Diwali vacation is over and now I am looking forward to the Christmas vacation. We have joined some 250 other passengers in the long Waiting list ticket queue, hoping and praying that by some miracle, our tickets would get confirmed!

For Diwali, when we were travelling, my son was screaming ‘Jungle Jungle, forest forest!’ every time a cluster of trees pass by. Apparently, ‘lots of trees’ mean jungle and anything more than two trees are ‘lots of trees’! Kiddo was excitedly looking for lions and tigers inside these ‘jungles’ consisting of three of four trees.

Sigh…..city bred kids!

The memory of the train travel lingers even after we reach my mum’s place. He would pick up two big buckets, one each for me and him. And then, the fun starts!

He would walk in front of the house, screaming ‘Vadae Vada, Vadae vada’ and I have to walk after him yelling ‘Samosa Samosa Hot hot Samosa’. The neighbors there look upon the scene amusingly, while I defend my embarrassment with a bold ‘Isn’t this cute?’ attitude.

The vada and samosa buckets are joined by a small jug and a coffee tumbler now, and we have added ‘Chai Chai Garam Chai’ and ‘Kappii Kaaapppiii’ shouts to wash off the vadas.

One of my cousin’s dream job was to become a ‘coffee boy’ in a railway platform. The attraction was the repeated and rhythemic ‘Kappi Kappi Kappi Kappii’ chanting! Ironically, he is now working in the Indian Railways, but thankfully not as a coffee boy, but in a much better job.

Time for Radhika’s Blog Hop Wednesday, and this week I am paired with Vaishali of Ribbons To Pastas. I made these wonderful veggie burgers from her blog.

I have used the King Arthur Flour’s recipe for Burger buns. No modifications except skipping the egg. You can find the recipe here.

Ingredients for the Tikki:

• Oats                                           :           1/2 cup (Quaker)
• Beetroot                                  :            1 small
• Carrots                                     :            2 small
• Potatoes                                  :            2 large
• Green Chillies                        :            2
• Lemon Juice                          :            1 – 2 tsp, per taste
• Garam Masala                       :            1/2 tsp
• Salt
• Oil to shallow fry

Method: 

1. Peel and cube the vegetables. Pressure cook them for 3-4 whistles until its cooked completely.
2. Mash the cooked vegetables and combine with the other ingredients. Shape into tikkis of 3 – 4″ diameter.
3. Heat oil in a pan, shallow fry the tikkis and keep aside. Makes about 8 tikkis, depending on the size.

For the Salad, 

Assembling: 

Linked to:

• Blog Hop Wednesdays
• Bake Fest