Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska

Review: Jasmine and Fire by Salma Abdelnour

Tiss'ye (Fatteh Hummus)

Jasmine and Fire: A Bittersweet Year in Beirut is Salma Abdelnour’s story (with recipes) of returning to Lebanon, where she hadn’t lived for thirty years. During her year in Lebanon, Salma contemplates the meaning of “home,” travels throughout the country, and thrives on eating and cooking Lebanese food.

With my gaggle ...

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Cookbook Review: Beginnings, My Way to Start a Meal by Chris Cosentino

Roasted Castelvetrano Olives & Cherry Tomatoes

San Francisco chef Chris Cosentino has a great new book called Beginnings: My Way to Start a Meal. It has wonderful recipes, Cosentino’s hand-drawn doodles and food musings, and Michael Harlan Turkell’s inspirational photographs.

Beginnings‘ recipes mirror the remarkable food served at Incanto, Cosentino’s San Francisco restaurant, and Boccalone, his artisanal ...

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Persian Fish Stew Inspired by Iranian-American Memoirs

Funny in Farsi

Whenever hostilities escalate between the United States and other countries, I like reminding myself that, like here, most people in those countries are just trying to live regular lives. They get up, dress their children, go shopping, clean their houses, go to work, cook dinner, and do their best to ...

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Piquant Tonnato Sauce at Seattle’s Artusi Bar

Tonnato Sauce with Vegetables and Pan-Fried Halibut

A dab of tuna sauce peeked out from underneath a glistening pile of deep red beets. My mouth started watering in anticipation. At Artusi Bar in Seattle, “baby beets with salsa tonnata” tasted as good as it looked. The piquant Mediterranean flavors of tuna, anchovies, and capers were a brilliant ...

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The Moosewood Cookbook: A Cookbook, An Obsession, A Soup

Gypsy Soup

In 1977, while a student, I lived in a Quonset hut in Portland, Oregon. My bedroom was painted white; the bed a mattress on the floor topped with a quilt made by my grandmother. On sunny mornings, rainbows danced on the curved white walls, refracting off crystals hanging in the ...

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Tastes Like Home: Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska On Television

Tastes Like Home: Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska

Just in time for the holidays, Chef Al Levinsohn invited me to talk about Tastes Like Home: Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska on his television show, What’s Cookin’. The show aired on Wednesday, December 14; the video is courtesy of KTUU-TV’s website (I’ve embedded it here because out-of-state friends weren’t able ...

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