Stories and Recipes
Fragrant Lebanese Chicken Soup Recipe
I know this is a food blog and that I’m a food person and that we all agree on how much we love to cook and eat. But I’ve got to admit: I haven’t been feeling great lately, and it has to do with food. Can’t eat much, don’t feel like eating much, and when…
Read MorePostcards from Drummond Island
The small-world meeting I had with my father’s remarkable law school classmate was also a big-world meeting–the big, beautiful world that is Drummond Island, situated along Potagannissing Bay in the Upper Peninsula. The island is cradled by Lake Huron in Michigan to the south and by Canadian waters to the north. Michigan, you’re such a…
Read MoreIced Brown Butter Pound Cake, dreamy good
Of all of the possible culinary meccas to explore during my time in San Francisco, the Ferry Market was the one I frequented the most. Every Saturday morning without fail during the year I lived in the city, I headed there with the same thrill I felt the first time I ever stepped foot in…
Read MoreApple Butter with Orange Blossom
This slow-cooker Apple Butter is intensely flavorful with warm spices, brown sugar, and the added beauty of orange blossom. I’m making a lot of an incredibly good apple butter these days, and it all started with the oatmeal. And habits. Which I haven’t always been great at forming. It’s taken some time and thought to…
Read MoreRoasted red pepper-walnut dip, Muhammara
Roasted red pepper-walnut dip, muhammara, has such great texture (thanks pank0!) and flavor (love you, pomagranate molasses!). Muhammara is always a winner–you’ll be handing out the recipe left and right…. I honestly had barely heard of let alone made muhammara when I worked as an intern at Boulette’s Larder in San Francisco. I had just…
Read MoreTechnique: How to Slice, Roast, and Peel a Red Pepper
The seeds in a pepper are annoying on lots of levels. In a hot pepper, they are the heat. You can love them or leave them. In a neutral pepper, they are not useful at all. When you cut your pepper, they fly all over the place and make a mess. Here’s an easy way…
Read MoreIngredient: Red Bell Peppers
Back in August, I went to Bill’s Farm Market up here in search of red bell peppers. There weren’t any in Bill’s bins, so I asked after them. Won’t be for a good month, Bill said. You can go out in the fields and take some pictures then. He knows me by now. So I…
Read MoreKibbeh Footballs, Arras Kibbeh
Kibbeh footballs, or “arras kibbeh” is an incredibly delicious and beautiful way to prepare classic Lebanese kibbeh. The balls are shaped with the kibbeh and stuffed with househ, a lemony meat/onion/pine nut mixture. Read more about kibbeh meat here, and kibbeh recipes here and here. Try poaching uncooked arras in laban, comfort food at it’s best.…
Read MoreFall Football Tailgate: Mom’s Oven-Fried Chicken
The fried chicken for our family football tailgaters has come from some auspicious places over the years. A big bucket of extra-crispy from KFC was not beneath us (my dad liked going to pick it up, because he could have an appetizer piece or two on the way home. I could tell he’d been eating…
Read MoreA Fall Football Menu: Tailgating, Abood-style
When you grow up in a college town like I did, you end up spending all of your fall Saturdays in the stadium watching football games. That was fun…but let’s face it, the tailgate party before the game has always been the bigger attraction for me. I loved going to Spartan stadium with the whole…
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