Monday, February 15, 2010

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH PISTACHIO SHELLS?

Being a neat-freak, I would probably have chucked them straight into the dustbin.

Till the tear-drop-shaped beige half-shells of a kilo-bag of pistachios were rescued by my daughters, who demanded, "Maa, we want to play with them."

The younger Copy-Kitten, who loves her Sunday-morning pasta, went to the kitchen, withdrew enough pots, pans and ladles to set up her own restaurant, and started cooking pista-shell Macaroni (resembling the shell-pasta - conchiglie - I often make for them).

The older Lil Cat, who is now deeply into the rollicking-Roman-and-gallant-Gaul world of Asterix comics, decided to convert her hoard of pista-shells into sestertii - the coins used by Julius Caesar and his ilk.The Copy-kitten, true to her name, abandoned her presumably half-cooked macaroni, followed her sister and became a sestertii-trader.

When children propose, Mummy obliges. So I spent the better part of Valentine's afternoon (the spouse was away in Pune on post-blast news-duty anyway) mixing gold and silver acrylic paints with binder and applying colour painstakingly to about two hundred gold and silver sestertii. The new-found treasure is now safely stashed in an unsed moneybox. And I re-learnt a lesson that happiness often lies in the most trivial of things.

You are welcome to come and share. The macaroni, the sestertii, or the remaining pistachios. Or your take on the question stated in the title of this post.

18 comments:

Swaram said...

Reminds me of that saying 'We think we teach our kids all about life but they teach us what life is all about' :)
I wud love to see a pic of the sestertii ;) ;)

Swati said...

Wow..share the pic pls

Vineeta said...

Thats a worth spent valentine day :) U shud share pics too :)

sujata sengupta said...

yah we want pictures!! I was thinking of some school project made outof pista shells and already biting my nails in anticipation, but the psot turned out to be so lovely and relaxing!!

Tomz said...

Copy-Kitten and Lil Cat,the Valentine heroes?

Anonymous said...

Lovely post! I'm sure that you must have enjoyed the sestertii- making project as much as the kittens did!
Yes, do post some pictures.

Lazyani said...

You are truly blessed Sucharita. You ahave daughters who still find joy in the 'priceless' valueless things in todays world of untimely 'enchorae pakamo'(Sorry I can't translate that)

Nona said...

Innovative way of using the shells. :)

Pinku said...

We used shells to make wall decors as kids..

why not make some since u three are at it?

like a flower garden for example. use a painted hard cardboard piece as base, use green paper for leaves and use the shells to make various flowers.

Deepanjan Ghosh said...

Put em in a pan and use em to make a lot of noise?

lopa said...

I picturized you with the kids having a great time...you are making wonderful memories together.When the 'cats' grow up they are going to write about all these in their 'memory blog' from their point of view...isn't that wonderful?.....thanx for writing again..missed your blog so much that I had to write to your spouse to make sure you were okay.

Jaquanda Rae said...

Lovely Such. Sar. I've missed reading your thoughts and stories. I love that part about happiness in trivial things.....having a rough day but still so many small blessings to appreciate.

the only foodstuff mentioned that I'm familiar with is macaroni....we don't do anything interesting with macaroni really. i've had pistachio nuts maybe twice and as for the sestertii....I will have to google that one :)

Much love from me to you, and give your lil cat and kitten a hug for me :) A Belated Happy Valentine's Day.

Indrani said...

Where are the pics? :)
Lovely reading this.

Blip Blop said...

Look, this is what we did after a lazy dinner in Southern France.....

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/g1vlbk7sjqHDND9xnBtftw?feat=directlink...

Anil P said...

Would love to see pictures of this bustling "restaurant". :-)

Chandrika Shubham said...

Doing creative work on V Day is a cool. :)
Best wishes. :)

Unknown said...

You can also teach them, to paint faces on them or make patterns by colouring them and gluing them onto plywood boards .

hojiawuxuefa said...

I say a Halloween usage, would be to use them as "bump" makers and add them to a facemask with superglue, paint them for effect.

Use them to color and make interesting T-shirt, Jean designs (instead of buttons, sequins, or with them for added effect.

I made homemade Christmas bags painting smiley faces of peanuts, I guess same can go for pistachios.