There definitely is more than a nip in the air these days in my part of this World. The air is crisp with a sharp chillness to it and the days are short, very short with limited time to finish our chores. But no, we definitely are not complaining. As this is the time of the year that we look forward to. With all year around humid, hot, Balmy, tiring temperature this is the time that gives us respite.

Its 12 in the night and am trying to soak up the silence around me. Its been long that I could sit quietly and think or listen to nothing. The silence around me speaks a thousand words but today I choose to ignore, I choose to abosrb the peace, the tranquility of this moment.

As I looked at my son, sobbing in his sleep, His whole body curled and stacked against me, his tiny little hands tightly gripping my right hand as if to convey the message...'wont let you go'...my heart is filled with a warm fudgy feeling. As I hugged his tired body and brought him close, I looked up and silently uttered my prayers to thank God for such little cozy moments called 'Happiness' in life.   

Life definitely is worth living if you are grateful for what you have.

As the days get shortened and the day light limited, my energy sinks to an all time low. Everyday at 4:30,  I look out of my window and see the golden light of the setting sun, an obvious sign that another day gets ended. It gives me joy and makes me sad...yes all at the same time. Am happy as this certain not to be missed nip in the air means my favourite season is setting foot in my part of the world. but am also sad as am not much able to go out and enjoy this beautiful weather or the festivities it brings on with it. Its just a wait that makes me anxious, happy and giddy all at the same time. But will share that story some other time!

If you are still dealing with the leftover Diwali snacks and sweets and thinking of returning to your regular healthy lifestyle then check out this recipe. This light salad is a power pack of taste, nutrition and textures. The juiciness of the cucumber and carrot ribbons, the lightly grilled vegetables with their intense flavour and caramelized sweetness, The peppery taste of the purslane leaves, the soft yet succulent boiled chickpeas pairs perfectly  with the fresh herb dressing. Its sweet, its juicy, its spicy and very very flavourful. Try this out for a perfectly refreshing lunch and feel the lightness in your body.

Purslane on my windowsill

                                        

Indrani Dhar of Recipe Junction is a super mom or more appropriately a super woman. I have known her for the past 4-5 years and we started blogging almost at the same time. But until recently I dint have any idea how much she has on her plate. She is mom to three kids including two super active twin boys (I know how difficult it is as I struggle with the one I have), whom she takes care of all alone as her husband lives in another city for his high profile Job. Still she manages to cook delectable food, experiment in her kitchen and bring us fabulous recipes every week. Kudos to her effort and enthusiasm for blogging.

She has lived abroad for a considerable amount of her married life and has many quick cooking tricks including plenty of microwave recipes up her sleeves. I love her Bengali recipes which has that old world charm and authenticity. The best thing about Indrani is 'you get what you see'. The ever smiling indrani never shy away from speaking her mind and standing up for a cause. As a blogger and mother I respect her patience, creativity and boldness. She is a dear friend and I look forward to spend more time with her and her beautiful kids.

Sarani Tarafdar the gorgeous, vivacious face behind the blog Cocoawind wears many hats with equal elan. She is a mother, an ex banker, a part time lecturer, a cinematographer, a food blogger and a dear friend in need for many. I met her online a couple of years back in a Bengali bloggers group and spent many hours chatting on random topics, pulling legs, discussing food and what not. She spent a formidable amount of her married life in USA but you can hardly make that out once you meet her. Her sense of aesthetics, her beauty, her style rather everything about her speaks volume of her classic Bengali background. No wonder she has a fond relationship with food.

Her recipes are easy to follow, quick and a real life savers for busy mothers. Recently she again moved back to USA and is already being missed here at our Kolkata Food bloggers group big times. Here is a small interview with her.

My tryst with healthy eating after Durga puja is still on. and to stretch the quest further here is a comparatively healthy snack recipe for all your Diwali parties. I have been making this pint sized, juicy, crunchy, tongue tickler masala papad for quite sometime and it never failed to tickle our tastebuds. The best part is it could be made in a ziffy and you pairs really well with both hot or cold beverages. 

Rice, the staple grain for many Indians is also believed to be very auspicious for almost all rites and rituals in Hinduism. According to Hindu Dharmashastra, food is supreme, 'Anna Parabramha or Anna parabramha swarupam. We are not supposed to waste a single grain of rice, It's the supreme and needs to be revered.

Archita Chanda Ray the charming and sophisticated personality behind the blog 'My Food My Life' is a beautiful person inside out. If you ever talk to her you would be blown away with her down to earth attitude and polite nature. The thing that I love most about her is her level headedness. She is one of those rare persons who knows what she is talking about and never boasts her knowledge.

