Potluck-Poker-Party

A few weekends ago, we were at a potluck-poker party (yes, a really sweet couple from wise guy's work had this party to celebrate our marriage!). I did my part for the potluck and the wise guy did his for poker (oops, that is a teeny-weeny lie now- he did his part for both the potluck and the poker game!). I rarely talk much and when it comes to parties I become super-calm (except before the party when it looks like a rioted kitchen and a nail biting-me), and super-quite. I love to watch people, listen to conversations around me and gather the most inconsequential pieces of information. I do love food talk, so when someone asks me what I brought for the party- they better be prepared for a long may be even boring monologue. This party was not much different except a big bunch (read six) of kids running around. We had great food- our Japanese friend brought a gorgeous Japanese vegetarian soup, the host had roasted beautiful green nori with olive oil, salt and pepper and even told us how to eat it- just eat it with some rice, she said (you know like crackers with all sorts of good toppings), and beef. An Indian friend had brought rajma and jeera rice. I had made aloo chops (bengali style) inspired by the well known Bong Mom and a ginger cake (adapted from David Lebovitz's book- Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes). We had other gorgeous desserts- some home made, some store bought (of course can't blame them can I? I used to do that too).

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Gingerbread house

Oh the warm smell of spices is the hallmark of the holiday season and is the one thing we all love, don't we? GInger is definitely one spice that I love to include in my cooking/baking expeditions during this time of the year. So I was naturally happy to see that this month we were doing the gingerbread house for this month's challenge, well it was a fleeting moment anyway until I realized that it was yet another kitchen mishap. Consider this my 10th new recipe and the 3rd in Nupur's marathon . The December 2009 Daring Baker's challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi . They chose to challenge Daring Bakers' everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes. I used Y's recipe Ingredients 1 cup butter, room temperature 1 cup brown sugar, well packed 2 tablespoons cinnamon 4 teaspoons ground g...

From "The Baker's Daughter"

I love to read books and I love to cook- so "Cook the Books" event called out to me, what more can I say? When I didn't want to just sit around and catch up Breaking Bad episodes leading up to the finale yesterday, I threw these buns and some great vegan-gluten free strawberry cupcakes in the mix. The book chosen for the bi-monthly event Cook the Books is Sarah McCoy's "The Baker's Daughter "- a story about that intertwines food, history and a great narrative (toggles between WWII times in Germany and the present). I am just about a third done and so far like what I have read. I will post the review once I am done reading but in the meantime I leave you with these gorgeous buns that are traditionally made on St. Thomas Day that falls on Dec 21st (which also happens to be the shortest day). Thomasplitzchen Buns 1 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 cup butter 1/4 cup raw sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 cup almond milk Filli...

Vadas- not your ordinary ones

I know, I know- I have been out of the blog-land, troubles of this world have me taken over you see and I need to fix it all for me to get back to y'all! Here is a gorgeous looking and perhaps amazingly tasty vada- it was my mum and my experiment all the way to fruition. Now I think kala or kabuli chana is the one of most underused forms of the fabacae family (compare to its ever popular cousin-chickpea). I love kabuli chana especially in what we call sundal from the Tam-land. If you have never tried sundal made of these babies, you must and I insist. But for now I settled for this minor experiment in the kitchen- kabuli chana vadas. Ingredients: Kabuli chana, 1 cup soaked overnight in 2 cups water 1/2 onion, chopped 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp fennel seeds salt and ground red chilli powder to taste Oil for Method: Just like any dal vada- coarsely grind the softened chana (Note: this is not going to have a lot of binding capacity) Mix in the onions, salt, red chilli powder, cu...

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