BB5 Round-up, A Bonus Sandwich, and on to BB6

The challenge this month was to try a sandwich or wrap from another blog, and here are the delightful recipes that made it to the party-

Cool, juicy, sweet and salty- SS (SS blogs here): Lettuce wraps with sprouts salad. Inspired by Manjula's Kitchen.

A frankie by any other name would taste as divine- Aquadaze (Served with Love): Chicken egg kathi rolls. Inspired by Bong Mom's Cookbook.

She would be quite happy eating this every single night- Sana Hurzuk (Everybunny loved food): Grilled chicken wraps with tahini sauce. Inspired by Annie's Eats and Syrian Foodie in London.

Spice up a picnic- Priya (Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes): Gobi tikka wrap. Inspired by Authentic Food Delights.

What to make when you have 4 cauliflowers on hand- Veena (Veg Junction): Cauliflower tikka wrap. Inspired by Authentic Food Delights.

A light meal comes to the rescue on a hot day- Bhagyashri (Taste Buds): Spicy red kidney bean wrap. Inspired by Sailu's Kitchen.

Beans dress up in their summer best- Nupur (One Hot Stove): Rajma wrap. Inspired by Sailu's Kitchen.

A tasty way to eat your plant protein- Melissa (Her Green Life): Open-faced lentil sandwiches. Inspired by Show Me Vegan. YAY for St. Louis blogs :)

Pesto works with everything- Priya (Yallapantula) Mitharwal (Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes): Cheese pesto sandwich with veggie pattie and veggies. Inspired by US Masala.

She's not a sandwich person but took the challenge anyway- Denny (Oh Taste N See): Indianized grilled cheese sandwich. Inspired by One Hot Stove.

How a really good loaf of bread can transform a sandwich- JK (The Gujju Ben Cooks): Italian style pesto sandwiches. Inspired by One Hot Stove.

Using Farmers' Market finds- Yummy 4 Tummy: Portobello mushroom sandwich. Inspired by Veggie Belly.

The burger is kicked up a notch- Denny (Oh Taste N See): Hot Tamale Burger. Inspired by Tasty Palettes.

There's no such thing as too many carbs- Latha (A Peek Into My Kitchen): Potato-sago burger. Inspired by Wake Up and Smell the Masala.

I want to thank all the participants for sharing the sandwich/wrap love and giving me a few fresh ideas in the process.

* * *

Here is a simple sandwich I made this weekend for my trivia team- if you use fresh, good bread and a creamy filling, the sandwiches are gobbled up in minutes.

I made the bread from this recipe on the King Arthur Flour website. By now, I've made this recipe a few times and it is a keeper. Oats make the bread very soft and tasty. I like cutting it into very thin slices.

The spread: 1 can of white beans (drained and rinsed), 1 bunch cilantro, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, olive oil to process the mixture into a thick paste.

The filling: fresh cucumbers and red peppers.

* * *
For the next round of Blog Bites, BB6, I'm keeping it very simple.

BB6 is the Potluck Edition.

Try a recipe from another blog, and it can be anything you like, there is no theme this month. Here's our chance to sift through the bookmarks and try some recipes that have caught our eye while blog-hopping. In true potluck style, the round-up will contain a mish-mash of dishes, cuisines and flavors, and there will be something for everyone.

The Rules

1. From now until August 25, look through your favorite blogs and try out ANY recipe. The recipe has to come from another blog. This is the whole premise of the Blog Bites event, so please turn to other blogs for inspiration.
2. Write a post telling us about the recipe you tried, with the following: (a) A link to the recipe on the inspiring blog, (b) A link to this post announcing the event (c) Picture of your dish.
3. Please do not copy a recipe word for word from another blog- that would be both illegal and unethical. Either re-write the recipe in your own words, or simply add a link to the recipe. One of the reasons I am hosting this event is to promote the idea of cooking from blogs while giving them due credit.
4. Please make sure your entry meets all the rules above. Then, send me the link (URL) of your entry, either by leaving a comment on this post, or using the contact form. You can send in as many entries as you like.
5. I will acknowledge the entries you send in by leaving a comment on your post and thanking you for the entry within 2-3 days. Check back on August 26 to see the round-up.

Thank you for your participation!


All this week, I am busy moving to another neighborhood. Regular programming on One Hot Stove will resume from my new kitchen in a week or so. Have a lovely week, everyone.

Rajma Wrap

Dried beans and legumes are the "little black dress" of my kitchen. Keep them in your pantry and they can emerge dressed up for a feast or dressed down for an everyday lunch, and everything in between. 

