Lebanese Maza Recipes
Cucumber Bites with Labneh and Olives
When Oscar time rolled around back when I was living in Chicago, I took it as a great excuse to eat a bunch of rich food and drink wine, while lounging in sweats, with my favorite pals. I always pulled out the stops not with Lebanese recipes, but what I considered Oscar-worthy guacamole. I like…
Read MoreSitto’s Spanakopita Recipe
Maybe it’s the cold weather hitting that makes me think even more about my Sitto, who grew up on a rugged farm in Nebraska a century ago. This was serious pioneer life, a life she described to us often in captivating stories. She told us how they’d harvest every fall, and how exciting it was…
Read MoreLebanese Meat Pies (fatayar). The raw and the cooked.
As I have discovered in the short time I’ve been married, even among the Lebanese there are differences in the ways families make their Lebanese recipes. As my teacher in culinary school used to say: likes and dislikes have a lot to do with expectations. Take the meat fatayar (pronounced fuh-TIE-yuh). The proper preparation of…
Read MoreKeep moving forward. Plus Watermelon Labneh Bites.
The watermelon and labneh together with the cucumber in these watermelon labneh bites make a super-pleasurable tidbit, and practically guilt-free! The enterprise of moving—the packing, the unpacking, the where-to-put-it-all—has taken up a good amount of space in my brain the last several years. I just counted out on my fingers (because that somehow makes it…
Read MoreMichigan’s Smoked Whitefish Dip Recipe
Everyone has their own. It’s like Lebanese seven-spice mix: which seven depends on who is doing the mixing, but the mix is happening, everywhere you go there. And for the record, it’s not always seven. I grew up on three (salt+pepper+cinnamon). Here in Michigan, where whitefish dinners reign supreme (and lunches too–I ate the finest…
Read MoreCrisp Lentil Patties Recipe
There are very few downsides to my work with Rose Water & Orange Blossoms. Except one thing: I share stuff, and then I’m held to it. Sweetless, Meatless March? It sounded good, and I was really ready to get off the sugar parade that had lingered since the holidays. Also the red meat: less is…
Read MoreLebanese Falafel
Homemade Lebanese Falafel Recipe This is just the very BEST Lebanese falafel recipe you can make, packed with fresh herbs and a luscious tahini dipping sauce. I’d like to get right to the heart of why, other than perhaps one or two bites, I had never eaten Lebanese falafel before I made my own, from…
Read MoreCheese Fondue Recipe (with…za’atar!)
It’s fondue time. And in honor of fondue, authentic Swiss cheese fondue, I have…no real story to tell. It’s SWISS, after all. Yes, we had a harvest gold fondue set back in the day, a cool looking one that would now be called vintage. I don’t remember eating much fondue with it, and my brother…
Read MoreBaba Gannouj Recipe, a super bowl…
This Baba Gannouj recipe is for the incredibly simple and delicious Lebanese eggplant dip, is seasoned with garlic and tahini–a perfect dip for pita chips and vegetables. If you are one of what now seems to be the very few people stateside who has weather that permits you to walk from your back door to…
Read MoreZa’atar Roasted Potato Wedges Recipe. And always on my mind.
Hi everyone. Are you still with me? I’m still with you, as much or more than ever, because you are who I think of as I’m working away at Rose Water & Orange Blossoms, the cookbook. Which recipes to include, which innovations to explore, what stories to tell…even though it’s a certain solitary path,…
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