If there is one thing the viral Japanese cheesecake teaches you, it is that joy doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s the quiet revelation that a treat can be assembled, not laboured over. That a few thoughtful ingredients, layered with a little patience, can feel like a small luxury.
January always feels like a liminal month to me. Not a clean cut, not a full beginning, more like a soft corridor between worlds. Even though the calendar insists we are already well into the new year, energetically we are still shedding the skin of the Year of the Snake while slowly sensing the hooves of the Horse approaching.
So we’re all chiming in a new year. 2024! It’s real and raw as many are probably searching for a cause, looking to set new goals, counting the achievements, or just looking for a purpose. Let me give you some anti-philosophy!
On a Spring day in April, I packed my camera gear and props to make the roughly one-and-a-half-hour drive from Weimar to Eichsfeld. The weather was, as true to April's nature, fairly changeable. It was warm, my spirit was high and I was really looking forward to this trip. The district of Eichsfeld is a beautiful region in Thuringia, with its rolling hills and untouched nature, the landscape at times reminds me of something taken from the chapters of a Jane Austen book: a Nature of beauty and grace.
The last couple of weeks I’ve had my head down (mostly) and have been trying to get a lot of paperwork and organization done. The big “T” has been looming in our house and I have been procrastinating on this for as long as I possibly can.
Allow me to out myself first: Smoothie bowls are not my most favorite breakfast. Now that we have set that straight let me tell you a bit about my reasons and what I have observed about these very attractive looking super bowls that seem to be taking everyone by storm and is the big trend raging through social media and across many blogs. I also break down the smoothie bowl and consider the practicality of the super smoothie bowl vs. the real smoothie bowl! Oh yes there are many questions I need answers to!
“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” ~ Steve Jobs
My 2017 mantra is Focus and Simple! Keeping all aspects of my life clean, simple and clutter-free is something I have been aiming to achieve for a while. I am on the right path I know it – but I still tend to fall back on some old habits. That is why I have chosen to make 2017 a year where I consciously push out all the toxic junk and matter and open up to purity, to grace and to calmness.
The last thing I expected to really get hooked on in terms of food, when I first moved to Germany, was bread. Having lived in many countries I was used to a great variety of bread, mostly flatbreads. In my arrogance - or call it ignorance - I was sure that while Germany had some great bread-types – think of the pumpernickel, others were overrated – for me the pretzel!
Ready, steady … go! Most mornings many of us are dashing out the door, grabbing a quick piece of toast and a coffee to go. I know you all are smart enough to know that a good meal at the start of the day takes you further, keeping your energy levels balanced. For me a good breakfast also keeps any mood swings or headaches at bay and I realized a long time ago that a good regular breakfast kept me focused by improving my concentration levels.
Celebrations are a part of our life! Actually life should be a celebration, a party of our achievements, a banquet of our abilities and a triumph of our successes. We progress forward, sometimes at a faster pace and sometimes the pace is slower. Keeping the positive aspects in view is so important but we often fall back and waiver, brooding over things we have not accomplished.
We love our weekend breakfasts. It’s that time in the week where all three of us come together without any rush-to-meetings, get-to-school madness. Pancakes have got to be the classic and perfect weekend breakfast treat and I have always loved indulging in stacks topped with favorite fruit and nuts.
Easter for me is an adopted festivity. Being an Indian Sikh I took to this colorful spring tradition when I married my German husband almost 17 years ago. As a Sikh we are a very tolerant religion and are more than open in celebrating the rituals and traditions of other religions. I was raised mostly in the Middle East and the US where as a family my brother and I were encouraged by my parents to take an interest in the traditions and cultures of all our friends.
The German in me lives for the impressive variety of breads available to me. My Indian-self craves the rice with almost every meal and the Italian-lover me, is captivated with the pastas and risotto and the kid in me could live off creamy mashed potatoes for quite a few days. Over the year my intake of simple carbohydrates adds up to extreme levels.
Spontaneity. It used to be a part of my vocabulary. Somehow the years have started to chip away at it, giving way to control, structure and routine. I've never packed my bags, hustled over to the airport and picked out a random destination from the departure board - making the last minute booking to someplace I've never been. I've always had a reverence at such impulsiveness.
We are a household of two different religions and cultures. Both our worlds were so far apart as we grew up that we were separated by a wall - literally. My husband was born and raised as a Catholic in the “GDR” or what is known as East Germany. A child of the 70s and 80s, at a young age he saw the wall come down in his early twenties. I am a Sikh, born in Bombay and raised around the world from the US to the Middle East. Fate definitely played a big role in bringing us together.
Here in the Northern Hemisphere we are celebrating the arrival of spring. Temperatures are rising and there is a general air of “Happy” around everyone. When it comes to food spring really is my favorite season. It even gives autumn a good run for all its variety. Probably because after bleak and somber winters, there is so much freshness around at this time of year that it is hard not to cave into the abundance and variety available at the markets.
There is something very special about the Nordic baking craft. It lies in the sheer simplicity of mixing basic ingredients to create something so enticingly good. I am particularly enamored by their yeasty breads and buns, probably because of the liberal use of warming spices like cardamom, cinnamon and even saffron. There are no frills, no frosting or glazing. It is back to the basic of yeast, flour, eggs and co. … and of course a good dose of cardamom.
For 8 years now I have called myself a blogger. Let me correct that … a food blogger. After all we food bloggers are just special in many ways. We deal with beautiful ingredients, cook up soul satisfying and sinful treats, write about food, its culture and origins, photograph drips, drizzles, sprinkles, dollops from all angles and we are constantly hungry for more. Being a food blogger can be extremely addictive and exactly 8 years ago I became a part of the addiction.
I’ve been forcing myself to slow down. If you can imagine a Formula One car at full speed coming to a near halt of an old 1960s VW Beetle you should get the picture of the backlash I am having. Finding myself in a new routine and a different job situation has turned things around for me, giving me what everyone is referring to as “more time.”
I’ve seen a flood of Holiday Christmas posts, ideas, gift guides and menu ideas all across the web for the past few days. I went and buried my head in the sand, hoping if I stayed there for a while Christmas this year would blow past.