We’ve had dreadful weather outside for weeks now.  Gloomy, muggy, wet mess of a weather.  And although we are not technically yet in the soup season, I can already smell the fall creeping in.  After all, the temperature drop from high nineties into mid eighties must be celebrated and interpreted as autumnal chill here in […]

Everyone has seen the movie Ratatouille a few years back and applauded the gorgeous layered vegetable dish the little rodent protagonist concocted to sweep a picky food critic off his feet.  I am sure that some of you already know that the dish featured in the cute animated film was actually not a ratatouille, but […]

Initially, I was just going to repost an older recipe, along with a nostalgic essay I did on stuffed peppers called Pepperfest.  When I checked the aforementioned post, I realized that the recipe has changed considerably and it might be worth sharing separately.  Not to mention, the pictures turned out quite alright.

In my country this was a condiment.  There were two reasons for that — price and spiciness.  When shopping at a farmer’s market, I used to walk along the aisle of pickled vegetables, rows upon rows of pickled cabbage, marinated tomatoes, “soaked” apples,  stuffed eggplant… And at the end of that aisle, atop of the […]

Growing up, among my favorite books one could find a collection of poetry for children by Polish authors.  It was wonderfully translated into Russian by various talented Russian writers.  I loved many of the poems and you could hear me reciting some of them quite frequently.

If I had to name one dish that immediately recalls childhood for me, it would be this one.  Stuffed cabbage rolls called Holubtzi in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and possibly other Slavic languages, invariably bring back memories of my Kindergarten.  You see, in our Kindergarten they fed us breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner, all cooked on […]

Plov. This simple dish belongs to the list of my favorite comfort foods.  The origins of it are definitely Asian, but no one knows for sure where exactly it came from.  You can find its distinctive relatives in India, China, Middle East, Caucasus, and everywhere in between, you name it. No matter the origin, it […]