7th Blog Anniversary

Nithu's Kitchen completed Seventh Year in this Blog World!!! and entered Eighth Year today:-) Thanks to my family, friends and a special thanks to all magazines who are supporting and encouraging me.  This year is really a good and lucky year for Nithu's Kitchen and in personal front too. Nithu's Kitchen featured in many leading magazines and earned a good name. 

Checkout the special dessert 'Arisi-Paruppu-Thengai Payasam' posted for 7th blog Anniversary. 

Milestones for Nithu's Kitchen from 13th Oct, 2015 - 13th Oct, 2016 :

32 Recipes in published in Mangayar Malar, July 1-15 Issue :

Featured in Kumudam Snegiti 21-7-2016 Issue :

Featured in Penmani September 2016 Issue :

Short Stories Published in Magazines :

'சின்னஞ்சிறு கதைகள் பேசி...' in Raani Weekly 13th March 2016

'பூமனம்' in Raani Weekly 8th May 2016

'வீடு' in Penmani June 2016 (Republished)

'சுவீட்' in Raani Weekly 11th September 2016

Apart from the short stories published, my first novel 'முழுமதி பிரிந்து போவதில்லை!' was published in Kanmani Magazine, (21st September 2016 issue) a very popular magazine from Devi groups of Magazines.

In June this year, I published 'பட்டாம்பூச்சி மனசு',  compilation of my short stories published in all leading magazines. Atlast my dream had come true. Thanks to my husband and my parents who rendered their full support to bring out my book. My special thanks to the publisher.

You may be interested in :

Blog Anniversary & Nithu's Kitchen's Milestones 

Sixth Blog Anniversary & Rasmalai

Hooray! Nithu's Kitchen is 6 years old today:-) 

Checkout the milestones of Nithu's Kitchen here

Important Milestones for Nithu's Kitchen from 13th Oct, 2014 - 13th Oct, 2015 :

1."Acid Kadhal" Short Story published in Raani Tamil Weekly (12-7-2015)

2. "Uravaith Thedi" Short Story published in Varamalar (19-7-2015)

3. Mangayar Malar Featured My Short Story "Shraddha Endroru Devathai"(16-2-2015)

4. Guest Post Series Resumed - Raw Jackfruit Dum Briyani By Bharati (7-3-2015)

5. Short Story "Endru Puthithai Piranthen" published in Varamalar (26-4-2015)

6. Nithu's Kitchen worked with Big Basket (29-4-2015)

To celebrate this occasion, I have a Bengali Sweet Recipe to share. Rasmalai is my favourite sweet. The preparation involves, preparation of rasgullas first. You can check the Rasgulla Recipe here. Once the preparation of Rasgulla is over, those soft balls should be immersed in flavoured milk. Rasmalai tastes great when served chilled.

Ingredients :

1. Rasgulla - 20 Nos

2. Milk - 3 lts

3. Chopped Nuts - 1/2 Cup

4. Saffron - A few Strands

5. Badam Mix - 2 tbs

6. Sugar - Needed Qty

Procedure :

1. Boil milk on medium flame till it reduces to 1.5 lts.

2. Add sugar, badam mix, saffron & nuts. Stir for few minutes.

3. Now, squeeze the rasgulla gently & gently put one by one to the flavoured milk.

4. After few minutes, switch off the stove. Let the contents to cool.

5. Refrigerate and serve chilled. 

Fifth Blog Anniversary & Makkan Peda

Today, Nithu's Kitchen completes 5 years! You can read the milestones of Nithu's Kitchen for the last four years  here.

Important Milestones for the Period of 13th Oct, 2013 - 13th Oct, 2014 :

Nithu's Kitchen Worked With :

Nithu's Kitchen had the opportunity to work with MagicKart(a online shop that sells cookware, bakeware and other Kitchen appliances. (http://www.nithubala.com/2014/01/arachuvitta-parangi-pinju-baby-pumpkin.html) 

Stories(Tamil) Published in Magazines :

My Short Story "Sowndara Mami" Published in Varamalar (15-12-2013)

My Short Story Published in Yesterday's Varamalar (23rd Feb 2014)

My Short Story Published in 1st June, 2014 Varamalar 

Recipes Published in Magazines :

My Recipes Published in 5th October, Tamil Hindu

To celebrate the occasion, I have a very famous sweet from North Arcot. This sweet is called Arcot Sweet or Makkan Peda. This is prepared with sweetless khoa & Maida.

