Whole Wheat Tibetian Vegetable Momo Recipe | Step by Step Recipe for Veg Momos

Learn how to make Whole Wheat Tibetian Vegetable Momos ~ Steam cooked whole wheat dumpling stuffed with crispy vegetables, a delicacy from North East India

Who would have ever thought that the day will come where I will sit down to write this post?! A post about blog-anniversary! Believe it or not, Monsoon Spice just turned 9 years old. It’s been NINE YEARS since this blog was born on a lazy afternoon and I really find it difficult to digest the fact that I have stuck to blogging after all these years. With my two men army fighting nasty cold and fever, I almost missed the blog milestone. 9 years of blogging is a huge milestone for someone who strongly believes ‘change is the only constant in life’! It looks like my love and passion for food blogging has not dulled or died down even after all these years of food blogging and if anything else, my love affair with food writing, photography and blogging has grown stronger and deeper.

 It was the peak of winter in 2005 when the days were really short and the sun disappeared for days. I was a new bride in unknown city, new country and different continent and had nothing worthwhile happening in my life. After spending long hours on phone, reading books and flipping the channels on idiot box, I was still left with many more hours of solitude and boredom! I began to spend more time in kitchen to relive the husband of mine from cooking the same meal every day. Slowly I began to cook one dish after another that I learnt from my mother through our hour long telephone conversations and expanded my recipe repertoire which was limited to half a dozen recipes. After many misadventures, small kitchen accidents and blunders, I decided to document my culinary journey for posterity to have some laugh at my expense! After couple of months I decided to take a plunge and give my personal diary an online presence for amateurs home cooks like me who struggled to differentiate pigeon peas from split chickpeas and cilantro from parsley. Well, who would have imagined that the blog born out of boredom and necessity would complete 9 enjoyable years! Not me!!! Never in zillion years! It has come a long way from being amateur cooking blog to much confident and passionate cooking blog of today!

Ela Ada Recipe | Steamed Sweet Rice Flour Cakes in Banana Leaves

Learn how to make Ela Ada ~ Sweet coconut-jaggery stuffed rice cakes/parcels steam cooked in banana leaves, a traditional delicacy from Kerala

Last few weeks have been really busy on home front which required my full attention. This was good enough reason for me to wean myself from spending hours on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google+. It was a good break, away from social networks and spending more time on what I do best, annoying my family! ;)

This year the weather god has been really generous, blessing us with beautiful long sunny days and cool breeze in between to keep our cheer high. So we decided to make the most of it. The days were spent with Lil Dumpling, mostly in garden, caring for the plants and painting under the shade of tree. We took a break by chasing butterflies, watching the ants gather food for the winter, twittering with birds, jumping on trampoline and having impromptu picnics.

Methi nu Muthia: Healthy & Healing Snack

Methi nu Muthia

What comes to your mind immediately when you hear a word 'Snack'?

Whenever I hear the word 'snack', the little voice in my head often whispers high calorie, deep fried, crispy-crunchy munchies that aren’t too good for our waistline. We Indians are quite fond of our snacks. Every guest who visits us, including the unexpected guest at ungodly hours, is welcomed with a steel glass brimming with hot, strong coffee/tea and a plateful of snacks ranging from savouries to sweets. After all, we have been taught this golden verse "Atithi Devo Bhavah" in our childhood, which means treat your guests as god! Hungry or not, Atithi is expected to eat and sometimes even force fed to the point your stomach refuses to expand anymore and ready to burst!