PAIN AU CHOCOLAT

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I’m surprising myself lately – making French pastries and joining a gym (no cause and effect, by the way).  This winter I couldn’t live up to my longtime motto of “exercising outside with my dog – rain or shine.”  I needed a backup plan for when it was below 12 degrees – (Boston, MA) way too often! So I gave in and joined a gym. As for the pastry, I don’t do a lot of baking (as you’ve probably noticed by how few desserts there are on Panning The Globe).  My passion is more for savory dishes, but I needed something buttery and decadent for a Sunday brunch and I love pain au chocolat, so I made it for the first time…. I was thrilled with how good it turned out and how easy it was! Continue »

LAMB STEW with SPRING VEGETABLES

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St. Patrick’s Day is a few weeks away and so is spring. I’m excited for both! I’m all for celebrating every possible occasion and St. Patrick’s Day is a particularly fun one: corned beef, potatoes, green beer, Irish stew!  According to my research lots of people agree – census stats show nearly 45% of people in the United States celebrate St. Patrick’s day. So here’s a great recipe in honor of St. Patrick’s Day and the coming of spring: lamb stew with spring vegetables. Continue »

SPICY TURKISH TAPENADE

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spicy-turkish-tapenade

This Turkish-inspired version of black olive tapenade is jazzed up with garlic, a variety of spices, parsley and walnuts.  It takes just 15 minutes to throw together. It’s the kind of thing I’ll make for a special occasion or even just for a random Friday night when my husband and I have no plans.  I love to mark the end of the work week with something special and celebratory that goes well with a cocktail or a glass of wine. Continue »

TURKEY ZUCCHINI MEATBALLS with LEMONY YOGURT SAUCE

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Do you have any foods that make you swoon?  Maybe for you it’s chocolatey desserts or macaroni and cheese?  For me, it’s meatballs that have me in their spell.  Whether they’re stuffed or glazed, Swedish or Asian or on spaghetti with tomato sauce, they are utterly irresistible to me.  In fact, that’s why I don’t make them very often, because I end up eating waaaayyy too many! I’m constantly on the lookout for recipes that are both healthy and irresistibly delicious.  These turkey zucchini meatballs, from my new favorite cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi, are made mostly from vegetables and herbs.  I’ve cooked them at least a dozen times since I got Jerusalem, Ottolenghi’s newest cookbook. Continue »

SPAETZLE with CARAMELIZED ONIONS, WILTED GREENS AND GRUYERE

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Since the inspiration for this recipe came on a morning dog walk, I’m going to introduce you to my dog Baxter.  He’s my good buddy and I adore him. Every morning we walk or run together. We have our usual haunts where he meets up with his friends and I meet up with mine. Recently, on a ridiculously cold and icy day, we ran into a fellow Golden Doodle named Merlin. While the dogs were romping around, Merlin’s owner and I got to talking.  I found out that she’s German.  She told me her son was home from college for winter break and that she cooked spaetzle, his favorite food. As she was describing the buttery, cheesy casserole of tiny tender dumplings I knew what I had to do. Continue »

CAMBODIAN PORK RICE SOUP

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Here’s a really fantastic dish to put on the table at the end of a long, cold winter day.  If you’re craving comfort food and you’re up for an exciting taste treat (and exciting visuals) you’ll enjoy this recipe. Plus it’s a one-dish dinner that you can whip up in under an hour. Continue »

ANNOUNCING A GREAT WAY TO SAVE & ORGANIZE RECIPES with ZIPLIST

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I want to tell you about a great way to save and organize all of your online recipes.  It has to do with a company called ZipList that I just partnered with because I was so excited about their technology. That’s why you now see a blue “save” button on all the recipes on this site and a “Recipe Box” link in the upper left sidebar.

ZipList partners with top food sites such as Martha Stewart, Epicurious, Serious Eats and now – happily - Panning The Globe, and provides them with an easy way for visitors to save recipes and generate shopping lists.

Now here’s the really amazing part of all of this: when you sign up for a free ZipList account, you get your own universal recipe box and shopping list.  In other words: any recipe you find on any website or blog can be saved to your personal recipe box, with just a click.  Then another click generates a shopping list for that recipe. Then the free ZipList app syncs it all to your phone, so your recipes and shopping lists come with you to the grocery store. Continue »

MY FAVORITE VEGETARIAN CHILI

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Here’s my favorite vegetarian chili recipe.  It’s extremely low-fat and loaded with fresh vegetables, yet even the carnivores in my house get excited about it.  Hopefully the carnivores in your house will love it too!   Continue »

