The Finish Line

It is here, the finish line, the end of 7 days of non-stop cooking, eating and blogging by the marathon cooks. Are you ready for the last potluck for 2009?

If you are still in the holiday mood and want to reach out for the festive dishes, try some rajma with jeera rice, pav bhaji with freshly baked pav and plenty of butter or rotund puris with potatoes and chutney. Curries are often part of

Stuffed Chillies and the Many Colors of Food

The marathon cooks can almost reach out and touch the finish line, this is our penultimate day!

Today, we celebrate the many moods of foods, the colors that catch our eye, the palette that tempts the palate.

Yellow: Mustard oil tinges jhaal muri and turmeric gives khaman dhokla and paneer bhurji its characteristic warm color. Toor dal adds some mellow yellow to banana flower kootu. Eggs and

Korean Pancakes

The marathon continues on day 5 and the marathon cooks seem to be dipping into their pantries today to use grains, flours and vegetables in so many ways.

Starting with some grains that are pantry staples on their own and as noodles and flours-

Oats: granola mix

Rice: rice walnut risotto and "dirty" rice

Broken wheat: comforting soupy dalia

Noodles: vermicelli as seviyan halwa and rice

Lentil Soup with Harissa, and Cheesy Bread

It is day 4 and the theme with the marathon cooks seems to be all about flavor- spices and seasonings and pantry ingredients that add a punch! (and I hope y'all like lentil soup, because we have three versions)...

Cumin: Middle Eastern Lentil Soup and Tiranga Jeera Rice

Saffron: Foccacia and Carrot Kheer

Nigella: Naan with Nigella Seeds

Garam Masala: Upma, Cauliflower Peas Curry, Gobhi ki

Radish Makai Roti

Day 3 of the recipe marathon is a mixed bag but quite heavy on Indian fare.

Let's start with a choice of two tasty appetizers- zucchini fritters and quinoa hash browns, and then a sweet potato-saffron protein shake to fortify us, and we're ready for a journey through India.

Once we arrive in the subcontinent, there are a couple more appetizers waiting for us- raw banana patties and baked

12 Cloves of Garlic

Today, the marathon cooks are getting serious about eating their vegetables, and their fruits and their grains too.

Some of the recipes use well-known and well-loved vegetables like corn in corn bhajia, peas in matar curry, okra in stuffed bhindi, mushrooms in mushroom methi, peppers in stuffed bell peppers and eggplants in vangi pohe.

Some of the vegetables are rather unusual and exotic ones

I Can't Believe It's Fruitcake

The 7-day recipe countdown to the new year has kicked off with a sugar rush, with fruitcakes leading the way. We have an eggless christmas cake, fruit 'n nut cake, Christmas rich fruit and nut cake and a winter-ready snowy white coconut cake. If you like your sweets in controlled portions, try these sugar cookies (some in a cute bouquet), ginger cookies, vanilla and chocolate muffins, squares of

A Crusty Loaf

About 3 years ago, the no-knead bread recipe was published in the New York Times and it took the food blog world by storm. I remember the time very clearly because I could only watch silently from the sidelines; I was on a blogging break at the time, neck-deep in writing my dissertation and eating suppers of Pepperidge Farm bread and peanut butter, washed down with orange juice.

I missed the

Recipe Marathon: The List of Runners

Starting tomorrow, we kick off a countdown to the new year with a recipe marathon.

From the 25th to the 31st, each of these 25 29 bloggers have signed up to post 7 recipes on their blogs. That's 203 recipes; this is going to be a fun week for me!

Here they are, in the order in which they signed up-

Anna Parabrahma: Anjali

Home Cook's Recipes: Lavi

Food for Survival: Unpredictable

Daily

East Meets South-East

Two of my favorite foods come together in this recipe- noodles and curry. We have a spell of gray and dreary weather going on here, and the idea of piping hot noodles in a colorful curry sauce was exceedingly tempting.

