About Cooking and Me


Hi! I'm Manju Nair and welcome to my food space

A little about me:
Mommy to 6yr old Manav (Appu) and 1yr old Mihika (Mihi) and married to my best friend Manish. We also have a fun little pet bird, a cockateil named Spiky and we reside in the Queen city of Charlotte, North Carolina. 

I'm a south-Indian from the beautiful state of Kerala. I grew up in the Middle-East, Saudi Arabia and Dubai to be exact and love Mediterranean cuisine just as much as Indian. Manish and I love  dining out on weekends and trying new dishes and cuisines.

I have a full time job as a Quality Analyst with one of the major banks in Minnesota and in my spare time I cook, I blog, we eat and we hang out like a bunch of crazy happy kids. 
I love my family, enjoy walking and swimming, can literally watch cooking/baking shows all day and love to travel and try new cuisines! And yes, any new new 'blog-worthy' dish cooked by me will first get photographed before it can be eaten...Lol!

A little about my cooking and baking spree:


I have always appreciated good food and flavors. Cooking for Manish after our marriage gave me wings to try different dishes and I wanted a space where I could save the recipes that were successful and thus we started this blog in Oct 2011. Manish has helped me a great deal in setting up this blog  and is the co-editor of all my blog posts ;-)

My greatest gift is a collection of my mom's simple everyday recipes for everyday cooking which she wrote for me and gave me after our wedding. So I treasure her handwritten Keralite recipes and those are the staple dishes in my home. 
But I love to experiment with all kinds of dishes as long as the ingredients are easily available and suites my family's palette. Whatever you see here on the blog are dishes cooked by me ofcourse and I still have plenty more to share.

Manish is a very good critic and is not a fussy eater at all, so it really helps motivate me when I want to try something new or different. My son Manav is also appreciative of the dishes I make. He loves to help out in the kitchen and as his teachers say, 'he's a good eater' :-)



Apart from trying new dishes, I love baking! From savory goodies to sweet treats. Homemade breads, simple tea time snacks, cookies, layered cakes and still plenty more to experiment and I enjoy every minute of time spent in my kitchen baking.

But my favorite thing to do is decorating Cakes. I've always been an admirer of beautifully decorated cakes and when I got a chance to make a baby shower cake for a friend, I decided to think out of the box and did my first ever theme cake, a 'Baby Crib' shaped cake. That was my first ever theme cake and I have never looked back. 
I have since then baked and decorated for so many of my friend's special occasions be it birthdays, weddings, baby showers etc and even for my own family. Everyone encourages me whole heartedly and I love the look on the person's face when they see the cake! I haven't taken any formal training in Cake decorating but would love to attend some classes from some of the masters in this field.



I love to try different techniques in frosting like Fondant, Buttercream, Whipped Cream etc and also try different cake and frosting flavors. I want to try various techniques like sugar flowrers and figurines and so much more.

As far as my photography is concerned, I like to keep it simple. When we started this blog I used a regular point-n-shoot camera and after seeing my craze for taking pics of everything we eat, Manish decided to buy me a DSLR, a Cannon Rebel T3i. 
I keep my food styling simple mostly focusing on the main dish. I use my DSLR and sometimes my Iphone to shoot most of my pics that you see here on the blog. I take almost all of my pics in broad daylight. There's still a lot more to learn about the technicalities of photography but so far I'm quite happy with what I've learnt and shared here.

My recipes are simple and if I could cook the dishes shared here, then you can too. Hope you will enjoy the time spent here and cook along! Do share your thoughts and feedback.

For more information regarding any recipe on the blog, or if you have any food related questions please feel free to email me and I'll do my best to reply :-)

Email: manjuseatingdelights@gmail.com

Apart from the blog I am also active on social media and you can find and follow me on:
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Manjus-Eating-Delights-273157692772414/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/manju_nair/
Twitter : https://twitter.com/ManjusDelights
Pinterest : https://www.pinterest.com/manjumanish1/


-Manju

35 comments:

  1. Great job manjuseee!!!!!!!!!! keep up the spirit!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thakarppan aanallo manjoos...way to go...all support...but fill in my tummy next tym we meet..ok?

    ReplyDelete
  3. forgot to congratulate Manish Bhai for the super duper support :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ Vidya : thanks a lot dear. Keep visiting.
    @ Riks: yup will do :) n will convey ur congrats to Manish ..... Thank u da!

