Thai Papaya Beef Salad
food

Thai Papaya Beef Salad

This is not the papaya you’re thinking of – the ripe golden breakfast fruit that people drizzle with lime juice and eat while vacationing in tropical climes.  This papaya is unripe: green on the outside and white on the inside.  It’s shredded and mixed with green beans, fresh tomatoes, lime juice, and spices. The beef is then marinated in lime, garlic, and fish sauce, and grilled.  Add a rice base, and you’ve got an unusual and delicious salad. I love […]

California Roll
food

Homemade Sushi

You can’t buy sushi just anywhere, as one of my friends learned after picking up a salmon roll at a gas station. I still can’t figure out what possessed her, but she was sick for days. For the record, other places NOT to buy sushi: vending machines, convenience stores, and dive bars. If you live in most big cities in the US, great sushi is probably a phone call away – but that’s not the case everywhere.  I thought it […]

Chicken Schnitzel by Laura Bush
food

Laura Bush’s Chicken Schnitzel

A week of posts about great hosts wouldn’t be complete without a recipe from Laura Bush. I learned a tremendous amount about hospitality when I worked for her.  There was no detail too small to consider, to make her guests feel comfortable and special, and she never stopped thinking about it.  Once, when we were hosting a group of Lincoln scholars at a lecture at the White House on Lincoln’s Birthday, she called me over during the lecture and asked […]

Heirloom Tomato Fattoush
food

Heirloom Tomato Fattoush

If you haven’t had fattoush yet, here’s a good gateway recipe.  This variation on the Middle Eastern classic is made with sumac, cilantro, crisped pita chips, tomatoes, pomegranate seeds, and feta.  It’s a wonderful combination of Mediterranean flavors, and a substantial salad that has become a fixture on our weekly summer menus.  I love it because it’s a different way to enjoy the gorgeous heirloom tomatoes of the season; the sumac and pomegranate dressing give them unique flavor, and the […]

Blackened Salmon With Peach Salsa
food

Blackened Salmon With Peach Salsa

Here’s a fast way to make skillet salmon and give it a nice flavor boost with spicy peach salsa.  What a great way to enjoy the luscious peaches available now – and they won’t be around much longer, so grab this opportunity while you can! You can pair the salmon with tomorrow’s recipe for fattoush, the okra and corn recipe from yesterday, and the plum galette on Thursday, for an easy end-of-summer feast. (And if you want to get the […]