New Blog - all about Art!

After having successfully revamped this blog with a fresh look, I have also decided to start a second blog. And I'm so psyched! Its like announcing that I'm having a second baby!!
Its still work in progress, I'm having a serious block on coming up with a good name for it, a good title, a good template. But I've started it, nevertheless. And there's no turning back!

Presenting... drumroll.... Arabian Artist!!


:)

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Fresh start

So I've been away from my blog for way too long. And it filled me with guilt coz I've enjoyed it so much. Also I've been cooking quite a lot, taking pictures and have not bothered to post any of them. Its just that there was so much going on in my life, that I was sort of banned from blogging until I finished all that work.
First came Onam, and I prepared my first ever Onasadya!! And it just made me feel so proud that I was able to make so many dishes in one day like a cook-off or a race. And I was surprised that most of the recipes were quite easy, and the fact that most of them did not require onions and garlic. Strange but I never knew. And then came Eid, and I tried out two different types of samosas. Unfortunately, they disappeared before I could take photos of them. And then I made my first ever Biryani, a Malabar Chicken Biryani which was again a big hit. And then more stuff just kept getting made on the way.
And then what else is new. Oh yes, I got MARRIED!! yayy.. to Bee of course. Nothing fancy, we just got it registered. Another big thing coming my way is that I'll be moving to USA soon. So I'm looking forward to have a bigger fancier kitchen with an oven finally! And cant imagine all the fresh berries and other fresh produce I'll get to experiment with, for my future blogging. Oh and I'll also get to experience snow for the first time. I'll be moving to a place called Mount Olive in New Jersey. I'm going on a long term onsite assignment and I did not wanna go there alone, of course. I just had to take Bee with me and he is all the more excited than I am. Coz he'll get to quit his job that he hates, and stay at home for a few years, learn cooking (ya right! but lets see) and just chill! Also he plans to learn few languages at his own pace, look at other career paths, so I think he deserves the break that he's been yearning for quite a while.
Bee banned me from blogging until I get all my papers in order and submit them at my company's travel desk. There was tons of paperwork so I just couldnt get back to blogging until now. And now, I'm thinking where to start! Get ready, lots of recipes to follow soon!

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Midnight Masala Art

An image painstakingly created by me using Adobe Photoshop.
As luck may have it, I did not have to work at all today as the servers were down. So I got ample time to doodle and its been quite a while since I've been itching to do some artwork. Today was my lucky day and what satisfaction!!
It involved a bit of image searching on google to get a cute cityscape at night with a happy moon, and another image of a lady happily cooking a healthy meal in a kitchen, and another one of a boiling pot with chicken legs in it. I had to of course do the merging in photoshop. All images had a watermark in front of it which I had to painstakingly remove (ha! those image sites actually think I would pay $20 for an image???) using various tricks. Then resizing the image to fit into a kitchen window, rotating, merging into background work was all done by me. I added the text on the empty billboard. Finally I drew those lovely wafts of smell of the wonderful masala emanating from my kitchen into the night.
Come to think of it I actually do cook in front of a window as my kitchen counter also faces the window. How lovely!

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Midnight Masala!

 Hi everybody! This will be my cooking blog which is something I'd like to keep for easy access of all the recipes that I have tried so far in my teenie meenie kitchen in Bangalore. Update: In April 2012, I have moved to Budd Lake, New Jersey. Its also for men who are learning to cook like my husband or even new spinsters starting to cook on their own, like my sister.

My taste in food is not set to a particular cuisine. Although I'm an Indian, I lived my entire childhood in Saudi Arabia, so my tastes are a mix of Indian, Middle-Eastern, Lebanese, Mediterranean, European and American. I also like Mexican and Chinese food. I just love trying something new and different.

So disclaimers first. Most of  the recipes are not my own. I get them through nerve racking research on the internet in quest of the most wonderful tastes that can also be cooked easily in my kitchen. So wherever possible, I will try to add credit to those wonderful cooks out there who keep me alive as I dont go hungry during the day because of them. :) I dont want to get into the nasty mess of recipe plagiarism which is very common these days some of which end in expensive lawsuits! Also I don't simply copy paste recipes from those sites and just make a duplicate. If  I post a recipe here, its because I have tried and tested it in my kitchen. I would add my own notes to it or make slight changes.

In some recipes I may add a twist of my own and in some, I may omit an ingredient either for the lack of it in my kitchen or my dislike for its flavour (which is rarely the case :P) These I would add as an extra note (My Note :))
Some of course are either mine or my mom's which I would usually mention in the recipe.
So why did I choose a name like latenightcook for my blog??
Well thats because I literally am a late night cook thanks to my unusual shift at work for which I leave home at 12.30pm and come back at 11.30pm. After a bit of rest, a long chat much to the annoyance of my hungry boyfriend (Update: now husband), I finally start cooking at... no prizes for guessing.. midnight!! So this is a name coined by my boyfriend as the smell of strong indian spices being fried in oil leaves us both coughing, and he coined this phrase during one of those moments. It used to be a very spicy show on sun tv (a tamil channel) that used to run late at night that has been banned now for songs from b grade movies.. lol! So when I wanted to start this blog, I had initially thought of naming it midnight masala but I had rightfully guessed that the name would have already been taken by some sick pervert to promote his voyeuristic pleasures.
Now I bet all you naughty people out there did take a peek at that disgusting blog after my mentioning it. Grrrr... So Late Night Cook it is!!
Now lets start this lip smacking delectable blog going!
Update: I am no longer a midnight cook. After I have moved to the United States, I am finally leading a normal life with a 9 to 5 job. That means, I can cook in the evenings, and have dinner (and all 3 meals) at a normal time just like the rest of the world. :)

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