OVEN GRILLED CHEESE AND TOMATO SOUP

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The classic American pairing of grilled cheese and tomato soup – what could be more simple and comforting?!  For the soup, I’ve adapted chef Barbara Lynch’s tomato soup recipe from her cookbook Stir. It’s intensely tomatoey with a spicy kick.  For the grilled cheese I went for high flavor, using grated sharp cheddar, grated onion, dijon mustard and a bit of mayo for texture. Continue »

PANNING THE GLOBE’S TOP 10 RECIPES OF 2013

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Hi everyone and happy 2014. For many of us the end of a year represents a clean slate – an opportunity to reflect on the past year and step into the new one with the insight and resolve to make positive changes. I would love to share some of my resolutions with you but I’m reluctant to because I’ve been reading up on how to make resolutions successful and, contrary to popular belief, one of the major pieces of advice is not to go around telling people what you’re going to accomplish. Apparently, when you get positive feedback for announcing your goals, it tricks your brain into feeling a sense of gratification that diminishes your resolve to actually change.  So suffice it to say – I’m starting out the new year trying really hard to resist overindulging in all of the tempting leftovers from my New Year’s Eve party.  And please don’t praise me for that or I might just run to the fridge and start pigging out!

In honor of the new year I thought it would be fun to do a little retrospective. My year-end statistics show tremendous growth for Panning The Globe in 2013 – not just in numbers of visitors but also in its global reach, with visitors from 178 of the world’s 194 countries!  The stats also tell me which were your favorite recipes of the year – so here they are – in order.

Continue »

SWINGING SULTAN COCKTAIL

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Hi everyone.  This is Lisa’s husband, Ed, filling in as a guest blogger for Panning the Globe. Lisa wanted to share a cocktail recipe for the holiday season and she recruited me for the job. Usually when we entertain, Lisa handles all of the organization and most of the cooking.   I help out as a sous chef and sometimes I contribute a bread or a dessert.  It is also my role to be the bartender.  I often make up drinks on the fly as I receive vague requests like “something fruity and not too strong, with a little fizz”.  But I never actually had the occasion to invent an official drink, until now.    In honor of our recent trip to Istanbul, Lisa asked me to concoct a drink that has a Turkish theme.  After much deliberation about a name, I decided to call it a Swinging Sultan.  This is my drink debut and I really hope you like it! Continue »

PANNING THE GLOBE’S GUIDE TO FESTIVE RECIPES & GREAT GIFTS 2013

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I’m writing this post on a snowy Sunday morning, taking breaks to sip coffee and scribble in my notebook, where I jot down recipe ideas as they come to me. Two of my kids fly in from college tomorrow night, which for me marks the beginning of the holiday festivities. More of my family will soon fly in from across the country and many get-togethers are planned – all centered around sharing delicious food & drink and great company. I hope you’re all gearing up for some wonderful holiday cooking and sharing special time with friends and family.

I feel extremely grateful every day for my health, my family, my friends and for being able to what I love to do here with this food blog. As we head towards the close of 2013, I want to extend a huge thanks to all of you who have visited Panning The Globe, cooked and shared recipes, and left comments.  Your visits and support and encouragement have made my first year of blogging a total joy.  As a special thank you, I’ve put together a collection of my favorite holiday gift ideas and recipes.  I hope you enjoy! Continue »

VANILLA PANNA COTTA with BALSAMIC STRAWBERRIES

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Some friends recently invited me to a “Foodie/Tasting Night” at their photography gallery.  One of the featured tastings was Cavedoni Balsamic Vinegar imported from Italy.  I sipped a half dozen different vinegars from tiny tasting cups, including one that was infused with truffles and another that had been aged for 100 years. The vinegars were dark and syrupy and each had its own interesting and complex flavors.

We got to talking about food (of course) and one thing led to another and the folks at Cavedoni gave me some vinegars to experiment with. I found that Il Caratello, one of their most popular vinegars, was exceptionally good with my favorite dinner party dessert – vanilla panna cotta with balsamic strawberries.  It’s also great on salads, roasted veggies, or for dipping bread. Cavedoni generously offered to provide 6 bottles of Il Caratello balsamic vinegar for a Panning The Globe giveaway. It’s easy to enter by filling out the Rafflecoptor form after the recipe.  Happy Holidays! Continue »

GREEK-STYLE GARLICKY SHRIMP WITH FETA

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Here’s a dish that you can serve as party appetizer or for a weeknight dinner. It’s quick, easy, festive and delicious!

