Pomegranates

Pomegranates for sale at Jerusalem's Machaneh Yehuda market.

See products featuring this image in my Society6 shop

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Olives for Sale

Olives on sale in Jerusalem's Machaneh Yehuda market

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The most noble and challenging of fruits

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(Grapes are) the most noble and challenging of fruits. 

 -Malcolm Dunn, Head Gardener to the 7th Viscount Powerscourt, c 1867.

Purchase this image from Around the Island Photography

Pickled Vegetables

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With their red tops, these Middle Eastern style pickled vegetables for sale at the Hatikva Market were just crying out to be featured for Ruby Tuesday, don't you think?

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!

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If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.

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Welcome to Summer Stock Sunday 2011!

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And just like that, winter is over and summertime is here, and with it the 2011 edition of Summer Stock Sundays - the place to share all those great summer memories each Saturday at 2pm EDT (9pm here in Israel) - post your favorite summertime shot to your blog and then come here and sign the linkie so that the other participants can find you to visit, and of course a comment here is always welcome :).

Here's mine to get things rolling - because what says summertime more than watermelon?

This giant pile of watermelons were on sale yesterday morning at Tel Aviv's Hatikva Market. But how to choose?

How to know which stall really has the "number 1 watermelon"?

 Many of the stalls take one and cut it open to show their customers the quality of their fruit. This one looks good to me, don't you think?

I didn't actually buy one on yesterday's photowalk (you'll be seeing more of that in the days to come - it was good fun and quite a success photographically) because I already had one at home, but ours too was delicious and extra refreshing when we ate it at the pool this afternoon. (As an aside, did you know that Israelis don't generally serve watermelon in slices to eat while the juices run down your chin? Nope, they cut them up into bite-sized chunks and serve them with forks. Often, especially for outdoor meals like our picnics at the pool, they just hand out forks and everyone helps themselves from the communal bowl, one piece at a time. A bit more prep-time up front but a whole lot easier to eat this way.)

How's your summer shaping up so far? We'd love to see what you're up too so jump right in and join the Summer Stock crew! 

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Coffee Break, Israeli Style

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Click here to purchase this photograph from Around the Island Photography.

Freshly made cappucino, Jay's delicious homemade bread, some jam, a clementine, and the morning paper. All the elements of a delightful mid-morning coffee break. So what would be on your tray?

Look here for more great reds.


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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!

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If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in my etsy shop yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.

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Latkes! (now with recipe)

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Breaking news: Around the Island Photography is sponsoring a giveaway! Visit Kate Coveny Hood, one of my favorite bloggers and all around do-gooding soul, over at The Big Piece of Cake for a chance to win an 8x10 print of any one of my images. Don't stop there though - Kate is running an entire MONTH of giveaways featuring those small independent artists, designers and shops whose products sometimes get lost in the Big Box Store shuffle. She's got a whole host of exciting giveaways going on all month - enter now for a chance to win fabulous prizes and discover these amazing shops (there is some SERIOUS talent over there!) for yourself.

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Click to enlarge, and visit Wordless Wednesday to see what other people aren't saying this week.

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Hannukah starts this Friday night. May your lives, and your latkes*, be deliciously light and joyful.
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* Latkes are potato pancakes fried in oil and they, along with sufganiyot (jelly donuts), are a traditional Hannukah food. That's my kind of holiday tradition.
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Several people have asked for my latke recipe. This one, slightly adapted from the one in Naomi Howland's storybook Latkes Latkes Good to Eat is our family's favorite:
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3 large potatoes
2 eggs
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbl flour
vegetable oil
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1. Peel the potatoes and rinse them in cold water. Grate very fine. Place the grated potatoes in a colander and run cold water over them to keep them from turning black. Using your hands, squeeze out all the water.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the onion, salt and flour (this is where families with less picky children would also add pepper and about 1 Tbl finely chopped parsley). Stir.
3. Add grated potatoes and mix well.
4. Heat a small amount of oil to sizzling in a large frying pan. Drop mixture by the large spoonful into the oil and flatten into a "pancake" shape. Cook until golden brown underneath, flip, and cook the second side until golden brown.
5. Eat right away. Latkes are traditionally served with applesauce and/or sour cream.
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White Bean Dip, or, how I nearly starved to death for want of a photo