In this recipe, kidney beans are decked out in their summer best, wrapped in a light wheat tortilla along with cool yogurt, fresh greens and sweet tomatoes. The inspiration for this wrap came from the curried kidney bean wrap from Sailu's Kitchen. You could think of this as an Indian burrito. 

I took Sailu's idea and changed it to fit the ingredients in my kitchen, and the fresh loot from the Farmers' Market, including the sweetest, ripest cherry tomatoes. This is a very flexible and forgiving recipe, as you can imagine.

Kidney Bean Wraps

A. Make the filling:

1. Heat some oil, and saute 1 small minced onion.

2. Add and saute:

• 1 tsp. ginger garlic paste
• 1 tsp. cumin-coriander powder
• 1 tsp. kasuri methi
• turmeric and red chilli powder to taste
• salt to taste

3. Add and stir fry on open heat until the mixture is quite dry

• 3 tbsp. tomato ketchup
• 2 chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned)
• 4 cups cooked kidney beans 

4. Turn off the heat, and add

• a dash of garam masala
• plenty of chopped fresh cilantro

B. Assemble the wrap:

• For the base, you can use store-bought tortillas, pitas or other flatbreads. I love the whole wheat tortillas from Trader Joe's. Leftover (or freshly made) rotis or chapatis would be wonderful too. 
• To the flatbread, add some kidney bean filling, dollops of thick Greek yogurt (or strained yogurt or sour cream), and your choice of fresh vegetables, including fresh greens, quartered cherry tomatoes, sliced onion etc. 
• For those who love spicy food, some green chilli chutney would be right at home here. This wrap is very reminiscent of those frankies I love to devour every time I get a chance.

Because this recipe is inspired by a fellow blogger, it goes to this month's Blog Bites: Sandwiches and Wraps, hosted right here on this blog. If you would like to participate, send in an entry in the next couple of weeks.

Speaking of frankies and street food, I am teaching a class on Indian street food at the wonderful Kitchen Conservatory on Sunday, July 25th- two weeks from now. If you or someone you know might be interested, please contact me for details.

* Talking Trash * 

I am looking to set up a compost bin in a couple of weeks, and getting unduly excited about it. Once all the compostable material is removed from our weekly trash, there is so little left, so setting up a good composting system is a top priority in reducing the amount of trash my household produces.

My two criteria are, (a) it should be a container system rather than a pit I dig up in the yard, because I don't want to deal with the hassles of dogs and assorted critters getting into the pile, (b) I want to use some biological prowess- be it worms or bacteria- to speed up the composting process.

Right now, the top contender in my mind is the Bokashi method. Any and all kitchen waste is pickled using anaerobic bacteria, then the fermented mass is buried in soil for a few weeks to make rich compost.

There is a wealth of information out there on websites and in books and it can be overwhelming. Do you compost your kitchen waste? If yes, do you mind sharing your experiences with me, especially with small-scale container composting? Thank you for your time!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

We had a cozy pizza & cake party on the holiday weekend. Chocolate and peanut butter seems to be an ever-popular flavor combination around here, so I dug into the bookmarks and found the perfect recipe to try- peanut butter cup chocolate cake from Baking Bites. The recipe looked suspiciously simple. Aren't layer cakes supposed to be a pain to make?

To make it just a bit more complicated, I decided to make some crunchy candied peanuts as a topping for my cake. The recipe is from David Lebovitz and I followed it quite faithfully. In a heavy metal pan went raw peanuts (with pink skins on, the ones I buy in the Indian store), sugar and some water. Then it is a matter of stir, stir and stir again for nearly 30 minutes until the peanuts are coated in dark caramel and some grainy sugar. A final generous sprinkle of sea salt, cinnamon and red chilli powder, and the candied peanuts were poured onto a baking sheet to cool off.

We used some for the cake, as you will see later, and the rest became a too-tasty, addictive snack.

Now for the cake, which happens to be eggless, and the whole thing, cake and frosting, only used a stick of butter in all. Nice. Again, I followed the recipe closely. My only modifications:

• Cut down sugar by a third of a cup.
• Baked the batter in 2 cake pans, which needed only 20 minutes or so baking time since the cakes were not as tall.
• Used powdered buttermilk.

Then came the frosting: crunchy peanut butter, unsalted butter, icing sugar, tiny bit of salt and milk. Spread frosting on one layer...

...slap on the other layer. Drizzle generously with melted chocolate (I used a combination of milk and dark) and scatter the candied peanuts.

Gooey, messy and oh so good. With this cake, I can finally use the words "layer cake" and "quick and easy" in the same sentence. This one is a keeper.

