A month ago I had borrowed this very colorful cook book titled Ripe from our local library. I was so impressed with the idea of suggesting recipes based on the color of the produce. The pictures were so colorful and captivating that it made me want to try almost every recipe. Every year on Valentines day when most people take the loved ones to dinner, we always make dinner at home and enjoy. This year I decided to make the fennel orange salad, simply because I had all the ingredients and it was very simple to prepare the salad. What stunned me the most was the combination of ingredients. It tasted so awesome and fresh. I just could not have enough of it. The flavor of fennel in the salad blew me.

Gadgets:

A sharp knife

Mandoline

Plates

Colander

Cutting Board

Ingredients:

Oranges - 2

Fennel Bulb - 1

Red Onion - 1/2 

Capers - 2 tbsp drained

Olive Oil - a small drizzle

Arugula - a hand full ( my own addition)

Walnuts - a few ( my addition for garnish)

Salt

Pepper

Preparation:

1. Using a very sharp knife, remove the skin along with the white pith of the oranges. Using a mandolin set to medium thickness slice the oranges and place them on a plate filled with a layer of arugula.

2. Set the mandolin to thin setting and slice the fennel bulb and onions. place them over the onions. Add the capers over the assembled salad, drizzle some oil and sprinkle the pepper and very little salt. Garnish with some walnuts (optional).

Among the various vegetables nature had provided us, bitter gourd is very unique because it has a bitter after taste. Not a popular one and is mostly associated as a medicinal vegetable. It might not be most sought after, but the whole plant has many uses. Adding it to our daily diet can help us fight diabetes and all issues associated with it. Common recipes with bitter gourd are chips, poriyal, in sambar or vathal. This pickle recipe is unique. It is delicious and one cannot find any bitterness in taste.This recipe was given by Pujashri Mathioli Saraswathi, affectionately referred to as Sri Amma. Having a small serving of this in your diet can do you a lot of good. It is almost like the raw mango pickle, only here the mango is replaced with karela. Yesterday for lunch had this pickle as a filling in my bagel and it tasted awesome.

Gadgets:

Cutting Board

Knife

Bowl

Measuring Spoons

Ingredients:

Bitter Gourd - 2 

Ginger - 2 inches

Green Chillies - 2 

Lemon - 1/2 lemon

Salt

Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida - a pinch

Preparation:

1. Cut the bitter gourd into half lengthwise and remove the seeds. 

2. Cut the bitter gourd  and ginger into small pieces ( like mango pickle).

3. Add lemon juice and salt. 

4. Heat oil in the seasoning spoon, add mustard seeds and asafetida and chillies. When the mustard pops add it to the bitter gourd mixture. 

5. Can be refrigerated upto 3 days. 

It is that time of the year when most people start to cough with flu like symptoms and sometimes this persistent cough does not seem to leave us alone. If no cough syrup helps, what does one do to get some relief from it. Poha/ Beaten rice or Avil is the remedy. This was a very important information that Pujashri Mathioli Saraswathi or Sri Akka as we refer to her, shared in her speech last year and I am very thankful to her for this little home remedy. Usually, I have a tough time when I catch a cold or cough. It takes forever for me to get rid of it. This time, I felt truly blessed that I was able to get quick relief having Avil. Every time I start to cough I had some avil and slowly chewed on it and soon the cough disappeared. I see a lot of people visiting my website for cough remedies and I thought it would be good for me to share this awesome home remedy on this blog.

Ingredients:

Poha/ Beaten Rice/ Avil - 1 tsp. 

Please 1/2 tsp at a time of this poha on your tongue and slowly chew on it. Can repeat as its just rice. 

Note: I found that the thin variety works much better than the thick one. 

Its that time of the year when I have to bake more than a birthday cake. This time is for my niece and it was a very special birthday. On her request for vanilla based cake, I decided to try Buddy Valastro, the Cake Boss recipe. It had great reviews and seemed very easy to prepare. This recipe helped me bake the best sponge cake ever. Great texture and taste, no wonder he is the cake boss. I am so excited to add this cake recipe to my blog for future reference. Please give this recipe a try and you will know what I am talking about. Here are some pictures that I was able to click on my cell phone.

