Panfusine

I'm thoroughly reveling in the season. The calming aspect of tending to my little vegetable patch, which has been colonized by grass, and more important, seeds from my plants last year, dozens of little tomato saplings sprouting in natural disarray, Tiny carrots and red radishes that I'm so tempted to yank out and chew on, but refrain, and a whole patch of fennel &  Delfino cilantro with their delicate leaves. I cant get over the fact that they made it out through the harsh winter. At times, I feel that the right side of  my brain has finally opened up, awakened by flavors & aroma of the culinary kind. I had twosweet potatoes sitting on the counter, and suddenly felt an urge to blend in the colors of spring.. Pink stems from Swiss chard and delicate green chives. As I combined these 3 ingredients into a bowl, my fingers fluttered over the rows of spice blends in my kitchen cabinet. Harissa? a tad too garlicky, Berbere? too much cardamom, Tawa fry ma...

 Many a time, Simple is best, after last month's exotic Flaounes , it was a pleasant change to  have a quick & easy recipe from Aparna  Balasubramanian . And yet, I managed to put off baking until today. I really need to snap out of my lethargy, & hopefully the laundry list of pointers I've acquired from the BlogHer Food conference  will help me do that. As far as breads go, it does not get much simpler than these elegant Petit Pain au lait ( Milk Bread) The original versions are sweet with a generous sprinkling of pearl sugar, but the majority ruling at home (a.k.a my eight year old miniature 'Anton Ego') shot that idea down, instead preferring a savory version. I had to do some serious improvising with the original recipe that Aparna provided, but the end result was well worth it. Improvisation # 1 was obviously swapping out the sweet version for the savory. The second was that I had only skim milk at home, so I boosted the amount of butter in ...

As much as I loved being a 'Newbie' at last year's BlogHer Food in Austin, It was a whole new level of experience this year in Miami. For one, I traveled with the family,  and while Mommy was attending the conference, the kids were taking full advantage of the beaches and hotel swimming pool. Thanks to severe weather  in Miami, what was originally supposed to be a 2 3/4 hour flight lasted over 6 hours. One hour on the tarmac at La Guardia, with a trip back to the gate just to fill up on extra fuel. and then when we finally took off towards Florida on a longer alternative flight path, the aircraft kept circling around for about 90 minutes before landing. We finally landed in Miami, hungry, and tired out with one hyper cranky 5 year old in tow.. My older one was way too excited about the holiday to whine. As a result, I had to give the sponsor receptions a miss even though I had accepted the invitations. The swag bags at the registration were quite bulky, so had to ...