Ladled

has a spicy peanut noodles recipe that is close to  Peanut noodles  with peanut butter in it. For the spice, I was reminded of the best   that my husband got as left-over spoils divided from a potluck. If you remember the see-saw I mentioned some time ago, I was teetering between looking for recipes involving this sauce and giving it away. Some uniform sauces seem very inorganic to me. I will soon find out about it. I had the noodles. They need more zing. it seems weird adding salt. so may be sugar.  My husband couldnt enjoy the noodles. So I made a sandwich with the mint paste he made and tomatoes. I also made a delayed  boiled egg sandwich . I am running out of my tricks here. I learnt the boiled egg sandwich from a friend who also taught me how to make macaroni Indian style.

This morning while making poha, out of onions, the seasoning was a short affair and finally chilli powder joined the heated oil. The smell then reminded me of other dishes(tamarind rice as it uses red whole chillies in seasoning) and to reach that final product, I added lemon juice, dont ask me why. I am wondering can we imagine a smell we want and actually figure whats the missing ingredient. Recently while making canele , I realised that milk boiled with sugar smells like custard.

I was surprised to find a bunch of  red wine vinegar  Subway sachets at an office desk which usually has give aways. I picked some of them. May be I will make  chicken vindaloo  with it. While there, I also noticed that Subway has 'lite mayo'. With the sauces on the side, the sandwich was a zombie.

So many ads these days about P&G sponsoring Olympics 2012. The gymnastic girl. I was almost taken aback to find that the Nature Valley Oats and Honey bar had a  PGA Tour  logo for quite some time and I just noticed it now in the fever of Olympics.

My colleague offered me a few of these hexagonal, thin crackers. At the first bite, any Indian is hooked to its savoury taste but then begins the onslaught of the salt. Despite the goodness of the grains, its thumbs down to these water retainers.

We had food at  Chutneys . Earlier it used to be a place called Pasand. I had been there twice. Come to think of it, new restaurants in the times of recession, start at old restaurants. Wen you walk in, you can see the lustre of the new fabric of the booths. A friend noted tat the bubbles theme is soothing. We decided upon rotis each to their own, Chicken tikka masala, Lamb keema and egg biryani. I wanted to try the chicken  Vindaloo  but then again the thought of Vinegar made me say no. Trying a new thing is always like being in a see saw. Just when the order was to be finalised, I said  Idli manchurian . I just caught it from my husband's utterances while browsing through the menu. When the Idli manchurian arrived, I liked the uniform chunky look of the idlis. Manchurian it was to the core. while eating it we came up with  aloo manchurian . When the Aloo Paratha and garlic naan arrived, I did some barter and had the gaarlic(sic) naan. The naan was a piece of cloud. when I

While making  canele , I had two egg whites that I put in a curry. Looking at the texture of those stringy bits, I was reminded of  egg drop soup . Coming to the canele, I took so many degree turns in the recipe that now I wonder how different it could be too if I stuck to the recipe. I ran out of all purpose when I was at a height of excitement to get the batter ready and chill it. so I used whole wheat and not the whole milk and skipped the rum. Caneles made in muffin pan, were crusty on the outside and soft like steamed pudding in the inside. They reminded me of a very simple dish that is made as an offering to god -  Hanuman appalu

Alice's EAT ME cake . From the fairy tale

Author:  Katarina Kovacevic Authors site My friends have tried out all the places around and need pointers. Besides I should find out of the food scene around.  I tried out one of the food links suggested by the author. Account unavailable. Local news has  some details . Theres still access to some  amazing jjourney of ericeatsout . Food comes alive when spoken of by the eaters instead of  scottsdalecvb .  girlmeetsfork juxtapalate michelelaudig penandfork thewildlavender Izakaya pretzel cone The book has information about all the local food festivals. .Carolinas mex  - can call ahead with your order fry bread house Mayasfarm Carmelscoffee lucis healthy marketplace mattsbigbreakfast Vitamin T mrswhitesgoldenrulecafe phx public market chloescorneraz defalcosdeli thebaddonkey  - carefree flavorsoflouisianacajun  - Avondale

