Living the Justopian Life

What would Mr. Darcy Say?

I stumbled upon a a Bollywood movie this morning before work and got sucked right in. “Bride and Prejudice” my not be exactly what Jane Austin thought of when she wrote the legendary book, “Pride and Prejudice,” but then, would any modern-day movie do the book justice? Bride has all the necessary elements family, money, love, disappointment, misinformation, song and dance. Wait!? What’s that — song and dance? Well, of course there was song and dance in the late 1700’s when the book was written, but it wasn’t the breaking out of nowhere in brilliant color and silly dance moves kind of twirling around the stage as we see in a movie like this one.

It’s this fun, tongue in cheek fun and frivolity that makes a Bollywood movie “watchable.”

But what happens to me when I see a movie with Indian roots? I get the craving for all things Indian food. Food supplies are running pretty lean in the kitchen at this point. I’m back to trying to go to the grocery store only once every 2 weeks now to conserve $$, so I was left with little in the fridge and pantry. I have been taking advantage of the farmer’s market that’s held right outside the doors of the store every Thursday, but I’d run out of all but a potato, a zucchini and an onion, so I had to get creative.

There was a bag of small chicken thighs (this chicken was very small!) in the freezer which I’d defrosted overnight. I didn’t know what I was going to do with them until I got the curry craving

I went foraging through the cupboards and found a jar of butternut squash soup I picked up at the store last year during the holiday season. I had this one jar left and that’s when the idea hit me — a sudden craving for pumpkin curry! Butternut squash and pumpkin is very similar and would work perfectly I had a can of coconut milk, a jalapeño pepper, chicken stock in the freezer, garam masala and a jar of ghee (clarified butter), so I had all the ingredients I needed for a kind of South Indian curry. Sure I wasn’t going to be an authentic curry, but it was going to do the trick.

Then I reached into the cabinet for the rice cooker, but decided I just wasn’t in the mood for rice. I wanted to use the potato, onion and zucchini, so a fritter of some sort was in order. I had a small scoop of Boursin cheese left in the fridge, so my curry was about to be invaded by a bit of France. Yep, I just can’t seem to get away from France these days, can I?

The only thing missing was a sari.

Now, it’s time for some blog talk. You know I’ve been wanting a new name and a new look and now is the time to show you what I’ve done. This new blog is not complete. I have yet to figure out how to get comments added and while it’s pretty, really pretty — I like the uncluttered look, it is missing some key elements. I’ll get it together, but for now, have a look and see what you think at FRANtasticfood.com. I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know in the comments field below.

SURPRISE!!

And there’s a surprise! A giveaway! Yes, I’m going to give away a set of capiz shell inlay chop sticks I brought home from The Philippines. What do you have to do to get in on it? It’s easy! Head over to the new blog at FRANtasticfood.com and tell me in the comment field below just what’s different between the two blog posts. What’s the difference between this blog and the one on the new site dated August 28th? Be sure to click on all the links.

Don’t panic! The site is new, there aren’t that many links … yet. And remember to comment below.

What’s the catch? I need to have at least 20 entries in order to award the prize. I’ll use a random number generator to pick the winner, and YES! it’s an attempt to get people to head over to the new blog. Right, I’m trying to generate interest, so get your friends, your family, your co-workers to come on over, read this blog post and click on the link to FRANtasticFood.com and find the difference between the two sites and then come back here and scroll down to the comment field and tell me what’s different.

The contest will end at 9am tomorrow, August 29th so go on, get out there and tell everyone you know, even those you don’t know, to check out the blogs and enter the contest. If this one works well, I’ve got plenty more to give away, and we’re talking big items people! This is just a starter, a re-entry into the give-away zone. Think All Clad, Henkles, Cookbooks. And think treasures from foreign lands. Things could be worse, right?

Filed under: Food, How To