It’s been a ridiculously busy but wonderful week for me, with my college boys flying home for Thanksgiving and having Hanukkah mixed in. It was so great to have the whole family together again for a few days. If you have kids in college you probably know that it’s extra rewarding to cook for them because they’re so incredibly grateful for anything homemade. But I have to admit I’m exhausted!  There was lots of cooking and eating going on for days but what knocked me out were the potato latkes. There’s really no easy way to make them.  You’ve got to just tie your hair up; turn on the exhaust fan, and get frying. For one night of Hanukkah, determined to make enough latkes for all plus leftovers, I stood over two bubbling frying pans for 2 solid hours. I’m happy to say that everyone ate as many latkes as their heart desired.  There was one single latke left at the end of dinner to prove it!

So you will understand why I’m extra appreciative of this shrimp recipe because it practically cooks itself. All you do is scatter a bunch of stuff in a pot, put the cover on, turn on the heat, and the magic happens. Continue »

MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY SALAD

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holiday-salad

It’s a really busy time so I’m going to be brief and to the point.  I have two important things to tell you about. This first is  this recipe which I wanted you to have in time for the holidays.  The second is that I now have an Amazon Store on Panning The Globe. (upper left, under the search box) I’ve been working on it for months – filling it with things that I use and enjoy and whole-heartedly recommend, including “my favorite cookbooks” and a section on “gifts for the cook”.  I hope you have fun browsing around, and just in time for Black Friday!  Another great thing to know is that when you shop through my store, you help cover our costs. A small percentage of what you spend comes back to help support Panning The Globe at no extra cost to you. Continue »

DANISH AEBLESKIVERS

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danish-aebleskivers-recipe

I don’t know if everyone has a childhood memory of a time in the kitchen when you were struck with the magic of cooking. For me it was the first time I scrambled eggs.  I remember being totally mesmerized as I watched the goopy yellow liquid almost instantly transform into scrambled eggs as it hit the hot pan.  I wanted to make scrambled eggs for everyone – all the time.  That’s how I feel about Aebleskivers. I made them for the first time the other night, as dessert for a bunch of friends. I stuffed them with chocolate and sprinkled powdered sugar on top. They got all thumbs up. And they are so much fun to make.  I love to watch the batter form into a perfect ball as I turn it in the pan.  It’s like magic. Continue »

ROASTED SQUASH STUFFED with ROASTED VEGETABLES

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stuffed-roasted-acorn-squash

I was recently asked to fill out a questionnaire about me and my blog.  One of the questions was “What is your most requested dish – your specialty?”  I thought about it for a while – it felt like a really tough question, at first.  I considered the dishes that are popular with my family such as Aleppo pepper chicken, sukiyaki, and chicken parm.  I also thought about choosing one of the special dishes that I cook for the holidays – I make a great brisket and a mean chicken soup with matzo balls.  But I couldn’t get comfortable with calling just one of those dishes my specialty.  Then it hit me that,  without question, my specialty is roasted vegetables.  I make them all the time, they always get oohs and aahs, and it makes me feel extra happy when I cook something that is both super healthy and completely delicious.  This recipe for roasted squash stuffed with roasted fall vegetables is a high impact version of my specialty – a celebration of healthy and delicious.  Serve this as a side dish with roasted meat or chicken, or as a vegetarian main course. It’s also the perfect festive dish for Thanksgiving. Continue »

TURKISH MANTI

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turkish-lamb-stuffed-manti

When in Turkey, don’t underestimate the significance of the size of your manti.   If you’re served extremely small manti, your host thinks very highly of you – apparently the smaller the manti, the more special you are.  After spending an afternoon making manti from scratch, I totally get it.  This is not a dish you can throw together casually and serve to just anyone.  Each one of these tiny, lamb-stuffed dumplings is a carefully, hand-wrapped gift.  Once shaped, they’re baked, boiled, and then topped with three different sauces – brown butter, caramelized tomato paste, and garlicky yogurt.  Making manti is definitely an undertaking, but it’s totally worth the effort. All of the time and care that goes into making them comes shining through – when served a bowl of manti, you can feel the love. Continue »

ISTANBUL

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lunch-Istanbul

Istanbul.  After five amazing days drinking in all the excitement of the vibrant city of Istanbul and enjoying some of the best food I’ve ever tasted, I thought “it can’t get any better than this,” and then we went to Ihsan’s mother’s house for lunch.  Eating crispy cheese-filed borek on the rooftop was just the start of an unforgettable afternoon and a fitting climax for a week that was truly a dream come true. Continue »

CURRIED CHICKEN SALAD

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Who invented curried chicken salad?  Where in the world did the recipe come from?  In all my years of making curried chicken salad, I never asked these questions – until now.  Since starting Panning The Globe I’ve learned that there is usually way more to a recipe than just the ingredients and cooking technique.  There’s often a rich history or, at the very least, an interesting story that explains how a particular dish came to be. Continue »