Author:  blogger for kqed preview of the book mini maple pancake muffins My friends enjoyed the Super banana bread with brown sugar. Soft. Looking at  canele  from  Floriole , I cant wait to make it.  This books is a collection of the best recipes from best bakers. A financier recipe from  La Tartine  is included too. Canele  on wiki.   Canelle mold Cannele pan 

As if the French way of toasting is not enough guilt inducing, I found a recipe in  Costco way magazine . A French toasted muffin. A  pound cake french toast . Isn't a pound of everything in it not enough for the taste buds? Creativity is great but overkill? At the costco, a decade of the series  is available. White asparagus I had made  mango cocoa  shake which I liked it better on the next day when it didn't seem too cocoay. From the Costco books, there's more recipes  for mango. Mango salsa.

There's mangoes in the refrigerator with a husband induced deadline of them. I saw the  banana split hot cocoa  recipe on the cocoa packets. I wonder if mango and chocolate flavour go together. At first I find that it is a great skin care combo  . With  cocoa mango upside down cake , I am pushed to make the mango cocoa.

Last night, I made cauliflower. There was a bell pepper too. I could have made them as separate curries with tomatoes added. I didn't have energy to keep two stoves burning at once. Skeptically I cut the capsicum into slices and added it to the curry. There were 4 egg yellows I didn't no what to do with. I added them to the curry while letting the vegetable cook. On the top, it could get steamed and not mess with the curry. Later I just mixed it up. In the end it all worked out great. The tomato juice, water from the vegetables and the egg yellows worked together to make a creamy sauce. Egg yolk sauce  is an interesting story in trying to analyse and deconstruct your favourite food. For the times that my pantry is out of Maggi, I think of what is in its masala.

Cast (in the order of appearance): Oil - heat up Cumin - fry Green Chillies - fry Mint - fry seperately until it loses the raw taste Onions - fry until golden Tamarind Salt Ginger-Garlic Turmeric Change of scene - Blender

Burrito in space voladores The author shows us how Mexican food conquered America. he begins how at first food was sold on a small scale, with  Tamale Man  and  Chili Queens , there is a vendor culture. Now its the  Taco Bell ,  Del Taco ,  Taco John's ,  Rubio's  (fish taco),  Qdoba , . He looks at the history of the industrial making of taco. With  Nixtamalization , he talks about other fermentation results in other cultures -  Fish sauce ,  Sauerkraut . Chilli Jelly Tejas  is spanish spelling for Texas. Aaron Sanchez  spoke of a rice dish at his mother's restaurant,  Zarela  which is now closed.

eighty six in restaurant Chicharron salad Joe Bastianich  marathon

Author:  Carol Kicinski I had my dinner part 1 already. Dinner part 2 by when husband is dying with hunger. I had to make something very quick. I made  Easy mexican rice . Had I seen the picture, I would have doubled the tomatoes. I put in bell pepper and Thai chilli. I cooked it in a pressure cooker, half worrying if it would be overcooked. After it cooled down, I liked the rice with its puffness.

  Liquid smoke . Now I can dream of Warm Vanilla sugar smoke. Soy curls

Author:  Amy Atlas .  Meringues  are supposed to be hard to make. Tray liners where you stare at the ray instead of the food on it. While some believe that taste matters, some believe that appearance matters. In this book, both matter when it comes to food and not just the food but the things around.

Today I had two new spices.  and  Javitri  or mace. I tried to bite into the black cardamom. It looked like the cover of a baby  Coconut .  When faced with the hundred spices in  Biryani  that are never had and stay in the plate aside until trashed. Making a  Bouquet garni  is a good idea. Its the spices that add flavour to the dish ' adds a friend. This is at a lunch at a friends place. She made  Mirchi ka salan  for the first time. The first time I had it was hundreds of miles from where the dish originated. That was the first time I had crab too. The chef was nervous about the dish. I liked the tang of it. She would have made  Sprouts Biryani  for the first time had her husband not dissuaded her to make it for a potluck and thus minimise the experiment effect. We were all ears when we learnt of the sprouts biryani. We want to know all the sprouts that go in and how is it made. This is what happens when gustators meet. Dishes find a way to travel from kitchens to mouths

