Appam and stew...

 Appam and vegetable stew--kind of... without the milk which is added to vegetable stews ... Coconuts lying around are developing cracks... Ergo trying to finish them ASAP... also...appam and stew is very convenient to make... since I add a whole coconut for 3 cups of soaked raw rice... the taste is Superlative...

Learnt this technique of making dosha like appams in the Annamalais ... during a helping session for a district party...the GM's wife was very helpful a person to new brides about the ways of catering and serving large crowds...Ditto about the executives wives...

Everyone gave tips and were encouraging and helpfull with praise too...

This dosha technique of making appams came in handy in assssssssssam when I cooked for a district tea party ...i made 200 appams and stew...along with tomato chutney sandwiches, gulab jamuns, boiled eggs, chickpea lentil fritters aka paripp vadas and the regular fillers like chips and savouries...since I made everything... the total expenditure in 2004 was ₹650 ... the lowest cost in the district for hosting a post lawn tennis...tea party...

Those days i longed for Pune and the convience of buying stuff like sandwiches and cakes from a place like Marz O Rin here...

In hindsight I feel that was healthy catering and satisfying too...

Only thing that day was the fact that I didn't wake up my elder child and I remember feeling terribly guilty when he woke up by himself and came and wished me in the kitchen a little after noon..it was the Latest my baby had zzzzed for... 

But I started at 6am and cooked non stop till 2pm and was well ahead of time to pay out and serve tea...

All of mohokutie tea estaten was in attendance and appreciated my money management and keeping costs sooo low...

Years later in 2008 i was in-charge of food and beverage during a college fest and for some twisted reason... the director slashed food rates from the Standard ₹40 a plate to ₹20 a plate... and I Aced at cost management and used the fact that I lived in the locality of the college All my Life to my advantage and delivered a Fait Accompli...

Pre and post that college fest ...no faculty had to rake their brains to cater at half the normal catering rate...

We never know What we are being Tested for...i kept my eye on the Goal in front of me and took Life one day at a time...

In assssssssssam and Pune ...my very Life was at stake for no fault of mine...

But I got out of assssssssssssssam alive and that was something I doubted Many times ...as circumstances were dangerous and highly complicated...