November 19, 2025 • 47 mins
Fragrant, fresh and healthy, Lebanese cooking has a rich history and flavors from the Eastern Mediterranean. Who doesn’t love the scent of rosewater and orange blossoms and the burst of pomegranate? Raised in a Lebanese-American Midwestern family, Maureen Abood embraces her heritage through her eponymous food blog. She is author of "Rose Water & Orange Blossoms: Fresh and Classic Recipes from my Lebanese Kitchen" and "Lebanese Baking: More Than 100 Recipes for Sweet and Savory Baked Goods."
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Fearless Fabulous You is broadcast live Wednesdays at 12 Noon ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Fearless Fabulous You Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:20):
be directed to those show hosts.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host,
Melanie Young, and I'm so excited to be here today.
It is November twenty twenty five. I've now been doing
this show for twelve seasons and we can be heard
on sixty five podcast channels, and of course you're watching
on YouTube. And my show is about highlighting inspiring women
(01:05):
and helping you live a fearless, fabulous, inspired life on
your terms. Because we want to grow older and bolder
at every stage and age of our lives. And I'm
going to be bracing even more of that in twenty
twenty six, which is going to be the year of
living fearlessly and with a now we're never attitude and
(01:26):
more on that, so fresh, fragrant, delicious, who does? And
healthy and healthy? Who doesn't love all of that in
your food? Well?
Speaker 4 (01:39):
I do.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And one of my favorite cuisines is the cuisines of
the Middle Eastern area. And we're going to be talking
today about Lebanese cooking.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Now.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I have never been to Lebanon. I hope to go
some time. I've had the great pressure pleasure of tasting
many Lebanese wines tastings in New York when I live there.
I love them, and I love the food food. And
we have here in New Orleans Lebanon Cafe, one of
my little favorite family owned restaurants. But I'm really excited
(02:08):
because we're going to talk about making these wonderful dishes
here in your home. With me today is my guest,
Marine Abood. She grew up in a very large Lebanese
American family in the Midwest, specifically Michigan. She has a
food bog by the same name, Marina Bood, and two cookbooks.
(02:28):
The first one we'll hold up the covers. The first
one is Rosewater and orange Blossom. Okay, those are my
two favorite things rose water and orange blossoms. Fresh and
classic recipes from my Lebanese Kitchen came out a couple
of years ago, and I think we're going to show
that on the screen. And the second one is Lebanese Baking,
more than one hundred recipes for sweet and savory bake goods.
(02:51):
And I happen to love Lebanese cookies. And there's so
many interesting recipes in this baking book WHI you're going
to talk about, including some beverages that really stood out.
But as usual, we're going to walk by our guests. Welcome,
Marina Boot Fearless Fabulous Shoe. Hello, and I want you
to tell me your story. We'll get my nose back up.
I just disappeared on the screen. Tell me a little
(03:13):
bit about you. Your first generation, second generation here and generation.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Second generation Lebanese American. My grandparents were immigrants from Lebanon
to Michigan, all of them. My mother's parents emigrated to
the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and we always joke it
must have been summer when they got here, because they
(03:40):
did love Michigan. They ended up going down to Ohio
and establishing their businesses there, and my father's family the
boots came here to Lansing, Michigan, where there's a really
substantial Lebanese population.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Okay, I was wondering about that, because you know, fifty
sixs you choose Michigan. It's curious.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Yes, yes, they came, you know, as so many immigrant
communities do. They came to where some people they had
already known had come and they were drawn by the
jobs in the auto industry here in Michigan. And they
had those jobs, but they also had other very common
(04:24):
jobs of Lebanese immigrants. They had wholesale food and fruit,
grocery stores, businesses like that, and they raised large families
with their deep intention that they would have wonderful educations,
and that they did. My parents and then my parents
(04:48):
and their siblings, many of them all populated the world
with lots of cousins that I have, all doing wonderful
things in the world, and all of course quite proud
of our Lebanese heritage.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Wow. You know, I think it would be so much
fun to grow up in a large family like that.
I have a very small family. And you know, it's
interesting when I interview a lot of people are whose
family immigrated over here. Many of them ended up getting
their businesses started in the grocery business and eventually retail
because that was an easy way to sell for the
(05:23):
who you wanted to get the ingredients and do the
cooking that you're used to. So that's interesting, Yes, very
much so.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
And I think it's also related to our the magnet
of our communities, which is our food and our table
and our kitchens.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Well, I am curious you didn't start out writing about food.
