Not Derby Pie

Quinoa and Asparagus Salad with Yogurt Dressing

rivka — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:14:28 +0000

Lurking behind the shiny exterior of this homepage is a Drafts folder, containing every post I’ve ever started. And friends, I could make an entire second blog out of the posts stuck in draft-purgatory. There’s a parsnip cake I made for my mom’s birthday back in 2011; a winter citrus salad that I keep meaning to tell you about while it’s still…well, winter; a tremendous zucchini gratin that I will tell you about in just a few short weeks, when summer decides to make an appearance for good; and about 15 quinoa recipes, none of which I deemed delicious enough to share.

Thing is, I am no big fan of quinoa. Try as I might, I can’t love the stuff. I wish I did: it’s nutritious, cooks up really quickly, and at least purports to be versatile. I’m just not the biggest fan.

But last week, fresh on a tear to use up all the little bits of things in the bottom of jars in my kitchen, I came upon some quinoa, leftover from Passover and languishing at the back of my grain shelf. I’ve been trying to cook more economically, and I’ve been having success tucking bits of boring-seeming leftovers into new dishes. I improved my last batch of mujaddara by adding bits of salsa verde-braised green beans. What’s a little quinoa?

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The Best Way to Caramelize Onions

rivka — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:07:31 +0000

One of my favorite food-related articles from 2012 came from Slate. It was called, “Why do recipe writers lie and lie and lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions?” and it spoke the truth: caramelizing onions is a matter of patience. Doing it properly takes at least 40 minutes, and the recipes that tell you you’ll have soft, brown onions in five or ten minutes are straight-up lying.

So, do I have some sort of trick to shorten your wait? Not exactly. But let’s be honest: we see caramelized onions in a recipe, and we let out a sigh. There goes any hope of getting dinner on the table quickly. And friends, that’s a problem I can solve.

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Post tags: components of a meal, cooking economically

Cypriot Greens and Cheese Pie

rivka — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:52:09 +0000

Sometimes, when I really want to share a recipe with you, I go a little nuts with the testing and tweaking. The recipes I get most jazzed about are the ones I want to be most perfect. So I make the thing 5 or 6 times, fussing with quantities and baking times and potential extra ingredients, all so that when you make it yourself, it’s not almost perfect, it’s actually perfect.

This recipe had me at hello. I made it once, and immediately knew how I’d change it for posting. Chick-chock, were headed straight for primetime. Amazing!

I sat down in front of my computer and opened up a blank page. Now then: what to call it?

Uh.

Guys, I made this in March. Only now, practically mid-May, do I finally have a title that’s clear enough to tell you what you’re making. And I feel like if I just explain what’s actually in this thing-I-decided-to-call-a-pie, you’ll see why it was so hard to figure out what it actually should be called – and you won’t think I’m a total nutcase. But you will make it, yes you will, because it really is fantastic. So here goes.

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More Asparagus for Dinner

rivka — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:40:40 +0000

It’s me again. Just wanted to tell you that I am still love-loving asparagus season (and still freezing my butt off…DC, get warm already!). To prove my undying love for the green spears, I’ve shared a few more thoughts about asparagus for dinner (okay, and breakfast and lunch, too) over at Food52. Cold soup, hot hash, and more – it’s all up on the site now. Go check it out, and then get thee to the grocery. Dinner awaits!

Asparagus and Tarragon Tart

rivka — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:41:38 +0000

Guys, it’s my favorite time of year. Nevermind that May has decided to be about as cold as November and my sad spring dresses are still hanging in the back of the closet: asparagus have arrived! I’ve already downed 4 bunches myself; there’s no stopping me now.

You didn’t know I loved asparagus? Can’t be. The evidence is all right here. There’s risotto and bulgur salad and even just plain sauteed asparagus, which actually are my favorite.

And then there’s this tart, which, to be honest, defies logic in that it contains tarragon, my least favorite of herbs, and yet I absolutely adore it. Perhaps this is because the tarragon is used sparingly, to just barely tint the creamy custard with that sweet, anise flavor. Another thing I love about this tart is that it isn’t too eggy. There’s just the right balance of eggs and cream so that the center is still quivery, hours after the tart leaves the oven.

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Vanilla Bean Rooibos Tea Cookies and a Giveaway

rivka — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:45:50 +0000

Our kitchen’s been busy as ever, with spring finally here. The fridge is full of green (and even some red: rhubarb is back!) and I can’t control the urge to cook a million things all at once. It’s a special kind of attention deficit, and fortunately, its only notable side effects are too many pots bubbling on the stove and lots of full containers in the fridge/freezer/sink. Not too bad.

