Milestones for 2012. The journey continues…..

Half way through the month of January and I wanted to share some of my  experiences;  some  professional and some personal. This post is dedicated to what I’ve achieved and what I would have liked to achieve last year.

2012 has been a year of learning for me. I was focusing on honing my skills and getting down to basics. Some professional:

• We introduced “pink mustard” as a new branding for our mustard and was appreciated by the consumer.
• Peanut butter on the other hand is considered one of the best peanut butter available as of today.
• Granola bars were the highest selling product without any marketing  push.
• i2cook organic store got really good response and we got in products that were not easily available in the market.
• Our products are now, not only available in Mumbai but also Bangalore and Mysore.
• i2cook gifting.

Ethiopian Spread – Injera (made with nachini/ragi flour) served with Doro Wat (chicken stew), Mesir wat (red lentil stew), Ethiopian style spiced butter flavoured greens, Tomato salad & Ethiopian cheese. The spread is served with Niter Kibbeh (spiced clarified butter)

Some personal:

• I tried different cuisines from Ethiopian to Indonesian and attempted to get as close to the original taste for Coral. The toughest cuisine was Ethiopian and injera (Ethiopian flatbread, similar to dosa and fluffy like appam) being the most nerve jangling dish for me. I was very nervous about the batter for injera, which is fermented for 4-5 days and if things went wrong the entire cuisine would have fallen apart. Injera is made with teff flour and I substituted with pearl millet/ragi flour. The response was excellent and was one of the most well-appreciated and colourful of dishes.
• I started baking and the first thing that I baked was a whole wheat bread.  Now I can’t stop baking 😉
• Exposure to new ingredients like nutritional yeast flakes, blackstrap molasses, chia seeds, cocoa nibs, millets, coconut sugar etc.
• 90% of the ingredients  in my kitchen for everyday cooking is organic 😀
• Conducted two i2cook cooking classes successfully.
• Gaining experience in retail – coming from an architectural background is not easy!

Sachin, a special child and very hard working. He loves to sing and dance.

2012 has also been a year of hiring people and working together. The highlight for me was to meet Dilshad of Mann – centre for individuals with special needs, who gave me an opportunity to be a part of their family. I’ve never been with or around a special child and even though I had decided that I will try this new experience, I was a bit nervous. Scared that I may be faced with hyper activity and may not be able to control the situation. I was wrong!

Each child is assigned to you taking the work and place into consideration. I’ve hired two kids and I’m training them in packaging, labels, hygiene etc. They have shown really good results and it’s really a pleasure working with them. They really know how to put a smile on my face even after a long and tiring day at work.

Looking forward to 2013 –  professional and personal:

• Introducing new product range for i2cook. We’re aiming at four new products this year.
• Launch of i2cook.com.
• Hiring more special children and training them to have a better life.
• Recipe videos.
• Collaborating with other brand(s) and producing products – some products are so unique that no Indian brand is doing it.
• More baking! 😀
• Trying different cuisines for Coral – networking dinner which my husband and I execute.

I hope you enjoyed reading my first blog post of 2013. I look forward to reading your milestones for 2012/13 in the comment box. Happy cooking!