* * *

I've loved participating in food blog events ever since I started writing this blog. Now, Jacqueline has started a great new website to keep us all informed about the fun events being hosted every month- it is called The Food Blog Diary. I want to thank her for including the Blog Bites: Sandwiches and Wraps in the July line-up.

Summer Fare: Raw Pasta Sauce

While the blog has been rather quiet this past week, real life has been busy and productive. I passed my road test and finally renewed the drivers' license, something I had been putting off for way too long.

My new job starts in just 3 days and I know it will take a while to adjust to the new schedule. But this blog brings me a lot of joy and is an ongoing diary of my food-centric life; I don't want it to fall silent. The plan is to try and update the blog once a week or so, perhaps with shorter posts.

To commute to work, and go around town for errands, and for riding in the park, I bought myself a bike yesterday-

Believe it or not, it has been 11 whole years since I last rode a bicycle (a trusty red BSA SLR bike is what I used from middle school right past college). Turns out it is true what they say about riding a bike- you don't forget once you learn. I hopped on and rode confidently. Got any suggestions for what I should name my new bike?

I have to give a BIG shout-out to our friend Mike Weiss of Big Shark Bicycle Company and his team for being absolutely terrific and helping me pick out a sturdy and affordable bike that fits my needs. I love supporting independent local businesses, especially ones where they so obviously love what they do, and when they show their customers the love. They even tried to convince me that I don't look dorky (or dorkier than I usually do) in a bike helmet.

Meanwhile, the weather in St. Louis has been picture perfect. We have been gorging ourselves silly on summer produce, throwing together meals with the loot from the Farmers' Markets and consuming them without pausing for blog pictures. Last night I finally remembered to grab the camera.

This is what we enjoyed yesterday- whole wheat spaghetti with a raw pasta sauce, or salsa cruda, that simply captures the essence of summer. No cook recipes are always welcome in summer, although you will have to turn the stove on to cook the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, grab a big bowl and toss in ingredients to make the sauce. A gourmet meal awaits you in 11.5 minutes. This is not an exact recipe, just a general method that you can tweak to your heart's content. Because it is such a simple recipe, the quality of ingredients matters even more than usual, so please use the best seasonal produce you can find.

Raw Pasta Sauce 

Salsa Cruda

1. Start boiling salted water for pasta. When it comes to a rolling boil, cook whole-wheat spaghetti until al dente, then drain the spaghetti.

2. Meanwhile, make the sauce. In a large bowl, mix the following-

• ¹⁄₄ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 large ripe fresh tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1 cup yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ¹⁄₂ cup olives, chopped finely
• 2 tbsp. basil-walnut pesto
• 1 bunch fresh basil, cut in chiffonade
• Hefty pinch of red pepper flakes
• Plenty of salt and pepper

3. Toss the cooked spaghetti with the sauce. Top with grated parmesan cheese and serve.

I'm sending this recipe to Presto Pasta Night, hosted at Fuss Free Flavors this week. This event is your one-stop shop for pasta inspiration for every season.

Neighbor Girl made this side dish to go with the spaghetti, again, something stunningly simple and completely delicious. This did not even make it to the table, everyone (except me- I don't do goat cheese) grabbed it in the kitchen and ate it standing up.

• Halve and pit fresh apricots.
• Grill them, or sear them on a pan with some butter, making sure to sear both sides.
• Place the apricots cut side up on a plate, fill the centers with your choice of cheese (she chose a crumbled goat cheese) and drizzle with balsamic vinegar. 

To all my friends in the USA, happy Independence Day weekend! What are you doing this weekend?

Blog Bites 5: Sandwiches and Wraps

We've had a couple of tricky, off-beat themes for Blog Bites in the past editions, but this month, the theme is as simple and straightforward as can be- Sandwiches & Wraps.

These foods are on my mind because summer is here in its full sticky sultry glory, along with the annual quota of picnics, trips and vacations. Lighter meals are perfect for eating on the go, great for lunch boxes and easy on the body when the weather gets too hot.

The theme of sandwiches lends itself to a journey around the world to sample, say, English cucumber tea sandwiches, Indian chutney sandwiches, classic American grilled cheese and Mexican tortas. Burgers and hot dogs are also included, and our delightful vada pav is definitely part of the deal. Similarly, wraps are an opportunity to travel the globe, trying recipes for burritos, frankies, kati rolls and falafel-stuffed pitas, to mention just a few of the possibilities.

You don't have to stick to classic combinations from particular cuisines. Sandwiches and wraps are also the perfect vehicle for summer produce, to use up leftovers and to create new flavor combinations using whatever you have on hand. You could also try to find recipes to replicate sandwiches and wraps you love eating in restaurants and fast food chains.

