Avocado Chickpea Sandwiches

If you’ve been lingering around Pinterest like I have been lately, you’ve most likely seen this one come through: The Avocado Chickpea Sandwich.

I love avocados and I love chickpeas but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought to combine the two loves together. What amazing harmony the two create!

While looking for something light to eat tonight, I went to my Pinterest cooking board, pulled up this particular recipe, and knew I had to try it. Inspired by the original recipe, I had to add a special twist of my own (not having cilantro or green onions in the house) and added a little bit of pesto and a garlic aioli to replace the missing flavor of the herb and onion. It was tasty and did the trick!

Ingredients:

1 can drained garbanzo beans
1 large ripe avocado
Juice from 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon pesto spread
1 teaspoon wildwood garlic aioli (a vegan spread we use on everything)
3-5 spinach leaves
Bread of choice (I use Dave’s Killer Bread)
*The wonderful thing about this recipe is you can add tomatoes, sprouts or other yummy sandwich toppings of your choice.

Directions:

1. Rinse and drain the chickpeas.
2. In a bowl, mash the chickpeas with the avocado together. I did not mash every single chickpea but make sure the mixture is creamy.
3. Add in lime, salt and pepper.
4. Toast Bread
5. Spread pesto on one slice of bread and the garlic aioli on the other slice.
6. Add a layer of spinach leaves on one slice of bread.
7. Spread the creamy chickpea/avocado mixture on the other slice of bread.

It’s that easy… and so tasty, if I do say so myself! I love Pinterest, oh yes I do!

-Tanya Eats Tasty Sandwiches.

Roasted Dijon Mustard Sweet Potatoes

Here is another winning recipe inspired by my creative cooking guru friend, Shrazzi! I love, love, love her recipes and we absolutely love her cooking. It’s phenomenal!

Last weekend I  had the honors of cooking alongside with Shrazzi in making delicious roasted dijon mustard sweet potatoes and I am so nervously excited to try making them on my own! In case you don’t know Shrazzi, she has a series of cooking shows on YouTube called, “Getting Fresh with Shrazzi”  as well as a fantastic website and blog.  Make sure to check for her wonderful recipes athttp://shrazzi.wordpress.com/.

Also, Shrazzi is responsible for a recipe which has circulated through my huge family like fire, as they are all believers and now makers of a salad I shared with them during Thanksgiving.  This infamous “Shrazzi’s Salad” was also posted on my blog here called, Fresh Inspiration.

So, sweet potatoes – let’s get started.  I don’t know if most of you know but there is a lot of buzz going around when it comes to sweet potatoes right now. It seems to be a popular and well-accepted food when it comes to eating healthy.

Here is an excerpt I found from the Eating Well site when researching the sweet potato further:

“A veritable powerhouse of nutritional goodness, the sweet potato is only distantly related to the potato. And don’t call it a yam—it’s not even the same species! The sweet potato is a flowering perennial vine in the same family as morning glories, with delicious, starchy, tuberous roots.The Center for Science in the Public Interest calls sweet potatoes one of the most nutritious vegetables in the land.”

So this past weekend while browsing the aisles of Costco on an empty stomach, I bought myself 10 lbs of these yummy guys.

I have a lot of work cut out for me in using up those sweet potatoes over the next several days… FUN. Oh how Pinterest comes in handy for some amazing sweet potato recipes I’ve been finding too!

I’ve altered a few ingredients here but we are totally addicted to these dijon potatoes and I plan to make them tonight in fact!

Ingredients:
4-5 sweet potatoes cubed
3 tablespoons french dijon whole grain mustard
1 tablespoon dried tarragon spice (I prefer 2 tablespoons)
3 tablespoons melted earth balance spread (or butter)
*for garlic lovers, add a clove of minced garlic in the butter*
pinch of salt/pepper
½ lemon’s worth of lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon grape seed oil (or olive oil)
½ cup grated Gouda Parrano (a new fave and perfect for this – or cheese of choice) (optional)
Parchment paper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Cube sweet potatoes and set aside
3. In a mixing bowl add French Dijon mustard, dried tarragon and salt and pepper.
4. In a small pot, melt 3 tablespoons of earth balance spread (or butter + garlic) on the stove
5. Add melted earth balance (or butter) to the mustard mix
6. Grate lemon zest and add lemon juice
7. Add grape seed oil (or olive oil)
(Make sure to stir mixture well as you go)
8. Add grated cheese and stir well again
9. Stir in cubed potatoes into the mixture and stir well so that every potato is well covered
10 On a cookie sheet, put a layer of parchment paper on the cookie sheet and spread a single layer of coated potatoes evenly.
*You can also grate a little extra cheese right on top if you prefer*
11. Bake in oven for 14 minutes on one side
12. Turn potatoes over with a spatula and bake the other side of the potatoes for another 14 minutes