She is a doting mother, an Ex-Banker and leads a busy life running their play school chain. But is an avid cook and a budding food photographer. Her recipes show a great legacy of cooking that she received from her mother. Here is a small excerpt of a chitchat which is a part of the Know your Blogger Series, an initiative by Kolkata Food Bloggers team.  

Are you in the same mood as me to shake your head vigorously to all offers of festive snacks and sweets? 

After all these days of eating out, feasting on ghee laden bhog (prasad), relishing on fried snacks and gorging on sugary sweets all my body needs is a break... a simple light nutritious meal that will nourish my body and soul. According to Ayurveda this time of the year is best to go for a Detox diet to flush out toxins and impurities out of your system. Every year I try to incorporate a 7 day detox plan in our schedule with a month long light balanced meal, but this year am not supposed to do that. So all I want to concentrate is to give my diet and body a chance to balance out all the processed foods I have gorged on in the last few days.

Yesterday the biggest festival of Bengalis have come to an end. After almost a week long excitement of Mahalaya and pujos the festivities ended by saying final good bye to Maa Durga. Last evening everyone gathered around the idol with tears in their eyes for the last time this year. Its the sending off ceremony of Maa and her kids to a faraway land called Kailash where she lives with her husband. 

As I am sitting in my drawing room and writing this post I can hear the sound of dhak playing for the Sondhyaroti (evening divine light ceremony). Today is Mahashashti or the very first day of the 5 day long madness called Durga puja and the whole city is busy to welcome and worship the return of Mother Goddess to her paternal home on Earth. Its an  overwhelming feeling to see Maa's face during this time of aarti through the emitting holy smoke of dhup and dhuno, the dancing lights of the Pancho prodip (Five oil lamps) and the chants of mantras. There is a palpable sense of divinity attached to it that often it brings tears in our eyes and we almost can see the Goddess coming into life. 

God Bless the man who invented Microwave. I don't know about others but for me gone are the days when I only used it for re heating my leftover food. Now a days I use it constantly to cook, to steam, to boil, to broil, to bake, to roast and yes to re-heat as well. The bottom line is just cant think of my life without my microwave. If am in the kitchen its constantly in use to make my life super easy, efficient and time saving.

Antara Ray is the face behind the fun and charming blog Antipasti. If you have ever visited the Chef at large Facebook page, you must have seen her as an enthusiastic foodie and moderator. Recently as a part of Chef at Large: Bloggers table member, I met her on a personal level and found her as much bubbly and adventurous as her food blog.

By Profession she is an Environment consultant and juggles a hectic work schedule and recently married home front. She writes beautifully and all her write ups (which she calls banters) are backed by great in depth knowledge about food and culture. This pretty jovial woman is an excellent cook and experiments in her kitchen to whip up quick delicious meals on busy weeknights. I love her way of cooking which is quick, Delish and so full of flavour and taste.

Here is a small excerpt from our little chitchat. Hope you will enjoy reading about her food journey so far.

Jayati Saha Another Kolkata based food blogger started her blogging journey very recently, but you cant make that out from her blog. In less than a year she has built up quite a collection of recipes, especially a wide variety of Non-vegetarian dishes. She is a busy working mom and an adventurous foodie in the kitchen. though am yet to meet her but going through her food journey through her blog makes me feel like I connect to her on a personal level. Her son (like mine) is the biggest inspiration and contributor behind this blog. He inspired his mom to collect the recipes on an online platform so that her great skills are shared with the world. What a beautiful son he is. No wonder her blog is called Jayati and Tito's food journey. being a mom I so want to meet him and bless him from the bottom of my heart.

Here is a small excerpt of a conversation with Jayati Saha.

I was introduced to Amrita through Blogosphere. In the very first instance I was attracted to her amazing Baked goodies. she is one of those not so old bloggers who has created a name for herself in the blog world in a very short span of time. She with her husband Vishal post amazing innovative recipes in their blog Sweet and Savoury. Recently I have come to know her personally and loved her down to earth, always ready to learn attitude. She is a darling friend and I look forward to cherish our friendship for years to come.

Here is a small excerpt of a chitchat that we had as part of the Know your Kolkata based food bloggers event.

As part of Kolkata food bloggers, we are now a days featuring one of our blogger members on an weekly basis. We started with Kamalika of Silence Sings. here is a small chitchat with her which will help you to know your favourite blogger in a different light. Hope you will enjoy this small interview.

