Ladled

pindi miriyam

My husband got home a Famous German 'Fitness Bread' packet. I had some idea of what to expect of the  German bread . earlier I would have dunked it in tea. I had a fallback recipe for it if it was still languishing in the pantry. Making a bread upma. In few days, the packet moved into the fridge. The sense of urgency has increased. Friday night, my daughter said that she wants something special for breakfast on saturday. No idea what the special had to be. I did get an answer that the special was because of the holiday. I promised Bread Pakora  (Yes, bread pakora can be pan fried) which she didnt care for as it has been a long time since I made it. With these things in background, my saturday afternoon, my brain had churned enough with brand new Fitness bread pakora idea.  ( Hint for innovation - stock up good ideas if you want those to be incorporated for new materials.) On the left is the scrambled egg with the fitness bread which I made last. To make it ...

I used  Banana Bread Recipe  from Banana Bread Cookbook: 51 Easy But Great Banana Bread Recipes book by Eli Hartly. If you are going to bake anyways, why not try a new recipe. I am glad I did. Usually we seem to have only 3 ripe bananas. This time we had 4 just like the recipe needed. I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup. I could have probably removed another 1/4 cup as the end result was still sweet. I liked the fine melt in the mouth texture. It reminded me of kesari.

At Costco, a food sample provider placed a tortilla onto a griddle pan.  She then put some mix of many kinds of shredded cheese. Thin strands. A minute or so later, she folded the tortilla onto the half. "Are you making a Gordita?" "No. A Quesadilla" And there it was that simple to make a Quesadilla. I never wondered how to make it, but having looked at it, I know I will make it sometime when the fridge has cheese and we always have roti. One reason for not being curious about Quesadilla is my history with queso. Not so great. But now I am appreciating some kinds. That melted cheese in crusted tortilla, with the toasty smell as well as the brown toasty looks. Warm. What else do we need from food?

Sometime I think, culinary experiments at home are more of 'What can i get away with?' I started out with a plan of making normal upma, meaning not semiya (vermicelli) upma which is my elder daughter's favorite. She was out on a sleep over, so we had to make the normal upma with farina. Then I laid my eyes on  Streits potato pancake mix . By then I had peanuts, diced carrots and onions sauteeing in the pan. And just because no one will question me, I tore the aluminium packet of the potato pancake and mixed it to the cooking veggies. The powder coated them all well. And then I realised that we had some  Delallo instant polenta  to take care of. with lightning speed, I added some water to the pan. In a while it started boiling with the starch paste. I ignored the impending doom and added the polenta, as it wouldnt take too long to cook. After few minutes, the overall outcome is palatable and in the end it didnt even scream failure or experiment. So go mix things you wo...

It is always amazing to find a twist on old staples. A friend came back from a visit to India and brought these jewel studded  chegodi  that have lentils stuffed on the top. This also reminds me of a story where a king offers another, food made of gold.

Photo Courtesy:  Chilis Pepper Jack mac cheese Chilis Pepper Jack mac n Cheese, frozen meal tastes very good with all the creamy sauce, little bits and yummy rotini pasta for a variety from the usual elbow pasta. Chicken Fajita too had a palpable flavor and nice mix of all beans, veggies and chicken.