The ultimate comfort food has to be Rice Pudding – warm, sweet, and fragrant with orange blossom water. However, in the last few weeks, I have been obsessing about this variation made with Quinoa. I’ve had it many different ways, for breakfast, for lunch and dinner, even as a snack in between. My husband is perplexed about this obsession, “Are …
Buckwheat and Pole Beans in Tomato Stew
This is a traditional stew made typically with Burghul and Pole Beans. My mom always served it with tangy homemade yogurt and pomegranate molasses drizzled on top. I used Buckwheat instead today – one because I was curious how it would work in that dish, and two because I didn’t have any burghul. In any case it worked out great. …
Strawberries in Full Bloom: A Mousse and Lemonade
We’ve been waiting for three years to take our son for strawberry picking. Well he was just too young, he would have just uprooted the whole strawberry farm. Now that he’s a “big boy” as he calls himself, he had such a wonderful time, picking, eating and eating and some picking. We came home with about 30 pounds of juicy, …
A Fava Bean Breakfast
This time I remembered to soak the beans before going to bed. I’ve been craving this breakfast for a long time and I always think of it at breakfast time! Small fava beans with an olive oil, garlic and lemon dressing or Foul Mdammas is a traditional breakfast dish. It’s usually served with fresh mint, parsley, tomatoes, olives, cucumbers or …
Freekeh Ratatouille
I feel like Remy in Ratatouille every time I make this dish. My mouth watered at the scene where Ego took his first bite. And when, during a recent visit to a Vaidya, I was told to focus on dishes that have plenty of cooked, seasonal veggies, I was excited at the variety of delightful meals I can prepare. …
Spiced Rice Pudding
A popular dessert reserved only for the occasion of a birth of a child, and Christmas. Well, I don’t to play by the rules, so I make it whenever because it’s very tasty, and because I love any excuse to have more nuts, and because my daughter loves it too (she’s now 18 months). Inevitably anyone that walks in and …
Herb Roasted Chicken, Garlic Sauce and a Sandwich
I always get so excited for Spring. Around mid Winter, I start channeling a rural farmer and dreams of planting fruit trees like pomegranates and mulberries take me all around my backyard and back to the sofa. Every year around this time, I buy seeds and set out to planting them and then the city slicker that I am, I …
Snack Attack
Need I say more? I don’t know about you, but I am a grazer. In fact, my favorite meal is a mezze type of meal, small bites, a bunch of appetizers and other snacks. Not that I can’t decide on what to eat, but more of a non commitment issue to one entree per se. So while my kids snack …
Tabbouleh Salad
Anytime you look into my fridge and not find at least three bunches of cleaned and arranged parsley, there’s something wrong. This is probably the one item, well that and tomatoes and lemons, that I can’t live without. There are so many things to do with parsley – mix it with ground meat to make kafta, chop it for a …
Spiced Pompano with Green Salsa
It’s been a bit hectic since we came back from Easter break with my family. We were able to really enjoy the Spring in full swing in Virginia, colors of all shades of pink, white, yellow, purple and this green. Amazing. The kids enjoyed their playtime with cousins whom they don’t really see as often as we would all like. …