Posted in Daily, Food, Photography Art

Petit-déjeuner or Le breakfast !

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

Being in the house with a two year toddler forces you to revise, improvise and reinforce a lot of the good old ideals. Starting with the morning, getting up is an ordeal and as he is too young to head to playschool; keeping him occupied till breakfast is quite a difficult task. So the easiest way is to get him help in making breakfast. It benefits in many ways; keeps him occupied, teaches him to get involved and more importantly, getting him to eat his breakfast. And believe it or not, besides scouring the net and recipe books for new breakfast ideas, this goes quite a long way in getting a picky eater to start the meal.

Here are a few of the days of what petit-déjeuner  or breakfasts be like and reminds of what Milne’s Pooh and Piglet be like.

 “When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.”
― A.A. Milne

The best part is one can be so creative for breakfast. It can range from brown sugar laden oatmeal or crunchy cornflakes to French Toast or simple toast and eggs with bacon optional to steamed idlis or even calorie laden goodies ranging from maple syrup dripping pancakes to stuffed paranthas, buns loaded with nutella or even rice noodles topped with fresh juice, a pot of tea or the best- coffee loaded with cream and caramel. It is the best meal to splurge on, for the whole day awaits to burn it !! Be it a rainy day or a busy morning, or outside on the sun shaded patio or a windy day; alone or with a group of friends or noisy rambunctious family or a quieter meal for two, breakfast sets the pace and swings in the mood for the day. To quote,

“Everyone runs around trying to find a place where they still serve breakfast because eating breakfast, even if it’s 5 o’clock in the afternoon, is a sign that the day has just begun and good things can still happen. Having lunch is like throwing in the towel.” ― Jonathan Goldstein, Lenny Bruce is Dead

Source: https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/article-what-chinese-eat-for-breakfast.htm
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Source: http://www.crazymasalafood.com/southern-flavours-20-south-indian-breakfast-dishes/
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Posted in Christian, Reflections, Stories Around the World

Are you like the little boy ?

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things
Actions speak louder than words or even beliefs. Yes, this old adage goes a long way and it does ring almost all the time. We belong to a conversation savvy world, where words and deeds are at polar opposites. It goes same for those of who often give out advice. Or for those of who often preach. Many of us do read the Bible regularly, some occasionally but the more important fact lies in the fact that how many of us have honest faith in God’s words. During difficult times, and here I don’t mean physical hardships but mental, emotional, social or even financial ones; do we really lift our burdens and hand it over to the Lord or do we fret and worry about tomorrow. We are human, so we do tend to worry but how many of us have the real conviction that just as the Lord brings hardships, He will always provide too. For that we need absolute faith which doesn’t come without absolute trust in His Grace.
This story below is one of a boy’s absolute faith in the Lord, that put an entire congregation to shame. For those of us who have previously come across this story, the food for thought is: who would you be: the little boy or the congregation ? And for those of us who haven’t heard of this story, do read on.
 
This is a story of absolute Faith
It was a dry summer, and farmers, residents of a small village, were worried about what would happen to their harvest. On one Sunday after the Mass, they turned to their pastor for advice. “Father, we must do something, or we will lose a crop!”
“All that is required of you is to pray with absolute faith. Prayer without faith is not prayer. It must come from the heart, “answered the priest.
The next week the farmers gathered twice a day and prayed that God would send them rain. On Sunday they gathered as usual for the mass and someone was the last to arrive. This time it was a little boy who rushed in putting his umbrella in the stand. After the mass, the farmers came to the priest. 
“Nothing happens, Father!” We every day get together and pray, but there is no rain and no.
“Do you really pray with faith?” Asked the priest. They began to assure him that it was so. But the priest replied:”If you pray with faith, then like the little boy, you would have taken your umbrella with you !”
“Finally, brethren (sisters) of mine, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His power” (Ephesians 6: 10).
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Source: vk.com
Source: vk.com
Posted in Family and Society, Personal Musings, poetry

To Mend the wall or Not to ?!

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

Last night we had a rainstorm and the outcome, an old section of the wall fencing the backside of our fields had come down. Interestingly, it was pointed out to us by the neighbours as their Alsatian had tried to jump over the rubble. 

On seeing the mess left behind, what came forefront to my mind were two things: first the amount of work to repair it and second, do we really need to keep a wall or instead make do with a fence. Oh yes, there are differences between both, primarily that a wall is completely solid and secondly, it is a more tedious task rebuilding one. 

This little incident brought my thoughts to Robert Frost, “Mending Wall” and the following conversation was running in my mind.

