tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7324272373286659232012-01-01T22:21:00.187-08:00linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-80544434996819033872012-01-01T22:21:00.000-08:002012-01-01T22:21:00.204-08:00

growing up in a lebanese-american family in los angeles, persimmons, known in arabic and some other languages as kaki, (from their latin botanical name: Diospyros kaki) were a luscious winter treat with unique flavor and texture. my parents brought home the hachiya variety which must be very soft before they're eaten, otherwise, we learned the hard way—the mouth suffers. the flatter fuyu variety,

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-19637424203567960812011-12-16T11:05:00.000-08:002011-12-16T11:05:40.837-08:00

my new december art news went out yesterday with a holiday greeting which i'd like to share here, that includes a holiday offer of 5 copies of alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cooking for gifts, as everyone loves alice's kitchen!!! 5 copies including free shipping for $75 if you order by december 18th.  email me right away to get these books for your loved ones! or if you just need one copy,

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-28676022476110451032011-10-16T21:44:00.000-07:002011-10-16T21:44:37.966-07:00

two ways to cut fresh summer figs to dry and preserve them for winter delights!  my garden and i are blessed with several varieties of fig trees that do well in the pacific northwest. this year's crop came all at once even though the varieties normally ripen in a delightful flow over july, august, and september because of our cool and late summer. drying them is a traditional way to keep them for

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-31762423505945645732011-09-09T23:29:00.000-07:002011-09-09T23:35:19.323-07:00

just-picked Middle Eastern cucumbers—small, crisp, and not seedy give the best crunch to this Lebanese summer salad. when a cup of yogurt might be refreshing, adding thinly sliced cucumbers, garlic mashed to a paste with salt, crushed dried spearmint, and a little lemon juice makes a superb complement to barbeques, spicy entrees, or simply makes a perfect light meal all on it's own.this chilled

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-79022156120026570352011-09-04T21:27:00.000-07:002011-09-05T05:17:56.783-07:00

growing up in los angeles' climate provided many opportunities for summer barbeques. our all-time favorite was laham mishwi, which literally means grilled meat. in alice's kitchen that meant lamb, following her douma mountain village tradition.  mama would buy a big leg of lamb, since los angeles supermarket butchers in those days didn't sell cuts of lamb as did the old country village butchers. 

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-51838491663266471792011-08-29T15:22:00.000-07:002011-08-29T15:22:25.234-07:00

finally, it's been warm enough in portland for the tomatoes to ripen. and i found enough purslane (baqle) to make another salatat baqle with fresh garden ripe tomatoes instead of canned. check out the photos from my earlier post before the tomatoes were ready! and yet today started out cold and rainy. i'm tempted to get a sweater and make some hot soup! the sun's trying to come out. and i'm

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-53446067475575878202011-08-15T22:52:00.000-07:002011-08-15T22:52:01.970-07:00

purslane, an international common weed originating in India, known in Arabic as baqle, contains more Omega-3 fatty acids (α-linolenic acid) than any other leafy vegetable plant. 100 grams of fresh purslane leaves provides about 350 mg of α-linolenic acid. as many health-conscious folks know, omega-3's are antioxidants. it is also an excellent source of Vitamin A, (1320 IU/100 g, providing 44%

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-92199600076587871722011-07-31T22:59:00.000-07:002011-08-04T22:18:49.327-07:00

this latest lebanese food art photography reminds me of a 1960s tie dye! and although red russian kale and amaranth (native american) are not typically lebanese vegetables, when sauteéd and dressed with our classic garlic, lemon, and olive oil dressing, these vegetables that are abundant now in my portland garden that is a month behind because of record cool temperatures and july rain, made a

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-64194493146981888702011-06-30T23:07:00.000-07:002011-06-30T23:07:59.382-07:00

the san francisco chronicle had an article recently about the rising popularity of cookbook clubs. to read the article, click here! in the past few years,  i've been invited several times to teach lebanese cooking classes by friends who have book clubs featuring cookbooks. totally enjoyable—everyone participates in prepping, following the recipe in alice's kitchen, and my demonstration. then we

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-48099718383947134172011-06-12T18:37:00.000-07:002011-06-12T18:59:45.626-07:00

it is spring time, and i begin to crave tabbouli...the infamous lebanese salad traditionally made with a small amount of bulgar wheat (burghul in arabic), finely minced parsley, mint, green onions, and tomatoes. this is how my mother, grandmother and beyond made this classic lebanese salad. and this is how the recipe in alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cooking is written. this is great and

