Nut loaf and Other Festive Fare

A few weeks ago, a dear friend of ours called and said she was coming to visit. What's more, she was arriving on Christmas eve and staying for a few days. Most years, Christmas is not something we really celebrate in any special way. We've been known to do a "Jewish Christmas"- going to a movie theater and then to a Chinese restaurant!

But the minute my friend called, I knew this year would be

Book Review: The Meals on Wheels Family Cookbook

In this season of festive gatherings, there's a virtual dinner party going on today, with bloggers cooking different dishes from a new cookbook, Made With Love: The Meals on Wheels Family Cookbook.



Meals on Wheels is a community-based program that delivers nutritious meals to seniors who are unable to make their own. For their cookbook (which aims to raise funds to support their cause), they

On The Bookshelf: The Reading Challenge Edition

The end of the year is upon us, which means the predictable (and yet, very enjoyable) avalanche of "Best of 2012" lists. I've been going through 2012 book lists such as the NYT 100 notable books of 2012 and the NPR's picks for best books of 2012, and I noticed that I've barely read any of the books on those lists. Maybe those lists are too cerebral for someone who has a soft spot for cozy

Saturday Snapshot: Birthday Cake

I love baking a cake for each of V's birthdays. Past birthdays have seen everything from a rich chocolate cake to a cheesecake to a Boston cream pie.

This time, it was a Tiramisu Cake, yellow cake drenched in a syrup of espresso and Marsala wine, then sandwiched and frosted with a luscious blend of mascarpone cheese and whipped cream. I used Dorie Greenspan's recipe as posted on Smitten Kitchen

Hot Cocoa and Tasty Gift Ideas

This week, there seems to be a palpable excitement building in the air. An afternoon walk around the neighborhood yesterday revealed windows adorned with wreaths and neighbors perched on ladders stringing up lights. There is a steady stream of invitations to holiday parties. Store shelves are piled high with holiday confections and shiny baubles. And I'm sitting and thinking of holiday gifts

Mushroom Barley Soup - NaBloPoMo Finale!

My dinner menu this evening was decided by a fictional detective from the 1930s. I was reading Birds Of A Feather by Jacqueline Winspear- the second book from the Maisie Dobbs series- when I came upon this description of the meal served to Maisie Dobbs at an abbey.

"Upon her return, her shoes clattering on the flagstone floors, a fresh tray awaited her, bearing a hearty bowl of

Write

NaBloPoMo is almost over. The caption in the logo says Type Your Heart Out and on most days, I did.




And what I want to say to you today is just that: write your heart out.

Writing is not just for professional writers. It is not just for bloggers. Not just for students cranking out a term paper.

Writing is incredibly therapeutic. There is tremendous healing power in letting
your emotions

Wordless Wednesday

...OK, not quite. Few-Words Wednesday, perhaps.







Mr. Dale is bouncing back from his bad spell last week. He is eating and drinking, walking around looking as moody and bored as ever and doing typical Dale-like things like begging for his dinner starting at noon (the actual dinnertime is 4 PM). We're so relieved. Now the fact stands that he has this tumor and we don't know what the weeks

St. Louis A to Z

For several years, I had a page (those tabs at the top of the blog) for St. Louis related things, where I kept a list of restaurants that we liked and so on. Now that I've moved away from St. Louis, I decided to replace the page and put all my St. Louis recommendations into this post instead. You know, in case someone is visiting St. Louis one day or moving there and finds some of this useful.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

A few months ago, I made myself an account on Goodreads. I'm finding it an excellent way to keep tabs on the ever-growing list of books I want to read, as well as books I've read and liked. Plus, you can see what your friends are reading and whether they liked the books, and then pile those books on top of you to-read pile as well. I noticed that a couple of my friends had read and given high

After-School Snacks for All

Ruma asked for ideas for make-ahead snacks, saying, "We get
back home at 6 but don't have dinner right away....that leads to major
bad decisions ;) Anything that can be made in a batch, or quickly
conjured up is appreciated."

Er, I might know a little something about those bad decisions. In a typical scenario, we're an hour or two away from dinner when hunger gets the better of me and then

Saturday Snapshot: Another Half-Birthday Cake

My darling baby nephew celebrated his half birthday. My talented sister (who sews colorful bags and accessories under her own label Kala Koyree) was brainstorming simple 6 month birthday cake ideas. I love what she came up with.




She used 7 cupcake molds (5 silicone flower shaped ones and 1 paper cup, actually), to make this friendly little caterpillar who is nestling on a bed of cabbage

On Eating Out

We found a new vet and V took Dale in this afternoon. We were trying to convince ourselves that he's back to his usual self but of course we wanted medical advice. It is not good news. The poor mutt has multiple problems including an abdominal mass and a possible infection. The vet was compassionate and competent and prescribed medication. We're supposed to check in with her again on Monday. For

Happy Thanksgiving

Mr. Dalu had us good and scared for a couple of days. He refused to eat, refused to walk and sat around looking mournful. Then today all of a sudden he's back to his usual self, as if nothing ever happened. I'm feeling exhausted though.

