All posts filed under: Worldwide

Celebrate Labor Day with 40 Cold Drinks from around the world

Hi friends! When someone asks how you are doing, do you reply “Oh, SO busy”? I recently read that being ‘busy’ is the new norm. Turns out that’s how many people are measuring their self worth and even asserting their status as an “important” person. Ugg. This makes labor day an even more important holiday in my book. A time to slow down, enjoy the bounty the world has to offer, and just… be… with your family and friends. I’ve compiled 40 cold drinks from your global neighbors for you to enjoy this weekend (perhaps not all at once, eh?). Bonus challenge? Vow not to say you’re busy for the entire month of September. Even if you are. #letsbanbusy xxoo Sasha NOTE: These recipes are enjoyed in their particular countries, but not necessarily exclusive to the countries. The African drinks we’ve tried on our cooking adventure include a lot of fresh, tropical fruits like mango, pineapple and papaya. There’s also a good deal of ginger (think ginger beer and ginger tea), hibiscus, and earthy spices like cinnamon. …

Around the world in corn ~ 20 recipes to celebrate the harvest

I can get behind a holiday in which corn on the cob is the star. The Green Corn Ceremony (a.k.a. The Busk) is just that – a Native American celebration marking the first corn harvest of the season… which usually occurs in August or September. Not only is The Busk a time to feast on corn in a variety of forms, it is a time to right old wrongs, clean the home, and purify the mind. Mind. Belly. Spirit. In honor of the harvest, I’ve gathered the dozens of corn recipes we tried when we cooked our way around the world. I invite you to try one of these recipes and share your photos on Instagram with #GlobalTableAdventure (be sure to include the people and food pics). Let us know how it went! I’ll regram the yummiest ones! (And be sure to leave a comment below with what you’d most like to try!) No passports required – by trying one of the recipes below, you can be where ever you’d like in… a… forkbeat! …

5 Global Recipes to dress up watermelon this summer

Thump the bottom of a watermelon and you thump millenia of history. The sound might be hollow, but the content is ripe. Origins of this hefty fruit trace back to Southern Africa, though fandom is widespread: even Egypt’s beloved boy Pharaoh Tutankhamen (a.k.a. King Tut) stashed away some watermelon seeds in his tomb to ensure an abundant (and refreshing) afterlife. Today, watermelon can be found all over the world and is especially beloved in Africa, Asia, and Oceania. While the simplicity of a fat slice is always welcome, here are a few foolproof ways to add a touch of elegance to your watermelon experience: 1. Watermelon lemonade [Recipe] Watermelon and citrus grow abundantly in West Africa. When the fruit is in season, piles of melons line the streets. This naturally pink lemonade is a great, easy way to use up extra watermelon (or even that not-so-perfect specimen). But, be warned this drink is hard to resist on a hot day – it’ll be gone before you know it! Try the recipe. 2. ‘Otai [Recipe] Here’s anther …

22 Campfire & Scandinavian Recipes to celebrate Midsummer’s Night

Midsummer’s Eve – the longest day of the year – is celebrated in dozens of countries with huge bonfires, maypole dancing, and glorious food. In Scandinavia, the sun never fully sets. But even if night falls where you live, you can still celebrate. To get into the spirit, simply drop out of big city chaos and into nature. This is a time to make flower crowns, swim in clear streams, sing hymns, and laugh more than is wise. Some say Midsummer is also a time for love. After long, dark winter the cheerful sun naturally warms hearts. One famous Swedish proverb states: “Midsummer Night is not long but it sets many cradles rocking.” It is also said that, if a woman is to pick seven flowers in silence and places them under her pillow on Midsummer Night, she will dream about her one true love. For me – already fully in love and married with a child – the main purpose of Midsummer is to enjoy the light with my family. Camping is a fantastic way to do …

If your part of the world was a burger, this would be it. (AMERICAS EDITION)

Photos of children by Tabea Huth, Rod Waddington , Christopher Michel. In honor of father’s day, and in consideration of the fact that I hardly ever make burgers despite my husband’s passion for them… I give you the world in a dozen burgers – a three part series to be presented throughout the month of June. First up? Europe and the Americas. Next week stay tuned for PART 2 several African burgers (I’m SO excited about these ones). Finally, we’ll complete our world tour with PART 3… burgers inspired by parts of Asia and Oceania… yum and yum. 1. The Caribbean | Jerk Chicken Burger Good Caribbean cooking goes hand in hand with scotch bonnet peppers (a.k.a. Habeneros… a.k.a. a little heat mon). For this burger I took inspiration from the Jerk Seasoning we enjoyed when we cooked Jamaica. This muddy green blend contains enough habenero to make a firefighter sweat, tempered with mild bell pepper, green onion, garlic, ginger, a garden of herbs (think thyme, basil, and parsley), plus a host of spices (say ‘yow‘ to allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and black …

21 of the World’s Best Grilled Eats

Have you fired up the grill yet? In honor of Memorial Day and the start of this year’s heat wave, here are some of the best grilled foods from our family’s around the world cooking adventure, including several vegan and vegetarian dishes. For more than 600 other recipes from every country in the world, check out my Countries I’ve cooked page. P.S. The recipes below may be enjoyed in multiple countries, but the countries identified below indicate at what point in our adventure we sampled the dishes. 1. Carne Asada | PARAGUAY (Recipe) Oh man. Steak marinated in garlic, oregano, fresh lime juice, and black pepper? Then sliced and served in a tortilla with avocado, tomato, cheese, and more? Yes, and yes! 2. Barbecue Ribs | USA (Recipe) These ribs are fall-off-the-bone good and blasted with paprika, brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, oregano, garlic, cayenne pepper, and cracked peppercorns. After a low, slow grillin’, they’re brushed with a lick of sweet barbecue sauce at the end. Need I say more? 3. Beef Suya | NIGERIA (Recipe) If ever there was a recipe that surprised me with …

