Hello! I hope y’all had (are still having) a fabulous weekend. Yesterday, I headed out to Wilbraham, MA to visit my cousin and her family. Yes, another weekend visiting family! It’s actually pretty awesome – I can visit any major city in the US and know someone within driving distance. It works out pretty nicely for me!
So, before I go any further, let me explain a bit more about my extended family. As you can probably tell from reading my blog, I have a big family, and I talk about them often.
My mom is the oldest of four sisters. They are all spread out across the country – AZ, CT, and CA. And they each have one son. I’m the oldest cousin on my mom’s side. My grandparents live in India ( ). It stinks, but that’s where they are happiest. Luckily, they’ve been able to visit twice in the past three years!!
Now my dad’s family on the other hand is a bit more complex. My dad is the youngest of 9. He has 5 brothers and 3 sisters. I have 21 cousins in all on my dad’s side, and some of them are even older than my dad. In fact, when my grandma was pregnant with my dad, his older sister and his older brother’s wife were also pregnant. Talk about a Father of the Bride type situation!! Now, bring my cousins’ kids into the mix and we’re talking a whole lotta people! So, yeah, I have a big family!
So this weekend I visited a cousin from my dad’s side (my uncle’s daughter). It was really nice because my aunt actually lives with her, so I got to spend time with her as well (my uncle passed away about 25 years ago). It was a pretty relaxing day – we talked, ate, talked, ate, ate, ate. I kid you not! My cousin is a terrific cook. In fact, she teaches Indian cooking classes in a nearby town. Basically, she takes traditional Indian dishes and simplifies them. When she found out how much I enjoy cooking, she let me be her little sous chef – I ended up getting my own personal cooking class for free!
I got to their house just in time for lunch…
The dish in the top left picture is a sweet and spicy corn and potato mixture made with fresh corn and shredded potatoes. SO GOOD! The dish in the top right picture is called Shahi Paneer. Paneer is the Indian cheese of choice – it’s basically pressed cottage cheese. The curry is made with pureed onions, tomatoes, cream, and spices. Absolutely delicious. And the bread in the bottom picture is homemade naan! Like a lot of other bloggers, I absolutely love naan and was so surprised by how easy it is to make at home. No worries, I will be posting a recipe soon.
In the late afternoon, we had some coffee. My cousin showed my how to make espresso like coffee without an espresso machine. I am a coffee fiend, so this was perfect for me. Not to worry, recipe coming soon.
I will tell you this, the secret to her awesome fake espresso is really more of a technique.
Along with our coffee, we munched on some homemade samosas and kachori. Samosas (bottom left) are an Indian snack made with spiced potatoes and peas stuffed in a small flour tortilla-like bread. Kachoris (bottom right) are similar to samosas, except the stuffing mixture is made with spiced beans.
Then (much later on) came dinner. My cousin gave me a bunch of options and asked me to pick one. I quickly settled on Kofta Curry and naan. This was the dish I assisted with. Kofta are vegetarian meatballs made with potatoes and crumbled paneer stuffed with cashews and raisins. The curry is made with pureed onions, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, cashew cream, water, a splash of real cream, and spices. I will definitely be making this sometime in the near future, so again, the recipe is on its way.
And here’s me assisting…
My aunt closed her eyes in all three takes, so I went with what I had! LOL!
And speaking of my aunt, she put me to shame this morning…
Her 75 year old self can touch her toes and do what she’s doing on the right. WHAT?! AND she’s had knee replacement surgery!! When I told her I couldn’t touch my toes (fully embarrassed), she told me I needed to practice. “Practice makes perfect.” Yeah…I should probably get on that.
Well, I have a lot of small things to take care of before tomorrow, so off I go!
Have a great evening, y’all!
Tell me about your weekend. Do anything fun?!
What a great weekend! And oh! That food – goodness!
I’d love to eat it all right now. I’m such a fan of Indian food – I can only imagine how amazing it was. Looking forward to the naan recipe!
That kofta dish sounds wonderful. Your aunt is my yoga hero today!
Mine too!
oh my GOODNESS! I love indian food especially paneer, kofta and samosas! I am drooling on my keyboard…
It’s so wonderful that you have so many family members all over the country. You can feel at home just about anywhere! 🙂
I had a relaxing weekend with some great sushi and walking and running in the sunshine.
Hope you have a wonderful start to your week! 🙂
Yes, I’m pretty lucky!
And sushi and a walk sound perfect!
WOW! Your 75 year old aunt is amazing! I can’t touch my toes either 🙁 I guess I need to start practicing asap! Have a great night, friend!
Ummm if practice can make me do that i better start stat! ahhhmazing! So awesome that you got to spend time with family and partake in some amaaaazing food! you swiped a samosa for me right? I’m sure you did 😉 haha
mwah!
I totally get your family situ as it’s the similar with myfamily! My parents each have 2 siblings but their parents have 11 kids and 6 kids and I’m super close to a majority of them! Getting together, as I’m sure you’ll agree, is fun yet noisy!
All the food looks delicious- I love them filled with potatoes (hello carbs!) or veggie mince!
I can’t explain how jealous I am of all that delicious Indian cuisine you got to eat! It’s all I’ve wanted lately… YUM!!!
Parita, I am so jealous. Look at all that food and kofta, that’s making me hungry after a heavy breakfast.
Kudos to your aunt, she is my yoga hero!
Your title says it all!!! I absolutely cannot wait for all these of these recipes – Indian food is one of my favorites!!! 🙂 Can you tell I’m excited by all of my exclamation points? haha
omgness Parita, I wish you could cook for me hehe! Mmmm homemade Indian food in the states–that sounds dreamy. 🙂 your aunt is amazing~that is so inspiring! that’s me at 75 hopefully haha.
Oh my goodness, your aunt is sooo amazing! I am jealous!
That looks like an amazing weekend of eats – I totally wish I could have been there – everything looks totally delicious!
Despite having to work on Saturday, I had a really good weekend – always helps to make Monday a little easier!
I am seriously drooling. Every thing uou highlighted looks soooo good! I have had most of it minus the kachoris. I would to see detialed recipes for everything!
What amazing cuisine, I love it! I wish I had some homemade Indian food 🙂
You are so lucky to have so much family around you! Your aunt is amazing, holy cow!