This Blog's Fourteenth Birthday - and Peanut Butter Biscuits with a Twist

I started this blog fourteen years ago, in 2006, on my father's birthday as it would make the date easy to remember. It had a good run for many years. Despite my declaring publicly and privately that I would 'rededicate' myself to this blog, it has only limped along at best, in the last four or five years. I don't eat as much or cook as much anymore and I don't know what to say. My father has moved on. The blog which shares his birthday has remained alive, primarily drawing breath from Search results, from a maze of complex technology and circuitry that keeps it on the Internet, maybe from the odd regular reader, and occasionally from an older, busier me who has found other hobbies and preoccupations. Yet, Me is unwilling to let go of it. 

I've always disliked blogging about the usual things (usual to me, anyway), and preferred to discuss new or experimental things. So when I hit upon the idea of using up some near-expiry-date peanut butter in biscuits, as my generation called them growing up, I wondered how I could make them my own. I had about a half cup of chukku coffee waiting to be used up so I added that in place of brown sugar. Chukku coffee is a mix of dried ginger (sonth in Hindi), palm jaggery and spices such as pepper, coriander and cardamom. I don't suppose there is any coffee powder added in the traditional recipe. At least, the few brands that I have tried from time to time do not list any coffee in the ingredients. But I see coffee listed in many blog recipes. I assume the original spice mix was meant to be used as a tisane.

I followed this recipe. The baking took much longer than the seven minutes mentioned there, double the time or even more. The only substitution I made was replacing the brown sugar with the chukku powder. Being only an occasional baker and this probably being just my second attempt at biscuits/cookies, I have to say this turned out really well. I patted myself on the back for being imaginative with the other ingredient, but of course, all it takes is a search to find several peanut butter ginger affairs all over the Internet. Oh well, mine's not plain PBG, it's chukku coffee!

PS: I'm on Instagram as @sra.srav where I record more of my daily life, hobbies and preoccupations that I mentioned earlier on.

Of Birthdays, In Real Life & Blogwise

I don't usually celebrate personal milestones in public but religiously put out blog anniversary posts every year, today being the fifth year since I started writing this blog.

I want to indulge in some birthday memories, though, real-life birthday ones. The only cakes we got in our town were the brown, fruit cake kinds with hard icing, hard pink, green and purple roses, silver balls and twisty little candles. In the absence of mothers, aunts and grandmothers who did not make cakes but only Indian sweets and "hots" (savouries), I suppose we looked forward to this cake. Even if the flowers were solid enough to have claimed a tooth or two, that's what we had and cherished.

Those were the days when a 'return gift' wasn't known, and asking a guest to the birthday party, "What gift have you brought me?" would result in a slap, never mind you were only five or six or that it was your birthday. Grandmothers would kit us out in embroidered frocks and there would perhaps be a trip to the temple.

At school, the only time we were allowed to wear "colour dress" (not the uniform) was on Saturdays and birthdays. At Assembly, the teacher presiding would ask if there were any birthday girls or boys and one, two or three, sometimes urged by their friends, would stand up hesitantly and make their way to the stage, upon which the Music Master would begin strumming his guitar and all of us would sing "Happy Birthday to You!" I remember not owning up to a birthday one year, my cousins who studied in the same school telling my Grandmother about it, and my Grandmother scolding me for it. Why had I been so shy? Was it also the birthday I wore a white dress with blue, red and yellow clowns all over? Maybe. I couldn't be sure.

Stage or not, the 'distributing sweets' routine was all-important, and after the first period began, the birthday girl or boy would distribute sweets to the entire class, to the teacher, and then accompanied by another, go and give the headmistress some, and maybe the other teachers too. A classmate's birthday was also the first time I saw a pink guava - her folks brought guavas in big baskets and distributed them to the entire school, and one of them was pink. The popular sweets distributed were "Goldspot" sweet (orange hard-boiled candy) or a green-wrapped toffee. The thing to do, after you'd popped the sweet into your mouth, was to twist the wrapper into what was supposed to be a dancing girl. The green wrapper was particularly prized. For one birthday, I remember asking everyone to give me back their wrappers. (I'm cringing, childhood is no excuse for such behaviour.) One boy refused, I prepared to cry, and our teacher stepped in, saying she would give me hers. I don't know what I did with them. Not all could refuse a birthday girl, however ungracious, could they?

