Category: Food

Bringing Bitter Back

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The 2015 December issue of Saveur includes a Bitter Melon tofu stir-fry recipe. It reminded me of my grandmother who would, much to my childhood discontent, insist on starting every lunch with Bitter Melon Bhaji. Worse, she would offer the second course, usually a delicious light fish or chicken curry, only after evidence of a finished bitter melon plate. Bitter Melon was the unwelcomed gatekeeper of lunchtime deliciousness.

My grandmother was a staunch believer in bitterness, a Bengali version of the British stiff upper lip. For her, all sweetness came at the price of bitterness. “The more you laugh, the more you’ll cry,” all the cousins joke. Bitter Melon wasn’t a vegetable, it was a philosophy. I had misinterpreted the lesson as a prescription to avoid the sweet, in order to avoid the bitter. Instead, it should be: accept the bitter and the sweet, equally. It makes life full and robust, a meal savored and stretched between bitter, salty, spicy and sweet. An appreciation of bitterness maybe a taste that is acquired by diligent practice and age. My love of cooking is no small part due to my grandmother’s slow, methodical, everyday practice of cooking. Here’s to you, Bubu.

I’d like to bring bitter back as a taste to be savored along with others, instead of avoided or feared. This is my bittersweet New Year’s Resolution: To finally embrace the Bitter Melons of my life.

Recipe for Bitter Melon Bhaji (Serve 4-6)

  1. Wash two or three bitter melons depending on size.IMG_2372

  2. Slice length-wise and scoop out seeds (some leave seeds in if melons are young)IMG_2373IMG_2374

  3. Massage with salt and rinse with cold water for a few minutes. Rinse. Drain. Let dry.IMG_2375

  4. Put 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a hot pan.

  5. Fry a medium sliced onion until soft and starts to brown.

  6. Add 1/2 a teaspoon of turmeric and salt to taste.

  7. Add a julienned medium potato.

  8. Fry until coated with turmeric. Bright and yellow.

  9. Add the bitter melon. Fry over gentle heat. Cover.

  10. Simmer, covered until potatoes and melon are soft and edges start to brown and caramelize.

Serve with warm white rice and digest all the day’s bitterness away.

Magical New Year of Eating

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Happy to be back here, sitting on my red chair looking out from our end of the cul-de-sac through the picture window,  writing to you and with you. I’m excited to report that I ate so well and so intently that I have MUCH to share with you the coming weeks. By virtue of this blog I will savor the two weeks of vacation for another four weeks. Gosh, I so enjoy eating, cooking, reading and writing that have the ability to make time go fast and slow. Magic.

The first discovered taste I’d like to share is this:

Kaboom Books in Houston, where I found this:

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What! It was such a magical discovery for THE HUNGRY PHILOSOPHER …..that I started talking about myself in third person!!!

A fun and thoughtful read that proclaims the spirituality of food. Here are a few excerpts:

“The umbilical cord between yourself and the world is the cooking pot. We pass reality through it, and it is indicative of the sort of world we live in. It is a crucible, an alembic in which we are linked with the world, magically if you like.”

“Herbs and spices do for your dishes what grace does for your actions — they give them zest and an inner meaning. The graceless life is the life which has lost it savour.”

“Salvation is to love something real rather than merely having an idea of right or of money or of liberty or whatever. Cooking is a great opportunity for love and therefore salvation. Love the leisure of the simmering pot and the long drawn out thought of the people you wish to please. For God’s sake don’t throw a commonwealth of meat and vegetables into the pot and clamp the lid on in order to have time to look over the agenda for the next meeting. It is the love of ideas which makes us cruel and not the love this bit of meat, these potatoes, this child or wife or husband.”

Hope all of you hungry-philosophers out there had a wonderful winter holiday surrounded by love and good food.

I wish you the magic of eating that makes your world a graceful and kinder place.

More later.

Hungryphil

Examined Eating in Georgia

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As the second image shows, Christmas dinner in Austell, Georgia was soothingly summer on a plate. The last stop during my holiday travels it represents how far my taste buds have traveled in place and time. Recipes for half of the plate begin with “grow your own okra, green beans, corn.” The other half of the plate with smoked turkey, dressing and gravy had all the longed-for familiar and savory holiday flavors. The magic of homegrown summer vegetables made the dinner extra special. Dennis and Rachel are most definitely blessed with green thumbs, patience and gardening knowledge. As the last image shows, dinner was greatly appreciated and enjoyed. Just simple, homey and delicious. Can’t get a more local dinner than what’s grown in the backyard!