A while ago I heard of  24 (TV series)  from my colleague who had come groggy eyed one day from watching it. Weekend seemed like a safe bet for it. Midnight we were hungry. Cause we didnt have dinner and that we didnt cause of the show on TV. I wondered what can be made quickly. I knew it had to have gs in some form. Scrambled or omelette in a sandwich. When I mixed salt and chilli powder in the eggs I wasnt sure if I hadnt put a little too much. The oil a lot of it in the pan was heated up and just when I was to make an omelette (which I always manage to mess up), the red lumps of unmixed chili powder set off an internal decision making process and I found myself cutting up the brad in half and dipping it in the liquid. It took me back to college times where we had what was referred to as  French toast  or  Bombay toast - toast Indian style or the savoury style, he night before exams. Being that close to bread heaven , I was reminded of soft  bread pakora . The trouble is the fryin

Venue:  Herb n flavors One thing different from restaurant and home dining is the music played. For the effect, he music has to be something unknown to you. If you try to play it at home, you wouldnt buy it without knowing its good. With  Shazam  you can find what is that music that is cohesing your food experience into a multi sensory filigree. All my life  seemed slower and lower.  Lebanese Blonde  (happens to be one from the soundtrack of Garden State . A DVD that I had looked at the covers of.) From the menu we picked  Pesto chicken pizza  with jalapeno pesto, Chicken Shawarma wrap and Chicken Fantasia. The Shawarma was short and stocky. The pickles, I have never had Shawarma with pickles.You really stop to put all the flavours of until then aside and use this as a break. Something to be said about the meat. When the ''organ'icity' of the vegetarian dishes is touted in green, that of the meat has no flash lights. A bit of orchestration was going on. First

la tartine gourmande While just going through the recipes, I find that it uses rice flour.  Tonka beans  (from S America, the place where all food started from) are Tahini in chocolate cookies, wonder what that tastes like. Lemongrass and blackberry tea cakes, going along with the recipe, you can almost walk into the grocery store, pick the lemon grass stick and chop it and make the whole thing in a dream. I have been meaning to know what a  noisette  is. And Frangelico, does hazelnut have more vocabulary associated with it? Another  noisette I am going to make the brown butter pistachio and poppy seed financiers. Brown rice flour. I have never imagined that. It takes so long to cook, I thought humanity would have given up on using it in any other form. In a reverse situation, my friend gave me some wheat berries and I hear it takes a long time to cook. At home, we always got the wheat berries ground to make rotis. The long list of ingredients make some of the recipes un

Usually when I am making a dessert to take it to friends, I make it in a big dish as it is easier to transport. The making of  pots de creme  called for individual ramekins but I used the smaller anchor baking dish and one ramekin so we can check how the dessert tastes before the rest have it. 'set but center should jiggle', how much of center? Individual ramekin wasnt getting set. At one point of time while the bowl reached the point I was looking for, the sampler didnt. After a bit of cooling, I had a spoonful of it, let my husband have a spoonful of it and then something took over me and I left two spoonfuls so it could be chilled before 'serving'.  Come to think of it, the sampler was so my husband could have some sweet dessert to himself. But I have seen when it comes to 'cream', I eat ravenously. While eating faster than I could admire the dessert, I realised it tastes like  Custard , way better for the no stirring needed when baked. The batter had taste

I want to make a dessert. I know its going to have cream.  Mascarpone  at home. Wow not because I already knew that it could be done at home but look at what all it goes into  mascarpone brownies ,  mascarpone cookies . But to use the made mascarpone, I have to wait 24hrs unfortunately time is not the one ingredient that is ever left over to make use of. I searched and found  chocolate pots de creme .   Crema Catalana  came close but lost me with its complicated broiling requirements. Pots de creme  it is. I have heard that my colleague made it and fed it to other colleagues who are going to have it now. They have  a comparision point.  Creme Anglaise  is similar to it and is linked to  Floating island . ( Good news is may be now I can understand what the mascarpone lady was talking about in  abstracted floating island  ). what should I find while mixing ingredients, no chocolate in the house. I thought of using the Bliss white chocolate and finally settled with vanilla extract. Fro

oroweat oatnut  bread has hazelnut in it. 

