Best of 2015

It's that time of the year to look back and reflect on the year that passed. 2015 was a great year overall, both personally and for the blog.
This is another year of being a full time mom and a part time food blogger. The most memorable memory of 2015 is celebrating my mom's 60th birthday. Planning and executing a surprise birthday is quite a task but the end result was totally worth the effort. Our trip to Niagara is another memory that I will remember for a long time. Also this is the year when we got to spend time with family from all around the world -- thank you all for visiting us and hope you guys can come back again :-)
As for the blog, I logged in a little more than 300 posts and also started to explore more social media networks. My latest favorite is Instagram that I have been updating almost every day. Pinterest has also been getting some love :-)

Big thanks to the family, my blogging marathon buddies for the support and inspiration :-)

Here's wishing everyone a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2016. May the new year bring in many more delicious and healthy dishes your way.

Here are my favorite dishes from each month in 2015.

Sending this over to Valli for her Best of 2015 event.

Best of 2014

It's that time of the year to stop and dwell on the good, the bad and the ugly of the past year. Like any other year 2014 flew by real fast. As a full time home maker and part time food blogger, the blog had a whopping 325 posts this year, highest in all of my 9 years of blogging. Big thanks to my family and the Blogging marathon group for the inspiration and motivation to blog actively.
My month long trip to India was the most exciting part of this year. Though I couldn't do a lot of what I planned to do in India, I was lucky to spend some quality time with my mom. The kids had a blast too. Visiting Chicago and my cousins for Christmas is another memory that I'll cherish from this year.
A-Z Indian States and A-Z International Cooking series are the highlights from this year's blogging. With the help of my fellow marathoners, I finally have a pictorial recipe index. Though it's still work in progress -- I'm happy I started working on it.

Here's wishing all of you a very Happy, Prosperous & Successful New Year -- 2015.

This is a recap of my favorites from each month in 2014.

Best of 2013

I can't believe this year flew by this fast. But I have to because this time last year I had a 3 month old infant who had to be carried around and a year later I have a 15 month toddler who cannot stay still at one place. Time sure flies.
Year 2013 has been my best year as far as my personal life and blogging is concerned. I resigned my job in January to be a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) to my kids. Spending time with kids has been a fulfilling experience as well. I am happy that I was able to spend quality time with my 6 year old son and my 15 month old daughter. Being a SAHM also meant little more time for blogging. Thanks to the BM group and especially to Valli for keeping me motivated to cook, click and blog.

Here are some of my best for 2013:
Highest # of posts in a year EVER: I cannot believe this myself, but I posted a little over 250 posts this year. Yay for me. The most I posted was 124 posts back in 2009.

A-Z Vegetarian dishes from Andhra Pradesh: Month long blogging marathon in September had to be the best thing that ever happened to 'Cook's Hideout'. Doing an A-Z dishes from Andhra Pradesh had been in my mind for a long time and I was finally able to do it. Thanks again to Valli and the ever enthusiastic BM group.

A-Z Vegetarian Dishes from Andhra Pradesh

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Best of 2012

It is that time of the year again, time to celebrate the arrival of new year and think about the good, bad and the ugly of the past year, make resolutions so that that the bad and ugly don't repeat again in the new year.

2012 has been quite eventful, many ups and downs, both in my professional and personal lives. It has been a year with mixed bag of emotions, some really low moments that I hope never repeat. On the brighter side, biggest high of this year is the addition of our tiny bundle of love, Disha who came into our lives in September.

So here is my list of Best of 2012:

Best Ingredient: Silk Very Vanilla Soymilk is my new favorite. Its great in coffee, on cereals, for baking, and everything that needs a slightly sweet milk. I always keep my fridge stocked with this yummy beverage.

Best Blog Posts for the Year: Blogging wise I have to thank Valli for Blogging marathon. Without BM I'm not sure if I would have been as active with blogging as I was this year. Big Thanks to you Valli -- Wishing BM many many years of successful marathons.

Also contributing to the increased number of posts is Vegan Month of Food (Vegan Mofo) event in October. I surprised myself with 24 posts in October.