Celebrate Earth Day with a DIY “Local Cheese Platter” & Wine

Can you hear that sound? It’s the Earth Day Bell, ringing, ringing, ringing. Ringing for peace. Ringing for love. Ringing for this world of ours. Imagine a world without the scent of gasoline, where people don’t use 5 paper towels after washing their hands, where we put as many resources back into our earth as we take out of it. And then imagine no one bickering, arguing, yelling, shoving – not when one a guy lets his girl down, not when she lets him down; not when we’re scared, hungry, tired. It’s a hard thing to imagine. But Earth day invites us to do exactly that – and imagining is the first step to realizing a new future. What is Earth Day? In it’s most simple form: Earth Day is when people from nearly every country in the world spend one day a year honoring our beautiful Earth and the concept of peace. The Earth Day Bell was first heard in Japan, but now many countries include the ringing as part of their celebrations. “Earth …

Go Global with 8 Edible Hiding Spots for your Easter Eggs

An Easter Tradition Easter Eggs are a thing in our house. We dye them. We decorate them. We gobble them up in two’s (it’s funny how a purple or green shell can make an ordinary egg taste eggstraordinary). When I was little Mom hid these boiled treats in the yard and, after we found them we ate them, still-warm from the sun. Today plastic eggs have taken over – probably because of one too many tummy aches after an overly hot Easter. But the kids don’t seem to notice; they scramble to collect these plastic shells, cracking them open to reveal stickers, coins, and candy. Each year the plastic eggs become more elaborate. Now they aren’t simply eggs, they’re monkeys or giraffes, baseballs or footballs. It’s fun, yes, but also starting to feel a bit… gimmicky. In the spirit of getting back to basics – to those real Easter Eggs of my childhood, I considered safe ways I could “hide” eggs for my daughter to find. Since it was 84F last week I knew the back yard …

7 Russian Dishes Worth Celebrating

Frankly, I’m embarrassed by the press’ coverage of the Olympics – it feels like the popular kids ganging up on the ‘outsiders’. While I don’t expect everything in the press to be all to be sunshine and rainbows, mean-spirited articles and blog posts whose primary goal has been to “poke fun” of the culture and people is a failure – a total disregard for the true purpose of the Olympics. We deserve more. They deserve better. The Olympics are a time to step up and celebrate each other – our athletes, our talents, that thing called dreams realized. I recently read a fairly negative article about the food in Sochi, with interviewees calling their food experiences “bland” and “different” (citing the pervasiveness of cow tongue on the restaurant menus as a negative), with “McDonald’s as a best friend”. To be fair, the author did come around by the end of the article and cite a few decent meal reviews. Still, the time has come: someone needs to focus on the good. Let’s be real: it is all too …

Cook a “5 senses” Valentine’s Day Dinner with these world-wise tips

While I love my husband dearly, there are times that our love feels so comfortable I’m at risk for taking him for granted. But then I smell some garlic frying in oil, maybe some tomato sauce bubbling on the stovetop, and I know he’s making me pasta for dinner. It’s nothing complicated – a simple gesture, really – but I know in that moment he loves me. Food, prepared with care, is the meaningful gesture that can fix just about everything, especially an in-the-rut relationship. To me, Valentine’s Day is about taking this simple attentiveness and amplifying it – by exposing our five senses to something new. After all, new experiences breathe life into the old. They help us notice. And so this week, while I’m finishing up a few more last minute edits on my memoir, I assembled some awesome food traditions and ideas from around the world that will have your heart swooning in no time… in every sense, with every sense. Note: These tips, though most might assume are geared for couples, are completely …

Oh my gosh, the things I’ve been doing…

For the last two months I’ve been writing (and rewriting) my memoir. I’ve been going into work early. Resuming work after Ava’s bedtime. And I loved it. I especilly loved the letters L,M, and N. I loved the solitude of deep thought that comes with getting so buried in how to describe something that I cannot hear anything around me. I loved going through the manuscript and marking things “BORING,” and then coming back to those passages and trying to think of better commentary, fresher description, or new perspective. I loved crying through the tough bits, and laughing through the happy bits. Because that is human nature. That is my story. It felt good to embrace it – recognize it. Finally. I loved drinking too many “1 shot, decaf lattes,” right up until bedtime – and I loved that the bartenders at The Pheonix not only knew my order, they’ve dubbed their coffee shop/bar/restaurant/library my “second and third place” (according the Cheers, everyone needs a home, a place to work, and a third place). I also loved recipe testing. …

The Global Table Experience

Would you like to be a part of something exciting? Something that’s never before been done? On October 12, 2013, I’ll be working with my community to try and put a dish from every country in the world on a 200 foot-long string of tables at the Philbrook Museum of Art. We’re calling it The Global Table Experience. It’s a peace statement; a way to say What if the entire world really could sit together around a single table in peace and harmony? The entire event is free and open to the public (yum!); if you can join us in person, we’d love to see your smiling face! Bring a can of food to benefit the Oklahoma Food Bank. But… guess what? Even if you can’t make it to Tulsa, you’re still invited. Here’s how YOU can join the Adventure: [dropshadowbox align=”none” effect=”lifted-both” width=”600px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ] 1. Pick a recipe from somewhere in the world to try. Try to choose something you’ve never had, possibly from a country you’ve never heard of. We …