Weekend Dog Blogging, Weekend Jabber

Ever since my weekends were taken over by the A-Z event, poor Dale (the official mascot) has been unceremoniously booted off the pages of One Hot Stove. He's been rather miffed about it, let me tell you, so here he is!

Dale's life has a singular purpose: To Scout Out New Surfaces To Nap On. Last weekend, we bought a little space-filling rug (a desperate and inexpert effort to decorate a still-bare home) and laid it in the living room just to see what it looked it. Dale scooted right over and made himself comfortable on it within SECONDS! Ever since, it is his new favorite place to nap on. He starts by settling in...pinning back his ears:

ponders his surrounding for a few minutes:

then gives in to gravity, his head sinks to the ground and he slips into slumber; another busy day in the life of a dog!

Oh, Dale has a message: "Hi, Kamini! Woof! I missed you too!" :)

A bit of weekend jabber:
I tried out three recipes from fellow bloggers recently, and loved 'em all...
1. Apple Cake from Nami-Nami. A simple batter with loads of diced apples (I actually used one apple and one red Anjou pear instead of two apples), and a cinnamon-y crumb topping. It made for a delicious brunch cake, moist and fruity. The only problem was that the kids I made it for decided that they did not like fruits in cakes, and painstakingly removed every last bit of fruit before eating the few crumbs that were left behind! Oh, well, I guess you cannot please everyone! The rest of us enjoyed it, and I will certainly be making this cake again. The picture that I took does not do much justice to this cake, but here is a peek at it anyway:

2. A couple of years ago, I had never cooked with, and rarely ate sweet potatoes. Now, I buy them nearly every week and am always looking for new ways to cook them. Sweet potatoes are such a nutritious food that it would be silly not to. Well, I found a great way to use these orange beauties as appetizers: Sweet Potato Tikkis from Is That My Bureka, a recipe that I found via Coffee. This recipe is a keeper, and I followed it pretty closely, only subbing more cashews for the sunflower seeds.
3. Finally, I made a double batch of this delicious Mushroom Masala from Recipe Junction when we had an impromptu dinner with friends. It is totally restaurant-style stuff and just the ticket to satisfy mushroom lovers. Another keeper recipe!

After years of reading blogs the "old-fashioned" way (clicking on links, I mean), I decided that the number of blogs that I wanted to regularly read was getting out of hand, and streamlined it a little by subscribing to the "feeds" instead. I know I am very late coming to the RSS party, but that's me! Here is how I did it: I registered on to Bloglines. There are many alternatives out there...I just went with this one because I quickly saw that it was free, user-friendly and very quick. Once you have your own "page" there, you can add the URLs of all your favorite blogs. Then, every time these blogs are updated, you will see it highlighted in bold and can go read the new post. I *love* it! For one thing, it is efficient, and for another, I am saved from that little pang of disappointment that I feel when I visit my favorite blogs and find that there is no new post for me to read! Now, when I settle down with my first cup of tea every morning, I'm off to bloglines, and then to all the freshly-updated blogs for my daily fix of food-mania.

See you all tomorrow for the L of Indian Vegetables!