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Bumblings Of Miss Button

~ Finding travel inspiration at home and abroad…

Bumblings Of Miss Button

Category Archives: Bumbling Bites

Michel’s Summer Slaw

12 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by sarabutton in Bumbling Bites

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Tags

food, France, Recipe, summer

I’m not a picky eater.

Except for most shellfish, calamari and escargot (I’m working on it), there’s not a ton I won’t eat. And even less I won’t try once. But cole slaw has always been a nemesis of mine.

Until a few years ago.

The first slaw that turned me was my aunt’s. She’s a marvelous cook and she was the first to open my eyes to the world of non-gooey cole slaw.

Since then, I”ve been tasting different slaws left and right, so I was pumped when our friends visiting from France decided to make their own version for dinner one night. It’s the perfect, light summer fare–and super easy, too!

Ingredients:

For the slaw:

whole carrot, grated
about 1/3 head of cabbage, cored and coarsely chopped
1/2 onion, coarsely chopped

Look how fast he's chopping that cabbage! Allez, Michel!

Look how fast he’s chopping that cabbage! Allez, Michel!

For the dressing:
1 egg yolk
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
splash of apple cider vinegar (about 2 tsp)
non-sweet mustard (same ratio of mustard to egg)
crushed ginger (to taste)
crushed garlic (to taste)
vegetable oil

*serves 6

Preparation:

Mix the egg yolk, mustard, apple cider vinegar, salt & pepper. Then, as you whisk, slowly add the oil until it reaches a creamy consistency. Add the crushed ginger & garlic & mix again until just blended.

In a large bowl, mix the cabbage, onion and carrot. Add the dressing, and mix well. 

Voilà!

Yum! Not overdressed, nice and cool for a hot day!

Yum! Not overdressed, nice and cool for a hot day!

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Best Homemade Baklava: A Recipe

05 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by sarabutton in Bumbling Bites

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

food, NYC, Recipe

Originally published in June 2010.*

An absolutely true fact: my family is amazing.

My family also happens to have a horde of amazing cooks in it. A favorite family past time is eating and drinking yummy things. (Understand better why I post here and tweet and Instagram about food ALL THE TIME!?)

One very memorable summer (this was the same summer I nearly hyperventilated with happiness, Frim Fram Jammed out on the dance floor and was blessed by the theatre gods) I also learned a family recipe for baklava.

Once you get the hang of working with filo dough, this recipe isn’t as hard at it seems. My cousin is a total pro at making it now, and she would regale her classmates with homemade baklava for school functions. Lucky dogs.

Continue reading →

Favorite 5: Places I Ate in Croatia

08 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by sarabutton in Bumbling Bites, Destinations, Favorite 5

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Croatia, food, restaurants

To start off, I have to be clear: I spent a piddly amount of time in Croatia, so this is by no means a definitive list. We were there for about 6 days, and only hung out in Zagreb and Zadar.

That being said, we literally didn’t have a bum meal, so I want to share the top five dining experiences I had in those two places, with the clear hope that I will come back and eat/sail/wander my way through the rest of this country. Here they are, in order of awesomeness from less awesome to super awesome. But all pretty awesome.

Fancy dinner out in Croatia!

Fancy dinner out in Croatia!

Continue reading →

Photo of my day: Turkish Tripe Soup

03 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by sarabutton in Bumbling Bites, Photo of My Day

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

food, photo, Turkey

image

Today, Boris and I had lunch with a couple of friends. They insisted we eat iskembe soup before we left Turkey.

Iskembe is a tripe soup frequently found throughout the Balkans and Turkey. Made from cow’s stomach and other cow & sheep offal, including sheep head meat, you add chili flakes, vinegar, garlic and some lemon juice.

No, I did not know exactly what I was eating but I knew it was related to kokoreç because our friend let it slip. I think I would have been able to identify the taste though, even if he hadn’t…

How to Make Sutlaç, My Adored Turkish Rice Pudding

31 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by sarabutton in Bumbling Bites

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Tags

food, Recipe

I’m going to be honest with you. I thought I hated rice pudding. In fact, other than any form of chocolate pudding I was certain I hated all puddings. Spotted dick? Ha! Tapioca? Makes me want to throw up in my mouth.

And then I met sutlaç.**

It was love at first bite.

