Pumpkin With North African Flavors

I can’t believe I posted the recipe video for this Moroccan-influenced dish on my Instagram and YouTube, but not here. Pumpkins are still around in North Carolina, where I’m living now, but I’m not sure about China. I just looked…

Weekend In Boston & Wine Jelly

I had never been to Boston until my son, Leo, started college there. It’s not that I didn’t want to visit – I just didn’t have a good excuse. Plus, my up-to-date-on-tech-developments-but-not-so-much-on-urban-development husband was there years ago and claimed that…

5 Ingredients One Pot Green Soup

A friend has been sharing his pain with me about his heartbreak after a 10-month relationship ended—heartbreak that could have been avoided if he had been willing to fully commit to her. I listened, took his side, and held space…

Vegan Vegetable Gratin

There are only a few ways I can tolerate the sweetness of butternut squash: when it’s roasted and mixed with harissa or something spicy and tart that settles its intense sweetness, in spicy curries, and in this semi-gratin. I craved…

Simple cucumber Dill salad

Me: Can I play on the iPad? Can I stay home today? Can I stay up all night?Can we have sushi tonight? Can I go to a friend’s house? Can a friend come over? Can I have something sweet? Can I…

Beet and Beet leaves soup 

It’s only 10PM but I am drained and tired. Probably from politics, propaganda and worrying. The computer screen hurts my eyes, but before I crawl into bed with Barbara Kingsolver’s book Copperhead Demon let me give you this recipe before…

Spanish Sesame Cookies

These Spanish cookies (tortas de aceite y anís) are the delicate sisters of my grandmother’s anise cookies. They taste very similar, but the Iberian cookies are flaky and dissolve in the mouth. Whereas the Moroccan anise cookies are more rustic…

Vegan Chocolate Bar Topped With Granola

Vegan boy complains that there’s nothing sweet in the house. He threatens to go to CVS to buy candy. Neurotic mom says “Wait! Don’t go, I’ll make something”. Quickly she melts a bar of Trader’s Joe’s 72% dark chocolate and…

Roasted Cauliflower Over Vegan Yogurt

Summer, you’re hot, toasty, sweaty, smelly, exhausting, Yet, I miss you in the winter and welcome you with open arms in the spring. You and this refreshing and light cauliflower dish. This recipe works also with labneh or lemony tahini.

Quick & Simple Eggplant Dip

When I was a kid, my mother cooked eggplants at least twice a week. I didn’t mind the eggplant cooked with meat and tomatoes, but I found the baba ganoush disgusting. I couldn’t even look at it. My love affair…