This theme is pretty broad and you are welcome to use your imagination to interpret it. For instance, you could try recipes to make sandwich bread from scratch, or to make rolls (pav), or to try making your own sandwich spreads, such as preserves, nut butters and home-made mayonnaise. You could even try making sandwich dhokla as a savory treat. For a sweet treat, sandwich cookies would hit the spot, as would ice cream sandwiches.

It is easy to fall into a rut when it comes to sandwiches and lunch ideas, so here is a chance to look though your bookmarked recipes and browse the archives of your favorite blogs, and find new favorites to add to your repertoire. As long as your recipe clearly ties in with the theme of Sandwiches & Wraps (and is inspired by another blogger, of course), it will be included.

The Rules

1. From now until July 25, look through your favorite blogs and try out recipes that fit the theme Sandwiches & Wraps. The recipe has to come from another blog. This is the whole premise of the Blog Bites event, so please turn to other blogs for inspiration.
2. Write a post telling us about the recipe you tried, with the following: (a) A link to the recipe on the inspiring blog, (b) A link to this post announcing the event (c) Picture of your dish.
3. Please do not copy a recipe word for word from another blog- that would be both illegal and unethical. Either re-write the recipe in your own words, or simply add a link to the recipe. One of the reasons I am hosting this event is to promote the idea of cooking from blogs while giving them due credit.
4. Please make sure your entry meets all the rules above. Then, send me the link (URL) of your entry, either by leaving a comment on this post, or using the contact form. You can send in as many entries as you like.
5. I will acknowledge the entries you send in by leaving a comment on your post and thanking you for the entry within 2-3 days. Check back on July 26 to see the round-up.

Thank you for your participation!

BB4 Round Up

All this month, dozens of bloggers took the challenge and cleaned out ingredients lurking in their kitchens, using recipes from other bloggers with tasty results. Here they are, sorted out by the lurking ingredient. I hope you find lots of ideas here to use up food from your own kitchen and minimize waste.

Grains

Angela of The Well-Worn Apron bought whole rye berries but did not end up using them, and also had sambar masala that she won a while back, and used them both in a colorful and nutritious rye berry and garbanzo bean salad, inspired by this recipe from Dinner with Julie.

Bek from I Digress moved to a new home only very recently but still managed to find plenty of pantry items that had moved with her! She took some oats, sesame seeds, nuts, dried fruit and coconut to make pantry granola, inspired by this recipe from One Hot Stove.

Another version of pantry granola comes from Shilpa of Thoughts and Pans, who used oats, dates, wheat germ and honey to make granola bars, inspired by this recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

Rachana of Sizzle N Spice used packets of instant oatmeal to make savory oats dosa, inspired by this recipe from Yummy Indian Recipes.

Umm Mymoonah of Taste of Pearl City bought whole wheat for its health benefits but did not know what to do with it; she used it to make whole wheat avocado payasam, inspired by this recipe from Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes.

Curry Leaf at Experiments, Emotions, Experiences with food used whole wheat berries to make Nepalese Tsampa, inspired by this recipe from Zlamushka's Spicy Kitchen.

Bala of A Life Journey Together used up a half-jar of cracked wheat in an upma-like purkouri, inspired by this recipe from Nami-Nami.

Bhagyashri of Taste Buds bought brown rice as a healthier alternative to regular rice and found an interesting way to use it in spicy brown rice khichadi, inspired by this recipe from When My Soup Came Alive.

Meera of Enjoy Indian Food bought a large package of barley for its health benefits and used some of it to make a refreshing lemon barley drink, inspired by this recipe from Red Chillies.

Flours

Rachana of Sizzle N Spice had horsegram (kulith) flour that her mother carried all the way from India 18 months ago. Reluctant to waste the precious gift, she made horsegram dosa, inspired by this recipe from Aayi's Recipes and loved it so much that she might buy more horsegram flour now. She also used up an old batch of bhajani (multigrain flour) to make bhajaniche vade, inspired by this recipe from Chakali.

Niloufer Riyaz of Kitchen Samraj found ragi flour lurking in her kitchen and used it to make instant oats and ragi dosai, inspired by this recipe from Veg Inspirations.

Kalyani and Gayatri of Adiruchi also used up ragi flour to make ragi dosa, inspired by this recipe from Aroma from My Kitchen.

Uma of Chettinad Samayal bought atta to make rotis at home but keeps going back to the convenience of store-bought rotis, so she used the atta to make godhumai rava dosa, inspired by this recipe from Mahanandi.

Kanchan of Kitchen Gossip is moving to her new home and finished off a couple of packs of flour with rava dosa, inspired by this recipe from Relishing Recipes.

