Foodie from the south of France - Columbus, OH

Crystal is an American expatriate currently living in the South of France.  She now seems to be living a life that many of us can only dream about, but trust me when I say, she worked hard for it.  She not only graduated at the top of our high school class but recently completed her doctorate at Cambridge.  So I hope that from her Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe, you'll be able to gather the fact that she, herself, is one smart cookie!

...sorry for the bad joke.  It's right before lunch and my brain is lacking nourishment.
~Nicole

I never expected this, but I was honoured when asked by my friend, Nicole, to contribute to her admirable project, even from abroad. The internet has certainly transformed how information can be disseminated and accessed, and communication has become easier—an asset which has become quite important to my unexpectedly “globe-trotting” life.

My parents emigrated from Taiwan and arrived in Los Angeles, California, where I was born a few years later. We then moved to Texas, Florida, and finally Ohio. I remained there to complete my Bachelor’s before crossing the Atlantic to pursue a PhD in England. It was at this transition point, when I left the US, that I started a blog.

In many ways, cooking and nutrition has been a part of me. I have relatives in baking, cooking, and western as well as eastern medicine; but I didn’t really emanate this aspect as a child. I was immersed more in my studies than in the kitchen. But I slowly developed an interest in eastern medicine, which led to my Bachelor’s in Medical Dietetics as eastern medicine was limited to a graduate degree. It was certainly hard not to become obsessed with food and nutrition when food and nutrition was my major. I found myself turning into a foodie; I was reading, procuring, tasting, cooking, baking, researching, and experimenting everything related to food. My goal: to create recipes that were tasty but healthy.

It was not long before I left for England. Internet blogging was a growing trend at the time, and being abroad and alone, I decided to start my own blog to document my food musings, recipe experimentations, and tastings. It was a medium to maintain communication with friends and family as well as to establish connections with new friends both known and unknown. It was also my link to the food world as my degree deviated into Engineering.

Much has occurred since. I am married, and my husband’s job has led us to the south of France. Life being more settled, I have decided to restart my blog after a long pause. What could be better than the south of France for a foodie? My focus has since changed, but food and nutrition remain a significant part of me. I cook everyday, but there is less focus on creating healthy dishes and more on experimenting with flavour, cooking methods, and new food items. My hope is to one day rediscover the passion for creating tasty but healthy recipes; but for now, I think I will try to enjoy the south of France while we’re here. Who knows where we'll end up next!

As this is my first time guest-blogging, I would like to share one of the very first recipes that I experimented. I hope that you will enjoy the cookies as much as my family and friends have.

Find the recipe after the jump:

Seeking Comfort in a World of Spice: How to Make Samosas

It's been a great week of guest blogging so far and today's guest is no exception.  Rosemary currently lives in our nation's capital and blogs with Megan and Ursela for A Tale of Three Kitchens. While it sounds as though many parts of the US are on the verge of spring, it feels as though Maine is stuck right in the middle of the winter doldrums. Due to this, I am continuously searching for that warm food that will comfort me until the crocuses bloom.  This may be just what I am looking for...
~Nicole

Every now and then I have an off-week. This past week was a bit hectic, featuring the trademark minimal hours of sleep that characterize so many of our college lives. I've been achy and cranky for days, and I've been daydreaming about sleep and curling up with my kitten, Gus. During weeks like this, I always crave comfort food, and I never find anything quite as comforting as Indian fare.

My family originally hails from Kerala, India, at the very bottom of India's horn. As a result, my mother's kitchen has always featured an array of colorful spices -- from the rich browns of coriander powder and garam masala, to the vibrant red and yellow of chili powder and turmeric. To say the least, spices have played an important role in my upbringing, and I always turn to them when in desperate need of a comforting dish.

This recipe is a take on one of my favorite Indian street foods: the samosa. Samosas are typically found at most family and community gatherings. Whenever I am having a bad week, my mother has been known to pick some up at our local Indian grocery store and have my sister bring them with her to Georgetown just to make my week a bit better. Due to the lack of proximity to Indian grocery stores in Georgetown, I sometimes opt to make my own. While this recipe does take some time, it also provides me with a perfect outlet for any frustration. It's oddly comforting to find myself covered in flour. To me, samosas are perfect pockets of flaky dough, encasing a colorful medley of spiced peas and potatoes, and they always bring back the flavors of home.

