The day on which it is traditionally eaten is commonly known as the Laba Festival. The earliest form of this dish was cooked with red beans and has since developed into many different kinds. It is mainly made up of many kinds of rice, beans, peanuts, dried fruit, lotus seeds.
In the Han Dynasty, during the Laba Festival, people did not consume Laba congee as it was used for worship the gods. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, the date of the Laba Festival was fixed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. In the Song Dynasty, Laba congee was widely consumed throughout China by not only the common people, but also government officials and aristocrats. In the Qing Dynasty, the Laba Festival was sometimes celebrated as the "Spring Festival", and Laba congee became even more popular. In the imperial court, the emperor and nobles gave Laba congee to the officials, servants, and others.

In our home, we love to build bean bowls served in a hand glazed pottery bowl. Start with picking a grain such as quinoa or rice and add a half-cup of cooked or canned beans of your choice, toss some leafy greens on, add sautéed onions, shredded carrot, avocado and mushrooms, then top with feta cheese and pumpkin seeds. Next add your choice of seasonings and dressing such as fresh lemon vinaigrette, balsamic vinegar, ginger miso or chipotle ranch, and dive in! Try out different toppings and combinations each time for new fun flavors. We never tire of these bowls!
-Cool Beans Contest

My favourite things to nibble at Christmastime, you ask? Abundant cheese boards|cheese balls|cheese cookies; spicy, bold chutneys|mustards|dips; crisp, salty crackers; garlicky, herbalicious mashed potatoes|Brussels sprouts|stuffing; any classic casserole laden with canned soup and crusted in crunchy breakfast cereal.....I LOVE SAVOURY, you dig? So, when it comes to my go-to snack for Christmas cocktail hour, nuts and bolts mix rules supreme. Toasty, crunchy, buttery....alive with the dark, mysterious Worcestershire flavour bomb and hot pepper twang of Tabasco.....and nostalgic with old school spices (garlic/onion powder, celery salt), typically sourced from jars that have been in the cupboard since the 1980s. Sit me in front of a fire, put a glass of wine in my hand and give me a bowl of this, you may never get rid of me.

Global cuisine

A simple Moroccan vegetable tagine

Lahpet or pickled tea is the most iconic of Burmese foods and unique to the country. It’s eaten in two main ways – as a-hlu lahpet, where the ingredients are served in a beautiful, divided lacquerware dish (aka Mandalay lahpet), and as a salad known as lahpet thoke (aka as Yangon lahpet).Eat as a snack, as a palate-cleanser at the end of a meal or with rice.

Recipe kindly supplied by MiMi Aye, author of Mandalay: Recipes and Tales from a Burmese Kitchen.

Global Cuisine Design Challenge (although I've had this idea since the food memories challenge - of preparing food with my mum and auntie in a loving but organised chaos kitchen)

A family favorite for the holidays—or for any time—as a flavorful and festive accompaniment to turkey or beef. Cranberries, oranges, apples, and nuts combine for a satisfying salad or relish.

Kanda Poha is a typical breakfast from state of Maharashtra made with flattened rice.
Flattened rice is also known as beaten rice. If you ever get a chance to visit Mumbai,
you will find this dish in each and every restaurant for breakfast or evening snack.
Indians love this dish and it is also served as an easy evening snack.
Kanda in Marathi simply means onions or veggies.
This breakfast dish has onions but I love to add other vegetables too.
So, sharing the recipe for Kanda Poha today.
It is an easy peasy breakfast option and healthy too with all fresh vegetables.

I remember making these with my kids for various members of our family as inexpensive Christmas gifts. As the jar is filled with pre-measured dry ingredients for cookies, all the recipient has to do is add the wet ingredients and bake.

Other versions could include muffins in a jar or hot chocolate in a jar. You can use any spare jar and make it look pretty with extra ribbon, tags and ornaments.

A decadent and rich chocolatey goodness that’s easy to make. With only 5 steps and 6 ingredients it’s been my go to recipe on those cold winter nights I crave chocolate!!

Christmas pudding is a type of pudding traditionally served as part of the Christmas dinner.

For the Global cuisine challenge.

This is a tasty savory persimmon salad that I often make for fall and winter gatherings. It's yummy! Serve it as is or over a bed of mixed salad greens.

I found this recipe along with sketches in my archives recently and I wanted to update it with a new color palette.

I love the peanut butter so much that I decided to make a healthier version, as tasty as the normal one.
I love the natural flavors of the food without oils, sugar and added dressing and this simple recipe was a discovery for me.
Peanuts, like all the trail mix, have their own natural oil and it doesn't need to add anything to get a creamy and delicious result :)
And if that's not enough, the greediest palates can always add a little maple syrup and a pinch of salt... et voilà, a creamy appetite to everybody!

Favourite Memory: Diwali is almost around the corner so I would like to share once of the recipes that my mother made during this festival. Ofcourse there where so many other dishes that were made around this time of the year but Rasmalai would always be me and my brothers favourite treat. During Diwali we all used to cook as a family, everyone had a task to do and then by the time we were done there was a pleasure in enjoying the food that we made (as kids we thought we made everything but of course that wasn’t true haha) we made so many kinds of desserts, snacks and food items it’s crazy to think how we pulled that.