A simple hobby which started with the percept of organizing recipes through a food blog has gradually metamorphosed into a memoir over the years. If some recipes help reconnect with my roots then the other recipes are woven around my personal experiences reflecting the cultural diversities I live in.

The omnipresent Idly from South India was a delicacy in mom’s place before my marriage. Many Sunday lunches were reserved for steamy hot puffy Idly (steamed rice-lentil cakes) dunked into spicy Sambhar (lentil curry).

The equation changed after my marriage to KK  from South India in 1996. The humble Idly which is often  taken for granted in Chennai is no longer considered a specialty food at my home.

Soaking a set proportion of rice-lentil, grinding the batter, fermenting it overnight and storing the fermented batter in refrigerator has become a way of life now.

We spent some quality time talking, reflecting and sharing some of our personal and professional matters with each other. We did more of window shopping than the actual prop shopping as she had restriction to carry the luggage in flight.   

We never stopped talking and sharing food tips all along our way to market much to the chagrin of some shop keepers who were expecting us to do more of shopping than talking 🙂

“I add a handful of black sesame seeds to whatever I cook or bake at home, be it a Sambhar, Rasam, rice, or any Indian subji which takes care of the calcium intake of my family” A tip from her which is religiously followed by me hence-forth.

Thanks to some real-life social engagements, I went off-line for a couple of days and enjoyed the leisure time with family and friends. The self-exile did help in bringing some balance back into life .

Getting back to work again after a break can feel daunting.  I was trying to re-sync my internet-based social media engagements and checking the in-boxes for any messages.
I checked the online link on the site of a popular Indian newspaper ‘The Tribune’ which published my interview a couple of days back. I was reading that article and grinning from ear to ear, as if I had just won the lottery 🙂

And why wouldn’t I, the article about food bloggers in India starts with a few snippets from ‘my journey into the world of food blogging‘ and ends with a sentence from my about page! 

Following your dream is never easy, but these are the times when the efforts you put in, to realize your dreams feel worth.

Various legends associated to the origin of a festival in India leads to different rituals people follow to celebrate it which keeps the ‘amusement quotient’ quite high.
I received a call from the office of a very popular regional magazine  Dinakaran, sometime back. The editor informed  me that they are planning to feature 7-8 celebrities from various fields in Chennai with a traditional sweet recipe from their respective states in their special Diwali issue. And I am one among them.

“What“!? I almost screamed…err..huh…did I hear it right?

“Mom, make your Rajasthani Pasta again, some of my friends will be coming home after the movie and they have asked for it.” Informed son and left hurriedly to join his friends. Today he is off to watch a regional movie (Thalaiva) on his own, refusing any favors from us. From boarding a shared auto, booking the tickets and co-coordinating with his friends…my little dumpling is a grown up kid now.

I am not old enough to start reading fairy tales again…but its time I changed my parenting guidelines. When he waved bye and planted a kiss saying “Don’t you worry mom, I will take care”.  I know I would have given anything to keep him little….
But then, I do remember that the best gift I can give to him is to allow him to do things on his own and let him believe in himself.

‘Our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy’. Yes, we decided to repaint the house after putting the long due project to back burner for years. The house is in total mess, but this exercise is a good lesson not to collect things which we may never use in life. There are sackful of such useless articles peeping errr..sleeping in the cupboards and overhead lofts, and I am on a disposing spree…finally.

On a positive note, painting your house is a good chance to do some spring cleaning as well. My old oven, box TV, stone age printer, bangle boxes, speakers, toasters, fluffy teddy bears, bagful of plastic kitchenware…looks like I have a real Pandora box…and believe me some of these have never seen the light of the day. Getting attached with these not so useful objects which were a part of my life some years back is inevitable, and I really feel sad to part with.

There are times when I prefer & rely more on my ‘quick fixes’ in cooking over the original recipes. The handy ‘quick fixes’ I invented for my convenience during the last 20 years in my kitchen are easy and more fun do with whatever is available at that particular day in my kitchen. And this Cocoa Brownie is one such recipe when I run out of chocolates…well, not exactly run out, but am raided of…want to know how?

Cozy family weekend when everyone crave for a scrumptious dessert and there is no signs of the chocolate bars I hide in refrigerator for a surprise Sunday dessert. Yes, this happens quite often at home, my two naughty pirates never get tired of raiding my refrigerator of all that is ‘Chocolate‘..chocltae chips, chocolate sprinkles and even the dark unsweetened chocolate cooking bars!

Do you have a family dish which you prefer at times when you feel lazy to cook but do not wish to compromise on comfort and health quotient? Its Khichdi for my family. A hotch potch medley of wholegrain, millet, lentils and vegetables, Khichdi is an easy &  filling one pot meal and has all the necessary ingredients of a balanced diet which could be cooked quickly without much fuss. Carbohydrates from rice (or any grain), fiber from millet, protein form lentils and vitamins & minerals from veggies make this recipe a complete meal in itself.

Khichdi is the first solid food I was fed by mom and I followed the same meticulously with both my children barring a few days of formula food. This recipe is the one I often make when I am logger heads with time or just plain lazy and need an easy, quick fix meal.

Millet – these tiny pearls of wholegrain reminds me of the colorful Love birds we used to keep at home. I and my brother were assigned the job of  feeding the birds with a handful of Bajra (a millet variety) before leaving to school. The same Bajra was also hulled in a stone mortal and pestle by mom to remove the husks and use the grains for making Khichdi and other recipes.

But I am sure mom did not know that these tiny grains are a powerhouse of nutrients and one of the best gluten free foods. I wish she could read all the info regarding Millets and feel proud of introducing millets in our diet at such early stage, thanks mom 🙂

‘Count your blessings’ …Oh yes, have been doing the same quite often since I started my blog. One such blessing is the countless foodie friends I get to connect through Lite Bite and other social medias on line. We have a good time sharing our passion for food, exchange recipes, discuss personal developments, point out mistakes, rectify them and grow together. The generous support that most of the bloggers shower for each other is commendable.