Monthly Archives: May 2012

Rhubarb Rosewater Syrup

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Rhubarb syrup with yogurt from above POST

It all started when I arrived in Florida for a visit in March. My nephew ran out to the car but kept hiding from me, so I thrust my camera bag in his hand to keep him close. Carry this … Continue reading →

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Ingredient: Rhubarb

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Rhubarb close up POST

I knew rhubarb from a very young age because there was a huge row of it in the yard behind my grandmother Alice Abowd’s house in Fostoria, Ohio. She and my mother cooked the rhubarb into a sauce in the … Continue reading →

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Memorial Day on Main Street

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Main Street Parade Memorial Day

The brave die never, though they sleep in dust: Their courage nerves a thousand living men. ~Minot J. Savage

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Postcard from Up North

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Hulls POST

Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are. ~ Arthur Golden (Hulls in the marina boatyard, soon to find their … Continue reading →

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Lebanese Grape Leaf Rolls, a taste of Dier Mimas

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Grape leaf rolls with Mom POST

There is one thing I’ve always thought was a given about grape leaves: that fresh is best. In other words, that leaves picked when they’ve just unfurled from the vine in the spring and eaten immediately make the finest little … Continue reading →

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Technique: How to roll grape leaves

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Grape leaves on counter with meat POST

Just like with our baklawa, there is a distinction to be made between Lebanese grape leaf rolls and Greek-style dolma. They’re not the same! Ours are always more slender and smaller in general. How small you go is a matter … Continue reading →

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Ingredient: Grape Leaves

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Grape leaf jar top POST

I’ve got a secret. Or at least I used to have one, and like my mother and my aunts and my grandmothers, I carried it around in my purse until spring, right around this same time every year when bloom … Continue reading →

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Favorite Things: Kitchen Shears

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Kitchen sheers POST

I am the type of person who will pull hard on a plastic clothing tag to try unsuccessfully to remove it, until I’m forced to walk across the room to a pair of scissors, which snips off the tag cleanly … Continue reading →

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Postcard from Lebanon

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Sheep leaving Chateau Ksara POST

What is the definition of a good wine? It should start and end with a smile. ~ William Sokolin (Sheep grazing with their shepherds–in regular street clothes–just beyond the vineyards of Ksara. Old world and new, Lebanon’s ironies. Our wine … Continue reading →

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Lebanese wine, and tasting Lebanon.

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Wine cap POST

My itinerary for my recent trip to Lebanon included wineries, at the top of the list. I had lots of reasons for wanting to visit Lebanon’s wine country: the beauty of the vineyards that I hoped would be akin to … Continue reading →

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Another Favorite Thing: Vinturi Wine Aerater

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Vinturi aerater POST

The more I learn about wine, the more I see why I have always had such an affinity for it—at least since my college years, when we drank bad, cheap red wine late at night at Club 23 in South … Continue reading →

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Favorite Things: Wine Glasses

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Wine glasses POST

The thing about wine glasses is that I am a believer in the notion that the size, shape and material of a glass makes a difference in the wine-drinking experience…yet I love to buy, display and drink from wine glasses … Continue reading →

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Postcard from Lebanon, a moveable feast

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Chateau Ksara entrance POST

As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid … Continue reading →

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Cream Puffs with Strawberries, for Mom

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Cream puff with strawberry 2 POST

As you can imagine, exam time in culinary school can be stressful. We had three of them, and the first was in some ways the most challenging. That’s because we just didn’t know what to expect, having never taken a … Continue reading →

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Ingredient: Vanilla Beans

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Maureen Abood
Vanilla Bean POST

I’m a sucker for fragrant flavorings like rose water and orange blossom water. Vanilla is no less of a swoon for me, and I find its creamy, heady scent to be anything but bland. Why must we insist on calling … Continue reading →

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