04/17/2016: Cracker Dosas

Last week while making dosas for her sister , Shruthkirti got an innovative inspiration and made bacon strips, funny faces and cracker dosas . Couldn't take a snap of the others before they got gobbled by her sister, but the cracker dosa I managed to. She crumbled crackers and mixed it with Dosa atta.

April 7, 2016 - Restaurant Calling :Pasta and tofu salad for lunch from Red Rose

So when Shruthkirti got back from her morning HS classes she was in a mood to cook and declared that Red Rose was open and was catering to lunch. We decided to " eat out" at the restaurant and ordered a blueberry & honeydew melon smoothie, a tomato vegan pasta and a vegan salad. She made them so well  all by herself with no help from anyone and " delivered " it at home. The salad was especially very yummy- tofu, avocado and onion salad with a dressing of coconut cream, paprika and salt. Very yum!! 

We all enjoyed it thoroughly while watching a documentary on how the Beauty and Beast was based on a real story of a man suffering from hypertrichosis in Austria. An awesome afternoon all in all. 

March 17, 2016- Cooking falafels

Ever since my MIL is visiting from India , we have been cooking and introducing her to various world cuisines. After Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, American and a plethora of vegan foods, it was now our turn to make Mediterranean food . So we chose falafels in a pita wrap.
I made homemade falafels with a twist and of course someone promptly jumped in to help me and her grandmom. Substituted fried falafels with baked ones, the couscous tabaoulleh with a millet one and instead of yogurt served a sun dried tomato cashew dip.
 Shruthkirti helped with making the hummus and cashew dip in the Vitamix .
Everyone loved the new , improved, healthier version of this amazing Mediterranean food and Shruthkirti learnt yet another valuable lesson in the art of substituting and tinkering in the art of making vegan food.

March 30, 2016- The Pull of Innovation : Blueberry tea

Shruthkirti invented blueberry tea. She squeezed juice out of a cup of frozen and thawed blueberries, boiled water, mixed the two and added honey. The result was really yummy!

Feb 12, 2016- Cooking for Mahesh's ( dad ) birthday

Chia pudding

Final spread

Birthday dinner

Ragda

Baked potato pattice topped with sesame seeds

Coriander and date chutneys

Vegan scallop potato bake

Fruit cake with coconut cream toppings

This year was really something when it came to cooking for Mahesh on his birthday. The girls and I decided to give him a surprise birthday dinner and cooked up pretty exotic vegan stuff.  Ofcourse there had to be potatoes which happens to be his favorite vegetable . I gathered the recipes from various cooking blogs especially from Blender Girl.
The girls pitched in chopping with the veggies and decorating the fruit cake along with their grandmom.  Shruthkirti was especially kicked about assembling the fruit cake and decorating it with a coconut cream toppings.  She also very enthusiastically assembled the potato bake with alternating layers of a cauliflower based vegan sauce and potato slices.
Shreedhari decorated the living room beautifully with streamers across the top ceiling. We managed to make the following:
Ragda pattice with baked potato cupcakes as pattice and date and coriander chutneys
Thai mixed salad with bean sprouts,spring onions, zoodles and a citrus thai sauce
Vegan scallop potato bake
A completely fruit layered cake with coconut cream toppings which was totally Shruthkirti's ideas.

The whole dinner proved to be a great hit! Everyone especially the birthday boy loved everything that was cooked. The fruit cake was certainly the highlight of the evening.

Felt like such an accomplishment for myself , the girls and their grandmom. Such brilliant team work. And ofcourse tons of  hard work, focus, planning , execution , love and bonding through food.
Really nothing can beat a birthday celebration when it comes to conscious cooking with your heart 100% in it.

Jan 23, 2016- Serving lunch in style

I made a typical South Indian lunch and the girls promptly jumped in to set the table. Added a few flowers, arranged the steamed colacasia in a beautiful circle and kept flowers handpicked from downstairs besides every plate. Sometimes the simplest additions can enhance the whole experience of a meal  and the taste of the food being served!

Feb 4, 2016- Blackberry Whip Pops

Shruthkirti made these from blackberries topped with condensed milk and toppings of sprinkles , nuts and dry fruits. She stuck them on a candle with the help of a few toothpicks.

Feb 4, 2016 - Cooking for lunch: Japanese rice wraps

Today I decided to make thai soup and Japanese rice wraps. Ofcourse Shruthkirti was very excited about the rice wraps because she had recently learnt to make it in her Wild Child nature classes. We made a stuffing of Glucamole  and Green salad ( lettuce, spinach and a whole bunch of other greens like kale, mustard which she had got from her farm class). She wrapped it really well and neatly closed it with a toothpick and carrot and sweet tomato pieces. We served it with a thai peanut sauce and a thai sweet chili sauce.

Feb 5, 2016- Restaurant calling: Reopening of Red Rose Restaurant at home

Shruthkirti reopened her in home restaurant Red Roses and invited all of us to come at her restaurant for dinner. All of us ordered for small cheese pizza slices,  vegan tomato soup and baked zucchini which she promptly made! She took an existing large pizza crust and managed to make small circles out of it. She also used tomato sauce for the pizza that we already had and was store bought. Her additions to it were the melted cheese and olive topping. One of her " design" ideas I guess!!
Also served it with great love to her grandma who was visiting from India.

She seems so kicked about entrepreneurship these days. She seems to constantly be on the lookout for making money. And Red Roses satisfies both her passions of cooking & designing and making money. 

March 1, 2015- Making aloo parathas in a Chef avatar

Shruthkirti joined me today to cook dinner .We made one of their favorites- Aloo parathas and Palak Paneer. She kneaded the dough and also made the parathas. She seems to have a good hang of it . Wore her Chef cap while doing this and hence looked very professional!!

Blast from the past- Cooking Experiments in our Pune home( pre 2014 )

Posting this to acknowledge those days of tinkering and cooking small, easy snacks and other stuff. It was starting to get really clear that Shruthkirti was gonna be interested in the kitchen in a very serious way! Im so glad I gave her the time and space to do whatever is it that she wanted to do. True learning is allowing the desires from within to manifest. One never knows the scope of experiences and new learnings it brings in. Cooking with and by the children has now become such a normal thing in this house. We all connect so much through it constantly exploring and learning something new!