 

It was a traditional love story: girl sees dessert across a crowded restaurant. Sutlaç looks so scrumptious that day in its little square tin pan. All caution (or thought of calories or sugar intake) is thrown to the wind, and the rest, as they say, was history.

But after a certain point, I wanted to take our relationship to the next level. I wanted to bring it home. But sutlaç played hard to get: it didn’t heat at the right temperature, it stayed watery and wouldn’t set. 6 forlorn ceramic bowls sat in my fridge, practically inedible. I even had to throw some away. It felt like a betrayal.

Others had promised it would be so easy, that sutlaç only needed a few ingredients and we’d be able to make it work. Well, I’m happy to say that after a bit of counseling (online, admittedly), sutlaç and I have rekindled our romance and are happier than ever.

Here’s a simple recipe to bring sutlaç into your home, too!*

Continue reading →

Intestines: It’s What’s for Dinner!

28 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by sarabutton in Bumbling Bites

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

food, Turkey

I was never the adventurous eater on family vacations. My little brother always took that prize–he had no problem devouring snails in France and snacking on calamari. For me, it took some prodding; not because I was ever a particularly picky eater, but I have discovered that I am particularly picky about foods of specific textures, namely rubbery–hence the aversion to a lot of shellfish and other seafoods (googling that actually results in an eating disorder that children normally suffer from. Awesome.)

Basically what I’m getting at is that I’m not known for being the one to eat the unusual stuff when I’m traveling. Unless I don’t know what it is. 

For me, ignorance really can be bliss. I love hot dogs, and I know in theory they have got some nasty shiz in them, but they are so dang tasty! Don’t spoil my fun.

I enjoyed haggis in Scotland, mostly because I conveniently forgot what it was made of. 

Yum! See, I almost cleared my plate!

Well, last week I got to experience the haggis of Turkey: kokoreç. 

Continue reading →

Making Meze: A Cooking Class in Istanbul

25 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by sarabutton in Bumbling Bites

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Tags

food, Things to do, Turkey

If you’ve been following along, you may have noticed that I like food. I mean, who doesn’t? Food is awesome. It tastes good (most of the time), it’s fun to make, and it gives you energy to keep doing cool stuff like hike Mount Olympus or dance the lindy hop.

My boyfriend does give me a lot of flack for taking photos of the food I eat, and I confess that a lot of my recent Instagrams have featured food.

Click to make it bigger…

Anyway, you get the picture. So for Christmas, I decided to take a half-day cooking class here in Istanbul.

Continue reading →

Thanksgiving 2012 Conclusion

23 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by sarabutton in Bumbling Bites, Travel Musings

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

food, Ireland

Thanksgiving 2012 in Kilkenny

My third Thanksgiving abroad went swimmingly. I accomplished so many things that I normally do on Thanksgiving:

  • Spend time with family (even if it’s via Skype)
  • Cook! The menu I planned turned out even better than I anticipated! Rory ended up doing the green beans, too, as I was busy chatting away with my family, and everything we had was really delicious.
  • OVEREAT. Our original 4-person meal turned into a 3-person one, so there was plenty of food to go around! We did finish off the potatoes and gravy, but there are definitely leftovers for today, despite our best efforts. We gorged ourselves and it was grand.

Continue reading →

Thanksgiving 2012: Some pre-meal thoughts and thankfulness

22 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by sarabutton in Bumbling Bites, Travel Musings

≈ 2 Comments

From Thanksgiving 2007 in Orvieto, Italy

Thanksgiving at my family’s household goes something like this: get up in the morning, start prepping. We shoot for our Thanksgiving meal around 1 p.m. although we are not always successful. My dad has already prepared the chicken stock, and the pecan pies, and the task of the morning is to get the turkey done, as well as a pancetta stuffing and my sweet potato cheesecake. Cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents filter in at different times, all bringing dishes, some that have become part of our holiday tradition. The Thanksgiving Day Parade is on in the background (and after that, our favorite part, the National Dog Show).  We cook together and drink OJ–or mimosas, or just champagne–and I always enjoy the hustle and bustle of the kitchen.

We get to the table around 1 or 2, and often the weather is good enough to eat outside in our patio. Today the high is projected to be 82F, so I imagine that’s where they’ll eat today. (In Kilkenny, the weather forecast is grim: high of 48 and rainy.)

But today I won’t be there. This will be my third Turkey Day away from my clan. Twice before I was away in Italy, but still celebrated Thanksgiving with other Americans, friends and a real roast turkey.

