June 5, 2016

Somehow it has been hard to get in the mood for blogging.  But now so much time has gone by that I have to get caught up.

It was Vesak right after I posted last on May 21 and 22.  This the most important Buddhist full moon day commemorating the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha.  Here it is celebrated by going to the temple and by putting up lights and lanterns.  For 2 days, the city is beautiful at night and even in the daytime with the streamers of the lanterns waving in the wind.

This is a typical, traditional lantern.  They hang everywhere at Vesak

These are the lanterns that my neighbours hung on the bushes of my garden.  You can see the lights and lanterns at the house across the street as well.

They decorated the stairs leading up to the street as well.

Quite beautiful although very simple.  Just paper and dabs of water colour.  They have candles in them so they are a bit of a fire hazard.  In fact, one of them burnt.  Luckily none of the bushes caught on fire 

Of course, Vesak is another excuse for a holiday.  I am lucky in that Veenitha came two extra days that week only leaving a little early on the Saturday to go to the Maligawa.  

We have been cooking up a storm.  I tried my hand at ciabatta bread.  It is wonderful and turned out well, but what a workout.  First you have to make the biga which is the starter.  That has to be leavened for 24 to 72 hours.  I did it for 48.  Then you make the bread which has to be twice leavened before baking.  The first time for everything is always the hardest, and I expect that when we make it next it will be much easier.

My friend Annette has been making quark which is great.  With my first batch I made cheese cake.  Digestive biscuits served instead of graham crackers and I used lime zest as I still have not found vanilla beans (not available at the moment because of the weather).  They tasted great.

Then it was on to HP Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce.  I had to make the latter in order to make the former.  Both are terribly expensive to buy.  Even some of the ingredients such as the anchovies and prunes cost the earth, but at least I got a lot of it made.  Both are lovely despite the fact that I can't get molasses here.  I used kittul treacle which is tapped locally from the kittul tree.

The cooking week got rounded off with tsatziki, hummus, chickpea salad,  shepard's pie and the pièce de résistance, carrot cake with cream cheese icing using Annette's quark.  All came out pretty well except that I used cashews for the nuts in the carrot cake instead of walnuts.  They are too soft to stand up to the density of the cake, so you don't know they are there.  No matter, it still tastes good.

We had also bought a different type of bitter gourd at the vegetable stand that Veenitha made up into a curry.  

The flesh around the seeds gets to be a lovely orangey red colour when it is ripe.  The other red thing is a tomato.

The outside is hairy like a rambutan with a razor cut.

The rain has abated quite a bit, enough for me to go swimming.  Into my 11th week now.  Still enough rain to bring out the killer snails though.

This one is half the size of the ledge in front of the kitchen window.  It is oozing its way down the wall.

I did a downloading workshop for 8 people last weekend.  I think they actually learned something and we had a great lunch at OZO where they hosted us with their usual aplomb.  Only problem was I talked from 0900 to 1245 and was pooped at the end of it.  So, of course, I drank some wine before lunch and was feeling quite sick by the time I got home.  Falling unconscious on the bed for 3 hours rounded out the rest of the afternoon.  I should know better.

This coming week will be busy.  Tuesday I am going with the Kawaskis to give high tea to the patients at the cancer home.  We start in the morning with sandwich making and then the actual delivery and serving.  Thursday I am going to a new acquaintances house for lunch and to show her how to download.  She could not make it to the workshop.  Friday the art group is going on a field trip to Kurunegala to the Selyn handloom factory and a picnic lunch at Wendura Lake afterwards.  Looking forward to all of it.