    Regards,
    Manju

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi there,

    I'd like to introduce to you a new website www.foodepix.com that we have
    just recently launched. Foodepix is a photo gallery of delicious and mouth
    watering food.

    We've seen your blog and we love your pictures and recipes. We would love
    to invite you to register with foodepix.com and upload your images.

    Hope to see you there. :)

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Jo: thank you so much for the info , I'll definitely check it out! Thanks a lot for the nice comments too :-)

    Regards,
    Manju

    ReplyDelete
  7. lovely manju - i love this post - can relate very well to what u have written...........happy to follow u :))

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Manju...........pls pick the Liebster award i have on my space for u :)

      Delete
    2. Hi Vidhya,

      Thank you so much for the award...I'll be happily collecting it! :-)

      -Manju

      Delete
  8. wonderful manju. thanks for making me aware of your wonderful blog.....

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice Profile...Good collection of foodies ... Yummies.. I will try in my kitchen :D

    Thanks for sharing your talent :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. @Susan and Abraham : Thanks a lot :-)
    @Srinath : Sure do try them and let me know if they came out well. Thank you so much :-)

    Regards,
    Manju

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice!! Loved going through your blog..will surely try some soon!

    shuchi
    s-lostinreverie.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Super blog & Great effort. Combine these posts and create a free e-book and give away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anoop : I'm still thinking about this...beautiful idea! Hopefully I'll get time to do this someday!

      Delete
  13. I was so happy when I saw that you have a Canon T3i. I just bought one myself this past summer (2012). How do you like it? :) I am trying desperately to learn how to use it to take full advantage of it's functions. I can see why your photos are so lovely. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, cool :-) Your pics are lovely and I've always admired it, not to mention the food you make, yumm yumm!! Hope you have fun learning to handle the camera, I'm still learning its various aspects. I just take a pic if it looks good to me...I'm bad with the technicalities :-)

      Delete
  14. Manju, I had send u a note. After that I been thru this part...ok and confirmed my doubt. Tell Manish, he is lucky to have a wife like u.... :) .... Telling u both that u owe the Aryans a great food party... Lol... Hope to meet u both sm day soon...would really wanna fill tummy wiz som delicious food....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hadn't replied here , coz we already spoke viz email...but just to add, I'm so happy you stopped by and gave me such lovely feedback ;-)
      Definitely hoping we'll meet some day and yes, you'll surely get to eat something that I cook up!! Take care.

      Delete
  15. Awesome presentations.I love all your recipies and photos.what's your secret behind this gr8 energy.......

    Happy to say I became a good fan of u.
    Good Luck
    love,
    Riya

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Riya,

      Thank you dear for the awesome feedback...I'm blushing here :-)
      There's no secret...just doing what I love!

      Delete
  16. Awesome ideas & neat presentations.I became a good fan of you.What's the secret behind your energy.Its amazing!!!!
    Good Luck:)
    Love
    Riya


    ReplyDelete
  17. hello manju nice to meet you here.. nice recipes collections, keep up the hardwork...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Abraham. Thanks a ot for stopping by. Love your bog as well.

      Delete
  18. Hii manju...nice recipe collection...nd u look very lovely...;) keep going...

    ReplyDelete
  19. I am a S/W professional who is away from family for an assignment.
    While searching for a chicken fry reciepe ,came across this site.
    Thank you so much for this effort and an incredibly simple reciepe.
    Helps part time bachelors like me. I will try this tonight.
    - Manoj

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hey Manju! Your blog is wonderful! What a fun resource for weekend cooking activities!
    It was great meeting you all tonight, sorry the rain cut us off so quickly. Hopefully we can get together soon so Manav, Lucy and Kai can play :)

    -Lindsay, Mark and Kai (8613)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Lindsay,
      So glad you stopped by the blog and very happy to meet you all today. Yes, we will definitely catch up soon.

      -Manju

      Delete
  21. Hi Manju... Nice meeting u..... U have a wonderful blog... I saw ur sons 2nd bday cake... It was awesome... I am ur follower... Will be glad if u follow me back..

    ReplyDelete
  22. HI, Manju ...Glad to meet u....Ur blog is amazing.... Can i share ur receipes with my relatives and friends... reply me soon!!!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Hi Manju, Superb blog. Like your style of presenting and the content itself.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Beautiful website, great recipes, wonderful pictures, lovely Manju.... so happy for you!!! xoxo

    ReplyDelete

Thank You so much for visiting here. I would love to hear from you , please leave a comment or suggestion and Hope to see you again !