17 October, 2014
This blog is a year old! A small Raspberry ganache pie (no bake, gluten-free) and a big confession…
Yes, I cannot believe that this blog has officially completed one year, and what a journey it has been! I wanted to combine it with the Fiesta Friday #38 party this week to celebrate! Thank you Angie, Hilda and Julianna for hosting!
I will finish the confession part first, I know you want to hear it…
I am not a born foodie. In fact, I did not know that word existed till I started blogging!
In my childhood I had very little interest in what I ate, I had no aversion to any kind of food, I just never thought about it much. I would happily eat what my mom made and help her out with prepping in the kitchen, but never bothered to try anything on my own.
In my twenties, I was too busy trying to get a good career as a research chemist. When I lived by myself getting through graduate school, with very little time to think about food, I literally ate to live. Then I met my husband, who is a health nut and a foodie. I started to notice conversations about food between him and his friends- about drinking organic milk, not using Styrofoam and plastic for storing and heating food in the microwave, etc. It was only after we got married that I actually paid attention to what I cooked, in making new dishes and found that it was even well appreciated by him and (our) friends. After some setbacks in my health, I took a break from work and spent all my time in other hobbies. But I still missed working in the laboratory and the closest I could get to that type of work was in the kitchen. They say that a good experimental chemist will also naturally be a good cook. And here I will modestly say that I’m an O.K. chemist. 😉
I learned to bake, found new challenges to solve in baking healthy and egg-free goodies. And then, after reading some good books and watching movies on nutrition, there was this desire to consume only (or mostly) whole grains. I started this blog to record my trials of cooking brown rice for everyday meals, which is a staple in the south Indian diet. It still is my most viewed post to date! Actually, till yesterday I should say. My most recent post baked butter murukku surpassed that.
It took me about 4 months (after starting to blog) to find out that there is a HUGE community of food bloggers within WordPress that one could connect to, and it makes blogging so much more interesting and rewarding. I have also started following some other food blogs on social media. These days I look forward to reading posts of all fellow-bloggers, in learning new techniques… now it seems like I’m mostly thinking about food.
Am I a foodie? I guess I BECAME one, thanks to this blogging journey! (At least, by the definition on Wikipediea which states: A foodie is a gourmet, or a person who has an ardent or refined interest in food)
My mother is totally surprised by this change in me. “I never imagined that you’d start a cooking blog of all things in life!”, she still says.
My heart-felt thanks to all my blogger friends and readers out there who have encouraged me in the past year. I would like to thank each blogger who has commented on or liked my posts, but as Elaine said last week, I’m paranoid about leaving someone out when I attempt to mention all your names.
Whenever someone tries out a recipe from this blog and gives feedback, it really makes my day and makes all the effort worthwhile. I welcome suggestions to improve any recipe, too!
Here’s my little pie, as I promised…
It was inspired by the recipe on the cover of Baker’s chocolate. I avoided heavy cream and used coconut milk instead. And used my own nutty, gluten-free version of a crust.
mini Raspberry ganache pie
Ingredients:
One 5″ aluminum pie dish.
For crust:
cashews- 25
almond meal/ flour- 5 tbsp.
butter- 3 tbsp.
For filling:
Baker’s chocolate- 4 oz.
full-fat coconut milk- 1/2 cup (the thick part only)
Berry preserves- 2 tbsp. (I used Trader Joe’s strawberry preserves)
For raspberry sauce:
Fresh raspberries- 6 oz. (reserve 6-8 raspberries for garnish)
sugar- 1 tsp.
water- 1 tsp.
Method:
1. Make a powder of cashews in a good blender. Add almond flour, butter and blend well. Pat the mixture into the pie dish to make a crust. Make the edges rounded.
2. Heat chocolate and coconut milk gently till the chocolate mixes and combines with the milk. Stir in the jam. Pour into prepared crust. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours.
3. Prepare raspberry sauce by gently heating raspberries with 1 tsp. sugar and 1 tsp. water.
4. Once the sauce forms, refrigerate it along with the pie.
5. Using a knife, carefully push between the crust and pie dish to remove the pie. Decorate with reserved raspberries and serve with sauce.
56 thoughts on : This blog is a year old! A small Raspberry ganache pie (no bake, gluten-free) and a big confession…
A day to celebrate.
yes it is. Thank you!
What a gorgeously delicious dish Apsara. Love it. Congratulations on completing an year…wishing you many more. A tight hug and keep inspiring all of us with your healthy cooking and ideas.
Thank you so much, Sonal! A big hug back to you. 🙂
Happy 1 year blogging anniversary ☺️ it’s almost been a year for me too. Great way to learn more about food, get inspired and ‘meet’ like minded people. All the best.
thank you April. Yes, I’m meeting many like-minded people too, isn’t blogging a great pastime?
