dovetailing natural propensities for the service of Lord Krishna
Sunday, October 08, 2023
Butter Making Tip
Black Bean Soup
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup black beans, sorted and washed and soaked overnight.
- Water for cooking the beans
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 1/4 teaspoon oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon basil
- 2-3 tablespoons ghee
- 1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon asafetida
- 1/4 t ground black pepper
- Slices of lemon
PREPARATION:
- Bring the beans to a boil in about 6 cups of water. Cover and lower heat to a simmer and cook. To shorten cooking time, start the beans early in the morning with salt, a few hours before it's time to cook the meal. Bring to a boil, cover and let them sit until ready to prepare the meal. Then cook at least 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the beans are very soft.
- When the beans are nice and soft, add the molasses and the oregano and basil.
- Next, in a small saucepan, heat the ghee until nice and hot and add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and asafetida and black pepper. When the mustard seeds stop popping, pour the contents into the soup.
- Offer to Krishna with rice and a slice of lemon to squeeze into the soup.
Saturday, October 07, 2023
Diy paper towels
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Tulasi's Vacation
Usually in the spring, after all danger of frost has passed and until the first frost prediction in the fall, Tulasi gets a vacation outside.
She doesn't like indoors very much. Especially the way our house is situated, it does not get a lot of sunlight. It was designed that way because we live in a very hot climate, and it helps to keep the house cooler. But it is not very satisfactory for Tulasi Devi during the cold winter months when she must come inside.
So for the past few years I was putting some Tulasis in the ground and growing new ones from seed. That's when I noticed how huge she would get! Whenever she was out of her pot, she'd grow into giant bushes, noticeable to anyone who came by.
The only problem was her manjaris became too difficult to manage, and soon I had wild Tulasis growing all around the garden area and lawn. I was told this is an offense to Tulsi because she may get stepped on or something mow her down or they'll all die in the winter.
I had been experimenting having the original Tulasi plantings in the ground close to the house, hoping she would survive the winters because the concrete house foundation warmed up during the day creates a microclimate in the winter. That's how our curry plants have survived all these past winters. But unfortunately, not Tulsi devi. Apparently she is extra extra sensitive to cold.
So finally I got the bright idea, when I saw that Tulasi (pictured on the left) was getting pretty big while in the ground since spring, why not put her back in a pot before she gets too big to carry around the house during the cold season? She had a nice vacation and this move will spare her life (and with all those new leaves and growth, maybe she will have a easier time during the sparser sunlight in winter).
In this photo, you can really see the difference between the two Tulasis! They both were the same size in the springtime. The one on the left went into the ground then, and the one on the right remained in her pot. Now I look forward to transplanting Tulasi on the right into the ground soon for a new improved vacation, so she can get a little start on better growth before the winter comes and be happy.
Her happiness is really what this is all about.
UPDATE: Tulasi Devi, the one pictured on the right in the first photo above, had a shorter vacation than the others, but it still did her a lot of good! Here's a photo how she looks now after about 4 weeks in the ground and put back in the same sized pot:
Friday, July 21, 2023
Moong palak
Moong palak is moong dahl with spinach. I've been using a type of wild spinach called lambsquarter.
Banana paratha
INGREDIENTS :
4 overripe bananas, well mashed
2 heaping T sugar
1 generous T of molasses
1/2 t salt
1/4 t ground cardamom
flour
ghee for frying
PREPARATION:
Combine all the ingredients together except for the flour and the ghee.
Add flour until you have a nice dough. Knead well until smooth. Then let it rest at least an hour.
Shape into parathas and fry with the ghee.
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
flower beds and curry trees
Inspired by the altar of a lady neighbor bedecked with profuse flower arrangements, the garden over here has been expanding. We decided to start growing some other kinds of flowers, so we can offer attractive vases of flowers for our home altar, too!
And behind the new floral bed are two curry leaf trees. There's two more west of here. Curry trees grow well near the south side of the house because the warmth of the house in winter provides a micro climate so that the trees don't entirely die.tostones (plantain chips)
Tostones means fried twice. Made from green plantains. Here's a recipe: tostones
The only recipe adjustments were using ghee for frying instead of vegetable oil and using hing instead of garlic.
These can make a nice offering for Ekadashi, but in that case, omit the hing.
okra sak with paneer
The okra plants in the garden needed thinning. The tender leaves of the new plants make a nice subji or sak, spinach dish. I use this recipe:
And instead of feta cheese just used paneer cubes that were stir fried in ghee and added at the end. I also added the lime juice at the end.
INGREDIENTS:
3 T ghee
2 t ground coriander
1/2 t ground cardamon
2 large bunches of okra leaves, stems removed
Water
Juice from 1/2 a lime
salt
Paneer chunks and ghee to fry them
PREPARATION:
Heat the ghee and add the coriander and cardamom
Toss in the okra leaves, cover and cook with a little water until tender.
Cool a little. Then blend in a blender.
Add the lime juice, salt and fried paneer chunks.
Monday, May 22, 2023
Planting by the Moon
I first heard about planting by the moon from The Farmers Almanac, a long time publication here in the US. There are different activities recommended for different phases of the moon. And then I learned that it is also according to what astrological sign the moon is transiting at any given date. Here's a sample website that gets into more detail
I did notice a good yield following FA's dates for planting and transplanting. But there was also some difficulties as usual. For example, for about 3 consecutive years, my peas would either rot or disappear, among other things.
Then this year I got the idea to follow a Vedic ephemeris and or panchang instead of the hit and miss version Farmer's Almanac uses. And I must say, this year I had the best crop of peas and green beans ever. Here's the first picking of beans. There were so many I couldn't even pick them all the first day.
Transplants have been a lot more successful too.
It's interesting to note that when you follow the moon signs, the days for planting and transplanting are often cloudy or overcast and or rainy. But not so rainy that you can't go out and plant. At least you can expect some kind of moisture or coolness that helps a lot. Especially transplants need it.
Of course, it's not always so regular. It's Kali yuga after all. And so many other factors can weigh in since astrological data can get quite complicated.
So common sense is still in order, too. For example, one day a transplant might be better off being done towards evening time when the late season sun is cooling down.
In any case, with whatever I've learned, I'm happy with the results so far.
Thursday, May 04, 2023
Split pea soup
INGREDIENTS:
- Bring the peas covered in water to a boil. Skim off the foam.
- Add the salt and vegetables. Cover and cook on simmer until soft and peas fall apart. Add more water as needed. This is not a thick soup.
- Make a chaunk with the ghee:
- Heat the ghee in a small pot on high heat.
- Add the ginger, mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Cover until the mustard seeds stop popping.
- Add the coriander powder and black pepper.
- The entire chaunk should be nicely browned (dark even but not burnt!)
- Pour the chaunk into the pea soup dahl.
- Add a little more salt, if needed. Go by 1 teaspoon salt per 4 cups of finished dahl.
- Offer to Krishna with rice, etc
- Replace coriander with 1 t whole fennel seeds put in the chaunk with the ginger and mustard and cumin.
- Omit the vegetables. This soup is very good just plain with the spices!
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Pigweed, aka Amaranth
Cabbage and Paneer Subji
Whey smoothie