Manu's Medley

In my last post of the "Mom & Baby" series, I shared how to start solids for infants, what to feed and the foods to avoid. You can check out the previous post  here . Based on couple of requests, I am sharing some simple recipes that can be made at home. Hope this helps the new moms.  These are the recipes I offered my kid and I am not a licensed practitioner. So always consult with your pediatrician before introducing any new food to your baby. Fruit Purees Fruit purees are simple to make. At this stage, choose fruits that are easily digestible by the baby like banana, apple and pears.  How to make:   Take a ripe banana, mash it to a mushy consistency and feed If you are using apple, wash and peel off its skin, cut into small pieces, steam for 5 minutes, mash and it is ready to be fed Once baby turns 8 months, he will be accustomed to eating fruits and its texture, so you may offer him pears prepared in the same fashion as apples Avocado is full of healthy fats....

It is an absolute delight to harvest from our own garden, irrespective of how small the garden is and how less the produce is. I harvested some basil from my balcony garden last week and made some delicious pesto out of it. You can check out this video , if you wish to see the garden space in my apartment.  Basil, as many of you know is a flavoursome herb primarily used in cooking. When I was in India, I once had pesto pasta in an Italian restaurant and that is my first encounter with this herb. But after few years, I tasted its fresh leaves as a salad topping when I was Germany and fell in love with it. It has a very refreshing taste. Its flavour and taste slightly resemble our Indian Tulasi, so most of us mistake Basil for Tulasi (Holy Basil). They both along with other herbs like mint, parsley, sage, oregano, chia, rosemary, thyme etc. belong to a flowering plant family known as Lamiaceae, commonly called Mint Family. These plants are aromatic and are used in cooking and making ...

After reading a lot of positive recommendations about this title, I wanted to read it last year. However more than 100 people in our community library, eager like me have blocked this book, making it certain to move this book to my TBR 2022. Though I had a soft copy, I waited for the hardcover. The joy of holding the book in hands is incomparable. Don't you agree? Finally, its my turn at the library!! The Silent Patient is authored by Alex Michaelides who is an author and screenwriter. He is half Cyrian-half British. Alex is an M.A. in English Literature, M.A. in screenwriting and holds a degree in psychotherapy. He has worked as a therapist in a psychiatric unit for teenagers and has been the inspiration for writing this book. The Silent Patient is his debut novel with more than million copies sold world over and is rated as the New York Times and Sunday Times best seller. This work has fetched him the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Mystery & Thriller of 2019 and has been sho...

We are left with just few more weeks of summer and couple more beautiful places to explore, before we bid good bye to the season this year. Twin Valley Zoo at Brantford (Ontario, Canada) is one such place which was on our bucket list for this summer. At Canada, we cannot spot any other animal in our neighbourhood beyond pet dogs, cats and the ever active squirrels that freely roam wherever their heart takes them. If we are lucky, we may also get a chance to find few horses in their stables when we pass through the country side.  While I was in the US, I visited a pet zoo in our locality, which housed a cow, sheep, goat, hen, rooster, few chicken, duck and a goose, specifically to introduce them to kids; which was quite amusing. A person like me who has grown up seeing domestic animals and birds like cows, buffalos, sheep, goat, hens, ducks etc. in the neighbourhood (in India), I found this particularly odd. Of course, today, we don't get to see these beings in the city si...