You actually went to culinary school, which was kind of
your turning point.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Give us a.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Little bit about your evolution into becoming a successful food writer,
because it's not easy. We all know to you can write,
You can be a good writer, you may not be
a successful writer, so talk to me about that.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Also true, that journey is something that I treasure because
of the ups and downs along the way. And I've
always been a writer from a young age, considered myself
a writer, always loved stories. Studied literature in college and
a master's degree in literature.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Where did you go to college?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
I went to Saint Mary's College in South Bend, Indiana,
and then I moved back home to East Lansing and
studied literature at Michigan State good school, really really good school.
I love MSU and taught English and worked simultaneously doing
communications and marketing, and the allure of all my siblings
(06:48):
who were in Chicago took me over there. For many years,
where I was doing some freelance food writing, I wasn't
really dedicating my life fully to it. I kept thinking,
I want to write about levity food. It's not being
done at that time. It really was not. It was
not showcased to the degree that we're seeing Middle Eastern
(07:08):
cuisines now. So so I also thought, Okay, I've got
this cookbook that I want to write, and I want
to tell the stories. And it took some true grit
for me to leave my job, take that risk, that leap,
that fearless leap that took me to culinary school in
(07:34):
San Francisco, where I thought, Okay, I'm going to live
my dreams. You know, at that time, we had just
lost my sister in law. She was forty.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Oh that's young.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
She was young. And I got to think some of
my own turmoil too, got me thinking carpe dim let's yeah,
this is I'm not this can happen. We can lose
our lives and or life is short, and so these
things got me motivated to do that, and it was
(08:09):
the greatest move I've ever made. You know, not knowing
exactly what was going to happen turned out to be okay,
because I immersed myself so fully in the here and
now of my experience. I loved every second of culinary school.
Of course, I lived in a beautiful city of Santa.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
You're in San Francisco, right, Yeah, what school was it?
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Tot Marie's Cooking School.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Oh, it's a great school. Okay, you know a school school, Mary, Yeah,
very riskly. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
She was so good to me, and I just I
just learned a ton and I realized, you know, I
had been sort of pulling the pros in the field
to see do I need to go to culinary school
to be a cookbook author and to write things I
want to write? And everyone said, no, you really don't.
(09:03):
And then I had to face the fact that I
want to go regardless, you know, I want to do
this for me because I want to learn. And it
was great. And from there I moved back to Michigan,
up north, very quiet town, where I launched my blog
because I had learned through my networking, through my research
(09:25):
how I was going to build this new path, did
a lot of that to find out, and I knew
I needed to establish a platform.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
How long ago was that?
Speaker 4 (09:37):
That was twenty while I went to culinary school in
twenty ten eleven. And excuse me, I launched my blog
in twenty twelve. Okay, so in my book came out
in twenty fifteen. So I got the book deal in
(09:57):
twenty thirteen.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
And you need blog and presence to get the book deal.
It's important to have that all these days, if anyone
thinking about it, very important.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
And the social media platforms that are now so essential.
At that time, it was more the blogging where you
could build your platform, and now of course you really
have to. You got to go on so many different
channels and be so multi tasked. It's really too much.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
It's a lot, you know. I was recently at the
Southern Smokes and Posium event here and they were talking
about substock. Of course, the Subsack sponsored the substack, so
they were like, you got to be on subtack. And
I'm thinking, they're talking to all these people who are
very busy running restaurants. Who has the time to have
social media? Subtack make your food, do the pricing, hiring,
et cetera. It's a whole thing. Yeah, but you've done
very well and I spent some time on your side.
(10:49):
You have a great shop.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Oh thank you, idiots.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I don't have any of these ingredients. It's very hard
to find them here in New Orleans. So you have
for anyone who really wants to get authent tech Lebanese ingredients,
which we're going to talk about. Marinaboo dot com has
that and some really terrific recipes. I loved both the books.
I want to just talk I know the new one
is Lebanese Banking, but I do want to talk about
rosewater and orange boson, which are my two favorite things money.
(11:17):
You know, For people who don't well, let's talk about
For people who don't know geography, talk about Lebanon. You've been,
you've been. Let's talk about Lebanon as a country and
a culture location, what it's known for. Because the right
now a lot of people are not going. It's on
my list and I'm hoping to go. I really do,
(11:40):
so talk to them first about Lebanon itself.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Lebanon is a Mediterranean country. It's in the Levant. It
is it is a. It is a Middle Eastern country,
but it's perched on the Mediterranean Sea. Yes, southern border
Israel and also bordered by Syria. On is a tiny
little country, but it has always been served as a
(12:07):
crossroads in the Middle East and as a very cosmopolitan city.