Bek from I Digress bought a bag of besan (chickpea flour) to make an Indian pastry but the besan sat on a shelf untouched. She used it to make an incredible quiche-like vegan dish called farinata, inspired by this recipe from Tofu for Two.

Legumes

Rachana of Sizzle N Spice spotted a canister of black eyed peas in her pantry and used them to make delicious deep-fried chawli vada, inspired by this recipe from Mahanandi.

Ashwini of Konkani Foodie used up some yellow peas and assorted pantry items while taking a trip down memory lane to recreate street food called masala puri, inspired by this recipe from Ruchi Ruchi Adige.

Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes  had soaked and frozen a bag of butter beans a month ago and used them to make a flavorful butter beans curry, inspired by this recipe from Rak's Kitchen.

Priya (Yallapantula) Mitharwal of Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes used a bag of whole masoor to make saboot masoor ki sabzi, her new favorite dal, inspired by this recipe from Treat Your Tongue.

Niloufer Riyaz of Kitchen Samraj used masoor dal to make spicy masoor dhal, inspired by this recipe from Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes.

Suma of Veggie Platter had a cup of urad dal languishing for years, and used it to make the popular restaurant favorite dal makhani, inspired by this recipe from One Hot Stove.

Indosungod of Daily Musings found fava beans and Moroccan seasoning languishing in her kitchen and put them together to make a Persian-influences pulav, inspired by this recipe from The Herb Companion.

Siri of Siri's Corner is moving from DC to California and is on a pantry cleaning mission. She used mixed dals and brown rice to make adai, inspired by this recipe from Foodie's Hope. She continued her pantry cleaning mission with bachelor tadka, inspired by this recipe from Crazy Curry.

Bala of A Life Journey Together had a bag of mixed beans for soup living in her pantry, and used them in a rare deep-frying session to make mixed beans vadas, inspired by this recipe from Dil Se.

Vegetables

Roopa of My Kitchen Treats could see the outer leaves wilting on the cabbage in her fridge and made good use of it in these spicy steamed cabbage dumplings, inspired by this recipe from Easycooking.

At SS Blogs Here, she used up zucchini that her grocer sells in large bags to make (a) room in her crisper and (b) tasty zucchini pacchadi, inspired by this recipe from Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes. She also used a bit of cabbage and besan to make Extreme Makeover kadhi pakodas, inspired by this recipe from The Singing Chef.

PJ of Ginger and Garlic bought adorable patty pan squash from the Farmers' Market but did not have a recipe in mind to cook them, until she made this delicious and colorful spring vegetable ratatouille, inspired by this recipe from Simply Recipes.

Angela of The Well-Worn Apron had some beautiful artichokes left over from working at a large event, and used them, along with a lemon shared by her neighbor, to make braised artichokes, inspired by this recipe from Mark Bittman.

At Blink and Miss,  the blogger found colorful capsicum and baby corn that needed to be used up, and a mammoth bottle of soy sauce, and used all of this to make Thai red curry, inspired by this recipe from Jugalbandi.

At Indian Khana, the blogger had a problem eggplant that was too big for one recipe and too small for another, so instead it went into Hyderabad-style bagara baingan, inspired by this recipe from Edible Garden.

Preeti Kashyap of Relishing Recipes said that in her home, they use up groceries within a week, even the ketchup! When she bought mushrooms and tofu for pad thai that she never had a chance to make, she used them up to make tofu-mushroom 65, inspired by this recipe from Cooking and Recipes.

Preeti's entry further inspired Sonu of Palate Corner to use up eggplant and tofu and sauces from her fridge to make tofu-eggplant 65.

Sonu of Palate Corner used up canned tomato to make spicy and tangy pepper rasam, inspired by this recipe from Tasty Appetite.

Linda of Out of The Garden talked about canned tomato paste languishing at the back of the fridge and the carrots lurking in the veggie drawer, and put them to good use in a bean carrot soup, inspired by this recipe from Bong Mom's Cookbook.

Priya (Yallapantula) Mitharwal of Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes used frozen spinach to make curried spinach rice, inspired by these recipes from Nithu's Kitchen and Sailaja's Recipes.

At One Hot Stove, I used frozen peas, asparagus and broccoli to make very green soup, inspired by this recipe from Tara the Foodie. I also used frozen corn to make corn pepper chowder, inspired by this recipe from Phoo-D.

Nithu Bala of Nithu's Kitchen skipped her vegetable shopping trip and used up vegetables from the freezer to make this corn and green onion rice, inspired by this recipe from Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes.

Kalyani and Gayatri of Adiruchi used assorted bits of vegetables to make tawa pulao, inspired by this recipe from Chef in You.

