A good break Sometimes its nice to get away from the blogging world.One needs to take a break and not feel, I need to add a recipe, I need to keep my followers busy, etc etc. Though I had not planned to take a break from blogging while I was visiting my son in Montreal, it was a compulsory break. His computer was not working too well, it was just too slow. I tried uploading photos and it took forever. The first few days I missed blogging but then got busy and didn’t miss it that much. This time round hubby and I made frequent trips to the lovely vibrant and colourful Jean Talon Market. It was a good walk to and fro for both…

Salad days are back I usually go through these mood phases, wanting to eat junk food, only pasta or chatpata chaats etc. I cannot for some odd reason stick to eating the same type of food every single day. So I am back to my ‘want to eat salad’ mood. But that doesn’t mean I am satisfied with just a tomato. cucumber and carrot chopped and mixed with lettuce. It has to be different. I also don’t like the ready salad dressings so make my own. What are the advantages of eating salad? You may say they are healthy. Yes they are but along with that there are so many other advantages.Salads are nutritious, help you adopt a healthier lifestyle, helps you eat several servings…

very tempting    For the month of February, the International Food Challenge was Bordeaux cuisine. The recipes were given by Saraswathi. Bordeaux is the port city on River Garonne in the south west region of France. It is famous for its wine as it sits in the wine region of France. Bordeaux is famous for shopping, wining and dining. We had a choice of French vanilla and rum cakes, Bordeaux cookies or Mesclun salad. Since I have baked a lot for the past two months I decided on making the salad.    What is mesclun? Mesclun comes from the Provençal word mescla (to mix) which literally means mixture. Mesclun is a mixture of young spring time edible leaves. The mixture can have arugula, spinach, endive,…

cook to suit you     How many times have you heard a group of people discussing recipes and each one thinks that the way he or she makes it is the correct way and the rest are wrong? I have heard this conversation umpteen of times and eventually it turns into an argument. This ingredient is not suitable with so and so, that ingredient is a no no in that recipe, etc etc. The truth is that each of us cook to suit our needs, we consider the tastes of each and every member of the family, their likes and dislikes and then accordingly prepare the dish. We come across a lot of recipes these days and the most sensible thing to do is…

celebrations are over           From the time my first born proposed to his girlfriend and she graciously accepted, we didn’t know where to begin preparing for the wedding. After the initial excitement sort of ebbed a bit, the first thing I decided to do was to get the correct addresses of the guests to be invited. In this day and age of  facebook, emails, whatsapp, twitter and super fast phone calls, most of us do not have correct physical addresses. Then came the issue of where the wedding will take place and what sort of ceremony will be performed as my daughter in law is french. Dubai to Mombasa and finally Chevreuse in France was decided. The task of organizing a…

deliciously sweet Mangoes eaten on its own, as dessert, in a salad, aam ras, smoothies, pickles, jams…. whichever way you have it, tastes amazingly delicious. We are so lucky as the mango season is just going on and on. Lovely juicy apple mangoes as they are called here, are sweet and aromatic. Ok, I have intentions of making all my family and friends living in the temperate and freezing zones jealous, but no amount of praises for this fruit is enough. To beat the heat I made some salad and worked around ingredients that were at home. Some people do not like fruit in their salads but I feel that it makes the salad more exotic, appealing and interesting. Textures and taste vary with each…