About Me

Hi there!

Edible Garden is maintained, authored, and obsessed over by me, Nags. I am a full time working mom and this little website has been a passion project of mine from 2006. I am a bit of a Jill of all trades and like to try my hand at a lot of things although most of them fizzle out at some point. Food blogging, however, has been a constant in my life and I am so glad to have this little corner of the Internet to call my own.

I currently live in Singapore but was born and brought up in Kottayam, Kerala. My family has lived in Kerala for a couple of generations now but we are Telugu by origin and our food is a fantastic mix of Kerala food + South Tamil Nadu style cooking + Andhra cuisine and let me tell you, it's unique and delicious! I document a lot of our family-stye recipes here under "Reddiar Recipes".

I know most blogs talk about how they started off blogging so I feel obliged to share my story too. Actually, there’s no story. One fine day I came across a food blog. I thought it was pretty cool. A month or so later, I had my own although I was barely cooking back then. This was in 2006 when I had just moved to Hyderabad from Kottayam for my first job. I was living in a shared apartment with two other girls and among the three of us, I picked up most of the cooking due to my growing interest in it.

At that time, I got more interested in food photography, food styling, recipe development, restaurant reviews, blogging and a whole bunch of things which I never knew existed a few years back. It has changed my life, definitely for the better. I have made so many friends through the world of food blogging too!

The Recipes

The best way for you to get started is by searching for a recipe. You can also just search for an ingredient name in the search bar, whatever you’d like to cook or bake with at the moment. The category links on the sidebar work great too so feel free to use that to dive into a particular group of recipes you may be interested in.

All recipes are tried and tested in my kitchen unless otherwise mentioned.

Oh and also, use all recipes as a guideline. Food is a very personal thing and my tastes are almost definitely going to be different from yours. Use your discretion when you add, subtract, and substitute ingredients. If you are absolutely new to cooking and what you make looks nothing like the pictures I have posted, remember that cooking takes practice and patience.

Comments

My site is open to comments, which means you can check out what I have written and leave your thoughts and opinions. We are all entitled to have our own opinions and while I welcome yours, I do request that you share yours in a respectful manner. I know respectful is a very subjective word but if you are rude, crude, mean, or just not adding any value with your comment other than to spite someone (or me), then the comment may get deleted. If ever a dispute arises, we are going to assume I am ultimately right. Ok? Ok.

Advertising and Revenue

You may see ads on the website from time to time. I spend a considerable amount of time buying ingredients, cooking, photographing, researching, obsessing, and writing out the content of this site and that’s my excuse for monetising it. Since moving to WordPress in late 2015, I also incur significant costs in server space, site maintenance, etc. If at any time you feel the ads are offensive or annoying, please let me know.

Some posts may also contain affiliate links. This means if you follow a link from this site and sign up or purchase the item or service I have linked to, I get a small commission from it. This comes at no extra cost to you, it’s just a small token you are passing to me for recommending amazing things. Ah yes, I was going to mention that – I only recommend things I use and love and feel confident you would too.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: What can I substitute ingredient A with?

This is tough for me to admit, what with me being perceived as a cooking guru and all. But I will say it anyway. In most cases, I have no clue. If you want to learn how to substitute eggs in a recipe, I would recommend a Google search. In fact, for most questions on substituting ingredients, I would recommend a Google search. Sometimes, a comment on the post itself may help or someone else may have asked the question and I or someone else may have replied. But, I would request you do your own research on this. I may have a suggestion but it’s likely that I haven’t tried it and so can’t vouch for it.

Q: How do I pre-heat my oven Model #XYZ

Again, no idea! As you can imagine, it’s impossible for me to know every make and model of ovens there is. Ironically, my post on how to pre-heat an oven made a lot of people ask me this question for their specific models. Sadly, I can’t help on a 1:1 basis. If my post doesn’t help, please check the instruction manual that came with your oven or with the retailer who sold it to you.

Q: I tried recipe A but it turned out different than your picture. What went wrong?

This is getting to be a long list of “I have no clue” answers but that’s really the truth. It’s tough for me to know under what conditions you tried my recipe. If you were cooking something, maybe the type of ingredient you used was different. Something as basic as a potato comes in so many different varieties! If you were baking, even tougher. You could have used your oven wrong, overbeat or underbeat the batter, used different-sized eggs, etc. Like I mentioned above, use your discretion and hopefully things get better with practice.

Q: Can I post a recipe of yours in my blog which I adapted from  you?

Of course! All I ask is that you link back to my post and credit the original recipe to me by linking to my site. Also, it would be great if you could let me know so I can check it out too.

Q: I have a question regarding one of your recipes that wasn’t answered above. What’s the best way to reach you?

Leave a comment on the recipe and I will try to come back to you as soon as possible!

Q: Where can I get ingredient A where I live?

The best place to ask this question would be to leave a comment under the recipe and I will try my best to get back to you as soon as possible.

That's it for now! I hope you like what you see and will stick around a bit more. Browse around, have fun.