The California Zephyr

We love trains and train rides. For the scenery and for the vacation it spells for us. We are able to spend quality time with each other without any engaging ring tones or emails. We are also lucky that Medha enjoys it as much as we do. She basks in the 100% one-on-one attention she gets when we travel by train.

We took the California Zephyr from Denver to Chicago on one of our innumerable trips from New Lenox to Louisville last year. It was supposed to take just 14 hours but took almost 17 hours. Since Amtrak does not own the railroads, they are at the mercy of the railroad companies whose freight trains get first preference. We don't mind the delays as we give up all semblance of control and enjoy the train ride. However, I was a little apprehensive as that was a year ago and the route from Denver to Emeryville, California is 36 hours long. But it was so much fun that I would do it again in a heartbeat.

The bedrooms were sold out so we booked two roomettes instead. Luckily for us, these were across from each other so we were able to hop over from one side to the other whenever the scenery changed!

The train glides through the Front Range into the Rockies and the spectacular scenery begins...

We crossed the Continental Divide when we went through the 6.2 mile Moffat Tunnel, at an elevation of 9000 feet.

The Colorado river then joins the route and runs alongside the train through most of the route in western Colorado...

...with views of the river basin...

...and white-water rafters, who gave us the Amtrak salute, if they were rafting through calm waters. It was Medha's first exposure to mooning and she just kept yeowing, after the initial wide-eyed jaw-open silence.

...and mesas and canyons...

...through rocks from a hundred years old to over a million years old.

I felt like I was looking into a set for Mackenna's Gold.

The Colorado river bade us farewell near the Utah border and the relentless desert of Utah began.

The lack of scenery and the fading light outside allowed me to teach Medha how to knit. She took to it rather quickly, having woven potholders with looms before.

I took the opportunity to finish the scarf I have been knitting for about five years now and started on my next five year project, a crocheted airy diamond Afghan.

The Sierra Nevadas started soon after Reno...

We also passed the exquisite Donner Lake area that nestles in the Sierra Nevadas.

The gradual descent and the approaching signs of civilization signaled that the first truly relaxed and amazing part of our vacation was over. We reached Emeryville, California with a renewed respect for Mother Earth and her natural beauty.

We stayed for a week, camping at Big Sur, checking out Slow Food in San Francisco and experiencing the city. We flew back with a stop at Las Vegas, which I have awarded the dirtiest and most horrible airport in the USA. The landing and take-off at Vegas were very bumpy. So bumpy that the landing at Denver seemed rather smooth in comparison. We reached home so exhausted that we felt like we needed that proverbial vacation to recover from the last one. But it was really just the last leg that drained us. If I have to do it again, I will fly out to California and return by train, relaxed and rejuvenated! But, it's good to be home again.

I will be posting pictures of the rest of our vacation on Inner Lens. These will include pictures of our camping trip at Big Sur and the city of San Francisco.

Sad times

For Bombay and my brethren in that city...

For Aumkar whose short life was snuffed in a tragic accident...

Visitors, followed by a much needed Vacation

The July 4th long weekend brought 7 visitors from Chicagoland. What fun! We did the rounds of the scenic spots in the area, starting with Boulder Falls...

where we watched some daring folks scramble to the other side to build a pile of rocks for a future lagori...

The weekend saw us in the tourist hotspot of Colorado Springs. Below is a picture of the Garden of the Gods with the granite edifice of Pikes Peak in the distance

... followed by a ride up the Cog Railway to Pikes Peak at 14,110 feet.

We also went to Cave of the Winds for a laser show and a walk through the caves which, according to me is Avoid, Avoid, Avoid.

A hike up the Seven Falls restored much of our humor...

We strolled along Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park...

and hiked up to Alberta Falls...

