Plum cake

Here is a recipe for summer plum cake. A good twist to simple cake with  juicy plums.  The post has been sitting in the draft for a year but its never late to post it right !

Surprise breakfast: Dukkah, honey glazed onion polenta and chocolate cake

Somehow weekends have been pretty hectic for the last couple of months and I didn't get much time to have a relaxing breakfast. Either we had to rush somewhere or high carb breakfast choice was on the plate!! To surprise Sid (or perhaps treat myself!), I woke up much earlier than my usual Sunday mornings to have the following on the table:

(1) Griddled polenta with caramalized onions, honey and goat cheese [winner of Food 52 contest for category " Polenta"]
(2) Dukkah (Egyptian mix of nuts and spices) with boiled eggs! Recently I learnt about it at the amazing blog Chocolate and Zucchini. I replaced chestnuts with walnuts in the recipe. Later on we also enjoyed dukkah in a more traditional way with olive oil and bread)
(3) Simple chocolate cake! [winner of Food 52 contest for the category "Best Chocolate Cake"]. I used instant coffee in this recipe.

All are easy to make and taste really good. Highly recommended!!!

Venetian Polenta with Swiss Chard

Somehow I have never been tempted with restaurants right across the street from our apartment in the past.  I don't have a solid reason but some hypothesis which I would rather not explain here:) Somehow, one fine Sunday night, with no desire to cook at home and company of my lazy legs, we found our way to have dinner at Spiritland Bistro which is right across the street from our apartment. It is a cute little, fine-dine restaurant with European style ambiance.  Their menu has large number of vegetarian options from many cuisines around the world (something that I have always dreamt of).  Food was delicious so much so that we ended up eating here again in less than a week with some friends!  Both the times, we tried their tasty appetizer - Venetian Polenta Cake.  Here is a reasonable attempt to replicate this dish in our own kitchen!

Polenta Tart/Pizza

I am excited about this post for two reasons.  First, this is the last post for the year and also 52nd post on this blog which started in 2010. I am happy that I could post one recipe on an average per week.  At times I got lazy, others overexcited but overall I really enjoyed this hobby:)

Whole tomato bruschetta

We went to Hawaii earlier this month.  I was wondering how different would it be considering we live in Santa Barbara which is on the coast.  It is so beautiful!  For me the temperature of water and snorkeling almost everyday were enough reasons to go to Hawaii. I have never spent so much time splashing in ocean water; it was a great feeling.

Basil Pesto

Basil pesto is super easy to make and once you make it at home, you would think twice before buying it from store :) The classic use of pesto is for pasta, sandwiches, and bruschetta.

Italian Love Cake

This was my first baking exploration and I always associate this with hunting the grocery store for cool whip cream, instant pudding mix, ricotta cheese and measuring cups. The path was quite irresistible especially after tasting a piece of it at an annual senior graduation party and an interesting name!

Thumbprint Cookies

My all time favorite cookies/biscuits are from Venus bakery in Jaipur. Along with mom's hand made ladoo and mathri, Rawat misthan's pyaz kachori, I would always have them in my suitcase when I went back to the hostel in middle school after holidays and to all the other subsequent hostels thereafter:) I was introduced to these cookies by my sister like the other zillion things in my life :) Since both my sister and brother were also at hostel's at that time, all the goodies would get divided in to three parts. Even now, mummy makes three packets of anything that even one of us asks her to bring and obviously has hard time packing them in suitcases!

Goat cheese ravioli - Sid's entry

It is clear to some of you how spoiled I am getting. Also, since "the chef" has been training for half-marathon, I decided to cook something nice to cheer her up on her long-run days!

Tiramisu -Daring Baker's Challenge

When I had first made Tiramisu couple of years back, it wasn't remotely close to Tiramisu in looks however it tasted okay. I decided to give it another try when the Daring's Bakers Challenge for Feb was rolled out wherein the challenge was to make Tiramisu including ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese.

Pizza

In memories of uncountable pizzas from Conte's (Princeton) and Giafranco (Philly)!

Cannoli - Daring Baker's Challenge

Chrismas Special - Cannoli making experience as a participant of Daring Baker's Competition was amazing. Thanks to Isha for introducing me to Daring Baker's Challenge.