Wanderberry Tales

Roast chicken has always found its way into our Christmas eve dinner menu. What better an accompaniment than beautifully roasted potatoes. Some things are hard to do away with and I am sure this year's menu is no different. Rather, we would want it to remain the same - a reminder of our first Christmas together when we attempted baking a chicken that was marinated and frozen with potatoes layered and spent hours trying to get it to cook at varied temperatures messing up the oven and kitchen in the process. Finally we had our dinner at 12:30 am after giving up on our oven attempt and frying the chicken and potato on the stove top. If everything were to be be perfect then we would have hardly remembered our first Christmas together. The imperfections set our traditions! Here is a look into the roast potatoes recipe. I chose the Indian potatoes and it worked well for me. Ingredients  Potato - 500 gms Rosemary - 1 tbsp Garlic - 6 cloves Garlic Powder Olive ...

Love is all around. You just need to open your eyes and your minds to figure it. Universities and political parties boycotting Valentines Day has become the norm of this month year after year in India - just because how misunderstood the whole concept has become. Your perfect Valentine is just about anyone you Love and want to share your time with. Then again - you could have so many valentines too. Love is not limited to this time of the year. It is just a reminder that Love exists in this day of hatred and unrest. And if life turmoils have made you fail in expressing love, this is the day to re-kindle it. Call up your loved ones - express your gratitude and love because you are blessed as can be. To love and to be loved is the greatest gift mankind ever has. 'Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.   It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does...

This Christmas season has been a busy one. Lots of baking , mall hopping to see the Christmas decor, karaoke singing of Christmas carols to watching Christmas movies - we have done it all. With my sister in town to celebrate Christmas with us we have had quite a spike in our December activities.So while I sit down to relax before beginning the Christmas eve preparations, thought of sharing a quick recipe for your Christmas breakfast table. Apple french toast is simply the addition of Green apples to your normal french toast and getting it baked. Scroll below to the recipe!! Meanwhile, Have a holly jolly Christmas this year!! A Joyous Christmas to all! Ingredients Green Apple – 1 big finely sliced Butter – 2 to 3 tbsp White bread – 10 pieces Milk – 400 ml Egg – 2 large Sugar – 2 to 3 tbsp Salt – ¼ tsp Cinnamon  powder – ¼ tsp Method Pre-heat the oven at 180 degree centigrade for 15 minutes Heat butter in a pan. Layer apples in the pan and...

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,  and behold,  everything is softer and more beautiful.                                                                -Norman Vincent Peale Dump it all together - there you have a dessert on your table! Cranberry sauce, topped with cake mix and butter drizzled on top - that is the name of the dish deconstructed for you! This is my first guest post and I am happy I got to do it with thebigsweettooth  . Rafeeda of The Big Sweet Tooth is one of first bloggers I got introduced to through blogging. Her blog is a repository of recipes - a go to website for all your recipe needs. I am so glad I could add to her repository. Head over to her blog to check out my recipe for Cranberry Cobbler Dump Cake .

Shibin's office shifted about a year back. Earlier, he had to invariably walk through a supermarket twice a day. ( shortcut, instead of having to walk two more blocks and go all the way around the building). Twice a day includes one crawling and the other running - crawling to the office ( everyone crawls in the morning especially during the beginning of the week) and running out of it in the evenings (It is my belief that he ran to meet me :P). In the process, it is hard to ignore those items that stare at you from the shelves beckoning you to pick them or those that scream out offers  or the ones that flatter you with the lighting .  So atleast once a week, he came home with a treat to my delight. I am still a kid at heart, such treats fascinate me . Anyways with the shifting of his office to a core business area , there were no more supermarkets to pass through and there went my treats. He comes home empty handed these days! If you are wondering why I chose to tell ...

