VCC Q4 2006 - You Can Cook for FAHC Campaign

We are quite pleased in choosing VCC Q4 2006 as a venue for receiving contributions for FAHC campaign's group book project ‘You Can Cook’.

Here is our invitation to all food and drink lovers from all around the world to participate in this project that can make a positive difference in the lives of many underpriviledged children.

Who may participate?
The contributions to the group book project may be submitted by all food lovers – homemakers, food and drink bloggers, website owners, noncompeting chefs, and culinary students.

What to submit?
The theme of the group book project is “You Can Cook for FAHC campaign”.

The project's aim is to produce a recipe book which is not only full of comfort food recipes but also full of memories – a perfect gift to all food lovers. You may submit any of the endangered recipes that you know and cook at home which are in danger of extinction, homely favorites, or recipes that are truly traditional, historical, ethnic, or classic in nature. Most of the traditional recipes are passed on and handed down to us by our elderly people at home. Traditional way of cooking is done by using just basic ingredients which are always ready to hand. Let us gather all those recipes that are used for at least a generation or two and preserve those in our ‘You Can Cook” book.

There is a possibility of producing one big book with multi-cuisine recipes in it. Another opportunity is to produce different books niching on different unique and best cuisines of the world. We would be able to decide this solely based on the number of contributions received at VCC Q4 2006.

Basic outline/contents/categories?
- homemade spice powders, basic things needed at home
- appetizers/soups/stews/sauces
- breakfast preparations
- rice preparations
- main entrée, vegetarian dishes, pulses and lentils
- main entrée, non-vegetarian (eggs/poultry/lamb/beef/pork)
- side dishes, snacks
- desserts, sweets, beverages
- pickles, jams, preserves, cakes, cookies
- and all other dishes which you think should appear at ‘You Can Cook’ book

How to submit?
1. Submit your recipe contributions by e-mailing it to us at info.vkn@gmail.com. Please keep the subject line as “You Can Cook for FAHC Campaign”. Please include the original recipe details, one end-result picture as attachment, your full name, name of the recipe, recipe source, and your endorsement* statement in your e-mail.

2. Each contributor may submit any number of their favorite recipes to be included in this group book project.

3. Submitted work must be an original work of the entrant, their family members, or friends. Kindly note that we will not accept any copyrighted recipe which is published in any other cookbooks.

4. You may include a few sentences quoting why you think your recipes should be included in the book, history of the recipe, an amusing anecdote, traditional cooking tips associated with the recipe, etc. It helps. We will properly attribute all these with your recipe.

5. Recipe contributions from food bloggers/web site owners – your contributions must have been blogged in your blog or must have been published in your web site. You may give your permalink url's of the contributing recipes via comments of this post or via an e-mail as mentioned before. You may also want to tag your entries as follows – [Tagged with: VCC: VCC Q4-2006: FAHC: FAHC-campaign]. Please just ensure that you mention your full name, blog/website name (in the way you want to see it in the book), permalink url's, names of your recipes (bilingual for regional recipes), recipe source, and your endorsement* statement in your message.

6. Only the contributions received via email or as a comment to this post will be accepted in this project.

7. When an entry is processed, the contributor will receive an e-mail receipt confirming receipt of your endorsements in this project.

8. My Dhaba will not be responsible for any incomplete or disqualified contributions and will also not be held responsible for any breach of copyright for recipes, stories or anecdotes sent to us for submission. All recipe contributions will be reviewed and may be edited prior to publishing.

9. All recipe submissions are subject to our Copyright and Disclaimer Policy. By submitting your recipe contributions you affirm that all the recipe submissions are yours and you have the right to share it and give My Dhaba free permission to reproduce and utilize it at the FAHC campaign.

Deadline? The deadline for receiving contributions was February 28, 2007. Since the project team is now working on the content development of the contributed recipes - proofread/edit/standardization, we will keep the recipe submission deadline open for a few more days.

Your kind support is needed to get the word out. Please share this post's url with your family and friends. You may also please give a link to mydhaba.blogspot.com on your website. Bloggers and webmasters, please feel free to use the logo below (you will get a better quality image and preferred size by clicking on the image).


*A sample statement of endorsement which you can use - "By participating in My Dhaba's group book project 'You Can Cook for FAHC Campaign', the food lovers and food bloggers are creating new ways to motivate individuals and organizations across the world to expand their mission and join the fight against global poverty. I am pleased to support this effort and urge all food lovers to contribute. May God bless everyone who make a contribtution in this group book project."
Folks - over to you now. We welcome you to participate in this project and look forward to your family recipe contributions.

VCC: VCC Q4-2006: FAHC: FAHC-campaign

FAHC Campaign: Group Book Project - workflow in 5 stages

This is to give you a bird's eye view of the key tasks that we have in 5 different stages for the Group Book Project at FAHC campaign and the timeframe planned to achieve those.

