Come November, and I get bitten by the cooking bug! Suddenly I feel this insane need to slice and dice, sauté and simmer, grill and bake and (if things go horribly wrong) singe my eyebrows and turn the kitchen into a disaster-struck area!!
Thanksgiving.....the perfect time to get the ball rolling. I know it isn’t a part of the great Indian festive parade, but I like the concept of loud, noisy families coming together over a table creaking under the weight of a magnificent turkey, meltingly smooth mashed potatoes, ruby-red cranberry sauce and the wonderful assortment of pumpkin pies, cakes and other such finger-lickin’ goodies!!
Since I didn’t feel upto the task of tracking down the elusive turkey…I settled for the ubiquitous, ever faithful chicken.
My menu for the day:
~ Ham 'n' Cheese Stromboli
~ Apricot-Glazed Roast Chicken
~ Savory Bread Pudding with Mushrooms and Parmesan cheese
~ Green Leaf Lettuce, Pomegranate and Almond Salad
~ Warm Pumpkin Cake
After making an absolute nuisance of myself and speeding up my mum's aging process, I managed to whip up a pretty decent fare. I wish I could say the same for my photography skills!!
Browsing through the eye-catching and aesthically stunning visuals on Epicurious and Yahoo! Food left me with the grave misconception that I could achieve their lofty standards.
Needless to say.....I should be relegated to the big, black hole where all misguided wannabe photographers go after their pitiful attempts to "capture the moment"!!!
The entire clan is left twiddling their thumbs while I click a dozen odd snaps. The crisp lettuce is fast turning limp and the chicken looks up at me dolefully.....as if to say "Why god! Why me!?!!". My ex-photographer of an uncle shakes his head in supressed mirth and asks me whether I want the chicken to get into a hot-pink bikini and pout seductively for the camera. H-UH!!
That's family for you!!!
Photo-Session over, it’s time to dig in…no holds barred! And everyone does so……with gusto and scant regard for etiquette and patience. But as long as everyone is enjoying themselves……I feel GO-OD!!
This was the first session of the Culinary Chronicles. More...many more to come. Heralding in the New Year will be the new, improved....butter-ball version of yours truly!!! 
Just when I was retreating into one of my “don’t-touch-me-with-a-barge-pole”moods….along comes my favourite man Jamie Oliver and his sun-dappled show Jamie at Home. The product for the day was “Pastry” and after pummeling up two blocks of shortcrust pastry (one sweet and the other savoury)…he whipped up a fragrant Apple-Pie. Huge wedges of crisp apples, blackberries that oozed a gorgeous red tint and the surprise addition of stem ginger….all happily ensconced in the short-crust pastry….*bliss*. 
