We picked Across the Narrow Sea as our second potluck, hosted by House Rashid (that’s us!). I was super impressed with the menu we came up with, it was fresh and exotic and delicious.

Zoeya being sassy in her Sindhi outfit

Appetizer spread.

Meg’s Iced Green Minty Drink (delicious! Honeydew, mint and lime. Non-preggos added vodka. Not the prettiest snap because I couldn’t wait to take a sip.)

Gloria’s glorious dolmades. So lemony!

Greek Salad. Nothing special, just something fresh and green.

My pomegranate goat turned out beautiful – very rich, sweet and spicy.

Mariela’s yummy chicken.

Molly’s dubious mushrooms.

My citrusy olive oil cake. I love this cake, literally the easiest and most versatile cake I’ve ever made.

Some of the recipes came from or were inspired by Inn at the Crossroads blog or A Feast of Ice and Fire cookbook, and the rest have Greek or North African influence. I dressed Zoeya up Sindhi style (which we will just pretend is Dothraki style) and for our listening pleasure played my Niyaz Pandora station – which some people liked but my husband made fun of. He better be careful not to stir my wrath though because, you know, Fire and Blood!

Check out our first potluck, Winterfell.

As I’ve probably mentioned, I’m completely obsessed with Game of Thrones, as are my sisters. We’ve been watching the show, reading the books, and most recently we (and the rest of our potluck people) have been cooking the food!

Our first potluck was in dreary January at my sister Meg’s house, and the wintery food of Winterfell sounded like a good place to start. She set her table beautifully with white and silver – Stark house colors! – and we loaded it up with delicious fare.

Stephen, Terry, Shan, and little ones Zoeya and Eliza showed up to eat! Don’t worry, they cook too, we shall see as the story unfolds. Except baby Eliza, she probably just mashes stufff.

Gloria craftily made wine labels which I got a kick out of: Arbor Gold and Dornish Red. A lovely time was had by all.

We had our next potluck, Across the Narrow Sea, just last weekend at House Rashid, so I will be recapping our spicy exotic menu soon (as well as the recipes above).

We’ve been using several sources for inspiration. My sister Molly gave my sister Meg and I A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook for Christmas, and we’ve been cooking medieval fare from it quite a bit. The authors’ blog Inn at the Crossroads is also a wealth of recipes straight from the books. We’ve also been just cooking whatever we feel is appropriate and mixes in well with the rest of the dishes, whether we get the idea from somewhere or just feel inspired to experiment in our own kitchens.

The Game of Thrones themes have managed to revive potluck, with Mariela, Leo and Leah getting in on the action – the group has taken a few years’ hiatus with a lone potluck thrown in here and there, but now we’ve already have had two and we have two more scheduled in the coming weeks. Besides an excuse to get together with good friends, it’s a fun way to learn more about medieval cooking, and a delicious way to get our GoT fix until the next season starts!

I’ve been bugging my friend Mariela for awhile to teach me how to make her famous empanadas (or pastelitos, whichever). She is Ecuadorian and therefore knows what she’s doing. Unfortunately this weekend our plans fell through, but my always adventurous friend Gloria, my sister Meg, Shan and I decided to forge ahead anyway and try our hand at it. The results were delicious, and we had a lot of fun muddling through!

One thing we learned is that we need to seal them a little better (and be careful not to let the filling split out the back…oops). This made for splattery oil that threatened to disfigure Meg, and the emapanadas weren’t quite as pretty. But they were still just as delicious, I probably ate the weight of my unborn child in them. Thank goodness for stretchy maternity pants.

We made three kinds – beef, potato, and some little mini guava ones for dessert. ¡Deliciosos!

This dough can be baked or fried. We fried – decadent Saturday night! We stuck them in the freezer for a few minutes, then fried them in an inch of oil on medium heat for a few minutes on each side until deep golden brown before removing to paper-towel lined plates.

To accompany our empanadas I made a lovely quinoa and beet salad, which turned out the obscene magenta color I love and left me with leftovers for work lunches this week. Apologies for no exact measurements, I will probably revisit this one to make a proper recipe.

I’d mentioned that in my first trimester since I was so morning sick that Pakistani food and other spiced-up cuisines were not really appealing to me and I was wanting the fresher, cleaner flavors of Japanese food (that and like, Taco Bell. Don’t judge, it’s a dark time). Thankfully I’m far past that now, but am still interested in learning to prepare Japanese food.

However, although I cook food from all over the world, Japanese food is one cuisine I have eaten a lot but probably know the least about preparing, and one that is a little intimidating to me.

For one thing, the ingredients are more unfamiliar. Whereas Pakistani food is made mostly with ingredients that we as Americans use anyway (potatoes, tomatoes, onions, chicken, cinnamon, cumin, cilantro), just combined a different way, I didn’t grow up with seaweed and miso. And although I’ve experimented with sake, mirin and soy sauce, I really don’t know much about types and quality and how to make truly authentic dishes with them.