Meanwhile, Thanksgiving Thursday seemed to come out of nowhere. We're going over to a friend's home for a Thanksgiving gathering. I just pulled out two dishes

Chinese Omelet

It has been a long and chaotic day here at the world headquarters of One Hot Stove. We're getting some repairs done and the home is upside down for a few days. And poor Dale is having a bad day with his back legs giving him more trouble than usual. I've been struggling to help him stand up. Clearly, we have to find a vet soon and take him in- and this is a holiday week so almost everyone is on

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted at the blog Book Journey. I've seen Joy (the author of one of my favorite St. Louis blogs) participating in this meme for many months and I decided to jump in myself. In this meme, bloggers are invited to share the books they're currently reading, books they recently finished and what's next on their reading list.

I wrote a post on books

Extra! Extra!

During NaBloPoMo month, I've been responding to requests for posts on specific topics, and Maya requested a post on getting creative with leftovers- and she was talking about leftover food, of course, but also leftover yarn from knitting and crochet projects.

Ideas for leftover food:

I actually had to sit and think about this for a little while, because do you know how we usually handle

Saturday Snapshot: The Woods

I went to undergrad college in Mumbai, in a lovely college in the heart of the city. At the center of the college (and at the center of college life) was a quadrangle with about four and a half trees in it. It was called "The Woods"- only half-jokingly, because in the urban jungle of Mumbai, a rag tag bunch of greenery qualified as the woods.

This picture is from our new backyard- and even

Pumpkin Mac 'n Cheese

Sometimes I find recipe inspiration in unexpected places.

We were visiting daycare centers and playschools last week- Lila will go back to daycare when I'm back at work in a few weeks, and we visited several school to find a place she will love. The schools have all their weekly lunch and snack menus posted prominently on the bulletin board and of course I'm always curious to see what's being

Halfway There

We're at the halfway point of the blogging marathon that is NaBloPoMo, so don't mind if I pause a little to catch my breath.



I'm going to spend some time today responding to your comments on previous posts. I so enjoy it when you take the time to share your thoughts, enlighten me, challenge what I'm saying, make me think some more. Seriously, I love you guys so much. And to keep this

Book Review: Plastic Free

Plastic-Free: How I kicked the plastic habit and how you can too by Beth Terry is one of the books I've been reading this week.




Here are 5 things I love about this book:

1. Beth Terry talks in a friendly and non-judgmental voice, explaining how she went from living a lifestyle of consumption and convenience to completely changing the way she lives, one step at a time. It is a very

Making Time: 3 Questions to Ask Yourself

Since I started this blogging spree, I've been surprised at how many people say something on the lines of "How do you make time for all the things you want to do"? It seems that many of us struggle with how to juggle the demands of our lives. I know I certainly do. 'd love to discuss this over several posts.

The thing about time management is that each person's schedule is so different- it is

Diwali Shining

Holiday season is in full swing and this week brings Diwali, the festival of lights. Even to someone like me who is not religious to say the least, Diwali has a lovely symbolism.

The way Diwali was celebrated in my parents' home growing up was simple and meaningful. There was the making of the faraal, sweets and savories that are typical to this festival. There was the arranging of faraal in

You Win Some; You Lose Some

Even with dishes I've made a hundred times, being in a new kitchen is requiring a certain amount of standardization. I seem to cook on auto-pilot most of the time, so this is taking some effort on my part. After nearly incinerating a few meals on the electric stove (which heats up a lot faster than the gas stove I'm used to), I think I finally have learned the ways of this new (to me) stove.

Dale's Tales

It has been a long day so I'll let the pictures do the talking today...



Good friends and constant companions




Sunbathing in the yard

I Love Lists

I'm sitting here making lists. They're my way of keeping things under control. I have a grocery shopping list, a list for other things we need to buy (new home stuff like a guest bed and a rake), and there's a long to-do list for this weekend. There's something so satisfying about crossing things off a list- you feel so self-satisfied and productive somehow.

I love reading lists too. When I see

A Colorful Game, and Brainstorming Gift Ideas

Another day, another craft project. This is a simple game that I made for a friend's 2 year old. It is a "busy bag"- a game that fits into a small bag, portable and ready to entertain a toddler for 15 minutes while you're out and about.



This popsicle color matching game is inspired by ones I saw here and here.