“Do we need walls ? Oh yes, especially for the farms and fields,we need them. Not in the suburbs though, too much of a hassle. Trouble can always jump over a wall !!

“And the metaphorical walls ? The walls surrounding our heart and our mind, what about them ? The hearts need walls to protect us from the sorrows but the mind, we miss out on life we are stuck behind the mental walls.

“And the spiritual walls ? There can be no walls in our relationship with the Lord, for He knows all.

This begs the question of whether the walls were built to keep good neighbours or keep us walled in ? And here I am speaking of metaphorical walls. If it was the latter, the purpose is for what. Do we need boundaries for our homes and hearts to protect us or to keep us from experiencing the world ?

Robert Frost had written about “mending walls” and the realities surrounding it. I had read his piece in my high school classes. This time I tried reading it again and a whole lot of different perspectives were brought to light.

The certainty that we do need them in certain facets and the reality of what we may be missing if we lived a life without walls. The hard truth lies in where we erect them: surrounding us or within us and why do we need them: to protect or to hide. 

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.” I could say “Elves” to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
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Posted in Christian, Personal Musings, poetry, Stories Around the World

God’s Rosebud

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

How many times in our life do we try to anticipate every situation, every event and every hour ? Very few of us are willing to entrust our waking minutes in His Hands. What we really need to do is to let go and let God unfold your life. For His shoulders can bear all our burdens. 

This is  a great story that I got through a Whats app forward. I don’t who is the author but I find it worth sharing; for it had made my day brighter and I hope it would make your day too.

A new minister was walking with an older, more seasoned minister in the garden one day. Feeling a bit insecure about what God had for him to do, he was asking the older preacher for some advice. The older preacher walked up to a rosebush and handed the young preacher a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young preacher looked in disbelief at the older preacher and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his wanting to know the will of God for his life and ministry. But, because of his great respect for the older preacher, he proceeded to try to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact. It wasn’t long before he realized how impossible this was to do. Noticing the younger preacher’s inability to unfold the rosebud without tearing it, the older preacher began to recite the following poem…

“It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God’s design;
But, I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.”

“The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
GOD opens this flower so easily,
But, in my hands they die.”

“If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of God’s design,
Then, how can I have the wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?”

“So, I’ll trust in God for leading
Each moment of my day.
I will look to God for guidance
In each step along the way.”

“The path that lies before me,
Only my Lord and Savior knows.
I’ll trust God to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose.”

“Do not be anxious about anything, but always in prayer and petition with thanksgiving, open your wishes to God …” (Epistle to Philippians 4: 6)

Source: vk.com
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Posted in Daily, Food, Photography Art

For the Love for Oreo

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

Speaking of cookies, there is one word that any two year old would say and that is “Oreo”. And like the quote says, “Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies- Diane Airbus”.

To quote Jonathan Mayberry ” I’m not sure I could trust a man who would bypass an Oreo in favour of vanilla wafers. It’s a fundamental character flaw, possibly a sign of true evil.”

Here are some shots below of how creative can the Oreo cookies go.

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Posted in Christian, Personal Musings

God’s Grace vs. Man’s Pride

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

Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

The story of Noah’s Ark is something that most Christians and Bible Readers would know about. Often told to toddlers at bedtime and taught regularly in the Sunday School, the story often highlights’ God’s saving grace because of one person, in the city where sin and destruction were a daily occurrence. Noah was not a perfect man, yet God chose to save his family from destruction. That’s the beauty of God’s grace! “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen 6:8).

Yet, the biggest grace that the Lord gave us was that of salvation through the Holy Cross and the blessing of the Holy Spirit to guide us.

For those of us who have yet to still believe in humility and the power of Grace; instead depend on the pride of man, all I can say is open your eyes and look around. You would be surprised at the miracles that we often take for granted in our daily life. The humility of God’s Grace has always withstood the test of time, but man’s pride often falleth many.

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Posted in Daily, Food, Photo Captions

Coffee Kick off !!

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

This for all the coffee lovers out there. Imagine a day without the regular caffeine shot and I bet I am not the only one on the dose. Here are few shots below of what my cup of coffee would be like…. be it the espresso, or with milk and cream, frappe, hazelnut, cocoa and so on but the coffee beans do stay the same.

“Coffee, she’d discovered, was tied to all sorts of memories, different for each person. Sunday mornings, friendly get-togethers, and a favorite grandfather long since gone. Coffee meant something to people. Most found their lives were miserable without it. Coffee was a lot like love that way. And because Rachel believed in love, she believed in coffee, too”.
–Sarah Addison Allen

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