Beirut holds treasures of many many sorts, from culinary and
food to fashion to you know, with the port there.
(12:28):
It's an amazing city. And the country itself has, though tiny,
it has many regions and there's certainly regional cooking, and
the cooking and the food is the ultimate expression of
the Mediterranean diet. Yes, you have. You have such a
(12:51):
beautiful array of the lean meats, the lean proteins, the
plant proteins that provide so much protein and fiber, and
the delivery of all this with fresh produce, fresh herbs, spices.
All of this helps us eat deliciously and healthy at
(13:13):
the same time.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
You know, I love the cooking there, and I think
it's important. It is the Mediterranean. A lot of people
don't know their geography that so much of the Middle
Eastern area lies on the Meta. It's the Eastern Mediterranean.
And I'm blessed because I've tasted a lot of Lebanese wines.
When I lived in New York, they would come over
and do big walkarounds. It's wonderful wine region, the wine,
the chemistry. There's also a French influence. What was the
(13:38):
French influence?
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Oh, thank you, yes, well, the Lebanon was a protectorate
of France for many, many years, and in that relationship
there was a great deal of influence. So so many
Lebanese speak Arabic, English and French, and then you see
the influence in fashion and food. When we went to Lebanon,
(14:05):
I was just amazed at the French cuisine that that
was interspersed, you know, the croissant with the Zasta spice
on it. So I thought, okay, this really is a
fantastic way of looking at how these two cultures have
melded here and and in my book, in my in
(14:28):
my most recent book, in the Lebanese Baking Book, I
really enjoyed bringing to bear some of the French influence
that that you see with the Lebanese baked goods.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
And there's a lot of French classic technique as well.
So I think it's important to understand that it's a
it's a beautiful small country with some French accents, but
distinctly Mediterranean, and the food reflects that. You know, many
people never get past thummis and the salads and sandwiches,
and there's so much more. What are to is the
(15:00):
basis in terms of the key spices and flavors and
signature dishes of Lebanese. First we'll talk about savory and
then sweet.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Sure, yes, and you know, the homus is a really
wonderful sort of a bridge, a gateway get in and
experience this, this really great food that is often eaten
as a dip or as a base for a bowl,
or as a condiment. But we have a wonderful style
(15:30):
of eating that the hummus is included in this this
sort of start to a meal or an entire meal,
the mezza, the masa, the small plates of many different tastes,
from salads to to the babelcanooge and the hummus to
the the yogurt, cucumber, salad, pickles and olives. All of
(15:54):
these make up the masa. And that's that's a fabulous
you know, you're ever in a restaurant and they offer
an array at ma masa where they fill the table
with all these small plates. It's a great way to
have a tasting, and that can be the whole meal. Yeah,
but it's not there the grilled, the kababs and the
(16:18):
main dishes. There's fish, there are kebabs. There's the kidby,
which is the national dish of Lebanon. Is this We
eat it raw, but it's got many iterations, so that's
not the only way we eat kidby, which which traditionally
would be very lean ground lamb or beef mixed with
(16:42):
softened fine bulgar, some puade onion, and then the spices,
and that can vary from family to family. But you
have this seven spice or baharat blend, which is sort
of like the embodiment of air flavor, Arabic food flavor.
When you smell the spice, you go, oh, that smells
(17:05):
like Middle Eastern food. So that spice is important.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Uh so, what's the spice again? Which one?
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Is it seven spice?
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Seven spice because Tatar so it's seven spice bahara.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Well, you know, it's not always just seven, it's it's
real combination, but often including paprika and cuman and and
cardamom and oh gosh, coriander, all kinds of spices that
make a blend that is really really fragrant. But you
(17:37):
mentioned the zacha spice, which I think is coming to
be known pretty well known as a Middle Eastern spice blend. Yeah.
People will often say zatar, but it's zata spice.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
The zata has three things dried wild thyme, or regano,
but most typically you see time. Although I was asking
a group the other night if they knew the ingredients,
and several people said oregano sumac, which is another very
(18:11):
typical spice. It's bright in color. It looks a little
bit like paprika, but it's more citrusy in flavor. It
has a very bright tang to it. It's really really good.
