Sides: Spinach Frittata (Parade of Pies, Part 10)

When I was a child, every party the family threw had “spinach cupcakes” for the kids. We all loved them, probably because we thought they were cupcakes and not healthy grown up food. As an adult I make them because they are a huge crowd-pleaser and are pretty quick to throw together. I’m too lazy to wash cupcake pans, so I make these “brownie” style and just cut squares. They make decent finger food as well.

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Sides: Braised Onion Tart Tatin (Parade of Pies, Part 8)

We’re finally done with the dessert pies! As good as those all were, savory pies are one of my latest obsessions. Making a savory pie can be just as easy as making a sweet pie, but for some reason we don’t always think of them. We should, however, because savory pies are a great way to feed and impress a lot of people at once. Think about it: you pick a filling, execute, and then all of the sudden you have a gorgeous meal that can feed eight people, give or take. This pie is a perfect example of one of those impressive, but actually pretty easy pies. And for all its looks, it was a pretty inexpensive pie to make as well, since the filling was mostly made up of onions.

Serve this as a side to any meal. This is great for potlucks, since it is not likely to be duplicated by other guests. Those who prefer not to eat meat, dairy, or eggs will be relieved to have a complex dish on the table that is not just another pasta salad. 

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Tangy Bulgur Salad and New Foods

We were recently invited to a potluck lunch with an ingenious theme: “New Foods.” The host wanted guests to bring foods that would most likely be new to him, and hopefully the other guests. I gave the challenge a lot of thought. I eat a lot of weird things, so I had plenty of options. But I wanted the food to be new to me as well, at least in preparation if not in flavor. So my thoughts immediately turned to Syrian food, which contains many familiar elements of other Middle Eastern cooking, but often goes a little more savory and tangy than sweet.

While most people are familiar with some Middle Eastern flavors, I often find that Syrian food, especially the cuisine originating in Aleppo, is really unknown outside of that ethnicity. That probably has to do with the fact that most Jewish Syrians live in the New York area, and there are very few Syrian restaurants. In my family, all the best cooks cook for family functions and their homes are like exclusive restaurants, though none of them cook professionally. I think this has to do with the way that cooking for people you love might be different than cooking for customers. What it amounts to though, is that unless you have a Syrian friend, you probably won’t get to taste a lot of the more unique Syrian dishes.

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Pumpkin Hummus

Between the CSA we joined this fall and all the great prices on squash at the markets, we ended up with a cache of winter squash to figure out what to do with this year. We ran through the basics pretty quickly, with pumpkin pie, butternut squash soup, and stuffed acorn squash; even a few out there experiments like curried butternut squash and an unfortunate black bean and pumpkin soup. But I find that I can only handle having squash as a main dish once or twice a week at most before I get sick of it, no matter how good the dish.

To remedy this issue, I thought it was high time to figure out how to use pumpkin as an appetizer instead of the main course. I did all kinds of googling to see how other people use pumpkin as an appetizer and found that it is much more commonly used as a dessert, which shouldn’t have been surprising. And as appetizers go, I’m pretty lazy, and I’d rather not have to make dozens of bite-sized anything if I can avoid it.

And then I stumbled upon a great idea: pumpkin hummus! I didn’t want to have to shop and get tahini though. And pumpkins aren’t really known for their protein content, so I didn’t think it fair to make a hummus without chickpeas. Either way, pumpkin as a dip is a great way to get that pumpkin flavor in before dessert without it taking over the whole meal. The flavor is bright and exciting and is a great addition to any holiday party.

As long as I have winter squashes in the house, I will also probably have pumpkin hummus.

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Iron Chef: Lemon!

At the beginning of the month, my workplace hosted a large event. The centerpieces at event contained lemons. After the event, lo and behold, my entire office was awash with lemons. At first, everyone smuggled home pursefuls of fresh yellow fruits. After a week of that, however, there were still far too many lemons around. Someone had the brilliant idea to hold a friendly office-wide competition: Iron Chef Lemon!

I knew that with the stress of this week, launching a big project at work and taking care of things at home on the weekend, I wouldn’t have time to come up with anything new or incredibly complicated. I did try one new lemon recipe, but it isn’t ready yet (don’t worry, I’ll post as soon as it is, success or failure!). Instead, I decided to “submit” my Syrian Lemon and Olive Chicken. While I was excited to share my own dish, I was most looking forward to seeing what everyone else would come up with.

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