This again is going to be a quick post just like this quick elegant dessert which you can make in almost no time. The original idea belongs to Saee Which she posted long back, I saw, I appreciated and then forgot all about it. Then one fine evening in The food court area of a Japanese mall I rediscovered it once again. The corner bakery which used to stock delicious french style breads, gateau and other sweet treats that they were baking fresh butter cookies and were serving then with various type of frosting  They dipped or spread white or dark chocolates on them or bathed them with royal icing before piping stiffly whipped cream on them. The serpentine Que in front of the shop with eager happy faces of kids made me realise its popularity so like all mothers I stood their with my son waiting for our turn. The 4 year old, not so chocolate loving boy of mine had a blast when the smiling lady in the counter spread out a huge tray full of different toppings. The best part is he ate it all.

Here is a quick post just to keep pace with my fellow blogging marathon runners. Am so unwell today that thought of giving it a miss but their enthusiasm kept me going.

Sujir payesh or loosely translated as Thin Semolina/rava kheer or pudding is a light creamy dessert with little runny consistency. The preparation is very much like Mohonbhog but is little lighter on ghee. The best part of this dish is its very quick to make and tastes equally good warm or cold. In our family we love it on chillier days when we seek comfort in a bowl of warm gooey Suji'r payes. It tastes very good with Luchi as well.

My tryst with Mackerel started when I first reached Bangalore. It was almost 7 years back when sweet water fishes were not so easily available. Every weekend we religiously visited our local super market to buy fresh fishes. but even then they stocked very limited sweet water fish like Rohu or Carp. So after some time we started trying the local fishes like Mackerel, Sardines, Tuna etc. 

After yesterdays Rakhi party at home I am damn tired today. I have not been keeping well for quite sometime but rakhi is a day which I cannot miss. Its a pleasure to have my brothers and cousins over at my place and see them lovingly tucking in all the food that I prepare for them. Its an occasional chance for us to have a get together where almost every one is present. Provided there work schedule I appreciate their effort to keep the rakhi evening free for me. I guess my enthusiasm has rubbed on them and now a days they look forward to the day as much as I do.

Another day one more theft. 

Today by one of Bengal's leading news paper Ananda bazar Patrika. See my picture being used for Wednesday (31st July'13)'s Ananda plus without my permission and my knowledge.

They even cropped the image to get rid of the watermark. 

Its not everyday that a regular reader requests for a specific recipe and its not everyday that you have all the necessary ingredients, time and energy to make that. and to continue its not everyday that you crave the same and want to make it at the earliest. Call it a miracle but sometimes this just happens and I realised it last week when a reader left a message on my facebook page to share Tomato Chutney recipe. Which is by far my most favourite one and I suddenly started craving it.

Gifts from Blogger Buddies #1

I love my art and craft. Though they seldom make appearnce in this space but my whole house is full of them. The cushion covers on my Divan, The curtains on the windows or the paintings and sketches on the walls are all handmade. I always need to keep on doing something or the other for being alive and inspired.

But last year when we moved to japan that's something that I missed most. Not like there were any dearth of inspirations but everything that I found there were pretty expensive. Especially the fabric with which I mostly work. Then on one fine day I discovered Japanese Crochet on the net. I have seen beautiful crocheted materials in my life as my Maternal aunt (Masimoni) is a seasoned crocheter but Japanese Crochet is exquisite in design and finesse. and the best part is the materials were not very costly too. with the 100 yen store Daiso on my next door mall I was inspired to try my hand in this.

Searched on google and found some really helpful videos on youtube and my journey with colourful yarns and hooks started. Its very easy once you know certain basic stitches. Today am a happy and enthusiastic crocheter looking for new ideas, designs and projects. 

Here are a few sample of my work so far. Please leave your valuable comments.

My very first project, a scarf for my son. He calls it his paw-paw muffler.

given a chance I will always crochet pretty flowers and leaves. Here is another scarf for my little niece.

Another scarf for an angelic sweet kid Kuttus. a bear scarf. Found the picture on net without any pattern, so worked my own. and am pretty pleased with the outcome :-)

A Tunisian Crochet cap for my husband. Its very very warm and helped him survive the chilling weather of Tokyo. pattern from Ravelry.com

Saw these in a shop and found it very expensive. Bought some cotton thread and worked my own pattern. The prettiest work I have done till date.

And this is how it looks over my son's bed. Love how the sun light twinkles on  the beads.

A small coaster to use up the left over stash. Pattern crochetgeek on youtube.

Mandala. Another great project to finish your leftover yarns. Pattern Here

An Unfinished Granny square Blanket in making. Will share the whole thing once done.

Other food bloggers who do crochet in their free times are Anjali, Nupur, Kamalika and Sharmila. A Crochet blog that inspires me a lot is Sangeetha's Crochetkari. Please share your link of works if you share the same passion for crochet.
Linking in to Patty's Weekly story.