A delicious meal is great, but a dessert is even better. A handful of fresh fruits, few biscuits, a little yogurt or cottage cheese and you are in for a refreshing and healthy treat everyday. Dessert recipes that are easy on the stomach are preferred anytime in my home to heavy & creamy ones. Nothing is more  rewarding than to see my children appreciating & preferring these home made healthy desserts over store bought ice creams.

These two desserts are now a regular feature on our dinner table, just that the fruits and the biscuit/cornflakes base keep changing to bring in more variation in the recipes. Cottage cheese and yogurt give that feathery touch and extra freshness to the recipes.

An Indian wedding is a perfect blend of traditions, grandeur, delectable cuisine and sacredness of celebrations. The unbound enthusiasm and the flow of emotions of all the family members have to be seen to be believed.

My children have attended many Tam Brahm marriages of their paternal relatives in Chennai but have never seen any Rajasthani marriage from my side. They were too small to remember anything about my brothers’ marriage in 2004, son was hardly four years and daughter was just a few months old.

During my recent  visit to Udaipur in May 2013, I got a chance to take them to a typical Marwari marriage.  And they were really amused to notice the stark differences between the rituals and proceedings of marriages of two states of India. My daughter quipped that she wants to get married in Rajasthan so that the groom comes riding a horse 🙂

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~ Russel Baker. Am sure many would be one to love summer for a good reason – Ice Creams! There was a time when the very word ‘Ice-cream‘ was banned in my house. Recurrent cough & cold and instructions from the music teacher to avoid anything cold for the children made sure that ice cream cease to exist in our house. For good long years both of us also avoided ice creams served during any party or functions lest our children will get tempted.

But now that they are grown up and have better immunity power the ban has been partially lifted. They are allowed to eat ice creams but have to gulp warm water immediately to reduce the effect of cold. Does this sound too cruel…Well, I have heard such weird stories from many possessive & protective parents. And I willingly admit that I am one among them 🙂

If being stupid, selfish, and having good health are the three requirements for happiness then I must admit that I am a mix of all the three! Let me unveil it for you…the recent after effects of the Indonesian earthquake in India had a mild effect on the properties but caught many people unaware. I was sitting on my dinning table with one hand on my laptop and the other hand holding a tea cup when the incident occurred. Suddenly I felt my heart pumping faster and I could hear my heart beat clearly. I started to sweat and my hand was trembling with the tea cup in it. It did not occur to me that this could be due to an earthquake. I started relating the symptoms with my 40 plus status and all the medical ailments that could remember at that time. I was paying attention to all the minute details of what was happening to me so that I could explain the same to my doctor….phew.  Yes, I was scared out of my wits.

A phone call from Hubby to inquire if I felt the earth quake relieved me and I screamed ” What, an earthquake, thank God”. Confused and a bit startled to comprehend my insane statement, he cut the line.  Being selfish is not a bad thing if it makes you happy without hurting others 🙂

Naan – a popular flat bread from South Asia, always reminds me of my college days in Delhi. The time I traveled quite frequently to my home during weekends and used to eagerly wait for the bus to stop at those high way Dhabas (makeshift village side eateries) for some scrumptious meal. Charcoal smoked Naans hot from Tandoor (clay oven), generously smeared with fresh butter and served with whole creamy lentils, yogurt raita and sliced onions…Mmm. Although I often make Naan at home but nothing can beat that authentic taste of charcoal infused slightly charred stuffed Naan. If only I knew that a food blog is on the anvil…I would have asked him the recipe for sure 🙂

Certain food brings back the memories associated with it, the person who cooked it, the people we ate with, and the occasion it was cooked for. When Alicia Cowan of My Dish contacted me to write about food which makes me nostalgic, it took me a while to zero down to just one recipe! Oh yes..this Cottage cheese in exotic gravy mom prepared for almost all the parties we used to host at home is a nostalgic recipe. Though not for the flavors and the recipe itself but for the fun & frolic we had during those parties with friends. And mom was quite famous for this Paneer Jalfrzi with her hot Kulchas.Even now whenever (read rarely) I cook this recipe I make sure to call at least one childhood friend to talk about those wonderful childhood days of yesteryear.

“What does a Cheesecake remind you?” To me it conjures the feeling of digging into soft snowy mountain, a refreshing dessert you really don’t want anyone to tell you about how much cream cheese, ricotta and quark has gone into making it. Just dig..eat..and repeat.
I am not much of a cream fan and try to replace the same in all my cooking & baking for good and also avoid gelatin in my recipes if the food is for the consumption of my family. Somehow Gelatin makes me feel unnatural, but …

Grilling is probably one of the best way to enjoy a whole lot of veggies which I find it difficult to use in my normal day Indian recipes. I often use cottage cheese and Tofu in many of my recipes but cherry tomatoes and colored capsicum find its place in salads only. And eating soya nuggets and raw capsicum in salads is a big ‘No’ for my children with the exception of these Kebabs which is their favorite snack.

A recent visit by a friend from a near by hill station, made me rich with piles of farm fresh mountain vegetables, yes these tender, young and juicy organic veggies are no less than a treasure. I could not control myself but to munch upon the crunchy carrots, cucumber and the lovely green pods filled with sweet little peas. One of my favorite snacks of all time I could spend hours together with a bucketful of fresh peas..press..open..pluck..plop..and repeat 🙂 But alas, these veggies are a far cry in big cities, all I get here is lifeless, limp and tasteless vegetables.

Time flies when you are enjoying what you are doing and doing what you enjoy the most. And I thoroughly enjoyed my vacation at my native Udaipur. Learned to cook a few authentic recipes from mom, visited all the historical places which were in my wish list for long and most important met many of my schoolmates after almost 30 years!

Mom made these two versions of Stuffed flat breads or Parathas for my travel food. My kids dislike air travel and given a choice would always prefer trains over flights. They love to watch green fields, rivers, animals and villages over the dull and gray clouds 🙂 so I booked for the flight for one way and came back by train.