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panzanella caprese
The other day, my friend Shannon and I were sitting at her table in her lovely home eating a panzanella salad made mostly of things from her garden. Her tomatoes were perfect, in all different colors and varieties, and I started to wish the whole salad were just the croutons and tomatoes and basil.
She said she liked the croutons the best too, and I thought it would be good to make my next panzanella with mostly those ingredients, like a caprese salad. All I did was take away the peppers and cucumbers, and added in some fresh mozzarella. It’s the best two salads all in one. I hope you enjoy it, too.
how to caramelize onions
Oh, how I love these!
The two keys to really good caramelized onions seem to be time and low temperature. High temperatures will cause the onions to cook too quickly and burn on the edges. If you don’t have much time, though, as is usually the case with me, you can raise the temperature to about medium. Just be sure to keep an eye on them, and stir them frequently.
I made these specifically for the sandwiches Brooke and I ate at our picnic, but they would be delightful in a warm pasta salad, mashed potatoes, or an omelette.
greek yogurt with honey and figs
My daughter, of course, wouldn’t touch this dish, even though it looks like a sunflower. My sons, however, did like it, especially the yogurt in the middle.
Some of these ingredients may be a little hard to find if you aren’t in a nicer grocery store. I found the figs and the Greek yogurt at Whole Foods, one of my favorite places on the planet. If you can’t find a Greek yogurt, substitute it for a vanilla whole milk yogurt, and drain it the same way as the directions. If you can’t find figs, you could also use pears, or strawberries, or anything else you would like.
Also, if you don’t have a cheese cloth, that’s okay. just use a couple layers of white paper towels. I used cheese cloth because the lines look pretty on the yogurt.
talamee
Connie, our wonderful guest mom, is back with us again and shares her recipe of talamee, a traditional Syrian flat bread. She and her husband came to our house a couple weeks ago to show me how to make it. This recipe makes a ton, so be ready to freeze what you don’t use the first day.
With our leftovers, we sliced the bread through the middle like a big ciabatta loaf and covered with sauce and cheese to make pizza. Then this morning, I mixed up some eggs, milk, cinnamon, and sugar. I crumbled the talamee into rough 1 inch pieced and dredged it in the eggs and milk mixture. I grilled it all together in a nonstick pan and made a cross between bread pudding and French toast. Yum.
talamee and family traditions, by Connie
My father was raised mostly by his Lebanese grandmother. She had already done her fair share of raising children, having 17 of her own, but when her daughter had to go to work in another state, she took in her two young grandsons.
kung fu panda soup
We’ve been watching a lot of Kung Fu Panda lately. The movie stirred up strong craving for noodles in my nine-year-old. This is what I came up with. He insisted on eating the soup with chopsticks.
I now present to you: Kung Fu Panda Soup.
mornings in maine
It’s June 3rd, and I have the heat on.
These rainy, misty days are my favorite days of summer. They remind me of my childhood in New England with windy walks on beaches and pinewood fires in the center of drizzly campgrounds. They were the days that gave us hope amidst the countless unbearably muggy days in between.
The chilly summer memories I hold most dear are the vacations we spent in Maine. One early morning, while staying near friends, we ventured out to Blueberry Hill to pick blueberries. On the way home, we found a red raspberry bush with the most delicious berries. I still compare all raspberries to those I had on that vacation, and only rarely do I ever find one that rivals them in taste.
For many years, I thought that Robert McCloskey had based his book Blueberries for Sal
In the afternoons, we would run around with our friends’ Golden Retriever. Her name was Sunshine, and till this day, if ever I hear the John Denver song “Sunshine on My Shoulder,” I think of those vacations in Maine and get a catch in my throat. (Yeah, I know, whatever. I’m a sap.)
This Cream of Wheat with blueberries and maple syrup brought back my memories of Maine.
If you have never tried cream of wheat cooked in milk, then I would strongly suggest it. It is like eating pudding for breakfast. If you would like a vegan version of this recipe, that tastes like a creamy version of mangoes with sticky rice, substitute the milk for a cup of light coconut milk. Follow the same cooking instructions, and garnish with turbinado sugar and mango.
lentil soup you’ll absolutely love. trust me.
I know for some of you the weather is getting a bit too warm for a soup like this, but I wanted to sneak it in before the summer. It is one of my favorite soups. It has tons of fiber, tons of vegetables, and tons of flavor. I make it, freeze it, and then anytime I want to feel good about what I eat, I pull a bowl of it out my freezer and heat it up for lunch.
Though I changed this recipe so much that it is definitely my own now, my inspiration came from a book my friend Shannon gave me. It’s by America’s Test Kitchen and is called The New Best Recipe
Oh, and I just want to briefly mention that the toast in the picture there is from the same baguette I froze a couple weeks ago. All I did was pop the frozen pieces in the toaster.
black bean tortilla soup
The kids are on their second week of spring break (aaahhh!!), and they were watching so much TV that the cable box and DVD player froze up (I only TRY to be a good mom—never said I was one). So now they’re keeping themselves entertained by making up songs about Spongebob Squarepants and Star Wars.
Here’s a chicken tortilla soup I adapted to be vegetarian. It uses chipotles in adobo, which you can buy in a can in the Mexican food aisle. Any leftover chipotles can be frozen in an airtight container for up to a year.
mâche and jicama salad with edible flowers
Sorry for being gone so long. We didn’t have the Internet for a few days.
I spent about a half an hour roaming around the produce section of Whole Foods the other day, trying to find the makings for an interesting salad. The first thing I saw was the edible flowers. I absolutely love how they look. Many edible flowers are quite peppery and pleasantly floral. However, the box I bought had some varieties I had never tried, and I knew some had the possibility of being bitter. If that were so, I didn’t want to add fruit to the salad, as I was afraid it might contrast too strongly against the bitter flowers and create some discordance. Instead I went with a more analogous flavor scheme. I chose vegetables ranging from peppery radishes, to nutty mâche, and finally to neutrally sweet jicama. I introduced some fruity tang later with the vinaigrette.
vegan burritos with quacamole
I’m still on vacation, so today I’ll post a recipe I made up over a year ago.
I love these. I make a big batch, let them cool completely, wrap them each in plastic wrap (you could also use paper towels), and then freeze them in a large sealable container such as a gallon size ziploc bag. Whenever I want a healthy lunch or dinner, I just heat them up in a skillet with a little olive oil, and serve them with the guacamole. I never even miss the meat or cheese.
