Cooking with 10 year old Anaya on her Birthday

Cooking with 10 year old Anaya on her Birthday

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

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.

Cooking with 10 year old Anaya on her Birthday

Cooking with 10 year old Anaya on her Birthday

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

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.

Cooking for a wonderful group on Superbowl Sunday!

Cooking for a wonderful group on Superbowl Sunday!

photo 3 (1)

I know that everyone was excited about the Superbowl yesterday and today is of course the discussion day about last evening ‘s game!

Well, I had an interesting time yesterday evening not watching the Superbowl but cooking for a group of wonderful people who got together to watch the game.

Debbie had called me a few days back and left me a message saying it was last minute and that she was planning on having me cook some delicious appetizers for game night. She wanted to see if I was available to cook for a bunch of  her friends who were gathering at her place to watch the Superbowl yesterday evening. When I called Debbie, I was so thrilled to know that she and her girl friends were going on a trip to India and so she wanted me to make some Indian Appetizers so they can enjoy them while watching the game. So we came up with a Menu Plan and I promised to get her place at 5:30 pm with all the ingredients and grocery.

I shopped all morning yesterday, getting prepared for the evening’s cook off. I was very excited and reached Debbie’s place at 5:30pm. Words simply cannot describe how nice she and her husband are, and the beautiful house they have. They were such wonderful hosts and made me feel so welcome and at home. The kitchen was spectacular and Debbie was so kind to get me whatever I needed- like pots and pans and bowls and spoons. One by one, the guests started arriving. I started organizing and prepping. There were about 14 people altogether and a bunch of 7 beautiful girls who hung out with me in the kitchen chatting and asking me about India and the food.

The menu that we planned was:

Chickpea Salad with grated coconut, cumin and cilantro

Cocktail Papads with Onion tomato cilantro and chat masala

Crostini topped with baked eggplant

Bite sized Quesadillas with an Indian twist

I must say that as I put forth every single dish- everyone was so appreciative and gave me feedback on each dish. When you work with such a group of people, who tell you exactly what they liked about the dish and want to know about what goes in their food, there is nothing more rewarding than that.

My guess is they liked the Crostini with the baked eggplant the most:) I leave it to them to comment:) if I am right.

The evening was perfect and I enjoyed cooking for such a warm, welcoming beautiful group of people. I look forward to going back there like Debbie mentioned to cook some dinner parties for her in future.

I wish them a WONDERFUL, SAFE, ENJOYABLE TRIP TO INDIA!

With much love….