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The mind of a blogger is a dangerous thing.
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It all started the other day when we forgot a pot of beans on the stove and cooked them into mush. Nevermind, I said. I'll just turn them into something else. I saw an interesting pasta sauce the other day that used pureed white beans. But without the scallops or the right cheese or the white wine (I was out) it didn't sound destined for success. I then remembered that a friend had brought over a pureed white bean dip a few months back that had been pretty good. Pretty good, but no wow factor. I wanted wow factor. So I headed back to my lonely writer's garret (fictitious bonus points to anyone who gets this very esoteric musical reference - hint, if you're thinking bananas you're on the right track) kitchen to see what I could do.
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Five minutes and six ingredients later I'd discovered bean dip nirvana. Seriously, this recipe turned out so well that I practically licked the bowl. (I would have too, if that big sharp blade from the food processor hadn't scared me off.) If you like white beans this is definitely the dip for you, and since it is, of course I wanted to share it with you. Which means I needed to quantify my "throw it in until it's right" recipe. And that I needed a photo.
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Now, how did I nearly starve? It's like this... (subtitled "Why I am never going to be a food stylist")
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I was about to sit down to eat my wonderfully smoky and delicious dip (love that smoked paprika) when I realized that the red peppers and red paprika would do very well for the Ruby Tuesday shot I'd been looking for.
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Okay, plate the dip in a small bowl. Dump Neatly arrange red pepper slices on a plate. Realize that red peppers on a red plate is ridiculous. Get a yellow plate. Dump Arrange, peppers on the new plate. Rearrange five or six or a million times.
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Take pictures of the whole setup.
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Concede that today's horrible weather was not exactly bathing my kitchen in lovely soft natural light. Turn on lights. Bump ISO up to 1600 in an attempt to avoid using the flash, thus making all the food appear a wonderfully appetizing shade of orangey-beige. Try again. And again.
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Rearrange peppers. Get progressively hungrier. Take a few last shots before giving up in disgust and going off to eat my lunch before it got manhandled to death.
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Eat. Ahhh... Bliss...
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It really was that good, even after the grand photo fiasco.
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Finish eating. Sneak in a few extra spoonfuls. Look at photos. Spend way too much time in photoshop, and finally end up settling for this.
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Click to enlarge (you can, but why would you on this one? If you're looking for actual good photographs go here)

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Trust me, it tastes way better than it looks. Really.
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Really.
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Robin's White Bean Dip
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1.5 cups dried beans, soaked and cooked into oblivion (very mushy) - can substitute 3C canned beans (drained)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbl olive oil
1-2 tsp smoked paprika
2-3 tsp lemon juice salt to taste
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Saute the garlic until golden. Add paprika and saute over low heat for another 2-3 minutes. .
Dump everything into the food processor. Puree until very smooth.
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That's it.
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Serve with raw vegetables. Or crackers. Or just with a spoon. Not that I'd know anything about that of course.
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Summer Stock 14 - Festival Food

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Our 14th Summer Stock Sunday. So. Here we are. Wasn't it just a few days ago that we were gearing up for our very first edition, and now here it is the end of August already. I figure we'll have two more Summer Stock posts after this one, ending the weekend after Labor Day (which is 7 September this year for those of you out of the US and Canada), since that heralds the traditional end of the summer for most of you, and after that it's time to pack it in until next year. (I'd suggest continuing with some kind of Winter Wonderland theme or something, but I suspect many of you would be tempted to send out the cyber hit men if I posted shot after shot of green fields and bright blooming flowers all winter long. Probably safer for me to avoid that ;-). There's no sense in a Fall Follies theme for me either, since we have no fall colors to speak of, and it's only the falling temperatures and approaching rain that delineates fall in any meaningful photographic way, unless of course I photograph things like the hysteria you find in the supermarket the day before Jewish New Year.)
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For this week's Summer Stock post I'm focusing on food - festival food in particular. A few weeks ago we headed over to Gunstock, one of New Hampshire's (smaller) ski areas, for the Rockin' Ribfest. The Rockin' part was a bit mediocre (though a face-painted, airbrush tattooed Maya danced her little feet off on the dance floor) but the Ribfest part was top quality all the way. We had a great time digging into those amazing ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, side dishes, and of course the sweet potato fries. After eating ourselves silly we spent the next few hours visiting all the various booths and attractions (many of which were free(!), something this city kid definitely did not expect and a really nice treat for parents not to have to limit their kids to just this or that because this or that is astronomically expensive at a festival), and then took the chairlift up to the top of the mountain for fabulous views of Lake Winnipesaukee in all its glory.
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I've said it before, but it bears repeating (mainly to myself) - if New England winters weren't so awful it would be very hard to tear myself away at the end of the summer...
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Ok, enough blather, it's the photos you're all here to see, so without further ado (click to enlarge any photo):
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Tell me you're not starving now. I know I sure am. I'm sorry I can't offer you actual food, but I can at least offer this food for the soul instead:

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I can't wait to see what you've all been up to this week - now that I'm back home in Israel I'll finally have time for some proper bloghopping again!