Today I will be the only American. I am planning the whole meal and cooking most of it for three other people who have become my makeshift Kilkenny family. Rather than a turkey, I think we’ll do a roast chicken, and I’m going to shoot for a cornbread, some mashed potatoes & gravy, green beans, some sort of cranberry relish and tiramisu for dessert. I’ll write another post to let you guys all know how my Thanksgiving panned out (ha, get it? Pan!).

Although I’ll miss my family today (and Betty’s cranberry-citrus relish, and that awesome corn souffle, and my dad’s homemade pecan pies with heaps of whipped cream), I am happy to say that I have so, so much to be grateful for. Here are the main things. (Huge sap alert, btw.)

I am thankful for my incredible family, friends and boyfriend, all of whom supported me on this crazy life leap. It wasn’t an easy decision for me to make, for me to quit my job to travel for the year. It meant–and still means–spending time away from people I love.  But all of them encouraged me to pursue this passion, and to have this experience now rather than waiting. No “shoulda coulda woulda” for this gal–at least, not yet. Thank you, and I love you.

I am thankful for my amazing and generous friends abroad who have put me up AND put up with me! It would have been a very different trip if I had not gotten to spend time with all my wonderful friends in Europe: Alba, who picked me up from the train station late at night and gave me a bed for my triumphant return to Italia, Bonnie and VP for hosting me (and Bon for giving me some more wardrobe options!), Maddalena & Pompeo for continuing to be my Roman family, Stephen & Jenny for allowing me to disrupt their move to Siena, Emily & Logan, who shared the road and the Tuscan countryside with me. Robin & Michel treated me to Alsace, even during their busy work weeks. I truly treasured being able to spend so much time with my dear friend Marijn and her boyfriend Tijmen in their lovely home in Amsterdam, and hanging out with Jobie, too. These were all friendships from before this year, but all of them were strengthened. Thank you, and I love you.

I am thankful for the fellow travelers I’ve met in passing who have brightened my experience. These are people whose names maybe I never even learned, who I shared a hostel room with or a bus ride or a drink. They are the ones with whom I’ve exchanged good conversation and will probably never see again. But I’ll remember them as being part of the fabric of my travels, and for that, I”m thankful.

I am also incalculably thankful for the people who started as strangers, and welcomed me into their homes and their lives without second thought.
I am continually blown away by the ceaseless generosity I have encountered in my life, and especially within the last four months. Whether I was traveling with Boris or with friends or alone, there have been people along the way who have given me a place to sleep, and food, and at every turn remind me how full of kindness and trust the world can be. Our wonderful host in Ankara, who gave up his bed for us and slept on the couch; Mehmet, our new friend and tour guide of that same city; the Halligan family, with whom I farmed and lived for a whole month in Umbria; the gals in Cork who told me I could stay as long as I liked; all the Irish swing dancers who have made me feel like part of their community, especially Michael, who took me surfing and dancing even though I burned the rice, and Rory, who hasn’t minded hanging out for the past couple weeks with a 25-year-old Yank who confuses Neil Diamond and Neil Young (and Anna, for watching American Horror Story with me); Becks & Tom, for the good craic & yoga & movie-watching & dance spotting.

 I hope that there will be more to come with these new friends, and that someday I can repay the hospitality and warmth that they showed me during my time away from home. They have all helped create new mini-homes and micro-families for me in new places, and for that, I am thankful.

How to Make Tiramisu: An Easy Recipe

25 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by sarabutton in Bumbling Bites

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Italy, Recipe, Things to do, Travel Musings

Lately, I”ve been blessed to be a guest in many homes of dear friends. I am reminded all the time how much I have to be grateful for, and the most important one of those is the love I am surrounded and supported by. Obviously, there aren’t many real gifts I can give to repay them for their love other than to return it; one of the tangible ways I can do that is to prepare some delicious food for them, and put my love into that, with the hopes that they can enjoy it. I totally support Penzey’s Spices motto: Love People. Cook them tasty food. 

So, here’s an easy recipe that I’ve used among family and friends, both old and new, which was taught to me by one of the most incredible women I know, who always does things with love and care. I may have posted this before, but I find that it’s relevant and worthy of a new posting! Plus, I’ve learned a few things in the many times I’ve made it that might be important to share, too.
Continue reading →

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