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-10606685091152323812011-05-22T23:16:00.000-07:002011-05-22T23:16:38.465-07:00

i cannot let this day go by without acknowledging mama's birthday here. if she were alive, it would be her 101st! so i dedicate this day and these tulips in my garden to mama. as i gardened today and planted seeds, i remembered that she loved gardening and shared this passion with me as a child. it is one of my joys, and she often said it was her "therapy", as was her art. mama indulged me as a

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-3601245364104128402011-04-16T14:09:00.000-07:002011-04-16T14:09:18.273-07:00

the lenten season in spring transports me to a sublime lebanon culinary experience written about in alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cooking on my visit to a village downhill from Douma and its' Greek Orthodox monastery. it was Lent, and after meeting a Romanian painter painting the monastery walls, i was invited to join a few sisters, a monk, and the painter for lunch. tasty and simply

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-71001673822606127032011-03-26T23:11:00.000-07:002011-03-26T23:13:40.249-07:00

naturally, i want to begin with lentils—a staple of lebanese lenten cuisine. in alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cooking, there's 3 fabulous lentil soup recipes, which i love. but my childhood favorite lentil dish was mjaddrah with salata. i imagined the lentil and rice mixture topped with carmelized onions as the earth, piled with salad that were the vegetables growing out of the earth.

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-12207826324417258122011-03-02T17:31:00.000-08:002011-03-02T17:31:11.811-08:00

my dear amazing collage and multi media artist friend in oakland, linda vogel, sent me this lovely still life that she recently photographed using alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cooking with one of mama's little ceramic ducks that she made and gave to linda on one of her visits to santa cruz. mama loved lace and gold, grew roses, and spent a gazillion hours making art: this still life

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-20703045126227113592011-03-01T22:13:00.000-08:002011-03-01T22:13:08.435-08:00

okay, i know it is well past january 1 and i am finally posting my new year's post! so you can see how behind i have been! the good news is i am catching up! finally today downloaded the photos of the new year's 'amah i made and enjoyed to bless and bring in the new year...which got off to an incredibly hectic start. in the pacific northwest, where it snowed this morning, it is still cold

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-38652316551280269912010-12-08T20:25:00.000-08:002010-12-08T20:25:59.142-08:00

a recipe from douma my family village is featured on the website of a beirut restaurant, semsom...it's a fun layout with a recipe of a lebanese mountain version of gnocchi, maakroun, or macaroni!! in writing this, the history of this word begins to intrigue me—did the arabs get it from the italians or vice versa. so after only a few minutes of internet research, i find this from noted food

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-51787772637248816122010-11-29T23:04:00.000-08:002010-12-08T19:46:59.741-08:00

i discovered luscious mhammara dip on a bus tour of monasteries my mother and i took with the Greek Orthodox church choir from our village of douma in 1998. before sunrise we joined the initially quiet small group on the bus as they picked us up at Hotel Douma where we were staying...the lovely circular building in the area at the edge of town that used to be called snobar, or the pine tree

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-47652545131421900762010-10-31T23:08:00.000-07:002010-10-31T23:08:23.465-07:00

i cannot let summer go by without presenting photos of this fabulous salad that was my father's recipe. when mama was gone on a summer afternoon, daddy would prepare this for our lunch. created only with garden-ripened tomatoes, this garlic-laden salad, spiked with fresh spearmint and a drizzling of olive oil is simple to make and exciting to taste. typically we scooped little bites of tomato

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-55285618733902939672010-09-09T21:40:00.000-07:002010-09-09T21:40:46.800-07:00

baba ghannouj—the fabulous lebanese eggplant dip that my little doggie is named after—can be sublime or it can be dull. to make it sublime, there is a secret which is, of course, shared in my cookbook, alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cooking.  here are some photos that show the secret for fool-proof-to-live-for baba ghannouj! people who have tasted our recipe swear it is the best they

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-11420132060148135252010-07-17T00:15:00.000-07:002010-07-17T00:15:14.336-07:00

well, it's not lebanese, but my little doggie whose name is lebanese, baba ghannouj, turned 2 so we had a delightful summer birthday garden doggie party for baba and murphy! these photos are courtesy of baba's buddy clancy's folks, joann and kurt. the cake—a coconut cream cake i made with a recipe from capprial's desserts topped with raspberries and strawberries from the garden—is full of LOVE! 