Fried Okra

  1. Grow okra and pick at appropriate time.
  2. Slice 1/4″ thick pieces. 4 cups.
  3. In a colander pour 1/4 cup of buttermilk over sliced okra.
  4. 1/2 cup flour + 1/2 cup white corn meal. Place lid and shake until pieces are coated.
  5. Shallow fry in an inch of canola oil.
  6. Drain on paper towel and watch the okra disappear.

Creamed Corn

  1. Grow corn and pick at appropriate time.
  2. Shuck and silk.
  3. Soak in water.
  4. Cut off cobb, twice. Once, if big grains are desired.
  5. Scrape.
  6. Cook on stove over low heat, stirring constantly. Bring to boil.
  7. Salt and butter if needed.

Green Beans

  1. Grow Blue lake green beans.
  2. Take ends off, string them if needed.
  3. 4 cups broken into 2 inch pieces.
  4. Boulion cube + 2 cups water + black pepper.
  5. Boil until tender.

Gravy

  1. 2 Tbs Olive Oil + 2 Tbs flour in pan. Stir until brown.
  2. Add 1 can chicken broth.
  3. Add 1 can cream of chicken soup.
  4. Add boiled and chopped turkey liver, neck meat, giblets and two boiled eggs.

Still need to add Patti’s dressing recipe and Dennis’ Smoked Turkey recipe. More to come.

 

 

Examined Eating in Fortworth, TX

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The plate is a left-over recreation of a meal that my fantastic cook and all around awesome sis-in-law, Moli made for us. Goat biriyani, chicken roast, and potato chop (like a croquet), olive pickles [missing the mixed vegetable dish and the cucumber raita salad]. It was a festive meal, full of familiar flavors associated with joyous celebrations. I was ten again eating and celebrating with my family. It was delicious nostalgia. Thank you so much Bhabi for feeding us so well.

img_2312 Bhabi led the stroll-down memory lane with many snack stops that included, “jhal muri” [a combination of puffed rice, tomatoes, onions,cilantro, mustard sauce (kashundi) and chanachur (fried crispy spicy lentils, nuts and chips)], patties, chow mein noodles, paratha and butter chicken, home-made salsa and chips, pudding, kheer, ras malai and more.

We also went to a grocery store that had a whole aisle of frozen Bangladeshi fish, shelves of Radhuni (Bangladeshi brand) spices and other very specific Bangladeshi products. This was about far away and long ago eating, different from the farm-to-table principles I’ve been researching. Is it possible to merge the two forms of community building immigrant and local into a transnational glocal convivium? That requires more eating. Back at Forth Worth’s India Bazaar, we had tea and samosas (the crispy meat filling kind, not to be confused with the potato filled Shingara). It was like a flipping through an old photo album with my mouth.  The nostalgic magnetism of remembered tastes is so powerful.

I used to believe that these familiar tastes were my only home, but now, having been at home with many tastes, I realize that my “home” has grown to embrace more people and places than ever imagined. This ability of food to put us at ease is magical.

Thank you, Bhabi for the trip back, reminding me how wide my tastes have grown and sharing your recipes.

Wedding Feast Chicken Roast (Moli and Mithun Recipe)

[rough translation]

1 Chicken

oil – 1/2 cup

salt – 2 tsp

sugar – 2 tsp

saffron color – a little

ginger paste – 3 tbs

garlic paste – 1 tbs

chili powder – 1tsp

fried shallots – 1/2 cup

Special Garam Masala -1 1/2 tsp

[2 1/2 tbs cardamom+ 1 1/2 tbs cinnamon + 1 1/2 tbs Shah Jeera-cumin + 1 tsp nutmeg + 1 tsp mace + 1 tsp white pepper = ground in coffee grinder]

Prunes, raisins, rose water 1 tbs, ghee 1/4 cup

  1. Saute skinless chicken pieces.

  2. Add salt, sugar, color. Saute.

  3. Add ginger, garlic, chili pepper. Saute.

  4. Add fried shallots, garam masala and water needed to help meat tenderize.

  5. Add prunes, raisins, rose water and ghee.

  6. Simmer on low until gravy clings to chicken and fragrant.

Looking forward to trying this in my kitchen and re-posting with an update.