There was so much food! My friends are vegetarian with a lot of clauses so the dining options were limited. My kitchen has never bustled with so much activity. It was so busy that there was no room or time to take pictures. We made:

• idlis! My idlis worked for the first time since we moved to Colorado. Yay! Two types of coconut chutneys and lots of sambar.
• the idli batter was used to make uttapas for breakfast on another day. We added mint from my garden on a whim and it was delicious!
• Calcutta-style bhel and pani puri
• pav bhaji
• alo parathas
• matki chi misal
• and, I managed to quickly make two fillets of salmon, pepper crusted and maple glazed, for one of my friends who is vegetarian but loves fish.

My visitors left on the 5th and we set off on a much needed vacation to California. Well, my daughter and I are vacationing while my husband works through most of the week. We took the Amtrak from Denver to Emeryville, California. The scenic route through the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas is spectacular and breath-taking. We were very comfortable in the two roomettes we had booked. Amtrak food was quite good, given that it is 'train food!' I guess I really am on vacation as I did not take a single picture of any meal!

I hope to be uploading pictures of the ride soon!

Maple Glazed Salmon with Black Pepper and Ginger

I don't know why but I have been very hesitant to cook salmon. Until yesterday. I knew I had to do it soon or I'd go crazy thinking about it. My inspiration came from a delicious recipe for Maple Glazed Salmon that I found on Alanna's Kitchen Parade. It reminded me of the halibut my brother-in-law had made for us when we visited them a couple of months ago.

This is grilled halibut with ginger, citrus and watercress, a recipe from Williams-Sonoma's Fish, a book I highly recommend.

Like the halibut, I wanted to grill the salmon but the weather gods decreed otherwise. We had a major thunderstorm with lots of wind, hail, and bright bolts of lightning; so I decided to give in to the universe and baked it instead. What follows is my adaptation of Alanna's recipe, influenced by the halibut recipe from Fish.

• Small filet of salmon, between 1lb and 1.5lb
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger (optional)
• 1/4 cup coarsely crushed black pepper
• oil to grease foil

1. Heat your oven to 500F and place the rack in the top most position. (I love to use the convection bake feature of my oven so I heated my oven to 475F instead of 500F.)
2. Mix the maple syrup, soy sauce and ginger in a large bowl.
3. Put the salmon in this marinade and marinate for 20 minutes.
4. Line a baking tray with foil and grease with oil of your choice.
5. Place the salmon on the tray, reserving the marinade for a sauce.
6. Press the coarsely ground black pepper onto the salmon and bake for about 6-8 minutes depending on the thickness of the filet. The rule of thumb is 10 minutes per inch of thickness. The salmon is done when it turns pale pink.
7. Heat the marinade in a saucepan till it boils and simmer it until the salmon is ready to be pulled out of the oven. This ensures that any fishy leftovers in the sauce are thoroughly cooked.
8. Pour this marinade over the salmon just before serving for an additional kick.

I can't tell you just how ecstatic I am. This was quick, easy and Alanna's right, it is miracle food!

Alanna recommends marinating the salmon for 4 to 48 hours in the refrigerator. I didn't have that much time on hand because, as usual, I was scrambling to get dinner on the table before everyone fainted due to starvation. Fish from Williams-Sonoma recommends marinating fish for only 20 minutes; after this, they say, the fish begins to cook in the acids in the marinade. I usually marinate my fish upto 24 hours in the refrigerator. I have done this with delicate fish like pomfret, too and the flavor only gets enhanced. I have never seen any 'cooking' but then again my marinades have not been overly acidic. Since I did not have much time on hand, I decided to forego the marination; also, I knew that I was going to pour the sauce over the fish so I didn't think marinating was critical. Isn't it funny how we manipulate things to suit the situation at hand?!

Medha helped me crush the black pepper in my mortar and pestle. Oooh! Can I do that? She started coughing shortly thereafter because "it smelt bad" and left the rest of the job to me! Since Alanna recommended overdoing the pepper, that's exactly what I did! However, I didn't coat about 1/4 of the filet with black pepper in deference to tender taste buds.

