Around here the spice is just right. Or atleast I would like it to be. This blog is going to be about escapades pertaining to the kitchen realm. I am what you might call the average person living it up with a brand-new hubbie.

So we cook meals most of the weekdays and it is your regular desi veggie fare. Chappati/Bhaji or some form of rice, dals, pasta, beans etc. But on the weekends, hubbie refuses to eat anything ordinary. Funny how he has started calling chappaties ordinary and mundane. There used to be a time when he looked forward to chappaties (or is it chappatis?) in a near salivating manner. Maybe he needs a refresher dose on his not so recent student life cuisines? So as I was saying, hubbie demands special stuff on weekends - something 'scrumptuously delicious'. When I ask him what he means by that, he just repeats the word with emphasis on different syllables.

The eating habits on his side of the family has amazed me from day one. Bhajjis for breakfast and bhel puri/pani puri for dinner as a full meal, each meal has atleast one item deep fried in ghee/oil. Infact the first time I met his grandmother, we had pani puri for dinner. I must have eaten about 20 puris and a lot of that spiced water. Not too good for your GI tract :-) On the other hand, he finds the food habits on my side of the family equally strange. How we can enjoy and crave the delicate flavors of simplest things like curd rice always amuses him.

Hubbie's mother (shall be called MIL henceforth) is known around the entire neighbourhood and beyond for her hand at the chaat items as the uncrowned queen of party pleasing items. In fact if she was not in the profession she is in right now, she would have been an excellent cooking show host. Ask her innocently about one of her recipes and she will enthusiastically explain beginning from how to boil water accompanied by any sound effects, ending with a description of how to present the finished dish.

Mommie on the other hand is the uncrowned queen of multiplexing and improvisation. The sheer speed at which she weaves in and out of the kitchen with innovative meal creations is amazing. Her after school one dish meals were nutritious and satisfying. I don't think even she knew what she was making for dinner on a busy day. She would put a pan on the stove, pour some oil in it and run to the fridge and look for dinner options. In about half hour, she would have whipped up a 'balanced' meal. She is not afraid of trying unconventional things in the kitchen, and I think this has rubbed off on sis and me whether we realize it or not.

Sis will try/eat anything new. She will experiement with different recipes every other day and feed the neighbourhood kids :-) So as you can see I have a lot to live up to.

In my quest to discover new 'scrumptous' items to tickle hubbie's taste buds, I introduce this blog of experiences, success, contentment, disasters and spice. Until the weekend, eat well.