What better way to start off the New Year, than with an interview by Adhis of Chef Afrik! I was glad to give the interview as I know I’m pretty private when it comes to sharing my personal life, but I figured even though I wouldn’t be talking about all that :), it would still give you the opportunity to know me a bit better.

Chef Afrik is a website run by a Kenyan lady, Adhis. She claims to be a foodie trying to become an African foodie by cooking her way through the African continent.

I hope you enjoy reading the interview as much as I enjoyed giving it. Do you see all the accolades she heaped on me in the intro? Babyyyy, when I say I’m flattered, I truly am.

Head over to Chef Afrik to read and let me know your thoughts!

(Thanks Adhis for the opportunity.)

What a year, right? I feel like I’ve been on a whirlwind of a ride in 2011, my personal life took me away from the blog far more than I intended. I was here and then I wasn’t here, but you guys were still there and I love you all for that. I know it sounds cheesy, I mean, we don’t really know each other, but we kinda e-know each other right? ;)

I always said I could never be a teacher, but inadvertently, I’ve become one! I always said I didn’t have the patience to be one, but with the blog, I get to answer so many different questions and since I’m a very detailed person, I like to provide detailed answers and with that, comes patience.

This has just been an amazing year and I wish I could say a personal thank you to each of you, (wherever you are!) for being there;

• to those of you that rarely comment, but when I haven’t blogged in a few weeks, leave a comment or email me asking if all is well. I e-see you and appreciate you!
• to those of your that email me, telling me how much the site has helped and improved your cooking or restored your confidence, your words are the ultimate compliment to me. It re-affirms my blogging.
• to those of you that say the site is restoring/uniting families, I laugh initially, but looking at the bigger picture, I can understand where it’s coming from and being deeply appreciated is more than I could ask for.
• to those that comment, thereby keeping the conversation going, my heart wells up with love for you. Even when I don’t have a chance to respond to your comment the same day, you come back the next day or day after to see my response and ask a follow up question, babyyy, that blows my mind.
• to the those who read and never comment,  I know you lurk and it’s okay. Prefer not to ask a question in such a public forum, please email me (yetunde@avartsycooking.com). No question is ever too silly for me to answer. If you don’t know and I know, I’ll most definitely share.
• to those of you who have sent in photos of your dishes, it’s very flattering to me that you would take the time to honor my request by taking a photo and emailing it to me. I fall short of words on this one.
• to those of you that recommend the site to others, man oh man. What do I say? I mean, that you think of the site as a great resource enough to tell someone else about it is very humbling. I can’t thank you enough for that.
• to those of you that send me recipe requests, (my list is a mile long and growing!), your confidence in me by putting in a request floors me, (your patience too is amazing, because we both know, the turnaround for the requests takes a minute on my part :)
• to those of you who come at me with negativity; know that I recognize that my brand is my site and my comments are my brand and once certain things are put out there, it’s hard to take back, much more start explaining the how’s and the why’s of how a response came to be. If you don’t like something, just close the page.
• to the photo and recipe stealers, my goodness?! That right-click function is a beast!

Whatever category you fall into, as the year rapidly draws to a close, I would sincerely like to wish you and your families an amazing Christmas and a blessed New Year.

No more recipes for this year. The saga continues in 2012 ;) *Bear hugs all around!*

Reader Spotlight is a series of posts geared towards dishes you‘ve made following recipes from AvartsyCooking. I appreciate all of you and in an effort to give you some shine, not just in the comments where you share how you made such and such, you get to also share with me and everyone else, the photo of your finished dish!

To participate, all you need do is send clear photos of your finished dish, name of the AvartsyCooking recipe you followed and a little back story behind your making the dish to submit@avartsycooking.com

Above and below are pictures of her finished meat pies using whole wheat flour and more information directly below:

Name: Tolu

Recipe Made: Meat Pies

Back Story: “Hi,I made meat-pie for the first time using your recipe and sadly……it’s all gone now! I took pictures…I’m anti-white flour so I used only whole wheat flour. It turned out perfect. My preschooler has developed a sudden love for meat-pie. U see wetin you cause??I tried your chin-chin too….with whole wheat flour only……sadly, all gone too. I’m feeling like the little engine who could.Thank you most kindly.”

(She made it again and…) Made some more today…..with WWF (whole wheat flour) and margarine…let’s just say I won’t doing that again….sigh! I used frozen margarine sticks as I did with the butter. I should have known something was amiss when the dough felt very grainy. Then came time to fill and the dough just wouldn’t hold up. Finally, when it came out of the oven, it tasted great but it just crumbled up at the first bite! Urrgh!” (I suggested she use butter in between cold and room temperature) Note: these photos are from the first attempt!

My comments~ In my meat pie recipe, I used half white flour and half wheat flour, but I love how she decided to use all wheat instead. Personalizing a recipe and making it your own? Priceless! I love that!

