Happy ‘Pie’ Diwali

I often wonder what is the inspiration behind writing. What is it that enthuses authors, writers and more so, bloggers, to continue to write and maintain simply, just good writing. The reason why I am questioning this even more today, is because of my almost month long hiatus from the blogging world and my temptation in the last few days, to drop everything and cook. I don’t have an excuse. I simply haven’t got around to doing it. Post navratras, it was the onset of the wedding season, and since then, the festivities have taken over our social life. Yes, ‘Our’ Social Life, which includes social obligations of not one, but two families (FYI- I don’t like the phrase social obligations- simply because it makes meeting family/friends appear almost torturous. nevertheless, it seems appropriate here). From the first Karva Chauth, to pre-diwali cards, the visiting family-exchanging gifts, the lunches and dinners and finally Diwali today, I guess, this first year of being married has definitively exploded into a social frenzy- but I am not complaining. Like always, I love this time of the year, including the brilliant weather. And like all good Punjabis- I love and thoroughly enjoy the wedding season and the festivities. In fact, with the nip in the air, I am reminded of the many things I love about India, and one of the many reasons why I am glad I am home. J

To be honest- It is not like I haven’t been cooking- I just haven’t bothered to document it. And mostly, it was so rushed, and unplanned, that I just couldn’t. Maybe, some day, I will reach that juncture where I would think that my blog could do without photographs and I could post even if I hadn’t documented it. Or maybe not. (Because how else will Ak be the most integral part of this blog, the way he is currently!). This year, which has brought with itself a lot of material exchanges, some wonderful people around me have given me delightful cooking accessories, including my mom, who very thoughtfully has given me the perfect cake platter which will be up for appearance shortly. We had been hunting for one for months, and this one is just perfect.

Undocumented Bliss (guest post by Ak)

Disclaimer - This post is not about some gorgeous sinful, yet simple recipe that yields magical culinary results. There are no tasteful photographs. There are no measurements. Nothing.

I had been thinking , for some time now, of writing about the cocktail (which cocktail?, The Cocktail! - but more later) since that would be the natural accompaniment to all these wonderful recipes. The balance, delicacy and symphony of ingredients is not limited to what we eat, but also to what we drink. This is a far cry from the guzzling, volume-centric binge scotch-soda drinking that is so prevalent in our culture. Rather, this is about using good ingredients, complex flavours and enjoying the taste. But this post is not about that either.

This post is about a dinner we hosted yesterday for family. They are here for a few days, but with busy schedules all around, this was probably the only home cooked meal we were all going to eat together. The theme for the evening was Thai, so without checking with our guests whether they liked it, were allergic or other unimportant stuff, we fixed a menu and got on with it.

The Deceptive Tart

I feel like I have been out of action for a while. It hasn’t been long since my last post and it’s not like I haven’t cooked anything in the last few days. But, the rut of daily routine, a lot of work and other mental preoccupations have slowly set in this inertia, which has prevented me from blogging. This was one of those days- crammed with dilemma, which of course reflected in my cooking. But then again, after a day like this, what I really needed is to switch off momentarily and treat myself to a stint in the kitchen. In fact I think the dish is representative of my psychological state of affairs.

Since dinner was prepared already, I decided to strike the sweet tooth. On the day preceding the navratras (life and the kitchen being devoid of any ills- alcohol, eggs and all forms of meat for 7 complete days), clearly, I wasn’t going to bake anything with eggs. Simultaneously, the recurring telecast of Nigella’s grasshopper’s pie was still playing in my mind. My indecisiveness soon disappeared. Ak said, that this was the day of taking a crack at something new, so why not this too! And voila’, did I need any more inspiration? I didn’t think so.

Of cupcakes and muffins

One should never plan. And I cannot resist planning.

My mom always says- don’t plan. Even for the next morning. Because the moment you do, it is surely not bound to happen.

So, when I gleefully planned to bake with my newly found, pretty cupcake cases last Sunday, I should have very well guessed that ‘It was not going to happen.’ Sunday was overtaken by the quickie, Monday just happened to be a typical Monday, and then the no energy Tuesday and Wednesday, and by Thursday evening- I was seeing muffins on my office computer screen and thinking about my cupcake wrappers in the middle of reviews. Was it possible that I did not have a spare 20 minutes to bake a quick round of muffins? Had my life really come to this? By the time I reached home from work- I had declared that this was the day, when my plan to bake just had to work! (with or without the photography)