Still catching up!    Yes I am still working on the backlogged recipes. Sometimes I get the feeling in my over enthusiasm have I joined too many groups? Maybe but don’t feel backing out of any. They all offer different challenges.The baking eggless group was back in February after a short break. I couldn’t do the Feb challenge but made the March one. The brownies are extra chocolatey, loaded with nuts and so delicious. The brownies turned baked well, and just as I turn it out onto the wire rack, the glass tray in which I had baked it fell and broke! The baking tray belonged to my mother in law and have been using it for over 32 years! Did feel bad. I found…

A good light dinner or lunch idea   Woman’s Day was on March 8th and for many it may have not been so special a day or maybe your family made it special for you. Hubby dear spent the day questioning when is Man’s Day??? Several times my daughter fights not to be treated differently from her two siblings, but we just cannot help worrying a bit more for her than her two brothers. The world is still not safe for women. They are easy targets and its so easy for men to label them as cheap, brainless, provocative, asking for it, weak, animals, uneducated, selfish, etc. We have given our daughter the same opportunities as her brothers.However, we are just a bit more cautious…

Good to be back     Its been nearly 5 weeks since I have not blogged a recipe. That seems a long time. However, cooking did not stop for those 5 weeks. Like most mothers I wanted to feed everything to my daughter in the time we were with her. That includes eating out also. Over the years HSR Layout in Bangalore has grown by leaps and bounds. When my daughter first started college there, we rented an apartment near the college. At that time besides 2 main grocery stores and a Tamil cuisine take away, there was not much on the 27th Main Road. Slowly new shops and a restaurant appeared. However in the past 2-3 years HSR Layout has become a very busy hub…

 Magic box cooking   Travelling is exciting but what I don’t like is all the preparations I have to make before the travelling. I leave for India on Sunday. Excited that I will spend some time with my daughter. However, all these little chores that I have to get through before we travel is stressful. Clear the fridge, make sure lentils are stored away properly, must pack up all the different flours and store them in the fridge, check out the masalas, make sure no perishable stuff is left in the kitchen otherwise on my return will find a stinking kitchen! So the last few days are actually like the magic box they offer to the contestants on Masterchef.  Odd ingredients have to be put…

yippeee got it right!         Last month Priya challenged the Home bakers Challenge group to quick breads. Carrot and zucchini, chocolate and an apple one. Chocolate and apple ones were struck off the list immediately as I have already baked those ones. So the choice was between the carrot zucchini one and the sweet potato one. Since I have not made many dishes using sweet potato I wanted to bake the sweet potato bread. Got all the ingredients ready and baked the bread. After one hour, the bread was still raw from inside. The top was beginning to brown too much. I covered with foil and lower the temperature slightly and baked it further for 15 minutes. The skewer came out clean,…

bread with semolina? Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen’s challenge for the We Knead to Bake group was a semolina bread. I was surprised as how would it really hold together. Then as I read the recipe further down realized that I needed to add wheat gluten. Thank God I had brought that back from India with me. Most breads baked in India require you to add the gluten as the plain flour available there is not as glutenous as the flours available in the western countries or here in Kenya. My daughter was not using it so brought it back here with me. When I was getting the ingredients ready, I still had that little doubt in my mind about using only semolina. I decided…

The Festive mood is still not over! Before I left for Dubai, I was literally going mad with all the baking and challenges to complete. Cookies, cakes, muffins, breads…. the list is endless. I don’t thing I have done so much baking in such a short period. Back from my holiday and now I have too many recipes to blog! Maybe some will disappear in my file as the year has begun with too many things to do. However, everyone around is still in a festive mood, Christmas decors still hanging everywhere, people in holiday mood and celebrations still going on. But tomorrow is going to a different scenario, with people going back to work, children back to school and everyone will be ready to…