One small gripe I do have is with the design for the outer edges. Typical Nigerian meat pies always have the indented marks from using a fork to seal the edges shut and I  don’t really care for that look, it’s so common! I usually just use my fingers to pinch the pies shut and I’ve never had any hold issues. The golden color (from the eggwash across the top of the pies before baking) is also in patches, meaning you didn’t thoroughly go over the pies -_o (lol). I also would have loved to see photos of the inside of the pie, but overall, you are the little engine that did!

Awesome!

I told her I’d never tried it with sweet potatoes, but since sweet potatoes and yam have a similar consistency, I didn’t see why not. She also asked if she could bake it and I mentioned that it would be best to do so towards the tail end of the cooking process. After all said and done, she still got the yam! Read her back story below for more!

Reader Spotlight is a series of posts geared towards dishes you‘ve made following recipes from AvartsyCooking. I appreciate all of you and in an effort to give you some shine, not just in the comments where you share how you made such and such, you get to also share with me and everyone else, the photo of your finished dish!

To participate, all you need do is send clear photos of your finished dish, name of the AvartsyCooking recipe you followed and a little back story behind your making the dish to submit@avartsycooking.com

 The Asaro she made is in the image above. Below is more info!

Name: Ugo O.

Recipe Made: Asaro

Back Story: “I actually finally bought the yam. Geez yam here is expensive oh. Never again. Lol. I will mix it with the sweet potatoes. Will let you know how it turns out. Fingers crossed. I wasn’t going to use yam initially but I was afraid it would be too sweet so I caved. lol.

But I am pleased to report that the combo was great. I used half of the yam and substituted the half with two large sweet potatoes. I also cooked the smoked turkey with the yam which helped the flavor a lot. It was gone in hours and I plan on making another one this week. I will send the one picture I have though I don’t think it does it justice. I had to bake it towards the end as the thing was burning. Thanks again for another great recipe.”

My comments~ You said it! Your photo does your dish absolutely no justice! I had to enlarge it when I first got it to really examine it! But you know what, I love the creativity! I love that you used both regular yam and sweet potatoes, plus the smoked turkey! Just awesome! I can just imagine how it must have tasted, with the smokey, salty flavor of the turkey and the mild sweetness from the sweet potatoes, I’m so clapping for you on this one.

If you’ve been reading the site for a while now, you’re probably familiar with me always saying that recipes here are totally customizable. You can either follow it exactly and to the letter or take out what you don’t like and add what you like! Ugo typifies what I’ve always said and I just love it.

I do wish it was a better photo though. Asaro has a mushy look/consistency to it, but you can still see chunks of sweet potato/yam and small bits of the smoked turkey. I can see how it was gone in hours. Good job lady! I might just have to try this!

Tolu and I have been going back and forth in the comments, chit chatting away about recipes and she (you are female right?? I once mistakenly assumed another reader was female but turned out to be male! I digress…) crowned me, wait for it… “Patron Saint of newbie naija cooks!” *adjusts halo on top of crown* I love it! :D

Reader Spotlight is a series of posts geared towards dishes you‘ve made following recipes from AvartsyCooking. I appreciate all of you and in an effort to give you some shine, not just in the comments where you share how you made such and such, you get to also share with me and everyone else, the photo of your finished dish!

To participate, all you need do is send clear photos of your finished dish, name of the AvartsyCooking recipe you followed and a little back story behind your making the dish to submit@avartsycooking.com

The above photo is Tolu’s Ayamashe and below is some more information:

Name: Tolu.

Recipe Made: Ayamashe

Back Story: “Made me some ayamashe today. Ooooh! All I can say is, God made green peppers and goats on a very special day! Yetunde, are you sure you shouldn’t write a cookbook soon??.” and “Hi Yetunde! This is Tolu of the whole wheat meat-pie saga. Here’s the result of another cooking exploration, emboldened by your good self. Ayamashe on rice with a crown of dodo. Thank you much!”

My comments~ I already made fun of the green peppers and goats bit in the post on Ayamashe, so I won’t repeat it here. Okay, okay, I just said it sounded like the title to a children’s story book! Moving on to the actual dish, I love that you got creative with the presentation a little bit, arranging the plantains on the one side, nice touch! While I don’t doubt that the Ayamashe probably tasted good, the slight issue I’m having is with the color of it.

Did you use palm oil? I’m going to go out and guess you didn’t and used  only ‘clear oil’ like vegetable or canola, but the palm oil really helps in deepening the color of the soup and takes away some of the pale green color.

Also, the first time I saw the photo, the first thing that came to my mind was ‘Is that parboiled long grain rice? It looks so white!’ If it is, it could just be the flash of your camera that washed it out. And the goat meat peeking through, I can’t really tell if it was fried or not, depending on how long I look at it, I’ll say the bottom one was, then when I look at the top one, I’ll say it wasn’t. The plantains are a little over-fried, but I’m guessing you already knew that! Nothing escapes my eyes!! ;)

On the whole, I think you did good!! Just a little tweaking to get the color a bit deeper and you’ll be all set! (I’m still waiting on those meat pie photos!)