Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One Hundred Ninety Two (Father's Day Spelt Orange Crumb Cake Muffins)

FATHER’S DAY SPELT ORANGE CRUMB CAKE MUFFINS

I have allowed my self-imposed chaos to interfere with the ritual I created over the past few years of sharing personal recipes and the moments that inspired them.  Months have passed since I have posted a recipe, though I have a backlog waiting to be shared when I steal that moment of time. Father’s Day is too important of a day to let the meal and the men who inspired this recipe to go unnoticed.

I slowed down today, to honor my father, a great soul who I have missed every day since his passing in 2002, a man with a gruff outer self and the gentlest of souls, who provided the profound the lesson that being kind to the world is the best we can do in this complex web we call life; my husband, who is one of those one in a million dads, taking the time to listen, teach, guide, and simply have fun with his children as he joins them daily in their journey from infancy through adulthood; and for my many father friends both near and far, who have found both great joy and sorrow as they meander their way through the labyrinth of parenthood.

Here is a recipe that, similar to parenthood, is seemingly complicated, but if taken step by step, is not too daunting.  Though unlike parenthood, the rewards from this recipe come without any talking back.

Prepare 12 large cupcake/muffin pans with cooking spray or papers (I used coconut oil spray from Trader Joe’s)

Preheat Oven to 350F

STEP ONE – Mix Dry Ingredients in Step One in A Large Mixing Bowl

3 cups Vita Spelt flour

1 cup and 2 tablespoons organic sugar (I substituted with half coconut palm sugar)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

       

                        STEP TWO – Mix Wet Ingredients in Step Two in A Separate Bowl (put eggs in last so the warm butter does not cook them)

1/2 cup melted butter (skimmed – meaning, I boiled the butter on low and skimmed off the foam on top and left the settlement on bottom to make rendered butter)
1 cup orange juice

3/4 cup buttermilk  (I used whole milk, plus squeezed in 1/2 fresh lemon)

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs

STEP THREE – Make an indentation in the dry mix and pour in wet mix.  Mix ingredients together until well blended.  It is o.k. if it is lumpy.

STEP FOUR – In a separate bowl, mix the following.

       

1/4 cup and 1 teaspoon brown sugar (I used organic white sugar)

2-1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

chopped walnuts (about 1/4 cup)

       

STEP FIVE – In yet another bowl, crumble together the following ingredients.

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons of vita spelt flour

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons organic sugar sugar

2-1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons softened butter

1/4 to 1/2 cup oats

1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Once you have the steps done, create an assembly line for yourself:

• First, scoop batter into muffin pans until about half full. 
• Second, after you have the twelve cups half full, sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon/nut mix in the batter and swirl slightly.
• Third, scoop the remaining batter to cover the swirl.
• Fourth, top with struessel (crumble)
• Fifth, place pan in oven and bake for 22-25 minutes
• Sixth, let cool to touch
• Seventh, enjoy with the fathers in your life!

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One Hundred Eighty-Two (Spelt Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding)

CINNAMON RAISIN SPELT BREAD PUDDING - THE PERFECT MARATHON TREAT

The New York Marathon is in town!  Thousands of toned tonies have descended upon the City to show their super human endurance running 26 miles through this concrete jungle.  I totally admire and am slightly envious of these folks.  For god's sake, I am proud when I accomplish 2 miles!  Not that I would not want to be one of those Superhuman Toned Tonies, I'm just not.

To jog or to blog?  That is the question.

To blog, cook, bake, and clean.  Those are the answers.   That is my life - at least for this week while my spouse is world traveling and I am preparing to stave of the inevitable chaos of the coming school week.   The goal with baking and cooking on overdrive today is to make the mornings less grueling and the evenings less exhausting during my solo parenting week.

So far, I have made:
            Two batches of lentils with rice (mojadarah).  One has already been eaten.
            Cinnamon/Raisin Spelt Bread Pudding - already half eaten

My plan is also to make:
           Chicken Pot Pie (there are already rumors that it will be devoured in full tonight)
           Chicken Soup
           Stuffed Mini Eggplant
           Shepherds Pie
           Lubi - green bean stew
           ????

Perhaps too ambitious?  Maybe I should call this my own little marathon.  26 hours of cooking rather than 26 miles of running.

