Too much has happened in the last three weeks. In a nutshell, my parents went away and came back twice, I fasted for Karva Chauth, Pranav and I saw 3 very different movies at our local Cineplex, I overfed my online shopping addiction, I built a rangoli out of beads and cork board, we hosted a Diwali dinner party for 10 guests (and for which I cooked enough to feed a tiny village,) Dad brought home the largest pitas we've ever seen, and the 4 of us attempted to watch the new James Bond movie but the lineup was too long so we came back home. Oh, and the cat puked twice.
The most interesting, and probably the most instructional things I can possibly share from the last month's events are how I made the rangoli and what we ultimately did with the world's largest pitas. So here goes:
Permanent Rangoli for Diwali
One of our family friends makes the most beautiful permanent rangolis. Let's call her Aunty R. While we were planning our dinner party it occurred to us that making an authentic rangoli from coloured powders and rice was simply out of the question because of our curious kitten. I remembered the masterpieces created by Aunty R and decided that I too was artsy enough to attempt a rangoli. So I picked up some cork board and jewelry beads from the local Dollarama, printed some floral and paisley motifs off the internet, and took my magic markers out from under the bed. I also used some coloured paper for the backgrounds and white craft glue. Colouring the motifs, cutting them out, and sticking them to the board was the easiest part. Applying tiny amounts of glue to each bead, and subsequently lining them up along the patterns was both time consuming and slightly mind numbing, but the effect (in my humble opinion) is pretty. I then used some craft borders (also from the dollar store) to finish off the edges, and it was done. It's not up to the same level as Aunty R's but for my first and only one, I'm fairly proud. The entire cost of this project? About $6.00. Closing your eyes at night and seeing multicoloured beads behind your eyelids? Priceless.
What to do With a Giant Pita
A few days after the Diwali dinner party, the giant pitas were still sitting on the kitchen counter. My dad went out one day in mild angst over our acute tortilla shortage and came home with 10 inch pitas. Those are nowhere near the same thing, as my mother rightly pointed out, and all of us seemed intimidated by the presence of the pitas. I recalled an episode of Dr. Oz in which someone demonstrated how they use pitas as pizza crust and decided that this would be our solution. It's one of the easiest things I've ever done, and all it took was:
- tomato sauce (I used spaghetti sauce to be honest)
- sliced vegetables (use whatever you like on your pizza)
- grated mozzarella or whatever cheese you prefer
- pita bread (for the crust)
- oven preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
Using the pita as your pizza base, spread the sauce as thinly or thickly as you like, sprinkle the cheese, top it all off with the veggies and stick that baby in the oven for 10-15 minutes. I also put mine on the top rack to broil for about 2-3 minutes so that the veggies would roast a little. The only thing I disliked about this was that the outer edges of the pita (the crust) became rather brittle. But that didn't stop me, I ate that part as well. I'm doing it again tonight, and I can't wait. Dad's mistake was yummy indeed!