Congratulations on your first blog anniversary. Thanks for sharing this luscious recipe with us, and the tale of your food journey. My journey is sort of the opposite direction of yours. I have always loved cooking, but developed more of an interest in chemistry (and botany) through cooking because of the inevitable connection. Keep it up, and l look forward to following your future culinary adventures.
thank you, Hilda. Interesting, isn’t it, how our interests develop and diversify?
Congratulations on your blog anniversary! It is indeed enjoyable to meet other foodies. Your raspberry pie is just beautiful and the perfect dish to celebrate your anniversary and FF!
thank you so much!
Congratulations on your first bloggiversary Apsara! I would never have thought that you weren’t a foodie from an early age! Your tart looks so delicious -I love the way you have made it with the coconut cream and the nut base! Happy Fiesta Friday too!
thank you, Selma. It is indeed nice to receive a compliment from you!
Reblogged this on Chef Ceaser.
Congrats Apsara 🙂 More to come…
thanks, Aiswarya. Yes, that’s my hope too!
Happy One Year! This looks amazing!
thank you, Alex!
Congrats Apsara on your blog anniversary 🙂 This pie looks so nice…You have been so encouraging for many of us. Many more to come 🙂
thanks, Malar. 🙂 Yes, that’s my wish too!
Congrats on your blogoversary!!! I love raspberries, so I do like your dessert, looks yummy! 🙂
Have a great weekend!
Mila
thanks, Mila. Hope you had a great weekend!
congratulations Apsara on your blogiversary… that pie looks super luscious -no bake and GF wow you are Amazing
love all your recipes and look forward more an more innovative and healthy recipes from your kitchen… 🙂
thank you, Chitra. That will surely keep me motivated!
Happy blogiversary Apsara! What a gorgeous tart to celebrate! Wish you many more wonderful years of blogging to come! You are a foodie now 😀
Thanks, Naina. You know, you were the first person to call me a foodie in one of your posts and got me thinking about it. Did some soul-searching and had to admit it. 🙂
Really!! I am very wise, haha!! But you really are! And I love your super-healthy twists to traditional recipes. Amazing!!
Congrats on your first anniversary, Aspara! Isn’t it nice to find a community where we all have the same interests? Your pie looks so delicious; it is so lovely that you would share this with us today at FF! Here’s to many more years of blogging! 😀
thank you, Julianna. Yes, it is nice to be part of a ‘chef’ community, at least online!
Haaappppyyyy Blog Anniversary, mine is coming up too!! I love this recipe, it looks so goood.. caught my eye right away at Fiesta Friday, thanks for sharing!!
thank you, Stephanie. My wishes for yours in advance. Look forward to seeing how you celebrate yours!
Happy Anniversary!! What a wonderful journey it sounds like it’s been for you!! /)
thanks, Tracy. Yes it has been wonderful!
I love your confession! I’m so glad to hear about you became a foodie. I actually have a food blog, and I hate (maybe just dislike at this point) cooking. I have to cook to live because of celiac disease and multiple food allergies. BUT, I love blogging. So I use my blog as an incentive to cook myself good meals!
Yes, blogging is a good source of inspiration. I have noticed some gluten-intolerance in myself, hence the trials. Necessity is truly the mother of invention, right?
Exactly! Great inventions! Also, make sure to get tested for celiac disease before going completely gluten free. It’s really important because it’s an autoimmune disease and you can’t be diagnosed after going GF! (It’s my little PSA plug.)
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What a lovely dessert Apsara! It looks so delicious! And congratulations on completing 1 year of blogging! I love how you really try to innovate and give your recipes a healthful twist ! You are doing an awesome job! 🙂
thanks you so much, Indu!
Congratulations Apsara!
thank you Radhika!
Congratulations, Aspara… and the tart looks divine!
thank you, MB!
Huge congratulations on your blogiversary, Apsara, but also on your whole food(ie) journey 🙂 lovely to learn more about you, and here’s to many more years of sharing our blogworld together xxx
Thanks, Elaine. Yes, somehow these personal touches do make us get closer in the blogworld. xx
Congrats and thanks for the yummy pie. Delicious.
So glad you like it, Tracy! Thank you.
Congratulations on the anniversary. And your tart – I was thinking this morning I need something like this for a friend. Thank you so much.
thank you! Do let me know if you do try it out!
Congrats on your one year and it’s so nice to meet you! Thanks for bringing these scrumptious tarts to the Fiesta!
thank you, Cynthia! Nice to meet you too. Happy FF!
Wohooo!! Happy birthday to your blog. <3 And congrats… more years to come.
What a beautiful story! Congratulations on your blogiversary 😀
Let’s toast to that and to the future with more recipes on the blog!
Beautiful pie too 😀
Congrats on your blogversary. May you have many more to come 🙂
Congratulations for your 1st blog birthday,…yeahhhh to your cool blog & very delicious recipes! I am happy to have met you in the blogging World,….you mean a lot to me, my friend! Xxx
Belated happy blogversary 🙂
thank you, Deepa. 🙂