Last weekend, there were 2 birthday parties on consecutive days, one for my friend’s daughter and the other for my daughter who turned five. Since I was the “official”cake baker and decorator, I decided to put all my decorating skills to use. The above cake is themed “Peppa Pig”; the birthday girl loves the
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  You know how crazy I am about using whole grains, if you follow my blog closely. I have now tried using brown rice in the traditional dosa/south-Indian crepe and it turns out pretty good, in fact! I served this to a few friends of mine and they said there was no difference between these
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While asparagus is abundantly available this spring, let’s make good use of the fresh vegetable for these nutritional benefits. There are many recipes to make grilled asparagus, paired with other veggies. Here, I have cooked it lightly with Indian spices, sans onion and garlic (saatvik) in combination with carrot. This can be eaten with rice
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This dry spice mix can be made and stored for a few weeks. Adds flavor to dry curries that need to be made in a hurry. Ingredients: Chana dal/ Bengal gram- 3 tbsp. Urad dal/ split black gram- 3 tbsp. red chillies- 3 coriander seeds- 2 tbsp. asafoetida- a bit (or powder- 1/2 tsp.) oil-
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  The first flowers bloomed in my garden! I could not resist plucking a few to go with these brownies (I’m sorry, bees!) I’m taking these sweet treats to The Novice Gardener’s Fiesta Friday party, come join us there! Ah, yet another brownie recipe, you say. But look closely, this one has no egg, no
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I have started a new category in my blog- with recipes of fellow bloggers that I have tried and really like. Kind of a re-blog, with my notes on it. One of my favorite recipes that I often make and my family loves is the pancake or pesarattu made with sprouted mung beans. It can
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  Could spaghetti get any greener? Here is an Indian-ized version of spaghetti that I made up, with herbs coriander and mint, and has become a favorite dish in my family. It is simple to make and I often pack it in my kid’s lunchbox. This week I’m taking it to Angie’s Fiesta Fridays party.
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Pine nuts are one of those nuts (seeds, actually) that have immense nutritional benefits but are not very tasty to eat by themselves. They are expensive and their shelf life is short too; need to be stored in the fridge or freezer. The best way to use them in Indian cuisine, from my experiments, is in
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What would you do if you had a big ripe pineapple and a handful of fresh strawberries staring at you and no space in the fridge? That was my situation this evening, and I decided it was time for a smoothie! Even if spring blossoms are not here yet, we can imagine fully blossomed trees
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When  frosting a big cake, we invariably end up with extra icing that can be stored in the fridge for a week. But even kids would not like to eat plain icing after consuming a rich cake just a few days before. After making this cake last week, I had some beet-colored icing made with
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