Barfi and Eye.

What an intresting title!!

So yesterday I set out to make coconut barfis for the first time. I started looking at YouTube video references to make coconut barfi while prepping. Seen, understood, I got working. The procedure was followed to the T but in the end, when I mixed the roasted coconut with sugar syrup, it became too dry.

I called out to my mother in law who said sugar syrup was less. So I made more sugar syrup and mixed it. The mixture was still dry but it became too sweet. Then I thought of adding little water as it was already sweet. So I added half a cup water and added the dry mixture little by little.

2 minutes later, the entire mixture was ready, just that this time it was too flowy to set. I nonetheless set them in two plates and waited as instructed by mother in law. After 30 minutes, the mixture had thickened but the barfis still wont cut.

So we grinded more coconut and mixed it with the flowy mixture (in batches). I suggested making laddoos because barfis looked impossible. After making a few, she tried to set a little mixture.

The barfis finally set. I took the rest of the mixture, made the alteration and set it, finally ending the procedure. We ended up making 3 varities from the same mixture - coconut laddoos, dry barfis and chewy barfis while finishing all the stocked up coconuts that my mother in law was worried about. All this took about two and a half hours.

Post lunch I sat with a piece of garment that required sewing skills. I can do normal stitches and hems but this needed me to make eyes for hooks. YouTube to my rescue again and I finished making decent looking eyes. Although 4 were perfect and the other 3 were acceptable, learning something new made me happy. 

2 takeaways from the day that started lazy, boring, gloomy, dull and hazy.

1. While learning and making coconut barfis and the eye, I forgot everything else. I was totally into learning and completing the task at hand. That taught me what 'living in the moment' really meant. We all generally spend so much time thinking about what happened and what would happen..

2. While fixing the barfi mixture, I learned the true value of homemakers. I must confess here that I have (in the past) underestimated rather doubted my worth as a homemaker. But hey, if it wasn't for us, would anything in the family/ home work as efficiently as it does?

We save the money. We save the dishes that would have been wasted. We sew/ mend clothes that would be thrown otherwise. We save the relationships that turn sour/bitter. We save the day! There is no one who can do it all so effortlessly and selflessly..

With the barfis blending sweetness in my thoughts and the eye inspiring me become a learner again there is no scope for self doubt and no need for validation anymore.

Let's be proud of who we are and what we do. We are the invisible spines of all households, we can continue to be unseen while never forgetting our significance..

CHEERS & GOD BLESS!!

CHS