Start of Spring & Vaccine Shenanigans

ABBIE’S ADVENTURE DIARIES MARCH 2021 •••

Spring Forward ••• 

Ramadan Prep ••• 

Spring/ Pre-Ramadan Cleanup ••• 

Vaccines ••• 

Final Room Cleanup ••• 

Spring Decor

An hour just disappeared ••• that’s Spring Forward aka Daylight Savings for you. It won’t impact my hamster wheel spin so I don’t give two cents. Practically though, things are going to start heating up now! For one, there are taxes to be done! Two, Ramadan approaches! Say goodbye to the afternoon Chai and cookie. Three, I’ll be battling serious gastrointestinal apocalypse and morbidly low energy levels during fasting. Four, the kitchen will continue to eat all the time. And five, I’ll be worrying about lawn care and cicadas!

yeh mein hoon, yeh meri vaccine lag gayee hai, aur ab meri paaawwwriiii hogi

Counting my blessings ••• Everyday is a miracle ••• I’m grateful today Alhamdulillah to have received my first Pfizer shot against the deadly Covid-19 ••• Happy to be alive while so many are lost ••• It’s been a complete year of quarantine this week for me, started on March 20, 2020, and I have kept my game strong for my parents ••• God bless my brother who has been my grocery delivery without a word of complain (I’ve bribed him with keto desserts ) ••• In an year’s time some things have gone missing ••• My behind the wheel confidence (particularly highways), some friends who didn’t care I was caring for parents and moved on (I understand, the world’s a fast place I am a Diamondback ), the annual vacation was cancelled, I haven’t eaten out for an year (insane cooking overload) ••• But there hasn’t been a single day of deprivation during the hoarding madness or ill health during the killer pandemic spread Alhamdulillah •••

Winter’s Fading Me Out

 ❄️ Winter’s fading me out now! Blimey, it’s cold! The driveway is a big ice slide right now. The yards are grass flavored shaved ice at the moment. And for a feel-cold-even-when-the-AC-is-on person like me, getting the mail from my mailbox feels like attempting to visit the polar ice cap! The nose has to hide! 

I’m still quarantined because of elderly parents. It’ll be a full year in March (minus the pharmacy drive thru pickup trips) since I went out. Cabin fever (very slightly) has begun to hit but for the most part I am HAPPY to be inside. 

Last winter month is rolling and the horrors of Spring (cicada invasion, HVAC tuneup issues, leaky windows in monsoon, runaway gardner, yard turning to Ferngully, and yaddi yaddi yadda) are all waiting to unleash themselves.

7:18pm, After Dinner: Taking some peaceful time for quick Instagram blogging. The Dal Chawal Qeema have put me in a highly comfortable place and sleep has been induced. Yet, I must blab about the mundane passage of today’s time. 

Ice is beginning to melt and this could be the last of the frozen that we are seeing. My favorite trash reality (as I fondly call it) TV show Bigg Boss came to an end last night. As usual, rigged results but good show. I have been following it since October and it always stays with me through the birthday season, through Fall and Winter. Its end means Spring’s arriving •••

Existing Solo, Happiest Girl In The World

Rolling happily single at 34 gives shameful licenses to many to question my awesomesauce existence. *unsheathes the sword 🗡* Sara feels this is a verbally armed post V-Day attack. Well, it’s been the woolly mammoth in the room for over a decade so let’s give it a fat spotlight in February shall we? Marriage! I’m on a wild run from the sugarcoated suicide! All opinions strictly my own influenced by my own reality/parallel reality.

Thankfully, Prince Charming (if he’s at all been created by divine intervention) is possibly living in the Misty Mountains of Middle Earth, is on the death wish run like the Witcher, or on a far off planetary body in the supermassive universe because the world doesn’t understand his cosmic existence! He is missing but he is not missed. 

There have been too many frogs in his royalty’s absence. Their innocent *blink blink* follies are my legit excuse to exist solo! You may be a knight, good sir! But No! you cannot kill the dragon because I own it ••• Everyone wants to kill the dragon 🐉 

In 34 years of life I’ve taken many blows on my self-esteem, have risen from the ashes, and have not showcased my feelings because I’m not a weakling. I have seen too many sour, toxic relationships of close and distant ones and have experienced severe anger and pain at their helplessness. I’ve witnessed the shallowness of individuals, the commercial greed and fraudulent motives. Considering this fruit basket, my comfort level with human beings and my confidence in their faithfulness is a different case story altogether. I am mortified! My senses that Cupid shoots at are paralyzed with fear! 

“To love is to destroy, and to be loved is to be destroyed” - Jace Wayland’s quote pretty much sums up the folly of this world’s heartbreak design. Our modus operandi don’t match. 

Next time you look at me, focus on what completes me: battles that I’ve won, & the kickass fight I am putting up. A missing soulmate is a fairytale hypothesis, not a guarantee of happiness. Today, existing solo, I’m the happiest girl in the world. Respect it! Believe it! Be happy for me. I may be life’s biggest rockstar you know! 🎤 💥 Mic Drop! Stage on Fire 🔥 Abbie Slays 😎 

#singlelife

Repotting Severus Snape, the Snake Plant

🌱 Repotting Severus Snape - my Snake Plant. This is my pandemic plant. I created a yet another example of procrastination and did not repot it. The potting mix had been laying in the garage (almost an year now!). My brother got a Snake Plant too and he repotted his the very month he got it. Mine has seen so much as a  baby. It was moved around during the kitchen makeover, then stayed in the sunroom in a corner on the floor. I scurried around, overloaded with chores, and added a few drops of water (often ZamZam) into it. Finally after an year ••• 

I’m getting him ready for Spring  photoshoots. I’m infamous for killing a coral cactus (Gellart Grindelwald) last year (overwatering *sigh*) ••• Despite the day’s work load, I decided to do this. It’s a low maintenance plant, so I am a bit hopeful. I’m worried because the pot (late Grindelwald’s pot) has no holes. Snake Plant, like cacti, need drainage and very little watering.

