Diwali preparations

Diwali, or Deepavali as it is known in Malaysia, is just two days away. I'm on one week leave and I feel as though the days are just flying by.

So two Saturdays ago, Vay and I decided to make muruku. For years, we used to go to my grandma's house to help make the muruku. Last year, we decided to make our own and well...it didn't turn out that well as it turned out too hard. Though we got all the ingredients right, we fumbled with the one "ingredient" that would hold all the other ingredients together: WATER. Our muruku lacked water. Lesson learned!

This year was Round Two. We were determined to nail it this time. We got all the ingredients (remembering that water was crucial) and this year...we had helpers!! Trish and Kiran volunteered to help shape the muruku i.e. using "serious-looking contraptions" to press the muruku into shape.

After scalding my hand while trying to mix the dough with my bare hands (the coconut milk and water had to be boiling), the dough was ready to be pressed. And this was when the fun began! As Vay and I demonstrated the right way to use the muruku device, both Kiran and Trish had the O-M-G look on their faces. Kiran kept "shrieking" as she tried her hand at pressing the muruku dough out of the device. Her device apparently had a "mind of its own" as the dough just kept coming out without her having to press anything. She got used to it after awhile.

Trish was the total opposite. Not only did she get used to the device quickly, she also managed to press out quick neat and nicely shaped murukus. Kiran too had her "moments of good coordination" and by that I mean, she managed to produce some nicely shaped murukus. Vay was in-charged of quality control and transferring the pressed murukus to me. I was solely in charged of frying them.

After 3.5 hrs of laughing, sweating and getting our hands dirty, we managed to make more than 250 murukus!! Now that's quite an achievement! But...I think the most important achievement was getting validation from my mentor a.k.a. grandma.

So after clearing the house and packing the murukus into tins and bathing, off to my granny's house I went. All my aunts were there and of course, everyone tasted. And the verdict?

Drum roll please.........

All gave me the thumbs up!! One aunt even said that mine was better than theirs, and they too had done theirs that very day. But the mother of all comments came from my grandma, who said: "Very nice. So next year, you can do for us also lah!!!". Woohoo!!! :-)

That was two Saturdays ago. Last Saturday, Vay and I did our clothes shopping. This was indeed last minute as we just didn't have the time and it has been raining every evening for the past two weeks. Anyhow....after inspecting every shop there was in Little India, we finally bought our clothes at Kamdar!! And that too with added discount!!

So we're sort of done with our Diwali preparations. We decided not to buy any cookies or cakes etc as we decided to save $$ this year. As it is, starting from yesterday, our days are packed!

Yday = birthday dinner

Today = Diwali BBQ

Tomorrow = Diwali eve and dinner

Wed = Diwali

Thurs = Diwali dinner

Phew....as you can see, it's all eat eat eat! Lol!

Here's wishing everyone a very Happy Diwali!