Result of a sleepless night (or morning)...

Here I am, up at this ungodly hour after a night of oil-burning and tea-guzzling. The windows are shut, the doors locked and the blinds drawn after a recent encounter with a thief. So I am not able to discern the usual twittering (the natural variety) activity that usually happens outside at this twilight hour. But I digress...
This time around, the puzzle might come across as a tough cryptic nut for the newly initiated. The gloves are off, people!
Enjoy... or not!

Promises kept and unkept.

Wow! Just... wow! Talk about coming through with promises. My gratitude to a certain someone for the massive bump in the traffic. Now, it is my turn. Here are the solutions.
Across
Establish our identity by our nourishment. (2,3,4,2,3)
WE ARE WHAT WE EAT (straight clue)
Bread? Sounds more like the animal lovers' assoc. (4)
PITA (as it sounds like PETA)
Add a little something, something... (5,2)
SPICE UP
Org. of dark forecast. (3)
FDA
Between cooking and slicing of meat. (7)
RESTING (straight enough, I guess)
Investigate and learn. (9)
ASCERTAIN
Singular piece of unattainable fruit. (4,5)
SOUR GRAPE
Tuscan red wine. (7)
CHIANTI
'Bellissimo!', in 'Zakirese'! (3)
WAH
Creamy dessert! (7)
PUDDING
Adrak to Imli: ____ of Indian spices (1,2,1)
ATOI (Not very happy with either the clue or the phrase)
Cogitation with respect to consumption. (7,3,4)
THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Down
Alcoholic drink (4)
WINE
Olive oil that has never been kissed? (5-6)
EXTRA-VIRGIN
Wine or chicken meat type. (5)
WHITE
Choose. (5)
ELECT
Aloo curry and ____. (5,4)
PUFFY PURI (Reminds me of my high school Sunday afternoons)
Harshly critical cooking vessel? (3)
PAN (Two meanings of the same word)
In Italy, grasp a raging bull containing edible shoots from a plant. (8)
Asparagi (Italian for asparagus)
Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. (8)
RECREATE
Seasonal liquid or the ingredient that gives the local flavour to liquors? (6,5)
SPRING WATER (season = spring, liquid = water)
Persian beverage popular in the Indian City of Nawab. (5,4)
IRANI CHAI (of course!)
Spice or hair color or a horrible singer! (6)
GINGER
Dry fruit gone nuts and topsy turvy! (6)
WEHSAC (Cashew spelt the other way)
Jump or the soure of malt for beer it is! (3)
HOP (two meanings of the same word)
Related to sound. (5)
AUDIO
Entity in Methi 'n ginger. (5)
THING
Lassi or revenge best served ___. (4)
COLD

Hope the clues and solutions were clear. I have quite a lot of ideas for the next few puzzles. Stay tuned!
Oh, what was that? You like the banner picture, you say? You can direct your bouquets to this person.
Thanks Priya!

A puzzle of epic(urean) proportions.

A dear friend promised that she will be graceful enough to link to my blog if I created a food themed crossword.
Being the traffic-whore that I am, here it is...
Add Salt To Taste...
Hope the hits come through.

Good? Hmph! The Best Friday ever.

Like I promised earlier, here is more of a regular crossword.

Greetings from the Midwest.

I am not sure if anyone is interested in getting acquainted with the inner workings of the process of crossword-creation. Like it or not, here is a peek.
Fill 'er up!
There are more puzzles and nuggets coming from this demented, ricotta-cheese brain of mine. You have been warned!
*EDIT: Anyone volunteering to frame clues for the words in this grid, will be awarded bonus points. Bonus bonus points for cryptic clues. Please, use the comments section for that.

Guess who (or what) is back...!

Many cups of tea have been savored between this and the last entry of this blog. Cynics have even started wondering whether this blog has flat-lined. People who used to swear by the quality of content provided on this site, now have only vague and misty memories about it. There was a time when... well, you get the idea. Simply put, it has been quite sometime since there has been an entry on this blog. Mea culpa!
So without further doo-doo here is the straight version of this week's (month's?) puzzle.
Does that make the Cryptic version, which is coming up soon, gay? Something to think about, no?

More.

At the outset, let me apologize for MIA last week. To make it up to you, here is a set that gave me great joy in making (even though, I am not too happy with the clues)! As you can see from the time of my posting, the better part of the weekend was spent on coming up with this set.
Hope you like it!
Oh, by the way, this week's puzzle does not have a theme as such.