NOTE: Please see the updated recipe for blanching instructions – brighter, greener, happier green beans for all!
I love quick pickling. It is easy, fast, plenty of bang for your effort-buck!
These pickles are kosher for Passover if you use white wine vinegar, and you can tinker with the spices as you like. I like the beans to be crunchy, briny, and spicy. Use the larger measure of chili pepper for very spicy beans or the smaller amount for generous but not overwhelming heat.
My favorite meals are the ones that are simple but interesting to cook, and comforting but exciting to eat. The dishes that grant a few precious minutes of hands-off time to sit down, relax, chat with loved ones, or just sip a glass of wine before tucking into dinner. I especially like learning a new technique and many ways of applying it to my favorite ingredients.
Passover is coming! I thought I’d share some of excellent inspiration and recipes from around the web.
How do you start a blog? With a question, a quote, a declaration? With matter-of-fact practicality, high-minded opining, lyrical poetry?
I found myself dizzy with so many questions, my mind swimming with clever sayings and timelines and schedules and my own red marks of critique. In agony I turned to the advice of my beloved food writer, M. F. K. Fisher. A woman known for her voracious appetite for food, language, and love.
“First we eat, then we do everything else.”
With such bracingly simple words in mind, I give you Zesty Lemon Cakes – cupcake-size pound cakes made with olive oil and buttermilk.
Is there anything better than pound cake? Firm, but soft. Dense, but tender. It really goes with everything – lemon curd, berries, whipped cream, frosting, glaze, or just as they are – fragrant and utterly lovely.