Joys of one year | Avocado Jalapeño Butter Grilled Chicken + Pomegranate tea

When your child completes one year then you can’t wait for the big day. It’s a milestone which adds a cheer to any mother’s heart. You start planning for the D-day much before you can think of. With perfect invitations, best wardrobe, luscious cake and drooling decor all are running wild in your planning days. Just like a child this blog has been my baby and Yipee! this blog has completed one year which really means a lot to me. What have I gained hmmm……unleashed my creativity, learnt to live slowly, stopped to admire every blooming flower, made friends new and old and most importantly I discover the writer within me. I do this for myself and I wanted to shouted “I’m not in the league. It’s about my self discovery.”!

The ability to write your own saga is far more rewarding than any job I have done so far. To my credit I have a managed a media gateway,researched on insurance domain and coded on a banking portal. I just live another dream and if someone finds my work interesting I am flattered.

This is truly my celebratory edition and I wanted to make it special by talking about something which is not related to food but a very core thing important to quite a number of couples in this fast paced world.

Planning a dinner date

Planning a dinner date after having a baby, planning a dinner date after a heavy week of work, planning a dinner date just out of the blue, planning a dinner date because you can’t go out…….oh the options are so many. I just wanted to have some rough chalked out pointers for having a simple dinner date.

1. For once break your schedule it’s not important to sleep every blessed day on time. Target a friday or late saturday night where you put your baby to sleep, close the damn laptop and switch off that mobile. It is about you and only Us.

2. You hate cooking, you did not have time to prepare or the ration ran out….who cares…pick up your nearest home delivery number and blurt out your favourite dishes. In the next thirty minutes prepare for the date night.

3. You are a meticulous perfectionist. Always keep candles handy at home. Invest in a good lamp with subdued lighting. LEDs strings work best for creating the mood.

4. Taking a shower together is a wonderful way to wind up all those loose strings. No matter how odd it seems but trust me you are never too old.

5. Break the monotony why not settle down at the open window, snuggle on the sofa, lounge in the backyard. I have known couples who relax on the floor while the baby sleeps on the cot.

6.For those who love cooking like me, cooking dinner together is the best romantic therapy. There is something weirdly romantic about the way you stir up the pasta, mince the veggies and gossip about nossy neighbour next door. When you are cooking together the rule is “Keep it simple” and restrict it to not more than two dishes which are simple and easy to prepare.

7. If you really wanted to have some fresh air. Put your baby in the buggy…trust me babies loves fresh air and sleep snuggled in their blanket. While you both take a stroll down the lane to have your favourite death by passion pastry and a hot frothy cappuccino. Spend the whole evening talking about nonsensical things which matter to no one but you. For god sake never steer the conversation to the baby’s weight, stalled promotion or the rising economy.

8. Most importantly there is love in nothing. The value of doing nothing is the power which yields fuel to couple romance. The value of knowing each other and spending quality time without disrupting your work life balance is the key to healthy relationship (be it live-in). I certainly don’t weave phantoms of imagination but rather proliferate the idea of slow living.

So,today I woke with the man I love and the cherub who guards us. We celebrated my creative journey by cooking together while I heard the little one strum the guitar and she hummed “can you paint with colours of the wind”.(She ate away the prepositions 🙂 )

I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to each and every reader who stops by my blog. All the friends from the blogging world who have been kind and generous.The world around me never ceases to inspire, love and support. Most importantly life…especially for me it is not a bed of roses…..she embraces me with its ups and downs….and I am still sailings……Amen!

For Avocado Jalapeño Butter Grilled Chicken I have used a couple of my favourite things here. I find avocado aphrodisiac 🙂 and Jalapeño stingy. I have come to a stage of being causal about what I eat and feed. I have opted for chicken with skin because that plays a key role in the grilling. The idea to make pomegranate tea sprung from Grenadines syrup. But for the first time I tried to prepare the concoction myself. The pomegranate tea goes surprisingly week with this dish and you don’t miss your languorous red wine.highly recommended combination.