I hate mondays

In the immortal words of the great Garfield the cat... I hate mondays. Well ok... I don't really HATE mondays .. hate is such a strong word. But its mondays like today which remind me that I'm not very fond of them.

There are some Mondays that are great.... you had a fun weekend you got a lot done.... and you come back to work and you are ready to start a new project...... well not me and not today.... I did have a little bit of fun this weekend. But I have a few large things for work that I've been trying to finish and so I came in to work this morning knowing that I spent my weekend trying to finish my work and didn't and now I am carrying over more work to an already busy week.

I did stick to my ..."cook one full dinner" rule that I am trying to keep up with (I didn't use work as an excuse not to cook ... which is a accomplishment) which is that I try and cook a full Indian meal at least once a week (usually on the weekend b/c I remeber to defrost the meat). Week days meals are small and quick... it works for both of us. Let me tell you I had this aversion to cooking... I think its because My mother and her Mother were great cooks and me.... well I'm your stereotypical career woman... I burn toast.... can never get the coffee to taste right... and I think I may have burned rice once as well (the indian equivalent to burning toast). But I am realizing its all in my head.

Well I'm breaking down walls.... making progress... yeah me...could you believe it... I think part of it is also that cooking Indian food is frankly intimidating... all the different powders in the different proportions... but I'm conquering my fear of the curry powder. Also comes with the realization that you know what..... its ok if I use short cuts... I don't have to be the perfect cook who uses all the fresh ingrediants (a big concept in Indian cooking.. fresh fresh fresh). Its ok if I use coconut milk from a can or frozen okra.

Well I do have to say that the secret of my sucess is this book... now if your like me then your mother has been throwing Indian recipe books at you since you finished college.... I think someone (maybe mother... maybe my father supporting my mothers efforts to get me to cook) found this at BJs or costco or some normal american store.... 1000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra. Now this book has all my moms recipes in some form.. whether it has the exact recipe or something similar which just needs some modification. It helps me to 1)remember every last ingrediant required (as I always forget something) 2)PROPORTIONS..... my mother speaks the language of items not amounts... I'm generally left to figure that on my own.