Sultan’s Delight!

What’s on the menu today, Gutsy?

This past week, Marnina and I went on a Turkish kick.  We literally ate and prepared all things Turkish for lunch and dinner.  Marnina’s mother recently bought and sent us a signed copy of The Ottoman Turk and the Pretty Jewish Girl. It is a wonderful cookbook that should be on every foodie’s shelf (especially if you love Mediterranean cuisine!).  The pictures reminded us of our culinary journey through Turkey this past summer and left us yearning to recreate some of those memories in our kitchen.  While the recipes are simple and involve few and easy-to-find ingredients, most are not quick to prepare.  We had taken a cooking class in Istanbul and afterwards we had still not fully understood how many steps were involved in most of the dishes we had prepared.

IBD Guide To Eating Out: Part II

We are proud to present Part II of our IBD restaurant guide series!  (To view Part I, click here!)  The average American eats out several times a week, and those with IBD often have a more difficult time choosing IBD-safe foods at restaurants or even finding a restaurant that meets their dietary needs.  In creating the guide, we wanted to provide the “average” IBDer with some practical knowledge of each cuisine, and to give tips on how to navigate a menu and order food when dining and exploring various cuisines.  We hope the guide will become a tool for those with IBD to allow them to make smarter choices.  We also hope to expand it to include additional information (by no means is this guide an exhaustive review of each cuisine!), and in the future we still plan to add more! Feel free to add your own thoughts about the guide, which cuisine you prefer, IBD-friendly restaurants that you recommend, or even certain dishes that you always order because they are “safe” for you.

Download a printable PDF of the entire IBD Guide To Eating Out by clicking here.

Saucy Meatballs (& Vegetarian too!)

The virtues and vices of red meat is a hot-topic right now, especially after the publication of a Harvard study entitled “Red Meat Consumption and Mortality: Results from 2 Prospective Cohort Studies.”  The study looked at the association between red meat consumption and mortality, and the researchers concluded “a higher intake of red meat was associated with a significantly elevated risk of total, [cardiovascular disease] CVD and cancer mortality.”[1]

Down Home Southern Cooking

Love the Southern flair!

Marnina and I will be visiting the wild and wacky city of New Orleans later this month to tour Tulane University as part of our graduate school search.  We are always excited to visit new regions and cities that offer entirely different styles of cooking, different ingredients, and new combinations of food.  New Orleans is well-known for its food – it mostly combines elements of Creole and French cuisine, as well as some elements of African, Spanish, and Cuban traditions. While different cultures may share the same ingredients and cooking styles, multiculturalism can clearly give us something new.