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 Thirty: Vegetarian Day 3:Lentils Lentils Lentils

I am obsessed with food, recipes to be exact. I used to drive around, thinking about national and world events, thinking perhaps who might be the next Supreme Court Justice (Kagan, who?). I even asserted my views to our lovely Senators. I might as well have been saying "waa, waaa, waaa, waa, waa." Then there was the law practice. On my way to court, I was formulating every constitutional argument I could muster. "Your honor, I respectfully submit that my client's 4th, 5th, and 14th Amendment Rights were violated." And, in fact, they had been. Ultimately, I might just say, "and in the interest of fairness and justice." "waa, waa, waaa, waa"

Now, instead of wrestling with constitutional arguments, I think about such things as "Oooh, I wonder how cooked lentils, walnuts, and onions would be blended together?" "MMM, that might be a good combination, but needs something more."

Where have I gone? I have gone home. I am in my comfort zone (except when I am negotiating with supermarket chains and large distributors for my budding business). I love feeding my kids and my husband, and feeding them well.

This is so tangible, so accessible, so real. Yes, I care about the Supreme Court nominees and some poor individual who has been unfairly treated, but the reality is that I have little control over those worlds.

So here I am controlling every slice, chop, mix, and blend. And in my control today, a recipe formulated on one of those car rides....quite inexact (I apologize) , but quite good.

Ingredients: One Spelt Right Pizza Dough fully thawed and risen. Lentils, walnuts, onions, spinach (I used frozen), one red pepper, 1 cup brown rice, fresh garlic, salt and pepper to taste. A smidge of EVOO just for browning the rice and the lentils:

Instructions: Prepare rice according to bag (I saute the rice first in a little EVOO with garlic and then add the water). Prepare lentils according to bag (you want these to be slightly firm, but fully cooked). Put 1/2 onion in food processor, add about 1 cup walnuts (inexact), add some rice (this is where the precision falls apart), add a cut up red pepper, add some brown rice, add in a few garlic gloves, the spinach (it should be damp), salt and pepper. Blend all together. YUMMM. This stuff is UGLY, but tastes so good.

We ate this two ways: One, we added a few bread crumbs made from Spelt Right bagels, and made paddies and cooked them up on the stove top with a little EVOO. The other is to take the mixture and make a fitaya. Bake at 400 until golden brown. (Check out the photos)

COMPLETELY VEGAN, fully satisfying. Better than last night's meal,

And, if I were the judge, I would say "Attorney George, you have made your case."
And my kids, they just say, "hey this isn't that bad."

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Six (Ghiradelli Chocolate Baked in Spelt Right Dough)

Here's a short and easy recipe. One package of Spelt Right dough and Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate chips. As always, let the dough rise to double its size. Make 10-12 small rounds, flatten to about a 1/4 inch thick. Place 8-12 Ghiradelli chocolate chips in the center. Make a triangle. Bake at 450 for 8-12 minutes. Yumm. Definitely not for lunch, but perfect for dessert.

This is a quick recipe, because tonight was movie and story telling night, with little time to be food creative (though I did make some homemade caramel). The movie was a fantasy involving a legendary character Barron Von Munchausen and his encounters with a sultan. The movie triggered a memory of a story that had been told to me by my father (who would be 89 if he were still alive). My kids were mesmerized. This family story is about my father's grandfather or great grandfather (my kids' great great or great great great grandfather) who was enslaved by a Sultan in either Syria or Lebanon. His destiny was grim, BUT, he managed to win his freedom by convincing the Sultan that he could fight a bear with his hands and survive. Being victorious over the bear, my great great won his freedom, which (as I told my kids), eventually led to the birth of my great grandfather, grandfather, father, me, and the kids! We thank the bear for the sacrifice!

In honor of the bear, my great great grandfather, and generational story telling, we pass on recipes from our family to yours.