My recipe countdown to the new year is in its home stretch and Recipe #10 is Curried Udon Noodles, from the acclaimed cookbook Veganomicon (an appropriately heavy-sounding name

A Mini Fiesta

We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night, and the menu has a bit of Tex-Mex flair. I made vegetable-bean enchiladas smothered in a thick spicy sauce, an all-natural queso (cheese) sauce to be scooped up with crisp tortilla chips, and some colorful Spanish rice as an accompaniment. These were all recipes that had been long bookmarked and were just just waiting to be cooked up for the right

Snack Attack

A little cubby in my galley kitchen is dubbed the snack corner. It is home to a couple of bags of tortilla chips and potato chips, bananas and ripening cantaloupe melons, the occasional box of cookies (often triple ginger cookies from Trader Joe's or good old Parle-G) and boxes of homemade snacks. This way, people who complain that they are hungry an hour before dinner, friends and neighbors who

Mix and Match Subzi

There is a modest list of vegetables- cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, eggplant, peas- that I consider the "old faithfuls". They are available no matter what the season is, and we seem to like them cooked every which way. If you get tired of a vegetable by itself, you can always mix and match it with another to keep things interesting.

And that is how the cabbage from the crisper teamed up with

Winter Supper: Two Savory Tarts

In the winter months, I keep the freezer stocked with a couple of pie shells because the craving for savory quiches and tarts seems to hit us regularly. 

Recipe #19 is Caramelized Onion Quiche, inspired by this recipe on Simply Recipes. I actually don't have a picture for this one. I made the quiche last weekend, intending to take it along with me to a trivia game to share with the team. I

Potato and Sweet Potato Latkes

I needed a quick side dish for dinner last night and spied a lonely potato and a sweet potato in the hanging wire basket. In the spirit of the season, it seemed only fitting to shred them quickly and fry up some latkes.

That's how Recipe #20 is Potato-Sweet Potato Latkes, inspired by Lydia's recipe on The Perfect Pantry.

The traditional latke is made with potatoes and the sweet potato is a

Weekend Brunch, and Blogging by Mail

Blogging by Mail (BBM) is a food blog event with a difference, where bloggers escape from their virtual world and send each other "real" packages using snail mail.

The incredible Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness hosted yet another version of BBM this month and the theme was to send your five favorite indulgences.

My gift came all the way from Australia, from ms fifkins. All the gifts she chose

Zucchini Soup

We have some serious soup weather going on here; winter has announced its arrival loud and clear. I rummaged in the crisper for something to make soup with and found one zucchini and one yellow squash. And, helpfully, in the bookmarks folder, I found this, which is how Recipe #23 is Zucchini Soup.

This one is yet another case of restaurant envy; the blog that this recipe comes from is in St.

Thai-Style Peanut Curry

My fridge door is home to a couple dozen jars and bottles holding all kinds of strange and smelly sauces. They are key tools in putting together quick dinners like the one I made tonight. Recipe #24 is Vegetable Peanut Curry with Thai flavors.

The not-so-secret ingredient in this curry is Thai Basil. I bought Thai basil this summer at a local nursery. The first time I cooked with it resulted in

Birthday (Cheese)cake

It is V's birthday today and since the birthday boy has a massive sweet tooth, the occasion calls for a homemade cake!

Last week, I pulled up 6 cake recipes that sounded luscious to me and asked V to choose the one he would like for his birthday cake this year. 3 were for layer cakes (one was layered with a tangy lemon curd, one had milk chocolate and peanut butter frosting and the third was

A Pre-Ballet Supper

"Don't try a new recipe on your guests" is an oft-repeated mantra of entertaining, and a rule that I flout ALL the time. As far as I am concerned, the main incentive for having friends over is the chance to have a bunch of unsuspecting folks to test new recipes on.

