Butter Boards are in and your girl is digging it because I love all things butter.
(more…)Pistachio Halva Butter Board
Appetizers
Whipped Feta Tomato Toasts
It’s unbelievably hot in Amman this week. They’re calling it a heat wave, and we’re hitting temperatures hotter than Aqaba (which by the way gets really hot in the summer). Central Air Conditioning isn’t a thing in most homes. It’s kind of like the heater thing. You only cool the room you’re in. In an ideal world, I would have central A/C and a swimming pool at home that I’d spend all day everyday floating on a pool raft and sipping ice cold Diet Coke while watching my dog play and swim. (more…)
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Arugula Cashew Pesto
I have this thing where I buy a ton of salad veggies with the intention of loading up on fresh salads all week. You know what really happens? I buy said salad veggies, put them in the fridge and then decide I’m not actually in the mood to eat salad.
Similar to using up those old bananas for Banana Bread, I use up my long-forgotten greens to make pesto. Arugula Cashew Pesto pasta just sounds so much better than a boring salad. We’re pretty much all familiar with the traditional basil pesto. What you probably didn’t know is that you can make just about any kind of pesto imaginable. The beauty of Pesto is that there are so many different ways to make pesto. By the end of this post, you’ll be able to make pesto out of just about any green leafy vegetable. I’ve already experimented with Parsley Pesto. (more…)
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Puff Pastry Baked Brie
I love, love, LOVE cheese! Have I mentioned that before? On any given day I can live on cheese and bread, and Diet Coke of course. Baked Brie is probably one of my favorite cold-weather renditions of cheese. There are just so many ways you can make it. I’ve toyed around with savory baked brie topped with a spicy cilantro walnut blend. My all-time favorite, however, is this sweet Puff Pastry Baked Brie.
Every time I’ve served my Puff Pastry Baked Brie, people have fallen in love with it. It’s really easy to throw together for a small gathering, a snack for game night, or even a fun starter before dinner. I’ve never made a Puff Pastry Baked Brie that didn’t vanish by the end of the night. That’s how good it is. (more…)
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Beet Walnut Dip
I’m generally not a picky eater. Really, I’ll eat just about everything, but there are a few things I just can’t get myself to like. Melons (all variations except watermelons) and beets. I just never liked beets—well, unless they were pickled with turnips. I avoid beet salads, and beets in pretty much any other form. But I decided to give beets another chance. Truth be told, it’s because I had some beets left over from making pickled turnips that I fully intended to give to my mom {an avid beet-lover}, but never got around to, and I just didn’t have the heart to throw them out. I gave them a second life, in dip form. (more…)
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Warm Caramelized Onion Dip
I love caramelized onions {pronounced car-melized, but I guess some people say caramel-ized. It must be my Michigan showing}. I have very vivid memories of my mom in the kitchen caramelizing onions for Mujaddra and sayyadiyeh — a fried fish and rice dish. Despite the fact that she’d close the kitchen door, I could always smell the sweet scent of those onions seeping through the cracks in the door. I’d even sneak in and steal a taste after she scooped them out of the pan. The best part, she always made extra so we could add as much as we wanted to our plates at dinner. (more…)
