I have been busy this weekend. After a really long time I had some friends over for dinner last night. Seems like I have lost touch with cooking for a big group. I was unable to whip up everything like I usually do. I spent a good part of yesterday in the kitchen and at the end of it I felt like … “Thats it! This is all I made ?”. Maybe because it was that all the recipes I cooked were new to me. So I spent time reading the recipe and following exact directions. So here goes .. a gist of all what I made.

First, I must start with this… On Wednesday night last week, we came back from school/work and we were really hungry and cold. And Isha my older one suggested “How about we have some soup?” If you know me, then you would know that I am not the kind who stocks up on soups. I dont like the canned soups as much. They are too high in sodium and am not sure what preservatives go into them. Nothing like a bowl of good old homemade soup. I quickly logged on and started looking for some different soups that I could make. I looked at Asha’s recent soup fair. But unfortunately I did not have most of the ingredients needed for her soups. Then I looked at Saffron’s Minestrone Soup. I quickly went down to my pantry and refrigerator and dished out most what I needed. I did not have any spinach.. thanks to the E-coli scare, but I thought it would be fine without the spinach. And so I got started… And boy what a delicious soup it made. And so quickly.. It was yumm, except that I made it a tad bit spicier with all the chilli flakes I threw in there and my daughter was slurping it up even with her nose leaking because of the spice!

Ingredients for Saffron's Minestrone Soup Ingredients for Saffron’s Minestrone Soup

Saffron's Minestrone Soup Saffron’s Minestrone Soup
And then, for yesterday’s appetizer I made Sailu’s Ulli Pakoda’s. But unfortunately, my guests started arriving right when I was finishing up make the Pakoda’s and they were so delicious that they cheesed them off even before I could get to taking some pictures! Thanks Sailu for teaching me to make the exact version of pakoda’s ..the kind available in the streets of India! Spicy and Delicious.

And then, my main course consisted of Pooris, Asha’s Masala Eggs ,Prema’s Delicious Potatoes ,My Vegetable Pulav , Cucumber Raita, White Rice, Indira’s Red Bell Pepper Chutney , Tomato Rasam and Fresh Homemade Curds. For desert my dear friend S made delicious Oriental Fruit Salad and my friend R was kind enough to bring us some yummy Frozen Custard from Sheridans Frozen Custard. Want to see how the experiments looked ? Delicious! See for yourself :-)

Asha's Masala Eggs Asha’s Masala Eggs

Prema's Potato Curry Prema’s Potato Curry

Indira's Red Bell Pepper Chutney Indira’s Red Bell Pepper Chutney
Thank you dear blogger friends for all those delicious and innovative recipes. That’s all folks! Hope you guys had a good time reading about my culinary experiments!