Stories after the silence & what plans for Diwali?

October has been a record low on Saffron Trail and I wanted to break the jinx. Initially it was the internet. The MTNL broadband connection is still down, but I have kind of gotten used to the Reliance data card. If the see the positive, it means, I'm always connected to the net even in the outdoors. And I've got used to the slower speed.

To add to the internet problem, both the hubby and me fell sick one after the other - and since I was going under weather after a long long time, it was a heavy bout to make up for all the time the flu bugs have missed me! The loss of appetite that comes with taking medicines, made me stay away from all food blogs, even my favourite ones.

After we got up and running, I thought, I'll get back to my blog now. But that inertia and boredom of blogging had grasped me completely. Except for sneaking into a few blogs off and on, and barely making it to text Raaga a birthday message, it's been total hibernation for me. Honestly, I have not been too busy with work, which means a lot of posts could have happened. It's been a strange situation where I know blogging would make me happy and yet I did not want to type blogger.com. The camera is sitting in some unknown location in the house, which has rarely ever happened with me, or any of you food bloggers. I realized it is now or never. If I do not get back now, I probably will distance myself too much from something I love so much.
With Diwali round the corner, I just did a peek into the archives of ST, and discovered that I had gone bonkers making some SIX Diwali treats last year - and most of them being tried for the first time.

Today, gingerly I went into the Another Subcontinent forums, into the Diwali treats thread, checking out on all the goodies. Also, checking out Indira's Mithai section
as well as Manisha's tantalizing Orange Burfi - plus browsing through JFI Diwali Round Up -2006 at Vee's Past, Present and Me - to get some inspirations.

Hope all of you are having a lovely time preparing for Diwali. What are the plans at your end if I may ask? I'd like to try something new and get out of my cooking rut this festive season.

By the way after a really long while, I tried something new yesterday - a one pot Gujarati dish called Daal Dhokli from the Hungry Monster site. It turned out pretty good. Besides that, I've been making homemade thin crust pizzas at least once a week - thanks to the super active yeast sent across by Anita. I can't thank her enough for that. I managed to gather the enthusiasm to try her Potato Bread, but may be the bread read my hastiness and decided not to rise at all, and I thought it would rise on baking, but that did not happen. It turned out to be what I'd call a flop show, but clearly the recipe is not to blame. So I want to try it once more with some more patience on a sunny day.

Otherwise we've been eating out a lot, thanks to my kitchen boredom [translating into blog boredom]. Sernya, a small shack like Tibetan joint run by 78 year old Uncle John, serves heart warming Thukpas, vegetables stir fried Tibetan style, rice and noodles, all for a small sum. If you are in Bombay and you'd like to try out authentic Tibetan food, I'll gladly share the address with you. We also managed to go back to Urban Tadka. I don't know if I've already raved about this place here. We like to call it the one-hour wait place, because no matter how early you land up and which day of the week it is, the minimum wait is one hour. One look at the prices and one taste of the food, and you'll know why people don't mind waiting over an hour to have grub. It's Punjabi fare at its very best. Their biryanis are out of the world and so is their simple yellow dal tadka, or Punjabi Kadhi.

Please share with me your Diwali treat ideas, I desperately need some inspiration this year.