Chayote Corn Soup (Pretty Spicy)

Soup week resurfaces every time our bathroom scale hits a never seen before high. Yes, it happened again this Sunday!

We started our Saturday with a cup of green tea with lemon n honey. (Don't laugh! There is no harm in believing that all those years of bad eating & lack of exercise can be nullified with a glass of tea!)

And, to intensify the regime - we slept through most of Sunday as someone once told us that lack of sleep makes you bloat.

Lastly, while doing our weekly groceries - we stayed clear of the chips, cheese and cake aisles.

Good so far? :)

We still ended up with a fairly fat bill buying just fruits & vegetables. A lot of first time buys this time - including Chayote (Chow Chow), Butternut Squash & Asparagus.

Sunday menu was Chayote Corn Soup. Don't judge me for thinking that the Chayote would be perfect to play the part of a grumpy mean vegetable villain in a children's cartoon. Doesn't it look like it would eat you up, if you don't bite into it first? :P

Rudolph's Red Nose Spritzer

This time, the occasion was Deepavali. There isn't ever a time when there's no reason to celebrate, right? Not when you are surrounded by a bunch of happy souls who are ever ready to raise a glass n toast to good times!

S & I hosted a potluck at our place last night for Deepavali and sure enough - friends from in and around NJ made it a lovely evening by attending and staying over. It wasn't complete without a lunch at Saravana Bhavan and a movie at Edison. Too bad, it had to be a Vijay starrer.

In anycase - the best part of any get-together are those mini conversations that occur in groups of 3 and 4 throughout the night. The guys talk about cricket and the girls whine about the guys talking cricket and many such cliches. Amidst one such chatty session - me and my girl friends came up with some exciting new cocktail recipes. Some borrowed, and tweaked to suit the Indian tongue which still finds melagu rasam the most intoxicating drink amidst all!

Will release each of the cocktail recipes here one by one. First up, is Rudolph's Red Nose Spritzer (Inspired from Pinterest)

Lemon Sponge Cake

Back in Pilani where I spent 4 wonderful years is where I started baking. No fancy ovens, no clean utensils even. With broken hindi and cocoa powder weighed in an old fashioned balance n bundled in a day old newspaper - some of us would set out to make cookies or cakes in one corner of our hostel's mess. Mess, is a good name for it all. =)

Often times, these baking experiments were remedies to forgotten birthdays, bad exams or a way to cope with lonely nights far away from your family. But over the years - they've come to mean something else. The smell from the oven as the cake rises to fill the mold brings with it memories of midnight gossip over coffee n cookies. I cannot imagine life @ Pilani without my wing.

 Here's a toast to good times!

Scrambled Tofu Manchurian

By now, I am fairly certain that the regulars to my blog might have figured out that I am an Eggetarian, with special affection to Paneer.

As you can see, we use Paneer in everything from Pizzas to Tikkas and consume some form of Paneer at least once a week. And since, we are being health conscious n all - I tried to work with its low fat cousin last Sunday. Yes, 'Tofu'.

What came about was Scrambled Tofu Manchurian. It's the kind of dish that goes well with English muffins, bread, rotis and even curd rice!

Paneer Pizza

In my home, our work schedules don't allow too much time to hit the gym. So we try to do our best to eat home cooked meals made from fresh organic produce to stay healthy. I am tempted to call ourselves locovores, as we make it a point to buy veggies from our local farmer's market every summer. I also consider myself a kitchen hoarder for I seem to spend most of my shopping budget buying serveware, bakeware and kitchen electronics! My favorite amongst all my kitchen gadgets is the Cuisinart 14 Cup Elite Food Processor that helps me chop all my veggies within seconds.

 

Anyway, with Sandy keeping most of us indoors for a few days - I thought to take on Project Pizza. For some reason I had thought it to be a difficult dish to do from scratch and I managed to break that myth last Sunday. It was super simple to put together and made for a mess-free hearty meal that tasted even better with a glass of wine!

Butterscotch & Chocolate Brownie Bites

13th October, 2012 is going to lock down some bitter sweet memories for a bunch of us in New Jersey. At Rutherford, NJ there's a house that's been home to almost all of my friends on the east coast at some point or the other. A bachelor pad + frat home, one that has always welcomed then girlfriends, now wives of the once-upon-a-time bachelors. A duplex with a huge hall and a carpet that's had much of the wine n biryani from any party!

Ever hospitable hosts (RN & SMK) have made that a second home to all of us. This month, we bid the house farewell and tonight we plan to party... one last time at that venue.

Anyway, just like bitter-sweet memories, I have a batch of semi-smoked, semi-sweet butterscotch-chocolate brownies that I plan to take with me. Recipe follows...

Beetroot Soup

Having made soups for a while, I noticed how some vegetables always fight the rest and take over the flavor n color of the resulting bowl. From pictures in my previous posts you'd have seen carrot and zucchini soup look almost the same. That got quite boring, honestly.

Being a vegetarian, I pride myself in making a colorful meal. Color is almost synonymous with deliciousness (in my mind atleast!). So I set out to make this brilliant purplish-deep-maroon-beetroot soup.

While making it, I couldn't help but think how AWESOME a saree in Beetroot color with a white n gold zari would look. Pair it with some awesome Kemp Temple Jewelry and you have a stunning outfit! I dressed my soup in all the colors I'd love to see in a saree :)
Now, off to the recipe....