Here's the recipe for the Bread Pudding.  Definitely counterproductive to any two mile jog I have done, but  downright AWESOME according to two eleven year old critics.

Notice the beautiful organic sugar.
So much flavor and not that weird color white

Spelt Right Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Toasted to Crisp

Cinnamon Raisin Spelt Bread Pudding – adapted from All Recipes.com http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bread-pudding-ii/


9 slices Spelt Right cinnamon raisin bread.  Place on baking sheet and bake at 375 – 400 until crisp (10 minutes each side).  Let cool.  Break in to one inch squares.  Set aside.
2 TBL melted butter
1/2 cup raisins
4 eggs beaten
2 cups milk
1/2 cup organic evaporated cane sugar (so much better than bleached white sugar!)\
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon natural vanilla

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

What the Goo Mix
Should Look Like When Ready

Break bread into small pieces into an 8 inch square baking pan. Drizzle melted butter over bread.  Sprinkle with raisins.

My Young Friend Ying Adding the Ingredients

In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.

According to my two eleven year old assistants, Olivia (photographer) and Ying (baker), the bread pudding was TOTALLY AWESOME!



 Photos by Olivia K, age 11

Totally Awesome
Cinnamon Raisin Spelt Bread Pudding

Pour Goo into Bread
Just Before Baking

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred Seventy-Eight (Forks Over Knives Gone Awry)

So, I came home zonked.  Really pooped.  Tired.  And, I still had emails to write.  The sales calls promoting my fantastic Spelt Right products were more exhausting than hauling 250 pounds of flour and lifting 500 pounds of dough.  Now it is my fingers and psyche getting the work out rather than my back and biceps.

With every call and email, I put on my armor and a smiley voice.  The method is working.  We are sending out samples and getting meetings.  Just got to keep up the energy.  So got to keep in the protein.  And, how am I to do this on our new found diet - plant based diet?

Enter the 15 year old.  "Spencer, can you figure out what to make for dinner without meat please?" Answer, "Umm, not really."  Shoot, I thought his intellect would have pulled me through on this one.  Thank goodness his cooperative nature is still intact so he agreed to help.  He just needed some direction.

I could pull it off without the meat.  But eliminating the egg, dairy and cheese was out of the question tonight.  Solution: potato, spinach, egg and cheese layered casserole.  Again, I had a "culinary vision".  This could work.  It would fill us up, and could be done in less than an hour.

I directed the kid with the basics.  He pulled off the rest on his own.  The dinner was stellar, but failed the "Forks Over Knives" test.  It did, however, pass "The Mom Is Really Exhausted and Thankful" test.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 medium sized potatoes, sliced 1/8 inch thin, cut with the precision of a mathematician. 
• a bunch of fresh spinach, rinsed, spun, and de-stemmed
• 3-4 eggs
• some milk (let's guess at 1 cup)
• 1and 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
• salt, pepper and garlic to taste
• extra virgin olive oil for frying the potatoes

Directions:

• Put 1/8 cup of EVOO in frying pan.  Pan fry the potatoes until soft on the inside and a little crispy on the out (we did this in two pans to get the process moving)
• Place layer of potatoes on 9-12 inch baking dish.  Layer with spinach.  Layer with potatoes.  Layer with spinach.  
• Blend eggs, milk, 1 cup of grated cheese, salt, pepper, (and chopped garlic if desired)
• Pour over layered potatoes and spinach.
• Top with remaining 1/2 cup of grated cheese.
• Bake at 400F for about 20 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in comes out dry and cheese is all bubbly and tempting on the top.

Enjoy, sit back, relax, and think not of anything but of eating good things.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred Seventy-Three (On Birthdays and Giving Thanks and Complicated "007" Cakes)

"007 Cake"

Happy Birthday, Tim!

My husband was blessed with being born during the Season of Giving, so every seven years or so, this year being one of them, Tim's birthday falls on Thanksgiving.

Spencer gets quite revved during holidays because they provide a great excuse to make great cakes.  A double holiday leads to double the reason to make a doubly good cake.

We dubbed this cake "the 007" given the timeliness of the newest James Bond flick, and because of all of the gadgets that were used to create it.  But, as an afterthought,  we realized that this "the 007" was also appropriately dubbed for this Double Occasion: Thanksgiving with our crew of 5 and Tim's 52nd.

