The year 2013- A snapshot

Divine Spice Box wishes its readers a Happy New year everyone !! Eat a cake or jalebi and make merry !! May the new year brings love and warmth to our hearts with shiny hopes, beautiful bright mornings and gorgeous star studded nights 🙂

The year 2013 has been one amazing roller coaster ride for me. The year kicked off on a beautiful start with my landing in Montreal, Canada on the first day of 2013. For a person who has never seen snow before, Montreal was a wonder land dusted with mystic white snow. The initial couple of weeks just passed by in admiration of nature’s beauty bestowed in this new land for me. Canada is obviously a very different country from my native India and i had lots to observe and imbibe. It was only after 3 months that i realized that i was not on a vacation but Canada was now my new home and it had some amazing opportunities, waiting to be tapped into by me.

I have been on a cooking spree since January 2013. I never realized i had such passion for cooking and creating gastronomical experiences. I knew i liked cooking and sharing a meal together with family and friends has always been my ideal way to celebrations and festivities. But it was only occasionally that i would get fascinated with some interesting recipe on the internet which i would try recreate in my mother’s kitchen. Post wedding Dec 2012, cooking has become a part of my daily routine and i found solace in cooking for my husband. My husband is a foodie at heart and loves to experiment with new cuisines. It is his food enthusiasm that infused passion into my cooking and motivated me to start my food blog “Divine Spice Box” in May 2013.

So, here the food blog story starts … With no idea about blogging or recipe creations, i actually just jumped into this endevour one fine day ! It took me about 2 weeks to understand how blogging works and how one manages food content posts. I would say 8 months of blogging and over 60 recipes down, i am a new person now. I am a total believer now that food is a perfect way to connect with your inner self. It works like magic for me ! Be it hot and dry summers, wet and podgy spring or extreme cold and dull winters, food keeps my soul warm and my spirits forever high and throbbing with energy 🙂

Divine Spice Box has had many great experiences .The blog has recipes from various international cuisines and readers specially seem to like the “fusion food” section where i try and create experimental cooking recipes. DSB conducted its first Indian culinary workshop “Hot Delhi” on Nov 5, 2013 and it was an amazing experience. DSB was also featured in a Florida based magazine “Ocala Style” in their November issue. November was truly blissful 🙂

“Hot Delhi” was my first experience of conducting a culinary class. It was thrilling and awesome to be sharing my Indian cooking skills with montrealers. I had been looking for a break like this for a few months and I got lucky when i met Tania, a graphic designer and now a dear friend in a design workshop sometime in June. As we exchanged thoughts about a design problem we were working on, we gathered that both of us had the passion for Culinary arts. Tania is running a blog “Moitié-Moitié” which contains a series of culinary activities to gather Quebecers and Newcomers from different cultures to enable them to share their food experiences. We connected well and decided to conduct a Indian cooking workshop.

For the workshop, we kept the recipes simple and basic : Vegetarian Shahi Pulao (recipe here), Cucumber Raita, Mint-Coriander Chutney and Potato-Onion Bhaaji/ Pakoras. For the appetizers, we served Mango Lassi, Namak Paras (Indian savory snack) and Indian Masala Chai Latte. Sounds yum.. right?? The participants went gaga over the Masala Chai – Pakoras and Chutney combination and we had almost everyone coming back for seconds. The event was a hit ! The response was good and more workshops are lined up for 2014.. So if anyone of you is around, be a part of the upcoming events. I would love to share time and energy with you in creating some mouth watering delicacies from various parts of India !!

The next wonder came when i got a surprise mail one morning from the editor of “Ocala Style” showing me interest in publishing one of my recipes in her magazine’s November issue. It was a delightful little mail and i jumped with happiness. If anyone missed my section “featured here”, the recipe can be found here

2013 was an amazing journey for me and i had a great time cooking to my heart’s content. I am now completely and truly hooked to my new passion for vegetarian treats. I would like to thank all my friends and family who encouraged me to pursue this journey and motivated me to start the blog.

Let say cheers to the year 2013 and hope that 2014 will be better, brighter and tastier !!