I have already written two parts of our Italy travel ( if you have missed it, you can always find it here ). After every travel, as a tradition we publish a recipe from that region. So before moving onto the third segment of our travelogue, we have for you a dish that we learnt as a part of cooking class in Tuscany. Cantucci is a type of biscuit that is double baked to get the crunchy exterior. However you could also choose to have the softer version by avoiding the second bake and that is totally up to you. It is commonly a dinner dessert in Italy paired with wine. For us, it simply formed our tea time snacks. The recipe isn't all that time consuming and can be whipped up in under an hour or may be even lesser. I have to admit the end product was simply hard to take hands off from - you just end up going back for more. Here is the recipe for you. Recipe courtesy - Elizabetta, La Guida Farm House, Sinalunga, Italy Ingredients All purpose flour - 500 gm Sugar - 200...

There are days when my mind wanders to my home country and my desire to go back there gets stronger. I am sure these thoughts resonate with atleast a few of the expats. Sometimes I busy myself with some work to shut away these thoughts and other days I whine and whine. After some whining, I turn to my laptop to cheer me up. The one show that makes all the worry lines cease to exist is FRIENDS. I just can't have enough of it. I have watched season by season and now go on to youtube to catch some scenes from it. All the characters have become so etched in me that I feel they live around me. Like any other Friends fan, I would love to see that Reunion happening till then I can continue to watch it in a loop.  Cooking does cheer me up but imagine cooking and watching Friends at the same time :P I do it often these days.( I hate it when I have to turn on the blender, the noise is such a distraction:P) From Monica's jam to Ross' Fajita , Rachel's English Truffle to Joey...

Happy Easter !! I did want this post to be done a couple of days early but Easter seems a good enough reason for this cake recipe to go through. I completed two years of blogging this month and if someone told me two years back that this would happen, I would never believe it! Now that I am here, I would just love to say THANK YOU to everyone.  While I try out my mamma's recipes, she tries some of mine too! My Pappa  religiously clicks away pictures of recipes from newspapers and magazines for me and my sister believes that my blog will make it big some day! My cousins - Vinitha and Neenu - one who diligently gives me ideas and other who meticulously reads them and  questions. My mother in law is the first one to share my recipes on facebook and my bro - in- law and co sister who always read my write ups and provide their comments. My love to all my friends, fellow bloggers and friends who are the reason why I am still in this blogging space and enjoy being here...

I am relatively a beginner in bread baking and this is probably the only bread I have baked more than the fingers on my hand! I tasted focaccia only when I came to Dubai and that was the first time I even heard of it. Back in India, I knew 4 types of bread - white bread, brown bread, multigrain bread and fruit bread - that was my extent of bread knowledge.  I would not label bread baking as difficult - it is only time consuming - so if you have the time in hand - Foccacia is definitely worth a try. Focaccia is an Italian bread with a generous amount of olive oil - topped with herbs, olives, onions, sun-dried tomatoes or any other vegetables that goes along. Focaccia, I realised recntly makes a good sandwich bread too! I have tried topping with olives , tomato and onions but the best for me was the shallots. It is easier to chop them into cute little rounds - it caramelizes well and the looks quite pretty on the bread too. I read an article today by Nandita Iyer from the Saff...

The festive season is incomplete without my favorite dinner - Slow roasted chicken with vegetables. It's been two years since we moved to Dubai and I have lost count of the number of times of I have made roast chicken. This was one thing that Shibin wanted to have ever since the decision to move to Dubai was made since his Mom made it for him when they were in Al-Ain! My first attempt at baking a chicken was a total disaster. I marinated the chicken a day in advance and I froze it! I did not thaw it before moving it into the oven. It sat in the oven for 2 hours and never cooked. We had to chop the half cooked chicken and fry it on a pan. Also, I had to throw off the vegetables since it tasted disgusting with the marinade I made. I am talking of our Christmas dinner two years back and we had our dinner finally at 12 am!! Ever since that episode, I have strived hard to perfect this - Tried different marinades and I stick to my favorite - seasoning of pepper, salt and lime ju...