GERMAN CHOCOLATE SPELT CAKE - renamed the DOUBLE OCCASION "007" CAKE

CAVEAT:
This is at least a two person job (another double).  No person (especially a 14 or 15 year old) should be expected to make this alone.  Spencer spent approximately 5 hours making this incredibly delicious and rich concoction of layers of chocolate, butter, sugar, coconut, and pecans.  I spent about 6 hours following him around and cleaning up every bowl, gadget and pan it took to create this Double Occasion cake.

Ingredients (adapted from AllRecipes.com but revised significantly to meet our spelt and all natural requirements)

CAKE:
1/2 cup water
4 ounces German sweet chocolate
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups organic cane sugar
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
1 cup milk (need to make into buttermilk with lemon)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon
2 1/2 cups organic white spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 egg whites

 FROSTING:
1 cup organic cane sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
3 egg yolks, beaten
1 1/3 cups flaked organic coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions (REVISED 11/24/12)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 
2. Grease and flour 3 - 9 inch round pans. 
3. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
4. In a small bowl, make the buttermilk by mixing the milk and fresh lemon.  Set aside until curdles. (About 5 minutes)
5.  In a small saucepan, heat water and 4 ounces chocolate until melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
6. In a large bowl (or KitchenAid Mixer), cream 1 cup butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in 4 egg yolks one at a time. Blend in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing just until incorporated.
7. In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Then, fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain.
8. Pour into 3 - 9 inch round baking pans, which have been greased with butter.  Best also to cover bottom with parchment paper cut to fit the baking pan.
9.  Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto wire rack.
10. To make the Filling: In a saucepan combine 1 cup sugar, evaporated milk, 1/2 cup butter, and 3 egg yolks. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Cool until thick enough to spread.
11. Spread filling between layers and on top of cake. In a small saucepan,

ENJOY - and then go for a 30 block walk (twice!) in order to work off some of the double calories gained from this double treat.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred Seventy-Two (Spelt Crumb Cake to Carry Your Worries Away)

Yesterday I thought I would never escape my doldrums. I was more tired than I remember being in years.  My only option was to nap.  Finally, I had escaped into a dreamy bliss of not knowing where I was or having a care in the world. 

Nearly three hours later, I woke to the joyous sounds of Emma arriving home from college.  “PARENTS!! I AM HOME! NEW YORK, I AM HERE!”  

And, then everyone barged in on my pillowly bliss.  “HELLO MADJA” proclaimed Emma.  Then, Olivia and her pal Ying, showed up like little chirping birds.  “We’re hungry! We’re hungry!” Then Spencer chimed in waiting for that moment for me to wake.  “Mom, it’s time to make a cake!!!” Then, Tim came in with some hot chocolate.  

So, I got up, tucked away my worries and proceeded to the kitchen.  While I made meatballs, Spencer tried out his “new” KitchenAid (thanks to a friend) and made the best spelt crumb cake ever!

SPELT CRUMB CAKE

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2  cups organic white spelt flour

1 cup organic whole spelt flour

1 and 1/2 cups organic evaporated cane juice (organic sugar)

2.5 TBL organic molasses

2/3 cup BUTTER

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon all spice

2 beaten eggs

1 and 1/3 cups of milk with 1-2TBL freshly squeezed lemon juice (let sit for at least 5 minutes)

1 cup chopped walnuts

A cake to carry your worries away

Butter a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish. Set aside.

In a medium bowl. combine flour, sugar, and molasses.  Cut in butter until mixture looks like coarse crumbs.  Set aside 3/4 of a cup for topping.

Stir in baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and all spice into remaining crumb mixture.

In another bowl, combine the eggs, milk and lemon.  Add wet mixture to dry and mix together.  Pour batter into prepared baking dish.  

(If you have a KitchenAid, first mix the dry ingredients on low, and then add the wet ingredients and mix on medium until ingredients are all mixed together)

Combine nuts with reserved crumb mixture.  Mix together in crumb form and then sprinkle over batter.

Bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

ENJOY!!!  Savor each piece with your family and friends, tuck your worries away, and be sure to save a piece for friends. 