YUMMY in my tummy. And in Shrazzi’s tummy. And now in yours!

Happy cooking, and thank you so much Shrazzi! You are truly my culinary inspiration and I’m super lucky to know you and be able to learn so much from you!

-Tanya

Eggplant, Portabella and Tri-color Peppers Tacos

One thing I enjoy doing when I’m home sick is cooking. While I know I should be resting and nursing my nasty cold, the inability to feel normal makes me want to do normal things. So I cook.  I knew I wanted eggplant, I just didn’t know what I wanted to do with it.

That is when Eggplant tacos came to mind which seemed like a nice variation for a hearty taco craving.

Ingredients:

½ large eggplant cubed into small pieces
8 sliced baby portabella mushrooms or 2 medium sized portabellas
6-7 sliced baby tri colored peppers
½ sliced red onion
2 chopped cloves garlic
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
¼ cup water
Organic flour tortillas

Condiments (Optional):

Black bean refried beans
Sour cream
Diced tomatoes
Home-made Guacamole
Cilantro
Cotija Cheese

Directions:

1. Line a baking pan with olive oil and 1 clove chopped garlic
2. Add eggplant cubes and roast in the oven at 400 for 10 minutes
3. In a pan, sauté red onions and second clove garlic until well cooked
4. Add roasted cubed eggplant, mushrooms and tri color peppers and sauté well
5. Add taco seasoning and water
6. I also added a splash of balsamic as well (optional)
7. Cook on high for 8 minutes then reduce to simmer
8. Spread black beans on tortilla then add veggie mixture inside of tortilla
9. Add condiments as desired

5 Minute Home-made Guacamole
1 diced tomato
2 diced avocados
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Pinch of Cilantro
Guacamole mix
Whip with a fork until blended

YUM!

Picture coming soon!

French Green Lentils & Vegetables

We eat a ton of lentils, tons and we really love them!  One thing we’ve recently started exploring were Puy Lentils, or French Green Lentils. 

French green lentils taste slightly heartier than the normal yellow lentil we typically use, and they do require longer cooking.  With the right spices and flavors, these little green little suckers do a tummy good. 

Here is a recent recipe inspired by a recent trip to Bis on Main in Bellevue:

Ingredients

For Lentil part:
2 cups dry French Green Lentils
1/2 sliced red onion
1 clove of garlic
Herbes de provence: basil, lavender, thyme to taste
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
3 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 teaspoons of salt

For Veggie part:
1 cup sliced mushrooms (of choice, I prefer baby portabellas)
1/2 cup washed green beans – whole
1/2 cup baby carrots
1/4 cup baby onions
1/4 cup whole cherry tomatoes
1/8 cup red wine
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar

Instructions

Lentils:

1. Soak green lentils in water for 30 minutes
2. Make sure to add more water before pressure cooking – there should be one inch of water on top of lentil at the time of pressure cooking
3. In a pan, sauté red onions with garlic then add herbes de provence in evoo and balsamic
4. Add fresh spinach, red onions and garlic mixture to soaked lentils and stir well 

Pressure cook on HIGH for 5 whistles (about 10 minutes) and when done, remove from stove, release steam, and add lemon juice and salt and stir well. Set aside.

Veggies:

1. Using same pan for sautéed onions and garlic, sauté mushrooms in evoo and balsamic
2. Add green beans, carrots, baby onions and cherry tomatoes and cook on medium until slightly softened
3. Add red wine and simmer for 10 minutes 

In a dinner bowl (I use pasta bowls), spoon out a layer of lentils to cover the bottom of the bowl. Add a layer of veggies on top. Scoop out extra juice from the vegetables on top.