Making it was SO much fun. From the craft store I bought wide popsicle sticks,

Fast Food for Baby

Swapna requested a post on homemade Indian foods for baby, so here's a quick post listing some of the foods that Lila has enjoyed since she started eating solids. A few are specific to Indian cuisine and others are not. This post comes with a giant disclaimer. I have no expertise in children's nutrition and write this only as a parent with limited experience (sample size = 1). So consider your

What are you reading?

One of the first things I did when I arrived here in our new town was to get myself a public library card. It is a nice library and I particularly like their children's programming. But they don't allow magazines to be checked out- bummer. Flipping through yummy magazines is my favorite way to kill an hour here and there.

Here's what I am reading. I just started Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. It

Taking Stock

Priti asked me how (and how often) I keep track of everything in my pantry. It has been mere days since I moved into this new kitchen so it is a question that's very much on my mind.

Some people are very organized by nature and others struggle with it. Like most people, I'm somewhere in the middle. But I'm always looking to become better organized, especially in the kitchen, because if you

Noodles and Tofu

It's day 4 of NaBloPoMo and I'm putting the food back into the food blog. Jui requested quick and simple weeknight dinners and I think our dinner from last night fits the criteria.




Noodles and tofu are on my dinner menu when I'm craving Asian take-out, which is all too often. This dinner comes together very quickly but you do have 3 pots and pans to use: one to boil the noodles, another to

Playing with Food: Felt Pizza Costume

Suparna requested a tutorial for the pizza costume that Lila wore on Halloween, so here it is!

When I started toying with ideas for a costume for Lila, the requirements were (1) it should be quick and easy to make, using mostly materials that I already have on hand and (2) it should be very easy to put on and not be too cumbersome or she wouldn't want to wear it at all. 

The material I had on

How to Win Friends and Be Influenced by People

Yesterday's post seems to have touched a chord for a reader who commented about how hard it can be to make new friends and form a community. Friendship for us humans is a very powerful and fundamental concept. It is not simply a matter of having someone to hang out with on a Friday night. Close friendships and social interactions are downright essential for health.

Making friends is not a

Starting from Scratch

Lila as a slice of veggie lover's pizza: Halloween 2012

A few weeks ago, I left St. Louis with a heavy heart. We called it home for nearly 6 years (2006-2012) and they were some wonderful years. The funny thing is that I arrived in St. Louis with no intention of liking it at all. I left with a little more humility and a good life lesson in giving everything a chance and not making too many

Pinterest Challenge- The Fall Edition

Hello from (mostly) sunny Georgia! The huge storm Sandy battered the North East US this week- we in the South East were spared and got only high winds and cold temperatures because of the storm system. My best wishes to everyone in the North East- I hope you stay safe and warm and dry.

Our family moved this month and all in all, it was a smooth ride. V and I divided up our precious creatures

A Birthday Picnic

Lila turned ONE just a few weeks ago, as did her little buddy Nico, the son of our friends just a few doors down. The two babies have been friends since even before they were born; Nico's mama and I went on post-dinner walks together when we were pregnant. The babies were born only a week apart and we all thought it would be fun to have a joint first birthday party for them. That way we could

Vaal Khichdi

"How many lentils do you have in your pantry anyway?", asked my friend. She's originally from South America, from a culture which has great love and respect for beans, but the sheer variety of lentils and beans in Indian cuisine still confounds her. I showed her my collection of dozen or so legumes, grouped together in the pantry in their recycled-yogurt-container homes. "Do they really taste

A week of vegetables, and eggplant dal

You know what I love even better than local food? Local food blogs. I read a long list of St. Louis based food blogs and always find interesting information on restaurants and stores, events and places that I would never hear of otherwise. This week, my penchant for reading St. Louis based blogs reaped me a large vegetable harvest. 



It started when Melissa of Her Green Life posted that she

Processors, Pesto and Pins

A few times a week, someone will e-mail me with a cooking-related question. Some questions are recurring, like the one about food processors. What food processor do I use and do I recommend it? Are food processors worth it in the first place? What do I use my food processor for? That sort of thing.

So for anyone who is curious, I bought my food processor in 2007 (using wedding gift money from

Curry Mixes and Quick Fixes

In the last few weeks, I wrote over a dozen blog posts. But no one ever got to read them because they were all written in my head. There was that one little step - the actual sitting down and typing- which I never did find the time for, and hence those posts never saw the light of day, or the glow of your computer screen.

Well, August is here and it brings some big changes to my life. In

Daily Special: Punjabi Bhaaji

When my mother stayed with us last year when Lila
was a newborn, she often made something that she termed "Punjabi
bhaaji"- a most enjoyable medley of paneer cubes and mixed vegetables in
a tomato sauce. Far from being anything with an actual Punjabi
pedigree, this dish is simply a Maharashtrian home cook's homage to
vegetables cooked in the style of popular Punjabi restaurants
everywhere.