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You know the drill, here's the linkie, please leave your permalink, link to Around the Island, yadda yadda, you're all old pros at this by now so let's just skip right to the fun part and share those great Summer Stock photos:
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Crabcakes, scallops and shrimp, oh my

And that's not even mentioning the lobster.

I always feel like I have to get in a year's worth of delicious (and cheap! at least by Israeli standards) seafood every time I come to the US, and let me tell you, New England is one heck of a place to indulge that particular obsession.

Jay's sister is here for a few days with her husband and new baby, so to give my mom a break from the kitchen we did the cooking tonight. Jay went a bit crazy at the seafood counter of the supermarket but he did such an amazing job grilling it all up that all that was left over was a skewer or two of grilled shrimp. I really should write down what he seasoned it all with before he forgets because it was delicious.

Tomorrow we're off to a local rib and music festival on the top of a nearby mountain - good food, good music and good photo ops - what more do you need?

Life is good.

Have I mentioned before that I'm really loving this vacation thing? Do you think my company would keep paying me if I stayed on vacation all year long?
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Red Velvet Cake

Because I prefer not to dwell on what are likely to be utterly abysmal election results in Israel's national election Tuesday...

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In the spirit of Valentine's Day and Ruby Tuesday and Hapoel Tel Aviv and all things red, I give you:

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Red Velvet Cake

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My thoughts:
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Recipe: (see above link for the full recipe) While the batter started out quite red, the finished product was a much more sedate reddish-brown. I did use gel coloring instead of liquid (as per the gel option in the recipe), but the gel is pretty potent stuff so I doubt that was the reason. Whatever the color, it was delicious. Rich, but not overly heavy, and the cream cheese frosting was divine. If I make it again I'll stop at two layers though, and use the rest of the batter for cupcakes - that third layer looked very elegant, but it made the cake ridiculously high.

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Decoration: I'd intended to stick a fondant rose on the top of the cake but forgot to get one. Luckily our GNI hostess with the mostess had a perfect pomegranate just sitting on her counter waiting for my cake to come along, and the idea that we use it. It was a stroke of brilliance, the slight tartness of the pomegranate was a great balance for the sweet frosting.

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Proof that the batter really did start out red

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And the kicker? I'm on a diet - out of this entire cake I only had three bites! I've still got leftovers on my table and I am very steadfastly not eating them. Sheesh.

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Just a little tease for Tuesday

I've got a crackerjack subject for this week's Ruby Tuesday post.

Here's a hint ;-).

Corn and Red Onion Relish

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I haven't posted a recipe in ages, but this one was so quick and easy and such a big hit that I figured I had to share it. This chili-flavored relish is almost more of a salsa and goes really well with Mexican food - I served it with make your own soft tacos last night, but it would also be great with burritos, nachos or even fajitas.

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The recipe comes from a favorite cookbook of mine - Angela Spenceley's A Taste of the Caribbean. I bought it years ago as a souvenir of a sailing trip to the British Virgin Islands and every recipe I've tried has been great, especially when cold winter days leave you longing for the warm sun of the tropics.

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Enjoy!

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Corn and Red Onion Relish

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2 cups corn kernels, fresh or thawed frozen

1 large red onion, minced

1 sweet red pepper, minced

1/4 cup jalapeno peppers, chopped (I used Israeli hot peppers)

1 cup fresh ripe tomato, chopped

1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt

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Place all ingredients in a heavy pot and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes until the corn kernels are soft.

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Remove from heat and cool. Pour into sterilized jars and refrigerate. (I just put it into a plastic container, but I knew it would be used up within a day or two.)

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This relish does not keep long so use within the week.

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Much more fun than working

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This morning I did what everyone should do every once in a while - I ditched work and household responsibilities for a few hours to go out for breakfast with a friend. In my blog fodder post Hannah from A Mother In Israel jokingly suggested that I should meet her for breakfast and then blog about it, so I did.
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In a somewhat unusual twist of fate Hannah is actual a real life friend turned blog friend - we knew each other for years before discovering that we each had a blog. These days though it seems like we talk more through our blogs and e-mails than face to face, which is a bit silly since we live just 20 minutes apart.
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It was high time to rectify that, and how better than over a yummy breakfast.
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Standing next to a display of amazing-looking cakes that we didn't actually eat. (And if you could see the butt that I oh so subtlely cropped out of this picture you would understand why, though I really hope I don't have that many chins in real life! Gak! I am SO getting serious about this whole diet thing.)
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Hannah with food that is in fact ours.
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This place bakes the most amazing rolls. Even my breadmaking husband can't get enough of them.

