My favorite Middle Eastern dessert of all time is Knafeh. Knafeh is a traditional Palestinian dessert made with cheese, shredded dough, and soaked in a sweet syrup. The dessert traces its origins to the city of Nablus, where it is most famously made with Nabulsi cheese. (more…)
I just can’t believe summer has come to an end already! It seems like it just wasn’t long enough this year. I mean, really … where did summer go? We’ve just crossed the Labor Day Weekend threshold (the Official End of Summer, at least that’s when all the swimming pools close), and my tan game slowly degraded as summer went on. In my defense, that’s because I was busing filling my weekends up with adventures of the non-culinary type. I had my fair share of BBQs, laying by the pool, and sitting outdoors basking the summer evenings, shisha in hand.
So for summer to end so abruptly (and yes, I will say abruptly since even Labor Day Weekend was rainy and cooled off so much it was almost too cold to swim) was such a disappointment. (more…)
I really love the idea of going to an orchard and picking your own fruits and vegetables. There’s an orchard out in Maryland that has pick your own fruits and veggies almost year-round. A few weekends ago, I went with a couple of friends, and one friend’s three kids to pick strawberries. It’s the perfect activity for kids. It’s outdoors, they can play in the dirt, and they really feel a sense of accomplishment when they pick out the perfect strawberry. While the kiddos filled up little blue cartons, I went ahead and picked enough strawberries to last at least 6 months. I may have gone a little overboard. All I could think about were all the strawberry desserts I was going to make with all these strawberries. Needless to say, I ended up freezing most of them before they started to go bad… but not without making Strawberry Eshta Cream Tarts. (more…)
The last month has been an absolute whirlwind. I went from planning and celebrating my 30th birthday – which was amazing, by the way – to hoping on a plane straight to Dubai for a week then Amman for a second week. I was able to spend just enough time in my own kitchen to whip up a not-too-sweet Candied Orange Semolina Cake, before jetting off to Lyon for a work trip filled with meetings (and lots of chocolate croissants). Unfortunately for me, I came down with the flu for the entirety of the trip, so I wasn’t able to fully appreciate the food capitol for all it has to offer. For those who follow Measuring Cups Optional on Instagram, my stories offer a first look at all my food and travel adventures. (more…)
I have this love/hate relationship with the beginning of every year. It’s new, it’s a fresh start, it’s 300-some days of opportunities. And it’s also the dead of winter, with no holidays to look forward to. On the bright side, that means we can all focus on our forever resolutions to lose weight. I don’t even consider it a New Year’s Resolution anymore, because I wish for it all the time. For everyone else who’s in the same boat, I have a fun, delicious solution for your dieting sweet tooth! Healthy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies are a game changer. The cookies are packed with everything good for you like bananas, oatmeal and peanut butter. You likely have most of these ingredients in your pantry anyway. Best part? No added sugar (except honey, which is a natural sweetener anyway). So it’s vegan, sugar free and gluten free. It’s a win-win situation. What I really like about these cookies is they take almost no time to make. The baking time only 15 minutes. (more…)
It’s been a lazy Sunday. So lazy, in fact, that I’m still in my PJs and rocking my top bun and glasses at approximately 3:48pm. It’s only a matter of minutes before the sun sets and I enter pre-Monday mode.
Pre-Monday is my least favorite time of the week. It’s the time after the sun sets before Monday morning when you realize you’ve wasted an entire day doing nothing. Or maybe you had a productive Sunday, or a fun Sunday filled with adventure. In any case, Pre-Monday is when you start thinking about everything you need to accomplish by the time your dreaded alarm rings and wakes you out of slumber.
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