I love chips and dips. Blue corn chips with homemade guacamole or roasted salsa is one of my favorite snacks. This time though, I left Mexico behind and ventured to Middle East in search of chips and dips. Testing a Yogurt Dip with Zahtar Grilled Pita Breads for Robyn Webb was my ticket to a new adventure in snacking.

To start, I made Zahtar – a traditional Middle Eastern spice blend that combines toasted sesame seeds, thyme, and sumac. I used thyme leaves and ground them up in a coffee grinder to release more aroma from the herb. Finding sumac in Birmingham, AL was somewhat a challenge, but luckily, there is a Penzeys spice store close to me and they carried this ground up berry with a distinct burnt red color and a sour taste.

Once you mix the zahtar, it can become your on-hand flavor boost for broiled salmon, sauteed chicken, or a tossed salad. For this recipe though, I mixed zahtar with non-fat Greek Yogurt for a healthy and delicious dip. A touch of olive oil, a minced clove of garlic, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper round this dip up.

Now that the dip is finished, it’s time for the chips. Pita is the quintessential Middle Eastern bread. To keep these chips on a healthy side, Robyn uses whole wheat pita. Lightly brushed with olive oil, the pita bread is then sprinkled with some of the zahtar blend and baked in the oven until crispy.

Once the pita is baked, cut it up into triangles and serve along with the yogurt.

Dinner time. I’ve been in love with arugula for ages – the peppery flavor is bright and can stand up against lots of delicious mix-ins. Searching through boxes, bags, and containers in my refrigerator, I came across the bag of baby arugula, and the rest just came together in a bowl.

Recipe – or something close enough

In a large bowl, combine the following:
2 handfulls of baby arugula
thinly sliced red onion
slivered almonds
crumbled feta
sliced oranges (left over from my bowl of citrus)

Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss and eat.

Why this works – the salad is a great combination of contrasting flavors and textures. Here’s the break down:
salty – feta
sweet – orange
sour – balsamic
crunchy – almonds, onions

Give it a try.

Have any other ways of using arugula? Let me know.

Orange is one of my favorite colors. And oranges are one of my favorite fruits. The truth is, I love citrus – oranges, grapefruits, pamelos, tangerines, you name it. Freshly squeezed juice, fresh zest, carefully segmented, citrus has a lot to offer. And plus, it’s good for you!

Last week at work, we were shooting lots of citrus and I couldn’t let it go to waste. A nice selection of the fruit made it safe back to my apartment where I enjoyed it for days to come.

A food post, finally! Last week, a few of the SPC interns organized a Valentine day dessert party. A price of admission? $2 to cover the wine cost and a plate of something sweet – not too shabby.

I am not much of a baker, and with expectations to impress (afterall, I am an intern with Southern Living magazine) I was slightly panicking. Not to worry. A few tricks, a use of the Southern Living kitchen (terrific perk), and I was ready to celebrate V-day with cupcakes.

Recipe:

1 box brownies mix (use your favorite variety)
trick: use buttermilk instead of water
1 orange, zested (this I learned from Olga)
1 pack (8 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick butter, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar (you can use more-less depending on how sweet and thick you want your icing)
1 T Grand Marnier

Make the brownie mix according to directions, using buttermilk instead of water, and adding 3/4 of the orange zest. The buttermilk will make the cupcakes more tender.

Use an ice cream scooper to scoop the brownie mix into cupcake forms lined with cupcake paper. Fill up each cupcake only 1/2-1/3 way up – they will rise. Bake according to directions, until the toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean and dry. Cool the cupcakes completely.

Make the icing by whipping together cream cheese and butter. Slowly add the sugar, and beat until smooth. Add Grand Marnier and the rest of the orange zest, mix until evenly distributed. I piped the icing using a ziploc bag.

Serve

The cupcakes were a big hit. I’ve got to say, I don’t think anyone has guessed that they were from a box. And as a bonus, they looked beautiful as well.

As I’ve mentioned before, due to sitemeter, I can somewhat track how people find my blog.

Here are a few amusing google searches that lead them to my site:

***inedible “rachel ray” “new york times” recipe – Virginia

***mango brown inside Massachusetts

This is the most amusing thing ever. Recently, I installed a sitemeter application on my blog to see who was visiting my site, how they found my blog, etc.

Tracking my visitors over the last month or so, I noticed that I get the most hits from people who google “brown mango” – the visitors come from all over the United States (California, New York, etc.) and also worldwide (England, Australia, Canada, New Zealand).

