Recipe of the month: Taushe Bhakri (Cucumber Rotti)

Continuing my exploration of regional Indian dishes, today’s find is a Konkani  speciality called Toushe Bhakri or Cucumber Rotti. It is an easy to make, light on the tummy, traditional breakfast dish. Even better, it comes together with ingredients you probably already have sitting in your kitchen.

Somewhere along the way, I have had to accept that I don’t quite have the time (or bandwidth) to blog the way I once did. I'll admit that it is a bitter pill to swallow. Having said that, the urge to keep at it hasn’t gone away. I still find myself saving recipes I stumble upon, usually with a quiet conviction that this one will be the one that brings my blog out of its coma! And that is exactly how I found the recipe for this dish. I had never heard of it before, which immediately piqued my curiosity and it seemed like the kind of dish that would work perfectly for our busy household of six.

On an unrelated note, it does make me a little sad to see traditional blogging slowly fading into the background. Nobody really has the patience for it anymore because everything nowadays needs to be quick, snappy and instantly consumable, doesn't it? 😢 Even recipe videos have a shelf life of a few minutes before people start losing interest. Attention spans are shrinking at an alarming rate, and instant gratification seems to be the rule of the game. To avoid disappointment, I am not holding on to hope that my Generation Alpha daughters will read my elaborate blog posts. By now, I am quite convinced that I am an old soul at heart. I have little interest in keeping up with technology. I have never approached content creation as a means to an end. Podcasts, vlogs, audiobooks, YouTube shorts have never really appealed to me. I still believe in the power of writing, in documenting lived experiences, in taking the time to say things from the heart and in today's day and age, not having AI chatbot say things for me that I am perfectly capable to saying myself! (no matter how unpolished it may sound 😝). But my thoughts aside, the fact that my blog still gets a reasonable number of views is reason enough for me to keep showing up here.

Coming back to today's recipe - this was (for the most part) a hit just as I thought it would be. My husband didn’t quite take to it, but that is due to his long-standing dislike for cucumber in the cooked form. He is one of those people who prefers the vegetable raw. Fair enough I'd say. The rest of us really enjoyed it and I can easily see this dish working just as well with zucchini. I served the bhakris with homemade butter (so good), coconut chutney, chutney pudi and pickle. It complemented everything very well. 

To those of you who still take the time to visit my blog, read my ramblings and try my recipes, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are the reason I'm still here 💜

Baker's Corner: Blueberry Lavender Cinnamon Rolls

I'm not going to make any excuses for now showing up here. It is what it is (sighs). On a more positive note, a personal goal for me this year is to get back to cooking, baking and blogging which still rank among my greatest passions in life. I have some brand new amazing cookbooks that I brought with me from Singapore to India during our relocation but I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't opened a single one yet. That has got to change 😛

A bit of background on how this blog post came about - last month, we played Secret Santa at work. Somehow, I ended up being in charge of organizing it which was mildly amusing because I had never played the game before (surprising no?). In the beginning, I naively assumed that  it would involve picking a name, buying one holiday gift, and calling it a day. How mistaken I was! 

What followed was gifting guidelines with a designated WhatsApp group and weeks of multiple mini gifts, tricks, clues, stealth tactics, mysterious collaborations, in depth handwriting analysis, decoy Santas, dress code, dramatic reveals and what not! I can confidently say that I get all the nuances of the game now and I promise to be a force to reckon with the next time it rolls around 😂

My Secret Santa (who turned out to be a dear colleague who I work closely with) gifted me a handmade recipe book along with several other thoughtful goodies. Knowing my penchant for baking, she had included a collection of beautiful dessert recipes with detailed instructions, all carefully handwritten and paired with hand drawn illustrations. Needless to say, I was deeply touched by the time, effort, and sentiment that went into it 💜

One of the recipes that caught my attention immediately were these Blueberry Lavender Cinnamon Rolls. My daughters noticed it right off the bat too. If you have gone through my dessert gallery before, chances are, you would have come across my blog post on Cinnamon Rolls. You may have also correctly deduced that I  am a sucker for cinnamon in general. I truly dig the stuff. 

Lavender, however, was completely new territory for me. It was the only ingredient I did not already have on hand, and I was genuinely excited to try it.  A browse and click on Amazon led to its arrival on my doorstep two days later. 

This recipe is very easy to follow and uses ingredients that are (mostly) readily available. It does require two rounds of dough rising (proofing), which takes some time, but I promise it is worth the wait. The rolls turned out soft and pillowy. The gentle floral notes of the lavender complemented the fruitiness of the blueberries beautifully. The sweetness of the glaze was balanced by the salt in the rolls and the slight tartness of the berries. The cinnamon took a subtler role while still providing its comforting warmth.