Gadgets:

2 x 9 inch circle pan

Stand Mixer

Measuring Cups and Spoons

Spatula

Whisk

Parchment Paper

Ingredients:

Eggs - 4 large at room temp

Sugar - 2 cups

Vanilla - 1 tsp

Organic Whole Milk - 1 cup

Butter - 1/4 

APF - 2 cups
Baking Powder -2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Cream Cheese - 8 ounces
Powdered Sugar- 2 cups
Vanilla Essence- 1 tsp

Preparation:

1. Set the oven to 325  degree F.

2. In a large mixing bowl with paddle attachment  beat the  eggs for 4 minutes.  Do not skip this step because this makes the cake get the texture.

2. Add sugar, and continue mixing for another 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and stir on low until just combined.

3. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients.  Add to eggs and sugar on low speed until just combined.

4. In a saucepan, heat milk and butter on low heat just until butter is melted.  Add to batter, beat just until combined.

5. Pour into two greased and floured 8" round cake pans lined with parchment paper.

6. Bake until the middle springs back when touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or for about 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand in pans for 10 minutes. Then turn out onto wire cooling racks and cool completely.

7. Place the big mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer. Add cream cheese and whisk until smooth. Add whipped cream, sugar and blend it together until stiff peaks forms.

8.Flip the cake so that the flat bottom will be on the top. With a pastry brush, spread some sugar water over the cake. Then take 1/2 cup of the frosting and spread, sprinkle some sliced strawberries. 

9. Brush some sugar water over the top of the next cake and place it in such a way so that the bottom flat part will be on the top. Add the rest of the frosting and spread the icing over the whole cake. 

10. Arrange the sliced strawberries to resemble a flower. Place it in the fridge for 30 minutes before slicing into it. 

I know I am posting a lot of sugary junky treats, but they were very fun to make and enjoy. The thing that prompted me to blog is due to the great reviews it received from the little guests at the birthday party. They thought it was the coolest thing they had seen and looked at me as if I was Mr. Wonka from the "Charlie and the chocolate factory". With a little help the skewers were done in minutes. They also looked cool, like a bunch of gummy flowers in a vase. A great thing to do for a party, sleep overs (only that sleep can get delayed due to all the sugar) or play dates. You will become considered a cool mom for sure.

Gadgets:

Skewers
Plates
Vase

Ingredients:

Gummy bears, rings, worms, colas, fishes etc - as per requirements

Preparation:

1. Take a skewer, and start skewering the gummies and place them in the vase.

For my daughters "pop star" birthday party, we made these cute looking treats. To go with the theme, we made pops with marshmallows which was a super hit. All I remember was placing the tray filled with marshmallow pops and they disappeared. I know its not the most healthy treat, but as my daughter puts it " we need to enjoy things we don't during normal days". It is such a breeze to make them. It took us less than 10 minutes to make some but they needed fridge time before they could be served. Here is an awesome treat to serve any time. Normally I would like to make them with chocolate instead of the candy melts, but my daughter insisted that she wanted it to be blue. So we let the birthday girl have her way.

Gadgets:

Bowl

Plates

Popsicle Sticks 

Ingredients:

Jumbo Marshmallows - 1 packet

Wiltons Candy Melts - 1 Packet ( blue)

Multi Colored Sprinkles - as required

Preparation:

1. Melt the candy melts in a microwave safe bowl as per instructions.

2. Take each jumbo marshmallow and dunk them partially so that half of the marshmallow is covered with the candy. 

3. Add the sprinkles over the candy melts, place them back on the plate and keep them in the fridge until the candy melts set well.

4. Take the popsicle and insert it in the marshmallow and place them in a tray serve.

Around Valentine's day, the elementary school which my daughter attends always has a bake sale. As always we wanted to bake something special for the event. I suggested that we use the cookie dough that we had stored in the freezer and she wanted something with chocolate. Quickly we agreed to bake a bar that uses both the brownie mix and cookie dough. In a jiffy we layered the cookie dough and brownie mix and baked. The end result was simply delicious cookie brownie bars that also looked cool.   We enjoyed it so much that we promised to make a batch for ourselves.

Gadgets:

Mixing Bowl

Spatula

Rectangle baking pan

Parchment paper

Measuring Cup

Ingredients:

Sugar Cookie Dough - 1 recipe
Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix - 1 ( required eggs, oil and water for making the brownie)

Preparation:

1. Layer the parchment paper with foil or parchment paper.

2. Roll out the cookie dough reserving 1/4 portion for adding as topping. Place the cookie dough on the pan. This will form one layer of the bar.

