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…
Tag: easy
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…
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…
Curried Avocado (Indian Guacamole)
We used to have a beautiful potted curry tree in our apartment. We had grown it from a little baby plant that had come from the curry tree that used to belong to my husband’s Indian grandma. The leaves had the most wonderful scent and it was so lovely to be able to use fresh…
Rio Zape Pot Beans with Collards and Roasted Garlic and Jalapeno
There are two stars in this simple dish…home made vegetable stock and Rio Zape Beans from Rancho Gordo. I have started using Silvi’s system for making experimental economical vegetable stock. It is amazing how much excellent soup stock you can get out of a week of vegetable scraps! Of course, I am not a vegetarian so…
Strawberry Rhubarb Slump (with gluten-free dumplings)
I have been haunted lately by a vague memory of our Estonian grandmother making stewed fruit (plums I think) with delicious little dumplings and streaks of goat milk. It basically the sweet version of her vegetable soup with goat milk broth and dumplings. I have done a bit of research and I have learned that…
Thai Shrimp Stir-fry with Garlic, Cilantro and Peppercorns
I love the simplicity of this dish. It is based on a seasoning paste that is common in Thai cuisine. Unlike curry pastes, which involve many ingredients, this paste consists just of garlic, peppercorns (preferably white) and cilantro roots. The hardest part of making it is finding a grocer that sells cilantro with the roots…
Flower and Pheasant Egg Salad
My sister Silvi has been visiting me in New York City. Usually when she comes to visit, I work her to exhaustion helping me build puppets for some show or another and then tearfully beg her to extend her trip another month. This is the first time that she has come to see me just…
Spicy Beet Salad with Horseradish
I used to go to the Anyway Cafe in the East Village. I liked to order shots of honey ginger infused vodka, wild mushroom pelmeni and their amazing beet salad. We are all familiar with the standard restaurant beet salad…roasted beets, goat cheese, some sort of toasted nut or another. I often make variations on…
Big Sis Little Dish 