mayurisjikoni

It's an Honour    Last Saturday was an exciting day for me. I was installed as the 19th President of my very hardworking and active Club, Lions Club of Mombasa Bahari. Since the Club was chartered, I have been a part of it. First as a spouse and then as a Lion. The best part was that one of my good friend Lion Tasneem Dar, performed the ceremony of installing me along with my board members. My best friend Daxa and Jitu were there to share the milestone in my life along with my brother in law and sister in law. The surprise moment was when my hubby Ajay, sang a song for me. I was feeling shy, happy and loved all at the same time. Was I nervous? Yes, had butterflies in my stomach the whole afternoon. Its a big responsibility to run such a fine Club, but then we have wonderful members, helpful and active. Right from medical to educational to donations, some activity or the other takes places practically every month. The Club climbs to greater heights under each President. For my year

  sweet memories   The food blogger world for is getting bigger and bigger. Getting to know more bloggers, following many regularly and commenting too. Its amazing how some recipes reminds one of their childhood. It can be a whole recipe, a method or just a single ingredient that can trigger the memory.  One such recipe I came across was zucchini pancake by Shobha of Shobha's Food Mazaa . As I read the recipe, I immediately thought of my mum. She would make pudlas (chilas) and sweet pudlas often for dinner for the huge family. She would have two tawas on the cooker, and would spread out perfect round pudlas for all of us. My cousin would usually ask her to add an egg in his savoury pudlas. She would mix the egg into the batter and make them. I thought of making a version of the zucchini savoury pancakes. Here is my version. Shobha thank you sharing a wonderful recipe and bringing back sweet memories.  I added other vegetables as these days hubby dear does not want to eat salad. So

  Times have changed     I enjoyed reading Femina magazine for many years. I found it covered all areas - housekeeping tips, food, recipes, health, children, fashion, make up ... basically anything that women identified with. It was not entirely a housewife's magazine. It also covered modern issues, balancing home and work, career options, finance and so many other worldly happenings. Then slowly the magazine began to change. More pages on fashion and brands started to appear. Now I find it is like any other fashion magazine and not as a whole package to cater for women from all walks of life and different interests. I have tried many recipes from Femina magazine, picked up numerous tips and drooled over food photos. A salad recipe I tried out from the magazine became an instant hit with our guests. That led to me being invited by various communities and ladies clubs to give a demonstration on salads. 20 years down the road and that salad is still a favourite. The favourite recipe

A happy and peaceful Eid    The month long fasting period is over and its time to celebrate Eid. Fasting for a whole month without water and carrying on with ones work and routine is not easy. Hot weather makes fasting that much more harder and I feel bad for the ones fasting in the Western countries. For them the fasting period lasts longer. During the month of Ramadhan, loads of street food is sold for Iftar, samosas, kebabs, juices, mamri, kaimatis, dates etc etc.     One cannot help but get into the festive mood in Mombasa. Shops and malls are decorated, shops are busy and open till late. Delicious food is sent home by Muslim friends and tempting aromas waft through from neighbours homes. To celebrate Eid this year I decided to make Sheer Khurma. Sheer is milk and khurma is dates in the Persian language. Sheer Khurma is made as a breakfast treat on Eid and also as a dessert. Its usually served the whole day to guests.Certain ingredients may vary according to the regions but the mai

A good break    Sometimes its nice to get away from the blogging world.One needs to take a break and not feel, I need to add a recipe, I need to keep my followers busy, etc etc. Though I had not planned to take a break from blogging while I was visiting my son in Montreal, it was a compulsory break. His computer was not working too well, it was just too slow. I tried uploading photos and it took forever. The first few days I missed blogging but then got busy and didn't miss it that much. This time round hubby and I made frequent trips to the lovely vibrant and colourful Jean Talon Market. It was a good walk to and fro for both of us and they have such quaint little cafes and eateries within the market or surrounding the market. Shopping at the market is a delight... fruits, vegetables, herbs, plants, meat, fish, nuts, cheeses, wines etc etc.. the list is endless. We would want to buy all the fruits and vegetables available but had to hold ourselves back. Why?? Well who would carry

IN MY VEG BOX ROUND UP - MAY 2015 - BUTTERNUT SQUASH It appeared from the number of entries that butternut squash is not a very popular vegetable. However I would like to thank  the following for their entries : 1)  Mina of Tea and Catch up  for her yummy and simple butternut squash soup 2) Nayna of  Citrus spice and all things nice  for her healthy butternut squash and kale soup And finally I posted the following : butternut squash soup pasta with butternut squash sauce butternut squash and apple salad

Bellissimo       I swear I missed these delicious soft sweet brioche like buns when I went to Rome. I didn't see them or perhaps my tunnel of vision at that time was just on gelato, all different flavours. But then we were too busy taking in all the sights and hardly had any time to laze around cafes and coffee shops. Gelato, prosecco, pizzas and pasta were the main things I looked out for. The only time I had anything sweet besides gelato was tiramisu. Oh well anyway, baking these soft, sweet, orangey buns was a delight. Obviously the whole house smelt so good and the buns disappeared pretty fast during breakfast. When I baked the maritozzi, I was in Montreal. I had to shop for all the ingredients including the yeast as my son does not bake at all. So there I was standing in front of a huge choice of different types of fresh cream. I was so confused, I first picked up the double cream and put it back on the shelf thinking I rather choose a lighter one. So thinking that country sty