 

Listening to a Song for Heart and Soul

Care for a conversation? We talk a lot, we don’t listen. We hear a lot, we don’t listen. Listen! Emptiness speaks. Solitude screams. Silences have a language.

Just Want You To Know Who I Am

Once Upon A Time In A Faraway Land ...

Making A Song For Heart and Soul

Chasing the Wolf Moon

I hold thee captive tonight

Yet, a captor cannot claim right.

Beauty is in the hand of the Creator;

The eye of the beholder,

The beholder, a small figment of His Hand’s art dust.

Captor’s Remorse (2021)

The Abbie

The world is designed to break hearts, shatter expectations, and tread on your plane of happiness. You’ll find your self respect being trampled, your personal space being invaded, your wounds being resurfaced.

That ••• is normal ••• and you expecting a field of flowers, a falling star to make a wish on, or a starry night sky is surreal. Hang on! There’s still no limit to dreams. This ain’t a song for the broken hearted (Bon Jovi) ••• But on the blackest of nights, you are your own knight in shining armor. Find your Wolf Moon. Howl!

Wolf Moon, January 2021 Through My Sunroom 

The Winter Mise en scene

The Winter mise en scene is transforming to a gloomy, slow, silent one as the last tier draws near; unless of course it snows, there is a ‘silence before the storm’ feeling. The trees are dry and barren; and yet, the stubborn evergreens stand there watching it all - unaffected. There is very little to see out there unless you have an eye for the dead, the morbid, and the monochrome. I do. This is my kind of time. I have enjoyed this melancholy before. I miss the free flowing prose though. We’ll get it back, Precious. We need to stir that bard alive that feeds on the black, white, and grey of things and is capable of creating a rainbow. For now, we rehearse the silence.

Almond Coffee Cake (Keto, Dairy-Free)

INGREDIENTS

2 cups almond flour
1 cup granular erythritol sweetener 
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons canola oil
4 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Canola oil for greasing

LET'S MAKE A COFFEE CAKE

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease an 8"x8" baking pan with canola oil. Line the pan with parchment paper and grease on top of the paper as well.

2. In a mixing bowl, add 2 cups almond flour, 1 cup granular erythritol, and 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp canola oil, and mix together until it becomes crumbly. Take out less than 1 cup (loosely packed and not topped0 of mixture and set aside. 

3. In a large mixing bowl, add the remaining almond flour mixture, 4 eggs, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Mix ingredients well with a hand mixer. 

4. Pour the runny batter into the 8"x8" baking pan. Next, sprinkle the crumbly mixture you had set aside over the top of the batter. 

5. Bake! In the beginning, bake for 40 minutes and do a toothpick test. Bake more until toothpick comes out clean.

6. Once fully done, remove from the oven and set to rest until the pan is cool. Wait until cake is hard before cutting pieces. 

Keto Elaichi (Cardamom) Cookies

This was originally a keto Nan Khatai recipe. The taste comes very close to Nan Khatai but the appearance does not. So, I named these Elaichi (Cardamom) Cookies. These are delicate to make as the almond flour will not make a solid dough. You'll need to form tight balls like in Laddoo making and then shape them into cookies. 

INGREDIENTS

Almond flour, 1 cup

Erythritol sweetener, 1/4 cup

Unsalted sweet cream butter, 3 tbsp softened at room temp

Cardamom powder, 1 tsp 

THE MAKING

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

3. Mix together 1 cup almond flour, 1/4 cup erythritol sweetener, 3 tbsp unsalted sweet cream butter, and 1 tsp cardamom powder with a silicone spatula. Knead well with your hand. 

4. Add a drizzle of canola oil to help with binding. 

5. Divide the mixture into 12 parts. Knead each part into a tight ball. Flatten the ball with the palm of your hands, use your hands to shape into a cookie (photo above).

6. Set the cookie on the parchment paper on the cookie sheet. 

7. Bake for a minimum of 8 minutes. 

8. Bake additional couple of minutes, if needed, until edges turn golden brown.

9. Once done, leave the cookies on the cookie sheet to cool and harden. 

Dropping The Ball On 2020

Dropping The Ball on 2020 It’s been a strange year, an year that got cancelled before the 2020 resolutions could even see light of day ••• It’s been an year of the unexpected! ••• 

I had gotten back from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in January after partying like crazy over the holidays and New Years Eve There was news breaking of a virus starting off in China and crossing orders via tourists and imports ••• February flew by and jokes and memes turned to serious obituaries and remorse as the mortal peril spread worldwide killing by the thousands! ••• Mass graves were dug on an island piece of land to bury the thousands that died in New York alone! A complete lockdown began! 

Life in 2020 became centered at sanitizing, stocking reasonable commodities (not following the stupid toilet paper hoard), staying quarantined, caring for parents and checking on friends and neighbors during tough times ••• 

Ironically, 2020 turned out transformational for me ••• Big life changes, all brilliant Alhamdulillah ••• Self reflection, mental peace (comparative ), kitchen remodeling, lifestyle change ••• all that rolled out for me this year ••• Above all, thank God, me and my family were safe and healthy.