What america spends on groceries . We are trailing close with a close 8% and this does not include the 10% on restaurant. In Telugu, there's a saying 'koti vidyalu kuti korake'. A crore of knowledge/skills are for feeding your stomach. But we dont just work for food. In my  Halcyon Days  (but I mean youth), I used to think I could survive on bread and how much will bread cost? But now I know, its hard enough to eat even a palak aloo curry if we have to eat it continuously like  Groundhog Day  torture. What a beautiful  myth of Alcyone ! And the colours of the  Halcyon bird.

I did not make this. My husband made this. The day before he told me that he was going to make  beetroot and aloo sabzi . I have never heard of the combination. He says he recalled it from his hostel days. at first when he saw the beetroot, he was reminded of the salad, he and my mil liked. Some pomegranates and lemon juice. With no pom, he moved onto his next memory of the curry he would make the next day. I asked him for the recipe, he says its done as a usual curry. I was very excited about the meal. This is the first time he made it too. He has made some daals and curries now. But dreaming of making something, well he has started clearing his own path in the culinary jungle. I was tempted to look at a recipe before eating it but somehow controlled myself so that I would get the first look in the kitchen. The combination seems to work for  halwa ,  cutlets  and  paratha . Recently while making paalak paratha I was thinking about my friend who said that she is enjoying making

How do you show respect for food?

When I had this  white chocolate meltaway bliss , I had it whole. Should have bit into it to see the 'meltaway center'. It is all white chocolate. If you think you know how white chocolate tastes, then you can skip this.

After  palak paratha , I am imagining all the green leafy vegetables that can be used to make paratha. I am reminded of Spinach tortillas and tomato tortillas that I bought at Frys. I wonder why I never translated that to palak paratha or tomato paratha  then. Now I am all interested in the world of  Paratha .  kothu parotta  sounds familiar. My friends familiar with Tamilian food were excited about trying it. Even though I asked them about it, I forgot what was special about it, so no clue of how to make it.

I looked at  Dal makhani . I went with  Red Lentils  - not time to soak. When we talk about measuring things as an easy peasy thing to do, have you seen how many mess ups happen during that. You are interrupted during the count, you cant remember where you stopped. You put the tea on stove and you were called to attend a phone call, now did you put the sugar in or not. Best is when you forget to switch the stove on and blissfully imagine that you are getting close to the tasty moment. My today's situation of the ultra thin red lentils was that it was only 3/4 of a cup. I thought may be its good too that it is little, cause how much can 2 people eat without getting bored of eating the same thing. But there are  some who like Porridge nine days old  (dont try that its only for the tots book world). Recently I had made spinach with potatoes in a proportion where I have sworn off that combination for a while now. When it came to the moment of reckoning, I forgot everything and added

I had chocoloate dipped  Altoids . This is one case where I dont mind mint in chocolate. I misread it as chocolate flavored. If you have tins lying around, some  ways to reuse an altoids tin . Recently I had some diamond shaped mints. Its a semi-hard candy. Porous in some places. I am not a fan of hard candy but this mint met me half way.

White chocolate macadamia . I liked the cover of this bar. Its size too is appealing, wider than the rest of them. When it comes to taste, I couldnt discern the nuts. I have had a chocolate flavor bar before during hiking. 

I have had  Thai coffee  at restaurants. A friend of mine urged me to try it. It is not something that I would have another time. When I came across  I never thought about  Thai tea  before. While mixing hot water with the tea mix, I was surprised at the festive orange color which must be from the orange blossom. It turned out to be sweet. In a dark area, the orange tea seemed to have the adobe colour of my everyday tea. It didnt have any stimulating effect. May be it is better served cold.