Stage I - Contents for the book 'You Can Cook (by December 31, 2006)
- VCC Q4 2006 as a venue to gather contributions and endorsements; to be announced on November 28, 2006.
- Basic outline of the categories, contents, etc., to be explained there.
- Produce a mockbook and display the contents for public opinion voting for finalization.

Stage II - Editing (January 2007)
- Proofread and copyediting - spelling, grammar, and uniform terminologies.
- Pagelook and layout design.
- Contents and index pages.
- Cover design and artwork.
- Dedications, acknowledgements.
- Foreword.
- Final inspections and getting the book ready for publishing.

Stage III - Publishing/printing/delivery/distribution (February 2007)
- Procedures to be finalized.

Stage IV - Marketing/sales (April 2007)
- Strategies to be confirmed.

Stage V - Execution of the campaign (May 2007)
- collaborate and work with partnering individuals and organizations to reach out and support the needy children one-on-one with funds.

Let us do these tasks together. Your thoughts please.

FAHC: FAHC-campaign

FAHC Campaign

My Dhaba is embarking on its first life-saving mission – an unprecedented FAHC campaign on this Thanksgiving Day 2006 (the festival of plenty) in the loving memories of our beloved mother.

Feed a hungry child campaign? There are millions of children in the world who are hungry right now and they need food. Did you know that at every five seconds a child dies because he or she was hungry? Read these facts on hunger… For a hungry child, going to school is not that important but having enough food to eat is. We pledge in committing ourselves to pitch in and do all that is possible to feed as many hungry children as possible in our community outreach.

“The difference between what we are doing and what we are capable of doing would solve most of the world’s problems.” – Mahatma Gandhi -

Action plans for the FAHC campaign?

1. to enlist some of the most needy orphanages/schools/charities that take care of poor, destitute, and underprivileged children.
2. to provide assistance with the feeding needs of the identified charities and to continue assisting them when they need it most.
3. to encourage, collaborate, and work with partnering individuals and organizations to join the fight against global poverty through FAHC campaign that draws on all of your kind support.

Funds? We intend to raise the funds for FAHC campaign by a voluntary ‘Group Book Project’ at My Dhaba where food lovers from all around the world participate and contribute to the finished product which is going to be intriguing treasuries of original traditional home cooking recipes. The contents of the books will remain free to read at the pages of My Dhaba, participating food blogs, and web sites for online use. The hard copies will go in for a sale. The FAHC campaign will benefit from 100% of the author royalties.

How can you support? Here is our open invitation to all of you, the food lovers and friends – you can help feed a hungry child by participating and collaborating at FAHC campaign. All we need from you for now is your generous contributions of your favorite original home cooking recipes and pictures endorsed to the Group Book Project. My Dhaba will take care of other things. These contributions will be followed up with a landmark publishing and fundraising sales of the cookbooks. We will look forward to your contributions. The name we suggest for the initial publication is …

You Can Cook
- authentic traditional home cooking recipes -

“You Can Cook” book series will be simple cookbooks written by a group of seasoned chefs, homemakers, food bloggers, restauranteurs, and web site owners which will offer practical hands-on cooking advices to anyone who cooks traditional dishes at home, whether just thinking of starting to learn cooking at home or at cooking classes, new homemakers, or professional chefs. We sincerely hope that these books are of some use, fun to read, and a perfect gift to all food lovers and culinary students.

As it is going to be a collaborative effort by global food lovers, we also need volunteers who can help us with tips on book-design, formats and layout, proof-reading, editing, publishing, marketing, sales of books, etc. Let us know your thoughts, ideas, questions, or comments regarding FAHC campaign.

Please note - we are not accepting any other forms of donations as of now.

Join our Google Group now and keep up-to-date with the FAHC campaign! Will you help us in getting the word out? Thank you.

FAHC: FAHC-campaign

Advait Narayanan

Here is 'Advait' Narayanan on his 18th day. DOB - November 6, 2006. Advait is a Sanskrit name, origins in the Vedas, means unique/nonduality. His elder brothers are Adarsh and Aditya Narayanans.

The friends and blogmates who came up suggesting this name for him were Vinod, Rricha Nimish, Priya, Manisha, Kutus, Ravi, Mallika, Ashwini, Archana, Rashmi, Manasi, Kadambari, Krithika, Nandita, Mystic, Ms Ch, Smitha, Vee, Maneesha, and a few other anonymous friends. Thank you folks! We (especially Advait) will never forget this!

Needless to say, we were humbled by the overwhelming number of responses from other friends and blogmates in searching a name for him and showering of blessings. Thank you very much everyone. As mentioned in a reply to a comment before, most people on earth have tens, hundreds, or thousands of people who share their name. We were looking for a very meaningful, unique, and slightly spiritual name. We never thought that naming of our babyboy would be that easy this time as there were a few conditions set already. Hope you like this name for him. What do you think?

Happy Thanksgiving!

We would like to wish you all and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving! Hope it is a fine time for each and everyone of you.

Sharing with you a poem today...

"For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

For flowers that bloom about our feet,

For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet,

For song of bird, and hum of bee,

For all things fair we hear or see,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee!"

