mmm...Tabouli

Tabouli...oh the memories.  When I was little my dad used to take my siblings and I swimming almost every day.  After swimming we would go to the cafeteria and get pita bread pizzas and tabouli.  Needless to say, I love tabouli. It is a light, refreshing and delicious salad.  And for me, it's comfort food.  I couldn't find a recipe online that quite matches my families recipe.  I'm not really sure where we got the recipe, probably some friend in Arabia.  I just know that for as long as I can remember my family has gathered together in the kitchen around numerous cutting boards to make tabouli.  We would spend hours chopping and chatting as we chopped, we were always exhausted by the end, but the first bite of tabouli made it all worth it.  Now, with my food processor it is a less daunting task, but I have to say I do miss those family tabouli gatherings.  

I looked online and found a recipe that is a good place to start.  To this recipe, I add one bunch of chopped cilantro, one or two finely chopped cucumbers, a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin and coriander, and a teaspoon of sumac (optional, but highly recommended).  I also use about 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil, not 1/2  a cup and I usually use 2 or 3 tomatoes, not one. 

Give tabouli a try, it is well worth it! 

Hummus with Homemade Pita Bread

Hummus is a quick, easy and delicious snack to whip up -I liked this hummus recipe.  It was simple and turned out wonderful.  Alex made some pita bread from scratch to go along with the hummus and voila we had one delicious side dish to accompany our dinner!

Zuchinni Soup

Zuchinni Soup!  Yes, zuchinni soup, this week you will find all things zuchinni on this blog.  Our garden is on zuchinni overload, so many zuchinnis!  I'm not complaining though, I love zuchinnis.  This soup was a delicious way to use up some extra zuchinni.  I treated this soup like a cream of potato soup, because I decided that it would be quite delicious with some crumbled bacon and a swirl of sour cream, and I was right -it was delicious!

Dispersion Staining

I took a microscopy class last week that was pretty fun.  The class was interesting, but my favorite part was looking at all the amazing colors through the microscope.  I took this picture of some potassium phosphate crystals.  They were white and clear until I added them to a liquid that had a refractive index near the refractive index of the crystals.  The resulting color change is referred to as dispersion staining.  I thought it was beautiful! 

Tequila Lime Chicken Fettuccine

I really like funky fusion pastas -like the ones they serve at California Pizza Kitchen.  This recipe actually reminds me of one of my favorite pasta dishes at CPK.  This post sounds a lot like an add for CPK, right?  Well, I promise you it's not, this post is about pasta.  Tangy, creamy, savory pasta.  I love this dish!  I even like the bell peppers in it and I'm not the biggest fan of bell peppers.  I used spinach fettucine instead of regular fettucine, but I don't think it's necessary.  However, it is necessary that you try this recipe -it's delicious.  

Making Your Own Pickles

I love pickles, so this year I decided to make my own.  If you have a garden and you grow cucumbers, this is a great way to save some money and make some delicious pickles!  If you don't have a garden, you should still make them, because like I said: delicious pickles!  For this recipe, I followed the directions quite carefully, because cucumbers can be tricky to preserve -they are more prone to spoilage than other higher acidic foods.  However, I did change one thing, I added more dill than the recipe called for -I really like dill.  I made 12 quart jars of dill pickles this year.  I'm actually worried this might not be enough, I can literally eat a whole jar in one sitting -scary I know, I told you, I love pickles!