Sometimes it's used as a replacement for lemon juice in
a recipe where you don't want the liquid but you
(18:32):
want the flavor, right, so, and then sesame seeds. That's
the zata blend. And the zata is often spread on
top of a flat bread and this zata bread manaichhe
manushi is folded up with maybe vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers, loveny
which is the thickened yogurt in it, and wrapped and
(18:55):
that's a Lebonese breakfast.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
That's the way I like to eat, you know, I
like savory, more savory breakfast. So that's just.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Oh, we love Lebanese breakfast. Yeah. Well, that recipe is
in the Lebanese Baking Book, and I love the amount
of Ish recipe because the whole it breaks it down.
It breaks it down.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Yeah, barely our file and upload it was in the
wrong format. So here it is Lebanese Baking.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It's available out.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Yeah, the amount of Ish recipe it makes four eight
inch flatbreads, which to me makes it a very manageable
recipe to go ahead and and tackle if you haven't
made it before. And if you have made it before,
you'll find that the recipe works really really well for
(19:47):
this soft, foldable bread.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
And I want to underscore the baking is savory and sweet,
and there's also some beverages in there. I love the
fact that you had a recipe for pita because about
peda is gross.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Thank you for saying it in many parties, but in
many places it's it's terrible. It is not it's not good,
and it doesn't give it doesn't shine a light on
the beauty that is pea bread and we certainly we
have many restaurants here because there's such a large air
of American population in Detroit area especially but where they
(20:26):
make good pita. But homemade is so much fun. It's
really a lot of fun. You need to make sure
you have a super hot baking element in your oven.
You can use a pizza stone. I have, in desperate
times used an overturned sheet pan. But the best thing
(20:47):
is a baking steel that you place on your bottom rack.
This thing holds so much heat and you need that
heat for this roll piece of dough to puff up
and for the that magic to happen, the peda magic
to happen.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
It's all about the puff. And you don't get the
puff in the store bought. It's like poems who fla
When you come to your olnge you have palms who
fe You want the puff, not the flat. You know,
it's just a completely completely different thing. I mean, you know,
I I love the breads. I'm a savory girl, so
I was like perusing the breads and of course I
mentioned before the show my husband David bakes. I'm like, okay,
(21:24):
you're making this nap making you.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Ear marked e ear marked his tasks. Yeah, I did
have fun with it.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Then, but what are some savory pastries? And are there
certain times the Lebanies breakfast tends to be more savory,
but are there sweets that you have at certain times
of the day that are traditional? Yes?
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Yes, and you know that that that savory breakfast can
include can include some sweet things, but it isn't typical.
And then you know to have to have a sweet breakfast.
But you know the sweets, it's interesting because when you
look at them closely, you think, okay, wow, some of
(22:07):
this is it's rich. You know, we have lots of
butter involved and clarified.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I was going to ask you about that. Is it butter,
olive oil? Mediterranean? I think I think olive oil, but
then French butter.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Yes, well, with our baking we do have we do
use clarified butter or ghee. And you know it's it's
one of these things where you go all in to
make the best of these cookies that like the cover
this mott Mule cookie. You know, this is a this
is a short bread cookie that's made with butter, and
(22:39):
yet we don't eat so much of it that that
we're going to make the kinds of substitutions that you
would make if you're on a really strict diet. When
you're going to have the sweet, I have it the
way it's meant to be, unless you have a restriction,
of course, then then there are options, but to have
a a cookie, a little cookie with a cup of
(23:03):
coffee in the in the afternoon or when someone comes
to visit. This is a very traditional thing, the much
of it has had when when you're feasting, you know,
when you have a special occasion, because normally day to
day it'd be more like having some fruit after meal
and e. But like I have such a sweet tooth,
(23:24):
you have the savory. I love it all, but I
do have a sweet tooth, so I'm sort of like
throwing off the way the Lebanies eat most of the
time with the fruit, as they're sweet. I love to
have a little cookie or something. And these things freeze
so well that you can make them and pull them out,
(23:46):
and you know we have there are other just divine
savory items here. And one that I want to point
out to you is since you love the peeda bread,
is the arias and that is what was made. It's
the peeda bread cut in half and then filled with
(24:07):
a seasoned ground lamb mixture kind of like a kafta mixture,
and it's got all kinds of really mouth watering seasonings
in it, pressed into the pewa bread that's cut in
half and it's raw, and then you're going to see
it in a little bit of olive oil in a
(24:29):
sautee pan until it gets nice and golden and crisp,
and flip it over and do the same thing and
the meat cooks through and becomes very juicy. Dip that
bite into some yogurt dip and you you'll be coming back.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Oh, it just sounds stifferent. Well, David's making homemade yogurt now,
and I show them your recipe, see, because that's yeah, yeah,
Because we're trying like many people, Hello, everybody, we're all
trying to save money. You need healthy prices, I think.
