A few days back, fellow blogger Sharanya (+Shey divine) honoured me by nominating my blog for the Liebster Award.I felt pretty happy about it, getting an award right at the beginning of the year what can be a better start to a New year? It feels great to know people are reading and enjoying my ramblings and recipes.And do not forget to check out the awesome cake recipes she has on her blog - Just not the cakes.

Just like you I was curious to know more about this award as I had heard a lot of people getting it. Liebster is a German word meaning sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.Pretty Neat isn't it? A warm way to share a little of the blog love around to those new to the blogsphere.By this little gesture one gets to discover so many nice and exciting blogs.

Rules for the nominees:

1.Blog about the award on your blogspace
2. Copy paste the badge and mention about the person who nominated you
3.Nominate 5-10 blogs that you enjoy to pass on the award who have less than 200 followers.
4.Inform the nominees about the award by leaving a comment on their blog
5.Answer the questions posted by the person who nominated you
6.Create 11 questions for the nominees

The questions Sharanya wanted me to answer:

1.Before and after blogging , what changed your life ?
 Writing, Food, Photography – all three had been my love all through these years. Before I started my own blog, I used to write stories, articles etc. on certain webpages. But I always felt that I was not able to connect with more people. Curries & Stories was started as an experiment, where I could write about stuffs I wanted to. Also wanted to uphold some of our very traditional recipes which might get lost in time as people now a days preferred readymade foods to cooking a meal themselves. Once I started actively blogging here I found that there were so many people who actually read what I wrote and even appreciated it. Now 1.5 years later I have met so many new bloggers, made beautiful friends, learnt new things about culture and food, that I feel it has been quite an enriching experience so far. I would have definitely missed out so much had I not started this blog. 

2. When and what motivated you to blog ?
It was kind of self-motivated. I wanted to write about everything that interested me and reach out to people, hear what they have to say about it, etc hence started my own blog.
3. Who chose the name of your blog ? and why ?
I chose the name myself. The blog was going to be about food, travel, photography and my random ramblings. I knew there was going to be a lot of stories behind every curry, hence the name J
4.What is the best and favorite recipe you have posted so far ?
Mutton Rogan Josh… has been one of my favs so far. I really love red meat and this recipe turned out rather well than I had expected.

5. How often you post recipes in your blog ?
I really wish I could post at least one recipe per week but unfortunately it all depends on the spare time I manage to squeeze out of the workload. On an average its about 3-4 recipes/ month
6. Who is your role model ?
My mother has always been the ideal person for me in everything

7.What are your favorite spices ?
Radhuni (Celery Seeds), Jeera (Cumin) – they are very versatile and can be used for seasoning most of the daily dishes prepared at home.

8.What is the most popular recipe / post in you blog ?
Mutton Rogan Josh once again

9. If you were asked to bake which of this will you choose  Chocolate Cake / Focaccia / Pizza / Strawberry Swiss Roll ?Chocolate cake but of course!

10. Who Clicks and edits the photographs for your blog ? and what is your favorite font ?
I do all the hard work here, running about with the camera throughout the length of preparing any dish and becoming the butt of ridicule of anyone who sees me like that! And after that sitting the editing the pics as I create the post.

I like the fonts Garton & Josephin Sans.

And now drum roll please! Here are the nominees:

+Radha Natarajan of Your Everyday Cook

+Pavani N  of Cook's Hideout

+Happys Cook of Happy's Cook

+Madhavi K  of Madhu's Everyday Indian

+West Northman of NorthWestKitchen

+Maneesha Dixit of Taste of India, from my mother's kitchen

+Hema Srivastava  of Hema's Musings

+Recipe Manic of  Recipe Manic

+Priyas Feast of Priyas Feast

+Archana Kumar of The Yum Factor

+Resna Nishad of  Resna's Tasty home


+Yes Cook of Yes I Can Cook


My set of questions to the nominees:

1. How did you come up with the name for your blog?

2. Something that you learned recently

3. What’s the most unusual thing you’ve eaten or want to eat?

4. How long do you usually take to write a post?

5. Name 3 things that you love about being an author

6. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life what would it be?

7. Secret/ fun fact about you that not many people know

8. Does any certain scents or smells bring back old memories of  for you?

9.What goals do you have for your blog?

10. Which is the most difficult recipe you tried to prepare?

11. What would make you stop blogging?

Nominees– once you’ve reposted this, do comment here so I can read your answers!

Thanks again to Sharanya for nominating me!