Free-spirit Bloggers

Free-spirit Bloggers? Errrrr…Who? What? Where?

Allow me to bring you on the same page. Let me start by saying that I was feeling a tad tied down and slackened by a lot of things going on around me, and needed something to perk me up. Did I just hear you say “What better way to get perked up, than cooking up a storm in the kitchen?” Aye aye Cap’n! But then, the last couple of months have seen me doing just mundane cooking. Just like a programmed robot – No storms. No excitement. No fervour. Nothing. Added to this, even the poor oven is rusty and pulling a face at me. I was raring for something that would excite, thrill and be a whole lot more serious fun in the kitchen. Well let me admit, for a long time now I’ve been racking my brains about a series of blogger events that would be ‘something totally different’. Something that would awaken the adventurous side in us, and also give us that exciting punch; you know – experiment, learn new stuff, try some challenging dishes/bakes and so much more.

After a lot of brainstorming, I came up with ‘Free-spirit Bloggers’ and wrote to seven of my all-time-favourite blogger buddies about the idea. I must admit that I was tickled pink when all of them accepted. Top of the wish-list granted, yayyyyy! (You’ll know who they are in a while. No, don’t scroll down. Developing a little patience would do you some good).

So you’re still wondering how FSB works? For starts, Free-spirit Bloggers is a closed-group of 8 bloggers. Every month, the FSB group will pick a theme and share eight appropriate tongue-ticking recipes with you by the month-end. Be it dishes/bakes, we’re all going to be sharing different recipes each but we will still be sticking to the central premise of the theme that month. Let me give you examples of the kind of exciting themes you can look forward to in the coming months – We each pick a personal favourite Chef and cook a signature dish of his/her’s. We each share a family heirloom recipe. We each choose a personal vice and create a dish/bake based on it (How about a slow-cooker dish from the lazy-bum? Or an eye-popping chocolate treat from the sinner?!!). You get the drift? It IS different. The themes chosen will just act as a guide and not suffocate those creative juices. It also gives each blogger the flexibility to cook/bake according to their personal choice, style and palette so every month, we churn out a potpourri of veritable recipes for you guys to devour from. Sounds like fun? Each of us is working towards putting our best food forward for you guys every month, and I sure as shooting hope that you will all enjoy these bursts of ‘free-spirit’, blog-readers and bloggers alike. All of us on FSB are thrilled to bits, and we hope that you will encourage and motivate us like you always have. Who knows, if we get a good response from y’all out there, we could even maybe start taking ideas from you guys for our themes…somewhat like recipe requests, with a twist.

This is the logo I designed for us. Do you like it? If you’re a good observer, you’d have already seen the FSB badge I’m sporting on the blog. Did it get you all curious? Aaah, see…that’s exactly why I put it on up there. And yes, that’s eight hands on the logo/badge to represent the eight of us enthu-cutlets who are in this together. +1 brownie point if you got that right. Collect 5 brownie points and drop by my place; I’ll treat you to a an extra-large portion of some freshly baked warm brownies. (About how you can collect the remaining 4 points, I’ll tell you later).

OK, by now you must be dying to know who’s with me in this? The FSB group is a mixed bag of super super senior, super senior, senior and junior bloggers replete of the newest blogger on the block. How cool is that? Put your hands together for the drum-roll, as I present to thee – The ‘Free-spirit Bloggers’. Well in all honesty, the bloggers joining me in this jaunt need no introduction at all. Let me still give you a small round of introductions of the group all the same. Here we go –

• Anupama Gobalan – She has magic in her fingers. I’m a big fan, and for all the obvious reasons. What tops the list? Without doubt – her wit and humour. Her creativity in the kitchen and how she exuberates her cheery warmth in all her posts come next. I could go on, but I’ll save the remainder of the list for another day.
• Deepti Pawar – Chuddie-buddie and now one of my fave BFFs. A great experimental cook herself, she has always backed me up for the all the craziest of ideas, and now even for FSB. What would I do without you girl, for all that motivation?
• Dhivya Karthik aka DK – This is one woman who needs absolutely no introduction at all. She is going places and that’s enough said. If you haven’t heard of her or her fantabulous site, maybe it’s time for you to go jump off the cliff.
• Lata Raja – The charming ‘Lataji’ as she’s fondly called in blogosphere, is too sweet to be true. Her enthusiasm and energy will put even a teenager to shame. One of the warmest persons I’ve known, I love her for her never-say-die attitude.
• Madhuri Kumar – I. Me. Myself. Need I say more? 😉
• Mridhu Mohan aka Mittu – Newest blogger on the block, she is all set to woo your taste-buds on her shiny new blog – ‘Slurp, Chomp, Yumm!’. Watch out for this chirpy, petite pataka packed with all that infectious energy. Ka-boom!
• Nagalakshmi Viswanathan aka Nags – Super super senior blogger. Sweet. Charming. Ever- enthused. Enormously jolly and witty, both on the blog and in (e-)person. Yet another pro blogger you cannot have missed.
• Siri Pulipaka – She’s a real sweetheart. Bubbly. Homey. DK’s BFF. And psst…she’s relocating to Bangalore next month.  I cannot wait to catch some live action from her kitchen soon. You guys will have to continue to be content with just her yummy pictures though.

There, I’ve spilled the beans so now what? Well, there’s some good news and there’s some bad news. The good news is that I’ve spilled the beans. The bad news is that you’ve gotta hold your horses for one more day to check out our first experiment. It’s the first from a series called ‘Baking Labs’ and no, I’m not saying another word ‘cos I’d be giving away the whole element of surprise. My lips are sealed. Real tight. Come back tomorrow, and I promise that we’ll have you eating out of our hands. Until then, toodles and truck loads of gastronomy wishes.

Luv,