mayurisjikoni

Merry Christmas Everyone   This Christmas I'm celebrating it in the Exotic Tropical Island of Bali... yes the Bali where Julia Roberts finds inner peace and balance of love in the movie Eat, Pray and Love. Spending this holiday season with my eldest son, his wife and her parents. The #124th theme Christmas for FoodieMonday/ Bloghop group has come just at the right time. Last week before traveling I baked an Easy Christmas Cake and some Cookies. So for this post was contemplating whether I should post the cake first or the cookies. The cake won and the cookies will be posted a bit later.    The last time we spent Christmas with my daughter in law and her parents was in Dubai. Family time together is fun and makes any festival more meaningful. My family is spread all over the world and for us to get together as one becomes very difficult because of jobs and number of days they can take off. For quite a while we were planning that the whole family gets together in Bali for C...

Coconut and Rum Theme: Surfing Through The Caribbeans BM #81- Week 1 Day 3    A Caribbean cuisine theme would be incomplete without a Jamaican dish. Whenever one mentions the Caribbean, Jamaica is what pops up in my mind and I hear its one of the few countries where a Kenyan passport holder can go to without prearranged visa :) A country that has a diverse population, the indigenous tribe, Africans, Indians, Europeans and Chinese. Under the Spanish rule it was called Santiago but after the British took over, they named it Jamaica. Some famous Jamaicans are Bob Marley, the reggae musician, Usain Bolt the sprinter, Chris Gayle cricketeer who plays for West Indies are a few I know of. Ian Fleming writer of James Bond novels, lived in Jamaica and used the island as a setting in his novels.    Jamaica is well known for its sugar, rum, coffee and yams. It is also famous for its jerk spice. Like the other Caribbean islands, the cuisine had a strong influence from the indige...

Delish and Evil Theme: No bake Desserts BM#78 Week 3 Day 3    When I saw so many dark ruby red cherries at the market and in the supermarket, I was tempted to bake a black forest cake. Basically a Black Forest cake, is layers of chocolate cake, kirsch soaked cherries, grated chocolate and whipped cream. Kirsch(kirsch wasser) is a spirit made from tart cherries. I would have loved to bake this cake or gateau as its called. However, my family would have probably thrown me out with all the dessert I'm making for the past few days.    Remember I mentioned in the last dessert post that I was looking for brownies. Well, its for this dessert. Since I couldn't bake the cake(who will eat it??) and as the Blogging Marathon theme suggested No Baked Desserts, I decided to make the next best thing to Black Forest Cake and that is a Black Forest Trifle.     Usually trifles are set in a big bowl and then served by scooping out a portion. I decided to go the mini way ...

GUEST NO.6 ON THE BLOG     This week my guest on the blog is my sister in law (hubby's sister) Varaharupa. When I got married, she was a vision of a modern ISKCON devotee with short hair cut, loved dressing up and never saw her without any jewellery. Things changed when she got married, it was only saris and her jewellery. After my marriage, obviously friends and families of my in laws would invite us for dinner or lunch to their place. As most newly weds would want to, I'd want to wear my saris but didn't know how to drape them well. Varaha would help me to drape them.             Her stay in Canada and Vrindavan temples meant that she would meet a lot of foreign devotees who brought with them foreign cuisine, the vegetarian version. When she would come home to visit, she'd want to try some of the dishes and some of them we had tasted for the first time.One such variety she had made was piroshki but with a veg filling. It was so yummy and we...

5th Blogiversary Above picture from Google  Yes, its a milestone achieved. Its exactly 5 years ago I started blogging. Back then had no idea how to take photos, add photos, link articles, and so much more. Over the years not only have I learnt so much in the technology world but also have learnt so much in the food world. I've made some very good friends over the internet and met a few. I've learnt so much by joining groups that challenge me to bake, cook, prepare different varieties of food. I can easily say that I try out a new recipe at least once a week if not more. Some have been total disasters and some not approved by family members.    I've thoroughly enjoyed being a part of We Knead to Bake, Bread Bakers, Shhh Cooking Secretly and FoodieMonday. Its unfortunate that other groups that I had enjoyed being a part of died, International Food Challenge and Home Bakers' Challenge to name a few.   I started blogging to share recipes that I had learnt from...

Nutan Varsh Abhinandan ( Happy New Year)     Today it's New Year for the Gujarati community. Its also Govardhan Puja day. Back in Mombasa its the day when we dress up in new clothes and go temple hopping... yes you read right not bar hopping but temple hopping. We visit all the Hindu temples in Mombasa, meet friends, relatives and acquaintances. After that it's lunch at Ajay's foi's house. It usually is very hot around that time of the year so after a heavy lunch we need to take a nap. In the evenings we get ready and go to Patel Samaj to meet and greet our community people. Its also the day when I prepare some prasadam for the ISKCON temple in Mombasa. Its the only day when outsiders can prepare whatever they like for Govardhan Puja.   But today New Year in Bangalore is quite different. Not attending any Govardhan Puja and may later go to a temple nearby. However, have spent the morning cooking as Nami's friends are coming over for dinner. It probably will be her l...