Month: October 2019

Posted in Daily, Family and Society, Personal Musings, Stories Around the World, Work

Share the Light

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

“We only have what we give.” Isabel Allende

During the floods that had hit my hometown a year ago, it was a difficult time. Some from the community had lost a sizable amount of crop, livestock and trade; others had their homes uprooted and some escaped by an inch. The aftermath saw everyone pitching in, with funds pouring in from different corners around the globe. No one was left alone to pick up the pieces and rebuild again. Everyone, from the community, volunteers and outsiders had pitched in to restore the neighbourhood.

“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” John Holmes

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Connectedness is an essential part of our lives. Unless one learns to help those around him, self improvement wouldn’t be within their own reach. For a person to grow, the environment around him has to be whole. Take a child’s life for instance. His world is complete when he receives the love, care and joy. Then the happiness is spread around him, lighting up the lives around him. Yet when the little one is troubled by any tiny aspect, the whole mood shifts. How different will it be for the adult ?

For one person to prosper, he must be at peace with those around him. The welfare of one person depends not on him alone, but when he learns to help others. Life of one has and will always be measured not by material gains alone; but by the numerous lives it touches with positive vibes. Each one has a pair of hands, to help and be helped. Harmony rests not with self alone, but also with the world around one.

“In teaching others we teach ourselves.” Traditional proverb

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Growing Good Corn
There once was a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbours.
‘How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbours when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?’ the reporter asked.
‘Why sir,’ said the farmer, ‘didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbours grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbours grow good corn.’
Source:James Bender (Author of How to Talk Well, published in 1994 by McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc.)

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Posted in Daily, Life, Personal Musings, poetry, Quotes, Reflections, Work

Close the Lid

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

“No river can return to its source, yet all rivers must have a beginning.” Proverb

During the recent cleaning spree of the attic, I had chanced across the old job applications, which I had filed away for prospective future use. Leafing through them bought back memories of the initial struggle, the difficult hours, poor pay and the constant mental strain of the uncertainty of employment. However today, all these feelings don’t sting anymore. May be it’s because I have accepted that life does throw it’s disappointments at us, once in a while. Or may be it is because I had decided to make the best of the situation and closed the lid on the previous failures, after learning what they had to teach.

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” Seneca

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All of us, have come across the feelings of regret, either personal, professional, physical or social. Yet the difference lies in how we react to them, learn form them or move on. The choice is ours to decide and act on. When one tends to foster the bad feelings and breed them, it isn’t the present that only takes a setback but the future too. Doing so would never help us to grow in life or reach the full potential. Let the past failures stay there. Instead carry forward the learning from those experiences and shape the future akin to the dream within.

“Starting over is an acceptance of a past we can’t change, an unrelenting conviction that the future can be different, and the stubborn wisdom to use the past to make the future what the past was not.” Craig D. Lounsbrough

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Yesterday’s Door
I have shut the door on yesterday,
Its sorrows and mistakes.
I have locked within its gloomy walls
Past failures and mistakes.

And now I throw the key away,
And seek another room.
And furnish it with hope and smiles,
And every spring-time bloom.

No thought shall enter this abode
That has a taint of pain.
And envy, malice, and distrust
Shall never entrance gain.

I have shut the door on yesterday
And thrown the key away.
Tomorrow holds no fear for me,
Since I have found today.

Author Unknown

“Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance.” Oprah Winfrey

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Posted in Daily, Food, Stories Around the World

The “Gin and Tonic” Way

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

“A Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
The medicine go down-wown
The medicine go down
Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
In a most delightful way”
( Excerpt from the Lyrics of A Spoonful of Sugar in the movie Mary Poppins, an 1964 American musical fantasy film.)

The process of making any child take their medicine involves plenty of guile and quick action. Maybe such a trick was used by the Scottish doctor George Cleghorn to ensure that quinine had reached the officers in the malaria prone areas of the Indian subcontinent and other tropical regions (1700s).