About three times a year, I get together with my friends for an evening at the ballet. During the holiday season, it is usually The

Chocolate Banana Bread

On Monday nights, I often watch a TV show that fills me with shock and horror but compels me to keep watching (not you, Khloe Kardashian), it is called Hoarders. Compulsive hoarding is a serious issue for some people and this show is as real as it gets.

It so happens that my own tendencies lean to the opposite of hoarding; I tend to throw out stuff ruthlessly and don't really have a sentimental

Another day, another curry

Hello, December! Don't tell me you're here already!

I go through all kinds of food phases on a regular basis. A few months ago, it was the turn of whey smoothies and so I stocked the freezer with bags of fruit. Several smoothies later, the enthusiasm fizzled out and a bag of frozen mango chunks (from Trader Joe's) has been languishing in the freezer.

Last night, I was looking for a simple dish

Cashews Are the New Cream

Out grocery shopping this weekend, we spotted a mesh bag of the teeniest tiniest potatoes I have ever seen in my life. Some of them were only a little bigger than chickpeas! V's eyes lit up as he mouthed the words, "dum aloo".

So that is how recipe #32 is Vegan Dum Aloo. The inspiring recipe was this Alu Dum recipe from The Spice Who Loved Me.

There's quite a bit of butter and cream involved

Back to Basics

After a few days of indulging in heavy holiday fare, our bodies were crying out for a simple meal of dal and rice.

Most Indian cooks have their go-to dal, a dish of everyday lentils that they don't need a recipe for, something they have probably made enough times that they can cook it blindfolded with one hand tied behind their backs.

The great thing about food blogging is that we now have

Savory Bread Pudding

How can soggy bread taste so irresistible??

I used the leftover broccoli rabe from here and leftover butternut squash from this recipe to make Recipe #34: a savory bread pudding last night.

The original recipe again came from Alanna; I halved it and tweaked it slightly. Here is my adaptation in short:

1. Saute 1 onion and ½ bunch broccoli rabe in olive oil and butter. Season with salt

Pumpkin Flan

This is what I made for Thanksgiving dessert- Pumpkin Nutmeg Flan, another long-bookmarked recipe that I finally found a muhurat to make. V is an ardent fan of flans and caramel custards of all types, so I knew he would love this dessert.

To keep it simple, I skipped the cookie topping in the original recipe.

The one technique that is used here is baking in a hot water bath or a bain marie.

Green Bean Casserole

After years of hoarding this recipe in my bookmarks folder, I finally made it on the eve of Thanksgiving.

Recipe #36 is a Thanksgiving staple, green bean casserole. Alanna promised that this is the "world's best" and the recipe delivered! For one thing, only one can was harmed in the making of this dish (only fried onions, instead of fried onions AND canned green beans AND canned mushroom soup)

Simplicity Itself

In a comment on my last post, Rujuta suggested that I cook an authentic Maharashtrian recipe today. I had the perfect recipe in my bookmarks folder and the matching vegetable in the fridge so it all came together beautifully.

And in record time; hand-on cooking for this dish is about 4 minutes, and then you can let it cook unattended. Harried cooks, read on!

Recipe #37 is for glazed butternut

The Daily Grind

One day I learned a simple cooking technique that turned out to be one small step for me, one giant leap for my culinary skills. This is it:


Grinding fresh spice pastes- in so many recipes, this is a step that takes the dish to a whole new level. In India, many kitchens are equipped with "mixies", compact grinders that can reduce tough whole spices to dust and churn fried onions to a silky

Ful Medames: An Attempt

We love eating at restaurants that serve Middle Eastern cuisine; the menus are usually predictable but we love the line-up of creamy hummus, luscious baba ghanouj, crispy falafel and the rest of the mezze. A few weeks ago, I was happy to taste something new at a local restaurant (reviewed here) - ful medames, curried fava beans; excellent for sopping up with warm pitas.