Chalk it up to my enthusiasm about spring recipes that I never shared this gem from fall. I love rooibos tea, I love vanilla beans, and I love sable cookies. One good day last November, I decided to put those three things together. A few whirls of the food processor later, I wound up with these lovely cookies, fragrant from toasted rooibos and whole vanilla beans and crunchy from their coat of sanding sugar.

The recipe actually won first place in Food52′s Vanilla contest, and it’ll be featured in (I think) the 3rd Food52 cookbook. So far, I’ll have been published in all 3 books. So exciting!

In the fall, I’d have recommended you eat them with a spot of hot tea. But now that it’s nice out, why not serve them with either iced tea or iced coffee? I’m already picturing a plate of them set out on our deck.

GIVEAWAY
…But I know why you’re really here: giveaways are so fun, aren’t they? This one is especially delicious: the kind folks from Sucré are offering one lucky NDP reader macarons! That’s right: Sucré will send the winner of this giveaway its Signature Macaroon Collection. That’s 15 macarons in flavors like chocolate, salted caramel, and pistachio. What’s not to love?

To enter, simply Like our Facebook page, then leave a comment below sharing either your most frustrating macaron baking story, a tip for baking perfect macarons, or just your favorite flavor of macaron. I’ll pick a winner next Wednesday, May 1st. Stay tuned, and good luck!

Update 5/1/13: The giveaway has ended! I picked a random number on random.org:

And the 15th non-duplicate comment is….Margot C! Congratulations, Margot! I’ll be in touch with details about your macarons.

Vanilla Bean Rooibos Tea Cookies
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons rooibos tea leaves (about 5 tea bags)
1 vanilla bean, whole, ends trimmed, cut into segments
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons milk
1/2 cups unsalted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Heat a small stainless steel pan over medium heat. When pan is hot, add rooibos leaves, and shake pan to distribute tea into a single layer. Toast for about 2 minutes, until tea is fragrant but not darkened. Depending on your leaves, this may happen much more quickly; watch it carefully. When leaves are fragrant, transfer them to a bowl and let cool for a couple minutes.

Combine the sugar, vanilla bean, and rooibos in the bowl of a food processor and pulse for about 2 minutes, until there are no chunks of bean left in the bowl. Add the powdered sugar, flour, and salt to the bowl and pulse a few times to combine. Then add the milk, vanilla, and butter and pulse several times, until a dough forms.

Turn dough onto a very lightly floured surface, gather it together, and roll it gently into a log 1.5-inches in diameter.

Sprinkle turbinado sugar on a plate or work surface, and roll cookie dough log in the sugar, making sure to cover the entire surface of the log with sugar. Wrap log in plastic or wax paper and transfer to the fridge or freezer for at least 30 minutes to chill. (You can leave the log in the freezer and slice off cookies one by one, whenever the urge strikes.)

When ready to bake, turn on the oven to 375°F and line a baking sheet with parchment or silpat.

Remove log from fridge or freezer, and cut 1/3-inch slices off the log, rotating the log as you go to ensure that cookie slices stay round. Transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet, leaving 1/2 inch between each (they don’t really spread, but they need breathing room to crisp up). Bake for 12 minutes, until cookies are just starting to brown. Leave on the cookie sheet to cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to racks.

Cookies will keep in an airtight container for several days.

Crispy Eggplant Ruben

rivka — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:04:57 +0000

Over the years, my mother has taught me that rarely is restaurant food out of reach for the home cook. Once, she and I went to a Thai restaurant in Tenleytown; while I proceeded to heap spoonfuls of fish curry into my mouth, she speared a small piece of eggplant, took a bite, then another, and thought a long while before saying, “yep, I can make this one.” And sure enough, she did.

Since adopting her practice, I’ve made Thai pomelo salad, Indian dosas, and Japanese ohitashi. I’ve developed a habit that waiters and cooks are almost guaranteed to find horribly annoying, where after trying something especially delicious, I ask just a million questions about what’s in it, how it’s cooked, what spatulas they use to flip it, etc. What’s a girl to do? I can’t schlep out to Woodlands every time a dosa craving sets in.

But last week, I attempted a new party trick. This one’s called “recreate a restaurant dish you’ve never even tried.” Ballsy? Yes.

But you know what? It totally worked.

