Welcome home everyone!

The blog is all about preserving and sharing family recipes, celebrating my family heritage, and keeping the traditions alive for future generations in our family!

Hi everyone, my name is Manika! I was born in Jaipur, India and moved to the states when I was in fourth grade! I remember the first meal I had after moving here, sitting on the kitchen floor, eating Poha (flat rice cooked in spices). It was as if nothing changed, but everything had changed! It was important to my mom (maa for short) to continue living her life true to family traditions, eating indian food, yet also adapting to life in a new country. 

After undergrad, I moved to Knoxville, Tennessee for work. I remember my mom packed me a masaldani (spice box) and I wasn’t sure when or if I’d ever use it. (It’s very typical of Indian mothers to pack all the spices and give it to their children in the hopes of cooking what they cook).

As a tech consultant, my role allows me to travel to various big cities/extremely remote towns and explore many restaurants, or the classic work from home (WFH) and enjoy maa’s meals!I live with my parents now and help my maa prepare dinner occasionally. She learned to cook watching her moms and I thought what better time for me to learn from my mom than now! This made me realize, I need to preserve family recipes so when I have a family of my own I can share the same food I grew up with with my kids. And so, I started writing and capturing recipes as maa, dadi (grandma), and nani (also grandma) would teach me.

All the recipes are from our family gatherings or day to day meals!