potato: off the couch and into the oven

guddu has taken up (with great zeal) two new hobbies the past 2 weeks: baking and running.

Baking. This required getting acquainted with two items very unfamiliar to most Indians (especially Indian men from villages): the oven and yeast. Now, upon our marriage, Walt tried to introduce us to both of these concepts while we were still in Delhi. He gave us a beloved toaster oven and some yeast. I have no clue what happened to the yeast, but the oven was greatly appreciated during the winter time when we wished to make litti and the occasional pizza or chocolate cake.

The baking passion was driven by Guddu's love for pizza and oven-roasted rosemary potatoes. He started experimenting (often following his cousin Anand's cue)-- garlic roasted cauliflower and potatoes, pizza with homemade crust, carrot cake, spaghetti squash, baked apples, mustard-stuffed eggplant, and wheat bread. The breads required yeast, which made our kitchen smell like the house that hosted the kegger the night before.

Running. Guddu used to exercise daily when he lived in India. In the village he did a lot of manual labor and in Delhi he did morning calisthenics that looked like a cross between pilates and old-school gym class. In the US he lost a lot of motivation. All of a sudden, however, and I don't know why, maybe it is the temperate weather, but he has ran over 30 miles the past week. i think this will last until the temp dips below 50F. or when he develops a stress fracture.