Thanks for following along with our new adventures! We recently moved from Pittsburgh to Haiti where we are starting a 5 year volunteer assignment with a non-profit relief and development organization. We will be in transition for the next few months as we complete our in-country orientation, language study, spend time living with host families in both the countryside and capital... and lest we forget, have our first baby somewhere in there as well! Please bear with us as we will not have ready access to internet or a kitchen throughout this time. We will continue to share new recipes that we've prepared in advance, and updates on our new life in Haiti as often as we are able.

As much as we love the tropical fruits and Caribbean flavors of our new home in Haiti, we are nostalgic for the apple and spice combination, so classic to this time of year in North America. We love this old-fashioned Apple Walnut Bundt Cake with Caramel Glaze, pungent with cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and ginger, glazed with a salty caramel.

We love maple syrup! Possibly my own craving for this iconic sap is the result of my Canadian heritage. But then there’s my American husband, who obsessively drizzles maple syrup over everything in sight, from a sweetener in his tea and coffee, to pork roasts, chili, ice cream, to salmon. Regardless of the origins of our maple passion, the maple-fication of Baklava was really quite inevitable. Maple syrup accompanies us camping and hiking, vacationing and traveling. Little bottles of maple syrup were stowed away in my suitcase headed to Ethiopia by my mother, and were in our packs as we traveled by moto in Vietnam and hitchhiked in Thailand. Maple Walnut baklava is a fantastic dessert, managing to be both light and flaky and also rich and gooey. This dessert features sheets of delicate filo, layered with the toasted flavors of browned butter, roasted walnuts, cinnamon, oranges and clove. Once cooked, the flaky pastry is bathed in a concentrated maple syrup, with a deep caramel flavor and subtle sweet notes.  

Our friends Beth and Justin, both creative cooks and passionate gardeners, made our day when they dropped off some beautiful carrots, freshly dug from their garden. While hardcore carnivores may lay claim to nose-to-tail cooking, we think that this veggie based dish gives the concept a run for its money, as it uses all parts of the carrot plant: root-to-leaf cooking in its colorful prime. Carrot Ribbon Salad with Carrot Top Pesto is adapted from vegetable whiz Diane Morgan’s Roots cookbook. In this dish, the carrots are first mellowed with a quick hot water bath to soften their texture and bite. Carrot top pesto, with its subtle parsley-like flavor, is a lovely match, accented with dollops of creamy goat cheese. Find a source for fresh vibrant carrots with tops and make this beautiful dish.

Kale and Red Leaf Salad with Apple Mint Vinaigrette is an unusual and delicious salad that we made this evening with our first spring batch of local green kale.  Kale is the quiet gawky kid in the corner who landed the starring role in the school play and never looked back. Kale has a serious following of die-hard fans who devour it in all forms; chips, smoothies, ice cream, brownies, pesto.  Kale is a cancer-fighting super-food loaded with beta-carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, calcium, and antioxidants. To learn about the many ways to use kale and its nutritional value check out Deborah Madison's new book Vegetable Literacy.  This Kale and Red Leaf Salad is a tasty example of raw kale serving as a base for this distinctive crisp apple mint vinaigrette. 

Hummus is an infinitely adaptable dish, for some it is a nod towards ethnic cuisine, for others, a protein packed essential in a meat free diet.  I like hummus for its ability to transform with color, from carrot stained orange to pea tinted green.  Of all the variations on hummus, beet horseradish hummus is my favorite. It is hard not be captivated by this ruby toned riff on hummus.  Try walking by a plate of beet horseradish smeared crackers and not eating them.  To make this hummus, I paired walnuts and beets, two complementary flavors evoking earthy tones and fresh spring days, horseradish added the right amount of bite to the otherwise creamy scarlet hummus.  Beware, once you make beet horseradish hummus, your view of its' beige sister will forever be skewed.

When getting ready for guests, we often whip up a batch of our favorite granola. Its a crowd favorite, easy to make in large batches, and it smells great baking (while you rush around cleaning up the house)! As side benefits, it stores well in the freezer for several months, makes an excellent last minute host gift, and serves as a handy snack.