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-41512724083375769122010-06-06T21:53:00.000-07:002010-06-06T21:53:44.296-07:00

a recent article in the NY TIMES features what a wonderful food scene continues to thrive in beirut since the end of the war. here's a link to the article that is accompanied by great food photos by lebanese food photographer and writer barbara massaad.

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-61871188505062628192010-05-30T23:51:00.000-07:002010-06-07T18:19:02.961-07:00

although tabbouli is probably my favorite lebanese salad and is so popular and well known, not to mention super nutritious, fattoush is a close second. mama said this arabic word comes from the arabic word "fatte" meaning "broken up" or "pieces", which in this salad refers to the broken pieces of arabic bread that are crisped and added to the salad just before tossing. it had been too long

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-84253180938759210892010-05-22T19:07:00.000-07:002010-05-22T19:07:06.622-07:00

today is mama's 100th birthday. in this photo of her she was 92 years young. she lived from may 22, 1910 vivaciously until october 13, 2006. her spirit lives on, and today i celebrate her birthday by writing about her here, and by replanting some gladiolus bulbs she gave me in a little circular memorial garden i planted for her. along with her love of cooking, handwork, and crafts, she was a

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-38863428124005411772010-05-04T23:16:00.000-07:002011-06-29T21:04:29.214-07:00

last weekend's tasting at bale's thriftway from alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cooking was a great success—served over 300 samples of lebanese beet salad and hommus; and sold and signed lots of cookbooks! here's a photo of the beets used: gold and red—prior to boiling them. mama's recipe that i grew up eating used typical red beets, but i recently experimented using a mix of chioggia

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-44633996417226751652010-04-23T16:03:00.000-07:002010-04-23T16:03:15.610-07:00

if you're in the neighborhood of cedar mill between 3 and 7 pm, stop by to taste some samples of lebanese food from alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cooking! it's a last minute thing, and i don't know what i'm making yet! lebanese surprise! you can also pick up a signed copy of the cookbook for yourself, family, and friends! a great mother's day gift, as some recent correspondents wrote (

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-43533279257275654572010-03-26T11:27:00.000-07:002010-03-26T11:27:11.888-07:00

linda sawaya at portland's better living show at 5 pm today! come by if you can to get your copy of alice's kitchen signed, and taste the made-with-love lebanese vegan menu: mjaddarah, salata, and hommus! see you there!

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-61688542860151718072010-03-12T19:09:00.000-08:002010-03-12T19:09:40.432-08:00

i forgot to mention in my recent post on lebanese omelette (ijhee) that i did a lebanese cooking demonstration last year of this spring favorite at the Better Living Show's Kitchen Stage! hungry and appreciative folks tasted about 100 samples of it served with local goat feta cheese, cured olives, persian cucumbers (okay not perfectly sustainable, but almost), and pita bread. it was a great hit!

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-91662071671764205432010-03-08T13:59:00.000-08:002010-03-08T13:59:05.693-08:00

this is the time of year when the parsley and mint are coming back to life in the Pacific Northwest, having gone dormant for a brief time of winter. i love exploring the garden to find these essential ingredients for our fabulous lebanese omelette that is perhaps more of a frittata than an omelette. it is very green, indeed, and full of nutrients with unique spicing of cinnamon and cayenne

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-88214671629588235042010-02-01T07:02:00.000-08:002010-02-01T07:03:53.914-08:00

my recent post about planting fava beans and using homegrown beans in our lebanese winter soup shourbat makhlouta was found and i was invited to submit my post to Grow Your Own roundup. the big bean in the foreground is a scarlet runner bean from last year's garden! so of course, i did! check out the link to see the many entries for middle of the winter (except some entries from australia are

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-30146678326532746112010-01-28T23:41:00.000-08:002010-01-28T23:41:35.848-08:00

how does this image relate to alice's kitchen? i'm visiting LA and this kumquat tree is one my dear mother planted in the front yard of the apartment building—a beautiful spanish style four-plex from the 1920s—she lived in after my beloved father died and many of my family members lived in at various times over the years—sisters, grandmother, aunt and uncle, nephews, nieces—the tribe. my father