Voila!

Sorry, No Take-Out

Working downtown is wonderful because with it comes amazing restaurant options for lunch. Well, there is one special restaurant that I just love and actually think of it often and I crave some of their items badly and regularly. Today I had yet another intense craving for their food so I was chatting with a friend when I said hey, do you think I can get away with getting take out from this place since I so badly need their food? She replied, Oh totally – you should do it. So I called to place my order, mouth watering with each word that rolled off my tongue, when all of a sudden I was told the words of death: “Sorry, we do not do take-out orders.” My heart shattered into a million pieces.

NO TAKE OUT ORDERS, ARE YOU JOKING ME? WTF! Who doesn’t do TAKE-OUT ORDERS???

So here’s what I want to know. If I can take home a half-eaten meal to go from this place, why is it I can’t order the same meal and have the put it in a box. SO I started thinking about my options here:

a) Go there, get seated and fake an urgent meeting after 5 minutes and ask them to box it
b) Find a friend to come with me but on short notice this is not likely
c) Go there and request a take-out order and tell them I didn’t know the rules
d) Write a letter to their management telling them how important it is they offer take out service to people who have bad cravings for their food but no time to sit and lunch it up
e) Protest and refuse to return and give up the yummy food there… who am I kidding? Not gonna happen.

I am just so annoyed! It’s almost like those places who refuse to give you butter or oil with your bread. It’s that “I’m so great and people love our restaurant so much, you bitches follow OUR rules.” Which is fine except for people like me (Aquarian’s) who have a hard time feeling constrained and being told what to do in situations which can have pointless rules.

What a power trip, no take out! Seriously?

This place needs to get off its hoity toity, pompous, high horse and obliged to the fact that people want to do take out. It’s a compliment – I still want your food, I just can’t eat it there! Or at least tell me one good reason as to why they won’t do it. After all, it’s a café and not a 5 star high end, suit wearing restaurant.

No take out… like SERIOUSLY? W-T-F!  I hope their favorite restaurant doesn’t do take out, either!

It’s like, no soup for you!

-Ticked-off Tanya

Holiday Yumminess!

I’ve baked the cookies, I’ve hosted a girl’s brunch for some long-time friends (try almost 3 decades, NO JOKE!) and so now it’s time to share a couple of holiday recipes!

Let’s start with the cookies, shall we? Most of these recipes come from my beloved Grandma but a few were used from online recipes found as well.

Russian Tea Cakes

1 c. soft butter
1/2 c. sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. chopped nuts

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Mix first 3 ingredients
3. Sift and stir in flour and salt
4. Mix in chopped nuts
5. Roll into balls and bake 10-12 minutes
6. After removing from oven and slightly cooled, roll in powder sugar

Peanut Butter Kisses – a favorite from my grandma!

1 8oz bag of Hershey kisses — unwrapped
1/2C butter
1/2C creamy peanut butter
1/2C granulated sugar
1/2C light brown sugar
1 egg
2tbs milk
1tsp vanilla
1 3/4C flour
1tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Mix ingredients
3. Once you make the dough, cover and refrigerate for 30 mins – 1 hour
4. When baking, make sure you remove them from the oven when they are slightly brown, not brown or darker brown
5. Take them out and they will continue to bake
6. When cooled half way, lightly sprinkle a little bit of granulated sugar on top and then slightly push in an unwrapped kiss into the center of the cookie

TIP: roll them into balls (don’t flatten) on the ungreased cookie sheet.

Coconut Macaroons

2 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup all purpose flour

1. Preheat oven at 300 degrees
2. In mixer, beat egg whites and salt at high speed until soft peaks form
3. Add sugar and vanilla (Whites should be in stiff peaks)
4. Using a rubber spatula, gently mix in coconut and flour to egg mixture
5. Drop dough by teaspoonful’s an inch apart onto parchment papered cookie sheets
6. Bake 20 minutes or until lightly browned
7. Cool for about 2-5 mins. Remove with spatula

Makes about 36 cookies

Lastly, I’ll share my holiday breakfast wreath recipe!

Holiday Breakfast Wreath
This recipe below is the traditional way to make the breakfast wreath but you can do the filing however you like. My most recent version included spinach, red, yellow and orange peppers, garlic, mozzarella, sautéed red onions, cream cheese, cherry tomatoes and no egg. The key is to have the filling mixture (whatever it is) be more solid than runny in consistency.