Ingredients :

For Peda :

1. Sugarless Khoa – 1 Cup

2. Maida (All Purpose Flour) - 1/2 Cup

3. Cooking Soda – A Pinch

4. Yogurt - 3/4 Cup

5. Ghee - 1 tbs

6. Grated Mixed Nuts - 1/4 Cup

7. Oil - Needed for Frying

For Sugar Syrup :

1. Sugar –  2 Cups

2. Water - 2 Cups

Add sugar and water in a deep pan. Bring to boil. Switch off the stove, when the syrup is sticky and thick. 

Procedure :

1. In a large bowl, combine khoa, maida and cooking soda.

2. Add yogurt and ghee. Knead to a soft and non sticky dough. Let the dough sit for atleast an hour.

3. Now, make small balls. Make a small hole in the centre of the dough ball, stuff with nuts and then again roll it in to smooth ball. Gently flatten.

4. Follow the same procedure until you finish the dough. 

5. Heat oil in a pan.

6. Fry Pedas on medium heat till they become dark brown in colour.

7. Drain oil and then gently drop in the warm sugar syrup.

8. Let the pedas be soaked in syrup for atleast 8 hours or over night.

9. Remove makkan peda from syrup and then serve garnished with nuts.

Fourth Blog Anniversary & My Tamil Blog

My Blog is 4 Years old! Just could not believe it. Though, it feels like a dream, Nithu's Kitchen is stepping in to 5th year today. All this happened just because of you My Dear Friends. I thank you all for your unfailing support. On this Fourth Blog Anniversary, Nithu's Kitchen has 570 posts and 470 friends through Google Friend Connect. 

My Tamil Blog :

On this special occasion, I invite you all to my new tamil blog "கொஞ்சம் ஆரோக்கியம்,கொஞ்சம் பேச்சு!". There I have planned to write health recipes. I hope it will be useful to many of you around here. Please follow me in my Tamil Blog too and give your support and encouragement.

Important Milestones for the Period of 13th Oct, 2012 - 13th Oct, 2013:

Important Posts : 

1. My Niece Shrima Won Second Prize in Young Chef Contest :

This is one important post I wanted to mention in this anniversary post. Check out the post and the dish she prepared during the contest.

2. Giveaway Introduced for Healthy food for Healthy Kids :

Introduced cookbook giveaway during Feb, 2013 for the event series I hosted.

Awards & Prizes Won :

1. Won Best Lunch Recipe Award , Well Presented Recipe Award & Prize From Samayal Attakasankal 

2. Won My Culinary Trial Room Giveaway

3. Won Good Food Recipes Second Anniversary Giveaway

Events & Giveaway Hosted :

Hosted my own event Healthy Food for Healthy Kids Series but for now, I have given a break to this series. But I am sure, I will be restarting the event soon.

My Stories(Tamil) Published in Magazines :

My Stories "Veedu & Mamiyar Gunam!" Published in Varamalar (December 16, 2012)

My Story "Pattampoochi Manasum Mathipennum!" Published in Varamalar (Jan 13, 2013)

Won Aachi Masala's & Aval Vikatan's "Kitchen Rani" for Pink Paneer Balls Recipe   (Feb 26, 2013)

My Story "Eni Ellam Nalamey!" Published in Varamalar  (10-3-2013)

My Story "Lanjam!" Published in Varamalar (14-4-2013)

My Story "Uravu Pagai!" Published in Varamalar  (23-6-2013)

Nithu's Kitchen Worked With :

Nithu's Kitchen had the opportunity to work with Sify and few coupon sites. Thanks to Sify and coupon sites.

You can check Nithu's Kitchen's Milestones for the First Year here, Second Year here and for third year here. Thank you friends for your encouragement. Keep visiting the blog and give your support as always.

Third Blog Anniversary - Hooray! It's 500th Post

Nithu's Kitchen completes three years today with 500 posts and 424 friends through Google Friend Connect. Thank you friends for your constant support and encouragement. Hope, you all would continue to support me throughout this journey. My special thanks to my Hubby, Dad, Mom and Sister for their constant encouragement. Without them and friends like you, I could not achieve so much.

