As a way of settling back into our life in Haiti, I have been visiting local markets. I love the challenge of putting together meals with my daily market finds. I had a pot of beautiful local white beans soaking at home as I headed out to shop for this weeknight salad. My market haul yielded local cherry tomatoes, kale, green beans and shallots. I made a bold citrus vinaigrette for my Market White Bean Salad, and served it with grilled fish. A fresh hearty salad to round out a meal with new friends. 

Since our last post, Rebecca and I have been in transition mode, moving back to our life here in Haiti from the US. With bags fully unpacked, two kids settled, and a week of work under our belts, it was time to celebrate this weekend. Meat in Haiti is free-range and very flavorful, but also tends to be quite tough. This lends itself to low and slow cooking. This Slow Roasted Ginger Honey Pulled pork is deeply flavored, and easy to make; perfect for weekend sandwiches under the mango tree after the kids are down for the night. It is good to be home again! 

It is election weekend here in Haiti, which means comfort food is definitely in order. While elections anywhere can cause unease, unrest, and extreme emotions, in a country with few peaceful democratic precedents, a mood of wary watchfulness prevails. Back from travels and faced with an empty cupboard and blaring radio, I opted for one of my favorite comfort foods -- fresh baked Honey Oat Bread. This bread is easy to make, and the results are sublime. If you haven't made bread before, this a great place to start. Honey Oat Bread is fantastic as a sandwich base, as french toast, made into bread pudding, dolloped with fresh guava jam, or my personal favorite, smothered with honey and butter.

Madeline's grandparents from Indiana arrived for a visit this week. It was lovely support to have in the midst of our coordination and response to Hurricane Mathew. With grandparents here to watch Madeline in the early morning hours, we made a big batch of Chewy Coconut Honey Granola to feed the early risers. This Chewy Coconut Honey Granola is our favorite here in Haiti. It is dead simple to make, and a fantastic balance between sweet and salty with a satisfying chew.

Yesterday, both Paul and my sister celebrated their birthdays. Food, as usual, is our vehicle of celebration with an office birthday lunch featuring Paul's favorite Haitian dish, kalalou, stewed okra with slow cooked beef. Unfortunately, an ocean separates us from celebrating with my sister this year, but we in Haiti will spend our weekend in food revelries! Paul has requested his usual quirky birthday-food combinations; buttermilk biscuits, hot fudge pudding cake and watermelon chiffon pie, all fairly doable with minor adaptations. But this year he also requested ribs. Hmm. Since we have some gorgeous chilmole paste in our fridge right now, I am planning to make Paul a grilled version of our recipe for Yucatán Chilmole Slow Roasted Spareribs, a finger-licking rib recipe that we perfected in Pittsburgh before we left. Smoky, spicy, juicy, delicious. 

We celebrated Labor Day in Connecticut with Paul's brother and sister-in-law with lots of amazing vegetarian food. We left salty breezes behind and arrived back to the hot, humid jungly hills of Pittsburgh last night to a barren fridge yielding a dinner of either hotdogs or green beans. We opted to continue the vegetarian theme of the weekend, and whipped up a batch of these Ginger Sesame Green Beans we have been loving all summer. Spicy, tangy and gingery, these green beans are addictive! Check out our summer bounty round-up for other ideas for summer vegetables.

We just got back from a weeklong trip to Canada for my sisters’ wedding, it was a magnificent weekend of celebrations, and we are thrilled to have a new brother-in-law! Driving home yesterday, we realized that in all the wedding festivities, it sort of slipped our minds that we have a food blog to write!

In the meantime, we have been busy cooking and eating summer produce and I wanted to share a simple make-ahead breakfast I have been eating this berry season. It all started with a craving for a decent berry yogurt cup; just a simple cup with plain yogurt and some fresh tasting berry puree that didn’t have the caloric count and saccharine sweetness of an ice cream Sunday. It turned out that this was a tall order! My grocery store hunt yielded a host of unpalatable and over-priced results, so I decided to try my hand at making yogurt cups at home. These Homemade Berry Yogurt Cups are simple to make and delicious to eat, a refreshing summer breakfast on the go.

I crave porridge for breakfast on cold winter days. Growing up, my sister and I ate porridge for breakfast most mornings. At some point along the way, things got a little creative, with my sisters’ addition of chocolate chips to her bowl, and my own garish sprinkle of mouth puckering vitamin C powder to mine. I think you could say that these add-ins remain a fairly accurate representation of our adult taste preferences. When I saw the title ‘very best oatmeal’ in Whole Grain Mornings, I couldn't resist. Our slightly adapted version, Toasted Oat & Honey Porridge, is fantastic and speedy, and I have been obsessively making it on weekdays and weekends for the past month. The texture is incredible, no more gummy, thick porridge. Instead, the technique preserves the shape and texture of the individual oats through a two-step toasting and steaming process that leaves you with a surprisingly soft and chewy texture. We liked that addition of honey for just a hint of sweetness, and a flurry of crunchy almonds and pomegranate seeds to make this into a quick, beautiful, and delicious bowl of porridge.

The season of bounteous and beautiful salad greens has arrived in force. With our fridge bulging with market lettuces we thought it was time to share one of our favorite dressings: Honey Sesame Vinaigrette. This quick and easy dressing brings warm and zinging ginger flavor, balanced with sweetness from honey and roasted undertones of sesame. Honey Sesame Vinaigrette is also a great base vinaigrette to customize with your favorite fresh herbs: cilantro, mint, Thai basil, green onions, and chives all taste great.