All in all, a delightful morning.

See, you never know what kind of good things could happen when you answer Robin's request for blog fodder ;-).
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TT - Ice Cream Toppings, Bottomings and Next To's

Image courtesy of Stock Food

No, bottomings is probably not a word, but what would you call it...

Here are 13 classics to dress up your favorite scoop:

Toppings:

1. Hot fudge sauce!
2. Hot butterscotch sauce
3. Whipped cream
4. Sprinkles
5. Homemade berry syrup (blueberry, rasberry, strawberry...)
6. And of course the proverbial cherry on the top

Bottomings (there's that word again):

7. Brownies
8. Waffle cone
9. Sugar cone
10. Waffle
11. Chocolate chip cookie
12. Vanilla wafers

Next-To's:

13. A banana of course!

So, how many of you are now planning on ice cream for dessert (or even for breakfast) today?




Visit the Thursday Thirteen hub to see what everyone else is counting this week.

TT - Uncooked Stirfry

Necessity is dictating my list this week. Here are 13 ingredients I have prepped and ready to go for the stir-fry dish I'm trying to cook for dinner tonight. Only catch is that Maya still hasn't fallen asleep so I can't go do it yet. In the meantime, Jay HAS fallen asleep as he put Itai to bed and I'm nodding off here myself. This doesn't bode well for dinner...

1. Multi-color noodles (I'd wanted fried rice but we're completely overstocked on noodles right now and I needed to whittle down some bulk in the pantry.)

2. Leftover cooked meat

3. Broccoli

4. Carrots

5. Oyster mushrooms

6. Green beans

7. Cashews

8. Fresh corn

9. Freshly grated ginger (or at least it was a few hours ago)

10. Garlic

11. Scallions

12. Assorted sauces (soy, hoisin, black bean and garlic, mirin, etc.)

13. Cornstarch and water for thickening

Sigh...

Update: She did eventually fall asleep, but by then Jay was a lost cause so I ended up with dinner for one. Better luck next time.

Visit Thursday Thirteen to see what everyone else is counting this week.

Sate Chicken Skewers

The chicken itself was long gone by the time Janet asked for this recipe, so since I didn't have any food to photograph I decided to show you the recipe card itself. See for yourselves how well-loved this recipe has been over the years. The card is one of a number of family recipes my mom wrote out for me when I got married and nearly seventeen years later it's still a family favorite. We make it often at home, and it's our favorite go-to dish for summer barbecues whenever we're asked to bring "something to throw on the grill".

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Enjoy.

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Indonesian-style Sate Chicken Skewers

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Ingredients:

4 large chicken cutlets, cut in strips (or easier to skewer bite-sized pieces, whichever you prefer)

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 Tbl oil

1 Tbl molasses

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1 clove of garlic, crushed

2 Tbl lemon juice

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Mix above ingredients in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate. Marinate chicken for at least 2 hours.

Just before grilling, soak bamboo skewers in water (so they won't catch fire, which might put a damper on your dinner, so to speak). Thread the chicken onto the skewers. Grill 4-5 minutes or until done. (May take longer if you've done your chicken in chunks.) Brush with marinade. Or don't, I often skip this step.

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Note: The original recipe calls for serving this with a spicy peanut sauce, but since no one but Jay and I ever ate the sauce (Israelis don't tend to be big fans of peanut butter in any shape or form) I've stopped bothering over the years. The chicken is delicious plain, but the sauce definitely kicks it up a notch. This recipe is similar to the one I used to make, but I leave out the coconut milk, thinning the peanut butter with a bit of hot water instead. Get creative, it's hard to go wrong with peanut sauce.

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Click here if you'd like to see more of my recipes.

Surf City Pizza

Oh man, I am SO bummed. I can't believe I'm stuck in this 110 degree hole working when there are all those killer waves out there. What's wrong with all these people, why are they coming in here to order a stupid pizza when they could be OUT THERE riding all those waves! This is so bogus. This working gig is really not for me, who says I need to be taught responsibility. Responsibility is lookin' at those waves and choosin' which one to ride, the one that'll show all those beach bums who knows their way around a board. The one that'll win me that crown and all that sweet, sweet prize money. Who needs a stupid job anyway when they could be surfin'. Like learning how to make a pizza is really gonna take me far in life. Jeez.

