This is such an incredibly easy recipe. My choco-holic friend refers to these as “Petite Pick me Ups“. One of my husband’s colleagues left the country for ever and his wife , who is a chef,  had an assortment of kitchen stuff to give away. Among the few that I took, she forced me to take bunch of chocolate she had hoarded! I was in a fix since we are not chocolate/Sweet/Dessert eaters in my house. But she insisted and armed with loads of chocolate I came home.  The one thing I knew was that I would be making something with these and giving it away to my choco-monster of a friend and parcel rest away for my husband’s colleagues at work.

This is such a simple recipe to put together from(...)
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Post tags: bittersweet chocolate, cinnamon, condensed milk, semi sweet chocolate, vanilla extract

I know I have talked about this – like million times already in this blog. At the risk of becoming monotonous and boring, I am repeating it once again – I am a WHOLEGRAIN lover. I cannot get enough of them. And esp. in this country with the variety of whole grains at my disposal , I cannot help being ecstatic. Just like the paparazzi can blab even in their dreams which restaurants/locations celebrities go to, anyone who knows me will find me at local Whole Foods market in case they find that I seem to be missing at home. Most often (exception of few other boring places which sadly have to be visited!), I can be found at either Barnes and Nobles store or Whole Foods. I am like a kid in candy heaven! Like a dog trying to catch its tail, I keep going round and round the aisles of these stores without getting bored or embarrassed (ppl must think I am silly for looking at the same aisle again and again! I care less!)

Anyways, all this passion has to be culminated into something right – yes – cooking it sure is. Amongst other fresh smelling books, Cookbooks aisle is a must visit place  and in one such recent visit I chanced a look at my messiah. Author Lorna Sass.  Woman after my own heart and soul. I latched on to her wholegrain book – noted down few recipes (which you will see in the coming days for sure!) and came home to make it the same day. Oh Boy! Was I overjoyed!!!!! It was like a whole new world was opened up for me. My husband shook his head in resignation at my mirth over some “silly whole grain cooking” – but his face was worth watching when I set our dinner table with this delicious dessert.

At first he was skeptical since (...)
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Post tags: allspice, anise, apple butter, baking powder, baking soda, blackberries, brown sugar, buttermilk, cinnamon, cornmeal, cornstarch, eggs, lemon, nectarines, pastry flour, peaches, pecans, plums, vanilla extract, walnuts

There are multiple ways to cut fat in your baked goods without compromising a lot on the taste of course. While I don’t believe in enjoying a healthy food that TASTES healthy (read as : Bland, Earthy and a Blech!), I scout for recipes which are nutritious without making the consumer feel like a nobody. I am more of instead of 10 tbsp of butter cut 5 tbsp from it by substituting something healthy and low fat instead.  There’s so much in the markets nowadays to make such healthy substitutes but I find that one is sometimes better of not using them cos the ingredients list to make this healthy doesn’t look such so ideal themselves. Preservatives, sugars etc make it worse.

So when I found this recipe for Apple Butter which I could whip up right at home in about 15-20 minutes I was ecstatic.  Apple Butter, homemade tastes much better than the store bought ones. There are many recipes and variations for making apple butter with most of them relying on store bought apple sauce.  This recipe uses fresh apples and also uses a natural sweetener (if using) – Maple Syrup. Mildly spiced, these are a dream to have in your fridge.  This recipes gives you a spiced and sweetened version of Apple Butter which you can skip so that you can use it in all your baked goods without the butter overpowering the taste.

I also use it few other ways which I have elaborated below the post. (...)
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Post tags: apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, Dry ginger, lemon, maple syrup, nutmeg, vanilla extract

Since legumes provide the bulk of protein for vegetarians, its inevitable that it is one of my go to ingredients. I have so many variety in my pantry that it helps me to vary my meals providing  freshness to the dish. But somehow, I never seem to find time to post such dishes since I do that mostly in a jiffy and to take pictures every time becomes a cumbersome process. Weekends, I end up resorting to ingredients available here which might be a problem for readers across the map. But recently, I was asked for Rajma Chawal by a reader and I was like -”Oh my god! I don’t have Rajma Chawal in the site?!!!”. I manage to astound myself every time since I always convince myself that nobody wants such dishes. Why I would assume such a thing is beyond me!

There is one section of readers who tell me that I seem to be lagging behind my usual game whenever I post simple recipes and not hard ones. I would put a special plea to such readers asking them to be patient and understanding of the fact that there is another huge section of readers who want simple day to day meals too and they are curious to know how I prepare it. Out of 250 odd recipe request I have in my “to-do” list (which is growing every single day !), at least 150 of them are simple day to day recipes. Few of them sadly, I cannot undertake due to lack of ingredients in this part of the world, while few others I cannot cos I don’t make them there being no takers in this house! The others I am doing slowly as and when time paves way. So this Rajma Chawal is one such dish in this category.(...)
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Post tags: bay leaf, cardamom, cilantro, cinnamon, cloves, cumin-coriander powder, fennel seeds, ginger, kidney beans, mango powder, onion, peppercorns, tomatoes, turmeric

I am seeing Mangoes everywhere. I love them and the memories of my growing up days abound. The times when I used to sit around in the backyard of my grandma’s house, sucking those ripe and luscious mangoes..aah Bliss! They seem like just yesterday yet I am painfully made to aware of how long back they were. Anyways, after enjoying them, I got this baking bug with the remaining ones. And whenever it comes to baking, my first thoughts always go to making breads first. Then comes muffins, pies, or whatever else baking fairy blesses me with!

The bits of mangoes dotting the bread and the slight crunch of nuts makes this one of my favorite breads. I can’t for the life of me figure out the source of this recipe. I recall noting it down from a magazine but cannot recall which one. You can easily make this eggless by increasing the qty. of oil in the recipe. If you want to cut down the additional fat, use mango puree instead. Just blend few mango pieces in a blender and use it instead of egg whites.You can use either walnuts or macadamia and since I had the latter, I used it. I also modified the recipe slightly to suit my pantry needs.

(...)
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Post tags: baking soda, cinnamon, eggs, macadamia, mango, walnuts

Its funny when many people I know assume I have lots of time to burn, cos I sit and cook so much! Why funny? – you might ask. As long as someone has interest they would find ways and means to do it, is my explanation. Like for example, my husband has been behind me practically for 2 yrs now (yes, that long) to improve my photography skills. He insists that its a good thing to learn the techniques, learn the composition, learn the “Rule of thirds”, so on and so forth!

“Oh I have no time“,

“Well after I finish cooking and take all the pictures, I am so(...)
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