So we're looking at things being we spend a lot
of money on every day, which we're gonna talk about.
And one of them is yogurt. One is bread, and
he's making it home and it tastes better. He's gonna
(25:09):
work on. We're caught, we're debating, We're caught a cuta cheese.
We're caught a cut cheese next, because that's a big one.
So what are some examples of some recipes where people
may be spending a lot of money buying it, but
they can make it home just as easily and better
that you would recommend.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Oh yeah, the yogurt's a big one. That's that's a
great one. And it does taste better because you can
control you know, we eat the yogurt savory most of
the time in each Lebanese cin okay, so you know
you want that, you want it to have a little
more complex flavor. Some of the plain yogurts that you
buy that they just lack luster there, they don't have
(25:47):
a lot going on. And then you can drain that
for the loveny, which is becomes like a spread like
Greek yogurt, and that that's a fabulous practice, almost like
keeping our dough. You know, you use one, you use
something from the prior batch, use a starter. Other things
you can make that I think are far better and
(26:10):
more economically made homemade. One of them would be the hummus. Yeah,
you know, talk about that. It's so easy to make
and you don't run the risk of having all these additives,
and it becomes almost like a processed food when you're
buying these giant, commercially made products like that. The one
(26:34):
thing that can take a little time to make a
really nice, creamy, smooth, homemade hummus is getting the chickpea
has a little skin on it. You want to get
that off? Yes, a little doing right.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
I have a little term for that, which we won't
talk about on air, but David lets me do it.
He says, you can circumcise the chickpeas. I just said there.
I'll be honest with you. Reader, jam My, good friend, reader,
Jamay Tommy. This Lebanies background like Caravel Champagne is a
wonderful champagne. She used to own the Caravel restaurant.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
So she comes to her.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Family comes from Lobana and I'm sitting here, we're having home.
She goes, this isn't good, it's not soapy because they
didn't peel the chickpias. And I went.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
What And so I'm obsessed. So for anyone out there,
it is time to see me. But it's almost like
playing online mashong or some with your hand. You could
sit there watching TV and peel the chickpias.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Yes, it's basically just like rubbing them to get in
some water to get the skins off. And that's using
a canned or a cooked chickpea as opposed to a
dry And I happen to source this amazing chickpea that
has the peel the skin already off, and I sell
that in my shop. Those are incredible. Those are fun
(27:48):
and nice to have, but you don't have to have those.
You can remove them yourself and then you'll see the difference.
You'll see the difference in your hummus.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Between it makes it so we actually have some raw
chickpias from it Italy that we need to figure out
what to do with because we've us from a can,
but they're raw, so we get figure how to cook them. David,
I don't think it's that hard. No, and then peel
them right, Yes.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Oh beautiful, that's really nice. So those are those are
some things, And then I would say absolutely the bread.
The bread. You know, I think most of us are
not eating as much bread as we may have at
other times in our lives. We're more aware of what's
in it, the refined the refined ingredients. But when you
(28:37):
make your own bread. It's so satisfying. Number One, you
can pick your ingredients and you will enjoy that bread,
you know, for a day or two and be done
as opposed to having a loaf from a from a
plastic bag that less forever while it shouldn't on your counter.
(29:04):
And and just realizing that this practice of baking breads
uh can be a really really nice addition to how
you cook for yourself and bake for yourself.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
It's also great gifting. That's what we're going to be
doing this holiday. We're gonna David, David, it's going to
be baking bread. And he's right now, he's looking at
apple cake. I'm doing homemade granola because it's which brings people. Dates.