Spices

Sandeepa of Bong Mom's Cookbook had a packet of pav bhaji masala that had taken up semi-permanent residence in her pantry. She used it to make her first batch of pav bhaji, inspired by this recipe from One Hot Stove.

Denny of Oh Taste and See had a bag of dried ginger (sukku) in her pantry from the time she used it as a home remedy for a nasty cold. She put it to good use and made spicy tangy sukku kuzhambu, inspired by this recipe from Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes.

Umm Mymoonah of Taste of Pearl City had a big packet of zaatar spice gifted by a friend, and used it to make zaatar ring bread, inspired by this recipe from Arabic Bites.

Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes  found some spices lurking in her pantry and used them to make rich paneer tawa masala, inspired by this recipe from Jeyashri's Kitchen.

Fruit & Nuts

Sangeetha of I Googled, I Saw, I Cooked bought a giant bag of cranberries at Costco and got sick of munching on them after a while. She baked them into cranberry quick bread and cranberry pecan granola, inspired by these recipes from One Hot Stove, and also made some easy cranberry peanut trail mix.

Magpie of Magpie's Recipes had to use up a huge box of clementines that were staring at her every time she opened the fridge. She used some of them to bake vegan orange cupcakes, inspired by this recipe from Live Journal, originally from the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.

Satrupa of Food for Thought had a couple of bananas that seemed to be destined for the trash, but used them, along with some flour and fennel that was also waiting to be used up, to make Thai-style fried bananas, inspired by this recipe from Thai Dessert.

BangaloreBaker of Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen bought two bags of bananas and then has to scramble and use them up, so she made banana chocolate chip bread, inspired by this recipe from FatFree Vegan Kitchen.

Amruta of Delicious Vegetarian took the challenge and did some serious stock-taking and list-making, then used all purpose flour (which had been languishing since she switched to whole wheat flour), frozen bananas and near-expired eggs to make double chocolate banana bread, inspired by this recipe from The Sisters Cafe.

Madhuli from My Foodcourt happened to buy peaches that were very sour, but she used them with great results in gorgeous stone fruit tarts, inspired by this recipe from Passionate About Baking.

M of Eating Matters used frozen fruit and a host of other pantry lurkers to make tropical punch oatmeal muffins, inspired by this recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod.

Kiran of Sumadhura had store bought mango juice lurking in her fridge and used it to make mango watermelon popsicles, inspired by this recipe from Health Nut.

Amruta of Delicious Vegetarian used the last tablespoon of jam lurking at the bottom of the bottle and used it in a delicious mixed fruit sandwich inspired by the mention of a banana sandwich from Veggie Platter.

At One Hot Stove, I used partial jars of two fruit jams to make jam bars, inspired by this recipe from The Pioneer Woman.

Madhuli from My Foodcourt had some almonds that were threatening to go rancid, and used them to make some tasty and unusual almond powder, inspired by this recipe from Talimpu.

Kalyani and Gayatri of Adiruchi used various nuts stored in the freezer to make an extravagant version of poha, inspired by this recipe from Relishing Recipes.

Meera of Enjoy Indian Food used pistachios and rosewater that had been sitting in her fridge for a long while to make the most luscious pistachio rose ice cream, inspired by this recipe from Gourmet Worrier.

Assorted

PJ of Seduce Your Tastebuds had a loaf of bread sitting in her fridge, bought for her little girl's tummy troubles but never eaten, and used it to make a tasty bread pulao, inspired by this recipe from The Veggie Hut.

Sayantani of A Homemaker's Diary found 2 packets of egg noodles and made spicy fried noodles for her family's special Saturday night dinner, inspired by this recipe from My Kitchen Snippets.

At One Hot Stove, I used TVP (soy granules) inherited from my neighbor to make soy kheema just like my grandma used to make, inspired by this recipe from Kitchen Gossip.

Bek from I Digress used up sesame seeds and leftover rice by making innovative falafalentils, inspired by this recipe from Just Bento.

PriyaVaasu of En Veetu Kitchen bought feta for the first time months ago, and finally got a chance to use it in flaky spinach feta rolls, inspired by this recipe from Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes and this recipe from Rak's Kitchen.

Bala of A Life Journey Together used up a jar of sauerkraut from 2008 in a flavorful and unusual sauerkraut soup, inspired by this recipe from Nami-Nami. This Estonian soup is another stop in her quest to cook a recipe from every country in the world.

Kiran of Sumadhura found a pack of tomato soup two days away from its expiry date, and used it in place of vegetable stock to make quinoa salad, inspired by this recipe from  Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes.

Arundati of Escapades returned from a vacation (where she became a Godmother!) to an almost-empty fridge. She did find pesto, inspired by this recipe on One Hot Stove, lurking in the freezer and made a quick dish of spaghetti with basil and walnut pesto.

