The leaves are falling, orange, red and gold, making the trees look like scratchy skeletons. The days are short; night falls before dinner is over. We all have head colds. Something drastic has to be done in times like these; I had to improve the situation. So, I did what any normal person would do. I served up an entire menu of sweets for our Latvian Global Table. Sweets always make everything better. Yes, a happy collection of apples, cranberries, and sweet bread is just the ticket. What sounds good to you? Latvian Apple pancakes [Recipe] Apples are at their best right now. Start of the morning with a bite of these thin apple pancakes, seasoned with cinnamon and cardamom. The final touch? A scoop of yogurt inside and a drizzled of honey on the outside. Baltic Cranberry Sauce [Recipe] Latvians love a nice piece of pork with cranberry sauce. Let’s be honest, the sweet-tart flavor of cranberries can make shoe leather taste good. Latvian Birthday Cake (Klingeris) [Recipe] Technically, this is not so much a cake as a …
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Maybe it’s this time of year – when the days are wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of holiday preparations and living so far away from my Bostonian roots feels so excruciatingly wrong – but five minutes into cracking the book on Latvia and I felt like I was in New England. Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But, with Latvian’s weighing in with favorite foods like apples, cranberries, meat, potatoes, and gingerbread – it’s hard not to draw the comparison. Apples make their way into sauces, pancakes [Recipe], ciders, breads, pastries and more. Cranberries are whipped up into layered bread puddings, traditional cranberry sauces [Recipe], and jellies. Meats are stewed and potatoes are served alongside, often boiled. And gingerbread? It makes its way into cookies [recipe], houses [epic], and more. The deeper I dug however, the more I realized the resemblance to my hometown ended there. Latvia is loaded up with other dishes I haven’t seen anywhere near Boston. Just for starters, there’s aspic (gelatinous savory jellies filled with chunks of meat and vegetables), sauerkraut, fishy potatoes (tossed with herring and smoked …
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THE SCENE: Just Getting There. Friendship is funny. Good friends don’t need much of a reason to get together. On this particular day we decided to celebrate the simple fact that I had a giant wheel of brie. Good enough. Friends gathered, wine poured, and a six person, 3 kid potluck was born (I told you I was making an effort with friends). For two entire days preceding the potluck I worked and reworked the Flija (this week’s traditional Kosovo campfire cake). The better part of 6 hours had been spent hunched over the broiler, browning dozens of layers of batter. My shoulders, my back, my thighs – everything ached. At 5:03, minutes before the first guest arrived, I pulled the flija from the broiler for the final time. It was warm, soft and smelled of tangy kefir, the yogurt-like drink so popular in eastern Europe. My mouth watered but before I could cut into the large layered cake, the doorbell rang. I quickly deposited the hot treat on a trivet and ran to the door. Exactly …
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I love presents. Surprises. Happy faces. So does my daughter. Imagine her ecstatic two-year old delight, then, when her dinner was a lidded present filled with a bounty of rice, sausage and beef? But the real surprise wasn’t her reaction – it was Keith’s. My very own Mr. Picky has been asking for stuffed peppers ever since I made them last week.Who knew this man would fall so hard for a simple stuffed pepper. Who knew he’d be so easy to please. He’s right, though. And, for the record, so is Kosovo – the lovely country that inspired this dish. So pull up a chair. Today we’re feasting on chilly autumnal food. Festival fall food. PS. This recipe is beloved in Kosovo where peppers, tomatoes and eggplants are all stuffed. Feel free to add your favorite herbs. Once you try it, you’ll be hooked. Makes 8-10 small stuffed peppers, or 6 large Ingredients: 1/2 lb ground sausage (pork or chicken) 1/2 lb ground beef 2 large cloves garlic, crushed 1 onion, chopped 1 cup rice, cooked (about …
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Flija, flija, flija… Have you ever loved someone so impossible that they made you want to tear your hair out? Have you ever known someone who seemed really complicated at the time, but when you really, really think back, you realize they were about simple as it gets – that just maybe you were the complicated one? Have you known someone whose company turns minutes into hours, until you forget hunger in a the wake of good conversation? Do you like to whittle? How about the opposite – slowly adding bits and bits to something until a whole forms? You’ll experience all of the above with Flija. It’s a total workout – mind, body, and soul. I’ll guide you through it. Here’s the deal. Once in a while I make recipes on this blog that take a extra effort, like the twenty layer German Tree Cake (a family favorite). Other times, I make recipes that are incredibly simple but are designed to be as much an activity as they are a meal, like Hungarian Bacon on Sticks (genius). Today I bring …
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I found a new favorite quote. It’s about peace, but it isn’t cheesy (something amazingly difficult to come by). In fact, I think this quote really gets at the heart of the matter – at what I’m trying to accomplish here. I’m sharing it today in honor of Wednesday, “hump day” – the day that is neither the beginning of the week, the end of the week or the weekend. It’s the time of the week when everything drags just a little. I’m also sharing it in honor of neither being at the beginning, middle, or end of this Adventure… but steadily plodding on course to finish eating the world for peace in exactly 2 years and 2 weeks. As you’ll read, perhaps steadily plodding away is the only way. Perhaps that’s the way it should be. Here’s the quote: “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.” JFK And here’s a bit of food from Kosovo, shared in the hopes that it’ll …