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Beef Empanadas

rivka — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:46:40 +0000

It seems the Sequester has had dilatory effects not only on the budget here in DC, but on the weather as well. We’ve waited far too long for spring, and last Sunday, I started to get impatient. There are only so many months for grilling, and I count April as one of them. So, on a whim, we invited a couple friends over for burgers Sunday night. If the weather won’t beckon me to the grill, I’ll beckon the weather.

By the time I had 8 burgers all pattied up and ready to go, there was quite a bit of ground beef left over in the bowl. It was then that I remembered this beef empanada recipe, which languished at the bottom of my to-make list for years, seeming too fussy for a weeknight. But now it was Sunday, and I had an hour or so before I needed to fire up the grill. I figured if I got the empanadas in the oven by the time folks came over, we’d have lunch for the week.

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Aromatic Burmese Fish Stew

rivka — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:08:06 +0000

As promised, here’s the companion dish to the Burmese black eyed peas I made last week.

Can we have an honest moment about fish stew? It’s usually a pain in the butt. Many recipes call for fish stock; they require you to brown the fish before stewing it, which makes a mess and smells up the house; and at the end of the day, after painstakingly browning lots of little pieces of fish, perhaps some onion and other vegetables, you end up with a big pile of nondescript food that doesn’t always seem worth the effort.

Not this stew. This one’s different.

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Burmese Black-Eyed Peas

rivka — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:06:02 +0000

On our trip to Thailand, we spent some time biking up north between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. For two days of our bike trip, we rode along the Thai-Burmese border. It’s amazing how you can see into one country from the other – they essentially share a big plot of land – and yet, the topography changes when you cross over. The ride reminded me of a trip I took to Amman, Jordan, while I was living in Jerusalem. The two cities are probably only 50 miles apart, and at that latitude, there isn’t even a river separating Jordan from Israel. And yet, where Jerusalem has rolling hills, Amman’s main highway runs along a straight cliff.

Apparently, the foods of Thailand and Burma are like the topographies: similar, but also quite different. I’ve been working my way through Naomi Duguid’s wonderful new cookbook, Burma, for the past couple of weeks. Before these peas, I hadn’t cooked anything from it, but I’ve been reading it in bits and pieces, and her stories and recipes are really beautiful. The balance of spicy, sour, and salty flavors in each dish recalls Thai food, but from what I can tell, Burmese cooking is less sweet, possibly spicier, and perhaps slightly funkier as well.

Many of the recipes call for things I don’t stock in my kitchen, like dried anchovy powder and preserved soybean disks. But Duguid lists substitutions (fish sauce, miso) where they work, which makes the book more accessible.

We had a couple family friends of D’s in town last weekend. Their sons are both chefs, so they know from good food. I decided it was the perfect time to take Burma out for a ride.

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Masala Dosas

rivka — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:46:07 +0000

When I was a kid, my favorite restaurant was a spot called Siddhartha, in downtown Silver Spring. Siddhartha was unfussy, inexpensive, and – at least when we started going – patronized almost exclusively by Indians. In retrospect, I suppose it’s a parent’s dream: kid loves cheap, relatively health Indian food more than pizza, chicken nuggets, whatever. But when we were at Siddhartha, chicken nuggets were off the menu. I could think of only one thing, and that was masala dosa.

For the uninitiated, a masala dosa an Indian pancake, crisp and lacy outside but soft within. It’s cooked like a crepe, and then filled with a mixture of spiced potatoes and onions. Dosa batter is made of ground rice and lentils which have been fermented, so the pancake takes on a slightly sour, funky flavor (like sourdough bread: less sour, but equally distinctive).

If it isn’t clear already, I am obsessed with dosas.

If I’m being truthful, dosas fell off the map for me. There were probably 5 or 6 years when I didn’t have a single one. Looking back, that was pretty stupid. I went without because I couldn’t find a decent restaurant nearby that made them. Now I realize I could have been making them at home, all along.

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Pineapple Macaroons

rivka — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 15:21:44 +0000

I always say that the true test of a Passover dessert is one simple question: would you eat it not on Passover.

In the case of these macaroons, which I first made last June, again in July, and once again in the fall, clearly the answer is yes. They remind me of those piña cola cookies I made back in October, but – dare I say it? – they’re better.

No surprise there: David Lebovitz masterminded these macaroons, and most everything he makes – especially ice cream – is awesome. Pineapple macaroons, blissfully, are no exception.

Here’s how it all goes down.

