The Girls Cooking in India

At the end of February, three of our dear sisters came to visit us. They came to see India, do the tourist thing, but also to host cooking exchange classes with several of my friends. The parties were to include teaching/learning American dishes, Indian dishes, and to make a fun scrapbook recipe book. We had a great time, and by the end of the week, were amazed at how our expectations seemed too small. What we planned as a women to women cooking class ended up including husbands too!

Here were some of their tourist highlights throughout the week: Saw the Taj Mahal, saw a camel on the way to lunch, saw a monkey while driving, ate interesting looking, but yummy food, visited a temple complex on a very busy, 'holy' day, and got a morning to shop at the best market ever..Dilli Haat!

The girls got to host a party at my friend Monica's house. She invited 2 other friends, but they weren't able to make it. So they taught Monica No Bake Cookies and she LOVED making her recipe book. I can't remember the last time I saw her laugh that much. She said it reminded her of times before when she use to do things like this for herself. Then her husband, Matt, came home and taught the girls how to make Chai. I have never seen Matt work in the kitchen before. It was great! They invited us back over for breakfast the next morning so Matt and Monica could show the girls more about Indian cooking. Again, Matt was the one who served us. After breakfast, they were ready to set up another time to meet. It was great!




















One of our closest friends' mother had just had surgery. So the girls made No Bake Cookies, an Okra dish, and a Macaroni Pie to take over to them. We did this just to show that we loved them, not a normal thing to do in Indian culture. The family insisted on us staying for dinner. We had a great time sharing food and stories with them. We gave Mommy a book by Jennifer Rothschild and she was touched. Then just 2 days later, this same family came to one of our parties, and brought food for us to show us they loved us. The girls taught them how to make Chocolate Cake as well as the recipe book. Again, it was funny to see the husband get just as involved. He helped make the recipe book and then started coming up with new ideas for future parties and what we could make. It was awesome. They also told us that Mommy had already read through half the book.



















The girls ended the week by hosting one last party. 3 women were invited, but HE wanted only one to show up. Polly came with her 2 sons. The girls taught her how to make Macaroni Pie, the recipe book, and she taught us how to make a dessert dish called Seviya. Towards the end, her sons wanted to learn how to do some scrapbooking and Polly's husband stopped by as well to see what was going on.









It was a great week! We can't wait to see how this week is just the start of something much bigger in the future with women and cooking..and as HE showed us this week...husbands too!