2012 had to be different as I celebrated my 50th birthday. Some throw a big party, go on a cruise, take a holiday of a lifetime etc. I wanted to dedicate my 50th year to cooking, my passion. Sometime back I watched the movie Julie Julia and just loved the way Julie diligently tried out every recipe in Julia Child’s recipe book. Well, I personally am not on a mission to follow any famous chef’s recipe book but have quite a different mission to accomplish daily. Before I got married, my dad gave me this huge diary to write all my recipes in.My passion for cooking probably began when I was just 10 or so…. Just can’t remember exactly. I use to help my mum in the kitchen and started trying out recipes when I was 16. From 16 to now that means I have collected tonnes of recipes but have not tried them all out. So coming back to the mission, one recipe a day to try out. It will be anything from starters to desserts. I am hoping to master technology better and include photos.This blog will also help me to accomplish my other missions. Firstly it will be a tribute to my mum, mother in law and kaki (aunt) who have played a major part in teaching me how to cook. That does not mean I will not be mentioning some of my relatives and friends from whom I have learnt how to cook and picked up a lot of tips. Secondly in the process I will be handing down some of my favourite recipes to my kids, cousins, friends and family. Blogging these recipes will help me to organise the recipes in a more methodical fashion, instead of having them in the book with loads of chits and papers. Whenever I travel to UK and India, my recipe book goes with me as I know I will be cooking for my family. Now, I no longer will need to carry it around as I will be able to excess my recipes in any corner of the world. Going through these recipes will also help me cancel out the ones that don’t really work out or suit the taste of my family. Blogging will also give me the opportunity to discover what other food bloggers are making and along the way improve my skills. I also want to make people aware that vegetarianism is not just about rabbit food as they seem to claim. A little innovation and any cuisine of the world can be included in the vegetarian menu.I have a huge collection of recipe books and I would like to include a few of my favourite recipes from them as I go along. As to the name of my blog, Mayuri’s jikoni, I played around with a lot of ideas and finally chose this one. It is pretty simple not a mile long, and since I live in Kenya, I had to include the word jikoni which simply means kitchen in kiswahili. That’s where all the action takes place and I love my jikoni.

So please enjoy the recipes and would love to receive comments both good and bad from you.