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Marion Cunningham’s Nutmeg Muffins

rivka — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:31:45 +0000

A few months back, I bought a cookbook for just one recipe. The book was Marion Cunningham’s The Breakfast Book. The recipe was Cream Biscuits, i.e. the most perfect and foolproof biscuits that ever were. I read about them on Molly’s site and knew at once that whatever book they were in was a book I should own.

I have something of a history when it comes to buying books based on one great recipe. When I was in college, I bought The New Best Recipe because a friend had made these thick and chewy triple chocolate cookies from it that absolutely blew me away. I bought Nigel Slater’s Appetite because our friend Josh made this oxtail stew that had me going, against all good judgement, for a fourth helping. So I wasn’t too worried that a biscuit recipe, already available online, had me jonesing for a book. I figured there were plenty of other things in it worth making.

Turns out, I was right.

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April Bloomfield’s Porridge

rivka — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:53:49 +0000

So far, it’s been the kind of month where I’m eating lunch from food trucks and takeout for dinner at the office. Stew season is slipping away, and I haven’t nearly had my fill. (Though, just to be clear, I’ve had more than enough winter weather. Who’s ready for spring?)

In weeks like these, where I feel constantly behind, it’s hard to find down time at night. As a result, I occasionally take the extra 20 minutes at home in the morning to make a proper breakfast. I understand this flexibility to be a luxury; these days, most of my friends are packing diaper bags and hustling a herd of children out the door every morning. But for me, those 20 minutes make me feel civilized and satisfied.

In spring, it’s yogurt, granola, and some frozen blueberries (which I rinse with warm water to thaw). But it’s still March, and much as I’d like to deny it, it’s still pretty cold out. For frosty mornings like this one, I humbly recommend this porridge.

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Getaways: Thailand

rivka — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:09:16 +0000

Remember that post I wrote back in January about our trip to Vietnam? Well, there was a second half to that trip. After traipsing around Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi for a week, we flew over to Chiang Mai and spent a week exploring Thailand. I figured I’d tell you about the trip in stages, because gosh, there’s so much to tell. But then January was a crazy month, and February was, too, and before I knew it, it was March. (Can you believe it’s March?) Well, now I’m finally back. I’ve gotten emails from quite a few of you asking for the details of this half of my trip – it seems there are quite a few of you who are planning trips to Thailand – so, without further ado, here are some vignettes from week 2.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is a small city in northern Thailand, and it’s the starting point for many of the treks, bike trips, and other activities in the north. It’s a bit of a hippie town, with enough yoga studios to hit a different one every day for weeks. However, it’s also a tremendous food city, with plenty of hole-in-the-wall establishments that serve the unique food of northern Thailand.

Gat Luang
We started our first day in Chiang Mai by walking from the center of the city to just beyond its northeastern edge, to explore the neighborhood and markets of Gat Luang. We first learned about Gat Luang from Robyn Echhardt and David Hagerman, intrepid travelers of Asia and masterminds of the Eating Asia blog. Eating Asia was an invaluable resource to us throughout our trip, and Robyn graciously answered many little questions via twitter across those two weeks.

While in Chiang Mai, Robyn and David adopt Gat Luang as their home base. They’ve spent many weeks and months exploring the food markets of Gat Luang and getting to know their vendors. They’ve written extensively about two markets in particular: Warorot market and Don Lam Yai market. We visited both.

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The Tom and Jerry

rivka — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:30:21 +0000

In the words of Amanda Hesser, this drink is not for delicate flowers. It’s a bit like eggnog, but my god, it’s so much better. It’s foamy and fluffy, hot and sweet and plenty alcoholic. If you’re one of those types who craves a hot toddy from time to time but laments the fact that they can be so watered down and boring, well then: I have just the drink for you.

Friends, meet Tom and Jerry.
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Curried Carrot Soup

rivka — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:23:51 +0000

It’s cold outside. I hear it’s snowing somewhere.

Inside, it’s warm. We made soup.

It’s a riff on the rather ubiquitous curried squash soup, but I had a huge bag of carrots to use up, so in they went. Keeping with the whatever’s-in-the-fridge theme, this is a water-based soup; we didn’t have broth, and I’ve been busy enough that I was in no mood to make some.

I’ve made it three times. The first time, I used a bit of miso and some thai curry paste (from a jar, available at most grocery stores). Next, I switched it up and went Indian, with curry powder and cumin seeds. Both were great, both quite easy. I slightly preferred the Indian version, which I tweaked a bit for round three. That’s the take I’m sharing today. It’s a pure soup, one you likely can make with things you already have lying around. Onion, carrots, spices, water. Some coconut milk to bring things together. That’s all, folks.