- Ralph Waldo Emerson -

VCC Q3 2006 - results!

It is time to announce the first place winner of VCC Q3 2006. We are quite excited today in getting you the result. The aim of My Dhaba's virtual cooking competition is to honor excellence in food blogging, recognize the individuals, to develop and raise the visibility of food blogging and creative talent, and showcase the participating food and drink recipes. It was indeed a very tough tough competition. The first place winner of the VCC is decided solely based on the votes received during our public opinion poll. Hope you liked the colorful array of VCC entries.

And the winner of VCC Q3 2006 is...



Yes, the first place winner of VCC Q3 2006 is Mae Gabriel for her entry VCC 105 - the Tiger Prawns Spring Rolls at Rice and Noodles. Heartiest congratulations and kudos Mae for all of your great efforts and success at VCC.

Folks - we hope that all of you enjoyed and had great fun in participating at VCC. My Dhaba team would like to thank each one of you, the participants, supporters, and readers, for your contributions at VCC.

Would you like to be notified as soon as we announce the details of VCC Q4 2006? Here is the link to join our Google Group.

VCC: VCC Q3 2006

VCC Q4 2006 - theme suggestions are welcome!

At this time we are counting the votes of VCC Q3 2006 to finalize the winner of the competition. We aim to release the result by Wednesday evening. Please be patient and keep your eyes out for our e-mail regarding the results.

Would you like to be notified each time a new post is added to My Dhaba? You are welcome to join My Dhaba's google group.

Also, we welcome and will look forward to your valuable suggestions and inputs in choosing a theme for VCC Q4 2006.

Long live the Sultan!

On the occasion of the 36th National Day, we express our heartfelt greetings and best wishes for good health and happiness to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said and the people of Oman.

“The human being as we have always said, is the power, the instrument and the ultimate aim of national development. Thus we exert every effort to provide him with these essential qualities so that we can all, together, build our nation. You are aware that there are countries in the world which do not possess rich natural resources, but nevertheless have cared for their people and directed them in the right direction, developed their skills and provided them with technological experience in order to face their domestic and international evolution. Therefore, their innate abilities have been realised and their inventions have been eagerly sought throughout the world. By this means they have taken their place in the forefront of the developed countries.” - His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said -

Newborn at My Dhaba

We have a fantastic news to share!

We welcomed our third babyboy to the world on November 6, 2006, and are celebrating the baby excitement - another treasure to My Dhaba. Both mom and kid are still at the hospital. We will get you more pictures once they are back to home.

We have not finalized his name yet. The names of his elder brothers are Adarsh (the man of principles) Narayanan and Aditya (the Sun) Narayanan. We are searching for a name which starts with letters 'Ad-' from Hindu names, from sanskrit, or from Hindu mythology preferably with 6 letters. All your suggestions are welcome :-)

VCC Q3 2006 - public opinion poll updates

Voting spree is going on at My Dhaba. Discarded votes so far - 2 anonymous votes, someone voted twice, and 2 the participants at VCC voted for themselves :-).

A note to VCC participants - Every vote really counts. The power of blogging is truly amazing. We would like to alert you that some of the participants are spreading the word out by blogging about VCC and their VCC entries once again and like a virus it is spurring people to pass the word on to the next! Just ensure that your dear and near ones are aware of your participation at VCC and that they vote for you correctly.

We also request other blogger friends out there in spreading the word out to vote for your favorite entry at VCC. It helps. :-)

Vote for your choice at VCC Q3 2006. Happy voting!

VCC Q3 2006 - voting begins today!

Folks - it is time now to determine the first place winner of My Dhaba's Virtual Cooking Competition, VCC Q3 2006.

Who do you think is the winner of VCC Q3 2006? My Dhaba team is hereby asking its readers and supporters to participate in this public opinion poll by casting a vote for your choice.

How to vote?
1. Cast your vote only once in favor of only one entry by just mentioning the VCC entry code.
2. Bloggers - you may use the feedback/comment option of this blog post. Any other text along with the VCC entry code is optional. Comment moderation has been enabled to maintain your privacy.
3. Others/non-bloggers - cast your vote via an email addressed to info.vkn@gmail.com. Please note - anonymous votes received via feedback/comment will not be considered.
4. The VCC entrants are allowed to cast their votes for other participants.
5. Last date to vote is November 12, 2006; 12 midnight EST.

Presenting to you a colorful array of participating entries with their VCC entry codes that link directly to its own webpage with recipe details. We received the recipe details and pictures for the entries VCC54, 69, 81, and 88 are received via email; recipe details are posted separately at My Dhaba and our google group.

My Dhaba's Virtual Cooking Competition, VCC Q3 2006
Theme - Festival Foods (Any cuisine)


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As always, we need your assistance in getting the word out to your colleagues and friends about VCC's public opinion poll.

Every vote counts. Your vote is valued and needed which will certainly make a difference in the result of this competition. We will leave it up to you... just ensure that the right winner of this competition benefits from your decision. Over to you!

VCC: VCC Q3 2006