Subscribe to Emails About New Posts
Past Posts
Categories
Archives
Search
Tags
apricots Baklawa Bread breakfast bulghur cake candy Chicken chocolate Cookies Coosa Dessert Easter eggs Family fatayar favorite things Fruit green beans Harbor Springs Ice cream Kibbeh Laban Labne labneh Lamb Lebanese Lebanon Lemons Lentils Mazaher Menus Michigan Mint Orange blossom water Pastry Photography Postcards Potatoes preserves Rose Water Strawberries Up North yogurt za'atarLinks
- 101 Cookbooks
- 5 second rule
- A Cup of Jo
- A Life of Spice
- A Michelin and a Mom
- A Sweet Spoonful
- Antonia Allegra
- Canal House Cooks Lunch
- Diane Morgan Cooks
- Dirty Kitchen Secrets
- Domenica Cooks
- Food Wednesday
- Food52
- Fresh
- Great Crested Fly Catcher
- Harbor Light Newspaper
- Healthy Aperture
- Hunt and Gather Girl
- Jennifer McGlinn
- Kibbe & Spice & Everything Nice
- Kitty Morse Morrocan Cuisine
- Leite's Culinaria
- My Culinary Journey Through Lebanon
- Nutrition Unplugged
- Orangette
- Pure Michigan
- Sofia Perez
- Tante Marie's Cooking School
- Tartelette
- Taste of Beirut
- The Blender
- The Clothes Make the Girl
- The Italian Dish
- The Kitchn
- The Silver Pen
- The Wednesday Chef
- Tuesday Recipe
- White on Rice Couple
Monthly Archives: March 2012
Postcard from Up North
You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel (The last in a series of spring thaw on the water up north. No one makes … Continue reading
Grilled Lamb Lollipops with Fresh Mint Sauce; Chine on…
For me to present to you a perfectly procured, grilled, and sauced rack of lamb strikes me as a decent feat, given the lamb drama I have experienced over the years. Lamb failed me most humbly when my sister and … Continue reading
Technique: How to peel and prep a clove of garlic
Oh garlic, this little post given to you hardly seems adequate in light of how much you give to us. What dish does one not desire to inhale that includes the word ‘garlicky’ in its title? Is there a better … Continue reading
Ingredient: Lamb
It is true that for the most part, my family has replaced lamb with beef in many Lebanese dishes, especially kibbeh. But when special occasions bring us to the table together, it is the traditional Lebanese love of lamb that … Continue reading
Favorite Things: My Chef’s Knife
In Sitto’s little galley kitchen in her apartment in Lansing, there were predictable things: the yellow phone, the tall stool with a soft seat and back, the miniature gardening set with frogs painted on it hanging on the wall. And … Continue reading
Postcard from Up North
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy, for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. ~Anatole France (Birch tree, spring thaw, Walloon Lake. … Continue reading
Lebanese Spinach Pies, or fatayar, or whatever
You’d think I’ve been taking entrance exams for a job at Cook’s Illustrated. I imagine one of the more challenging tests they could give an aspiring test kitchen cook there would be: figure out how to make spinach fatayar that … Continue reading
Technique: How to roll dough for fatayar, spinach pies
Like talami dough, the dough for fatayar is different than standard bread dough. This dough is not nearly as wet as talami dough, but it is a sticky dough that takes just one rise (typically bread-baking is a two-rise process). … Continue reading
Ingredient: Spinach
Lebanese cuisine makes it easy to eat your spinach (or your Swiss Chard, as the case may be). My fresh bag full of curly, gorgeous spinach came from Pond Hill Farm, where they grow their greens in a bright white … Continue reading
Favorite Things: Heavy-Duty Sheet Pans
When you move out of one house and into another, things are bound to be misplaced. Or lost. Or simply forgotten. Recently I was at my mom’s looking for something else entirely in the basement cabinets when much to my … Continue reading
Postcard from Up North
When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge. ~ Tuli Kupferberg (Broken ice on Little Traverse Bay. Can’t wait to see what worlds will emerge with this spring’s thaw.)
Warm Dates with Toasted Almonds & Lime; a California story
Every day at Tante Marie’s, the best of our plates were saved for a special friend of the house. We took pains to be certain that he received our finest preparation of the starter, main course, and dessert from our … Continue reading
Technique: How to toast nuts perfectly every time
I was surprised the other day when discussing almonds with a friend. She said she prefers to eat them blanched, no skins, white as can be. I guess I just assumed that everyone else shares my taste for toasted nuts … Continue reading
Ingredient: Dates
It’s official. We are halfway through Lent, which for me means I’m that much closer to having my sweets again. I hope that the drastic fasting from refined sugar is going to gain me some heaven-points, but probably all of … Continue reading
Postcard from Down South
For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone. ~Audrey Hepburn (Tranquil colors of South Florida. They have calmed me … Continue reading