3. Add the brownie dough prepared as per packet instructions and spread it over the cookie dough.

4. Roughly add bits of the dough on top of the cookie brownie mix.

5. Bake at 350 degree F for 30 - 35 Minutes or until the brownie is baked.

6. Remove allow to cool before removing the foil pr parchment paper from the pan. Cut the bars into 2 inch squares after they are cooled. But they taste divine warm.

Wishing you all a very happy new year! 

May this year bring you peace, joy, perfect health, prosperity and happiness

Hello everyone! Its been a while since I logged in or posted. It has been a very busy 4 months for me. It has been very exciting meeting many people in my town. For the holidays, my daughter's girls scouts group had a cookie swap and we had to bake 70 cookies. We looked at many recipes and tried this recipe a few times, but this one was what we liked best. It became the base for our chocolate chip, m&m and sugar sprinkled cookies. The cookies tasted delicious, was super easy and a lot of fun to make with your kids. 

Gadgets:

Electric Mixer

Bowls

Measuring Cups and Spoons

Baking Sheets

Parchment Papers

Ingredients:

Makes 24 Cookies:

All Purpose Flour - 2 cups

Cornstarch - 1Tbsp

Baking Soda - 1 tsp

Kosher Salt - 3/4 tsp

Butter - 3/4 cup in room temperature

Brown Sugar - 3/4 cups

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Eggs - 1

Vanilla Essence - 1 tbsp

For Toppings - Sugar Sprinkles - 1/2 cup

                         Chocolate Chips - 1/2 cup

                         M&M's - 1/2 cup

 Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Prepare the cookie tray by lining with parchment paper.

3. In a bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt.

4. Cream butter and sugars in another bowl on medium speed until they get fluffy about 3 minutes. Add one egg and vanilla to this mix.  Scrape the sides and give it a mix. 

5. Add the dry ingredients in until the dough comes together. 

6. Scoop a tbsp portion of the dough, lightly flatten it and add the sugar sprinkles or m&m's or chocolate chips and bake for 9 minutes. Make sure to turn the cookie tray inside out half way through the baking. The edges will be golden brown. 

7. Remove from oven and allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 3 minutes and allow to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Its been a little over a year since my Appa passed away and it has been very difficult to deal with the loss a lot more after a year than when it all actually happened for me. Blogging and most things took a back seat for me the last month. This Saturday, I got some eggplant and made vathal with it. It was my Appa's favorite vathal to use in vatha kozhambu. He used to constantly ask for vathal to be made at home. It took me only 3 days for the vathal to be made. Thanks to the 100 degree weather that we have been having, though I wished it was cooler it helped in the process of making vathal. I made the kozhambu and it turned out delicious. I had it with sutta aplam ( toasted papad) and thought of my Appa. 

Gadgets:

Cutting Board
Knife
Wok
Bowl
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Spatula


Ingredients:

For Vathal:

Eggplant/ Kathirika ( I used Italian kind) - 4 ( makes about 1 1/2 cups)

( Cut the eggplant into half, and then cut into 3/4 inch cubes making sure each piece has skin in one side)

Vathal Kozhambu:

Sesame Oil - 1/3 cup
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Asafoetida piece - small marble size bit
Dry Red Chilies - 3
Udad Dal - 1 tbsp
Channa Dal - 1 tbsp
Curry Leaves - a few
Sambar Powder - 2 1/2 tsp
Salt
Tamarind - 1 lemon size
Warm Water - 3 cups
Kathrika Vathal - 1 1/2 cups
Rice Flour - 2 tsp


Preparation:

Making Vathal:

Spread the kathrika pieces on a plate and allow to dry out in direct sun. It will take about 3 days if the weather is really hot. Remove and store in the bottle.

Making Vathal Kozhambu:

1. Soak the tamarind in water and set aside for 10 minutes. Using your fingers squeeze the juice out of the tamarind pulp and set aside.

2. Heat the wok with oil. Fry the asafoetida piece in oil and then add mustard seeds. Allow for the seeds to pop.

3. Add chilies, udad and channa dal and fry into the dal starts to golden brown.

4. Add the vathal and fry them in oil. Add sambar powder and give it a mix for a few seconds.

5 Add curry leaves and mix before add the tamarind water. Add salt and allow for the liquid to come to a boil. Allow it to reduce in quantity. To make make quantity, add some rice flour and mix with 2 tsp of  water to form a paste and add to the kozhambu and allow it to come to a boil and thicken.