“The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire.” Winston Churchill

To mark the bitter taste of quinine, a traditional cure for malaria, it was drunk in tonic water to mask the bitter taste. The early 19th century saw the British officers add a mixture of water, sugar, lime and gin to the quinine in order to make the drink more palatable, thus leading to the birth of gin and tonic. With the passage of years and evolution of modern medicine, the quinine in tonic water has been tapered down to a bare minimum. In hindsight, science has proved that essentially this practice of quinine intake was impractical for malaria prophylaxis or even treatment. Keeping those facts aside, it is the “gin and tonic” that stays on.

Source:https://www.liquor.com/recipes/spanish-gin-and-tonic/#gs.5ymqg6
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Source:https://www.liquor.com/recipes/apple-chai-gin-and-tonic/#gs.5yn0k1

“When life gives you juniper berries, make gin!” Laurie Buchanan

Today gin and tonic serves as a highball cocktail with the ratio of gin to tonic varying as per taste, strength of the gin, the presence of other drink mixers; although most recipes mention a ratio between 1:1 to 1:3. The classical garnish was with a slice or wedge of lime. The mixers today include lime juice, lemon juice, orange juice, spiced simple syrup, grenadine, tea or a dash of champagne (the Parisian), super smokey whiskey (the Ol’ Smokey), peach liqueur and grapefruit bitters (Tonic Delight), mint bitters and chocolate liqueur (the Guilty Pleasure) and the like or simply mixed with a sorbet. From the classical lime wheel garnish to the orange peel, a slice of ginger, star anise, thyme-elder flower or the more exotic combinations of pink grapefruit and rosemary, mint and black peppercorns, strawberry and basil the evolution of the garnishes for gin and tonic is depending on own taste and local availability. The Spanish variation of gin and tonic has the drink from being fruit based or the use of herbs and vegetables served in a balloon glass as the latter helps to appreciate the aroma of the drink better.

Source:https://ingoodcompany.today/2016/11/10/gin-and-dubonnet/
Source:spoonforkbacon.com/blackberry-meyer-lemon-gin-tonics/

On similar lines to gin and tonic, the Dubonnet, a sweet, aromatised wine-based aperitif made as a blend of fortified wine, herbs, and spices with alcohol was first sold by Joseph Dubonnet (1846) to find a way of persuading French Foreign Legionnaires in North Africa to drink quinine. Likewise the “Lillet” and quinquina were similar aperitif wines initially made for medical reasons with the latter purpose made obsolete over time.

The popularity of the variations of the gin and tonic has led to the establishment of exclusive Gin-Tonic bars, in which customers can choose their preferred gin, tonic, and garnish from a menu. With the creativity streak coming to the forefront at gatherings especially when supplies are limited, the different variations of gin and tonic bring forth recipes and mixes worth the change.

Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Self-made_gin_and_tonic_cropped.jpg
Soource:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
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Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_Gin_Tonica_with_Fruit_Garnish_at_Cappuccino_Gin_Bar_in_Salou,_Spain,_June-2013.jpg
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Posted in Family and Society, Life, Quotes, Reflections

Pillars that Nurture

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

“The glory of the elderly is their insight to life.” Lailah Gifty Akita

One of the most awaited events that causes unabashed eagerness of the kids to head to the homestead during holidays, is the time spent fishing with their grandparents. Hand in hand, the kids along with their grandfather and great-uncles head off to the lake in the early morning hours. On some days, there is quite a catch but on other days maybe nothing. Yet the loss of a good catch was negated by the interesting stories and legends narrated by their elders. It was interesting to listen to the recounted versions on the drive back home or later in the following weeks. There are certain priceless things that parents can’t teach their children, at times simply due to the lack of time or different levels of responsibilities cropping up. Those are the times when the gaps are filled in by their grandparents.

“The wiser mind mourns less for what age takes away than what it leaves behind.” William Wordsworth 

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One of the benefits of having a strong support system, of family, friends and community is that when one falls, there are hands to break the fall. This support system is like a huge tree with sturdy branches. As a small tree, the few larger older branches support, shade and model the new smaller branches. With their strength and shape, they balance the entire tree, providing sustenance for the smaller branches and reach for the light. Over time the other branches grow large, join with other clusters and support the older branches. As the old branches age, grow weak, die or fall away, the branches above take over their role, supporting the new young branches. A large support system works on similar lines.