I did not follow the recipe from the book exactly. I made a few minor adjustments based on my own preferences and intuition as I went along. For a first attempt, the taste and texture of the rolls felt just right. I made two batches, took one to work for my colleagues who all gave it the thumbs up. The second batch I kept for my family. My girls have been thrilled to see it make an appearance in their snack box and now they are asking me to make it for all their friends 😆 I did not feel the need to tweak the recipe further, so I am sharing it here just as it is for all of you to try.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year 2026 💫

I will try my best to show up here more often (and I really mean that!). 

Chasing Snowflakes & Sand Dunes: Our Colorado Road Trip Adventure

Disclaimer: This road trip happened in 2023. If there were an award for procrastination, I’d be giving this acceptance speech two years late too 😂

Before we begin, a quick confession.

If you happen to wonder how I am able to recall, in sufficient detail, a trip that happened two years ago, let me assure you that it is not because I've been blessed with an exceptional memory. Far from it! I forget things all the time 😆 But what I lack in memory, I more than make up for in documentation. Before this trip, I had crafted a meticulous (some might say excessively detailed!) itinerary to make sure everything went off without a hitch. I also have this habit of taking way too many photos and then turning them into obsessively captioned albums and being an Instagram junkie, I obviously, have my travel stories turned into a highlight. Turns out, this compulsive archiving is an unexpected perk of being a travel blogger. It lets me rewind, pause, relive, and now, finally, two years later, share the magic all over again. 

To provide more context, during spring of 2023, my family and I embarked on a 35-day trip to North America. Our trip spanned 2 countries, 5 states, 2 provinces with ~5000 miles of road trips, one train journey and 4 domestic flights. This extended holiday came on the heels of us concluding a 17-year chapter in Singapore and re-starting a brand new one in our home country India. It was intended to celebrate a major turning point in our lives. 

I've already chronicled our trip to New Jersey and New York which happened to be the first destination on our itinerary. From there we travelled to Florida to take our (then) 9-year old twin daughters to Disney World and Universal Studios. One of the states in the United States of America that I hadn't previously visited and was most keen on visiting was Colorado. My husband had been there before and was completely bowled over by the majestic mountains, the expansive plains and unique geological features. Colorado was the next stop on our travel agenda and we were looking forward to let nature do the talking.  

April in Colorado offers a mix of winter and spring activities as the snow melts and hiking trails begin to open. It is shoulder season so there are predictably less crowds and little traffic. One can also score great deals on accommodation. Even restaurants and shops may be discounted during this season. 

Book review: Becoming by Michelle Obama

I’ve been meaning to read this memoir for over five years now. When it first came out, it quickly became the talk of the literary world. I repeatedly tried borrowing the book from my university’s well-stocked library in Singapore, but despite housing multiple copies, it was always loaned out due to popular demand. I looked for it on Kindle, but oddly enough, it wasn’t available for the longest time. I reluctantly complied with my vow not to buy any more books because we had long run out of shelf space at home. Eventually, I got caught up with other books on my to-read list, but this one never really left my mind. Memoirs aren’t usually my go-to genre, but when they are well-written and engaging, especially through a female lens that explores the depth of human emotion and experience, they tend to stay with me long after I’ve finished them.

Published in 2018, Becoming is the deeply personal and widely acclaimed memoir of Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States, lawyer, and advocate for education and health. In this compelling narrative, Obama traces her journey from a modest upbringing on Chicago’s South Side to her years at the White House, offering honest reflections on race, identity, motherhood, marriage, and finding one’s voice. The memoir not only became an instant bestseller but also won the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for its audiobook version, narrated by Obama herself. With warmth, wit, and clarity, Becoming invites readers into the life behind the public figure and gives us all something to think about in our own process of "becoming".

Review

Michelle Obama rose from humble beginnings on the South Side of Chicago to inhabiting the halls of the White House in Washington DC. Growing up in a small one-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a house in a rough neighbourhood, with limited financial means and a father living with a disability, it would have been easy to assume the odds were stacked against her. But the deep-anchoring love of her family, a home filled with music, culture, and soul, and parents who held high expectations for her and her brother turned out to be more than enough for Michelle to rise above adversity.

Michelle Obama graduated from two Ivy League institutions, became a lawyer at a prestigious law firm, served as Vice President at a hospital, led a non-profit that helped young people build meaningful careers and went on to become the First Lady of the United States of America. She juggled the roles of daughter, wife, mother, friend, employee, employer and public figure, all while navigating extraordinary circumstances. What I admired most was her journey of self-acceptance because despite many setbacks and seeds of self-doubt, she comes to acknowledge her intellect and owns her unique story with pride.