Super blogger sunday: Laavanya of cookery corner

Meet Laavanya of Cookery corner blog this week in the Super blogger series. She has a collection of recipes nearing 300 soon and has been blogging continuously for more than 3 1/2 yrs now. She has tried varies cuisines and her pictures tempt you to have food right away from your monitor screens..Read more about her --

EC: Tell us something about yourself

Laavanya: I'm Laavanya, currently residing/working in the US and originally from Madurai, India. We (my husband and 2 kids) enjoy food and my daughter in particular loves to help me cook/bake. Food has always been well appreciated in our family and both my parents are wonderful cooks. I've always had an interest in cooking from an early age but got to develop it only after I turned 20 and found out that I love cooking & trying out new recipes. Initially I had just one blog (started June 2006) that chronicled happenings in our life & my daughter's growth and gradually I started to incorporate food related posts in that. After getting acquainted with the large food blogger community, I created a separate blog for my recipes (started June 2007) and transferred the previously published posts to the new blog 'Cookery Corner'. I thought that it would be great to have a online repository of my recipes (which was initially in a file box).. I'm thankful because my blog has given me a lot of good friends in the food blogging world and so many awesome ideas & recipes that I've incorporated. The frequency of my posts has reduced considerably over the last year or so due to time constraints, but I intend to post as often as I can. Most of the time, what I post, is either part of our standard meal or something new I tried out... only rarely do I cook specially for the blog.

EC: Who and what inspired you to start food blogging?

Laavanya: I can't remember what I was searching for on the web but I first landed on the 'Mahanandi' website and absolutely loved the concept of food blogging, particularly because it's tried and tested in someone's home & has captivating pictures. From there, I went on to view so many other fabulous blogs such as One Hot Stove, Saffron Hut, Foodies Hope etc. and was pretty much hooked and soon I was trying to do the same with some of the dishes I was cooking.

EC: You have tried various cuisines...Which do you think is the easiest to cook and which is your personal favourite.

Laavanya: Of the different cuisines I've tried, I think that the easiest to cook would be Italian, because both, pizzas & pastas come together quickly and taste good. As for my personal favorite(s) - that would be Indo Chinese and Indian that top the list.

EC: Do you think blogging has widened your perspective and exposure?

Laavanya: Definitely! I've learnt so many things as a result of blogging for example I've come to incorporate a variety of vegetables that I hadn't tried earlier (e.g. Kale),different methods of cooking - e.g. baking or using a paniyaram pan as a substitute for deep frying etc.

EC: Have your recipes been copied anywhere without your permission..How would you deal with plagiarism ?

Laavanya: Hopefully, I've been spared. The one time someone used one of my images, I left a comment on their blog and they removed it. But I know that some times it's not that easy. I think, we as a community should stand together and be supportive of each other to fight such incidents and also take steps personally to help prevent people who copy e.g. put watermarks in photos.

EC: You have been blogging for more than 3 1/2 yrs now..do you think the blogging arena has changed and how

Laavanya: I think the food blogging arena has changed in that there are now a lot more participants and there are numerous events that are hosted (more than before) that sometimes it's hard to keep track. But I think this is a positive change - the more the merrier.

EC: Your favourite vegetarian recipe

Laavanya: It's really hard for me to narrow down to just one recipe but this 'Thengai Paal Kuzhambu' - Coconut milk gravy always holds a special place in my heart because it brings such fond memories of relaxed Sunday lunches as a kid and this is absolutely tasty and lip smacking.

Thank you again for this opportunity.