Blog for women

Lakshmi of blogspot.com/">Veggie Cuisine has come up with a new event that is close to my heart: Each month, we will be making the food of one region/ state of India. This month, we travel to the Southern tip of India to the state of Tamil Nadu to cook up some delicious Tamil Cuisine . You can take a look at Tamil Nadu at the far South-East tip of India in this map . The Southern Indian states of India have a wonderful tradition of vegetarian cuisine, and as I am learning to cook, it has been gratifying to replicate the tastes of South Indi an food that I have only ever glimpsed in restaurants before. Tamil food is especially close to my heart, because I might not be Tamilian, but I *am* married to one (V has never actually lived in TN, and remains a born-and-bred "bambaiyya", but so what?). My forays into Tamil cuisine have thus far been limited to a regular turnout of idli-sambar and the occasional dish like eggplant rasavangy . I own two cookbooks that I find...

Lakshmi of blogspot.com/">Veggie Cuisine has come up with a new event that is close to my heart: Regional Cuisines of India or RCI. Each month, we will be cooking up specialties of one region/ state of India. This month, the RCI event is being hosted by Richa of As Dear As Salt . The theme is Punjabi Cuisine , i.e., the cuisine of the Northern state of Punjab. Punjabi cuisine : if ever there was a regional cuisine that has found iconic success, this is it. In Indian restaurants in all the far-flung regions of this planet, whether they are fancy-schmancy ones or pokey holes-in-the-wall, Punjabi cuisine is ubiquitous. People who know absolutely nothing about India will nevertheless be familiar with aloo gobi and saag paneer . In the 80s and 90s in places where I lived, when families went out to eat, it was almost always to restaurants serving Punjabi cuisine. It was also the cuisine of choice for celebratory dinners, such as birthday and wedding buffets. It is hardly sur...

Every month, Coffee from com/">The Spice Cafe sends us off on a mission called the Monthly Blog Patrol : the idea is to browse our favorite blogs and choose some recipes that make us want to run to the kitchen and try them, and, well, run to the kitchen and *actually* try them, instead of just drooling all over the keyboard. The theme for this month is Going Lite . I have to say that Coffee has chosen a very apt theme for this month! St. Louis is blazing hot, and the water vapor hangs heavy in the air, making it exhausting to step out during the day. It is the kind of weather where the thought of eating rich foods is oppressive and I'm seeking sweet relief in lighter fare. When I read the theme, I thought of all kinds of things to make- maybe a fruity drink, a cold soup, or a chilled sorbet or a salad. In the end, I turned to my bulging list of recipes bookmarked on my laptop and came upon a post that had inspired me a year and a half ago! This wrapped salad goes by...

Weekend Dog Blogging: Puppy At Heart flickr.com/photos/33829002@N00/580358810/" title="Photo Sharing"> Of all the thousands of pictures we have taken of Dalu, this is one of my favorites. It captures the quintessential personality of Dale- innocent and child-like, yet dignified; a little bewildered by the big bad world around him. Although Dale is nearly eight years old (middle-aged in doggy terms), people still stop us in the street and ask us if he is a puppy...this happens almost every day. Dale gets groomed every other weekend and they often send him home sporting a colorful printed cotton scarf like the one he is wearing in the picture. I think the scarf looks absolutely adorable on him, but V insists that it makes him look like the neighborho od goonda (thug) and keeps saying, "kya, Dalu Bhai" , and "kassa kai, Dalu Dada" to him! The poor puppy! To celebrate RCI: Maharashtra , I tried three Maharashtrian recipes from my fellow blog...

This is one of my entries for blogspot.com/2007/03/celebrating-regional-cuisines-of-india.html" target="_blank">RCI : Maharashtrian Cuisine . Maharashtrian cuisine, like the other Indian cuisines, has one category of recipes that is specially loved: all the crispy crunchy melt-in-the-mouth tea-time snacks ! Some of these goodies are made specially for festivals, others are made in batches and stored in air-tight containers, waiting for friends and relatives to drop in une xpectedly. One of these special savory foods is called the bakarwadi . What is bakarwadi ? You can think of it as a Swiss roll, only fiery hot! A savory filling is rolled into a chickpea dough, and slices of this roll are deep-fried. The resulting savory bites are a favorite tea-time treat, and also specially made during the festival of Diwali. When people in Maharashtra think of bakarwadi , they generally think of a particular type made famous by the Chitale Bandhu store in city of Pune. Their ...

This is my entry for the monthly Jihva For Ingredients , an event that celebrates all the wonderful natural ingredients that form the backbone of Indian cuisine! JFI is the brainchild of Indira from nandyala.org/mahanandi" target="_blank">Mahanandi . This month, JFI is being hosted by Sangeeta of Ghar ka Khana . The name of Sangeeta's blog means "Home-Cooked Food", and she has chosen a vegetable that is cooked in hundreds of home-style ways: the EGGPLANT! Those richly colored royal purple eggplants- I love them every day and in every way! I was so overwhelmed with ideas of dishes that I could make for this event that I almost ended up not participating at all. Finally, I decided to go for something super-simple. A typical way that I remember eating eggplant as a kid was in a vegetable dish (called bhaaji in Marathi) called Varna-Vaangi which fits in with the "Mixed Vegetables" theme from yesterday's post. Vaangi is eggplant, and Varna ...

A few weeks ago, I realized with a start that in two-and-a-half years of blogging, brown rice has been a rare commodity on this blog How did that happen? It has something to do with my complicated relationship with brown rice: On one hand, I love the nutty and chewy texture of brown rice, and want to embrace its