parotechnics

AMY'S EASTER REPAST: Spicy Pepperoni Cheese and crackers Green beans with onions in a balsamic vinaigrette Asparagus with rock salt and balsamic vinegar - (do you remember when rock salt would be in every house? Do we get it in India anymore or is it all taken over by Tata's iodised salt?) Devilled eggs Shrimp with some sort of creamy, pale red dipping sauce Steamed artichoke with dipping butter A salad of arugula, braised scallops topped with a cauliflower puree, raisins and walnuts Roast lamb Roast vegetables Arugula pesto Tomato and gorgonzola relish Chocolate cupcakes with pink icing and sprinkles We also each got an easter basket fit for a lush, sorry, I mean, sophisticate. With little sweeties and a nip of liquor each. Mine was a miniature bottle of pear vodka. Clearly I chose my seat well! It's my feeling that Amy should move to Bombay and open an establishment called Amy's Excellent Repasts on Mahakali Caves Road. But she may be discouraged by the unavailability

...that's why so many weather vanes, everywhere you go, all types...

It is easter. Beethoven's Song of Joy on NPR. Flowers. Bunnies. Sunshine. Regeneration. And, er, snow. 32 degrees farenheit which is 1 degree centigrade. A sweater and a coat. Well, at least there are some people in Provincetown who don't believe in the false cheer of pretending it's Spring just because it's the cruel month. I'm with you people! Aage badho, hum tumhare saath hain. Later today I have been invited to Easter dinner at my friend Amy's. Amy works at the Fine Arts Work Centre but she's also a chef. More pictures of food will follow I suspect. Anyway, can one with such excellent hair, go wrong in any way that counts? AMY'S HAIR Happy Easter!

Good morning sun. And good morning moon. But mostly, good morning sun... And good morning Francesca's book "Love in South Asia" which I'm really enjoying reading after a hard core murdery mystery-fantasy fiction binge

The street where I live The Cape Cod style is a a type of house and since this is Cape Cod, well, examples abound. To me, it's hard to know, but I guess it's this thing of steep roofs, this somewhat symmetrical air - there's a sort of simple, nostalgic beauty in it I suppose. A hillside full of them's certainly a lovely thing to see.. Up close you see the difference of course. Some really are very basic. Some are a bit grander, and whimsical in their choice of colour Kind of like boy house and girl house Some suggest they are owned by long lost relatives of mine, for obvious reasons ;) (hint - note shape of gate) While some, are still works in progress...

I'd always promised myself that some day when I had enough time I'd diligently learn how to cook an entire cuisine. Well....oh well... there is such a cuisine as random self indulgence, right? And these are all things I never made before so as long as I'm learning... And that's peanut butter chocolate chip cookies to you - made from scratch! And that's the smart cookie who baked them enjoying the fruits of her labour.. remaining cookies to be donated to various nice peoples And that me dears is a two faced pizza, like some peoples we all may know from time to time, except tastier. One side has bacon, asparagus, tomatoes and asiago cheese with paprika and the other has smoked salmon, cream cheese, dill and black olives (yes I know, should have been capers but I forgot to buy them in shop due to classic case of ASSS (American Supermarket Stupefecation Syndrome). Still, very good. BEFORE AFTER Yes indeed I have had the grace not to take a picture of myself stuffing my

For March and April I'm living in a red cottage, at the far western end of Provincetown, on a street that runs along the ocean. Strange to live in a house as if it's one's home, yet know there's a definite date when it won't be any longer. An interesting exercise in living in the moment. It's beautiful of course. The house is like an Enid Blyton fantasy - a bedroom in the attic, a potentially scary doll on the top of the basement stairs. It's surrounded by trees but they're bare, because spring is supposedly here but winter's playing a recalcitrant squatter and keeps flouncing back in. Most days are cloudy with a dull and sullen light. And cold. And windy. And so, that's mostly how our house looks... But every now and then we have a couple of golden days, just in case we were getting habituated to our suffering and so, not suffering enough. Then the sky becomes an astonishing blue and the sunrises and sunsets are burnished and dramatic. And then,