Pari of Foodelicious worried that the yeast hidden away in her kitchen for a long while was inactive, but it proofed well and gave her bread rolls with instant potato flakes, inspired by this recipe from My Kitchen Cafe.

Sonu of Palate Corner used up a long-bought packet of filo sheets and assorted nuts to make exquisitely sweet baklava, inspired by this recipe from Chef in You.

Chaitra of Aathidhyam used leftover Marie biscuits to make crunchy choco marie biscuit rolls, inspired by this recipe from Sailu's Kitchen.

Lata Raja of Flavours and Tastes had Ovaltine left over from her mother's visit and milk powder left over from attempts to make yogurt, and used them to make indulgent choco almond burfi, inspired by this recipe from Experiments in Kailas Kitchen.

Jaya Wagle of Desi Soccer Mom posted pictures of her beautiful walk-in pantry and described her efforts to use up a few ingredients that were lurking within. She used up some organic chocolate chips to make luscious double chocolate ice cream, inspired by this recipe from Joy The Baker.

Denny of Oh Taste and See used sugar candy left over from her baby shower to make creamy, comforting misri baath, inspired by this recipe from Dil Se.

At Torview, the blogger made microwave papadums, inspired by this recipe from Veggie Platter.

Ashwini of Konkani Foodie cleaned out assorted pantry items to make fish cutlets, inspired by this recipe from My Dhaba.

Bek from I Digress got into the mood of this month's theme and started looking around her pantry for things to use up, which resulted in a fantastic supper of slow cooker black bean soup, inspired by these recipes from Art is the Handmaid of Human Good and  Sustainable Pantry, served with onion herb bread, inspired by this recipe from Baking Bites.

Jaya Wagle of Desi Soccer Mom came clean and polished her beautiful pantry to perfection. She graciously allowed me to share the pictures here. Behold the reward of a pantry clean-up:

If you want to show off pictures of your beautiful kitchen spaces, send them to her in the next 4 days.

Check back on Monday morning to see the theme for the fifth edition of Blog Bites, and have a lovely weekend. 

Pretzels R Us

Neighbor Girl and I have been swapping skills over the last couple of months, and we are having a blast with it. She happens to be at one extreme of the fitness scale- hiking, mountain biking and winning races, running and who know what else- and I am, ahem, at the other extreme. So she's dragging me out to run with her, making me huff and puff up stairs, and making me do something called P90X videos, where the X stands for extreme and don't I know it. If I keep up with this much physical activity, I will be all fit and slender-like by the end of summer. Or dead from a heart attack, one of the two. She's also helping me overcome my driving phobia with vigorous encouragement ("You made a right turn- YAY- you're so clever") and the occasional hollering ("You have to step on the gas and I mean it- or don't cry if other drivers honk at you").

In turn, I am teaching her to knit- we started with a cute and easy baby blanket for her friend's baby shower- and to cook. And supplying her with homemade yogurt. We're both pretty darn grateful to have each other because it is not often in life that you find a buddy to inspire and motivate you, to hold your hand through learning something new and making your life better.

Anyway, Neighbor Girl announced that she "lurves pretzels" so I looked up a recipe and on Sunday, she and V and I had a little pretzel party. Imagine if you can, three adults plus two dogs (she has an adorable mutt too) squeezed into a little galley kitchen on a sweltering summer evening. Refer to Gattina's recipe for details; what follows is a quick recap of what we did.

Pretzels!

Step 1: Make the dough. I started by making the dough in the food processor. You can certainly make this dough by hand-kneading too.

• 3.5 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp. instant yeast
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1.5 tsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. soft butter
• 1.25 cups lukewarm water (or as much as needed to make a soft elastic dough)

Step 2: Let the dough rise. The ball of dough went into a greased covered bowl to rest and rise for 1.5 hours. I could almost hear the yeast cheering at the heat and humidity that evening; the dough rose to the point where the lid popped off the bowl. 

Step 3: Divide into portions and let them rest. Next, I briefly kneaded the dough and divided it into 12 equal balls, and let these rest for 15 minutes.

Step 4: Shape the pretzels. That's when my peeps came into the kitchen and all wanted to help shape the pretzels. Each ball is rolled into a rope (we swung the two ends like a mini skipping rope between our hands) and twisted into the characteristic pretzel shape. 

I just noticed that the pretzel on the bottom left corner was not twisted correctly- obviously, one of those two made that one ;)

Step 4: Let the pretzels rest. Start preheating oven and boiling water. It does not matter if the pretzels look wobbly, misshapen or otherwise imperfect at this point. They rest for another 20 minutes and puff up to hide all the flaws.