2 eggs
4 oz. Philadelphia cream cheese (softened)
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 cups frozen broccoli cuts, thawed and drained
½ lb. fresh mushrooms cut into quarters
½ cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
4 green onions sliced
2 cans (8 oz.) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls – I used 2 ½ cans by the way :)

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
2. Mix first 3 ingredients in a large bowl until well blended, I used my kitchen aid for the mixing part and its super easy!
3. Stir in next 4 ingredients
4. Unroll crescent dough and separate into 16 triangles overlapping in center and points of triangles towards outside
5. There should be a 5 inch diameter opening in the center of the circle
6. Spoon the mixture onto the dough near the center of the circle.
7. Bring outside points of the triangles over the filling then tuck under dough in center of ring to cover filling.
8. Bake 35-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and filing looks heated through.

Voila – there you go! Happy Holiday eating :)

-tanya cooks

A Savory Sort of Sunday

 

Today we had all sorts of plans to do things outside the house: condo repairs, maybe hit the farmer’s market in Ballard, but upon waking up and getting an extra hour of sleep this morning, we decided to stay in. I know, that just made no sense.  So what did we do? Well, let me tell you…

• I made chai with tons of freshly grated ginger.
• Using multi colored potatoes (purple, red and white potatoes – thank you Shannon, the potatoes were STILL good!!), I made Herbs de Provence Potatoes. The herbs I used really kicked it up a notch, including basil, thyme and lavender leaves.
• That is when Vinit got interested in the kitchen too and started making lentil using organic French green lentils.  That is also when we began fighting over counter space, haha!
• I made a pumpkin-pecan loaf which included Indonesian nutmeg, Korintje cinnamon and a spicy Chinese ginger.
• Vinit made sautéed spinach with coriander powder, salt and hing spice.
• I made a tartine, or open face sandwich with a Spanish aoli, tad of grain dijon, sliced tomatoes topped with a layer of melted comte and slices of apple-veggie sausage then baked in the oven for a few minutes.

And that is as far as we got this morning. It was a random variety of things we cooked, resulting from a set of random cravings on both our sides.

Vinit actually said, “I love our cooking days.” Well, I love them too. It makes staying in on a day we should be out there getting stuff done, so much nicer.

These days are the best…

-Tanya Eats

The raw potatoes before being cooked.. aren’t they pretty?

Fresh Inspiration

It’s no secret, I am easily inspired by food. What’s even more fun about being inspired by food is when you meet others who are also inspired by food and share some of their inspiration and talent with you. I have a friend that has not only inspired me to explore our abundant organic and local resources by way of farmer’s markets but her ease and simplicity at making food delicious and nutritious has really caught my attention.

Here is the salad she made for us recently which I’m going to be craving for a while:

-Arugula (or you can use mixed greens  or spinach)
-Roasted Corn (Trader Joes has a yummy frozen roasted corn)
-Fresh Avocado (diced) 
-Pistachios pieces (halves – again, a Trader Joe’s favorite)
-Baby Heirloom Tomatoes (cut in halves if small or slices if larger)
-Finely chopped Cilantro
-Fresh mozzarella ball pieces (I get the mini balls and cut in half – or feta crumbles works well)

Home-made salad dressing:

-Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-Apple cider vinegar
-Maple Syrup (to taste)
-Whole grain Dijon Mustard (to taste)
-Finely chopped Garlic  (to taste)
-Sea Salt (pinch)

Just shake dressing ingredients in a bottle. As easy as that. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to store-bought salad dressings after learning her secret with homemade dressings.

So fun and so tasty, guys!  This salad is also healthy.  Vinit is still talking about it.

I’m inspired. Completely. Thank you, Shannon!

P.S. My friend recently took me to the Ballard Farmer’s Market and it was amazing!  I highly recommend it!

The Communal Room

My next house will have a big kitchen.

A friend of mine who grew up on the same street as I did had several siblings. As they all grew up and grew out of the house, the parents decided to put a lot of money into one particular remodel effort and redesigned a brand new larger kitchen. This effort included knocking out walls, raising the ceiling, installing more kitchen appliances than they had before but the end result was one gorgeous, gigantic communal kitchen.

