with Mary Anne Mohanraj
I don’t have a good version of this tea towel on hand yet (this one I photographed has an error on it), but Spoonflower has the corrected version available for sale in my shop.
I love how the design came out. (Motifs by Kavya.) It features a very old Tang Dynasty poem; this is a perfect autumn gift for a far-away friend, I think.
The tea towel (pattern of your choice) + homemade curry powder is a better deal than either alone, at $28. 
This is a great option if you’ve already picked up a copy of my cookbook, for you or a friend, and now you want another present (moar presents for all!), but I don’t have another cookbook out yet, alas…
Thankfully, everyone needs tea towels and curry powder, right?
(Coming soon in the Serendib Kitchen shop.)
Holiday sale package photo — coming soon in the Serendib shop. This one is:
– Pumpkin Curry tea towel (plant motifs by Kavya Whyte)
($55 + shipping)
Stephanie Bailey asked me for holiday package photos, so you’ll see some of those popping up today. This is the trade paperback cookbook + homemade curry powder combo.
Just pretty. Ground pistachio, about to be folded into Pooja Makhijani’s lovely cardamom cake.
Here’s the Wisconsin live radio segment from earlier today!
Recipes From Sri Lanka
Cooking traditional foods connects us to our roots. We talk to the author of a cookbook that celebrates her Sri Lankan heritage.
I spent a little time this morning putting together possibilities for individual treat boxes for sale. I don’t know yet if I’ll be able to offer these — I’m going to wait until the end of November, to be sure I have enough time to fulfill all the Patreon orders, and also to closer to the end of the semester.
But if you think you might want to order a treat box for yourself or a gift, I think these will be $25 within the U.S. (Sorry, international folks! Someday I hope to scale up to be able to offer this sort of thing internationally. I have to figure out food regulations, plus international shipping is brutal.)
Locals doing porch pick-up, they’ll be $17.
Check back Dec 1 if interested. Quantities will be very limited, esp. if you want Christmas delivery!
*****
– a few homemade marshmallows (flavors to be finalized in the next few days)
– a few homemade marshmallows (flavors to be finalized in the next few days)
I didn’t make this in time for Diwali (had to wait for my new 5-cup bundt pan to arrive), but had a lot of fun making (and eating) it tonight. Pooja Makhijani’s celebration rose, cardamom, and pistachio cake for King Arthur Flour’s site, absolutely perfect with a cup of chai at teatime (or in my case tonight, right before bed). Thanks, Pooja!
(If you don’t have a 5-cup bundt pan, and don’t want an excuse to buy one, she notes that this fits nicely in a loaf pan.)
Okay, here’s a cooking question. I was buying some Bakto extracts, and they had smoke extract, and I have this dragon theme going for my Patreon treat boxes, so I HAD to get some smoke extract, right?
But now I realize I have no idea how to use it. I’ve used liquid smoke in a curry, but I don’t think this is the same thing. I suspect people mostly use it for barbecue?
I smelled it, and it smells nice and interesting. I tasted a bit, and the extract is VERY strong, so it’s honestly a little hard to get a real sense of the flavor that way.
What I actually want to do is put it in a sweet of some kind — a marshmallow or cookie or truffle. Thoughts? Is this going to be interesting, or a disaster? I haven’t found any recipes online using it.
You know what feels really great? When you imagine a thing, and you make it, and it actually comes out the way you intended. I LOVE how this pumpkin curry tea towel came out! Kavi did the pumpkin and vines and leaf; I did the recipe and overall design. I tried to pick a cheerful, slightly child-like font that was similar to Kavi’s handwriting, which is neat and rounded.
Sri Lankan peeps, I feel like this would be a nice gift for Amma, don’t you think? If you have a cooking Amma, that is.
I had thought it wouldn’t be affordable for me to sell tea towels in my own shop, with shipping multiple directions, etc., but it turns out that Spoonflower has a fill-a-yard option that works really well. I can fit 4 tea towels on a yard of fabric, which brings the per unit cost down considerably. So if you’re sewing yourself, this is a great thing to know about, and if you don’t sew, I can actually sell them.
They’re still not cheap, I’m afraid — I need to price them at $24 each to make it worthwhile. But you get a significant discount on them if you get them as part of a Patreon treat box (sign up by November 30th for the December boxes). (http://patreon.com/mohanraj)
I think we can offer some package options too, since that saves us on the shipping cost part — I’m thinking:
• Feast hardcover + 2 tea towels + curry powder ($85)
Is it confusing, having so many options to choose from? I felt like more would be good, but maybe not…?
