My Quick Fix Chatpata Snacks for rainy afternoons – Part 1
Chatpata – This is an Hindi adjective used to describe dishes that have a  tangy and spicy flavor.
It gave rise to words like chaat and spice mixes like chaat masala.
From wikipedia for chaat:  Chaat (Hindi: चाट) is a term describing savoury snacks, typically served at road-side tracks from stalls or carts in India. With its origins in east India, chaat has become immensely popular in the rest of India and the rest of South Asia. The word derives from Hindi chaat चाट (tasting, a delicacy), from chaatna चाटना (to lick), (to devour with relish, eat noisily).

Chaat Popcorn – I cheat, I use microwavable popcorn to make it supereasy. But the result is still yummy!!

• 1 bag popcorn
• 1
  to 2 tsps chaat powder as per taste (I used MDH Chunky Chaat Masala –
  you can buy this or other brands at any Indian grocery store)

Pop the corn in the microwave per directions (for 1 to 2 minutes).
Open
the bag, sprinkle the chaat powder directly in the bag while still hot
and crisp and give the bag a good shake while holding it closed.
Eat!!

Spicy Cheese Rolls (or a Crispy Cheesy Flat Bread Pizza)

• 1 lavash bread (I used Trader Joes Whole Wheat Lavash Bread)
• 2 tsps shredded cheese (Again, Trader Joes saves me with the Lite Mexican Blend Cheese)
• Crushed red pepper flakes (few)

Preheat
oven to 350 degrees (I use the toaster oven and cut the lavash bread in
half so it can fit for this). Spread the cheese on the lavash bread.
Sprinkle the pepper flakes on top.  
Pop
in the lavash bread with the toppings into the oven for about 2 to 3
minutes (if you want it crisper and eat it like a pizza instead, you can
leave it for a few more minutes).
While still warm, roll it quickly into a wrap and enjoy the spicy cheese rolls.


Note:
You can always jazz it up with spinach, thin tomato slices, shredded
carrot and more – include these as part of the toppings as well if you
want. 


I will add the photos tomorrow(!)..Since I added these tonight after dinner, I cannot eat these quick fixes if I make them now so they will be part of my snacks tomorrow and I will make sure I take photos first…


Tuesday Memes:
Top Ten Tuesdays: This week’s theme at The Broke and Bookish is the Top Ten Author’s you would love to have at your Thanksgiving Dinner. Wow! If I invited these authors, I would be so awed I would forget to eat!! Here is my list (had to cut out so many people from my guest list as had to limit it to ten)
1. Jane Austen – Well. of course!
2. Thomas Hardy – He was the first man to make me cry! I bawled over Tess and Michael(The Mayor of Casterbridge)..but I still loved him…
3. Louisa May Alcott – What can I say? I adore the Little Women and the Little Men. Jo was who I aspired to be and Louisa May Alcott based Jo’s character on herself.
4. Enid Blyton – I grew up on a diet of Enid Blytons from my very first book ‘The Adventures of Binkle and Flip’ (which I brought over for my kids on my last trip to India) to my very first experiences of boarding school (Malory Towers,anyone?) and friends on adventures solving mysteries (Famous Five, Five Findouters, Secret Seven) and the wonderful world of fairies, talking dolls, gnomes, brownies, pixies and more. I would love her to be right there next to me.
5.Roald Dahl – He wrote ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, ‘Esio Trot’ (so sweet!), so many revolting rhymes!!, and the wonderful world of Henry Sugar – what is not to like?
6.R.K.Narayan – Again, like Dahl, Narayan wrote equally well for kids and adults. His fictional town of Malgudi which served as the location for many of his novels (for kids and adults).
7. H.H.Munro – I would invite him to just narrate ‘The Open Window’ and see if his vocal narration matches the deadpan style of his writing.
8. Shel Silverstein – He would be my kids’ favorite guest as they discuss ‘The Homework Machine’ and other poems from his collections (all of which we own) with him.
9. O’ Henry – His style of wit and clever twists is unmatched and even if he just displays part of this talent at the table, it will be a livelier place..
10. Alexander Dumas/Jules Verne – these two had to be included together – their sense of adventure and accounts of action in their books will definitely flow over to the dinner table.

The people I have included above have one common trait – they are all dead but they were right there at the top.. the others whom I wanted to include as well but could not (and these authors are all alive!!) are J.K.Rowling, Abraham Verghese (true, I read only one work of his but that sealed the deal!), Nora Roberts (love her!), Markus Zusak(again, just finished reading ‘The Book Thief’ and it is love at first read for me), Ruskin Bond (his books again pander to a wide audience), Julia Quinn (I love,love,love the Bridgertons), Yann Martel(‘The Life of Pi’ will definitely be an interesting discussion – maybe after dinner though!), Jane O’Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser (would love to invite this brilliant author/illustrator duo) and Robert Sabuda (he is truly not a writer but he has books which he created and they are magic)


Teaser Tuesday:
MizB of Should Be Reading hosts Teaser Tuesdays. Anyone can play along. Just do the following:
*Grab your current read.*Open to a random page.
*Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.

*Share the title and author too, so other TT participants can add it to their TBR lists if they like your teaser.

“Looking through the books she’d brought, she picked up Ulysses, but couldn’t figure out where she’d stopped. She wondered if it was really such a great book if you could never remember what you’d just read.”

Meyer, Philipp (2009-02-18). American Rust: A Novel (p. 80). Spiegel & Grau. Kindle Edition.