Happy Deepavali everyone!

I hope everyone who celebrates it has been having a wonderful time with family and friends. And eating lots of food and sweets! And for those of you out there who are scratching their heads wondering,

“What in the world is Deepavali? Is this some second Christmas I’ve never heard of?”

Deepavali is one of the multitude of major Indian holidays, celebrated by Hindus all around the globe. Including my own family in California. Essentially, Deepavali symbolizes the power of light over darkness, like good over evil. That’s why little clay oil lamps are often lit to represent that light, to engulf the darkness that’s it’s stark against.

Personally, Deepavali is my favorite holiday ever. Not just Indian holiday, but favorite holiday in general. It’s so bright, and has such a beautiful, symbolic meaning, not to mention that you get lots and lots food. But shhh, that’s our lil’ secret.

I also love how warm the atmosphere gets, because everyone is excited and looking forward to this holiday that’s celebrated in our home country, and we get to follow along with centuries upon centuries of intricate tradition. And when my siblings and I are older, we can learn from what our parents do, and do that ourselves.

But can I just take a moment to talk about my extremely dedicated(to the point where my father and I are silently panicking in the background)mother?

When it comes to cooking she excels at it. Like, she could create a couple dozen books, that have like, an 85% chance of becoming bestsellers. And I’m not saying this to brag. But I’m saying this so you guys can realize just how much leverage my mom has as a cook, and you would expect that from her daughter too wouldn’t you? Well surprise surprise, I’m as bad in the kitchen as she is good at whipping up a three-course meal in roughly thirty minutes flat. Want proof?

Well, it was a couple months ago, when I wanted to make chocolate-covered strawberries. Just for the fun of it. But I obviously had never made chocolate covered strawberries in the entirety of my existence. So I was left in the dust there. I tried looking on the internet for some pointers on the best and easiest way to make them, which I tried following.

And failed miserably.

So I tried melting the chocolate in the microwave for a few minutes, in different intervals to melt it into a smooth liquid to easily dip the strawberries into. And I bet you’re thinking,

“Wow, that’s ridiculously easy, I would really be surprised if anybody could screw up with something as simple as melting chocolate. And if there is someone out there who can mess that up, well they’re an idiot.”

Yeah, well guess what.

I’m that idiot.

You know I didn’t think that it was possible for me to mess up that badly with chocolate chips for goodness sake. But apparently I had proven myself wrong and had the full capability to do so! By the time I swung by to check on the bowl of chocolate chips, there was smoke coming out of the microwave! And I frantically pushed the button to upon the microwave, and was met face to face with a bowl of smoldering, burned, chocolate chips.

May they rest in peace(es).

I blame the fact that I have a serious love for strawberries and chocolate.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that, my mom is an incredible cook. And I am not. But the thing is, my mom is an incredible cook, who doesn’t know her boundaries.

In the past forty-eight hours, I’m pretty sure she’s only gotten about eight hours of sleep. She had been spending every minute of the waking hours, in the kitchen, working through nearly every typical traditional South Indian sweet that she normally made for Deepavali. And the end product resulting with our refrigerator, oven, and pantry, stuffed with all the goods that she had made.

Also here’s a picture.

Yay.