In The Beginning

So this whole blogging venture is pretty new for me, but it is born out of necessity. You see, I was having lunch last week with some friends when the conversation turned to cooking (and my ability in that regard). My dear friend, Jim S., looked so shocked when he heard that I cook more than just cereal and grilled cheese sandwiches, and he was absolutely amazed that I cook Indian food! To his credit, when Jim and I first met I was a recent college grad and didn't really consider cooking to be up there on my "things to do before I die" list. Almost 20 years have passed since then, however, and the internet and many recipe books have been good to me. I figured that maybe if I blog about my cooking endeavors, my friends just might believe that I am not "ordering in" when I have them over for dinner! Voila, Henna Cooks!

I was born in India and, although I grew up in the USA, my mother always made us sensationally flavorful Indian food. After I got married and moved across the country, I decided it was time to try entering the kitchen. Those truly were the days of elaborate dishes like Mac n' Cheese and PB&J sandwiches for dinner, which led to many calls to mom in hopes of impressing my new husband. Unfortunately, like most Indian moms, my mother's idea of a recipe is "a pinch of this and a handful of that."

For the first few years, my tireless efforts in the kitchen were usually harmless science experiments - nothing a little pepto couldn't cure. After much trial and error, however, things started to become edible, and people even started asking for recipes! So here I am hoping to post some tried and true Indian vegetarian recipes with actual measurements for others to benefit from. The ingredients are readily available in your local Indian grocery store, and maybe even in your local supermarket or Whole Foods.

Enjoy and please do let me know if you have any comments (especially the good kind)! :)

Here's to your appetite!

Henna