Hi, I'm Sadiya!
Hello and thanks for visiting! I'm Sadiya, an Indian American immigrant, living in the Chicago area with my husband, four kids, a cat, and a fish. I grew up in a traditional Indian immigrant home. My family , like every Indian family, has always been big into food and I've spent countless years watching my mom and aunts prepare elaborate traditional, Indian feasts and everyday dinners with the most delectable food. Unfortunately, growing I never learned how to make the traditional Hyderabadi dishes (vague instructions of eyeballing spices and quantities), save chai and pakoras (onion fritters) and a couple of others, for basic survival.
Then I, the Indian immigrant, grew up and married my Caucasian husband. What started off as my kitchen adventures to recreate my childhood classics and learn about my husband's childhood comforts turned into my great love affair with food.I started blending Indian dishes from my childhood with American dishes that my husband grew up with. But none of it started off very smoothly. More on that later.
I LOVE SHARING FOOD
One of my favorite parts about cooking is the joy I feel when I share food. In this space, I experience that happiness by sharing different recipes with you.
For me, food is more than just something you eat. It's love so if I don't love it, I don't share it. In this space, I share healthy, everyday recipes of the food I feed my family, Indian and South Asian dishes I grew up eating and have fond memories of, comfort classics I picked up along the way, and of course dessert, because life is about balance. My goal is to make your busy life easier by inspiring you to make those same meals and bring a little joy and comfort into your life.
REAL TALK
My cooking journey started with our first fight, which my husband and I have now dubbed as "the great potato fight", and it came pretty quickly after we got married. He requested a spanish roasted potato dish that we'd had at a friend's house a few weeks before. I got the recipe from the and made the potatoes, following the recipe to the last detail (I didn't). I excitedly served it at dinner that night and asked my husband what he thought. His mistake: "It doesn't take like [insert friend's name here]'s potatoes." And after all these years, I can finally admit that the potatoes were indeed a disaster- too much lemon juice but in the moment, I trashed the entire dinner, cried a lot of angry tears and told my husband he was free to go eat at said friend's house from now on, and spent the entire night sulking.
After I came to my senses and stopped being dramatic, I decided that I couldn't handle years and years of daal, baked chicken, and rice and I had to learn to cook, even if it's the last thing I did. I began experimenting with new recipes I'd find, reading up on food chemistry, and somewhere along the way, I fell in love with all parts of food. Where I started off with serving mushy rice and over salted daal to guests, I began to gain more confidence in the kitchen, mixing bolder flavors and creating my own versions of recipes that people actually asked for a copy of. If I can learn to make more than four dishes, I think everyone else is capable of doing the same.
DROP ME A LINE
I'm so glad you're here and I would also love to hear from you. Tell me about a little bit yourself in the comments section below- I love meeting new people! If you try a recipe, let me know what you think by leaving a comment on the recipe page.
P.S.- you can also connect with me and/or follow my adventures on Instagram.