Isn’t it a peculiar thing? Last year I wrote a post Mango in the Winter are like Blind Dates. I was in Des Moines at that time and have purchased beautiful mangoes from a grocery store just to discover ugly, brown, and mushy inside flesh. Well, clearly I am not the only person with a brown mango problem. So here’s what happens. People go to google and try to find a solution for brown mangoes, and my blog comes up as the first link. Who knew!

I am a big fan of brunch. I still remember the fabulous brunch I would have in Dallas at Ziziki’s restaurant – the infamous unlimited mimosas, extensive selection of Greek specialties (dolmas, hummus, olives) along with the All-American pancakes, fresh fruit and scrambled eggs. Their coffee was strong and rich, with just a slight hint of cinnamon. I would spend several hours sitting at large wooden tables at Ziziki’s with my friends, snacking on olives, mini bagels with smoked salmon, and trying to stay away from the chocolate cake. We’d sip mimosas and catch up on our lives. Then I would drive home, hopefully basking in the Dallas sunshine, get in bed and nap for the rest of the afternoon. Sundays could never be much better.

This past Sunday, I decided to explore the brunch side of Birmingham starting with Cosmo’s. I was attracted to the restaurant (casual and fun, in a somewhat hip at least by this city’s standard part of Birmingham – Five Points) and the menu looked promising. Joined by a few SPC interns, I declared Sunday, February 1st “Brunch Day”.
The were several tempting options on the menu, but once I saw a combination of poached eggs, smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce, I closed the menu, so as not to change my mind.

My selection (I sadly no longer remember it’s name, and for some reason it’s no longer on the menu) arrived assembled on two toasted English muffins, with several out-out-place tomato slices and an interesting looking starch item on a side. Being oh-so-un-Southern, I chose to forego smoked gouda grits in favor of a hash brown casserole.

Here are my thoughts. The casserole was less than inspiring. The texture was very mushy and felt under-cooked. I missed a side of hash browns – toasted golden, with a crisp outer layer and tender middle. The hollandaise sauce was slightly broken and oily (the English muffins provided a nice sponge for the puddle). The eggs were split, so to speak. One egg yolk was perfectly soft, and happily ran once poked with a fork. The second yolk did not budge – it was cooked too long and was solidly set in the middle.

I would say this was not a bad first attempt for brunch. More to come in the future. And if you do go to Cosmo’s, check out their make-your-own Bloody Mary bar. I was tempted to give it a try, but at $7/drink had a change of hearts.

I’ve been thinking (I’ve had quite a lot of time for this lately) – for someone who loves security and stability, I have been moving every 6 months for the last 2 years. No, I’m not running from the law.

The moving around started when I left Dallas to attend The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Six months into my studies at the CIA, I packed up and moved to Des Moines, IA for an internship with Cuisine at home magazine. Loved the internship, hated being in Des Moines October through March, which was probably the toughest winter I’ve experienced.

In March, I drove back to Upstate NY to finish the CIA. Fast forward to October ’08. With an associate degree from the school, with honors, I had no job or job prospects, and so once again, I packed up and moved to Virginia to stay with my sister.

Few months later, I was fortunate to accept an internship with Southern Living magazine and took a 14-hour trip to Birmingham, AL. You’d think the moving was over then, at least for the length of the internship. Well, without all of my boxes fully unpacked, I ended up packing again this weekend and moving again – new roommate, new apartment, and a much happier me.

So perhaps, as long as the moving is taking me to bigger and better places, it might not be so bad afterall.

Alright, partially this is my fault, apparently I am not capable of writing down a correct routing number for my bank. So instead of getting a direct deposit, I get a check mailed to me. Which is a problem. You might ask “why?” The answer is simple – my bank doesn’t have a single branch here in Alabama – I think the closest one is in Georgia, over 80 miles away.

What is a girl to do? Open a new bank account of course. So I look around Birmingham, and try to select between Compass, Regions, Wachovia and a few other local banks. Comparing their geographical location, I decide to go with Regions – plus they give you a pretty free green canvas bag when you join (I can use it for groceries instead of plastic bags – why is it that the grocery stores insist on packing almost every single item in its own plastic bag?).

So anyway, I take a break from work (since I usually pretty much work through lunch – aka work lunch) and drive to a Regions bank. I walk into the first cubicle and tell the lady that I want to open an account. She asks to see my driver’s license, and I tell her that I don’t have an AL driver’s license because I am here only for 6 months.

What happens next? My accent PLUS “6 months” apparently translates to “you are from a foreign country, and are only in the United States for 6 months, therefore you do not get to open a bank account.” Apparently there aren’t that many people in Alabama with foreign accents – there are plenty with Southern accents.

After sometime of explaining that I in fact do not have a student/work visa because I am a U.S. citizen, and that my NY license should be valid, I got an account open. Seriously? I should carry my certificate of citizenship with me from now on.