Also, Japanese food seems like it requires a little more precision and delicacy than is generally found in my haphazard cooking style. Patience to slice vegetables into pretty, uniform shapes. Restraint to add a dainty teaspoon of some ingredient when my heart says an audacious splash. Care to arrange a lovely dish rather than slapping a steaming pot on the table.

Well lucky for me and other Japanese food novices, Maki at Just Hungry is planning a Japanese 101 series starting the week of March 4. She is going to give instructions for rice, soup, and three dishes, which sounds like a good primer for me, so I am planning on participating!

I hope to add a couple skills to my repertoire whilst making authentic and delicious Japanese food in my kitchen.

Ah, refreshing.

Spankin new design

This is the first time I’ve redesigned my site in a couple of years, and it feels like a breath of fresh air. I exchanged the sketchy/grainy stuff for a more sleek aesthetic which is still colorful and fun. A little retro, a little global, the visual version of the Secret Agent Playlist on SomaFM which was inspiring me while I played around with it.

And it’s responsive! I’m so excited, I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time. I’m always cooking off of recipes on my phone, and pinching and stretching is such a pain. Thanks to the designers of the Workality WordPress theme, which I used as a starting point.

More like a site, less like a blog

I made my recipes front and center, and the blog secondary. I haven’t had the time or inclination to cook/snap/blog weekly like I used to, and with baby coming in May, I very much don’t foresee that changing any time soon!

Ironically I think this organization will end up in me blogging a little more – less of a “food blog” (I never really considered myself a food blogger anyway, I’m too lazy, haha) and more of a food…journal. Just somewhere I can remind myself of the tasty tidbits I come across outside or on the web, and fun meals we’ve had and the friends we’ve shared them with.

Slowly revamping recipes

My goal for this site is to make it more like a recipe collection of dishes I love and cook over and over, that is more representative of how I cook.

I weeded a few recipes for the redesign, and am intending to edit/recook/reshoot a few of the dishes, take out a few more that don’t really fit the way I cook anymore (my style nowadays is still adventurous and exotic, but so much simpler, lighter, and fresher than all the heavy curries I used to make on a regular basis), and add some more that are more representative of what we are eating. This will be an ongoing process, but since I am treating this more like a site than a blog I don’t feel the need to preserve every recipe frozen in time, and I am free to edit, update and polish recipes.

So yeah, still making a few little tweaks, but overall I’m happy and excited about my site refresh. Here’s to a yummy future!

After a longer than expected break, I feel renewed creativity, and am wanting to get back in the blogosphere – and also back in the kitchen, which I’ve been desperately missing for the last couple months!

Because: very exciting news! We have a little bitty naan in the tandoor (which is a more fun way to say bun in the oven). Which is making me very happy, but also very tired and nauseous. My poor family has been getting very little in the way of home cooked meals and lots in the way of peanut butter sandwiches. And let’s be honest, not much in the way of laundry either. However, this last week I started feeling a little better and this weekend I even made soup.

Just like with my pregnancy with Zoeya, things I used to love are completely turning me off, and not just in the way of food. With Zoeya, I had to quit listening to Latin music, watching The Wire, and wearing this one yellow shirt, because they all made me nauseous. It’s weird and I have no explanation. This time around I have been forced to give up: lavender soap, pumpkins, rings and bracelets, general bohemian gypsyness in favor of a more streamlined aesthetic both in dress and home, and Indian food.

However, what has blossomed is a renewed interest in experimenting with web design (like playing with some HTML5 animation), and a return of a love for geeky things such as anime and fantasy novels. Stuff I liked anyway that has lain dormant for awhile. And that I guess is the strange way hormones can make you flip flop.

Here’s what I’m into nowadays, besides neglecting my household chores:

1. Sweet and Salty Granola Bars and a cup of Earl Grey

Since I’m not cooking much, I’ve been buying all that packaged crap that I normally never buy, and I have to say these are delicious. And I’m not drinking my beloved coffee (at first it was on purpose, but now just the smell produces waves of nausea), but am instead sipping on lovely bergamot scented tea, with sugar.

2. Game of Thrones

Awhile ago I watched the first season and loved it, but decided to read the books before I watch the second season. My sister is on the third book, I need to catch up with her so we can discuss. Right now it’s mainly her going: I can’t believe what just happened!!! And me: No spoilers I’m not there yet!!

So now I’m pretty much obsessed, and am also listening to a Game of Thrones podcast, Boars, Gore and Swords which is really funny and also comforting as sometimes they have as much trouble as I do figuring out what the hell is going on. Introduces words and phrases like “bro king,” “the three-eyed crow of happiness,” and “the Dink.”

