Loving Old Fashioned Way

I am now taking a break from my HTC Wildfire touch phone, and embraced back my good old Sony Ericsson W850i from the walkman series. My HTC has not been amusing recently with some frequent hang up and reboot issues, plus I am not getting the latest Froyo update yet. Decided to get it admitted for special care at the service center, while it is under warranty.

Once I turned the W850i power on from herbination, I realised how wonderful it is to once again have an actual keypad back! I can now type sms and make calls without looking at the keypad while multitasking (driving and all). This is something that I could never do with the touch phone.

And why is the touch revolution good again? I guess it is just the sleek look and the whole touch feature where you can drag and drop and do all kinds of wonders with just the tip of your fingers. Blame the iphone craze!

What I miss in my touchphone?

• The one touch power & application buttons - Did not have to navigate through the whole menu just to find calendar or something
• The Handcent SMS application
  

What I don't miss in my touchphone?

• The wi-fi - Didn't know this was possible, but I don't mind not having it now
  
• Touch screen keypad
• Flat bulkiness - The W850i fits my pocket perfectly
  

While the Wildfire is away, the Walkman will play!

And He Turns One

This is a very much delayed post, thanks to the four-letter-word issue and the very frustrating laptop repair ordeal that lasted for 3 months. The latter deserves a whole post of its own, I shall get on to it when I am in the mood for another ranting.

But hey, my son turned 1 year old 2 weeks ago, and is now officially a toddler. It is now legal for him to drink (fresh cow's milk, dont get ideas) and eat (whole egg), which have been tested (sounds like lab mouse) and certified good-to-go based on the 4-day rule! And why is mom so happy on the eating and drinking part? Well I guess I am just looking forward to the change of routine and habits in cooking... With him taking more chunkier food, I am excited that I can now cook for all of us, and let him have it (sans the salt, chilli).

We planned a small celebration at home with family, relatives and friends, which turned out not so small in the end. My favourite part of it, was the birthday cake. We choose a football themed cake for the little football enthusiast.

You might wonder why is the field red in colour. Papa requested it so that it would match Sanju's birthday vest... so fashion forward little fella. The cake of a whopping 3.9kg was american chocolate in the inside, and was so totally irresistable! Thankfully we had a good amount balance for us to savour once the celebration was over.

Here's a picture of the birthday boy on his birthday eve, he loves wearing kohl (kajal) just like his mom and mausis (maternal aunty), posing with his mother's headband. Sanju is a handsome toddler with a pretty girly face, don't you think?

Chick Pea Curry

I was just scratching my head for something to cook that can cater for Sanju's meal, as well as for me to bring to work for lunch. Few days ago I brought some leftover black pepper mix vegs for lunch, and I loved it. Thinking it might be a good idea to have home cooked food for lunch more frequently.

Finally it came to me, I could make kichdi or some mild curry that I can take out for Sanju before I put the salt in. This is what I tried last night:

Chick Pea Curry
Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic and some ginger (crushed, you could chop them too but crushing gives better aroma)
1 tsp fennel powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp tumeric powder
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 cup milk
50g chick peas
1 large potato
1 tomato
some cooking oil
some capsicum, diced

Steps:
1) Soak the chick peas for a couple of hours.
2) Cook the chick peas and peeled potatoes in pressure cooker for 10-15mins
3) In a pan, sautee the garlic and ginger. Add all the spice powders, some water and cook for 5 mins.
4) Add the tomatoes and milk and cook a little more.
5) Finally add in the cooked chick peas, potatoes and capcisum, cooking for 10 mins more. Crush the peas with your ladle.

And yeah, some salt to taste, once you have separated it for your baby.

I kinda tasted some of the unsalted food, and my god, it tasted bland. How Sanju endures it, I don't know, but I am glad he does. I even had to add some chilli powder in mine for extra kick. And to further curb the blandness, I packed it for lunch with some yogurt and chopped onions (keep some mint handy alright).

No pictures for now, but will upload it soon!