Electric car facts

It has been almost 2 years of driving the Nissan Leaf!

So far it has lived up to its promise. A quiet ride in carpool lane for local commuting. 

Given my kids tell me that I drive like an old grandma, it is no surprise that the leaf has 5 miles/kwh. Leaf forums tell me that this is a pretty good record for a car that has since seen 15k + miles

One intersting thing is that the Leaf gives you an estimated miles left as you drive.. and that can sometimes be like the Windows File download or copy dialog box "time remaining" prediction!

You drive 3 miles and get back 5 more.. then you drive back 4 miles and lose 9! Net result is that the car was driven 7 miles and it shows 4 miles consumed. These numbers are also a function of recent trips and who knows what logic?!

One gets used to this after some time. Also if you remember which routes have roads that slope down vs. roads that slope up, you can optimize your mileage!

Only downside this year is that the Leaf is behind on the 10k mile per year we signed for in the lease. So far the dealership is getting a better deal. 

The charger is now fixed and the car is back on the road! These photographs were taken few weeks ago on a route that always makes me laugh when looking at the dashboard.

Here is to more fun!

Repeat it!

No, not a post on Rajni.. 

Just an attempt to recreate an old photo with the kids..

Our home is the one place where I have lived the longest in one address. Eight plus years with same mailing address is a record for me. We would be in and out of rental places as kids and by the time my parents built their own home, I started traveling!

Good thing is that nothing has changed in the house over time. Status quo is welcomed here.. 

but the kids are a lot bigger now and they remind us that there is no "quo" here!

The other three kids were telling the little one "can you look innocent like in that old picture, please ?!"

Instead of innocence, she pulled some attitude.

We thoroughly enjoyed watching them getting into the "repeat it" act. 

Coconut Burfi - a do it yourself video

Diwali came and went. There was no time to make any special sweets. San did make some delicious Badam Kheer to celebrate at home. 

Diwali felt incomplete unless some raw material is convereted to a finished product in the kitchen with some contribution from me.. just kidding..

There was a coconut that was part of the Lakshmi pooja that had to be grated. It is not "auspicious" to let that special coconut get spoilt. So, over the weekend, I decided to convert that into a coconut burfi. Please note: What you see below is not a normal sight in our house.. it is an anomaly. 

The last time I made this was almost a decade ago, in the pre video blogging days. 

The kids helped make the video. Apologies for the "uncut" version. 

Recipe is simple : 

Grate coconut. Eyeball how many cups of grated coconut you have (say 1 cup). Add same measure of sugar to same measure of water and stir to get sugar syrup thick enough. Don't let it caramelize. 

Add coconut to sugar syrup and stir like no tomorrow. Then add cashews roasted in excess ghee (clarified butter) to this and stir like there is no day after tomorrow either. 

When the whole thing becomes thick enough to roll like a ball off the vessel, pour it out. Add some powdered cardamom to the mix just before pouring out. 

Then cut into burfi's when cool. 

I love eating it even before the burfi has cooled down. 

Used to try this with coconut that is frozen and grated already. That does not taste good. You can also add some condensed milk or milk powder to this. It tastes better but also gets spoilt faster. 

My grandma makes it this way. Brings back memories.

Hope this motivates some fresh off the boat grad student who is longing for grandmas cooking to get that coconut and start grating..