To celebrate this day, I prepared a very traditional sweet "Vella Puttu / Arisi Vella Puttu". This is a very versatile dish. Vella puttu can be served as breakfast or evening snack or as dessert.The recipe will be shared in my next post. 

On this special day, I would like to share few important happenings of Nithu's kitchen for the last three years. In the first year of blogging, I posted totally 300 posts. But in the second year, due to my pregnancy and delivery I could not even post 100 posts. But this year, I managed somehow to post about 120 posts. For this, I must really thank my Husband and Mom who took care of our Lil "S" when I was busy in kitchen . Even DH helped me in clicking some pictures.

You can check Nithu's Kitchen's Milestones for the First Year here and Second Year here.

Important Milestones for the Period of 13th Oct, 2011 - 13th Oct, 2012:

Important Posts : 

1. 400th Post on 14th Feb, 2012 - This post is a sweet recipe (Cashew & Almond Halwa) to mark 400th post and Valentines Day celebration.

2. Lil"S" First Birthday Post on 8th Aug, 2012 - This post is a cake recipe (Eggless Raisin Cake) to celebrate our loving daughter's first Birthday.

3. Lil"S" Teething Ceremony Post on 23rd Aug, 2012 - This post is a kozhukattai recipe (Sweet Ammini Kozhukattai) to celebrate our daughter's first teeth.

Prizes Won :

1. "Anjum's New Indian" CookBook from Pari for her 300th Post Giveaway.

2. "Stepanie Zia's Stain Removal" Book from Aparna for her First Giveaway.

3. "Clearly Fresh Bags" from Sowje

Awards Won :

1. Top Contributor Award for "Let's Party - Desserts" hosted by Reshmi.

2. Second Top Contributor Award for "Show Me Your Desserts" hosted by Paricash.

Events & Giveaway Hosted :

1. Healthy Food for Healthy Kids Event Series Stared in Jan, 2012.

2. Cooking With Love - Mom Event Guest Hosted for Sara in April, 2012.

3. Pearl Earring Giveaway Hosted for My Fresh Water Pearls.

4. Cook.Eat.Delicious-Desserts :DATES Event & Giveaway Guest Hosted for Raven in May, 2012.

5. Know Your Flour - Rice Flour Event Guest Hosted for Jagruti in Aug, 2012.

6. Try My Recipes - Cook. Taste. Post Event & Giveaway for 3rd Blog Anniversary for this Month, runs till 31st Oct, 2012.

My Stories(Tamil) Published in Magazines :

1. "Pampin Kaal" published in Dec 1-15, 2011 issue of Devathai.

2. "Penkulathin Vetriyadi" selected in Thendral's short story contest-2011 for publication.

3. "Veedu" selected for consolation prize in TVR's Memorial Short Story Contest, 2012 conducted by Dinamalar-Varamalar.(The story is yet to be published)

Thank you friends. Keep encouraging me with your comments in coming years too. 

Sweet Potato Poli - Second Blog Anniversary

Nithu's Kitchen completes two years in this Blogging World today. There are almost 400 posts in this blog now. I couldn't spend much time in blogging this year for various reasons. I hope to continue blogging regularly herafter :-)

You can read about Nithu's Kitchen's First year Anniversary and its milestones here.

Here goes the second year blog anniversary treat for you... Poli/Obbattu is a delicious sweet dish. Most of us are very much familiar with Puran Poli. Making soft and delicious poli needs bit of experience and patience. This time when I prepared poli, instead of usual Channa dhal puran, I made this sweet potato puran poli. It turned out great and gave a new taste.

Ingredients :

1. Sweet Potato - 3 (Medium sized)

2. Coconut - 1/2 Cup (Grated)

3. Maida - 1 Cup

4. Rice Flour - 1 tbs

5. Jaggery - 3/4 Cup

6. Cardomom powder - 1 tsp or Cardamom - Few pods

7. Turmeric powder - 1 pinch

8. Ghee - Needed qty

9. Salt - 1/2 tsp

10. Oil

For the covering :

1. Mix maida, rice flour, 1 tsp ghee, 1/4 tsp salt and turmeric powder. Sprinkle water slowly and make a soft dough. Keep the dough aside for atleast an hour.