If one looks at the house today, it is safe to say their kitchen is by far the largest room in their house. It makes sense why.

The kitchen is a place where people get together and meet no matter the directions each person is going on a particular day. It is the place where people start their days and the place where people end their days. Even on the busiest of days, people will still find themselves in the kitchen at some point since everyone has to eat, even with varying schedules. One could say creating a grand bathroom is plausible if my argument holds true about people ending up in one spot at some point but let’s agree that the bathroom is missing that “come together” component which a kitchen offers and where people may end up at the same time. Agree? Thanks.

There are times I’ll drive by this friend’s parents’ house to this day and will see a head or two through the window sitting at the kitchen table in the kitchen. But it got me thinking as to how a kitchen is important and simply brings people together.

My husband and I talk a great deal about food. It can be the highlight of our day as well as the biggest disappointment. We truly enjoy yummy food. We both spend a lot of time thinking about food, talking about food and eventually end up in the kitchen making food, especially on weekends.  You’ll find us cutting vegetables, using a variety of grinders, processors, and mixers and while we make no claims to be good at what we do in the kitchen, it’s just fun for us.

In the past when Vinit would go home to visit his parents in Thailand, he would come back with a variety of packed home-cooked food his mother would make him. He would ration his mother’s food over a period of time and make it last as long as he could. Even when enough time passed and the freshness was questionable, he would tell me how much love was put into making it, so he was not about to let any of it go to waste.  So when the kitchen was far, the food made in it kept his mom close to his heart.

We live in a vegetarian household so you’ll find a variety of foods in our refrigerator and creations developed, from lentils to Italian pasta dishes to homemade falafels to sweet breakfast breads to homemade pizzas to tofu stir-fries to Mexican concoctions, to a variety of Indian dishes to fresh veggies and quinoa as a few examples. So yes, we kinda like to try it all!

As I spoke about connecting during our carpooling time, cooking in the kitchen together is another place where we absolutely love to connect as well, while over the stove or chopping red onions or mixing dough. Let it be known, there’s definitely fighting which goes on and Vinit’s favorite command to me while I’m cooking is “move, move, move” which translates to “let me stir because you are too wimpy to stir it yourself.” But it’s all in good fun and we truly enjoy it.

The best part about cooking at home is the gratifying feeling after all the hard work and preparation – the experience of having fork meet mouth with the most delicious tastes and flavors which us of all people somehow created! We get so incredibly proud of ourselves when something turns out great!

So a lot goes on in the kitchen and it doesn’t feel like a hassle, work or a task, for us since its fun and a constant journey. Although I enjoy going out and trying new places which many know about since I am the biggest fan of Yelp, I still love the homemade food and experience of it all.

Growing up I had little to no experience in being part of a kitchen. It seemed to be a chore to me and my mom was sweet enough to let me enjoy other things and interests rather than being stuck with her in the kitchen. It wasn’t until I was in college where I realized I could only eat so many subway sandwiches and Teriyaki take-out and that learning how to cook was probably a really good idea.

I began to enjoy cooking as I got older and it wasn’t until Vinit came along where I learned to love it even more and that was because he cooked so very well himself and his cooking was a lot more complicated than the standard American dishes I knew. I  had learned so much from him. He is also someone who tends to praise food, almost always, which might be his secret tactic for keeping me interested but hey, it works.

I hope to continue this practice of enjoying the kitchen so much and us cooking together for years to come and when I have kids of my own, hope we can celebrate our meals together in the kitchen enjoying our time in that common place. That is why I think my friend’s parents had the right idea all  along – the kitchen is the most important room in the house – the spot where no matter how busy everyone’s day gets, it is the place where you can always come together and connect over a homemade meal.

Cheers to enjoyable kitchens and yummy food together,

-tanya lasagne

Sometimes it’s all about …. FOOD.

Sometimes it’s all about food and the people involved in the food which brings us closer together.

COOKING CLUB

Last year one of my very hip cousins, who lives in Hollywood, sent me an invite to an event she was having. I read the event and was super sad that I lived so far away and therefore could not participate. This event was the first meeting of a cooking club series she was starting which sounded like so much fun to me. My cousin is smart, she came up with a very well-thought out, logical structure to how the club meeting worked and assigned a theme and stated some rules. I was intrigued. And inspired. And we all know what happens when Tanya gets an idea. I plagiarize the hell out of it and try to do it myself!