Lunch Box Chronicles, Day One-Hundred Seventy One (On Being a Flexitarian - Vegetables with Chicken)

flex·i·tar·i·an noun \ˌflek-sə-ˈter-ē-ən\

Definition of FLEXITARIAN  (
source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flexitarian )

: one whose normally meatless diet occasionally includes meat or fish

— flexitarian adjective

Origin of FLEXITARIAN

flexible + vegetarian

First Known Use: 1998

This recipe is dedicated to my formerly vegetarian, now flexitarian friend.   We both aspire to be completely meat free in our diets, but sometimes we just need a little comfort food – both for our bodies and our souls.

Baked Chicken with Vegetables, or in Flexitarain Lingo: Baked Vegetables Accented by Chicken. (adapted from A Taste of Lebanon by Mary Salloum)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 green peppers, de-seeded and sliced in rounds

2 large tomatoes sliced in rounds (field tomatoes are great for this)

2 large onions sliced in rounds
2 large zucchini sliced in rounds

1 large leek sliced in rounds

4 potatoes sliced in rounds

1 chicken cut up, or two-three bone-in breast of chicken

1-2 teaspoons of salt

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

1 tsp dried basil

4-5 cloves of garlic (crushed with salt)

1/2 bunch of fresh parsley (destemmed and chopped)

Set oven at 400F.  Wash and dry chicken (I do this by cleaning with salt and then rinsing – taught to me by my mother and grandmother).  Place all vegetables and chicken in roasting pan.  Add oil and all remaining ingredients.  Coat vegetables and chicken with oil, herbs, and spices.  Cover roasting pan.  Bake for 1 hour or until chicken is tender.

This is an easy comfort meal.  Perfect with Spelt Right rosemary bread - toasted with EVOO.  The kind of food to enjoy after weathering a storm.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One Hundred Sixty Five (The Bellwether Meal: Shepherd's Pie, Beth Style)

Cooking is my bellwether.

It’s not the literal sheep (wether) wearing the bell, and leading the way. But, it is the metaphorical indicator of my wellbeing.

Bellwether. Wellbeing. Interesting how close those words are juxtaposed. Or if I play with them a little more, it becomes WellBether.

How Weird. Cooking relates to a Well Beth.

Well, this Beth has not been so well the past month, and she has not been up to any cooking. So, cereal and pasta, if anything, it has been for this family, except for the few nights that Tim did some stupendous cooking.

But, I love to cook, and to write, and when both are stifled, it is an indication that something is wrong. The WRONG was a strange anaphylactic response to some unknown that lasted in various stages for about a month, followed by strep throat. It was like my body wasn’t my own.

Finally, happily, my body is once again my own. No more swollen face or scratchy throat. And, with this rejuvenation comes the impulse to cook and shop. Luckily, my new pal Ruthie likes to grocery shop too.

So after “schlepping” two dozen cases of Spelt Right product to the UWS Whole Foods for our upcoming demos, (thank you, Ruthie, for the Yiddish), we visited the Farmers’ Market on 97^th Street and loaded up on fresh locally raised meat and turkey, fresh grown veggies, and the rest. You know the scoop, summer and fall in the Northeast create a virtual cornucopia. Pure bliss for those who love to cook.

I decided to make turkey shepherd’s pie – hey, how apropos for a bellwether meal. The sheep and the shepherd are joining us for dinner.

As I was about to boil the potatoes, I decided to modify the recipe and use home fried potatoes instead and add ground turkey, and organic corn, and create a hash-like shepherds meal rather than in layers as in shepherd’s pie. Along with gaining my health back, I also gained some creativity. This was a “yum fest”.

Ingredients and Directions:

• 4-5 potatoes, diced, and sautéed on stove top with EVOO and a smidge of salt until golden brown and soft to cut.
• In a separate pan, sauté one chopped onion, 4-5 cloves of garlic mashed with about 1 teaspoon of sea salt in about 1/4 cup EVOO. Saute until golden brown.
• Add, one pound of ground turkey meat. Cook thoroughly. Salt and pepper to taste.
• Chop one head of curly parsley and add to meat mixture.
• Add in cooked potatoes.
• Toss together.
• Feed to very hungry and happy family and to one healthy mom.

This meal and blogpost are bellwethers of happier, healthier days to come.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One Hundred Sixty Four (I've Gone Bananas!)

SPELT BANANA BREAD WITH A SPLASH OF ORANGE JUICE

My intent was to write something funny, or inspiring, but I feel neither humorous nor inspirational, just a bit bananas.

