Spicy Dates and Walnut cake and the cleaning up of the pantry

I hate my habits of getting overexcited while grocery shopping, buying exactly the things that have been lying hiding in the back lanes of my cupboards, panting towards the expiry date almost always.. and then cursing myself when i spring clean or whatever and then go crazy thinking what can i make out of them to spare myself of the guilt of wasting yet another thingy. Well this time it was Dates for me. Don't remember when was the last time i have used dates in mainstream cooking, oh wait, i used to to quench my diet time cravings , the diets i get into like once in 6 months, well precisely when the birthday is approaching or the anniversary :D . So its been a while i have been in one such sprint and that sorry looking date packet is crying out for help and i rescue it right in time. 3 more weeks and it would meet its end, but no i have always eyed many many recipes or date cakes and likes and well i am not sure, when i got this pack, how did i justify the buy, sweet craving quencher or a date cake! 

Watermelon and Feta Salad : Our Summer favorite

Both me and Garg are big time melon fans, bring it on and we can live on them for days, watermelon being the top on the list. In recent times the whole blogosphere is a buzzing with the watermelon feta salad, whosoever discovered this wonderful combination, kudos. The saltiness of the cheese is a perfect compliment to the sweetness of the watermelon. To top it the lime juice which enhances the juices in the watermelon, this is a killer salad and a keep in our kitchen forever. And the beauty is how beautifully we can play with some variations and every time its a new blast of flavours and always appealing. And it does magic to the not so red and sweet watermelons.

Bloggers Table and Mediterranean sojourn at Taj Vivanta, Yeshwantpur

2 weeks back a group of us bloggers were invited for a Bloggers table by the Taj Vivanta property in Yeshwantpur, for some drinks at their bar Shimmer and a Mediterranean sojourn at their well talked about restaurant Azure. I was excited because it was med food, i love love love med food, and was totally looking forward to it, and it was one reason why going as far as Yeshwantpur was not a glitch. Had also read another foodie saying that azure med food was very good. 2 other foodie frens had also mentioned that their previous experiences were amazing in Azure. Well for me it was somewhat of a letdown, given it was my first there, i will take it as what i got it and proceed. This was not the kind of food you expect when you go to a 5 star, especially when recently you have has an amazing experience at they sister concern, the Taj West End. It was disappointing to say the least, except for a tomato confit for which i can probably recommend somebody to try ten times over.

Homemade Pizza : Pizza Casareccia with a Kickass pizza Sauce and dough : Nigella Lawson way

I had completely freaked out yesterday, the day had come when i finally decided to do the stuff i was running away from forever now. Given i have tried many breads now, i have no clue what was stopping me from trying pizza at home, maybe coz we both agree that pizza is one of those unhealthy things one must try to stay away from. Well that doesn't stop us from ordering once in a while. I am particularly not a big pizza fan, primarily because i had suffered from acute dehydration and remained hospitalised for a good 4 days after a pizza night and since then for almost 6-7 years i had said complete no to Pizza. Things have changed now. I have started having fresh pizza once in a while, not a big fan still, but what the heck, i bake, and i have never tried pizza! Not acceptable.

Sunday brunch at Novotel Square & Blue Terrain, Bangalore

Bangalore is abuzz with the concept of Sunday brunches these days. The idea of waking up late on a lazy sunday and look forward to a laid back.. lazing around and indulgence of a wide array of food, its tempting enough to give in to this concept, and people are indeed giving into it rather enthusiastically. We also gave into such an invit when we were invited for a CAL Bloggers Table and to try the Sunday brunch at The Square and Blue Terrain, Novotel.

We Knead To Bake #4 : Torcettini di Saint Vincent : Vanilla Sugar Crusted Twisted Lemon Cookies

I can attribute my cooking / baking to many people / things in life but one prominent factor pushing me into all things baking is the blogosphere. Life has been nothing like it was before i introduced myself to blogging and unknowingly got connected to many wonderful people around. Still i was not doing all that i wanted to do, all that i wanted to try. One of those things was baking more breads than i usually do. I joined the We knead to bake group with the same motto, i will bake 12 wonderful breads this month, and managed to pull off the beautiful Herbs and cheese pull apart bread . Aparna challenged us with to more beautiful breads in the next two months, but i had to skip it coz of other commitments. (Well i did one more of them today , so i skipped only one, and i promise myself, i will do the croissants too someday).

Bloggers Table : Mixology with Rui Principe at The Blue Bar, Taj West End

I know the blog needs to get an aussie treatment asap, but i was totally zonked for the past two weeks. Granny dear has not been keeping too well, but being the fighter she is, she is fighting it hard and we are all hoping and praying our hearts out and believe down beneath that she will recover well soon. I promise lots of aussie affairs are going to come up on the blog soon, but before that something that popped in between and i would remember well, had to make an appearance on the blog.

In between coming back from the aussieland and leaving for jamshedpur, i got a chance to attend something unique, The Blue bar, Taj West end had Rui Principe, their bar consultant, come down from Portugal, and was creating some exciting new concoctions for the property. We were given a chance to interact with him and learn a trick or two amidst tasting 5 of his beautiful creations, blending indian spices beautifully with some innovative cocktails.

Tarte au Citron : Lemon Custard Tarts : a citrus blast...

For a long long long time i was confused, well never read about whats the difference between all the varied types of lemons available in the market. The cute little green lemons i see in the market here in India, i always thought were far too sour to try any dessert called lemon something! But the very color of such desserts were so inviting, so fresh that it was itched in my mind that i have to read and try it someday.

Neelam Ji ke Besan ke Laddoo and the Giveaway winner.

Sometime back i finally did my 100th post, where i announced a giveaway in all excitement. I was thrilled to have over 45 entries for the giveaway and morever everybody was more excited about the personalized hamper than the Nigella book, woah.. for once i was more popular than Nigella, so what it was on my blog alone :D. I took a while to declare the winner but am glad iam doing that now. And the winner of the giveaway is Charis Alfred Bhagianathan of Culinary Storm. Looking forward to sending you the stuff lady. And a hearty thanks to all the others who played along!

No more a Daring Bakers Virgin with Gevulde Speculaas (Dutch Spiced Cake Filled With Almond Paste)

When i first started blogging in February 2008, i was excited to see all the talented bloggers all around, wanted to soak in as much as possible, cook and learn as much as possible, and then Recipe marathon happened, where a group of us planned to post for a week, and we were a happy bunch of crazy people who stuck even after that. That is when Anu of My food Blog had started taking up the Daring Bakers challenge. She was the stud among us all, we were all new to the whole concept of baking and this lady had started baking beautiful looking breads and cookies and what not, yeah and we were struggling to get the good old brownie right.