6. Serve with hot rice, toasted papad and potato curry  or kootu.

I hope all of you have been having fun blogging and creating awesome recipes. I took a break from blogging just to clear my mind and take care of things. Varalakshmi nombu, Krishna Jayanthi and Back to school  had kept me very busy. For months I have been thinking of making this recipe which actually was very fun to make and delicious to eat. An awesome fusion recipe to try on your kids. They might like to try this because it is Indian-Italian Fusion. My daughter thought it was awesome and ate an extra paratha.

Gadgets:

Cutting Board

Rolling Pin

Measuring Cups and Spoons

Tava

Spatula

Bowl

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Chapathi Dough - 4 golf size balls

Whole Wheat Flour - 1/4 cup 

Filling:

 Ricotta Cheese - 1 cup ( extra liquid drained)

Sun Dried Tomatoes ( dry or strain and use the oil soaked ones) - 1/3 cup finely chopped

Fresh Basil - 10 Leaves finely shredded

Salt

Black Pepper 

Garlic Powder - 1/2 tsp

Crushed Chili Pepper - a dash.

Preparation:

1. Add all the ingredients used for filling to a bowl. Mix well, make into 4 equal balls and set aside. 

2. Roll out the chapathi dough into 5 inch circle. Place one filling ball in the center and cover it with the dough. 

3. Roll it out into a nine inch circle. Use the extra whole wheat flour to roll easily. 

4. Heat the griddle/ tava on medium high and place the paratha on it. 

5. Cook the paratha on both sides. Serve them hot with ketchup or sour cream. 

I  could not resist what I tasted at the farmers market last week. I always buy produce from a set of farmers and by now, they know what I would like to buy from them and even offer some recipes or pick the best produce for me. In that order, there is this place that sells salsa of all types. He had a new one to his collection and it was the cantaloupe salsa and the farmer suggested that I try it. It was so delicious and had great flavors from the chillies, red onions, cilantro and sweetness of the cantaloupe all coming together with a crunchy tortilla chips. As I was exiting the farmers market, there is this melon stall where mostly college and high school kids from a family sell fruits. They always convince me to buy more than what. I intend to. Today, I adding cantaloupes into my basket. I decided to try recreating a salsa with it. Here is the recipe that I came up with.

Gadgets:

Cutting board
Knife
Bowl

Ingredients:

Cantaloupe -1/2 a melon diced
Red Onion - 1/2 diced finely
Cilantro - 2 tbsp finely minced
Lime Juice - 1/2 lime
Jalapeno - 1 descended and diced finely
Salt

Preparation:

1.Toss all the ingredients into a bowl. Mix and serve it with chips.

Yesterday, I had such an awesome time shopping for produce at the local farmers market after a couple of weeks. I really missed not visiting the market since I had been shopping at the local stores. It also made me realize that most people think farmers market prices are very high compared to the store bought produce but, I think they have great taste and are better than what the local stores charge for produce. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and okra are in season. You see them everywhere and I was very intrigued by the purple bell pepper that was available. I wondered if they would taste different from the regular peppers or keep their purple color when cooked. When I cut into it and found that though they were purple on the outside they were light green on the inside. When I cooked them for the raita and served it to my family some of them suggested that it has an eggplant like flavor and the purple color did not stay.

Gadgets:

Frying Pan

Spatula

Vegetable Cutter with Mini Cube Attachment

Cutting Board

Knife

Measuring Spoons

Ingredients:

Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Green Chilies - 1/2 seeds removed

Purple, Red pepper, Orange and Yellow Bell Peppers- One of each

Yogurt -  1 Cup

Salt 

Asafoetida Powder - 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

1. Heat the frying pan on high. Add oil, mustard seeds, chillies and allow for the seeds to splatter. Add asafoetida powder, give it a mix. Add the bell peppers and saute them on high so that they would stay crunchy. 

2. Remove as soon as they appear cooked. Cool and add the yogurt and mix. If need be add some water to make it into a raita or pachadi constancy. Garnish with cilantro and serve them on the side with rice or roti.