Coming to the best blog posts with the highest number of hits this year: Eggless Lime Cookies & Vegan Mug Cakes.

 

Here are some of the pictures of dishes that I loved making and clicking over the past year.

Dorie's Split Level Pudding: 

Grilled Eggplant Sandwich:

Bengali Bora'r Jhol:

 

Lapsi:

 

Kaju Badam Katli:

 

So here's Wishing all of you a very Happy & Prosperous New Year 2013.

Sending this over to Valli's "Best of 2012" event.

Best of 2010

I’ve never done a Best of any year before, because to me it’s extremely difficult to pick “the best” in anything. I like everything, but I don’t usually love something (except for eggplant of course). For me to love something, it has to be extra special and I think this year there are a few that I really loved and would like to share it with you guys. Also this happens to be my 400th post, so I wanted to make it a little special.

So here is the list of my Best things this year (everything is not food related):

2010 was really a very eventful year for me: Buying our first home, moving in and organizing everything as per our taste took a lot of time; a lot of time away from the blog. Family visit this summer was one of the Best family times we had this year; again lot of time away from the blog. But then came the Best time for the Blog in the month of November with Vegan Mofo and I was able to post 22 posts which is unheard of for Cook’s Hideout in 2010.

Here are some more Best Of 2010 list:

Best Vegetarian restaurant: We stopped by Veggie Heaven in Teaneck, NJ one weekend, just because we were looking for Chinese restaurants in the area and this was the first one that came up on my Iphone search. We were pleasantly surprised how flavorful each dish was and thoroughly enjoyed everything we ate there. They had some killer Kung Pao Chicken dish (all veggie, of course) and the Spicy Hunan dumplings were to die for. We’ll definitely be going there frequently now.

Best Dish in a Restaurant: I’m partial to eggplant dishes, but this Baingan Mirchi ka salan (Eggplant-Chili gravy curry) that we had at Moghul restaurant in Edison, NJ is probably the best salan dish I’ve ever had in my life. The eggplants were creamy and just melted in your mouth, chilies tasted spicy, but not fiery hot and the gravy was so smooth and delicious. I’m actually on the quest for the perfect salan dish now.

Best Dish I made/ tried: This has to be Rasmalai that we made for ICC. Even though it is a time consuming and involved recipe, loved the end result.

Best Ingredient tried: My newest favorite ingredient is “Almond Butter”. I love it so much that I’m thinking of adding it to everything I cook, be it dal, subzi, rice, anything (I don’t add it to everything, but the thought definitely crosses my mind). It’s perfect for making creamy pastas & curries without adding cream and tastes super yummy on toast too. I buy 16oz. Trader Joes Almond Butter for $4.99 and that’s the best deal I found in town (beating even Walmart).

Best Picture(s): I love both these pictures:

Best Kitchen investment: This has to be hands down my new KitchenAid Stand mixer. I got the most basic model for $110 ($199-30% discount-$20 Kohl’s credit-$20 Mail-in rebate+7% NJ Tax) and I love love love how easy life’s got and how many things that can be done when your hands are free from holding a mixer. This is money well spent for me.

Best Pants I bought: Now this is totally off from the kitchen, but I wanted to mention about these pants from Coldwater Creek since I absolutely love them. They are knit denim, they look like regular denim pants but they are so comfy that you could wear them the whole day. A must in everyone’s wardrobe, I’d say.

Well 2010 went by quite fast as any other year, but I do have lots of good memories of it to remember for years to come and made quite a few good friends both online and offline. Hoping that the New Year brings lots of joy and happiness to all of you.

To end the year the old year and begin a New Year on a sweet note, here’s Almond cake I made recently from David Lebovitz’s blog.

The only change I made to the recipe is to use 4 whole eggs and 4 egg whites (to replace 2 whole eggs). I don’t think this changed the texture or the taste of the cake, it was still very moist and extremely delicious. The top cracked a little bit making it look very rustic.

Wish you all a Very Happy & Prosperous New year. Enjoy!!!

Sending this over to Srivalli @ Cooking4allseasons for her "Best of 2010" event. Thanks Valli for reminding.