On friendships… and food

Jenn of The Whole Kitchen and me finally meeting in person in Chicago

Life (and the internet) have amazing ways of making like-minded people meet. Thanks to some savvy online networking and an eagerness and openness to meet and learn from new people, I’ve made many friends online, most of whom I’ve met in person soon after an online conversation, and some who continue to be amazing virtual friends. On a recent trip to Chicago, I had the pleasure of meeting the amazing Jenn Sutherland of The Whole Kitchen. (Jenn’s blog is AWESOME and a LOT of fun to read! PS. don’t miss her husband Mark’s posts!)

Jenn and I have been virtual friends for many years since our first interaction on Brazen Careerist. As a new professional in the US, I devoured everything shared on the professional networking site. On one forum, I “met” Jenn, visited her blog, started commenting on her posts, and we soon developed a friendship over food and Indian cooking. When we met a couple weeks ago, we knew so much about each other already!

Jenn’s sweet dog – Flash

Like Jenn’s dogs. I had been seeing pictures of them on Instagram, and reading about them on her blog, and I finally met them too! Not forgetting our true loves – food – Jenn and I also cooked together. We discussed what we should make before I flied out to Chi-town and she wanted to learn how to make dosa. (I forgot to take a pic of the final product!)

Dosa is a thin crêpe made with a fermented rice and lentil batter, and hails from the southern region of India. Show me the Curry has a great recipe here, that Jenn followed. We also made a delish coconut chutney and some spiced potato stuffing to go with it. The chutney recipe is similar to this one from an earlier post. We made small modifications such as adding less water and more coconut. To give the chutney a south-indian twist, we finished it off with a temper of fried curry leaves and whole urad dal lentils.

An earlier post on Potato curry has an easy recipe here.

Coconut chutney

Spiced potato dosa stuffing

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to meet Jenn, her husband Mark, Flash and Miracle. And also so very happy I had the fortune of cooking with her! Can’t wait to meet you again Jenn and cook up more amazing things!!