One of my favorite dried fruits. Dates. Let's talk about
dates and Lebonese cooking.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
The dates are prized in Lebanese cooking and and throughout
the Middle East. The meguled date and many other kinds
of dates. These are chewy, so they should be chewy,
soft caramel like in their flavor brown sugary. These are
the flavors that come to mind when you have good sweeteners.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Good sweeteners if you don't want to use sugar.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Really good sweetners. Yes, because they carry with them, you know,
nutritional value. And we use the date. The date alone
is wonderful. You can you can buy them pit it
or you can very easily just just pull it open
and pull the pit out and replace the pit with
(30:22):
almonds or your favorite nut and saute it and it
just a tiny drop of olive oil and serve it warm,
dusted with lime or lemon zest and a little salt.
This is amazing.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Here's the picture. It's from Rose Water and Orange. Well,
I'm not a great photo, but it's here. It looks easy.
I picked up Rosewater and Orange Blossoms, your first book,
and we get up on the screen because we couldn't
get on screened. I picked up the library support your
local libraries, and I'm going to try to make these
warm dates with almonds and lime zest. I did an
article on dates and learn that they're very popular to
(30:59):
eat when you're at the end of a Romandan fast day.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
Yes, yes, Muslims do that and in the Christians. My
family is Lebanese Christian, and we use dates, you know,
for celebratory times too, and they make a wonderful filling
for all kinds of things. And in Lebanese baking, we
(31:23):
have date fillings for some of the breads, which are
also beautiful gift breads. And I'm so glad you mentioned gifting,
because baking and gifting or making of anything in gifting
is really just about the best thing you can do
for yourself and for the people you give to. The
There's a date ring that is in like every old
(31:46):
cookbook Lebanese and Middle Eastern cookbook I have, and I thought, Okay,
this is something not something that my mom made or
even my sito my grandmother made, but I thought this
has to be in the book because it's everywhere. And
I love loved developing the recipe for that the date filling.
You can make that paste just by pulverizing pitted dates
(32:10):
in the food processor, or you can cook them down
with a little bit of water and butter and they
become a paste that's spreadable on top of a enriched
a dough like a Brioche style dough that has eggs
in it and butter and roll it up and then
you bring it together and it forms a ring like
(32:30):
a wreath. Would be very pretty at the holidays, and
just it's a beautiful thing. The dates are all over
the place.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Well, let's talk about two of my favorite flavors, rosewater
and orange blossoms, which is the name of your first book,
but you've got them incorporated into baking. My pages open
to orange blossom madelins. But you also have some liquid
with orange blossom in it, and I just like they'll
fell over because those are my When I was going
through breast cancer treatment, orange blossom and rose water were
my scent that I could tolerate. Oh really, yeah, because
(33:03):
I could talk a lot. But those are my calming
me and those are my anti nausea smells. So for me,
that's amazing smell for me. Those two, Yeah, that's so neat.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Well, they really are special. They're so fragrant, so aromatic.
I don't do a demo that I don't pull out
a bottle of each and pass it around the room
so that so that we can enter in, you know,
enter in and in that scent, because the scent is
so important to our baking and cooking experiences. Yes, they're
(33:39):
so evocative of memories, you know, when I make homemade
blah blah blah, the Lebanese but leiwa with the orange
blossom syrup that goes over the top. I'm like, here's
my mother again with me. I truly, I don't make
it without thinking of her, and it makes me want
to keep making it because I want to keep her
(33:59):
with me, you know, and I want to keep remembering. Well.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I had to laugh about that because my mother baucleva,
which you start with, one of the first recipes in
your Lebanese baking. And I had to laugh because my
mother tried for so she tackled bauc lava. She hated
a cook left to bake and it was a I
was with her side by side as a young girl,
trying to help her get through the process of making baclova.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Oh no kidding, and she did it, huh.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Finally she was so proud of herself.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
That's amazing. Most of the most of the bit leila
that I make and most of us make, we use
the filo that we can buy that's frozen, and it's
it's fabulous. I love that because of its texture and
for all the reasons. But I wanted to include homemade
filo though, because I really wanted to understand this recipe
(34:50):
that our elders had to had to make if they
wanted to have the pastry, you know, and I came
to just so admire and appreciate their fearless, fabulous selves
from mastering these.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
It's a process, yes, but it's such a wonderful homemade bakaba,
so fantastic when you can get it. I'm curious you
talked about your mother and begging, but you did a
meal and memory of your father. I think that was
a very significant scenario. Talk to me about that, because
I think it was like your transformation into diving into
the food world more so, tell me about that.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
Well, I there came a point in time where I
started to realize the ways of the Lebanese that I
wanted to not just I wasn't just part of it.
