"Fire up the Oven" this April - BM#51

This is my first post this year and yes, it is been that long, exactly 3 months since I last updated the blog. Why this long hiatus from blogging? Well, I went to homeland in mid Jan, came back only three weeks ago and since then I have been busy preparing for next month’s mega marathon.

If you have been following the blog regularly since past 1 year, you might have noticed that I did two month long marathons last year; one in April - Indian Cooking Odyssey and the other in September - Around the World in 30 days with ABC Cooking. Twice a year we the blogging marathon group do month long nonstop blogging marathon taking a break on Sundays. This April, the theme is "Fire up the Oven All of April" for nonstop baking.

Starting tomorrow I will be doing month long baking marathon taking rest on Sundays. The general rules and theme for this baking marathon is that all the cooking has to be done in the oven. There are no sub themes and to make it more interesting, I self-imposed the themes. I divided my bakes into 4 categories. First and last week I will be posting under miscellaneous category, as we only blog on 4 days in these two weeks. Under miscellaneous theme I would be posting any bake; cake, bread, cookies, brownies or even a curry where all the cooking is done in the oven. The other three weeks I will be doing savory bakes, breads and cakes. I have not baked all my recipes yet, have baked only 11 out of 26 bakes to-date and I might break my self-imposed theme if I cannot get the theme based bakes done on time. I rather break my self-imposed theme than post late as it would not be fair for the other bloggers who post their recipes on time.

Week 1 – Miscellaneous Bakes
Week 2 – Savory Bakes
Week 3 – Breads
Week 4 – Cakes
Week 5 – Miscellaneous Bakes

Unlike the last two mega marathons, this time husband is not on board and I had to & am eating most of my bakes. Don't be surprised if you see a ballooned me next time we meet 😉 For previous mega marathons I started cooking & preparing for the marathon at least 2-3 months in advance but for this I did most of my preparation this month, after coming back from my India trip in 2nd week of March. So you will see most of my bakes are small serving and simple bakes. Hope you enjoy this baking ride along with me for the next one month. And please do put away your weighing scales and measuring tapes in the attic for the next one month 😛 See you all tomorrow!

This day in 2009 Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Cookies
This day in 2010 Cabbage Pachadi
This day in 2013 Thai Eggplant with Cilantro Green Chilies ~ Vankaya Kothimeera Pachi Mirchi Koora