It has been long since I played the game of Secret Santa - I am sure most of you are familiar with this game. It is not the gifts you wrap or unwrap that gives the happiness. It is more about the suspense, the secret letters and the guessing games as to who could be your Santa. I was introduced to this game when I was in hostel where every year we religiously play  - we did have our semester exam during this time of the year but that never dampened our spirits. Nothing could possibly be a hindrance to this game when you have a whole hostel - 100 odd girls playing this game. We had a letter box where we could drop in letters addressed to our secret friend. The thrill of finding a letter addressed to you or small gifts that would mysteriously appear on your bed or a messenger getting it for you. Aah!  Shopping for the gifts weren't easy either. It was always last minute purchases and all the 100 girls end up at the same store every time. We had to dodge our secret frie...

It is winter, it is Christmas and baking just happens this season! Listening to the carols, there I went baking again.   My mind began wandering to 'Long time ago in Bethlehem', In the 'Silent Night' I envisioned 'Hark the herald, angels sing'. The bright stars guiding ' We three Kings of Orient are' Led them to the place where ' Mary's boy child Jesus Christ ' lay.   ' O Come All Ye Faithful' and spread the word. 'Go tell it on the mountain' and spread 'Joy to the world' . It is a 'Merry Merry Merry Christmas' And 'Santa Claus is coming to town ' 'Dashing through the snow' here he is With 'Rudolf the red nose reindeer' by his side and 'Frosty the snowman' to welcome him I 'Decked my halls with boughs of Holly' , and keep dreaming about a 'White Christmas'. Looks like an overdose of carols!! Oh Never mind, like Shibin sa...

It is never too early Christmas! The best is always saved for the end of the year - there cannot be anything better to end a wonderful year! I pray this season passes by slow so that I get to savor every moment of it. So while it lasts - let's get into some cooking , carols, decorating and lots of fun filled moments with family and friends. I did happen to mention last Christmas that our love for Christmas was one thing that brought Shibin and me close. We are leaving no stone un-turned this year as well. We have put up our tree, our Christmas wreath is in making, cbn radio that plays Christmas songs throughout the year is live on my system while I write this, Christmas movies are up and running in the evenings and I am preparing my December menu! If you are a person who enjoys this season as much as we do then hurry up - put your tree!! Listen to cbnradio - (http://www1.cbn.com/radio/christmas) if you love the carols and checkout the Hallmark Christmas movie coll...

The fun part of staying in a place like Dubai is the possible avenues for trying out different cuisines and if you have a foodie in you the rest is history. I had a hidden foodie in me and marriage brought out the foodie. The reason being - I got married to a person who loves food, eats anything on his plate, who never wastes food and if he does trust me the food is beyond edible. Name any food program on television and he has watched it and if not, he will make sure he watches it . That got me addicted as well  - Food Network is the most popular channel at our place now:) So let us just say we bonded over food and food shows!! Shibin used to get these flat breads for breakfast from Spinneys - sometimes with zaatar topping, sometimes with cheese or else a combination of both. It is only recently I learnt the name and I had the desire to make it myself. On the first try I got it a little crispier and the second time round I managed to get the texture right.  I have...

I do have the habit of omitting certain words or sentences when I read up on something. Be it book, article or a recipe, which is probably why I finish reading quite fast. Pick up a book and if it really interests me - I could finish it in under a day but then, there is a catch to it - in my hurry to reach the fag bottom of the book - I miss names of certain characters, places and trust me at times even events that unfold. As the book progresses, if a reference is made to the part I unknowingly omitted (God forbid that happen), I am at total loss.  Now, my husband knows why I finish reading books in half the time he takes! I wouldn't say this is a great habit of mine because as the saying goes Half knowledge is dangerous . I have got into my own trouble with this. That set aside, when it comes to reading recipes I have had my good days and bad days. Good ones are when despite not following the recipe word by word - I end up with a recipe I created and the taste delights and...

