Hi there fellow foodies!
I had my little Elmo this past weekend and we are into the phase of potty training! He is going to be 2 in 2 weeks.
Last summer I hosted a BBQ and Kubes invited a few friends over. Two of the couples had kids around that age where they were learning to use the bathroom. I clearly remember the entire conversation going something like this “do you want to potty?”, after 5 minutes…another “do you want to potty”, one parent to the other, “how is your potty training going”?
I am not kidding you, the entire evening went like that! So when Elmo showed up on Friday, poor fella, I think I asked him every 10 minutes, do you want to pee pee or poo poo? When I finally got him to say yes, before we could reach the potty, guess what? Yup it was all over me! Luckily it was the pee pee and not the poo poo!
I just remember taking a whole weekend with the monster and she was potty trained. But you have to stick with it constantly for that entire weekend. I do not miss those days along with the sleepless nights! She is still a crabby tall human being! That will never change.
I love when she calls me from school and makes demands on what she wants to eat when she gets home. And let me tell you, Friday evenings, I better have her food ready! She is so cranky on a Friday after school. Bribery with food is how I survive the teenage years. If you have one of those teenagers in your home, try it!
This week I got the regular call that she wanted barfi. She first ate this in Trinidad when we visited for Diwali and my mom is a fantastic cook so of course I spend the majority of my time trying to get mine to be like hers because the Monster compares it and says, this does not taste like grandma’s!
I think I past this test this time with these sweet morsels! They are made during Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights or when there is a pooja/prays back home. Its the first thing everyone goes for in the parsad bag. And you only get 1 tiny square per bag. So its best to eat it right away before taking the leftovers home.
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Click here for Barfi recipe.
1 comment
Have never had these Fudge and have never heard of them best to my knowledge. My Auntie and Grandma used to make all kind of sweets and fudges. Especially Guava Cheese to which I was oh so addicted! But i’d have no idea how to make much sweets, as don’t eat much. My Auntie used to tell me stay away from sweets, even though she made them for me and my sister. And i guess subconsiously in a way, i’ve mostly stayed away from sweets, so i blame my Auntie lol for subliminally planting that seed that took root.
I always like the background stories. It’s the thing i like about blogs regardless of the main subject, because it adds life to the post. Stories form connections you can relate to with the author in some way or find some meaning in things. I think we all miss our childhood, we miss the food that reminded us of that time and place as well memories we had back then. Food had a way of forming connection to time and place. In some way i guess many of us and well those of us that grew up in a food culture, where we ate real food, made with love and care, have fond memories of those food we had and how it made us feel. Those memories are etched and ingrained in our memories.
I’ve had many a time to think, just think and ponder things from childhood and growing up with my Auntie. I’m always thankful to her for always preparing many different kind of foods, teaching us to like them, teaching the value of good nutrition, making sure we didn’t eat much junk (it wasn’t really around back then fortunately), but helping us to have a diverse palette. I’ve told my Auntie personally thanks, several time and she seemed confused to what really. She was always amazed of not that I remembered my childhood, but that the food she often cooked just going thru the motion of day to day living in the islands had an impact on me personally. It did! And it still do. It has some meaning in who you are personally among all the billion of things that make you who you are as a person.
As a culture and being of the same region, we all share many very similar experience, despite the subtle differences of each island life. Regionally it’s much the same as people travel and migrate island to island, so cultural differences and things get spread around. The experiences of the food culture and memories we share much the same. My Grandma’s cooking was unique, no doubt. Because all her sons, daughters, their kids, cousins would all show up at Grandma’s for lunch and dinner. Her food flavors are stuck in my memory and i find it hard to replicate and even harder as i don’t have the same local ingredients in the U.S. It’s just something to always strive for, but i don’t think i’ll ever get there. I can just learn to continue to be a better cook that’s all.
I guess the important think is teaching and sharing good nutrition and food with kids when they are young. As well how to make things when they can learn. They will remember even if you think they won’t. We grow up, we get older, we become adults. It’s a far less patience world that the time of yesteryear. We were all kids once. Yeah we were. So even when it feels not so great to teach the young one potty training, cleaning up poo and all that goes with that, remember someone at one time way way back that someone had to also teach you potty training lol. Aren’t stories fun!