I have been postponing this post now for a long time simply because I wanted to sit down and write about this wonderful cooking experience with a 10 year old girl, Anaya.
Anaya is such a sweet, brilliant, creative 10 year old who loves to cook. On her 10 th birthday, her mom Shruti decided to host a birthday party where Cooking was the theme. Anaya was thrilled with her mom s idea and decided that she wanted to throw a party by cooking a meal for a bunch of her close friends at her home.
Shruti had found me on Facebook through one of our common friends and decided to call me to help Anaya prepare this wonderful meal for her friends. I was super excited, immediately got working on what Anaya and her friends liked to eat and what they didn’t care too much for and so forth.
I exchanged a couple of emails with Shruti, Anaya s mom who in turn checked with her daughter to see if all of us were in agreement:)
So here goes the menu:
For Appetizers, we decided to make
Paneer or Indian Cottage Cheese Quesadillas.
For the dip, we made fresh Guacamole with Onions and tomatoes and a hint of lemon juice!yum!
For Main course,
Penne pasta with broccoli and peppers in a Pink sauce.
Shruti also mentioned that Anaya loved mangoes so I decided to whip up a
Mango Smoothie with a wedge of strawberry!
We took about 2 hours to prepare everything. Anaya wore her apron and chef hat and looked like a Junior Master Chef:) in the kitchen. She loved to chop and sauté and mix and did such a wonderful job.
I am pretty sure she will be a great food critic when she grows up as she aspires to be one:)
What can I say? Anaya was thrilled to serve her friends with all the food that we cooked together and the kids simply loved it and were so appreciative.
I must certainly commend her mom of being so supportive and giving me and Anaya an opportunity as wonderful as this that I will treasure lifelong:)))
Thanks Shruti and Anaya for a great cooking experience in your wonderful home.
Thanks Nandini for such an enriching experience. Anaya loved to cook with you and both me and Avinash reveled in the excitement thereafter. The session brought more than yummy food, it encouraged within Anaya a greater confidence to pursue an interest more passionately and assertively . Besides your culinary skill your journey and your story is more inspiring experience for the Indian diaspora in US to encourage kids to pursue their passion. So thanks for investing time and energy so keenly in our special event and making it a memory that will be forever cherished. Moreso for staying in touch and offering a long lasting friendship with the sweet memory. Thanks a ton.