Authentic Flavors from a Mediterranean Kitchen
Ines ZahraouiOkay, so here’s the thing—I completely butchered Greek lemon rice at my friend Maria’s birthday dinner in March 2019. Like, catastrophically butchered it. The rice was mushy, the lemon flavor was basically non-existent, and honestly? It looked like sad, wet confetti on everyone’s plates . Maria (bless her) smiled politely, but I saw her mom, … Read more
November 8th, 2018. I was hosting my first Thanksgiving (why did I volunteer for this?) and needed to test a chicken recipe for twenty-three people. My aunt Linda suggested I practice on something simple first. Enter: creamy tomato basil chicken. I made it four times that week – twice perfectly, once with way too much … Read more
Look, I’m going to be honest with you. The first time I tried making whipped feta crostini was during my sister-in-law Maria’s engagement party back in March 2022, and it was an absolute disaster. Like, crumbly-feta-chunks-on-soggy-bread kind of disaster. My aunt Theodora (bless her heart) still brings it up at every family gathering. But here’s … Read more
Here’s the thing nobody explains properly: this bloat bowl Greek yogurt combination creates a perfect macronutrient storm for digestion. The quick-digesting carbs from rice cereal paired with slow-releasing protein from Greek yogurt prevents that blood sugar rollercoaster. Harold McGee would probably geek out over how the casein proteins bind with the carbohydrates, creating sustained energy without the insulin spike that causes, well, the bloat. The probiotics in full-fat Greek yogurt (we’re talking billions of CFUs here) work overtime on your gut microbiome, reducing gas-producing bacteria.
Let me tell you about the time I nearly ruined my sister-in-law’s birthday dinner in February 2023. I’d been bragging for weeks about this amazing Blood Orange Greek Chicken Bowl recipe I’d discovered, and when the moment came to deliver? Total disaster. The chicken was dry, the quinoa was mushy, and my homemade tzatziki tasted like… well, let’s just say it wasn’t winning any awards.
So here’s the thing about last March when my doctor gave me that look. You know the one. The “your cholesterol numbers are concerning” look. I panicked, obviously. Started researching heart-healthy recipes like my life depended on it (because, well, it kind of did?). And somewhere around batch number 8 of sad, boring salads, I … Read more
Okay so confession time. March 2022, I made pasta primavera for my book club and it was… bad. Like, really bad. The zucchini had completely disintegrated into this weird green mush, the asparagus was somehow both burnt AND still raw in the middle (how is that even possible??), and the whole thing was swimming in … Read more
Look, I’ll be honest with you—I almost gave up on casseroles entirely after the Great Thanksgiving Disaster of 2019. (Don’t ask my mother-in-law about it, she’s still processing.) But then my neighbor Maria—you know the type, perpetually hosting dinner parties for twelve with zero visible stress—handed me this chicken zucchini bake recipe scribbled on a … Read more
Let’s get nerdy for a second (stay with me, I promise this matters). Fresh mozzarella is about 50-52% moisture content, and when you heat it too aggressively, those proteins denature and release all that water into your sauce. This is why your cheese disappears. The casein proteins in mozzarella need gentle heat—we’re talking about keeping things under 150°F until the very last moment. Harold McGee explains this brilliantly in On Food and Cooking, and honestly, reading that chapter saved my pasta alla sorrentina game.
The thing is, once you nail the garlic confit (and honestly, it’s embarrassingly simple once you stop overthinking it), the rest just… falls together. My friend Diane—who’s notoriously picky about dips, like she once rejected a caterer’s hummus at her own wedding—asked for the recipe three times. I’m about to share every secret I learned the hard way so you can skip straight to the glory.