Blogging Marathon 100th Edition Celebrations ~ Day 2

After sharing about our BM#100 Edition Celebration Meet Day 1 & Day 2, I will be sharing about our third day, when we had planned out cooking a South Indian meal.

I was sharing the room with Vaishali and we were chatting away till the early hours. I was just so tired and couldn't wake up early as I had thought.

The colour code was Pink and I could see so many shades of pink today!

When I woke up, I saw that my South Indian cooking group, spearheaded by Veena, Priya Srinivasan, Sandhya, and Priya Suresh, were already in full wing cooking. I knew I was supposed to help but felt they were so well equipped to complete it all so quickly.

We had planned toast for breakfast as we knew the lunch was going to be heavy! The aloo filling that was made for the tikkis was there and of course, the thick caramel sauce that Gayathri had made was still there. I just spread a loaded spoon of the caramel for my toast and I was in heaven!

We had planned on continuous learning and sharing during all days. And one of the activity was the sourdough bread baking. Varada had got in dried starter flakes and from day 1, she had been showing us how to activate it again and in the process bake bread too.

Saturday dinner was planned as Pav Bhaji, Stuffed Bread, etc and they also planned for the double rise of the bread from Friday evening.

Today's dinner was Chat Special from Vaishali. There is no party without Vaishali's famous Pani Puris. She had taken the pains to make 5 different flavored waters and we just couldn't wait to taste them all.

We went shopping on Thursday for extra jaggery, jars for Pani and few more items. I had first hand experience shopping in a supermarket Hyderabad and it felt so strange conversing in Telugu with all. The whole area is really crowded all the time. Though the roads were wide, the traffic and the humans made it look very crowded. Still, I enjoyed my walk down the roads.

In a house full of friends, I was looking around to see almost all of them so busy doing something or the other! Usha was taking a session on Video Editing. I saw Ritu trying her hands at making the Sugar Peony that Ruchi taught us last night. The ever diligent student that she was, she was fully noting each process and even tried her hands again this morning.

When the meal was ready, the naughty nighty mamis turned into madras madisar mamis with their colour nine yard Madisar and laid down the Banana leaves for serving. All of them sat down to partake the meal. Veena explained the meaning behind serving each item. They had cooked an elaborate Tamil Iyangar Sapadu.

Oh my, the menu for sure was breathless and when we sat down to eat, it was so heavenly! I would love to share some behind the scenes on how this came about.

Some months back when Vaishali visited us in Madras, Veena invited us for an Ilai Sapadu at her home. Due to unavoidable reasons, we couldn't have it. Then it was decided she would feed us this meal during this meet. The discussion further went that others could plan a North Indian thali as well.

Our planning for the menu happened a couple of months before and we planned cooking for about 25 people. I am sure my South Indian thali group will remember some amusing measurement planning that happened.

The menu was Steamed Rice, Katti Parippu, Ghee, Puliyogare, Kosumalli, Medu Vadai, Murungakkai Arachuvitta Sambhar, Thakkali Rasam, Beans Paruppu Usili, Chinna Urulai Curry, Avial, Avarakkai Kariamudu, Thair Pachadi, Appalaam, Thayir Sadam, Cut Mango Urugai, Mor Milagai, Valaipalam, Beeda (pan), Salt, Sugar, Mango Pachadi & Akkaradisal.

The Mamis were brimming with happiness and I reminded them that they were supposed to do some acts as well.

On the day, we had invited Vaishali's relatives who live in Hyderabad for lunch. Usha's Ramaakka also graced us with her presence. She came bearing gifts for all and we were so spellbound with her generosity and kind nature. She kept inviting us for Breakfast the next day at her restaurant.

For the love she showered on all of us, we felt we had to return it, albeit a small token of appreciation, we gifted her a saree. She just refused to accept it, however, all of us forced her to accept it.  Once the guests all left, the ladies went for a nap as the meal was so heavy! Seriously as I have said, this was the first time we ever felt the need for a nap and everybody was taking it. All of them were so overwhelmed with the meal and how delicious the food was.

While some went for a nap, some of us were in the living room chatting away.

Later in the evening, we had a session on Mango Avakkaya making from Amara and she also showed us her quick Mango Ice Cream. All of us were literally licking our fingers from the lot she got for us. People came back from their siesta and we had coffee. The lifesaver coffee that Veena got, literally got me going!

These were the spices that Usha got for us from the US. She had got her Mom and Aunty to show us how to make the Sakinalu. This was the selected snack from Telanga for the Sep Mega BM and though they were so quick and the expertness to make it, after seeing it, we knew we may not be able to make it as shown by them. We all have videos to help us later.

Vaishali got her Chat Station ready and all of us were taking turns to get treated with special orders. She had Pani Pooris with 5 different panis, Radga patties, and a few more. However, just these made it so full for us.

Pradnya was leaving home and it was another sad farewell. She had her chat and some of them went out to send her off. Meanwhile, we had another surprise visitor! Rama Akka came home and this time to show us the saree we gifted her. All of us were shocked and surprised as she even got the blouse stitched and draped the saree to show us. We were so touched and sat talking to her.

At this moment, I would like to remind my friends of the upstairs incident. I almost wrote down the whole story, but maybe I shouldn't share and deleted it now. However, the incident that happened after this was such a hilarious one, that nobody would ever forget it!

Friends, let me know, the concerned people can confirm if I can share about it here..hehehe...

After the chat party, we decided we would have games that Preeti had planned for. We suddenly realized it was raining. We all went out and it was raining so heavily. Vaishali asked Preeti to make some pakodas and the sweety that she is, she was back with a plate in 20 mins time!

It was such a wonderful moment, sitting out, with that heavy pour and spending time with friends, munching some hot pakoras.

After a while, we came in and continued playing. We had some fun games conducted and all of us were rolling down laughing hysterically!

It must have been almost 2.30 am or so when we dispersed. Back in bed both Vaishali and I were chatting away until early hours and very reluctantly slept!

I know we hurried up with the first two day's of events and the third day was so long. Trust me, we could've easily written even more if I had time.

I leave you with this picture of mine, clicked when we were sitting out.

There was this bust placed in the portico.

I asked him, "Have you met Priya from Paris??"