Ladled

A friend made the biscuits coz another friend likes them. On these, she used goat cheese but she thinks as the recipe mentions, blue or feta cheese would be a better option. She thinks biscuits lacked the punch of flavor :( Goat cheese biscuits She made the  blueberry  cake once for a dinner party & the guests wanted to take all of it back with them :D Blueberry bread

A friend gave us a bowl of dosa batter last night. In the morning daze, it took me a while to realize that I didnt have to wait for answer to 'what do you want for breakfast?'. And a while after that I forgot and asked again and later recalled that I didnt have to ask that question. Since the batter was already there, I wanted to take some extra pains and make the red color paste that goes with the dosa. I ended up making  red chutney, coconut chutney and the potato curry . The boiled potato curry that you can never mess up. Bangalore happens to be the place where I heard of and had set dosa.

Apricot Chutney and Mitho Titaura (Mango Candy). Both have a spicy addition to the sweet taste. Making of Titaura

My friend used Poblano corn and zucchini pizza   recipe for the base & made up the rest. Fried Onion, ginger , garlic & tomato paste for the sauce.  She said pizza making is fun if you involve other people in adding toppings.  She  was at the gym & one of the local channels had the cooking show where she got the pizza recipe from. She saw it & seemed very simple, so she had to come home and make it ;)

I have never made sugar cookies before. The recipe is from  Complete childrens cookbook . It was chosen by kids interested in baking. Cookies is the best thing to begin baking with for kids. I got each kid to add an ingredient so they would feel that they were contributing to it. Some of them were big enough to read the measuring cups and spoons and tell me, how much was right. When the cookies baked, after dinner, was the right time for them to put the easy  powdered sugar icing  (does not use eggs) and the chocolate sprinkles. The cookie dough itself needed some more flour so it wouldnt stick while rolling. A friend suggested rolling them out a bit thicker, which gave them the coveted shortbread texture. Some sugar cookie recipes seem to use baking soda and or baking powder. This book's didnt use that and was similar but half the quantity of  Best sugar cookie recipe  but it needed putting in fridge. It called for 2 tbsp maple syrup or honey, if skipped wo...

For the potluck, I made  Dum Aloo  and Rajma There were some interesting twists. Eggplant curry with coconut milk, bajji with curry leaves. The eggplant had tasted very creamy and smooth. When I was asked to guess the ingredients, I made an unconvinced guess of sesame and poppy seeds. For the third time, when I gave an answer without thinking, it was right. Dum Aloo had a nice taste to it. When it got too watery, I added some besan to it at the end. Tastes like a kadi sabji without being too extreme. The potatoes too tasted good. My sister thought if it was arbi. There's another idea now. Dum Arabi. The night before, when I didnt have energy to boil potatoes. I used sauteed capsicum instead. Now I am always going to make Rajma this way. From my friend: Rajma –Recipe: I learnt making Rajma from Vahchef recipe online and now I just make it on the fly. Today I made it as follows: 1)        Soak Rajma (2.5 cups) overnight and add 5...

Hot Tomatoes and Spring Onions curry Had to use up spring onions. Recently my neighbour gave me a box of spring onion curry that as green in colour. Liked this tomato and spring onions curry. Good change. Will try this  Green Onion Dal  next time.