Our First Anniversary

Hoorah! This past weekend was marked by a couple of "First" moments for the year. First of, it was our blog's First Anniversary and it is customary on such an occasion to exchange paper made gifts. So we created business cards to hand them out to people and spread the word. Secondly, I went to my First Scandinavian dinner party. Would you believe that my eyes popped out of their sockets when I saw the food laid out in front of me...so many goodies I have never seen. Even though, many were non-vegetarian, I managed to eat some that weren't and they were delicious.

My favorites from the Smorgasbord were the Lefse (potato flat breads, left topmost corner), Norwegian Cheese platter, Curried deviled eggs (bottom left-hand corner), Janssons Frestelse (Made with grated potatoes and onions cooked in cream, right most of picture), Spiced Apple Wedges, and Knackebrod (Crispy bread). I went home feeling proud, having eaten a good portion of the food on the Smorgasbord.

On Sunday my friends and I drove to the city for our First Cultural Event of the year: The Anamika Navatman Brunch Performance Series - Emerging Artists Dance Program. 

They are trained in various types of Indian Classical dances such as Kathak, Kuchipudi, and Bharatanatyam for many years. The emerging artists and their dance descriptions are Srilekha Jayanthi (Kuchipudi solo about Shiva), Umesh Venkatesan (Bharatanatyam solo about Krishna), Melvin Varghese (Bharatanatyam solo about Ganeshanjali), and Mohip Joarder, Reena Shah, Ammr Vandal (Kathak group - members of the Parul Shah Dance Co). Illustrated below are two of the talented artists from the program:

I've attended dance programs mostly comprised of girls. I never had the opportunity to watch men dance. It was quite a treat; the movements and expressions were so captivating. 

Overall, the weekend was fantastic. We are happy to share our cooking and cultural insights with you. We feel that posting recipes is one thing but when you share the history behind a recipe or festival, it keeps the audience engaged in the content and makes them feel connected. We thank all of you for your support and hope to keep you coming back for MORE!

A Lovely Valentine!

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Sugar is sweet 

And so are You

Will you be my Valentine?

Do you remember writing poems like the one above, when you were younger? I used to buy Valentine cards that have such sayings and give them out to my classmates in elementary and middle school.For my close friends, I included heart candies in the envelopes. It was easy to please your Valentine at that age. Now older and wiser, Valentine's Day is a bit more elaborate; it's all about wining and dining your date. How can you outdo the previous year's experience? I chose to lay low this year and had dinner with a friend over the weekend. We had a wonderful dinner followed by a couple of desserts. The first was carrot halwa which he made from scratch and didn't follow a recipe. It was pretty good for his first try. The second were cupcakes from Magnolia's Bakery from NYC. So many sweet celebrations! However, my Valentine's dining did not end there.  

Since I am now living with my parents, I wanted them to have a pleasant Valentine's too. At first I thought of sending the both off to a nice restaurant but Valentine's fell on a Monday and they both had to work the next day. So I hurried home after work, and prepped for an evening of cooking by none other than myself. Don't worry, I didn't poison them. I've had years of experience cooking for my sister when we were living together and she's never complained. I can cook a mean Chinese fried rice, mushroom risotto and curry puffs.
Anyways, I decided to keep it simple and make something right from our blog. Even though my parents love trying new cuisines, they always yearn for good ol' Indian cooking much much more.

I went the whole nine yards and made Aloo Parathas from scratch and we ate them with raita. My dad chipped in and helped me roll out the parathas and toast them on the pan. For dessert, I made chocolate covered strawberries which were served with dessert wine. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention that my dad surprised my mom with a exquisite Japanese Ikebana flower arrangement. 

Quite stunning and intricate, I must say!

 Overall, the evening turned out well and my parents enjoyed themselves. Dinner Accomplished, woohoo!