On my last trip to the

Going green

This morning, I realized that it is exactly 40 days until the dawn of 2010. Doesn't the year 2010 sound so futuristic somehow? All gleaming spaceships instead of this dusty old planet? To conjure up some excitement for myself, I'm getting started on a mini challenge: I hope to try 40 new recipes by the time the shiny happy new year rolls around. Am I crazy? Can I do it? Watch this space and we'll

Cheater's Rasmalai

Our friend Brad earned his doctorate last week and we hosted a dinner to celebrate this milestone. As the guest of honor, he got to choose the menu and (surprise, surprise) chose Indian food. I put together a North Indian-ish menu with tandoori tofu and tandoori gobi (cauliflower) as appetizers, dal makhni, fragrant jeera (cumin) rice, achari baingan and a crunchy salad for the main course, and

A Sweet Idea & A Sweet Snack

It is early November and already in North America one can sense the rising excitement of the annual holiday season. For anyone looking for something meaningful and creative to do, I want to share some information about a tax-exempt nonprofit organization project called Drop In & Decorate founded by food writer Lydia Walshin; I am an ardent fan of her informative and excellent blog, The Perfect

Onion Mushroom Tart

Every few weekends, we skip the usual grocery run. It is one of those small things that significantly reduces food waste by giving us opportunity to "eat down" the food stash and forces us to use up every last bit of produce. The bonus is that we have one less errand to do and a couple more hours to laze about, always a good thing.

It is a bit of a game for me to look around the kitchen and say

Chocolate for Breakfast

Gift giving can be quite a challenge. It seems like everyone I know has three of everything and don't need any more "stuff" that just sits around and needs to be dusted. Most people like to eat, though, so edible gifts are usually well-received.

As a small gift, I made some chocolate granola a few days ago. There is something very fun and decadent about eating chocolate for breakfast, and it

Dip Dip Dip...

(Does anyone remember the ad running in the 80s/90s in India?)

This is not an ad for tea bags, however, but a quick recipe for a spicy dip. We were invited to a birthday party last night where the food was Mexican-inspired, and this was my little contribution to the buffet table.

This is like a 7-layer minus a few layers.

I started by making the salsa. A few months ago, I shared my new

Tandoori Style Tofu

The Bookmark Project is back! Actually, it has been going on behind the scenes all this while, and after a lull, I found a gem in the bookmarks yet again.

As a child, I loved to play pretend games of House-House and School-School (I played a pretty convincing knuckle-rapping schoolteacher and managed to frighten some of the younger neighborhood kids). Now that I get to play House-House on a

Standardized Granola

If you do something often enough, you end up being able to do it in your sleep. Here is a recipe for granola that I make very often and usually first thing in the morning, around 5:30 AM, so I can make it in my sleep, both literally and figuratively.

V chomps his way through so much granola that it would be criminal to buy the expensive packaged stuff. I started off with a fairly typical recipe

Trivia Night Sandwiches

I've finally figured out the rate-limiting step in my blog posting frequency. It is not the usual hub-hub of work, social events, errands, chores and the stress of knitting palm-sized sweaters. It is the fact that lately, I've been forgetting to photograph my meals for posterity! And without a picture, I can't seem to start a post.

Well, last evening I did remember to make a lunge for the

Spaghetti with Chocolate Sauce

When the fridge is bare and the pantry raid results in an odd assortment of ingredients, this is what's for dinner! Sometimes, one starts making a meal by saying, "there's no food in the home" and ends up with a dinner that is something special. I love when this happens. I usually plan my weeknight dinners a day ahead of time or at least the morning of. That way, any soaking, thawing and assorted

Potato Cheese Patties

Summer seems to be the time for get-togethers, an excuse for spending long afternoons clustered around a table that is groaning with food and drink and noshing with abandon.