Some of you know my story, others have bits and pieces, and many simply don't know or don't care. Don't worry, though, I'm not hurt. I get it! Everyone else's story can't become your own.

You would have too many layers to unfold, too many tangles to untangle. Life is too complicated. Inertia moves us from moment to moment. We do what we can just to survive.

And, we hope somewhere along the way that, if we work hard enough, hang tough, and remain dogged with our mission, we might actually achieve that which we set out to accomplish. But, I've been told that it also takes some luck.

Well, I've had some good luck. And have worked hard. And have hit some brick walls, experienced some bruises. But, I am still moving forward. My goal is to build a business - Spelt Right Baking - to have people chose better options for eating bread while having the grain spelt become a household staple - "Of course, I have spelt in the cupboard, right along side my quinoa, emmer, and wild rice." And to have Spelt Right be the brand that everyone associates with spelt. And, side by side with these goals, I hope to benefit my family and my business partners, for sticking by me, cheering me on, being a part of that essential luck, and keeping me from going completely bananas.

PS: Did I mention that Spelt Right is on its way. We did our very first demo in the NYC Whole Foods - Upper West Side - and we plan on doing many more. And, with a little luck, we hope to get into many more stores in this great city.

Here is a DELICIOUS recipe - whether you are going bananas or not.

SPELT BANANA BREAD WITH A SPLASH OF ORANGE JUICE

1/2 cup softened butter

3/4 cup organic evaporated cane sugar

2 TBL molasses

2 eggs beaten

1 cup whole VITA spelt

1 cup sifted (white) VITA spelt

1/4 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 ripe bananas mashed

Pre-heat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar; add eggs; beat well. Add dry ingredients. Mix. Add bananas and orange juice. Mix well. Butter and dust with flour a baking dish. You can use a flat Pyrex type dish, 9" x 7"or a 5"x 9" loaf pan. For the flatter dish, bake for about 45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. For the loaf pan, about an hour.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred and Twenty Nine (Happy Belated Birthday Emma)

It's been awhile since I have written as I have been working diligently to find the perfect partners to help Spelt Right grow while making our bagels and breads the best ever.   Life has been challenging - not challenging in a life or death sense - but challenging in a balancing the many pieces of a perpetually busy life sense.  Good thing I have good people in my life to reign me in at times.

My time this summer has been split between home and AWAY.  The kids' birthdays are one way to anchor me and those anchors have been one of my links to sanity.

Our cake boss days continue - Spencer has been on a cake making mission.   He made one in early June for his older sister's birthday - Emma - 19 years vibrant.

As always, the cake was quite amazing - soft, tasty, chocolatey - simply out of this world...On a recent business trip, I brought a piece of cake to my business associate from AWAY.   Perhaps not the best move.....We have created another addict to spelt chocolate cake - his simple request each time I return on a business trip - BRING A PIECE OF THE SPELT CHOCOLATE CAKE.

Enough on cakes and more on birthdays - I am very proud of my 19 year old.  She did a stellar job her first year in college, and now is doing a stellar job as an intern at the VIA advertising agency in Portland.  I like to take some credit that perhaps she learned some of her work ethic from her mom while making bagels at Spelt Right during the past three summers- but maybe I am taking a little too much credit.

Perhaps, this kid, now woman....is just stellar.   Happy Belated Birthday Emma.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Seventy-Five (Guest Chronicler Diana S.)

Well, folks, I have officially crossed over into another plain.  Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

I have learned new vocabulary words these days as we try to figure out how to transport our GLORIOUS Spelt Right bagels to faraway lands.  First word: LOGISTICS - sounds complicated and it is, but in simple terms means "how in the hell do we get this bagel from here to there without flipping over trucks, thawing out product, or breaking the bank?"  The second word is "REEFER".  Now, when I was in college and someone said reefer, it evoked images of smoke and dreadlocks, and perhaps songs by Jimmy Cliff.   In my NEW WORLD, REEFER is another term for a truck with a cooling unit in it a/k/a a truck that will keep our product safe from thawing out.   And, the third word of the day is "SLEEPER", which in my other world meant a boring professor or a slow movie or some lecturer who was pontificating about this or that.  In my NEW WORLD, SLEEPER means the cab of a truck, perhaps a REEFER with a cozy compartment in it for truckers to sleep in.   I also learned that SLEEPER means that the truck is configured in such a way that it simply can't negotiate the windy driveway at the beautiful SPARHAWK MILL, which in turn keeps me SLEEPLESS.....and still trying to figure out LOGISTICS.   

