mayurisjikoni

Event Announcement I am happy to announce that I will be hosting  Favorite Recipes Event  for the  month of  October 2014 . The theme for the event is Diwali  Recipes .This event was started by   Swathi Iyer  of   Zesty South Indian  Kitchen .   I am hosting an event for the first time and  I would really appreciate if you support me by  participating  in this event.  Thanks Swathi for giving me the opportunity to host the event.  The event rules are as follows - * A linky tool will be open from 1st of October 2014 to 31st October 2014. * Multiple entries are welcomed.   Any number of new recipes and two recipes  from the archives .  Please update the post with logo or worded link. * Recipe can be  gluten or vegan free. Only vegetarian recipes please     but eggs allowed in baked dishes. * Using the logo is welcome but not mandatory. Using the logo helps to spread  ...

Narendra Modi rocks!        Last night got back from a late show of the movie Equalizer and couldn't fall asleep immediately. One shouldn't watch violence before bed time as sleep disappears. I decided to check out my facebook page and the first thing I see was the speech by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi at the Madison Square Garden shared by a friend. http://goo.gl/47tJIi      A true leader, a great orator and a humble man. His speech captivated the audience and was inspirational. For a person who wants to do so much for India its every Indian's duty inside and outside India to support this great cause. We all dream of a better, cleaner India and if we put our minds to it, it is possible.      I am usually not interested in politics as everywhere in the world, politicians promise a lot and leave the people disillusioned. However, what I have noticed about Narendra Modi is that you cannot help but get capitvated by what he says. T...

a delightful treat    When Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen suggested we bake pizzas for the ' We knead to bake September challenge', I thought yum... the options can be endless. The base and/or topping had to be different from the ones we make usually. I read the posting during my trip to Italy. Everywhere from then I was looking out for a different type of pizza. Unfortunately, didn't find any except when we stayed in a hotel in Baveno. They served a fruit pizza for breakfast. The fruit was beautifully arranged on the base. That gave me an idea... I would bake a fruit pizza. As other fellow bloggers posted their baked pizzas, most of them were savoury ones so my decision to concentrate on a fruit one became more solid. Initially I wanted to bake a banana chocolate pizza, but the idea of baked banana didn't sound too appealing. The next best bet was apples. Recipe ready, ingredients ready but I didn't get time to bake it till today! No power, busy at home, busy with L...

not eggplants again !   During my holiday in Italy, I was a bit disappointed that the choice for vegetarians was very limited. Margherita pizzas, pasta with tomato sauce, pasta with mushrooms or cold grilled vegetables. Usually it would be grilled eggplants, zucchini and pepper. No garlic or onion flavour and forget about getting any chilli flakes. Pizza hut and Dominos spoil us by giving us endless satchets of chilli flakes. Italian restaurants in India and Kenya give us chilli oil, yummy chilli sauces, pestos that are chilli. However, visit any restaurant in Italy and its difficult to find any of those extra condiments... no extra olive oil, chilli oil, chilli flakes, salt or pepper ! I had vowed to my hubby dear that once we get back to Mombasa, I was not going to buy any eggplants for a long time. On my return, dear Esther, the veggie lady who comes door to door, brought lovely huge eggplants. I didn't buy them. She comes the next day with fresh ones again and I just couldn...

Simple but delicious    I am posting a traditional recipe after a long time. Dry tindora (tondli, giloda,kovakai) shaak or sabji is a simple but delicious vegetable to prepare. Some prepare it using just dry spices, some add the fresh spices like ginger and some use both. Whichever way you prefer to make it, its important to make a dish that suits the taste of your family. Some find cooking a chore, some find it therapeutic and for some its a passion.     There was a local cookery competition taking place on tv sometime back and while I was watching it I was wondering how you can really judge someone's cooking? Some like their food a bit more spicy, some like it mild, some like it a bit tangy, and some prefer a wee bit more salt. So how is it possible to judge ones taste buds? If I were to judge a competition, I would be put off if I found a dish slightly more salty or chilli. Would that mean the cook is a bad cook? No, that cook just cooked the food the way her...

I missed my salads   My dream holiday to Italy was worth ever penny. I cannot thank hubby dear enough for organizing the trip. It was the first time we booked the whole tour through Cosmos, and what a wonderful experience. Organized tours have advantages and disadvantages, but the advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages as age creeps up on us. We met people from different cultural backgrounds, different countries and maybe some may develop into friendship.During our daily briefings, everyone complained about having to get up really early, but next day everyone would be on the bus 5 minutes earlier all eager to discover Italy through the eyes of our ever smiling and friendly tour leader and our very capable and careful driver. Italy is all about cararra marble, duomos, prosecco, olives, sculptures, history, fiats and vespas. Our friends and family ask us which was our favourite place. Its such a difficult question to answer as each place we visited had its own beauty and ch...