Favorite Things
2015 Favorite Cookbooks
What a year for cookbooks! Seems like I feel that way most every year about cookbooks. Not so for fashion, or even food trends (cronut?), but the array of cookbook offerings just never disappoint. In the world of publishing, there are two seasons: spring and fall. Rose Water & Orange Blossoms was a spring release…
Read MoreUpcoming Book Signings + Events!
Rose Water & Orange Blossoms: Fresh and Classic Recipes from My Lebanese Kitchen has hit the ground running, and the events for the book are great fun. It’s been wonderful meeting many of you and sharing the path of my blog and book, and the delights of Lebanese cuisine. I would love to see you…
Read MoreIntroducing Maureen Abood Market, Lebanese Ingredients to love
For my dad growing up, working at Aboods Food Market meant missing plenty of good fun. Saturdays and any day school was out, he and his brothers were expected to show up in one place and one place only: the market. Shelves needed stocking, butchery needed butchering, and customers needed a smile—with quality, quality, quality.…
Read MorePomegranate Yogurt Smoothie. And at last: the Vitamix!
This past year has upped the ante in a big way for the appliances in my life, and I can’t help but find it thrilling. I’m not a woman who shrinks from a gift of a great tool (for the kitchen, not the tool shed). Jewelry or perfume have their place of course, but so…
Read MoreFavorite Things: Stone Herb Markers, and the stones of Harbor Springs
I don’t think there is a road you can take in Harbor Springs that doesn’t offer some formation or another of stones: retaining walls, yes, but also chimneys and lamp posts, pillar bases and home foundations and water fountains. They are so present that they become, as such presence often does, unseen. They are…
Read MoreFavorite Things: Gien, and platters for salads. Make it new.
It’s like when you eat dessert (pudding? Yes, pudding. Chocolate.) from a jar. Or drink wine from a juice glass. The pudding, the wine—it’s not the same, depending on its vessel. Some of us will agree on that point and others, not so much, but good friends don’t have to agree to love each other…
Read MoreFavorite Things: Coconut Extract (the real deal)
When you love coconut, you want to taste coconut. It took me years to understand that my coconut cream pies were just okay, and tasted more like vanilla custard pie with a little bit of coconutty chew rather than like truly tropical coconut cream. With all of the time I’ve spent in Florida (read: piña…
Read MoreFavorite Things: A roller rolling pin
Unlike my mother, I have never been much of a collector. Her mind takes just about anything she loves and turns it into a collector’s odyssey, a search-and-find presence of mind that is always with her. She’s done it with antique teacups, with her Fostoria glass, a slew of teapots, flow blue china and porcelain…
Read MoreFavorite Things: A Fondue Set
I have been lusting after a fondue set for years now. I thought when we moved out of Wagon Wheel Lane that my mother’s harvest gold, mid-70s fondue pot would turn up for me to claim as my own, but we never saw it with the big clear-out. I shouldn’t have been as surprised as…
Read MoreFavorite Things: Angled Measuring Cups
Measuring is serious business, especially when you’re baking. Most of us don’t use our Salter scales every time we add an ingredient to the mix, so the right measuring cups are important. My mom was the one who first started using the angled measure, and once I got a hold of them, well, she had…
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