I’m leaving for Israel on Wednesday morning so this will likely be my last post until I return in mid January. I’ve added a little countdown script to the sidebar so that my husband, family (and you, if you’re interested) can see how much longer I’ll be off gallivanting around the middle east. I’m both excited about this trip and more than a little hesitant. Perhaps this will sound sentimental to you, but my husband and I haven’t been apart for more than a few days in over five years… and while I know three weeks isn’t so long, I’m going to miss him profoundly. (I know, I’m a sap!)
I’m taking a camera with me so if you have photo requests please feel free to leave them in the comments. I’m not making any promises, but if I get a chance to check my email and happen to be near a photo spot you’ve requested, I’ll do my best to capture an image for you. I will be spending most of my time in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.
That said, on to the topics of this post: olive oil, pasta and cigars!
Red Wine Pasta with Almond Slivers and Raisins
As I mentioned in the previous post, last week Jeff was kind enough to hook me up with a free case of artisan olive oil from Alejandro & Martin. Since then we’ve had the opportunity to use their oil in two of my favorite recipes: Red Wine Pasta with Almond Slivers and Raisins and Moroccan phyllo cigars with Sephardic spinach filling. (I also used the oil to make a less glamorous meal of scrambled eggs. :D) In each case I was quite pleased with the results, so if you are in the market for a fine sampling of gourmet oil I recommend Alejandro & Martin. I’d even go so far as to say that a case would make a great holiday gift for your favorite foodie.
Incidentally, I was looking through their company profile and think it’s pretty cool how two regular people got together and started an olive oil company. If my foodie dreams were to come true I’d be the owner of a combination book shop, coffee shop and bakery. (The real world manifestation of this blog I guess!) I’d tinker with coffee recipes and bake fabulous things, then attach it to a laid-back, neighborhood friendly book shop with old-world charm. Atmosphere is everything and I’d spend time choosing the colors of the walls, hand picking the wood used in the book shelves, and carefully selecting which comfy chairs would be placed next to which antique styled tables. And yes, I realize that bakers have to get up at the crack of dawn, but I do that already, without the bakery incentive. 
What about you: if you could make a vocational dream come true, what would it be?
Back to olive oil. I don’t think anyone will be surprised to hear that we’ve been eating olives for hundreds of years, but what about some 10,000 years? It’s true. Archaeological evidence suggests that olives have been a part of the human diet since the 8th millennium BCE. Eventually olives, and especially olive oil, became such an important trade commodity in the ancient world that Homer called olive oil “liquid gold.” The Minoans used it in their religious ceremonies, and then there is the curious fact that the Spartans were the first to begin anointing themselves with olive oil before exercise. This practice was later adopted by much of Greek and Roman culture, and was intended to highlight the beauty of the male body. Olive oil has been medicinal, magical, and an endless source of great wealth and power. The branches of the olive tree were used to make crowns that were ritually offered to the gods. Indeed, such crowns were even discovered in Tutankhamen’s tomb.
In this post I’ve featured two dishes, Red Wine Pasta with Almond Slivers and Raisins and Moroccan phyllo cigars. I’ve also included two filling recipes for the cigars: a Sephardic cheese filling and a Sephardic spinach filling, both of which feature cheeses such as Gouda, Gruyere, Feta and Muenster. Each of these dishes are easy to make and incredibly delicious, but unfortunately the culinary delights of the phyllo cigars prevented me from getting a photo of them. You see, while I was taking a picture of the pasta, everyone ate the cigars. Doh!
And now it’s back to packing for me. Until I we meet again, may you have warm words on a cool evening, a full moon on a dark night, and a smooth road all the way to your door.
