MarlenaSpieler.com

Roving Feast: yummy quinoa as risotto! quinotto!

2009-05-02T11:31:00.000+01:00

first do as the shamans on the inca trail do: rub the grains of quinoa inbetween your palms to activate them. Then toast them, stir in flavorful liquids as inspired by risotto-making italians, or should i say, milanese....et voila: quinotto! rich and decadent, earthy and healthy. Best of both worlds!

Roving Feast: Memories and Matzo in Beijing

2009-04-11T12:07:00.002+01:00

My brother lived--and died--in Beijing. A handful of years later, I went there for pesach seder....and ever since have been making the following frozen chocolate matzo treat. i mean its not that we ate it there or anything, but i was inspired by the ginger, and also i don't know: concocted the treat and now can't stop making it or--sadly--eating it. its definately not safe in the freezer if i'm alone in the house. Dark valrhona, crispy caramelized matzo, fresh rosemary, coarse sea salt, candied ginger. freeze. crunch. yum.

Roving Feast: Yummy Salad DRessing!

2009-04-11T12:06:00.000+01:00

A new salad dressing is like a best friend: everything in life seems better for your having discovered it!

Roving Feast: My Furry Valentine: oh Jake, I love you!

2009-04-11T12:04:00.002+01:00

I love his little paws, I love his little brown eyes, I love his one ear up and one ear down expression, oh i love love love this pup. Happy Valentines Day Jake--have dinner with me?

Roving Feast: I'd walk a mile in my Jimmy Choos for THIS TUNA TARTARE!

2009-04-11T12:02:00.000+01:00

The tuna tartare was delicious, but oh, how I lust for those shoes.......

Roving Feast: a Zest for Lemons!

2009-04-11T11:56:00.001+01:00

Okay, I stole a lemon, maybe even a few lemons, maybe i steal lemons wherever i see em, and yes, this week when i go to greece i'll probably steal a lemon or two, but here is the thing: i love being surrounded by lemons, and if there are a zillion lemons i can't help myself.....they are so refreshing and healthfully delicious. and here is the other thing: as i snatch an errant lemon from a nearby tree, so too do i offer you a snip or two from my herb garden, heck, come and pick armfuls! take all you want! its a pleasure to share!

Roving Feast: Frankfurt Gruen Sosse!

2008-12-09T14:08:00.002Z

Its flecked with green, its tangy-savory-yummy, its as delicious licked off the fingers as it is spooned onto boiled potatoes, tender boiled beef, crisp potato pancakes, hard-cooked eggs......its Frankfurt Green Sauce!

polish countryside foodie holiday video!

2008-11-08T21:31:00.002Z

Follow this link to a video of our foodie trip to the polish countryside. here is what we did: eat drink, be merry, eat some more, cook cook cook, make music, dance, cook, eat some more....it was so much fun! poland culinary tours offers a handful of new tours next summer, and really, between the castles and stuffed cabbage, the rendered bacon fat on bread and the pickles, the goats milk cheeses and the sour rye, and the ladies of the countryside, with their pierogi and the men with their accordions.....its a wonderful glimpse of a world that might not be with us forever. as it is, you need the polish language to be a part of it, and sarna, the woman who runs Poland Culinary Vacations was born and grew up in Poland, and has great love for the culinary traditions, plus she can get you from a to z in the blink of an eye. go on the culinary holiday, i can hardly wait to go back and go to a different corner of poland! i just know there is more deliciousness waiting for me! in the meantime, the video is delightful!

Roving Feast: Difficult Days Demand a Happy Sandwich

2008-11-05T09:04:00.002Z

I was a slave to da man! seriously, my bosses were horrible sadistic people who enjoyed humiliating us poor workers--the no-nonsense Marcella from Marseilles who could lift twice her weight in salami and cheese, the timid South African Cecilia who sometimes made her cappucchino with a smiley-face of foam, and myself, a pocket-poor single mom who knew when someone needed a smile with their sandwich, and needed it badly. When I left--I believe I was fired for something like not wiping down the counter fast enough, or making too delicious a sandwich-- I took away not bitterness, I left with a great sandwich recipe, and fabulous sandwich-making skills.

pickle soup: the recipe! (adapted from Roving Feast, San Francisco Chronicle, as adapted from S.F.

2008-11-02T19:51:00.004Z

Here's the recipe, fresh from Poland! INGREDIENTS: About 8 ounces waxy white potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks or large dice, more if you like and the winter night is cold...... 1 - 1 1/2 carrots, peeled and cut into small chunks or large dice 1 celery stalk, (or chunk celery root) including a small handful of the inner leaves, chopped 3 cups low-sodium beef, chicken or vegetable broth 2-3 big fat juicy kosher dills, shredded or finely chopped 1/2-2/3 cup of pickle brine 1/2 onion, very finely chopped 2-3 cups heavy cream Freshly ground black pepper 1/2-2/3 cup coarsely chopped dill leaves INSTRUCTIONS: Combine the potatoes, carrots, celery and broth or water in a large pot with half of the shredded pickles. Cover and bring to a boil; reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. In a small saucepan, combine the remaining pickles with the brine. Place over medium-low heat and warm through to keep it from curdling the cream when you add it to the soup. . Serves 6 Note: This soup is just as good made a day ahead. Stir in half the dill when the soup finishes cooking, then sprinkle the rest in when you reheat the soup to serve.

grating pickles for yummy pickle soup!

