Celebrating One Year of Posts At My Diverse Kitchen!

Guess what? My blog is celebrating its first birthday!
I am finding it difficult to believe that I have been blogging for a year now. I started this blog, exactly a year ago, with no particular plan in mind. For a long time, I had wanted to put together as many recipes as I could from our native Palakkad Iyer style of cooking which is what I mostly cook. And my husband and daughter (she especially) thought I ought to start a blog to share what I cooked in my kitchen. Thus My Diverse Kitchen was born.

It seems unbelievable now, but I didn’t have the faintest idea of what blogging involved. I just had a vague idea about posting some recipes and writing about food. And as far as the technical side of a blog and all things blogging, I didn’t even know that anything like this existed!

If anyone had mentioned terms like HTML and CSS, they would have caught me with my mouth open. I’m still a bit clueless, but I have become somewhat adept at identifying this stuff in my blog and doing the necessary “copy and paste” level of functioning to alter desired features on my blog.

I still remember the thrill and feeling of importance at seeing my first post on my screen, and the elation that someone had discovered my blog and left a comment. The first recipe post I wrote had a grand number of 2 comments, one from Shella and my reply to hers! And last week my blog got a two line claim to fame in the local newspaper. I have to say it felt very good.

Blogging has changed a few things in my life.
I have met (virtually, mostly) a lot of very nice people from across the world and can count on some of them as good friends. I have discovered and cooked a lot of food I might never have before. I have learnt about different styles of cooking and even discovered some vegetables  and foodstuff I never knew existed!

I can now bake some reasonably good bread though I’m far from being an expert. I have also figured out that it is very easy for one to put on weight because of food blogging!!
My camera has become as much a part of my kitchen as my pots and pans. My husband and daughter have got used to the idea of most of their food posing for the camera before reaching their plates!

Many blogs have been celebrating 2nd, 3rd and 4th blog anniversaries and I hope mine will too, some day. But a first birthday is always a bit more special and I think celebrations are in order here.
So I thought I'd celebrate with an event. (I can hear the groans and  “not another one”). I would much rather send you all a piece of cake, but given that this is next to impossible, the only other thing I can think of is an event.

What’s better than celebrating with something sweet? So join me in celebrating at My Diverse Kitchen.
What would you make to serve at an anniversary celebration? Something sinfully delicious? Something sweet for sure and most definitely special. So that’s what I want you to send me for this event.

Now, no birthday celebration is complete without a gift.
So send me your most delicious celebratory fare and my family and some friends will pick out the one out all the entries, which they feel deserves a gift.
While entries are welcome from all over the world, only entries from India, the U.S. or Canada would be eligible for the gift. I am sorry but this is because of my difficulty in dispatching it to other parts of the world.
I would like to announce, after making enquiries, that all entries would be eligible for the gift I promised. I would be happy to ship this to the winner, wherever she/ he lives.

And the gift? Well, that’s going to be a surprise till the round-up. I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun by opening the gift before the party.
But I’ll be nice and give you a clue. It has something to do with food. ;-D

So get creative make, cook or bake something, post it on your blog between today and the 30th of November, 2008 and please link back to this post.
Then e-mail me at mdk[DOT]aparna[AT]gmail[DOT]com with the following details. Please note the e-mail id is not my usual one.

Your name:


Your location:


The name of your blog:


The name of your sweet/ dessert:


The link/ url to your post:


And a 300 pixel wide picture of your dish (if possible).

If you do not receive an acknowledgement of your mail within 3 days of sending it in (unless I am away), please leave a comment at this post and I will get back to you.
This request is especially for all those silent readers of my blog. If you do not have a blog and would like to participate you are most welcome. In fact, I hope you will join me in these celebrations.

Just send me an e-mail with your recipe and write-up and a picture (if possible) and I would be happy to post it for you.

Please note that the last date for submission is the 30th November, 2008. I will announce the prize and the winner within the following week. Looking forward to your participation.