It is simply amazing how simple ingredients come together to form a perfect cuisine. This Pola recipe combines egg with bread and plantain to form a delectable snack. It was only recently that I was introduced to Malabar cuisines and I am loving them. I definitely intend to try more of the Malabar flavors. Quite co-incidentally, during my recent visit to India, my aunt, in order to save overripe plantains from rotting away introduced me to this recipe. I liked the combination and ventured to add bread also into the recipe to make it a wholesome dish. Here is the recipe - a simple quick win snack. Ingredients Eggs - 5 no.s Plantain - 4 medium size Bread - 6 slices Sugar - 2 tbsp Milk - 1/4 cup Salt - 1 pinch Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp Ghee - 2 - 3 tbsp Cashewnuts - 2 tbsp chopped Raisins - 2 tbsp Method Cut the plantain into cubes and shallow fry them in ghee until the yellow color of the plantain begins to turn brown. Fry the cashew nuts and raisins in...

And it is a year already! This blog was born with little or no idea how long it would sustain but here we are - Our first milestone! And we intend to attain many more. It has been a tremendous learning experience all along. We confess that we are not the experts, we experiment, trial and errors along the way and happy successes too. We have presented our successes to you and learnt from our failures to better the food we present to you in every way. My gratitude to all my family, friends and everyone of you for the encouragement through your constant likes and comments! Cheers to one year of happiness through food blogging! Lemon Cake with Honey Lemon Drizzle - that is our latest fad. Here is the recipe for you - Ingredients For the cake -  All Purpose Flour - 2 cups Sugar - 1 cup Vegetable Oil - 1 cup Egg - 3 no.s Vanilla essence - 1 tsp Baking powder - 1 tsp Lemon zest - 2 lemons Lemon juice - 2 lemons salt - 1/4 tsp For the drizzle -  Ho...

I have been wanting to bake cookies for quite sometime. The last two attempts of mine was futile and I decided to give it a go once again. This time around I was lucky. I managed to get the heat and the texture somewhere close to what me and those who ate my cookie would call it RIGHT! Peanut Butter and banana are my favorite combination any day and any time. I had ripe bananas with me and I made my own peanut butter - so then that was decided. It is going to be a banana peanut butter cookie. Here is my recipe for those who would like to try out the same. Ingredients All Purpose Flour - 1 and half cup Banana - 4-5 small ones or one big Creamy Peanut butter - 1/4 cup Butter - 1/8 cup Sugar - 1/2 cup Baking soda - 1/4 tsp Egg - 1 Vanilla essence - 1 tsp salt - 1 pinch Method Preheat the oven for 15 minutes. In a bowl, mash the bananas. The riper the bananas, the easier it is to mash. Add in the peanut butter and butter along with the sugar. Stir it in well...

Christmas is fast approaching and I am so excited. It is vacation time, a wedding in the family and a lovely festive get together. It is the best time of the year in so many ways this year and I have begun my countdown! 5 days to go for Christmas and 5 days for me to shop, pack and catch the flight.  It is another wonderful season and like I said in my previous blog entry, I hope you are enjoying the season to the full. If not here are some perfect movies to watch this week -  Santa Claus trilogy, a perfect family entertainer to watch with your family. 12 gifts for Christmas, reminds you that festive season is the time for your loved ones. Deck the halls - a comedy that keeps up the spirit of Christmas. Have you put up your tree yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Hurry, put up your tree and star. hang your stockings, adorn your door with wreath, finish your Christmas shopping, let the baking begin and let the carol bells chime all the day through - because i...

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Just the right season for baking and celebrating.  Latest addition to the baking list - Cinnamon roll! I am not sure how the idea of baking a cinnamon roll crossed my mind, but I enjoyed every moment of this baking session. Seeing the dough rise to folding it over and over again, it was amazing. The roll looks complicated, however the baking process is not as complicated as the roll itself. So here is another recipe to celebrate Christmas this year. Ingredients For the dough All purpose Flour - 2 cups + 3 tbsp Yeast - 3 tsp Water as required Salt - 1 pinch Sugar - 2 tbsp For the filling Cinnamon powder - 1/8 cup Sugar - 1/4 cup Raisins - a handful Butter - 2-3 tbsp Method Soak the yeast and 2 tbsp sugar in 1/4 cup of warm water and keep it covered for half an hour till it turns frothy. Take sifted flour into a big vessel, add salt to this and mix well. Tip it onto the kitchen slab ...