I made these little cheese-filled morsels earlier this summer and we made a big batch again yesterday to take to a party. The patties disappeared in minutes (late arrivals to the party were met with an empty platter) and

Good Times

Kanchan from Kitchen Gossip gave me a sweet award and asked me to list 7 interesting things about me. Instead, I'll share 7 interesting things I did this weekend, in pictures. 1. Read a bookand started another book written in a similiar vein2. Finished knitting a scarfPattern: Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery3. Went to the Farmers' Market and bought a vegetable I've never cooked beforeCan you

A Verdant Salad

I'm facing yet another episode of the Magical Never-ending Cabbage. Every time I buy a large head of cabbage, it seems to last forever and ever. I shred it, saute it, steam it for one dish after another, and yet I can never seem to use up the cabbage. Does it sound like I am complaining? Never. Cabbages are the stars of my vegetable crisper. Budget-friendly (the current 5-lb monster cost me 2

The Bookmark Project: Walnut Oatmeal Burgers

Cauliflower, potato, onion, cabbage, beetroot, sweet potato, corn, beans, black eyed peas, kidney beans, lentils, brown rice, wheat, soy granules, tofu.These were some of your guesses when I asked about the two main ingredients of this veggie burger.All good guesses, and to be sure, over the years I have made veggie burgers with most of these ingredients. But when I spotted this veggie burger on

Questions, Questions...

I've got questions, do you have the answers? ;)A) What ingredient formed the crust on these onion rings?B) What are the two main ingredients in this veggie burger?C) This one is off-topic. I'm going to Boston for a long weekend, so gentle readers, do you have any suggestions for must-see, must-do, must-eat things in Boston? I don't eat seafood so the chowda is out.Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

The Bookmark Project: Dal Makhni

Regular readers of this blog know that I get a special kick out of being able to imitate restaurant favorites in my home kitchen. Dal makhni (which translates as "buttery lentils"- the name says it all) is one of those classic dishes that is probably on the menu of every generic Indian restaurant I've been in. The simplest recipes are often the hardest to nail down. But lurking in my bookmark

Julia's Provencal Tomato Quiche

Years after she passed away, Julia Child is once again the talk of the town. I went to see the movie Julie and Julia this weekend, and quite enjoyed watching Julia Child's larger than life personality artfully brought to life by Meryl Streep. What I love about Julia Child has nothing to do with French cooking, really. It is the way she grabbed life with both hands and simply went on to do

The Bookmark Project: Tangy Curried Vaal

Well, well, well. I certainly learn something new every day. Usually in the first 15 minutes after I wake up, as I am sipping the first cup of tea and browsing through the latest RSS feeds. I love all the beans in my pantry (and there are many), but the vaal (hyacinth beans) have a special place in my heart. Sprouted and peeled, they get cooked into two dishes that I have adored all my life. The

The Bookmark Project: Sweet Sticky Rolls

Sweet and sticky enough for ya? Wow- I'm getting better with my bookmarking behavior. I tried this recipe less than a week after bookmarking it! Bakers' Banter is one of my favorite baking blogs; written in a kind and encouraging tone and with well-tested recipes. I took one look at the excited faces of the kids making monkey bread (sweet rolls that you pull apart and gobble up) and wanted to

The Bookmark Project: Pad Thai at Last

Once in a while, I come upon a food blog post that I immediately recognize as a precious gift from the blogger to us readers. Pim's Pad Thai for beginners was one such post. It contains a level of knowledge and detail that I wanted to learn from, and I bookmarked it, of course. Two years have gone by, and thanks to my ongoing bookmark project, I finally took the time to read the post thoroughly (

The Medu Vada has Landed

In Bombay, you can't throw a rock without hitting an eating establishment, and there is a very good chance that the rock will land on a particular genre of eating establishments, the Udipi restaurant. It refers to the cuisine of a particular region of Southern India, and these restaurants represent the best of both worlds, combining certain attributes of chain restaurants while also serving tasty

What is this?

Care to guess what this contraption is?