Examined Eating in Houston, Texas

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Pomegranate seed and spinach… make a fantastic sweet, savory, slightly bitter, crunchy and leafy filling for a South Indian style dosa. Who knew! Pondicheri in Houston combines traditional Indian dishes with innovative ingredients with amazing finesse. We sought out Pondicheri (it was mentioned on a Food Network type show) during my recent trip to Houston. It was worth the drive and a wonderful start to a day in the museum district. The keema was delicately spiced and light in texture (almost as good as my sister’s). Even the breads traditionally fried in oil, like paratas, where somehow dry and crispy, flavored by fillings instead. Described online as “Texan Indian Food” it was a good example of a transnational dual appreciation of distant tradition and local taste.  It was a beautiful experience.


In the theme of transnational appreciation and local identity, our afternoon in Old Town Spring was just as fun. Loaded Nachos at the Loose Caboose, lured the tourist in us with barbecue brisket over nachos, the lovechild of Tex-Mex and Texas Barbecue.. The combination of barbecue sauce and nacho cheese was surprisingly tangy-salty delicious.

In contrast to the picnic table, plastic fork, paper towels, liquid cheese, shredded meat and sweet-spicy sauce playful experience, our lunch at the Black Sheep Bistro in Old Town Spring was sophisticated, white table cloth, fork-knife, delicate, plated and refined. Jim’s halibut over spinach was my favorite. The cultural origin of the dish didn’t matter. It was just tasty.

We ate very well in Houston, at home and out. From Pondicheri I learned that I can mix textures, fruits and vegetables, techniques without sacrificing familiar tastes. From the Loose Caboose I learned that local traditions can cross over to even more delicious territory. And, from, Black Sheep Bistro, I learned, well made food tastes good everywhere.

Cooking is an art that ranges from nachos to seared halibut and beyond. We enjoyed it all.

Bowing to innovative culinary skill,

Hungryphil

Molasses and me

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It felt like an eternity, my head tipped to the side, watching and waiting for the molasses to trickle out of the bottle into my measuring cup. Unwrapping and plopping the room temperature butter and packed cup-shaped brown sugar in the mixer, spooning measures of baking power and soda into the light flour about to float away from the bowl, cracking the eggs into the fluffy brown butter, collecting the ginger, cinnamon, pepper, cloves into a spice mixture; the recipe had been moving forward quick and steady. Then I waited for the molasses, this dark, most viscous, bittersweet smooth sludge taking it’s very own time to trickle out of a Brer Rabbit bottle labeled since 1907. I felt like I was waiting since 1907. This was my first time cooking with molasses and it’s sheer meditative nonchalance midst the hurried pace of Christmas cookie baking was… impressive. I had even greased the measuring cup in anticipation of a slow pour out of the measuring cup into the mixer. As if it didn’t get the memo honey got, molasses took its sweet, slow time. Again.

I want to be like molasses. I want to pour out in my own time despite pressures of schedules, needs and the quick convenience of sugar cookies. Impressed by its ability to slow down time, I googled “molasses.” It turns out, it is a sugar byproduct that has a lot of nutrients. According to Wikipedia, a version of molasses, blackstrap, is a dietary supplement and an ingredient in cattle feed and fertilizer.

The third boiling of the sugar syrup yields dark, viscous blackstrap molasses, known for its robust flavor.[8] The majority of sucrose from the original juice has been crystallised and removed. The calorific content of blackstrap molasses is mostly due to the small remaining sugar content.[9][10] Unlike highly refined sugars, it contains significant amounts of vitamin B6 and minerals, including calcium, magnesium, iron, and manganese; one tablespoon provides up to 20% of the recommended daily value of each of those nutrients. Blackstrap is also a good source of potassium.[11] Blackstrap molasses has long been sold as a dietary supplement.

Blackstrap molasses is significantly more bitter than “regular” molasses. It is sometimes used in baking. This residual product of sugar refining is used for producing ethanol and as an ingredient in cattle feed and as fertilizer.

No wonder it doesn’t care and isn’t as eager to move like sugar. It has quite a story of being a beneficial residual of sweetness. Yes, I admire molasses. It can take it’s time in my kitchen. I’ll wait.

In what other dishes can I use magical bittersweet molasses? Let me know if you have any suggestions.

