My husband loves Brussels sprouts. Problem is, he always eats them the same way: cut in half and roasted. Boring! So when I saw a recipes for Israeli (pearled) couscous with brussels sprouts and chick peas, I decided to try it. I would see if Zeke would actually eat couscous, and have a more original way to eat his favorite veggie. Continue reading
Have you ever had tinga before? I hadn’t until I made this. Basically, it’s shredded meat in a tomato-chipotle sauce.
I made these one Sunday to have dinner ready for the next day. Actually, that same Sunday I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Do you ever do that, spend a lot of time in the kitchen on Sundays? I bet you do. I like to prepare for the week ahead, that way my time in the kitchen on weekdays after work is significantly diminished.
I am always boring when it comes to fish. I always make salmon or tilapia, and don’t often vary the recipes. Well, the first time I saw Ina make this fish, I knew I had to try it. But I didn’t. And then I saw the episode again, and I remembered how badly I wanted to try it last time. And then I saw it yet another time, and still I hadn’t made it. Well, come one random Wednesday night, when I just didn’t know what to make for dinner. And Stephanie wasn’t helping, but she knew she didn’t want anything with tomato sauce (she had red sauce two nights in a row) or meat (since she had meat the night before). Fish it was! And I racked my brain trying to think of some easy (I was cooking in my mom’s kitchen with limited resources) yet delicious fish recipes I heard of recently, and immediately looked this one up. Continue reading
I love making lasagna for company. It’s not so easy, but it’s something that can be made ahead of time, making the day-of much easier to handle. This lasagna is a little different and “dressier” than the classic cheese-and-tomato-sauce or meat-and-tomato-sauce kind. Plus, it is a nice filling main dish! We all really enjoyed it, and I’m glad I made the entire box of lasagna noodles and made a little extra of this for the freezer. That’s right, lasagna is a great freezer food!
We have a baby foodie in the house! He’s older than 6 months, which means we are thinking about food. And although right now he survives only on breastmilk and single veggies, pretty soon he’ll be sharing family meals with us. Which is why when he was born I had to buy Tyler Florence’s new baby food cookbook Start Fresh. First of all, Tyler Florence is awesome. Second of all, I love people’s takes on what babies should eat. He thinks baby’s first food should be baby carrots (the real kind, not the cut and bleached processed kind). Continue reading
I like to stock my freezer with different kinds of veggie burgers. Of course, you can buy these pre-made in the grocery store, but homemade things are just more fun! Not to mention better for you, tastier, and cheaper. But enough of that…you know all this already. This veggie burger (I know, we’ve shared many with you since the summer. One more can’t hurt, though) uses quinoa as the protein and has a much softer (read: mushier) texture than the rest. It’s great on a salad with some roasted or fresh veggies or a homemade hamburger bun with chummus. Continue reading
Remember when I made paneer? That was really only so I could make this dinner! A fragrant and spicy spinach dish flavored with garlic, cumin and green chiles. This was a good start for a Syrian cook, spice-wise, since I already have whole cumin in my pantry. So you don’t have to go spice shopping just yet!
I actually couldn’t find green chiles, but poblanos are pretty close, and they sell those at Fairway. Continue reading
I love Yemenite soup. Lucky for me, I live pretty close to David’s and I can order it in any time. But like any foodie, I had to try to make it myself. The first time I tried, it was a major fail. It was too thin, not meaty enough, and I really just wouldn’t share the recipe. Fast forward a few months, and someone told me that the Taste cookbook had a great recipe, and I knew that I needed to find someone with a copy and look at the recipe. And I did. I changed the recipe just a bit, and prepped all the ingredients. Much to my surprise, the soup was SO easy to make! Except for the spice mix, but that was Zeke’s job.
Want the taste of Chinese food in your very own kitchen? This beef and broccoli dish really tastes like Chinese food! And there’s no MSG. And you can make it with brown rice and not charge $1 extra. I just wish I had a wok, because that would make cooking this dish extra fun. Try it even if you don’t have one. Cast iron works wonders. So do dutch ovens. Continue reading
When Stephanie sent me this recipe to try, I giggled. And then I knew I had to make it. Pea puree! I decided to make this on my next day off. It’s a perfect Thursday night dinner, in my opinion, and since I already had all the ingredients, except for the salmon, wouldn’t take much thinking (Yes, you should always have peas in your freezer). Also, good thing I live pretty close to a fish store. If I didn’t, who knows if this would have ended up on the menu. We loved this. The broth was lemony and fresh, and really added a nice flavor to the salmon. The pea puree was just delicious, and oh-so-easy. I love peas. They are delicious in a puree. The salmon was great dipped in the puree. Just a good combination altogether.
