The Drink of the Moment

 

Today is an auspicious day. I won the food52 cooking contest. And I won $7 playing Powerball! I did chip in $20, but it does not matter, a win is a win. (In case you were wondering, the winning dish is Spice Merchant Cauliflower Couscous. And in case you were wondering what possessed me to play Powerball at the first place, well that's a topic for a separate post.)

Spice Merchant Cauliflower Couscous

Ajvar: The Pepper Caviar

A Postcard from Belgrade: No Words Just Pictures

The Menu Challenge: Cooking for Playdates + Childhood Zucchini Pancakes

The Challenge: Miss Pain is having a playdate party with three girlfriends. Moms are in the picture too. None of which I have ever met before outside the classroom. Food preferences - unknown. I politely email a couple of days before asking about dietary restrictions, and get the usual "do not worry about that".

The King is Unwell and He Needs Cure

Hello people, it's the King season and I have several new projects coming. By the time the King season is over, I might have to take another mortgage on my apartment to pay all the King's bills, but I will worry about it later. Right now I am preoccupied with my new hobby.

Food & Friends: Easter in the Mountains + Some Unexpected Offal

With a couple of weeks delay compared to all other Christian nations, we the Orthodox (read the Greeks and the Serbs) are finally ready to celebrate Easter. We the Orthodox (read the Greeks and the Serbs) still operate according to the Julian calendar, and still calculate the timing of the full moon or the vernal equinox according to the Julian calendar. You surely remember that in the year 325, the Council of Nicaea established that the date of Easter would be the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox, don't you? The Council was not in a position to specify which calendar to apply, hence we the Orthodox (read the Greeks and the Sers), with our outdated calendar, trail the other Christians by up to five weeks.

A Postcard from Paris: No Words Just Pictures

 

A Postcard from Paris: On a Quest for Perfect Hot Chocolate

We are in Paris for a week, thanks to Miss Pain. Miss Pain was in charge of selecting vacation spot for the spring break and she proclaimed that it must be Paris. Miss Pain is six, she should be oblivious about Paris. I ask her "Pain, why do you want to go there?", and she tells me, "I want to see Mona Lisa, the Eifel Tower and where Coco Chanel lived." Did I mention that Pain is six? I wonder where they learn such things these days. Regardless of the source of Miss Pain's knowledge, I concur that these are all valid reasons, so Paris it is.

Craving Green: Wintergreen Soup

Post New Year is a pathetic time for cooks. It's like coming to a low after an incredible high. All the holiday baking, cooking, eating and partying have taken a tool on our cooking minds and our bodies. Snow is not pretty anymore, not even in pictures. Market is brown. Food is brown. And together with the fresh New Year resolutions, we crave some freshness in our lives and our tummies. Thus, let me present my New Year's resolutions soup. Post Thanksgiving, post Christmas and New Year, when I regret all the turkeys I ate and all the champagnes I drank, this is the soup to start fresh, clean and light. Not really quite Asian, not really quite Western, not really quite anything, just a tiny bit of aromatherapy for the soul.