2. Then roll out in to small balls.Keep aside covered.

For the stuffing :

1. Pressure cook sweet potato with 1/4 tsp salt.

2. Once cooked, remove skin and mash well.

3. Heat 2 tsp of ghee in a pan. Medium the flame. Add grated coconut and fry for few seconds.

4. Now add cardamom powder and mashed sweet potato. Mix well.

5. Add jaggery and cook on medium flame till the mixture thickens.

6. Allow the mixture to cool.

7. Make small balls and keep aside.

Procedure :

1. Grease the plastic sheets with oil and flatten the dough balls.

2. Place the sweet potato balls in the centre of the flattened dough. Bring the edges together towards the centre.

3. Now, again flatten the stuffed dough gently with the rolling pin or with your oil greased hands.

4. Heat a dosa pan. Cook the poli on both the sides. Pour ghee around the poli while they cook.

5. Serve hot or at room temperature.

First Blog Anniversary

Nithu's Kitchen completes a year today with 300 posts and 221 friends through Google Friend Connect. Thank you friends for your support and encouragement. Hope, you all would continue to support me throughout this journey. My special thanks to my Hubby, Dad, Mom and Sister for their constant encouragement.

To celebrate this great day, I made Eggless Carrot Cake. I know, most of you here are good bakers with a wonderful skill for icing. This is the very first time, I tried my hands to do some designs on a cake :-)) So, please bear with my extremely non-professional icing :-(

On this special day, I would like to share few important happenings of Nithu's kitchen for the period of one year (13th Oct, 2009 - 13th Oct, 2010).

Milestones / Important Posts :

1. 100th Post on Feb 28, 2010 - This post was an event announcement to mark the completion of 100 posts. It took me nearly 4.5 months for 100 posts.

2. 150th Post on April 13, 2010 - This post marked 6 months completion of the blog. This was just a recollection of six months important happenings in Nithu's Kitchen.

3. 200th Post on June 4, 2010 - This post was an event announcement to mark the 200th post.

4. 250th Post on August 5, 2010 - This post was my first guest host event announcement.

Events Conducted :

1. Think Beyond the Usual - Fruits

2. Best Out of Waste

3. CWF - LB : Chickpeas (Guest hosted)

4. Celebrate Sweets - Ladoo (Guest hosted)

5. Vegetable Marathon - Bitter Gourd (Guest hosted, Ongoing event)

Giveaways Hosted :

1. 100th Post giveaway ($25) - Champa won the event for more number of entries.

2. 200th Post giveaway (Cook Book) - Krishnaveni won the event

3. UPrinting giveaway - Swapna was randomly selected from the comments left.

4. CSN Giveaway ($35) - Amritha Kalyani was randomly selected from the comments left.

Guest Posts :

I started this Guest post series on March 8th,2010 to mark the International Women's Day. My sister kick started the series well. On Mothers Day, my Mom was the special guest. So far 30 guests (bloggers & non-bloggers) were introduced in this series. Thanks to all of you for your support.

Food Fiction :

First time, I tried Food fiction for Aqua's event. Click here and here to read my food fictions.

Recipes featured in Media :

1. Kadugu Sadam recipe featured in The Hindu, Metroplus on June 19, 2010.

2.Thengai Paal Mullu Murukku recipe features in The Hindu, Metroplus on September 10, 2010

Winner Awards and Prizes :

1. BloggerAid CookBook and Hurst bean from Susan for MLLA-18

2. Kitchen Collage Sticky Notes from Oraphan for Participating in her 50th post giveaway event

3. Sweet Kathleen's Cake Book from Foodie Blogroll Team

4. $40 from CSN, giveaway conducted at Aadityam

5. Spice Box from CuisineCuisine for Summer Contest

6. Winner Badge from RV for her event FF7SL

7. Second Place Winner Award from Shama

8. Bubble Chocolate giveaway winner at Foodlovers (Yet to receive the chocolates. Will be blogging about it soon)

Other Awards :

My blogger friends have passed me many awards as their token of love. Thanks to all of you for the awards. Click here to see the awards received.

I'l catch you all with the recipe for the Eggless Carrot Cake in next post. Till then enjoy the cake:-)