One year. Recap and a giveaway.

One year. I can't believe it's been a year since I've been blogging. I find the thought overwhelming and strange at the same time. I'm not very hot on milestones, in case you've noticed. Not because they don't excite me, but because I think it's a private moment of joy. But some 50,000 hits and 165 posts later, I think I've been a pretty good blogger in the last year.

And so much has happened over the last year. I remember I started blogging in a moment of despair. And even though my friend N had created the blog for me two years earlier. I started blogging because I felt vulnerable and aimless. Because I felt I had nothing much to look forward to. Because the future looked so bleak.

As the days flew by, the blog gave me purpose, and direction. I challenged myself both with photographs and food. And I met some of the fabulous people because of it. People who will remain my friend if I continue blogging or not. I realised that I had been reading a lot more because of the blog and that I was cooking aplenty too. I became a better planner and a more patient person. I earned a bit of extra money. Got a few assignments. Became a dot com (yay!).

Ofcourse this also meant that I was talking about was food. And much to the irritation of my friends, it really was the only thing on my mind. In the beginning I felt consumed by it. Wanting to make myself heard. But lately I've settled on a pace that makes me happy.  So I 'm doing a quick link back to ten of my favourite posts. These include some good food writing that I have done, some of my favourite recipes and even photographs. So here goes.

1. Coffee Ice cream. It reminds me of my dad. Everytime.

2.  Kerala cookbook. On marrying a Malayalee

3. Black Forest Trifle Pudding. I <3 the picture

4.  Rainbow cake. For my sister's birthday. I am doing another special cake for her this time. Watch out for more

5. Mango Blueberry Peach Crumble. Nobody gets to judge my friends. NOBODY

6. Raspberry Jam. And about my grandmother

7.  Sour cream and blueberry pancakes. Because I love pancakes

8. French yogurt , olive oil and lemon cake. Because the husband loves it

9. Flower pot cake. My first attempt at fondant work. Terrible pictures. And because I miss my friend

10. Meeting George and Gary. Yay!

Phew. I think I could go on and on with that recap. But. You, know it's true when they say that food bloggers are the hardest working bloggers of the lot. They have to shop, prep, cook, style, photograph, upload, write the recipe and then tell their story. Really that's quite a bit of work. So in order to celebrate, I'm doing a series of giveaways this month. Or atleast three.

My first giveaway is this book, my friend Amrita got for me. (I'm not giving away that book, but a new one to share the joy.) I totally looove this book. And have been baking a plenty from it.

This book by Julie Richardson is amazing and the photographs are to-die-for. It's been my bestside reading for the last one month and I get such lovely sweet dreams.

This giveaway is open to both bloggers and non-bloggers. And all over the world. The rules go like this though:

Like me on my Facebook Page. The Great Cookaroo
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Pinterest.
Leave a comment  telling me what your favourite post is on my blog.

Entries close March 8 - 11.59 pm Indian Standard Time. Winners will be announced on March 9/10 and will be chosen by a random number generator. Once the winner is announced, I will be sending an email for confirmation. If I fail to get a response in 48 hours, it'll go to the next number.

Looking forward! And thank you guys!