I used to make tomato pie from More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin, which (along with Home Cooking) is one of my favourite books. Tomato Pie the epitome of summer comfort food…tomatoes baked with cheese, herbs and a bit of home-made mayonaisse in the most delicious biscuit crust. I tweaked the recipe over the years to…
Cold Cucumber Soup with Dill and Sesame
When I was little and I would go to stay with my biological father for the weekend, he would always give a long English cucumber. I was responsible for not loosing my cucumber or getting it too dirty to eat and also for feeding myself when I got hungry. It was a pretty ingenious idea…
Shrimp in Aromatic Tomato Sauce
This simple, delicious dish requires curry leaves. You can find them fresh in Indian grocery stores (buy a bunch and freeze them for later!). You can also order dry curry leaves here. I used to have a curry tree and you can find the whole sad story of its demise in the Curried Avacado post. Once…
Snack Time on the Island of Cats
I am home now, but my sister and I recently spent the last two weeks of our month-long trip to Estonia on the island of Kassari (the island of cats). There will be some talk of snacking and foraging at the very end, but first some stories about our travels! Kassari is actually…
Peeling and Seeding Tomatoes- Why, How and When (plus a story, because I can’t help myself)
When I was seven or eight years old I went through a raw tomato eating phase. My grandpa Orr would make me sandwiches with miracle whip, home-made butter pickles and delicious ripe tomatoes from his garden. That dish would not fly with my health consciuos mother, but she did allow me to eat sliced raw…
Travelers Potato, Leek, Gouda Soup (For a rainy day in Tallinn)
In mid-June, my sister and I spent six days in Tallinn, which is the largest and oldest city in Estonia. Tallinn offers an excellent balance between modern and medieval. If you want to travel to Europe to see traces of VERY old culture and architecture and you want to travel to a place that is…
Traveling Fools
I am not usually a big maker of puns but even I could not resist. I am going to give you a “recipe” for a strawberry rhubarb fool and my sister and I are traveling in Estonia right now…so traveling fool. Okay I’ll stop… Last week, I was attending a Nordic-Celtic-Baltic Folklorist’s conference at University…
Green Fritters with Herb Sauce
Hey, there may be a pause before our next post. My sister and I are traveling to Estonia for a month to do folklore research and generally reconnect with our roots. It might take us a minute or two to recover from travel and suss out exactly what is actually included in the “kitchenette” of…
Slacker’s Caramelized Rhubarb Clafouti (gluten-free or not)
I know that the strawberries are finally in season and I should be moving on from the rhubarb. I know that this is my third rhubarb post this month. I know. The truth is that I have a hard time making it to the greenmarket early enough to get the strawberries. By the time I…
The Simplest and Most Decadent Strawberry Dessert
I used to obsessively throw large dinner parties. They were more like indoor picnics since there were usually about 17 guests and a definitely did not own a table large enough to seat everyone. We would spread a big cloth on the living room floor and set it with candles and my grandmother’s china. My…
Big Sis Little Dish 