SCALLION PANCAKE CHALLAH

do you ever think what life would be like if you were born as a loaf of bread? what kind of crust would you have? would you be doughy?

what kind of sandwich would best highlight your qualities?

and would you enjoy getting toasted. (hehe.)

i see mum as a hearty whole wheat rosemary bread, one that's perfect for cheese on toast.

i see eggboy as a sturdy gluten free baguette thing. the kind that's best used as a baseball bat.

and i would be this here scallion challah. jewish, asian, doughy, pairs well with boloney. often braided. i'd take so many baths in soup...

this recipe is what would happen if a scallion pancake and some challah dough got their thing on and made a baby. you treat the dough as if it were a scallion pancake, and then once it's rolled up like a jelly roll, you braid it and bake it. holla to yo mama!

i developed it for a new blog called jewish & which focuses on jewish mutts like me! it's accompanied by a thing i wrote on being a chinese jew (and being a chinese jew in a sea of scandinavians). read the article and recipe here.

-yeh!

WEEKEND WARRIORS

note: to accurately experience this post, i need you to pinch your nose shut and then read out loud.

we made horsey friends this weekend and now i am paying for it by way of sneezies and snot.

it was worth it, of course it was worth it. we took snowshoes out to see the furry friends and they let me pet them while they told me secrets. they were so sweet. i'm afraid i'll want my own someday... but shhhhh i can't tell eggboy yet because he is only just getting used to the idea of getting goats. one farm friend at a time, you know?

i think the horsies were jealous of our snowshoes... i can't imagine how difficult it'd be to gallop through the snow with those dainty little hooves. 

*achoo*

after our hang with horsies, i hurried back home to study kate soper's voices from the killing jar. it is such a good piece, you guys. i can't recommend a better start to your week than by watching this with a big old bowl of pimento cheese. which is what i did last night.

i made pimento cheese for the first time (and now my life will never be the same). 

-yeh!

PISTACHIO CALISSONS

do you ever have one of those weeks where you eat exclusively licorice, waffles, and tarts, and at the end of it all you break your streak only to eat a taco salad? and then the next day, because you broke your streak and because your pistachio kitchen aid arrived, you convert your kitchen into a pistachio-themed wannabe french candy shop, or, how do you call it, bonbonnière, by way of nougat and calissons?

hi.

i am pretty sure that last week's cavity-free dentist checkup instilled too much confidence in me, but that is ok because today i am reliving the old euroextraviganza 2011, when maria and i ate our way through nice and other fun places. back when i had bangs and wore grey nail polish and a fugly red leather jacket. 

one burning memory i have from that trip is having to resist too many calissons because, sweet cheeses, were they expensive. and for a college girl who perpetually saved up for marc jacobs bags and momofuku things? no. just no. 

now i am swimming in them and i wish i could tell a 2011 molly that it's ok: in three years time you'll live in north dakota with hundreds of calissons and you'll eat so many that you'll feel too much like a blob to do anything other than wear your boyfriend's sweatshirt and watch girls for an entire afternoon.

(2011 molly would be like who's your boyfriend? ronan farrow? and i would be like no, nick the trombonist that you haven't seen in two years. and 2011 molly would run out of the room in disbelief and utter delight.)

umm.. where was i...

oh!

so i read about a thousand calisson recipes yesterday, whose ingredients ranged from shit i don't even want to try to find in north dakota to things i think i could safely substitute. most recipes called for candied fruits, mainly citrus, and/or apricot things, and a bit of orange blossom water or grand marnier, ground with almonds and sugar. i ended up using dried apricots and a splash of lemon juice with my pistachios. the result was not so much of a omg i am in nice, but more of a ooh! these are a new kind of tasty and the perfect way to celebrate eggboy's first welding lesson.

pistachio calissons

(gluten free + dairy free)

ingredients

1/4 c dried apricots

1/2 c ground toasted almonds

1/2 c ground toasted pistachios

6 tb powdered sugar, plus more for dusting

a pinch of salt

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp water

glaze: 1 egg white beaten with 1 c powdered sugar

clues

in a food processor, grind the apricots to form a paste. add the ground nuts, sugar, and salt, and process until you have an even crumbly mixture. with the processor running, drizzle in the lemon juice and water. once the mixture comes together to form a dough, roll it out on a surface dusted with powdered sugar.

cut out little shapes, spread the tops with glaze, and let dry.

enjoy with a french accent, real or fake.

-yeh!

POMEGRANATE YOGURT TART

does it say something bad about my jewiness that until last week i had not one single solitary clue that there exists an entire jewish arbor day? 

tu b'shevat.

it's a birthday for trees. you plant them, you add one to the age of existing ones, and then you eat special thingies! figs, dates, pomegranates, others of the seven species... it begins tonight.

so i made a tart about it inspired by this hot babe of a tart from my darling lemon thyme and it is featured in the first article of my--oh yeah i gotted a column! i gotted a column!

you are officially reading the blog of a columnist for the jew and the carrot and i'm as smitten as a kitten. i never done had a column before! it feels less like carrie bradshaw than i expected it to, but i suppose that's my own fault for wearing flannel and living in a dakota.

twice a month, in molly on the range, i will be sharing some jewy or israeli goodness made right here in rural middle of nowhere thousands of miles from the nearest deli, u.s.a.

ok now go make this tart!

-yeh!