In the evening was the party, with the cake, streamers, balloons, friends, cousins, uncles, aunts, neighbours. There were home-made sweets and savouries, or some would be ordered from the Udupi hotel in the town centre. There was jelly and ice-cream in little globe-shaped containers. There were no games, no party hats, and gifts brought could be as simple as a packet of biscuits. The cake was cut, food eaten, and everybody went home after an hour or two. Till one was eleven or twelve and deemed old enough for the parties to stop. Truly old, because at thirteen, I had just one friend over and that was to pour my heart out to her over an evil classmate.

And now from nostalgia to the Oscar speech: Thank you, readers, bloggers, family, friends, blog aggregators. You keep this blog going, and this blog keeps me going.

Here's my first anniversary post, and here's another nice post on how children celebrated their birthdays in the Seventies and Eighties.

Blog anniversary Musings/Nostalgia Humour

It's Been A Pleasure Talking To You

In real life, anniversaires and anniversaries are markers of another year survived, grey hairs accumulated (and done away with), kilos accumulated (maybe even shed), successes and failures great and small, or even of an year that was mercifully staid and uncomplicated in what it proffered. My cynical self (I have other selves as well) would agree with Oscar Wilde: "Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event." While I rarely celebrate non-blog milestones on the blog, I do mark the blog anniversary religiously, sometimes eventfully.

For now, though, it's a time to thank you all for spending time here and telling me (or not) what you think of everything that's posted here. I would love to find out why you come here, who you are if I don't know you already, how I've made your day, changed your life for the better and so on and so forth though some of you have told me on and off earlier, but I don't believe in such egotistic excesses ... er ... exercises. (Really, believe me ;) I wish Blogger provided smilies and winkies so I could use them here).

And while numbers don't matter much to me unless they tot up to gazillions in my bank balance and in my blog stats, a Fourth Anniversary does seem like I've lasted here awhile and it's been a pleasure.

Thank you, and keep visiting!

Blogging Anniversary Humour

An Eventful Anniversary, In The Write Taste

An anniversary, like a birthday, is difficult to be impervious to. As much as age is just a number, and I didn’t even realise it when I recently crossed the 200-post mark, I’m young enough in blog years to be excited about blog birthdays.

I’m all of three today, though it does feel like I am growing up. And growing older. The first sign of the latter came with me wondering a few days ago when the anniversary was. That my first post went up on Dad’s birthday because it would be easy to remember had slipped my mind. As for growing up in the blog world - well, while my stats are static, I guess I have arrived, at least some distance, though the standard I’ve used to judge that is rather perverse - my photo made it to a national publication sans permission, and while my complaint was addressed immediately, it also earned me my first rude comment. And I even managed a repartee.

I’ve always got a kick from telling less-knowing family and friends who care about “my international readership”. Like those rare and precious things in life that can give us immense joy and thrill, are the blog and its assets, which include you, my dear readers and fellow bloggers. Thank you all for making this one lovely, exhilarating, and hopefully, never-ending, fun ride.


I mulled a commemorative event for the first anniversary two years ago but found a worthy idea only now. And yes, it’s going to be as tiresome as Grindless Gravies, with the rules being updated whenever I see a loophole cropping up, and maybe even rejecting entries if you’ve got it wrong. And I hope you’ll be gracious enough like you were the first time around and attempted to get it right the next time.

This event is not about cooking or recipes, it’s about food, and quality writing.

What I want you to do is share your favourite pieces of food writing with the rest of the world through this event. It could be prose, poetry, a scene from a play, fable, non-fiction, an article from a magazine or a newspaper, a food review, a cookbook review, a post in a blog, haiku, limerick, satire, anything; even writing that looks at food, cooking or eating in a negative light, but it has to have these as one of its main themes.

It could even be a recipe that has been written innovatively (please note: I don’t mean innovative recipe formats, like grids and such).

It doesn’t have to be all sensory and descriptive; it could be about food security, food safety, carbon footprint or other such serious topics, too. Only, if you choose something like this, try and find a not-too-technical piece as it might be more attractive to readers not familiar with those subjects.

It needn’t originally have been in English, but it needs to be a published English translation. In this case, please provide the relevant details, references and a link to the original piece of writing (or a link to information about it) so that readers who know that language can enjoy it.

