Happy Tuesday! Hope you had a great weekend! Our weekend was busy prepping for the start of school for our twins, and our annual dinner celebration of Rakshabandan – the Indian sibling festival celebrating the bond between brothers and sisters.
For this festival I usually mail my Rakhi (the thread bracelet that the sister ties on her brother’s wrist) to my brother who lives in Dallas, but this year I was in Dallas for my brother’s big birthday bash and got to tie it on his wrist in person, just a few days early.
Celebrating Rakshabandan with the Bay Area Cousins
In the Bay Area, with the only family here being my two cousins living close by we do our best to get together and celebrate as many festivals and holidays as we can.
But Rakshabandan is special because my cousins Nando and Mahesh and our families have been celebrating Rakshabandan for almost two decades now. This year’s gathering was just as special as always.
Our new tradition of sisters and sisters participating in the Rakshabandan festival continued this year with the girls tying a Rakhi bracelet on each other.
Spanish themed dinner on the menu
Inspired by our recent holiday in Spain I made a Spanish-themed vegetarian dinner for our gathering. When we were in Spain we noticed three things that are a huge part of their food culture – tapas, sangria, and paella.
Based on what we noshed on during our holiday I came up with a menu with the most memorable vegetarian dishes I had on our trip. Here is a look at what was on our Rakshabandan menu this year.
Spain Inspired Vegetarian Menu
Appetizers:
Blistered peppers
Toasted baguette with goat cheese and caramelized onions
Gazpacho
Potatoes bravas
Drinks:
Kambucha Sangria
Red wine
Dinner:
Vegetarian paella
Tomato salad with roasted peppers and mozzarella
Sautéed button mushrooms with Sherry vinegar
Dessert:
Peach plum oat and nut crumble
Here are a few more pics of our Rakshabandan Celebration
Selfies with the girls and the family
Hanging out with smiles and laughter.
The African sibling bond
Our good friend Stella stopped by in the afternoon and tied a Rakhi on Hitesh to celebrate their African sibling bond (Stella is from Ghana and Hitesh is from Kenya) 🌍.
Happy Rakshabandan!
Rakshabandan. Celebrating the bond among siblings.
