Well, hello.
A post is long overdue, if for no reason then because Marisa of thirty nine blog has so kindly awarded me the Liebster award. Yay!!!
Thank you Marisa; I am very very honoured and touched. The Liebster award for those of you who don’t know (and I too have found out only recently) is a kind of a virtual award passed from one blogger to another with the aim of promoting blogs with less than 200 followers. So, in short, it’s like a fun chain letter–it requires the awardee to answer five questions and provide five facts about themselves. Then its their turn to pass the award to five other bloggers whom they admire.
So without further ado, here are my answers!
1) What are your other interests/hobbies besides sewing?
Reading for sure…pretty much everything from cookbooks to the more academic stuff. Currently I am reading Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life and Andrew Solomon’s Far from the Tree.
2) Do you have a favourite recipe (or failing that, take-away food dish!) and if so, what is it?
Currently two things: One is the yummy chard pasta recipe from my favourite blog smittenkitchen. The other one is a daal with beet greens. Here it goes:
Beet greens with daal
Cook any kind of lentils first (yellow or green or orange) to a mash-able consistency. You should have about two cups of cooked daal at hand. Chop up the beet leaves and stems of about three beets (leaves roughly, stems very fine). In a pot, heat oil (of course butter or ghee make it yummier!) and add the chopped beet both leaves and stems. Saute nicely till they are cooked well. Add to the same pot 1 tsp of grated ginger and 1 tsp finely chopped garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Add the cooked daal and while on low heat mix everything well and continue cooking. In a separate small pot, heat some ghee (or butter) and add the following: cumin seeds, mustard seeds,turmeric powder, curry leaves (if you have), dried red chillies, 4-5 garlic pods and let it all sizzle together nicely. Wait till garlic colours brown. Then add the whole thing to the daal/beet mixture in the big pot. Season with salt and plenty of lemon/lime juice and cook for a few more minutes. Serve with rice or roti, or just have it like soup. If it seems too thick, add a bit of water to achieve desired consistency.. Oh and finally, finally beet leaves can be substituted with spinach if you cannot find or don’t like the former.
3) Where would you most like to go for a holiday, and why?
Right now it would be New York City. I miss New York in spring, and I had not realised how much I would after we moved back to India. It’s been almost three years since we have been back, and while I do not wish to move back a trip would be lovely 🙂
B. Add five facts about themselves.
(Ah, so the “interesting” things about me…. Here is some random stuff)
1. I love organizing things in real life or in a virtual world. I actually spend a fair bit of mental time when I walk into someone’s house imagining how I would do it differently. Maybe this should actually go up there as my favourite hobby 😉
2. I dream every night! (does everyone?)
3. The first thing I ever sewed, or that I remember making is a blue bag for myself with an elephant embroidered on it. As a child I was curious about sewing and liked seeing my mother sew, but when I grew up I decided to do something totally different as I think many of us are wont to do. I did my Ph.d in literature, thus spending more and more time with books. As I went back to sewing, the ‘elephant’ image that I had first drawn and embroidered came back to me, and hence it is now a elephant-in-the-study.
4. Generally speaking I have a fear of birds, although I don’t know whether I technically have ornithphobia. While that does not mean I dislike birds I am fine as long as they are very far from me, very being the key word here. I however, absolutely detest pigeons, and wish they didn’t exist.
5. I am pretty fluent in Japanese, a skill that is very useful for putting to use all those lovely pattern books.
And now comes the fun part. It’s time for me to choose five blogs that I love and award them them the Libester award.
1. Sanaeishida: If you haven’t seen Sanae’s work yet, you need to stop reading this right now and run over there. Not only does she make the most gorgeous stuff, what I really really like is how well she writes. Check her out now!
2. A stitch a day: I first noticed Brittany’s photos in the Oliver+S flickr pool. She makes beautiful dresses, and I wish I could sew like her. I am always waiting to see her next creation.
3. Marta of doguincho is always making amazing things for her two daughters, the patterns of many of which she designs herself. What I also envy her for is that she gets fantastic photos. I am always checking her out to see how she plays with colour and pairings of unusual combinations.
4. While she was sleeping:Ok, frankly I only found out about Jenya’s blog when very sweetly left a ton of comments on my posts, and then went on to nominate me for the secret squirrel mission. When I went looking for her, I discovered a super talented and very enthusiastic seamstress. I really adore her style and the very very cute things she makes for her daughter.
5. Flossie Teacakes: This is one the first blogs that I discovered when I entered the world of sewing. She has some of the most fanstastic tutorials, but what I love is not only what she makes but her writing style.
And now here are my questions:
A. What’s the one thing that you have been really wanting to make but hesitate when it’s time to actually do it (I mean in terms of sewing, but feel free to interpret it as liberally as you like!)
B. How do you get out of a sewing rut?
C. Favourite summertime activity?
D. What’s the one thing you cannot go to bed without doing?
E. Five random facts about yourself.
Well, this has been a long post and I hope you enjoyed reading it. ;-). And now maybe it’s time to get back to sewing…speaking of which tomorrow is the first day of KCW. Are you participating this time? I have been planning a few things so please visit soon again!
Asmita
Asmita congratulations! Keep it up.! I also liked the concept of virtual appreciation.
🙂
Do you still have the blue bag with the elephant? 🙂
Unfortunately not. Although I should check with my father. He is sure to have a picture of it somewhere, as he keeps those kind of things:-)
Good to get to know a bit more about you, Asmita. Both your recipes sound delicious – and vegetarian-friendly! I’ll give them a try. What area of literature did you do your doctorate in?
Thank you Marisa! Would love to hear how your version of the recipe turns out. Our chard season is not nearing it’s end unfortunately.
Oh, and my Ph.D was in Japanese literature 🙂
Oh of course, since you said you speak Japanese. I’m afraid my experience with Japanese literature is limited to Murakami… I really loved the last book of his I read, 1Q84.
Oh, you like Murakami? He is not my favourite, but I know a lot of people who love his work.
Congratulations Asmita! And thank you so much for choosing my blog as one of your favorites. I feel really flattered!
It was really nice to know more about you! Now I will have to think about interesting and funny stuff about me…
Thank you Marta, but I do think you are very talented and I love reading your blog. And now it’s my turn to know more about you 🙂