“Their dark forms are larger than life, because memories like that grow along with your body, so that adults from our childhood always resemble an extinct race of old gods, still towering over us.” Stefan Hertmans

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Unfortunately one of the strong contenders for the time of the kids, is lure of the modern entertainment. As more and more time is spent on “the modern development” of learning through applications, television, social media and the like, under the guise of “modern learning”, the memories and fresh experiences of childhood are often missed. There a lot of things that elders who have lived their lives with integrity, love and dignity can teach the younger ones. Like the experiences their parents had shared with their grandparents, from learning to fish, camp outside, have a good laugh, fun in the garden, the value of a good friendship, respect for elders and all beings, to work hard, to love and live to the fullest at each age of life. The list is long. Cooped up in the mesh of “the modern skills, media and entertainment”, a lot can be missed during the best years of childhood. All the branches of the tree contribute in a silent way. Unless each one as their role played out, the “family tree” fails to sustain and grow new fruit and saplings from it’s seeds or centuries for the future centuries.

“Where there is not community, trust, respect, ethical behavior are difficult for the young to learn and for the old to maintain.” Robert K. Greenleaf

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“Listen to your elder’s advice. Not because they are always right, but because they have more experience of being wrong…” Unknown

Posted in Christian, Daily, Personal Musings, poetry, Random Thoughts

Start Off Today

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Reviewing the events of the past week, one is forced to acknowledge that certain “things to do” at the beginning of the week, which were initially planned were still left undone. For instance, the clean up drive previously volunteered for, but later given a miss. Or the intense involvement in the tree plantation drive in the neighbourhood, yet failing to spend time with the children and teach them to love nature. Likewise the person who gets to give a seat for the old woman in the bus, but neglects to help in the household chores. Each one of us may have innumerable commitments planned for the future, but the reality lies in what steps has one taken to do a little bit of that significant something today, instead of saving it up for the tomorrow.

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)

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Unlike the birds of the air who live in the present, the innate nature of man is to live for the future. Yet in this quest wherein one calculates the steps for the future, the fact that today has still not gone by and tomorrow mayn’t be so is often neglected. Time is always on the run. If both run parallel, one would never meet. Instead, it requires one to observe the course and plan a path so that the future begins in today.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

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Today
Author Unknown

We shall do much in the years to come,
but what have we done today?
We shall give our gold in a princely sum,
but what did we give today?
We shall lift the heart and dry the tear,
We shall plant a hope in the place of fear,
We shall speak the words of love and cheer
but what did we speak today?

We shall be so kind in the afterwhile,
but what have we been today?
We shall bring each lonely life a smile,
but what have we brought today?
We shall give to truth a grander birth,
And to steadfast faith a deeper worth,
We shall feed the hungering souls of earth,
but whom have we fed today?

We shall reap such joys in the by and by,
but what have we sown today?
We shall build us mansions in the sky,
but what have we built today?
‘Tis sweet in idle dreams to bask,
but here and now do we do our task?
Yes, this is the thing our souls must ask,
“What have we done today?”

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Posted in Daily, Food

Sparkles on the Cups

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

Originally referred to as number cakes or “1234 cakes” (based on the measures of the ingredients), these sugary delicacies of 1700s have reached their own level of importance and appeal for the dessertarian of the present era.

“Cupcakes take the cake.” Unknown Author

While the earliest description of today’s cupcake was based as a recipe for “a light cake to bake in small cups” as written in American Cookery (1796) by Amelia Simmons, the term “cupcake” itself was seen earlier as per Eliza Leslie’s Receipts cookbook in “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats” (1828). Though the early 19th century saw the distinction between “cup cake” (based on measures or cups” and the cupcake, the difference was more for the baker’s perspective. Over the years, cupcakes turned from the simple delights to those with frosting, icing, sprinkles and sparkles. With the redesigning and reassembling and additions of ingredients, flavours and colours, the “cupcake” became a palatable fest and an art by itself. For special occasions, elaborately designed and frosted cupcakes have replaced the specially designed cakes, for a while.

Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
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With the arise of a variety of cupcakes, many other variants to the regular baking techniques have been seen. Like the popular “cake in mug” (made in a microwave) or “cake in a jar” are other ways of making cupcakes. By the latter technique, a glass jar instead of muffin tins or cupcake liners is used to bake the mix. Of the specially designed variants, are the fairy cakes or butterfly cake, a variant of cupcake made from any flavour of the cake. The top of the cupcake is cut off or carved out with a spoon and cut in half. Butter cream, whipped cream, jam or similar sweet fillings are spread into the hole. Finally the two cut halves are stuck into the butter cream to resemble butterfly wings with the “wings of the cake” being often decorated using icing to form various patterns.

Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/recipe/fairy-cake-recipe
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts

Likewise “cake balls” are individual portion of cake, round like a chocolate truffle, coated in chocolate and made from crumbled cake mixed with frosting (than being baked) made as a sphere. Yet the specialty are in the “gourmet cupcake” of today, a recent variant of the routine cupcake. These “gourmet cupcakes” are large filled cupcakes, based around a variety of flavor themes like Tiramisu, Cappuccino, Oreo cookie shards, M &M rich and other exotic flavours.

“When you look at a cupcake, you’ve got to smile.” Anne Byrn

With each cupcake getting it’s special days, for the Chocolate Cupcake Day (October 18th) it would be fun to redesign the simple chocolate cupcakes as elaborate fairy cakes, sprinkles and icing or simply experiment and enhance the available recipe to an exotic twist. For that’s the fun with the sugar rush and art of dessert.

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Source:Bella’s cupckaes. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/451345193881029361/

Posted in Daily, Family and Society, Personal Musings, Stories Around the World

Beyond the Glimpse

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

“Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.” Marcus Aurelius

The neighbourhood had seen a new couple settling into their recently bought villa. Like all small town neighbourhood, this one was no different. Next door neighbours had visited the new couple, pleasantries were exchanged and information was relayed on to the rest of the community. With the husband’s regular job being certified at the town hall office; the two of them were enfolded into the community social gatherings. A little later, few neighbours as well as the police had observed that lights were always on at the far east corner of the house at wee hours of the night. Follow this up with a moving van making an appearance on their lawn with no adverts on them. When this instance was observed by many over the next couple of weeks; the curiously, speculation and gossip grew leaps and bounds. Yet no one directly discussed it with them. Finally with the boss of the young man came to know about this, questions were asked. Imagine the local neighbourhood surprise to know that his wife was an upcoming artist with her first gallery viewing to be set up in the state capital shortly. With the curiosity abated, the neighbourhood became quiet again.

“Supposing is good, but finding out is better.” Mark Twain

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The above neighbourhood scenario was from one of my siblings’ account. Neighborhoods like these are quite common, though happening in various degrees or shades. The adult mind tends to speculate, exaggerate and judge a lot. From people to cars, houses, furniture and many more, opinion are tossed around without any prior research or knowledge. Many a time, these opinions are what is taken for the hard truth. Little does one break the “shell of supposed view” to discover the reality hidden beneath. When these myopic view is perpetually transferred to how one views people, then social life becomes difficult. Each person has their own reason or story to say. It is only when the various versions are heard, does the story have a complete ending. Live and let live. Going by the cover of the presumed and assumed, very often hides the exact reality. When the error made is discovered and rectified, it may be too late to set things back on the right track.

“It’s easy to look back and see it, and it’s easy to give the advice. But the sad fact is, most people don’t look beneath the surface until it’s too late.” Wendelin Van Draanen

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A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay vessels. It was like someone had rolled balls of clay and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn’t look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could. He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone! Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay vessels. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left. Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!
Author Unknown

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