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Corn-Scallion Muffins

rivka — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:00:33 +0000

I know folks can get particular about their cornbread. The southerners have their version, savory and packed stiff with cornmeal. The Yankees swear by something sweeter, softer, moister. To loyalists, altering either recipe can amount to heresy.

I’m a northerner, of course, and in keeping with the customs of my clan, I like a sweet, soft, moist cornbread, with plenty of butter and maybe a dip of jam. I also like it on Thanksgiving, dunked in gravy and spread with cranberry sauce. That I am no purist goes without saying.

Corn muffins live, somehow, above the fray. You can put more cornmeal in them, or less. Add corn kernels, if you please. What the heck: even add maple syrup. It’s all kosher.

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Raspberry Chocolate Hamentaschen

rivka — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:11:24 +0000

The Jewish holiday of Purim was my favorite as a kid. It was the one day of the year when I got to skip the skirt in favor of sweat pants at school (clue: put on a whistle and, oh look, you’re a coach). We got dismissed early, had a carnival for most of the day, and ate ourselves silly. Most of that eating was hamentaschen, which friends give each other on Purim.

The one major design flaw: my mom’s hamentaschen were way better than everyone else’s. In the weeks before Purim started, I’d watch my mom make enough hamentaschen to feed a small army – but by the end of Purim, we’d have only one small box left, and lots of slightly-less-delicious hamentaschen from friends. Call me biased, but every year, I became something of a hoarder, finding and saving my favorite (poppy!) cookies before they were gone for another year.

Why not make more? Because “these hamentaschen came together in a flash!” said no one, ever. But the fruits are worth the labor. And while I always make some poppy seed filling for myself and the three other people who enjoy it, this year, I’ve found a real crowd-pleaser: raspberry chocolate filling.

(For those of you who looked at this picture and balked, fret not! Shortcuts after the jump.)

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Mushroom Tacos with Tomatillo-Chipotle Sauce

rivka — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:30:54 +0000

I’ve been traveling a bunch for work, which has left our fridge less packed than usual. It’s a bummer to open the fridge and so few bags of produce, but D gets positively gleeful about all the open space. ~~O.C.D~~ Organized people just love empty fridges, am I right?

With less time at home, I’m on the lookout for quick weeknight dinners that make use of whatever precious little food I’ve got in the fridge. Bonus points for dishes that aren’t pasta, which is a fallback too often.

This week, I barely cooked at all. I only had one night in town when I wasn’t working late, and our friend Abby was visiting from NY, so we met her at El Chucho, the new Mexican restaurant in Columbia Heights. It’s got a dimly lit interior, tall tables and bar stools, and lots of bearded dudes in plaid shirts walking languidly around with plastic baskets in hand. Walk in, and you feel like you’ve walked into Brooklyn; Abby felt right at home. The food wasn’t bad, the ambiance was fun, and margaritas were on tap. Of course. I bet we’ll be back soon. Meanwhile, we’re copying their dishes at home.

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Magic Chocolate Mousse, Some Other Ideas, and a Giveaway

rivka — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:00:33 +0000

D and I aren’t big on Valentine’s Day. Forced romance and overpriced, heart-shaped dinners aren’t our thing. However, I’ll take pretty much any excuse to indulge in chocolate, so that, I’m on board with.

It’s also my 30th birthday, which means I can do whatever I want. Right? Chocolate for all!

We celebrated with a couple close friends at a lovely, lovely dinner on Saturday night. This coming weekend, we’re taking a ladies’ trip to Spa World to celebrate three birthdays at once. But tonight, after a low-key dinner with the lady, I’ll be spooning out a couple small bowls of this magic chocolate mousse, which requires only 2 ingredients (salt is optional) and tastes as decadent and as thoroughly chocolate as a good chocolate mousse should. 30 years of living and 2-plus years of marriage later, I’ve got more than a few gray hairs, and also a wee bit of combativeness about the wonder of chocolate. So I’m going to indulge; you only live once.

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Yam Som-O: Thai Pomelo Salad

rivka — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:33:11 +0000

I know, I know, I still haven’t posted about our trip to Thailand. Sorry! I did just go through my pictures this weekend, and gosh – we really had a fantastic time. The food was amazing and loads of fun to relive. Lots of obsessing about everything Thai is coming your way – I can’t wait to share it all with you.

