Chocolate cookies

And with that, I'm back. Hopefully, for longer than just this one post. So yeah, a lot has happened in the last 4-6 months that we haven't done anything related to this blog. After a rather cheesy post (in retrospect) and several good wishes later, I have 4 months 19 days, 19 hours, 13 mins and 10 seconds to go as I write this line. My solitary cooking and eating habits have improved vastly thanks to some New Year resolutions. My resolution this year or at least for this semester is to cook at home and eat home cooked food only. I'm not eating any sugar or sugar substitutes (slowly cutting that down) and eating only brown rice/quinoa. I spent most of last year, from June, to be precise, eating only bulgur/couscous/quinoa with occasional rice indulgences. I don't quite regret it. I'm way fitter now and way stronger physically. However, I lost control a couple of times last year. Once, when I had Finals week breathing down my neck and cookies, random food and anything that made me happy and stuffed. Next, in December, I went to California for a cousin/sibling reunion. While I ate normally most of the time in LA/SFO, the last 4-5 days when we returned the car and did nothing but lie around watching TV, we lost it. In order to show sisterly love to our baby brother, we baked a lot. And ate a lot thanks to his emotional blackmail.

This cousin of mine stays an hour away from me. We didn't talk much to each other over the last so many years. Suddenly, we all seemed to bond on this mighty California trip. How, why and what happened is anyone's guess. While he likes to point out that we never spoke to him, I think I have the whole family nodding their heads in agreement when I say that he was a very quiet kid. It is also quite shocking these days for me to see kids like him and my youngest sister act like adults. Because they are adults now. I don't feel old or anything, but just that as this cousin of mine pointed out, I have become rather maami-like (like an aunt- very maternal; feminine version of avuncular, I suppose) So, anyway back to food. This kid loves food. I remembered all the times in my granny's house when we'd all stuff ourselves with food and eat dessert too. While some of us ate dessert much later or skipped it sometimes, he never did. He has a sweet tooth and everyone in the family knows that. My aunt, granny and my mum have been known to send sweets, bought or home-made through every other person who goes to Chennai. I remember the days we drove to my granny's house to pick up the 'bhakshanam' (snacks) and bought Chiroti from Subbamma's (an old store in Bangalore selling amazing snacks and delicacies. Sigh) for him.

So, when I came back from California, we started talking more. More emotional blackmail ensued from his side. And since he loves chocolate (and how!), I decided to bake him these. I saw them on Tastespotting and haven't stopped thinking about them ever since. I cut the recipe by half for the sake of good health and made them. While mine don't look like hers by any standards, I have to say that they were tasty. I didn't get the dark chocolate colour she got probably because of the difference in the kind of cocoa powder she used. I also cut down on the chocolate chips. My cousin may not be too happy about that!

All said and done, several of my friends on Twitter have been asking me to come back to blogging about food. And some of them ask for simple recipes, some just want to see pictures. I hope that this post is just the beginning and both A and I blog more regularly going forward. He is currently busy with his sister's wedding and I can't believe I'm missing the biggest event in my in laws' house after I got married. Calling them, hearing how much they miss me and all the noise behind makes me home sick. Terribly. But like someone pointed out to me on Facebook, this too shall pass and soon, I will be cooking and baking with A on my side (who'd have figured out a way to get that dark chocolate colour and wouldn't have skimped on ingredients!) I also don't have pictures for this post since my house is pretty dark thanks to the never-ending winter in Syracuse. I'm going to try to take pictures during the weekends to post with recipes going forward.

V, this one goes out in a mail to you on Monday. For Valentine's Day ;)