November 5, 2010

Diwali at the Gyllstraves

I love the Diwali holiday. You can light candles, celebrate with your friends, and perform special pooja's. Thank goodness Diwali has become so much more mainstream. I miss garba's and the Navratri celebrations, but it's also nice to have some new traditions as well. 
 
This year the Gyllstrave's are having a Diwali gathering. I am baking chocolate cupcakes and carrot cupcakes today (and it hasn't been a disaster so far, but then I've only gotten to the chocolate ones) and updating my CV to fit into the Euro job market (believe me there are many differences in what is the social norm on Euro CV's).  

I'm gonna try frosting the choco-cupcakes with a saffron-cream cheese frosting. I'm making some of my mom's sakarpara (basically spicy fried wheat and cream of wheat crispy crackers), making some of her dry Gujurati-style potatoes with cilantro, an adaptation of kala channa that I enjoy, and Karl is going to try his hand at making some pita breads. Other appearances include rice pulao, yogurt raitu, and some Pathak's mango pickle. 

I love Diwali!

Rangoli
My Diwali Rangoli

Diwali candle holders

Oh, right, I went to IKEA over the weekend. 

paper-mache roses on some gathered leaves for pillared candles

Some paper-mache diya's 

Happy Diwali and Sal Mubarak

5 comments:

  1. Hey Neeli,

    I'm new to Leuven and came across your blog - Happy Diwali, and the photos are beautiful! And best of luck with your cv-updating, too! If you have any tips, I'd love to hear them - I'm trying to figure out the norms on that front too.

    I'll be back! --Sara.

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  2. oh, oh, oh MANGO PICKLE!!

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  3. neeli! everything looks amazing! how'd the cupcakes turn out?!

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  4. Happy Diwali and Sal Mubarak!

    The food looks amazing. I'll always remember that Diwali party in North Carolina.

    This year Dhruv's birthday was on Diwali so I baked a special death by chocolate cake. It turned out really well! And we made jalebi and magas and tons of other food.

    It's great to hear that you guys are having such a good time.

    Jai

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  5. Nilam, you are AMAZING!! Chocolate cupcakes with Saffron icing! Oh my! I should hire you for my wedding ;)

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