In less than one year, I’ve finally made it to 100 posts! Since this seemed quite the milestone, I decided this post needed to be something special, but what to write about? After a little thought, it hit me: I should write about one of my favorite lazy Sunday lunches. It’s the lunch that, in tandem with a blog post, kickstarted the idea to start a food blog (more on that in this first post).

The lunch – spicy cig kofte and stuffed zucchini blossoms. It’s a lazy Sunday lunch not because it’s a quick and easy meal, but because it’s one of those meals that you savor and enjoy while sitting under the sun, shaded by umbrellas, while sipping sparkling water and good wine. It’s not how I first enjoyed kofte, but I’ve done it since, and decided it may be superior.

So what is kofte? This dish is raw lamb, minced with numerous spices, and served with pita. I first enjoyed this dish at a Lebanese restaurant in Dubai while I was on my honeymoon. Upon ordering the kofte, which was listed on a menu page with “RAW” written not only at the top but down the side, the waiter said, “But ma’am, that is raw”. Yes sir, but I like to live on the wild side!

Long story short, I loved the kofte and long after arriving back in the States, I craved the dish. With some birthday money, I picked up a couple of cookbooks from Greg Malouf, one with Lebanese and Syrian dishes, and one with dishes inspired by Turkey. Low and behold, the Turkish one had a kofte recipe! (more…)

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Appetizers, Dinner, Lunch, Mid Eastern by Courtney

One of my favorite weekend or weeknight activities is to plop down in front of the TV, find a classic movie on Netflix, and give myself a pedicure. Most of the time I do this with a bottle of rose or bubbly, but today I was feeling… healthy (must’ve been that whole wheat zucchini bread I made, never mind the 4 cups of sugar in it). So I decided to make a batch of flavored water.

This is great not only for spa days, but also for afternoon get-togethers when you need to beat the heat. (more…)

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Dairy free, Drink Time, Gluten free, Quick and Easy, Vegan, Vegetarian by Courtney

If you want to make things really easy on yourself, prep your ginger in advance. When you get home from the store, use a spoon to scrape the skin off of the ginger. This removes only the peel, without wasting the meat of the root (note: it works best with really fresh ginger; if your ginger is a bit older, you might still need to break out the paring knife). Then, pop the root into a freezer bag, label it “ginger” (because you’ll get it confused with horseradish later on), and stick it in the freezer. Now when your recipe calls for grated ginger, bust out the microplane, grab your ginger from the freezer, and zest away. Soooo much easier than mincing by hand with a knife!

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Prep for Later Use by Courtney