How hunger shrinks the world – White Noise

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The last post about American Appetites and  Glynnis’ sadness about dessert marking the end of a meal reminded me of another 1980s literary classic, White Noise by Don Delillo and the scene of the family eating fried chicken in the car:

No one wanted to cook that night. We all got in the car and went out to the commercial strip in the no man’s land beyond the town boundary. The never-ending neon. I pulled in at a place that specialized in chicken parts and brownies. We decided to eat in the car. The car was sufficient for our needs. We wanted to eat, not look around at other people. We wanted to fill our stomachs and get it over with. We didn’t need light and space, We certainly didn’t need to face each other across a table as we ate, building a subtle and complex cross-network of signals and codes. We were content to eat facing in the same direction, looking only inches past our hands. There was a kind of rigor in this. Denise brought the food out to the car and distributed paper napkins. We settled in to eat. We ate fully dressed, in hats and heavy coats, without speaking, ripping into chicken parts with our hands and teeth. There was a mood of intense concentration, minds converging on a single compelling idea. I was surprised to find I was enormously hungry. I chewed and ate, looking only inches past my hands. This is how hunger shrinks the world. This is the edge of the observable universe of food. Steffie tore off the crisp skin of a breast and gave it to Heinrich. She never ate the skin. Babette sucked a bone. Heinrich traded wings with Denise, a large for a small. He thought small wings were tastier. People gave Babette their bones to clean and suck. I fought off an image of Mr. Gray lazing naked on a motel bed, an unresolved picture collapsing at the edges. We sent Denise to get more food, waiting for her in silence. Then we started in again, half stunned by the dimensions of our pleasure. (220-221)

For Glynnis, the elaborate birthday dinner carefully planned and sequenced was a performance and celebration of her skill. Food conveyed her economic privilege and social status. In contrast, the family consumes the delivered fried chicken intensely individually as a primal pack. The shared theme of death and consumption in both books rely on food to highlight the death of one in the case of Glynnis and death of all in the case of Jack and Babette’s family. Hunger and death may make us human but how we live seems to be determined by how we eat, whether our appetites are insatiable, mindless or sadly both.

Wishing you mindful and satisfying eating,

Hungryphil

 

Eating Your Decisions – Natalie MacNeil

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I think we all have that.  We all have that intuition, it’s whether or not you can hear it and recognize those intuitive hits, or gut feelings, as some people like to call them.  One of the things that I like to do and that I find a very practical meditation for people who are new to meditation or thinking, “How can I figure out the next best step for me to take using meditation practices,” is a concept called eating your decision.

This is something I do all the time.  It’s something that a teacher taught me and that his teacher taught him.  What you do is you sit in mediation, mediation, and you eat the first idea or path that you’re thinking been taking, and you visualize how it goes down.

You’re visualizing what is the texture of it.  If that decision was a food, what would it be? When it’s going down and your body’s starting to digest it, what does it feel like? You actually go through the process of eating this decision.

Then you eat decision No.  2, and you see how that feels.  It’s amazing.  I’ve done this with people who don’t meditate at all and it’s amazing how quickly they can be like, “Oh my god, I know – “ it’s literally the gut feeling because your food’s broken down in the gut and it’s a visualization for figuring out what the best gut decision to make is.

People always come back to me and say, “Oh my god, that made my life so much easier and really helped me to know what that gut or what that intuition was trying to tell me to do.” That’s a cool one that I like to give people to do it.

Jaime:    I’ve never heard that before, and that would help me so much.  Well, that’s the thing, can you give us an example too Because I’m now going to try this.  I think it’s really important.  I’ve been really trying to tap in.

I meditate quite often.  I do guided meditations every night, but guided meditations really aren’t enough for me, or at least I don’t think they are, but that sounds amazing.  Give me an idea so I can get a little bit more detail when I actually do it.

Natalie:    Okay, so I just did this with one of my clients on one of our retreats.  She was trying to figure out a certain business partnership that he has an opportunity to do right now.  She was very much on the fence about it and I had her eat the decision.

“Okay, your business moving forward without this partner.  You’re gonna keep on doing it by yourself the way that you’re doing it right now.  Eat that decision.  How does it feel? If you could describe it as a fruit or as a vegetable, what would it be?”

