Before marriage, I didn't do any housework but concentrated on growing my graphology skills and clients.
After marriage, I took a break and wanted to experience what it meant to be a housewife. Amongst other things, this also meant that I made dahi(yogurt) and ghee at home.
When we were to move to USA, My mausi told me said, "I have experimented with everything. You can't make dahi or ghee in USA. Something is wrong with the milk."
I took it on blind faith and didn't question it. In CT, where we lived the first 2 years of our life in US, I didn't experiment with anything at home but we experimented with the new stuff we saw in the store and we ate everything that is store bought. Also, I didn't have a lot of friends there to ask.
After moving to D.C., life has obviously changed and for the better. The meditation group here is bigger and I also made a lot of friends otherwise (One of the unknown benefits of having a kid). So, I learnt that many of them make dahi at home. I asked how. One said she got the jamaan (starter yogurt) from india. One said that she got it from a friend and so it goes.
My son eats dahi and I wanted it to be as pure as it can get. (Absolutely no Pectin). For the first time, I went to Google baba and asked for help. He gave me some help in form of Nisha Madhulika who showed me how to make jamaan at home.
I asked my husband if he was ok with this experiment (or little waste of expensive milk) as I wasn't sure if it would work. He said he was ok. Another small hurdle - Before going to Chicago, I had almost finished everything in the fridge and were to buy groceries. Also, we had guests coming for dinner on Saturday and breakfast and dinner on Sunday. I bought one small container of yogurt, just to be on the safe side.
Well, to cut a long story short, My jamaan was successful and so is my first batch of dahi. I am on cloud 9. It is a perfect start to my week to see this on Monday morning. I was so excited, I thought of skipping MondayMuse and sharing this.
Hope you have an even more successful and productive week.