Two Kitchen Sessions

Happiness is......reading a good book and baking a good bread, both in the same afternoon. The current stack from the libraryThe book in question is the latest installment of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. There are times when you are just not in the mood for hi-falutin' writing, literary flourishes or subjects that give you sleepless nights; when all you

The Bookmark Project: Creamy Basil Pasta

Shopping for produce in the summer months is a highly rewarding activity. Instead of frowning at shrink-wrapped fruits, wrinkling my nose at limp sickly veggies and sighing at the far-away places that all the stuff is shipped from, in summer I am usually squealing with delight at the fresh local produce that always results in lucky "finds". On one recent trip, we came home carrying an armload of

Creamy Spinach Soup

I spent a couple of hours this morning humming along in the kitchen, making soup and baking a cake for a friend who is recovering from surgery. Now, there are SO MANY recipes for both soup and cake that I have tried and loved. But I have this hopeless and maddening addiction to trying new recipes (searching for some hypothetical "perfect" recipe...I don't know), and sure enough, I found new ones

Novel Food: Magloubeh

To all those who played along in the guessing game- thank you! Veggie Belly, full marks to you; you are absolutely right- this is makloubeh/magloubeh. Kedar and Meera guessed correctly that this rice dish comes from the Middle East, Rainee and Manasi guessed correctly that it is upside down (the word magloubeh translates as "upside down"), and Mika guessed correctly that it involves soy "meat".

Guessing game

Can you guess the name of this dish? Recipe coming up tomorrow!

Restaurant Envy: Chile de Arbol Salsa

For many months now, I have been madly in love with a particular salsa at our local Mexican joint. There are the usual salsas and then there is this thick, fiery, tangy concoction that sets my heart tongue ablaze. It is the chile de arbol salsa that is part of their salsa bar, and I finally decided that I must make it at home so I can unlimited access to this addictive stuff. I'm too shy (hah!)

The Bookmark Project: Arroz Hits the Spot

I plodded home on Thursday evening feeling exhausted and listless; I simply was in no mood to cook dinner. There were some black beans soaking in a pot, ready for a quick dinner of rice and beans or quesadillas perhaps, but all I wanted to do was slump on the couch and dial for some take-out. But, ah, there is one potion that has a magical effect on me- something involving a small molecule called

The Bookmark Project: Cucumber Curry

My bookmark folder contains many hidden gems in the form of fantastic recipes just waiting to be tried. And I've managed to unearth one of them. I was intrigued by this cucumber curry recipe the minute I spotted it. The cookbook that the recipe comes from (Madhur Jaffrey's excellent book 'World Vegetarian') is sitting right here on my bookshelf but I completely missed this recipe until I saw it

Baking the Bookmark: Carrot Herb Rolls

The thrill of looking at new posts on the blog aggregator and the ceremonial bookmarking of recipes that catch my eye- these are my small pleasures in life, a happy way to spend some time in the wee morning hours as I sip my first cup of chai for the day. I took some time to browse through my folder of bookmarked recipes recently, and stopped counting at 550! I'm only glad this is a virtual

Kolhapuri Masala Giveaway: The Winners Are...

And the two winners of last week's spice giveaway are...1. Serendipity in the kitchen who said "My favorite meal for a hot summer day is my mother's yogurt gravy..It is very similar to the Sindhi Kadi..but much lighter...We have it with rice and it really helps cool down the system!"and2. Namita who said "My favourite meal for a hot summer day is amras with poli/chapati or shrikhand with chapati.

Addictive Green Beans

Last year, I came to love recipes that call for few ingredients. I have started to appreciate flavors more as I use fewer ingredients for each dish, but better quality ones, and ones chosen with care. What follows is another one of the "less is more" type recipes that has us consuming vast quantities of green beans these days. Again, two ingredients used here were unfamiliar to me just a few

A Pasta Salad I Actually Like

In theory, I love pasta salads. Colorful vegetables and sturdy pasta in a tasty dressing, to be served cold or at room temperature. A dish that can be made ahead of time and scaled up to feed a crowd. All of these sound like very desirable traits. But a good pasta salad is hard to find. I've had more than my share of pasta salads where you can taste nothing but the mayo, where the pasta is gummy