I served the maple glazed salmon with black pepper and ginger on a bed of organic romaine lettuce and peach tea. This recipe is a keeper! I am very thrilled!

Thank you, Alanna!

More maple glazed salmon recipes:
Maple-glazed salmon from Green Mountain at Fox Run, a women's retreat in Vermont. This recipe uses some ginger, not as much as I did, along with dijon mustard and scallions but no black pepper.
Pepper-Crusted Maple-Glazed Salmon from Food Network, which recommends an ideal marinating time of 24 hours.

Tags: Salmon, Spicy Salmon, Baked fish

My Mother

It’s been a very long time since we spoke
Even though I talk to you everyday
There are so many things I want to share with you
My husband, my daughter, my life.
I would call…
But there is no number at which I can reach you
I would visit…
But there is no place we could meet
So I hold on tightly to my memories
Your smile, your voice, your smell
The good times we shared
The tough times we battled
Many times against each other
But mostly together
We were a family, you and I
We still are and will always be.

There are so many things I miss about my mother; her cooking being the least of them all. She was a homemaker, though not by choice. She entered the kitchen only because she had to, not because she wanted to. She was a fierce spirit and stood her ground for her beliefs. She let us fly yet made sure we had our values in place. She took a great deal of criticism for the lives her daughters led. Her favorite retort was: When you point a finger at my daughters, take a look at your hand - for there are 3 fingers pointing right back at you.

She was an excellent chef, regaling us with new tastes as well as indulging us with comfort food. It was hard to believe that she didn’t like to cook but now I know exactly how she felt.

I was tagged for a meme about the 10 things I miss of my mother’s cooking by Mythili. I remember, I smell, I taste and I cherish as though it were just yesterday:

• Her chicken biryani was to die for. No matter what I do, mine just does not taste the same. It was always the star at Bhau-bhij potluck.
• Her layered fruit trifle, which we ate a lot of as she got used to the unreliable ‘gas mark’ on the oven (a lot of cake got burnt on the outside in the time it took for the inside to cook!)
• Fish curry and rice for lunch on Sundays
• Idli-chutney in my lunchbox on Wednesdays
• Her delectable nankhatai – the recipe for which is missing from her blue diary
• My all-time favorite, her bhendichi bhaji (okra)
• Her khath-khatha or ravath-ravath as we called it (you get the joke if you can read Marathi!)
• Her homemade mayonnaise, light and fluffy, which spoiled all other mayos for me
• Her patrani macchi which was certified as authentic by all my Parsi friends
• Her chutneys – there was always one fresh chutney in the refrigerator and a dry chutney in the pantry
• Her pickles, one of which I made for the first time and is ready much before I expected it to be!

I also miss:
- the dollops of love and devotion that were poured into each dish
- the look of expectation on her face as I tasted something she’d have made for the first time
- her irritation with me because I reached out for the salt shaker or at being told the yogurt is sour.

My mother died in January 1995 after a long and valiant battle with cancer. The last month was so difficult that I was grateful when her suffering finally came to an end. She slipped away slowly, breath by breath, till her body relaxed completely. She looked very beautiful and totally at peace. Despite the void it created for me, her passing was a relief – for her tortured body and soul, and for those of us who cared for her.

It’s been over 11 years now and time is supposed to heal; if that is the case, why do I hurt more now than before...Sometimes I experience sheer frustration, at not knowing what she meant by that sentence almost wiped out due to a spill in her recipe book. Sometimes it’s the smell of Dettol that my husband brought back with him on his last visit to India. Other times, just the thought that she’s not physically there anymore is enough to set me off. And a lot of times, it is not being able to share the joy of my own family with her.

To all those of you who have lost what I have lost, I feel your anguish and your pain.

To all those of you who still have the pleasure of their mother’s company in their journey through life, treasure her and cherish her. You only get her once. She is but human but she’s the only mother you will ever have. Call her and tell her what she means to you. I would if I could.