Summertime, and the livin' is easy

Three out of four food bloggers agree that time speeds up in summer. OK, I just made that up, but really, right on cue starting Memorial Day weekend (the unofficial start of summer in the US), life in the One Hot Stove household has been a happy whirlwind of barbecues and brunches and visits to and from out of town family and friends. In our case, there's also that minor matter of preparing for

Bisibelebhath: A Big Bowl of Comfort

This weekend I decided to tackle a classic Indian regional dish: bisibelebhath. An iconic dish from the Southern Indian state of Karnataka, bisibelebhath (BBB to those who know and love it) is a medley of lentils, rice and vegetables that is designed to nourish body and soul.

Suma of Veggie Platter recently wrote a must-read post describing many nuances of BBB and explaining that this mouthful

Friday Challenge: Clean Those Fridge Door Shelves

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been trying to organize and declutter my home bit by bit, 15 minutes at a time. Right now, it is the turn of the fridge door; a small space consisting of a few shelves that have become a catch-all for jars and bottles of every description: sauces, condiments and preserves.

Why am I posting a silly thing like this on the blog? Because it is one
of those

Nachos with the Works

My bestie Neighbor Girl and I are practically the same age- but I should note that I'm a full 14 days older (and therefore proportionately wiser) than her. We're celebrating our birthdays right around this time of year, and when I say celebrating, I really do mean that we're thrilled about reaching another birthday. None of that moping around about how we're getting older and how we no longer

Busy Happy Times

Here I am, at the tail end of April. This post is just to chat and say hello- I don't have a recipe to share but do have some food related tidbits.

Two mini vacations: We went on two trips, baby in tow. Five plane rides in all, and I was worried that Lila would be stressed out by the traveling. Not so. She made friends with the flight attendants and gave a wide gummy grin to fellow passengers.

1 Oven, 350 Degrees, 3 Baking Dishes

...and that is how I cooked 2 meals + breakfast for a whole week in a couple of hours.

I don't generally do bulk cooking on the weekends, preferring to make a quick dinner every night and packing leftovers for lunch the next day. But we're going through a busy phase and the idea of having a couple of meals in the fridge is so appealing, to be reheated and eaten during the work week as

Half the Birthday, All the Fun

The little Miss turned 6 months old and we celebrated her half-birthday this weekend. What is a half-birthday? Is this even a thing? Or is it simply an excuse for me to bake a cake? Yes and yes. I got to bake something sweet and we had a small party with a couple of our friends who have young ones.

Being a new parent can be a bit lonely, especially when you are caught in the Sisyphean tasks of

Idli, Dosa, Chutney: Brunch Perfection

V and I enjoy having friends over for casual gatherings on the weekends. Typically, people tend to meet for dinner on the weekends, but dinner-time is not at all my favorite time for entertaining. I'm an early bird who is up and about at 5 AM (yes, even on the weekends; especially on the weekends when there are so many fun things to look forward to). By 6 in the evening, I am pretty tired and

A Quick Weeknight Curry (And Mama Goes To Parenting School)

This week has been a milestone of sorts. Our darling 5 month old started falling asleep (!) in her crib (!!) at 7 PM (!!!), allowing V and I to actually sit down and enjoy a meal together. Eating dinner together at a reasonable hour is a rare and novel concept for parents of young babies. I am knocking loudly on wood as I type this, for fear of jinxing this whole thing.

Last night I celebrated

Cast Iron Cooking: Tips, Recipe Ideas, a Giant Cookie and a Cookbook Review

The right tool for the right job makes cooking a rewarding experience. I've gone back and forth so many times on the ideal cookware to stock my kitchen with. These days I find myself reaching for one skillet on a daily basis, sometimes washing out the skillet and using it twice for the same meal. I'm talking about my cast iron skillet.

There's much to love about cast iron cookware. For me, the

Of Salad Days and Blog Birthdays

This past week, One Hot Stove turned 7 years ago. You'll agree that seven years is a ripe old age in Internet years. Now as to whether old qualifies as experienced or decrepit- that's for you to decide, gentle reader. Seven years after timidly starting this blog, I am in awe of (a) the power of words and (b) the power of community.

And by community, I mean YOU- so here's a tight virtual hug for

Peas Curry Hot

Like in many Indian kitchens, my pantry shelves are home to a colorful array of dried lentils and beans and peas. Some are more versatile than others. The container marked "dried yellow peas" (also called safed vatana) is often shoved to the back because the poor yellow pea seems to be a one hit wonder around here. I use it for that most adored street food dish- ragda patties- but this week I

Jammy Thumbprint Cookies

We're still in the first week of 2012, so it is not too late for me to wish you all a good one.

Our little family spend New Year's Eve the same way we have celebrated this day for the past 4 years- at a lovely dinner party hosted by a dear friend who was a former neighbor. It was a small gathering of very interesting people- artists and historians and architects. One of the regulars at the party