It’s amazing how your mind will immediately go to something.  She was like, “Ah, it feels like a pear, but it’s really prickly.” “Okay, swallow that.  How does it go down?” “Well, it’s literally ripping my throat out as it’s going down.  It feels very suffocating.  I feel like I can’t breathe properly, I feel like I can no longer communicate the way that I wanna be communicating.” “Okay.”

This was one of the key things behind her decision, was how she was gonna be able to put her brand out into the world and communicate that, so it’s like she’s feeling it in that part of the body that she’s really wanting to tune into as she builds her business and her brand, and she’s a speaker and all that.

Okay, she goes through that, and then I say, “Okay, thinking about taking this path in your business, working with this person, how does that make you feel,” and she’s like, “Oh, it feels like sweet cherries on a summer day, totally going down well.”

It’s amazing how people can quickly come up with that visual when you guide them through it, and I find, even for me, there’s things that will come up during that process and during that meditation, and I’m just like, “How did I even think of that? How did that come to mind?” It’s giving yourself the space to do that.

My amazing friend,Vickie Maris, author, entrepreneur, musician, llama and bunny keeper, wool spinner, beach body coach, course developer, story teller, mean guacamole maker and so much more, recently shared an interview of Natalie MacNeil on Jaime Tardy’s website  Eventual Millionaire. 

The transcript quote above explains the concept of eating your decisions. Natalie describes the paradox of thoughtful “gut -reaction” to help guide life decisions through a few examples. The process aims to expose what we feel as we think about changing or affecting a given circumstance, to be present in our heart, mind and body as we process future possibilities.

I imagine writing to be like chewing a warm crusty piece of whole grain bread with butter. The process of tearing off and eating bread is  messy with crumbs all over, work to chew, work to swallow and work to digest. It is not an easy process but one I can’t do without. Cooking, for me, is like a bowl of warm soupy curry or dal, comforting, complex, spicy, sweet and best of all, perfect for dipping my crusty, flaky bread!

Sometimes we know something is difficult to swallow and make the decision to eat it anyway.

Wishing you thoughtful decision eating,

Hungryphil

 

 

 

Giving Tuesday

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After Thanksgiving Thursday, Black Friday, Cyber Monday… It is Giving Tuesday. This is the first year I’ve noticed this 4 year old social media effort.

It’s an actual thing. I love it! If there can be doughnut day, why not giving day?

Unbeknownst to me, I was celebrating the occasion by taking my post thanksgiving binge, guilt-admitting shelter dinner to the Lafayette Urban Ministry. Next year, I promise myself to do something more intentional to celebrate the occasion. It was an easy pot of chili and two trays of corn bread (thanks to corn bread and biscuit maker extraordinaire, my mom-in-law Ms. Rachel Perrin).

The fact that the dinner for 32 cost less than $70 is evidence of how easy it is to make a difference. All those promotional television spots cajoling us to donate a $1 a day to feed, education or immunize a child, to buy a goat, to cure a disease, to alleviate all variations of human suffering, makes sense. All worthy causes. How does one choose? For me, as someone who loves to eat and cook, the reality of hunger in the world hits hard. I have packed backpacks, worked at food rescue/community kitchens, sorted cans at the food pantry, on a D.C. street offered my bag of left over hushpuppies (that elicited a look of fear and gracious acceptance).  Education would be a close second. I love to read and learn. I cannot imagine a world without books or the possibility of learning. The truth is,  I learn more about myself in service of others than in my many attempts at meditative introspection. I learn about what I couldn’t live without and what I wouldn’t wish on anyone else.

Giving Day to me would be a day to give of oneself. I eat and read, cook and write. That is what I have to give. Giving is so much more complex that charity, guilt or sanctimony. Figuring out what you have to give the world is incredibly empowering. So, Happy Giving Tuesday, my dear readers!

May you rediscover and share yourself,

Hungryphil

  

Chili for 32 (Recipe Adapted from Betty Crocker Online)

6-7 lbs of Ground Beef

6 cups chopped onions

8 -28 oz cans of diced tomatoes, undrained

6  -19 0z cans of red kidney beans, drained (I didn’t add the liquid)

2 – 15 oz can tomato sauce

6 tbs chili powder

4 tbs sugar

2 tbs salt

All ingredients were just store label and roughly the same proportions. I didn’t find the canned goods in the exact amounts.

Saute the beef and onions together until brown. I added 2 tbs of soy sauce at this point to flavor and help brown the meat.

I forgot to drain the oil. Seems like a challenging process for such a big pot. Maybe just skim off as much as you can.