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-13581615064226886432010-01-22T19:55:00.000-08:002010-01-25T21:17:06.492-08:00

hearty is an understatement! shourbat makhlouta—the name of this hardy, protein-rich soup comes from the arabic word for "mixed up" or "mixture" since it is made by "shopping" in your kitchen pantry for a little bit of every grain, legume, and bean that you have. because i am an avid cook, as was my beloved mother, alice, like hers my pantry is full as a commercial pantry with many varieties of

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-39421251187468703052010-01-17T21:06:00.000-08:002010-01-17T21:06:02.108-08:00

my beloved mother, alice, baked date or fig or other jam filled cookies for the holidays which were very labor intensive—each cookie is hand-formed—a walnut-sized ball of dough hollowed out with a teaspoon of date filling tucked and sealed inside, and then individually decorated with little pinchers that mother had specially made. they're called asabi bi ajwe (date fingers) in Alice's Kitchen:

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-92062472582216942712010-01-16T09:56:00.000-08:002010-01-16T09:56:58.429-08:00

a simple to prepare traditional lebanese christmas cookie (yes, it's january and many of us are cleaning up our diets to begin the new year right, so just remember this post for next christmas! and for our lebanese Easter cookies—mamools—i promise to post them before Easter!) the almond crescent moon cookies, nus qamar in arabic, are so light and melt in your mouth with a little crunch, it's

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-53638367906514518432010-01-12T20:03:00.000-08:002010-01-12T20:03:39.742-08:00

yes, i said i was going to bake christmas cookies, and i did—baklawe (baklava) as far as the eye can see! here's one of the trays i made and shipped in tins across the u.s.a. to some lucky folks! this is how it all begins: with the old-fashioned nut-chopper—this one was my dear mother alice's—walnuts from my walnut tree, (thanks to baba! and i can't resist sharing this recent photo of him

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-84643089917239271432010-01-08T15:53:00.000-08:002010-01-08T15:53:39.856-08:00

happy new year! amah is the lebanese traditional food for ringing in the new year. this hot porridge of whole wheat berries simmered with anise seeds for a couple of hours until tender tastes best when sweetened with sugar or my preferred much healthier agave syrup, sprinkled with walnuts from my tree—harvested this year thanks to my precious squirrel-chasing yorkie-mix, baba ghannouj!—and

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-30438025053162154822009-12-30T22:58:00.000-08:002009-12-30T22:58:17.937-08:00

over the holidays, my dear friends pam and wayne had a wonderful persian potluck with some of their persian friends. my contribution was a shirazi salad, a very classical persian salad very similar to our lebanese salads with lemon and olive oil, but without garlic—just like tabbouli. having recently eaten this tasty dish at a new persian restaurant in my neighborhood, salar's mediterranean

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-83797924183527074322009-12-12T21:30:00.000-08:002009-12-14T17:35:42.766-08:00

Growing up in Alice's Kitchen, sweets and pastries were reserved for special occasions and holidays rather than a regular after-dinner event. a big bowl of fresh, seasonal fruits was our typical dessert, while the homemade farmers' cheese (jibn) and olives that mother and sitto cured from our tree in the front yard remained on the dinner table with some arabic bread, fig jam, and the occasional

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-43149957723017940642009-11-16T13:49:00.000-08:002009-11-16T13:49:55.363-08:00

check out the latest post on my art blog, as it's related to both of my blogs—cookbook and art! alice's kitchen cookbook article, "Memories of a Lebanese Garden" written and illustrated by me is featured on Saudi Aramco World's 2010 calendar! you can download your own calendar by clicking on this link!

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-53713459611595728792009-11-14T00:33:00.000-08:002009-11-14T00:40:04.437-08:00

over the past few years, i have been teaching lebanese cooking classes in people's homes, featuring recipes, of course, from my book, alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cooking. i just discovered that a recent cooking class/dinner party i taught at my friend and naturopath elaine's house was blogged on by her husband, david, whom i met that evening. we had an ambitious menu, so i

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-732427237328665923.post-11985033234325501212009-11-01T23:21:00.000-08:002011-02-21T18:27:03.287-08:00

the church founded by my great uncle, Fr. Gerasimos Sawaya, of Douma, Lebanon, St. Anne's Melkite (Byzantine rite) Greek Catholic Church. copies of alice's kitchen were given in honor of my mother, Alice, and the Sawaya family to guests attending a banquet to celebrate this event. people who knew mama, and others were thrilled to receive copies of the book, which along with so many recipes,

linda dalal sawayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00231510788900976634noreply@blogger.com0