Towards the end of this resting period, we cranked the oven to 400 F and put 6 cups of water to boil on the stove.

Step 5: Boil the pretzels. Add 6 tbsp. baking soda to the water, carefully because it will bubble up madly. Dunk each pretzel carefully in this boiling alkaline water bath for 10-15 seconds on each side. Place back on the parchment on the baking sheet. It is this step that gives the pretzel its characteristic color, flavor and shiny taut crust.

Step 6. Flavor the pretzels. My plan was to use plain sea salt but each person had a different idea. I try to run a democratic kitchen, so I salted my quota of 4 pretzels, Neighbor Girl used a heavy coating of cinnamon sugar on her 4 and V used cheese on his 4.

Step 7. Bake the pretzels. 400 F for 10-12 minutes. They taste so very good right out of the oven. Although next time, I would dunk in cinnamon sugar later, after baking.

It was thrilling to break open a pretzel, to see the shiny golden-brown crust and the airy interior, just like the ones I've eaten in pretzel stores. What an easy and perfect recipe; it also makes just the right amount for 3-4 people.

And this is how three thirty-somethings had a relaxed and fun evening playing in the kitchen, shaping and twisting dough and baking a treat for ourselves.

Weekend Cooking and Baking

The ongoing heat wave has resulted in a sort of house arrest this weekend, but homebody that I am, it doesn't bother me a bit to be trapped indoors with plenty of time to cook, bake, craft and read.

We are moving to a new neighborhood (hopefully to a place with a backyard) next month, so it is imperative to eat down the pantry and start over afresh in a new kitchen.

Shopping at Soulard market yesterday, I had to stop myself from buying any fresh corn because I still have a bag of frozen corn from the winter. This recipe from Phoo-D was very enticing, because it seemed like the perfect way to use up the corn as well as the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce that seem to last me forever. And thus a big pot of corn pepper chowder came to be:

Corn Pepper Chowder

(adapted from Phoo-D; originally from the Canyon Ranch cookbook)

1. Saute 1 medium diced onion and 3 minced garlic cloves in some olive oil.
2. Dice 1 yellow pepper and 1 red pepper. Add half of the diced peppers at this point to the pot.
3. Add 1 tsp. cumin powder, 1 minced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce and Mexican chili powder if you want to amp up the spice level.
4. Add 2 to 3 cups frozen or fresh corn, 2 cups vegetable stock and 1 cup milk. Simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat, blend the soup partially, then add minced cilantro, remaining red and yellow peppers, lemon juice, and salt to taste. 

I served the chowder with some leftover tortilla chips. A zap in the microwave freshened them up. For a chowder made without cream, this soup was silky and thick and simply delicious. It tastes great at room temperature or even chilled, if running the A/C and slurping down a bowl of steaming hot soup seems ironic to you.

For a vegan chowder, use non-dairy milk.

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This was lurking in my fridge- 2 partial jam jars, peach and raspberry. Delicious, both, but we eat jam very occasionally and it was time to find a tasty way to finish these up.

So the jams were nestled in a buttery oat-flour mix to make jam bars- a treat for V to share with his cricket teammates. I adapted the recipe to suit the ingredients I had on hand, using part Earth Balance vegan butter in place of butter, and substituting almond flour and whole wheat pastry flour for some of the flour. This treat is unbelievably easy to make and tastes fantastic. And it happens to be eggless.

Jam Bars

(adapted from the Apricot Bars recipe from The Pioneer Woman)

1. In a food processor, pulse the following to a crumbly mixture:

• 1 ¹/₂ cups flour (I used part all-purpose flour, part almond meal and part whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ²/₃ cup sugar
• 1 ³/₄ sticks cold butter (I used part butter and part Earth Balance butter substitute)

2. Layer half the mixture in a greased 8x8 pan and pat down firmly. Slather jam on this layer. I used half raspberry and half peach. Top with the remaining mixture and pat down gently to cover the jam.

3. Bake at 350 F until golden brown. Cool completely (I refrigerated it overnight) and cut into 24 pieces.

As both these recipes were inspired by other blogs, and both used ingredients lurking in my kitchen, they are perfect for Blog Bites #4. Send in your entries by this coming Friday if you would like to be included in the round-up.

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On the Hooks

I started on a crocheted hexagon blanket this week- and it is ever so addictive and enjoyable. The pattern comes from the brilliant and generous Lucy of Attic42. Her exuberant use of color amazes and inspires me.

I chose a flower patch style, with cheerful flowers in blue, green and yellow scattered on a snowy background. It will take a few weeks to complete; this is just the first corner. You like?