I added the spices at this point. I also added a tsp of apple pie spice. Let it fry with the browned meat.

Add all the liquids. Simmer for an hour. Add kidney beans simmer for another hour.

Ladle in containers and carry to your nearest shelter.

Cornbread 32 servings Homesteader Cornbread

3 cups cornmeal

5 cups milk

4 cups ap flour

2 tbs baking powder

2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

Combine dry.

Combine wet.

Combine.

Bake in two 9×13 pans at 400 for 30 minutes.

 

 

Post-Thanksgiving Sigh

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Today is the embarrassing day after the collective food binge that is Thanksgiving in the U.S. when I promise to eat light and then end up eating another plate of left-overs. Despite my mixed feelings about the origins of the delicious tradition (like croissants), I am thankful for the day of friends and family time dedicated to eating together. In a previous post I had wondered how others manage and prepare for such a traditionally standard meal. Stay consistent and true to family recipes or innovate, change?

My approach is usually a mix of tried and true recipes (that my girls like) and a few experiments (also because my girls enjoy trying new things). This year we also included frozen summer produce from Jim’s parents garden and I was so happy that they could be here to enjoy those dishes with us.

Here is how the balance of family tradition and family discovery worked at our table:

Appetizers at noon

Oysters (raw and rockefeller)

A nod to Jim’s maternal grandfather, Ray, this is now a tradition in our house that we all look forward to.

Baked Brie in Puff Pastry

Initially we wanted to have cranberry relish baked in it BUT I didn’t have enough. Instead we used our usual raspberry jam. Such decadence only makes sense when shared.

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Pate and Figs on Crackers

This was Amani’s craving contribution that all of us tried and some liked more than others.

Linner (Lunch/Dinner at 3:00 pm)

Turkey

Ignoring all the noise surrounding how to cook the bird, we just salted a fresh bird over night (with herbs and olive oil). This was the first time we had a fresh bird. Loved it. This will be a new tradition.

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Gravy

Braised turkey neck, liver and heart with celery, onion and carrots. Rachel cut all the meat into little pieces to be included in the gravy. Yum.

Stuffing

A doctored-up Pepperidge Farm stuffing. Nothing special just classically familiar flavors.

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Mashed Potatoes

Creamed with buttermilk and two roasted jalapenos from Dennis and Rachel’s summer garden.

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Green Beans

Cooked with shallots, mushrooms and cream. This was a dish I’ve made four times, a regular item that I’ve cooked better before. A “non-experiment” that didn’t work the best. It needs to soften a bit more before we have it for leftovers today. Otherwise, still good for future Thanksgiving meals.

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Fried Okra

Not usual on the Thanksgiving table but should be. Rachel brought her garden grown, home fried and frozen veggies with her. Very much appreciated.

Macaroni and Cheese

This was an experiment using a Saveur recipe. Ridiculous amounts of cream, half and half and cheese that only makes sense in a celebratory dish. The grated onion gives the dish more dimension than straight up mac-n-cheese. It even passed the Lucy, picky eater test! A successful experiment.

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Baked Sweet Potato

This was a version of Patti, Jim’s sister’s recipe. I didn’t use the topping because the dessert had the same topping. Otherwise, I thought of Patti as I looked at her Senator Russel’s Sweet Potato Casserole recipe. We all missed having her and her family at the table this year. I drizzled Maple Syrup on top instead. Really good. Both Ava and Atiya got seconds.

Rosemary Rolls

Store bought yeast rolls, egg washed and sprinkled with rosemary and salt.

Cranberry Sauce

Fresh cranberry simmered with sugar and orange zest. Ava washed and prepared the cranberries, a job Atiya graduated from.

Pecan Pumpkin Pie

My father loves pecan pie and my mom loves pumpkin/sweet potato. This Southern Living recipe reminded me of them. They couldn’t be with us but were in my thoughts. This may become a part of the Thanksgiving dessert rotation. Combines best of both pies. Except maybe next time I would blind bake the crust a bit first.

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Aware of so many struggling families in the U.S., I apologetically appreciate my abundant table heavy with tradition, experimentation, choices and guests in body and spirit. Delivering a meal to the local shelter on Monday doesn’t begin to show my gratitude.

Now for my plate of left-overs.

Wishing all of you appreciative good eating with loved ones always,

Hungryphil

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