It is time to celebrate winter squash! Not only that, it is also time to celebrate low-fat desserts that are actually too rich for me to handle large portions. (Some of our guests had seconds, mind.) This is basically pumpkin pie filling served in delicate, darling phyllo nests; the perfect fall dessert.
Our first taste […]

These are the rest of my photos from Hungary. They were taken in Tarpa, the town where my grandmother grew up.
Above is my brother Josh, holding out some grapes for me to try.
We were in the grapery at the top of the hill, as my grandmother called it, belonging to her friend Szaz Karcsa (pronounced […]

I took no part in cooking this meal. Me, I’m just the scribe and photographer this time.
The ribs were experimental meats purchased in Brooklyn’s Chinatown. The sour cherries come from my parents’ sour cherry tree, and I did help with the picking and pitting. We made most of them into jam and pie and sauce […]

While I am still on my Hungarian cooking kick, I offer you two desserts: one traditional, the other, not so much.
This my entry for Sugar High Friday 23: Surprise Inside, which is run this month by Alanna of A Veggie Venture. Finding cabbage inside a dessert strudel is not surprising to Hungarians or their descendants, […]

Barbara of Tigers & Strawberries created one of my favorite food blog events, The Spice is Right. Every month, she sets a challenge with a spice-related theme. Since she just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Kat, she doesn’t have time right now to run the event. I couldn’t bear the thought of […]

I just love the way that apricot in the center is peaking up his little head over the expanse of crust like a prairie dog going up on his hind legs to see the world outside his den.
This recipe was inspired by a photo of rustic apricot marzipan tartlets I came across in a […]

I was so excited when I saw cabbage-stuffed peppers on a menu in Hungary. How wonderful, I thought. But when I ordered them, they turned out to be pickled. I’m sure that is delightful to some of you, but personally, I do not like pickled anything. (Oh, all right, Japanese pickled ginger. And mango slices […]

I would like to hold a NYC Food Blogger Potluck on Saturday, September 30th October 21st, at 8pm. If you are interested in joining in, drop me an email and I’ll start organizing. If more people respond than can fit around my table, I will ask someone else to donate the venue instead.
Who would like […]

I flew into Budapest, then traveled with Dave to Pécs, Szeged, and Debrecen. In Debrecen, we met up with my grandmother and mother, who drove us up to the pair of small villages near the Ukrainian border where my grandmother grew up. She was born in Tarpa, and when she returned from Auschwitz and got […]