The recipe is below. Much thanks to Nicole for letting A Tale of Three Kitchens guest blog this week! Happy cooking and eating :)

Click through to find the recipe after the jump

Foods that take me home again: Chicken Mole with Guacamole

Our guest blogger today,Ursela, is another great writer for A Tale of Three Kitchens.  Many thanks to her for taking time out of her extraordinarily busy schedule in her last year at Georgetown to be a guest blogger on TMA this week.  As I now live nearly 1000 miles away from my family, I can absolutely identify with the longing for foods that remind me of the feeling of being home.  Even if you're not away from your family, there's nothing like a meal or dish to associate with fond memories...perhaps for you and yours, this will become one of them!
~Nicole

If I were stranded on a desert island, or put in some other ridiculous hypothetical situation in which I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, I would happily choose my grandmother’s guacamole as that food. Yes, I sound a little fanatical at this point, but there is just something indescribably perfect about the delicate mix of spice citrus and salt that comes in every bowl of this amazing green dip, and my grandmother’s recipe is the best balance of these flavors I have tried yet.

Now, in my family, having the ability to make superior guacamole is a source of great pride, such that my mom, grandma, and aunts all guard their recipes more closely than state secrets. Growing up this was never a problem for me as she, or one of my other relatives would inevitably make a big, heaping bowl of the stuff during our weekly dinners. However, when I left for college in Washington, D.C. four years ago, I was definitely nervous to be moving so far from my family but excited for the opportunity to study in the nation’s capital. I was devastated, however, when a map-quest search showed that my intended destination of Georgetown University was almost 2,000 miles from my hometown of Casper, Wyoming—a distance that would certainly prevent me from coming home for weekly dinners and my grandmother’s guacamole.

Thankfully, my grandmother was so worried I would not be able to feed myself at school that she decided to give me the best going-away-present ever: her top-secret, world class (at least in my mind) guacamole recipe. After warning me that I was to never under any condition reveal it to my aunts or mother, my grandma at last told me her secrets and let me know that I should make the guacamole whenever I got homesick and that it would be like having a bit of her with me wherever I was at the time. Since that day, I have made her recipe hundreds of times for friends, parties and especially whenever I missed home. So, while guacamole may not be the most cutting-edge or complex food on earth, it’s simple, yet mouth-watering flavors will always be the ones that take me home again.

I have included the recipe below (please don’t tell my aunts!!), and the guacamole here is being served with a vegan-friendly mole over chicken fajitas (recipes below as well).

A special thanks to Nicole and The Modern Americans for hosting A Tale of Three Kitchens this week. Enjoy!

Find the recipe after the jump:

Megan and her Grandma's Pie - New York, New York

I am so happy to introduce our readers to our dear friend Megan, a childhood friend of mine, and now a writer for A Tale of Three Kitchens.  I do so hope you enjoy her story and the accompanied recipe as it has my mouth watering just thinking about it again.  Thanks again to Megan and her fellow blog writers, whom you will hear from later this week!  Enjoy.
~Nicole

Memory #1:

Growing up, I always lived a long distance from my grandparents. I lived in Columbus, Ohio, and they lived in a small town in northwest Illinois. Because of the distance, I was only able to visit once or twice a year. There are many things I remember fondly about these visits—playing double solitaire, riding in my grandpa’s truck, the smell of my grandparents’ house—but the memory that stands out the most is the memory of my grandma standing in the kitchen baking pies.

My Grandma DeWall is a bit of an institution in her town. She is known for her exceptional pies with fillings ranging from apple to peach to pecan to rhubarb to sour cream raisin. For much of my grandma’s life, she made at least two pies a week, giving many to lucky neighbors, friends, and family members.

Before trying my grandma’s pie for the first time, my husband, Brandon, expected little. He was never a big pie fan, and he didn’t think that Grandma DeWall could do anything to change that. However, after eating his first piece of grandma’s pie, he was a believer, and soon after, he insisted that she teach me her recipes and techniques.

