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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Caramelized Onion & Zucchini Quiche (with Spelt flour Crust)

To me making a pie crust has always been a daunting task. I've had couple of bad experiences both with homemade and store bought pie crusts in the past which made me avoid making a pie altogether. To be honest I'm not a big fan of pie. Given a chance I would rather enjoy the filling without the crust.

But quiche is a different story. I fell in love with quiche the first time I ate it about 10 years ago. One of my co-workers brought it over for potluck lunch and I probably ate almost the whole pie. I tried to recreate it at home a couple of time, but the pie crust failed me. I finally gave up on it. I never dared to make it even though it was always on the back of my mind.

Finally this weekend I decided it was time for me to try my hand at making the pie crust and quiche. I already had a bookmarked recipe for quiche with spelt flour crust from Culinate. It is not the recipe that made me bookmark the article, it is the way the author gives you confidence in making the pie crust. She makes you feel that anyone can make a pie crust and the detailed instructions really help. 

This pie crust is made of Spelt flour (equal quantity of whole wheat flour can be substituted here) and uses a stick of butter and half a stick of cream cheese. The dough is soft and really easy to handle. I had trouble fluting the edges and at one corner I trimmed too much of the excess which resulted in shrunken crust after baking. But that didn't really affect the final taste of the quiche, the crust turned was flaky & buttery.

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Thotakoora Wadiyala Kura (Amaranth Leaves Curry with Sundried Lentil wafers)

This is a super simple curry that I made couple of months ago after I harvested a bunch of amaranth leaves from my container garden. I asked my mom what to cook with the greens and she gave me this recipe that she saw on one of the Telugu cooking shows.

Once all the ingredients are prepped and ready to go, this dish gets done in literally minutes. Amaranth/ thotakura doesn't take long to cook, about 4~5 minutes max. Other greens like spinach, swiss chard or even kale can be used, cooking times will have to be adjusted accordingly.

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Baked Mathri (Savory Cookies with Indian Spices)

This holiday season I made 3 different types of cookies (recipes for these are coming up soon) and this fruit cake to give as edible gifts. I also made eggless no-bake mango cheesecake as dessert for Christmas. So along with all these sugar laden goodies, I wanted to make something savory to tame our tastebuds and also as a treat to my BIL who doesn't like sugary treats.

As I was looking for recipes for baked savory cookies, I found this baked mathri recipe on Ambika's blog. These were very easy to put together. Only thing I should have done was to flatten them a little bit so they would have turned out more like Ambika's cookies. Also I used black pepper and cumin seeds to spice the cookies. They tasted great but they were a little soft rather than crispy and crunchy. So if you want crispy cookies, then make sure to flatten them before baking.

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