Summer Snacking: Baba Ghanouj

Here's a little appetizer that I served to friends at a pre-ballet supper last weekend. "You made this at home, from scratch??", someone asked incredulously. In fact, it is the easiest thing to make from scratch and needs only a handful of ingredients. Baba Ghanouj is a close cousin of our Indian bharta, a nuttier and creamier version of it. The two "special" ingredients in this dip are the

Spice Giveaway: Kolhapuri Masala

In the last few weeks, I have been the lucky recipient of many incredible foodie gifts, and in the spirit of passing it on, I want to offer the readers of One Hot Stove a taste of one of my very favorite spice mixtures.I brought back some Kolhapuri masala, the authentic stuff from (where else but) Kolhapur, and I have two packets of this spice to share with you. This Kolhapuri Masala is fiery

Summer Daze: Earl Grey Iced Tea

Yesterday was just the latest in the string of a dozen days (seems much longer than that) of fevered stifling weather in St. Louis. Two things refreshed me like a cool drink of water on this blazing summer day. One was a ballet performance that I enjoyed for a few hours (in air-conditioned comfort, thank goodness). The light as air ballet dancers transported me to another world of grace and

Greens and Beans

Connections are everything, they say. "It's not what you know; it's who you know". Apparently, the right connections can get you a job, a business contract, all kinds of opportunities in life. But the very best connections, as far as I am concerned, are my foodie connections, this network of bloggers that are all tied together by their passion for food and cooking whether or not they have

Samosas for Breakfast

Perhaps the biggest charm of being on vacation is that the usual rules don't apply. Normally, I try to live more or less as a responsible adult, setting some ground rules for myself. Making dessert only when we have company. Junk food rationed into small katoris. Every meal built around vegetables. That sort of thing. But once I was on that flight, all bets were off. I started breaking my rules

Instant Amti for Instant Gratification

I'm back home in St. Louis and getting back to the routine. If this post is more incoherent than usual, don't worry, it is the jet-lag talking. We had a great vacation, and enjoyed the most incredible food, but as we got closer and closer to home, I realized how much I missed my own cooking! It's true- I cook to my own taste, so I love the food I make :DComing home, the pantry and refrigerator

Mango Harvest

A short photo-essay.

There is one lone mango tree in my parents' backyard but it is an old, ample and generous soul that manages to keep us well-supplied with prized alphonso (hapoos) mangoes throughout the mango season. The bright summer sun filtering through the dense mango leaves is a beautiful sight.

It is almost the end of the mango season but two days ago, there was still a lot of

Maushi's Summer Salad

Hello from sunny India! After some travel adventures including missed connections, 10 hours spent in Heathrow airport, 2 consecutive nights on long-haul flights and a lost bag, we are finally here. Bombay feels more like the inside of an pressure cooker than anything else, but Southern Maharashtra is quite nice with pleasant mornings and breezy evenings. And the food, oh the food! Ever since we

The Indian Vegetarian 100

In true copycat fashion, here is my list of the 100 Indian vegetarian foods that I think everyone should try at least once in their lives. It is a highly subjective and very eclectic list, featuring what I believe are some unique ingredients, restaurant classics and regional specialties. It demonstrates my biases, because many of my own favorites are in there to the exclusion of other dishes. We

The Vegetarian 100

During my long blogging break, I missed several of the blog events and memes that I enjoy so much. One that was quite interesting started as The Omnivore's Hundred, a list of 100 foods that an omnivore should try at least once in their life. The idea caught on and before long, the vegetarians among us got a chance to play along. Barbara over at Tigers and Strawberries made her list of 100

Hello!

Anybody out there? :) [Hearing echoes of my voice in this poor neglected empty space]What can I say? Time sure flies! Do people remember how to write rudimentary HTML after months of not writing any, I wonder? Is it like riding a bike? Over the past several months, I have been writing SAS code instead of blog posts, studying and working as best as I can, and spending quality time with the needles