to a shiny new alarm clock that blares music from my iPhone, and read books on a Kindle. So I admit that I'm a gadget head, I'm not ashamed.

So...what do I speak and where have I been...?

I attended a neighborhood party on Friday for a friend's birthday. At that party, another friend just could not get over (and kept mentioning) how many languages I speak. I don't feel like I'm that big of a superstar, but this guy sure did.

1 day down...a month to go

We woke up early (4:30am!) today for the first rosa (day of fasting) of Ramadan. We had a quick sehri of chicken karahi and cereal and then I tried to go back to bed a little before 5. Getting back to sleep didn't come easily though.

I hate Craigslist...except today

So if you've gone online, then you know that Craigslist is a great place to buy or sell anything locally. I've heard horror stories from friends about how they've tried to sell something on Craigslist and were instead held at gunpoint, so I'm a little leery about Craigslist myself.

New blog design

So I've spent the last 1.5+ hours changing the design of my blog and applying this new pinky/flowery template. I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I think it will have to do.

It's that time of year again....

I don't know how time has gone by so quickly, but it's already that time of year again: Ramadan.

Ramadan is the time of year when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. It's based on the lunar calendar, so the timeframe shifts every year, as does the amount of time during the day that we fast. We take a big meal in the morning (before fasting starts) and then don't eat again until after sunset when we're allowed to break the fast with iftaar. The food served during iftaar is different depending on what people grew up with, where they're from, and what they prefer to eat. In our house, we typically make pakoras (deep fried vegetables like potatoes, green peppers, and onions), fruit chart (fruit salad with some spices on it), and dahie pulki (pakoras in spiced yogurt).

When BFFs aren't forever and ex-friends don't stay "dead"

The longer we live, the more we realize how many people have passed in and out of our lives.  Some people stick with you for a long time as you travel the road of life together while others appear and disappear as quickly as they came, mere blips in life.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), technology makes it easy (or at least easIER) for us to remain in contact with some people and get back in touch with others.  A simple internet search can find those you want to hear from--former classmates or BFFs long gone...along with those you'd prefer not to hear from--archenemies and ex-friends.

Desi cooking requires patience

In our area, there are a lot of great Desi restaurants--some hole-in-the-walls (and unbelievably cheap!), while others are fancy (and expensive!). The amount of Desi dishes that are served in these restaurants could probably be counted on both hands and don't vary wildly. Although you can find some restaurants that will serve what's typically a home cooked dish, most of the dishes are common--kofta, chicken curry, seekh kabobs, chicken tikka, etc.

In contrast, on the trips that I've taken to south asia, the dishes served both at home and in restaurants are not so commonplace and aren't restaurant menu dishes. You could make a different Desi dish every day for a whole year and still not run out of dishes to cook.