Two years ago, I got that chance. In June of 2009, I made the trip from my, then, home in Washington, DC, to Forreston, Illinois. My mom and my sister were on vacation, so we all met each other in Illinois to spend a few days with my grandparents.

Before leaving DC, Brandon reiterated the importance of me returning from Forreston knowing how to make pie. After conveying this message to Grandma, she was a bit apprehensive. First of all, she was 90 years old, and she was not making pies as often as she used to. Secondly, Grandma DeWall doesn’t use recipes. Well, at least she hasn’t for some time. After agreeing to show me how to make pie, Grandma pulled down a very old, dusty cookbook, from which she first learned how to make pies.

That afternoon, we prepared to make pie—rhubarb custard pie, that is. My grandma set out the ingredients. My sister sat down with a notebook, ready to take copious notes on the art of pie-making, and my mom observed, amazed that Grandma was finally going to pass down this highly-desired family
treasure.

The afternoon was one I will never forget. My grandma took me through each step of making the perfect crust. She did not use any machines. She stood at the counter, cutting the shortening into the flour with a fork. After that, without knocking any flour onto the floor (which I, inevitably, always do), Grandma dumped the dough out and rolled it into a perfect circle. It was evident that my grandma had made hundreds of pies. There was such a grace and ease to her pie-making that I will forever strive to replicate. Upon attaching the top crust to the bottom, Grandma used her thumb to create a beautiful fluted edge. After mentioning to her how lovely the pie looked, she responded, “My mother always did a nicer job.”

Her comment made me think. The art of pie-making is certainly not modern or nouveau. It is something that has been passed down through generations. Pies are a gift of a love. They take time and care to make, and they have to be shared.

In the end, we, of course, ended up with a delicious rhubarb custard pie, but more importantly, I left Forreston with a priceless memory and three pages of my sister’s pie-making notes. I was ready to return to DC and begin a lifetime of trying to duplicate Grandma DeWall’s recipes, techniques, and grace, in the kitchen.

Memory #2:

This memory is much shorter than the last. In the late summer of 2009, between leaving DC and moving to New York City, Brandon and I jumped in our car and drove through the United States and Canada for two months. It was an experience full of unbelievable memories, but this particular one originates in Glacier National Park, Montana.

In Glacier, we did tons of hiking, and after hiking, we were hungry. A small pie shop in St. Mary, Montana, had been recommended to us by Brandon’s grandparents, and without much hesitation, after our first day of hiking we went to check it out.

Long story short, we visited Park Café every day we were visiting Glacier. A usual visit would include two chocolate milkshakes and two pieces of pie—our favorite, in the end, being their apple-blueberry pie.

Conclusion:

After moving to New York City, I tried my hand at making an apple-blueberry pie with Grandma DeWall’s crust, and below, you will find the recipe I came up with. While I do not cut the shortening into the flour with a fork (I use a food processor, instead), the crust recipe is 100% my grandma’s. This recipe for apple-blueberry pie has become so popular in my household that it is the only pie Brandon asks for. It has the hominess of a good apple pie with the sweetness and lovely purple hue of blueberries.

This is a recipe to make and share with people you love. I promise, if you do, they will love you even more.

See the recipe after the jump

Pie Town USA

As we sat down to Sunday dinner last night, we realized we hadn't posted on here for a while.  We've had some recent travel issues, last weekend due to maintenance and timing issues that seem to constantly arise with air travel, and this weekend due to mother nature (it's nearly March and we received another 12 inches of snow in Maine).  Because we love providing our readers with exposure to the lives of others as well as the great works that others are pursuing, this week is going to be a strong week for us, with guest bloggers on The Modern Americans.

We're so excited for what we have in store for you.  Since we realize the value of enjoying meals in the company of others, and the changing role of the dinner table in the lives of Americans, our guests this week are food bloggers.

If you're interested in the story of the image above, it's from a series taken by the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression in a place known as Pie Town, New Mexico.  You can find more information on the reason for the photo documentation of these peoples' lives and the story of the actual family in this photo here.

Our first guest blogger this week will share with you the significance that pies have had in her life in a post here later this afternoon. We hope you enjoy what we have in store for you this week.