Dinner Planner – Week of April 3, 2017

Mr. Picky is off for spring break, so my husband and I took him on Friday night to Park City where we will hang out for a few days.  The weather is just the way I like it – warm!  We’re skiing, going out to dinner, watching college basketball and just trying to relax a little before I go back home to busy week ahead. I am starting a new menu this week and I’ll start preparing for next Monday’s Passover seder.  I am also really excited for my mom to visit this week.  We always check out the new, cool places to go to lunch and she’s always a great sous chef when I need one!

Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

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Menu Ideas for Passover 2017

With Passover and Easter coming up fast, many of my students have been asking me after class what they should make for the holidays and the timing of it all.  Timing, timing, timing!!  It seems to be the reason for so much anxiety and I completely understand why.  Timing is everything! For those of you celebrating Easter, I just cooked a beautiful Easter brunch with Jenni Kayne and she will post that menu on her blog around April 10th.

This is my second time doing Passover, but I have plenty of experience preparing Thanksgiving and multiple other holidays and dinner parties, so Passover shouldn’t be any different.  My husband’s family is traditional and likes to observe two nights, which means two dinners back-to-back.  Two years ago, I did both nights, which was great, but it took A LOT of organization.  This year, I’m doing the first night and my sister-in-law is doing the second night.  So here is the menu that I am doing with the corresponding timeline.  If I have a recipe posted, I have linked to it.  If there’s no link, I’m winging it or I just haven’t posted it.

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Dinner Planner: Week of March 27, 2017

I had a busy week last week with lots of classes plus an Easter Brunch shoot with my friend Jenni Kayne and The Chalkboard Mag.  Recipes coming to both of those sites around April 10th.  This week is the last week of my March menu, plus I have a shoot with my friend Molly Sims and I’m going to do some videos at the end of the week.  Let me know ASAP if you have any requests!

I’ve got to be super organized for meals this week.  Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

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Five Friday Favorites – Expo West 2017

Sorry it has taken me so long to post my highlights of Natural Products Expo West.  There’s so much to report, I still haven’t gotten it all in there.  Although I only went for one day, I saw so much and it was honestly overwhelming! Expo West is a huge, and I mean HUGE, natural products trade show in Anaheim with something along the lines of 3100 distributors, about 1/6 of them are first-timers.  It’s mostly food, but there are tons of beauty care companies, supplements, pet food, food scientists and packaging companies.  It runs for 3 1/2 days and I don’t know that I could really handle more than one day.  Although it’s very crowded, it’s a great opportunity to meet with companies and see what’s new for them and really have the chance to ask them questions about their products.

It’s always hard to pinpoint the trends that stand out, especially since I only saw a fraction of the show.  But that’s not going to stop me from trying.  Here’s what I observed:

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Cuban Black Beans Recipe

Cuban Black Beans | Pamela Salzman
Cuban Black Beans | Pamela Salzman
Photography by Erica Hampton

Give me all the peasant food.  I need nothing fancy to make me happy and satisfied.  A good bean soup or bowl of braised lentils or refried beans is what I crave. I basically could never go Paleo because I can’t give up legumes!  There are many different cultures which use legumes in their cooking – from the Mediterranean and the Middle East to India and Caribbean.  Let’s not forget Latin America, South America and North America!  Legumes are a nutritious, inexpensive and versatile staple in many kitchens around the globe.  Did you also know beans with black or red color have crazy high amounts of antioxidants?

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Dinner Planner- Week of March 20th, 2017

My daughters juts left tonight and I am pretty mopey about it. We had a great week with them and I am beyond grateful that they chose to come home for spring break.  Counting the days until they come home in May!

I am continuing with the March menu in my classes this week, although I have a group who requested the February menu and I can’t blame them because it’s so good.  I was able to turn in the last round of edits for my cookbook this week and I am so excited!  FYI, you can pre-order my cookbook Kitchen Matters on amazon or a signed copy from my local bookstore, Pages!

Here’s your dinner planner for this week:

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Roasted Fish with Chermoula Recipe

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  I am hoping you made something naturally green this morning, like these Green Muffins or Green Pancakes, and rejected green-dyed bagels.  A green juice would be rather appropriate today, as well.  Now let’s move on. 😉 Not only is it St. Patrick’s Day, but it is also a mere few days before the first day of spring, a day of rebirth and nature’s way of starting fresh.

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