Instrument of torture? Medical gizmo? Unmentionable item from the adult entertainment store?
Take a guess in the comments and you will get the answer in the next couple of days!
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Offering Today’s Post (and Prayers) for 14-year-old Pakistani Blogger Malala Yousafzai
9 Oct
Corrected photo credit – I hope this is right!: Malala Yousafzai in Islamabad, Pakistan, on 8 March 2012. Malala was shot and wounded by Taliban gunmen in Swat on 9 October. Photograph: T Mughal/EPA
The Taliban today attempted to assassinate a 14-year-old Pakistani girl who blogged in defense of education for girls.
Malala Yousafzai is now fighting for survival with bullet wounds to the head and throat. According to the BBC and NBC News she may very well survive, but she may never regain her speaking voice.
So today, I offer this post in tribute to her bravery and the importance of equality and education for women and girls.
7
Oct
(A note on this re-blog: It is Hot, Cheap & Easy’s Number One searched-for post in the late summer….a dead simple recipe that demystifies the pattypan squash! So as a public service, I am re-posting!)
These summer squashes — with their tam o’ shanter shape and luscious colors — look more pretty than edible, but they are really tasty, so have no mercy, grab them off that fall centerpiece and cook ’em up while they are fresh and tender!
This is a really basic recipe for roasting that I used recently when packing the oven with four different veggie dishes. You can boil pattypans, stuff them (Click here for a gorgeous and simple stuffed pattypan recipe!) , even grill them (brush with lemon and mint, yum, yum), but this will do the job if you just want to get the job done simply.
I do recommend scooping the seeds if there are a lot of them and you have the time.
Roasted Pattypan Squash
2 medium pattypan squash (about 1.5 lbs), quartered, seeds removed if desired
2 -3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1…
View original post 38 more words
29
Sep
Ahead of a possible apple-picking excursion tomorrow – a favorite recipe from last year, and a glimpse of last September 11th. Sorrow and comfort.
The start of the school year makes me think of cozy sweaters, red wine and apples. There are good things about the end of summer and those are three of the best.
It is also the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and a little comfort food is in order.
View original post 353 more words
Party Snacks: Tapenade (Black Olive Spread)
16 Sep
This is one spread that makes no excuses. It has full-on, big-ass, unapologetic, salty flavor: black olives, capers, anchovies…This is for your friends who really enjoy robust and lusty food and who will slather spreads generously and lavishly. It is not subtle, so don’t waste these party snacks on the tea and crumpet crowd.
Basic Home-Made Tomato Puree (freezeable!)
13 Sep
I have just done a listening exercise with my ESL students on The Marshmallow Test … a 1960s experiment that offered four-year-olds one marshmallow off the bat, but an additional marshmallow if they could just wait alone in a room for 15 minutes with that first marshmallow and not eat it.
Plunged into ice water and ready for processing into tomato sauce
Astonishingly the findings over time showed that kids who could delay gratification for longer times at four, were likely to be more successful socially, educationally and professionally when they grew up than the kids who couldn’t wait and sucked that first marshmallow down as soon as they were alone with it.
Back-to-School Freezer Fillers 3: Pollo Guisado (Stewed Chicken)
9 Sep
Pollo Guisado is one of those abuela (grandmother) dishes that Puerto Ricans and other Spanish-Caribbean folks grow up on. It is uncomplicated, but rich in flavor.
Yes, there is both wine and beer in it; that is not an error in the recipe! This is a modified and milder version of the classic Pollo Guisado which I have posted before (which uses flavorful chicken thighs rather than mild breast, and twice the beer). Very kid-friendly, it is best served with rice. It looks and tastes impressive, but is a cinch to make and is mostly hands-off.
Stuffed and Roasted Patty Pan Squash (Yes, you can eat the rind!)
6 Sep
Yes! Those adorable yellow Madeleine berets next to the zucchini and yellow squash are edible! You can even eat the rind!
I really need a steamer. And after this little experiment, I also need a new strainer. it went kaput!
Pattypan squash is the single most searched for recipe on this blog, so I know many readers are out there trying to figure out whatever to do with them. I was equally mystified when we first started getting them at our weekly CSA pick-up. But a little experimenting later, now I know they are loads of fun.
Green Tomato and Tomatillo Bisque (Life-Goes-On-Lessons from the Garden)
4 Sep
I got my first inkling of disaster from the Blogosphere.
The fabulous Karen of Backroad Journal chronicled her battle with late blight in a recent post about her tomatoes. I gasped. In my myopic focus on avoiding the blossom end rot that plagued my tomatoes last year – a result of uneven watering while we were gallivanting about the island keeping the boy on the hop and too busy/tired to cause trouble — I had neglected to consider the possibility of late blight. After all, wasn’t that all done with in the catastrophic 2009 season? (It should have been done with after the Irish Potato Famine of 1845, but apparently not). Continue reading
Pan-Roast Your Way to Flavorful Fat-Free Tomatillo Salsa
2 Sep
Wanna get roasty flavor from your tomatillos and tomatoes without added oil or turning on the oven? Try pan-roasting, an old Mexican technique that I learned about from Reed Hearon’s La Parrilla: The Mexican Grill (Chronicle Books 1996).
Pretty all the way from start to finish
According to Hearon, Pan-roasting dates back to the times when Mexicans didn’t have enough natural fats available to fry or sauté. It is pretty easy and gives an added depth to those bursting-with-freshness summer flavors. Just cook whole vegetables at a low temperature till they brown thoroughly and Bob’s Your Uncle! Continue reading
Natalia de Cuba Romero
Great food - Simply
Eat Your Way Through Puerto Rico: Chow Like a Native
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Unlock the Language of Puerto Rican Flavor
Click on the image to purchase the Kindle Edition!
¡Comida Hispana! Recipes to unleash your inner Latino
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Mango Mojitos With Ancho Chili Salt
It was another summer Friday in the neighborhood and that called for another festive cocktail. Riding high on the success of last session’s passionfruit mojitos, I decided to make mango mojitos. The drink itself followed much the same construction, but the mango was decidedly sweeter than the passionfruit, so I decided that it needed a […]
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Passionfruit Mojitos by the Pitcher or Glass
Summer evenings in the neighborhood can be wonderful. Occasionally on a Friday some of us neighbors bring out folding chairs and sit together in one front yard for a bit of happy hour while the kids go mental on someone else’s lawn. It’s pretty much BYO, but we do mix up a pitcher of experimental […]
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KID IN THE KITCHEN: Tembleque (Tropical Coconut Pudding)
We spent the better part of last summer in Puerto Rico, and among the tasty things that my little guy fell in love with was tembleque, a jiggly (temblar means to tremble) dessert that falls somewhere between pudding and flan. I promised him we’d make it back in New York, and this weekend, for a […]
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Sangría Tropical (and rainforest paradise pictures)
When the heat gets tropical, so should the drinks. On a recent trip to the mountains of Puerto Rico, I was inspired by a wonderfully cooling and exotic sangría I had up around and about El Yumque (Caribbean National Forest, the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. Forest Service system) at Noelia’s, recommended to us […]
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Salmorejo de jueyes (Land Crab Stew)
There are a number of land crab species skittering about Caribbean coastlines. Some are edible and the one we eat most here in Puerto Rico (although I am told they mostly are imported from Venezuela these days) is Cardisoma guanhumi which we call juey and — if you are English-speaking — you might call the […]
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