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Kosovo boldly proclaimed independence in 2008. Apparently the deal was highly contentious, but as you know… I’m not here for the politics. I’m here for the food. What does this mean? It means I’ll take any chance I can get to cook food from around the world. So, with that being said – welcome to Kosovo week at the Global Table. Let’s eat! If you weren’t paying close attention when you sat down, you might think you were in America during Thanksgiving. You’ll find a spread of pumpkin pie, meat and potatoes, and – speaking of meat – there’ll be meat, meat, and more meat. Even their traditional beef and rice stuffed peppers [recipe] show up in American cookbooks as “traditionally American.” Did I mention they like meat in Kosovo? While more than one country can certainly have similar traditional food, I find it fascinating that nearly all of southeast Europe shares the affinity for the stuffed pepper with America. (They also stuff eggplants and tomatoes). Then there’s the shopska salad which we made for Bosnia [recipe], …
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Serves 4 There’s no way around it. Jerk chicken is supposed to be blacker than a starry night – and more sizzlin’ than that smokin’ hot hotty you wake up to every morning (Hi, Keith!). Typically cooked in a barrel smoker, Jerk gets it’s distinctive flavor and color from low, slow cooking over smouldering all spice wood. The long cooking time gets the jerk seasoning extremely caramelized. Now, for those of you who want to go all out, you can easily get your meat much darker than mine (and spicier), by basting the chicken with extra jerk seasoning as it cooks. I had a toddler to feed, so I kept it a little lighter. Ingredients: 1/2-1 recipe Jerk Seasoning 4 lbs chicken legs and wings, or other dark meat For smoking: 1/2 cup whole allspice hickory wood chips, as needed OR Allspice wood chips, as needed Method: So exactly how black is Jerk chicken supposed to be? Blacker than Jamaica’s Black River. (and tastier, too) To get the most flavor, marinate the chicken pieces for …
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THE SCENE Many things about Italian cooking involve family. Sharing. Loud conversations while laughing over nothing. But this is not always the case. For example, I waited an entire week to tell Keith …. a.k.a. Mr Picky … a.k.a. the man with the most hypochondria ever… about the eggs. The raw eggs. In the tiramisu. It was mama’s lil’ family secret all week long. Hear me out – my logic was sound. First of all, I’d made the thing three times. Each time, it became exponentially more fabulous. My friends at the Girl Scouts practically swooned over the second version – I think the word used was “Luscious” – with a capital L. The third version made our friends Alan and Michelle weep. Well, maybe not weep. But eyes did roll. And thirds were administered to already full bellies. Right before bedtime. The night before a 6 am fishing trip. Considering the tirimisu contained enough espresso and rum to jump start an entire marching band, this was a miracle of miracles. Anyway – back to Keith and the …
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Makes one large trifle (Serves at least 8) Your day was hard. Maybe you have a party coming up. Or you are out of ice cream. Perhaps your favorite DVD got scratched. Or your 20 lb cat left a 1lb hairball on your favorite sweater. I have the answer for everything: make tiramisu. Trust me. After a hard day, tiramisu is easy. It’s the perfect dessert for fancy parties and casual parties. Plus, you won’t ever crave ice cream again. Well… not while tiramisu is hanging out in your fridge. After one taste, you’ll be so in love that you won’t care about the DVD or the sweater. It’s just stuff, after all. Tiramisu, however, is glory on a spoon. Glory that you can scoop up at midnight, when no one is looking. Plus I have a few little secrets that’ll make it the prettiest tiramisu you’ve ever seen (or tasted). NOTE: Please start this recipe the night before you need it. Also, you can make caster sugar (aka fine sugar) by putting some in a …
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Makes 1 large batch. Enough for at least 150 standard ravioli & more noodles than you know what to do with. Slap. Roll, roll, roll, roll. Slap! My great grandmother, Assunta, made pasta dough with the strength of a hundred Italian sailors. Mom, just a kid then, was not allowed to touch. Instead she was told to sit quietly and watch. She remembers how, as Assunta rolled the dough thinner and thinner, it gradually swallowed up the table and heavy oil cloth covering. Eventually, all you could see was the giant sheet of dough – thin enough for spaghetti, linguine, tortellini or – as was typically the case – ravioli. I’ll tell you right now… The secret is in the slap. By occasionally slapping the dough down onto the table, the gluten relaxes, making it easier to roll out without springing back. That and generously dusting the dough as you go. Ingredients: 5 cups flour 4 large eggs water (about 1/3 cup, or as needed) Method: Find yourself a lovely Italian villa with an outrageously …
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As far as I’m concerned there’s only one way to enjoy a movie: cuddled up to a plate of stuffed artichokes. I’ve already managed to brainwash the rest of the clan into agreement. I started young with Ava – at 10 months old she became enamored when I found one the size of her head. Today – at just two years old – she’s an artichoke eatin’ pro. To enjoy your next movie with an artichoke, you just need three accessories: a giant bowl for the discarded leaves, napkins, and a small bowl of melted butter with fresh lemon juice squeezed in, if you like that sort of thing. My husband doesn’t…I do… So we have separate dipping bowls. This recipe has been passed down in my family for generations – although everyone makes it different. Mom actually never wrote her version down, so I had to watch and try to memorize her steps. Lucky for me, it’s really easy – just stir everything together, pile onto the trimmed artichoke, steam for 45 minutes-1 hour and enjoy. …
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