The one thing you’ve already heard about (and heard about, and heard about) from our Thailand adventure is yam som-o, pomelo salad. Ever since I had it that first time, at an absurdly named but very tasty restaurant in Bangkok called The Foodie, I’ve wanted to recreate it at home. When yam som-o is done right, it’s the perfect balance of spicy, sour, salty, sweet, crunchy, and juicy. It’s downright addictive, and after falling hard for it that first day in Bangkok, I sought it out everywhere we went. The version at The Foodie was heavy on the crunch: I think the garlic and shallot were very, very lightly battered before they were fried. There were also a lot of fried herbs in it, which are hard to do in the US since kaffir lime leaves don’t grow on trees down the street. And their dressing was heavy on the tamarind and heavy on the palm sugar, which feels a bit like cheating (sweet salad!) but made stuff even more impossible to stop eating than it would have been.

The few street establishments where I had yam som-o made a much different rendition, with more (and fresher) pomelo, less sugar, and more herbs, none of them fried. The dressing at these street spots had tamarind and some palm sugar, but it also had coconut milk and loads of lime juice, which made the salad taste more like salad. Pomelo wasn’t in season when we were there; I can only imagine how much more of it I’d have eaten (and how much better?) if it were. So when I returned to DC to find that my local grocery had just gotten pomelo in, I pounced, splurged on three, and started testing.

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Grape Leaf Pie

rivka — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:00:15 +0000

I’m having a bit of a moment with Asian food right now. If you follow me on twitter or instagram, you’ve seen this borne out in a series of slightly-obsessive photos of yam som-o, pomelo salad, which I am very, very close to perfecting (and then posting!). This, of course, is because we traveled to Vietnam and Thailand in December. D so anticipates these obsessive bouts when and after we travel that she doesn’t even bother to roll her eyes anymore. She sees the packages of rice, tamarind, bamboo steamers, and obscure Thai cookbooks, makes me promise I’ll still make pasta sometimes, and lets it lie. Best wife ever.

It just so happens that my Asian cooking moment has coincided with a period of self-imposed exile from Mediterranean food. You wouldn’t know it from the number of recipes I’ve posted from Plenty and Jerusalem lately, but I’ve been taking a break from hummus, muhamarra,, and labneh. I ate too much of it in the fall, and I needed some time off.

The vacation was also a vacation from grape leaves, which I generally love but basically O.D.ed on back in November. After a not-particularly-successful attempt at making my own, I cut myself off. We ate a lot of pasta in December, and then we went to Asia. Now we’re back, and while I could eat pad thai for probably 2 weeks straight before needing a break, D has had enough Asian noodles to last her a lifetime. It was time to get back on the Mediterranean bandwagon.

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Herb Salad with Dates and Sumac Croutons

rivka — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:38:04 +0000

Every January, I tell myself I’ll eat more salads. The catch: when I’m not saying this with my mouth full of muffin, I’m swearing it in between bites of spaghetti. The cold months make it tough to get it up for leafy greens. Still, I don’t back down so easily. I empty my pockets for Next Step Produce’s arugula, which is not at all cheap – an insurance policy against wasting the stuff, I guess. I buy good olives and Asian pears, thick, aged balsamic and salty, herby Pecorino. I put all the ingredients in the fridge, nod knowingly. I will make salads. And then, when I get home from a long day at the office where the heat is broken and the air registers a nice comfy 50 DEGREES, I open the fridge, pull out the arugula, the olives and pears, that lovely pecorino, and pile it all on a square of puff pastry for a delightful winter tart that has nothing at all to do with salad. Oops.

For problems like these, dinner parties were created. If a plate of food gets served to company, it better have something fresh. Armed with a shred of dignity (I can’t actually serve them all just pasta, can I?), I finish the pureed sweet potatoes and green beans and quiche, take a deep breath, and toss together a salad. I tell myself that people will be warm enough, they will want to eat it. Sometimes, I’m right.

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Monkey Gingerbread

rivka — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:21:32 +0000

You guys know about monkey bread, right? It’s a pull-apart loaf made from bits of dough that have been rolled in lots of melted butter and sugar. Why it’s called monkey bread is anyone’s guess (though as Nancy Reagan not-so-famously claimed, the bread got its name ”Because when you make it, you have to monkey around with it.” Yep, I think Nancy was onto something.)

It’s the right time for invoking presidents and first ladies; tomorrow is inauguration day, and this city is once again thrumming with the energy of the millions of people here to partake in celebration. We’ve got house guests, and we’ve got the tv tuned to the right channels, but this time, instead of venturing out into the cold to be part of history, we’re taking it all in from our couch. We and our house guests are planning to cuddle up with something warm and sweet and chewy and delicious. It might just be monkey bread.

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