Hey wait a second.

I bet that if I started making really bad pizzas people would stop buying them. Then the owner would have to let me go and there'd be nothing my old man could say about it. No business, no need for an employee. Oh yeah. I can practically taste the freedom and the salt air!

But how? How can I make pizzas so bad that the customers will flee? This is going to take some experimenting... It's got to be really, really vile. Oh man, this is gonna work, I can feel it in my bones. By this time next week I will be ridin' the waves, a free man again. I'm practically outta here already.

But what to put on the pizza...

Hey, wait! I've got it! Check it out man! I'm gonna do something so vile they're even gonna write petitions against it!

My secret weapon. This is definitely gonna work! No one in their right mind would ever want PINEAPPLE on a pizza! One bite and it's over. I am SO outta here...

This week's Sunday Scribbling's prompt was "the experiment". It's been a while since I wrote any fiction so I decided to have some fun with it.

Fridge Space

Fridge space - inside, outside, and on top - is definitely at a premium in our house. I'm choosing to see it as a sign of a home that while somewhat chaotic and cluttered is still well-functioning and happy, rather than as a sign of some kind of compulsive neurosis.

School papers, bills to pay, reading lists and "important papers" all vie with children's artwork and an insane number of magnets (I think that odd socks must morph into fridge magnets when no one is looking) for space on the front.


Inside it's all the things that keep a household functioning and keep two cooks happy - 2 kinds of milk, several kinds of yogurt, the strawberry yogurt drinks the kids are both addicted to, a ridiculous number of cheeses both hard and soft, a white bean and tuna salad, vegetables purchased this morning from the greengrocer, all sorts of fresh fruit (except fresh pineapple - that one didn't make it an hour today), a kilo of chicken breasts waiting to be turned into schnitzels later today (coated with those horrible orange commercial bread crumbs instead of nice healthy homemade ones so that said schnitzels can then be placed in the store-bought schnitzel package and thus passed off as mass-produced garbage to my connoisseur children who stubbornly refuse to eat the homemade), various sourdough starters all waiting to have various things done to them at various times, chocolate milk, beer, white wine, a ton of eggs, and all sorts of condiments, sauces, leftovers and other assorted odds and ends.


The freezer is also completely stuffed right now - it holds packages of meat, two kinds of hot dogs, an empty bag of store-bought schnitzels waiting to be filled (see above), cream of eggplant soup saved from a batch I made two weeks ago, 3 tubs of ice cream (all leftover from this year's ICFBD, even after I begged everyone to take them home again. My friends simply cannot be trusted!), two tubs of spreadable butter my husband just bought on sale only to discover that they will shortly expire (hence the freezer), a small loaf of blue cheese bread, a few pitas, and of course "The Door of Flour" (doesn't that sound like the door of doom or something else ominous? It's really quite benign, except for the fact that I'm constantly afraid that the shelf guard is going to collapse under the pressure and all those kilo bags of flour will fall on my feet and then burst in a cloud of floury kitchen devastation).



Now given all of this, why isn't there anything to eat?

Just kidding... Sort of.


Visit Sunday Scribblings to see what others do with their fridge space.

No Knead Beer Bread

For those of us who are not Jay amateur artisan bakers. Easy, impressive (yes, it does look and taste like "real" bread, even slices well too), and very tasty...

I threw this bread together yesterday for a playgroup afternoon I was hosting and served it to rave reviews. Most people ate it with the sun-dried tomato cream cheese I put out, but it was also really good with just a bit of butter (or for that matter with the mango chutney I spread on the leftover end this afternoon).

Ingredients

1 standard size (12oz / 33oml) can of beer or malt beer - ordinary Maccabi seems to work best if you can get it

3 cups flour

1 packet (12g or approximately 2tsp) baking powder

1 tbl sugar

1 tsp salt

Optional:

• "Something" to throw into the dough. I used about 1/4 cup of chopped black olives. Chopped nuts would also work well.
• "Something else" to sprinkle over the top - I used sunflower seeds

Method

Mix everything together (took about 2 minutes in my stand mixer).

Pour into greased loaf pan.

Bake 30 minutes at 350F (180C).

Note: I accidentally used a larger size can of beer but other than having to bake the loaf significantly longer (which is probably why the top cracked) and having it smell slightly of beer you'd never notice. I like a forgiving recipe...