So I tried it and I held a cooking club meeting and it was fun. I learned a lot from that meeting in how to execute it even better for the next time but sadly the next time never came. With good intentions and a fair amount of interest it would be safe to say this idea might have worked. I didn’t continue the cooking club because the idea of having it at other people’s houses and sharing the facilitator role was good, but with that you naturally lost some of the crowd since there’s a comfort level associated. The easy fix would have been for me to host the club meetings every time (as my cousin did) and I truly would not have minded that either. Well, maybe one day we’ll pick it up again but what ended up happening is the cooking club evolved into a restaurant club.

OK, SO NOW IT’S A RESTAURANT CLUB

This restaurant club idea came about when 8 friends decided we still wanted to meet up and enjoy food together and came up with this idea of trying new restaurants. Between me and one of the other guy’s in this unofficial club, we come up with the suggestions (per my bookmarked places on Yelp combined with his list) and have been going to 1 restaurant a month with the group. It’s been tons of fun and there’s no cleanup at the end of the night like with the cooking club.

Our group is a nice mix of people too. For the most part the friends within it didn’t know each other well, but we all connect very well over food and have really enjoyed this little routine we’ve started. So it’s been fun. Our next restaurant excursion is next week where we’ll be going to Poquitos in Capitol Hill and I can’t wait to try it. So that’s our restaurant club which has been fun.

GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!

In addition to the restaurant club, there’s a group of us girls who started meeting up for lunch in January this year.  That lunch has since turned into a monthly dinner and because the group has several mothers or mother’s to be, this is a great opportunity to get out of the house and meet up with friends we don’t normally get to see too often!  We’ve been really consistent in doing this girls dinner now for 6 months and it’s been awesome!  It’s funny because us girls are friends because our husbands are all friends (for the most part) and we’re the ones meeting up over yummy dinners, not them, haha!

AND THERE’S A PIZZA MEETUP, TOO!

A friend of mine moved out of Seattle earlier this year but whenever he’s in town, a small group of us meet up for Pizza.  It’s quite nice and not only is there good conversation amongst friends, but we all indulge in the yummiest pizza and desserts around.  And it’s always pizza.  Yummy, delicious pizza.  We’ve made this ritual such a habit that when I see this friend the word "PIZZA" and "TIRAMISU" flash across his face to me.  I just love catching up with this friend, our little meetups and our group pizza dates.  It’s the best!  So fun!

TO COOK OR NOT TO COOK

Sometimes when you have a very low maintenance husband, cooking can be easily forgotten. As tired as I felt today I felt equally guilty for not having done much in the way of cooking since coming back from our trip and so I cooked a couple Indian dishes. The nice part about knowing how to cook Indian food and being married to an Indian man is the fact that at any point, if something else is requiring my attention (i.e. work) he can take over and finish the cooking perfectly without me worrying one bit and I know it’ll be super tasty. We had lauki and aloo tonight and both dishes ended up being deeeeelicious.  I was very pleased with how the dishes turned out and the hubby deserves some credit for that though he kept giving me all the credit for it too.  It was a bunch of, "You did a great job, no YOU did a great job, no really, you did a G-R-E-A-T JOB!"

MISSING THAI FOOD

My final random thought on food is that I miss the food in Thailand. I am craving all the wonderful fruit we had while there and mummyji’s delicious cooking. I would LOVE to be able to cook like her. I watched her make several different dishes when we were there and took notes but she has that special magical touch I’m not sure I’ll be able to replicate anytime soon. It was a special time actually, with mummyji.  Her techniques, the way she cooked and her continuously reinforcing that I can just play around with different ingredients until I get it to a point which suits me fine.  Meaning, there were no hard and fast rules, just learn through trial and error.  This is great advice too coming from the person who makes the best Indian food I have ever had in all my life.  There’s no question about it. So it was a nice time with mummyji in learning some of her secrets.

And that concludes the end of my food thoughts for the moment.  Amazing people connections over amazing food, how awesome it that?

Bon Appetite.

Tanya