So with all of this energy spent on logistics, reefers, and sleepers, I simply have not had time to cook.  My kids are getting a lot more 'away from home' meals these days.   Good thing we have good food choices in Portland Maine.   Also good thing that I have good friends, some new, some aged-well, who are providing wonderful incarnations with Spelt Right pizza dough and bagels to post on the Spelt Right Lunch Box Chronicles.   Tonight I will post two such recipes, one from Diana (a friend from high school with whom I reconnected on FaceBook) and the other Steff Deschenes (a friend made this year with whom I have connected on FaceBook).  Both are very neat woman.

Here's Diana's recipe:

Grilled Spelt Right pizza: fresh veggies & sheep cheese!  

Now, I can't tell you exactly how Diana made this, but I am going to guess that she let the Spelt Right Pizza Dough rise to double its size inside the bag, and then GENTLY shaped the dough into some free form shape (who says pizzas always have to be circular?) on a pizza peel dusted with corn meal.   Topped with grilled veggies of her choice and SHEEPS MILK CHEESE.   She then gently schooched the pizza on a grill which was about 400 F......What can I say, my mouth is watering!   We have been saying that Diana needs to come up to visit.  Perhaps, the time is now.  I am HUNGRY.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Seventy-Four (Flayir bil-Flayfli - The Universal Language of Food)

I am so attached to food and eating and feeding anyone who crosses my path.   Food is the one link to my ancestoral past.  Imagine escaping your home, leaving all behind, and having family members scatter.  The images are lost, there are no papers, just memories.  But, when the memories fade, the languages are forgotten, and the generation who braved the escape is gone, those born into new generations have lost the links.  We are orphans longing for that connection.  But out of the gardens and bowls and ovens arise certain textures, aromas, and tastes that are like the spirits of our grandparents.  They linger; they evoke emotion and bring about comfort.

So it is.  My grandparents immigrated to the US around 1912 from the Middle East, leaving all behind, venturing into a new land.   Their children were taught to be "American" and to look whiter and dress cleaner, to lose the accent, and forget the language.   Their grandchildren so blended in the New World that there was barely a vestige of the past, except, that is for the flavors.

And, it is with these flavors, and the careful hand making of food that I channel my grandparents, thanking them for making the hard journey, for leaving their families, and for holding out hope for generations to come.   And, it is with these flavors that I feel so at home, so grounded and so connected to that lost world that I may never see and the language I will never learn.  And, it is with these flavors that I will pass on family history with tastes that no one will forget.

And, here I offer one of my situ's favorite recipes - yes, I know that I have posted this before, but good history should repeat itself.

And thanks to my cousin Donna who I saw at the Shogry Family reunion, I have found out the Arabic Name for these!!! Flayir bil-Flayfli

Two Spelt Right Pizza Doughs, fully thawed, double in size (we'll give you a picture this time)
Two cups walnuts (measure and then chop finely)
Two medium red peppers
One onion finely chopped
Juice from two whole lemons
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Mix all ingredients (except dough) in medium bowl
Cut 12-16 even dough balls (from two doughs)
Stretch or roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thick (more or less) rounds, place on oiled baking sheet
Place about 2 TBL of pepper, walnut mixture on rounds
Bake at 40-450 for 15-20 minutes or until dough is golden brown.

These are great hot or cold for breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner, or after dinner. Yum, yum, and yum. Always a two thumbs up.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Seventy-Three (PEACE of Pizza)

The humidity is putting a damper on home cooked meals.   No oven for me these days.  Thank goodness we have a grill.

We made some grilled pizzas yesterday.  The grill was bit too hot (500) so burned the bottoms.  Next time, the grill should be lower 400 with the center burner off to create convention but not direct heat in the center.   Here's a picture of our creations:   Spelt Right Pizza Dough, Anjon's Pizza Sauce, Hannaford Mozzarella, sauteed mushrooms and garlic, chopped onions.   As you will see, I prefer a thick crust on the grill so the goodies on top don't seep through.

Notice the Peace Sign?

Yum.