Ina Garten's Grapefruit Yogurt cake with a twist

Hey everyone,

To most cooks and bakers, Ina Garten is the queen. Her food is ridiculously amazing and she always puts forth the most delectable, flavorful, and beautiful dishes. She is a person I look up to (apart from Julia Child of course) and so when Thanksgiving came around, I wanted to do something different and unique and so I turned to Smitten Kitchen's adaptation of Ina's recipe for a Grapefruit Yogurt cake. 

5-year anniversary: Paleo Pancakes with Strawberry Compote sauce

I am amazed to say that five years have passed since I first began this blog. What first began as a curiosity now has become a passion. Baking and cooking has allowed me to be creative with flavors but through the process of learning and feeding people, I have developed many friendships and I have enjoyed every moment of this.

This is one of my to-go pancake recipes which I highly recommend trying. These are Paleo pancakes in that they tend to be more heavy on the protein and less carbohydrates (akin to what is thought to have been the diet in our primitive ancestors). That being said, they were no less delicious than any other pancake - and I found them to be quite filling.

Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies

So I happened to find this post sitting in my drafts! Way back from the holidays - I miss those good times so with the TBT (or throwback thursday) trends, here is a throwback you can do any day! No need for it to be the holidays!

Cast Iron Skillet Chocolate-rich Chocolate chip Cookie (Triple C)

The minutes start to blend into the hours into the days into the months. That is how my life has gone by so quickly over the past six months. First it was my Surgery, then my Medicine, and finally my obstetrics and gynecology rotation. I am happy that I was able to learn a lot, help and care for my patients, and give back.

At the same time, trust me, I am happy that I finally get two weeks off from this hectic schedule I call third year medical school. I intend to use them to watch TV, eat, sleep, bake and repeat.

It was around this time I got a wonderful gift in the form of a 6 inch cast iron skillet pan and I was overjoyed because there is a baked good I have been meaning to make for ages. The gigantic skillet cookie and that's what I did today.

The recipe is simple - it's like any other cookie dough recipe that you would use but instead of many small cookies, you make one gigantic one. I modified the recipe from Bake or Break - a wonderful site with lovely recipes with a few modifications:

1) I replaced a 1/4 cup of flour with baking unsweetened cocoa.
2) I cut the sugar by half
3) I added a shit load of chocolate chips - how can you go wrong?

Everything else was identical to the recipe there.

Easy as pie - or cookie - dump ingredients into the mixing bowl

The dough comes together in a snap

Press the dough in and top it with more chocolate chips

Stare at this gorgeousness that is the cookie :-)

Enjoy this delicious cookie with some mmm... ice-cream. I used vanilla!

This is wonderful to share with your family or with yourself, but since it's the holidays, you probably should be nice (just this time.)

Happy Holidays,

Kartik

Incoming....

Hello fellow bakers,
So what have I been up to you ask? Well medical school kind of took over my life. Not surprisingly. But I still managed to keep on baking. It was my stress relief. It was my love. It was my peace. It was my happiness. And it was my little business :-)

How is that you ask? Well I managed to convince my med school classmates to start purchasing the baked goods and so far I'm proud to say I've sold more than 500!!

500!! Thats a lot of cookies. So I'll start posting recipes soon, but here's a little preview...

See you very very very soon.
Kartik

Red Wine Chocolate Cake

Happy New Year everyone!

It's been a while since I last posted. But you know, medical school, life, studying, and more studying seemed to keep creeping up on me.

I'll keep this short since I'm in the middle of watching Homeland - I love this show! - in the little break that I have.

This is a great recipe especially when you've got left-over red wine lying around. Come on now! You know that moment where you have a tiny bit in the bottle left and you're wondering, is it worth keeping it? It's a day old, what should I do? I know those questions have been running through your mind.

Well, have no fear. Here's an easy recipe to use that leftover wine. I also see no reason you can't use white wine, but use a wine that you are willing to drink. Don't use cooking wines that are terrible. Trust me, that's a bad idea.

I just ended up following the recipe from Smitten Kitchen - my to-go recipe site and it's really easy.

Plus, if you don't like wine or don't drink alcohol, no fears. There's also a simple chocolate cake recipe on the site as well.

Here's a picture with how easy it is:

What are you waiting for? Now's the best time to make it. Surely, you've got a lot of left-over wine to use.

Kartik

Love thyself first!

I'm sure that everyone has gone through break-ups or difficult relationships in their lives. I know I've had my share.

I'm not here to give relationship advice in anyway, nor do my views represent anyone else's but my own, but from my personal experience, our first reaction is to go down an emotional spiral that never seems to end and goes towards paranoia. What starts as self-doubt eventually leads you to start questioning all of your decisions and attacking your own character, integrity, and self-worth.


I tend to put a lot of effort and energy into our relationships because I care about the other person, but that's exactly the problem in my case. I put so much energy into people I care for prematurely that when the person leaves, an emotional void is created that is draining and filled with nothing but self-doubt and unhappiness. I feel drained; I feel angry; I feel sad; I feel hatred; I feel depressed and that destroys me a little at a time.

That happens every time I encounter difficulties in a relationship. I accept that it will take some time and it gets a little easier each time, but the one thing I have learned is that every time I bounce back stronger, it begins when I start loving myself.

Not that I'm saying that eating is the solution to loving yourself (although a cup of icecream might be the way to start), but doing hobbies and activities that you love to do, you begin to realize what an amazing person you are. You are talented, joyful, happy, and complete.

That's exactly what a relationship should be like. Your partner or significant other enriches your life but you don't need him or her to live it. You should not change yourself and you shouldn't force your significant other to do something they are not comfortable with either. You do what's best for you and live your life.

I admit that I still have a long way to go. I struggle everyday with myself questioning what went wrong. That's important because you can only learn from your mistakes. As my close friend told me "a relationship is like putting a mirror to yourself." You see the bad, but remember that there is a lot of good and most of it is good.

For me, the way to love myself is to start doing my fitness classes again, such as Zumba, biking, spending time with closest friends, family, and baking.

In the meantime, please keep on loving, learning, and living.

Thank you for letting me venting my feelings through this blog.
Kartik

(Again, I'm not here to give relationship advice in anyway, nor do my views represent anyone else's but my own.)