I’m also perusing this amazing food blog featuring recipes from the books, Inn at the Crossroads. I mean, come on. They made a horse heart out of red velvet cake. I’ve already made the Beef and Barley Stew – authentic Winterfell fare (and tasty on a chilly night!)

3. Japanese Food

Not cooking it much yet, just thinking about cooking it as I ease back into the kitchen. As opposed to my usual spiced-up desi dishes, I am wanting the more delicate, clean flavors. Once I really start feeling better (which is to say, once the smell of food heating in a pan doesn’t make me want to vomit) I am going to go crazy in the kitchen, but so far all I’ve made is a cucumber salad and some pickled daikon and carrots, and a couple umeboshi onigiri (pickled plum filled rice balls).

I have purchase a cookbook which I have been pouring over and can’t wait to try out: Harumi’s Japanese Cooking.

I’ve also been listening to episodes of Miso Hungry – a super cute and informative podcast all about Japanese food!

So yeah. Lots of culture absorption, not too much actual activity. Kind of just biding my time over the next couple of weeks until I feel like staying up past 9 PM, and I have energy for all the things I love like yoga, working on non-work related projects, and of course cooking!

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired with Julie from Julie’s Eats & Treats. She has plenty of recipes for a sweet tooth, and since I don’t bake as much as I’d like I thought this would be a good opportunity to try one of them out. But more about that in a minute.

Julie comes from Minnesota (wonder if she has the accent), and started her blog as a way to share recipes with family and friends. However, it looks like the best thing she’s been cooking lately is her cute new baby! Her name is Kinzee Marie and she’s just adorable, so if you love not only drooling over recipes but also over cute babies, I suggest you go see some sweet baby pics.

So back to sweet tooth – specifically this Blueberry Coffee Cake. I am enthusiastic about cake meant to be eaten both a) with coffee and b) for breakfast. I did change up a few things, mostly because I don’t have a bundt pan (although it does look very pretty in bundt form as she made hers). I just made mine in a sheet pan, and since it was in a sheet pan I decided to make a streusel topping instead of the glaze. Unfortunately, it just melted, making a cinnamony brown sugar crust (which is very yummy, though not as pretty).

The other thing I did slightly different was adding a few cardamom pods to the blueberry mixture. Because cardamom is my favorite.

Thank you Julie, this is delicious! The leftovers are destined for my office, my coworkers thank you as well.

So things have slowed down ground to a halt around here. Various life events – awesome Pakistan trip, deathly plague of respiratory infection, new baby! New baby! (Not mine, my sister’s) – have kept me out of the kitchen for a little bit. Besides making obligatory pot of beans.

It’s more than that though. I want to change up a little bit what I’m doing with this space. Do something creative beyond the recipe, rinse, repeat cycle. I have a lot of ideas flying around so I’m going to take a short midsummer break while I collect and organize them, and emerge in August like a butterfly.

In the meantime, enjoy my beautiful niece:

See you in August!

As this posts, I am in sunny Pakistan – visiting family, wearing salwar kameez, playing with cute babies, trying to keep up with the conversation using my 101 Urdu, piercing my nose (maybe?), drinking copious amounts of tea, vacationing in the beautiful mountains near Osama bin Laden’s house, eating biryanis and dancing to Bollywood songs.

PS I am not trying to sound like some annoying swanky jet setter – the last time we made this trip was over three years ago.

Time for another Secret Recipe Club! I was so happy to be matched this month with Devon from deli-cute-tessen.com, because I am always on the lookout for new vegan recipes to try. Deli-cute-tessen has tons and they look just delicious.

Besides cooking, Devon also loves crafting. She is from Montreal, and works for a non-profit called Apathy is Boring (isn’t it?), which is an organization that encourages youth to be more active in their communities and in their governments, which I think is just awesome.

For reasons of not having a lot of time to cook (as running around like a crazy person preparing to be gone half the month), as well as not wanting to cook a big pot of something that we wouldn’t be able to finish before we left, I chose one of the simpler recipes. However, the rosemary iced tea was just the perfect thing to calm my frazzled nerves and to sip sweetly whilst packing. I love herbs that are normally used in savory dishes used in a sweet way, it makes for a perfect balance.

This was lovely, thanks so much for the recipe, Devon! I have my eye set on some more involved ones for when we come back, particularly this Vegan Grapefruit and Olive Oil Cake – yes please!

So you can’t cook everyday, right? Some days you need extra time to work on your freelance work or mop the floor or paint your nails.

Or you maybe you just love soup, but some days don’t feel like going through the trouble of actually making it.

This is the laziest possible thing you can make that is still a step up from canned soup or ramen. Maybe not fancy boxed soup, but it will pass, and some days is just perfect.

What? Just telling you what I do for dinner now and then. However, if you are feeling just a tiny bit industrious, this would make a really nice base for a veggie soup (throw in some white beans and kale) or a tomatoey miso soup (throw in some spinach and tofu).