2008-11-02T13:25:00.000Z

i chose the direction of the pickles! YUM!

2008-11-02T13:18:00.000Z

this way to pierogi, this way to zurek, that way to pickles....every direction deliciousness!

2008-11-02T13:16:00.000Z

my buddies the countryside housewives are getting ready to cook me up some pierogi! I love these women!

2008-11-02T13:14:00.000Z

sandwiches in a field in poland with my buddies

2008-11-02T13:09:00.000Z

my beautiful big bread!

2008-11-02T13:07:00.000Z

a big beautiful bread in a field in Poland!

2008-11-02T13:02:00.001Z

Harvest festival near Wroclaw, Poland, and the "Association of Countryside Housewives" gave me a loaf of this beautiful bread! As you can see, I loved it. We ate the most delicious zurek, a soup of fermented rye, with root veggies and all sorts of sausagey cured meats! and it was a festival of pickles, too, my kind of festival!

Roving Feast: Pachamanca!!!!!

2008-10-30T17:15:00.003Z

Pachamanca! yay pachamanca! What more is there to say?

Roving Feast: Chronicle Columnist Becomes Diet Outlaw!

2008-10-02T12:30:00.002+01:00

Eat eat eat, swim swim swim: my motto! Eat only what I love, eat only a little, and.....move around a lot with joy! well, its worked for me, so far.....i need that eating joy, forget diets forever!!!!

"desperate housewives", laden with stuffed cabbage!

2008-09-25T20:26:00.005+01:00

Here I am with the polish countryside housewives on television--it must have been a quiet news day, cause my visit made the evenings news....oh we had fun: they showed me how to roll crepes around sauteed wild mushrooms and butter-braised cabbage, we made barchz (borsht), we made mushroom filled pierogi, they made a million delicacies and insisted we eat and eat and eat, and oh yes: throughout Poland instead of butter on the table with the bread, you have: smaletz, that is, a savory meaty bacon fat. and a bowl of salty new york style pickles to cut the grease. oh it is the most delicious thing. in this video, i wish, though, that they had gotten the part where they dress me up in their local traditional dress, and we drink vodka, dance to the man with the accordion, and eat all the goodies they made. and sing. and dance. and eat some more! they gathered on the steps to the fire station to bid us farewell, to the tune of the accordion, still raising their glasses and singing: stolat! a hundred years to you! these fabulous and energetic women know how to party! and so does the priest, firemen, and man with the accordion!

Roving Feast: Happy Days at Brownie Day Camp--I earned my cooking badge! yeah!

2008-08-16T20:59:00.002+01:00

And we made s'mores and got to start a fire and made sloppy joes which have never ever ever tasted as good since.

Roving Feast: In Nice, with love in my heart and a Salade Nicoise on my plate.........

2008-08-16T20:55:00.004+01:00

Mon Dieu, eeet eeeze so delicious, theeze little salade: salty tuna or anchovies, ripe red tomatoes, crunchy greens, black polka-dotty olives, crisp peppers, and a perky little wedge or two of yellow and white hard cooked egg. Its so simple, no? and so perfect......when the temperature climbs, is there a salad more refreshing? i think not.....

Roving Feast: Swim Swim Swim, Eat Eat Eat!

2008-07-09T16:07:00.002+01:00

Oh is there anything more fun than a swimming party? You get to splash around in the water, chill with your buddies, and eat delicious stuff which tastes all the better for all the calories you've burnt!

Yummy Zucchini Pasta from Positano

2008-06-28T13:55:00.002+01:00

that yummy pasta con zucchini! this fed two of us I used tagliatelle (fettucine) instead of spaghetti, which worked out really well as it held the sauce nicely. 2 big zucchini, or about 6 small ones, sliced thinly, crosswise teeny bit of extra virgin olive oil, maybe a teaspoon sea salt to taste 1/2-1 cup water 1/4-1/2 cup heavy cream About 3 ounces provolone or other lovely firm white flavorful cheese (i have also used cave aged gruyere, and in the original in positano, it was smoked provolone) About 2 ounces freshly grated parmesan (about 1/2 cup) a small handful fresh basil leaves 150g egg tagliatelle, dried Saute the zucchini in the olive oil in a nonstick pan, over pretty high heat, tossing every so often, til golden and softish. Season to taste. Remove half the sauteed zucchini to a separate plate or pan. Add the water to the remaining sauteed zucchini in the pan, cook and cook over high heat a few minutes, until it reduces to less than half, forming a sauce, then pour in the cream and cook together a minute or two, til lightly thickened. Mash with a potato masher or coursely puree in food processor etc, and set aside while you cook the pasta. Cook the pasta in rapidly boiling salted water until just al dente; drain and reserve about 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce, in the frying pan, over medium heat, add the provolone or whichever cheese you have chosen, and as much of the cooking liquid as needed to loosen the sauce and emulsify it all together.... When it comes together in a minute or so, season to taste, then sprinkle with the parmesan and top with the basil leaves. Serve when you come out of the sea, from swimming. > > >

we'll eat very delicious pasta!

2008-06-24T10:54:00.000+01:00