As more people are becoming aware of the pleasures of Mediterranean cooking, I thought it would be fun to go straight to the source. I asked my friend, Nicole Chedid, the wife of the Ambassador of Lebanon, for some classic Lebanese recipes. With typically warm Lebanese hospitality she invited me for lunch and served two of her favorites. You may know Baba Ghanouj, the classic roasted eggplant dish, fragrant with garlic, spices, and olive oil, and served as a first […]
Can you believe that Memorial Day is just a week away? The official start of summer is just around the corner, so what are you going to do with this nice, long weekend? Sometimes the best holiday weekends are the ones that require no travel or extra effort, just some lazy mornings to sleep in and a little extra time to cook something special. I used to make blueberry pancakes with vanilla ice cream for my girls on weekends like […]
It wasn’t intentional, but this has turned out to be classic American food week on America’s Table; first a steak sandwich, now pizza. What’s special about pizza? Its infinite variety, for starters. Thick crust, New York-style thin crust, endless toppings, dripping cheeses: can you imagine life without out it? I asked a friend with celiac disease what food they most missed eating, and the answer was…pizza. That’s exactly why I wanted to make gluten-free pizza, because if someone told me […]
Washington is full of steakhouses. You can find other kinds of restaurants, of course, but it’s hard to get around the red-meat-and-potatoes vibe here. Sometimes a good steak hits the spot better than anything I can think of, but there always seems to be more meat than I can eat, and I wind up bringing home a little foil bag of barely-charred steak that screams from the refrigerator, “Use me! I was hideously expensive.” So then what? A big he-man, […]
The former White House social secretaries are a congenial group, and we gather regularly to catch up and pass tales, for much the same reason veterans flock to the VFW: we share an experience that others cannot fully appreciate. I love them all, but one who has a special place in my heart is Ann Stock, who served in the Clinton Administration. During my second week at the White House, feeling overwhelmed by the volume of events in that pre-Christmas, […]