Tell, in your post, why you like the work you’ve chosen, how you first came across it and what it means to you. Do make sure to link to information about it, quote a few excerpts, but please do not reproduce it in full - we don’t want to be charged with copyright violation. I encourage you to name not just the writers but the publishers, translators, edition, year of publication, all so that it can be easier to find if someone wants to get their hands on it.

This event is open to both bloggers and non-bloggers. The latter can mail me with their entries, depending on their size, I will host it on my blog and include it in the round-up.

Feel free to point to more than one piece of writing; whether in one post or multiple, I leave it to you. Do a new post for this event or re-publish an old one.

It shouldn’t, of course, be something that you yourself have written, nor should it be from this blog.

Link back to this post and mail me at srablogATgmailDOTcom. The details you have to give me include:

Your (blogger) name

Your blog name

Your location (optional)

Blog URL

Post URL

Name of author/blog/blogger and the title of the work you’re highlighting.

Please say: ‘The Write Taste’ in the e-mail’s subject field.

I’ll accept entries till October 15, and maybe even a little later, depending on how far I’ve come with the round-up.

Come, indulge me!

Event Anniversary The Write Taste

A Year Older

Your pet."

"No, my life. My OTHER life."

(She chuckles) "Yes, your secret, wicked, other self ..."

completes two years today.

******************************

"I forgot the birthday candles. I meant to get a couple."

"Oh, to light up the computer?" The hope in The Spouse's voice is hard to miss. I can still hear him laughing himself to sleep at his own joke. A pleasant bone of contention between us on account of the time I spend on it, blogging has brought me much joy, masked a few blues, and given me quite a few highs.

Much of what I want to say is here, in my first anniversary post. Thanks to all you folks - readers, fellow bloggers, family, friends, commenters, lurkers. (Won't you de-lurk just this once at least? Just for thrills, c'mon, be nice to the birthday girl! I especially would like to know who visits my blog regularly with searches for "Chef/Indian puking" and "Malayali Chechi Kerala".) A special thanks to all those bloggers who have deemed this blog/blogger worthy of an award/a mention, I truly appreciate them even if I haven't been able to put them up here.

I will let you go now, here's to more fun times together!

Blogging Milestone Anniversary Humour

A Blog and An Anniversary

The cake crumbled, and the idea is still fuzzy, so I offer you flowers instead, for my big day! One year ago, I set up this blog, and it's been a fun ride all along, with the new food, new friends, new knowledge.


When I stumbled upon food blogs last summer, the discovery was nothing short of thrilling. Here were people after my own heart, gourmets and gourmands all! It reassured me in various ways about an obsession that had been growing steadily – and food blogs were legit places to unabashedly indulge in that craze.

More importantly, they offered a platform and an outlet for the anecdotal writing that I enjoy, not to mention the glimpses into others’ lives and kitchen as well as the good dose of warm-and-fuzzy feelings whenever someone reacts to a post. If this hadn’t been India, where there aren’t too many food bloggers, I’d be probably looking out for people in grocery stores and wondering if I knew them from the blogs!



So here's the cake that didn't make it, and if the idea for a commemmorative event ever shapes up, I'll let you know.




Meanwhile, read on to see how some people react(ed) to my food blog:

Dad: So whose photos are those? Some are really appetizing!
Dad, they’re mine!
Oh, I didn’t understand what you said, good, very nice.
Mom, he missed the whole point!
Mom: He’s a nut!

The Spouse, in a loud don’t-try-to-fool-me tone: You cook for your blog, don’t say you cook for us!

Aunty: Sra, why don’t you think of Aunty too as a blog and write me an e-mail as long as your posts?

Friend: Ohhowcool! (delivered in an I’mtryingtoshowyouI’mexcited tone but failing miserably – Lesson for Sra: Your ego needs to be cut down to size)

Kid brother: Akka, what sort of a dish is that? You call it capsicum? It looks wormy and disgusting! Couldn’t you get a better picture?

Aha, aha, you mean to say you made the paneer yourself? Hyuk hyuk (that typically pest-kid-brother snigger). You bake brownies and stuff, why don’t you post those? (I no longer do; I just did, and it failed.)

Now for the thanksgiving speeches: Thanks all of you, readers, bloggers, family, friends, lurkers, awarders, Asha, my first commenter – it’s been a great year, and I hope there will be more ahead, with all of you around.

PS: The cake is a flourless orange almond cake, recipes for it abound on the Net. Mine tasted good, but the centre didn't bake well, 'twas the pan substitution that did it!

Blog Anniversary