Now I could see it and think I'd like to
express this to the world. And when my father was sick,
he had a very compressed cancer and pancratic cancer, and
(35:52):
he passed away within it. We weren't expecting, and you know,
he was gone like that and fast. Oh my gosh.
Our community was of course, he was a force in
our community and it beloved. They came out and just
showered us with love, and that love in the form
(36:15):
of food was like, you know, just an incredible thing
that that I couldn't help but keep thinking about how
this is an important expression. And I know it's not
unique to our Lebanese community, but when there's trouble, just
as when there's joy, you want to do something to
(36:37):
express your love. And that was the making and sharing
of food that we experienced at that time. And it
took me a couple of years to fully flesh out
that that piece of writing that I ended up placing
in the Washington Post, but it was it was wonderful
(37:01):
experience for me because I just sat down and started writing,
you know, and then as I as I worked through it,
I was able to come to realize what all this
really meant, and that sent me on my trajectory of
food writing.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
I think that's such a great story because everybody goes
into it. You know, some it's you know, memories growing
up with the you know, cooking with mom. But the
father one was so special to me because I was
very close to my father. He didn't cook at all.
He you know, it was just a great guy, but
food was not his thing other than wine. So my wine.
(37:39):
So for me, my journey into becoming a certified wine professional.
Wine expert came through my father because he was a
wine educator. That was our bond, But I guess it's
you know, the bond is there. But I do like
to bake, and David always teases me. He said, that's
the one thing you got from your mother besides your
bossy personality. And I do like to be And there's
(38:00):
some terrific recipes in here. You know, we're not going away.
We just canceled our uh Thanksgivings coming up. Even though
this is an evergreen show, this is actually a week
before Thanksgiving. We're airing this show live and so we're
staying put because I had to cancel my travel due
to some recent surgery. But I'm kind of excited because
I love New Orleans and we're going to cook and
we're going to try different recipes and do really fun
(38:22):
things and start hosting dinner parties. And I think it'd
be so much fun to have a Lebanese themed dinner party.
What are you going to? So what does Thanksgiving look
like around your table? Oh?
Speaker 4 (38:32):
Well, I'm happy for you, and you've got some really
you've got some exciting things ahead then, because because making
dinner parties. Is a ton of fun. We love if
you do it, if you do it smartly, you know,
with a good plan. But the Lebanese at Thanksgiving is
a big thing in the Lebanese community, and then and
(38:52):
then in my community, which extends beyond, way beyond just
Lebanese people, Lebanese Americans. It's having these flavors that people
love and want to try and want to add to
their traditional feast. So we have a rice dish, hushwae
rice that is very traditional at Thanksgiving. The hushwee is
(39:19):
ground beef or lamb cooked and then you add your rice.
You add chicken stock or you could use turkey stock
and cook this, adding on top toasted pine nuts, and
then pieces of chicken or turkey are placed on top.
(39:41):
It's like it's a pea loff that's chok full of
all these good things. And I know some people actually
stuff the h hush we mean stuffing into the turkey
or into the chicken. That's not how we've ever done it,
you know, We've always made it stove top dish. But
boy is it delicious. It's our comfort food and our
(40:05):
feast food, both delicious.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
Great.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
We'll have we'll have a full Lebanese spread and a
full American turkey spread all on our buffet.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
Wow, that's a lot of fun. You'll come to your house.
Come on.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
The grapelye rules are also traditional for Thanksgiving, and the breads,
of course, I've been feverishly baking and freezing breads for
Thanksgiving too. Well.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
This is our first Thanksgiving in two years where we're
not in Hawaii where we usually have Pokey and we're poky.
So we're guesting and I'm and then we're going to
cook some stuff on our own and probably do our
own separate like I like doing leftovers another day. But
we're going to just have fun cooking and just make it,
you know, a holiday in a new way. Here in
(40:51):
New Orleans, which is a great place. And like I said,
there's Lebanese Lebanon Cafee and is a terrific little restaurant,
family owned over on I think it's Carlton Street. We
just passed it the other day when we to the
po Boyfest. But they do a lovely job and I'm excited.
I've got to find ingredients of Marina boot has ingredients,
(41:12):
but I need to try to see what other ingredients
we can find here in New Orleans. I wish they
had a really good Middle Eastern shop. I'm going to
ask some of the chefs I know to see where
they sho.
Speaker 4 (41:24):
That's a good idea, you know. And this is what
really inspired me to launch my shop is around the country.
I was hearing this weird, I can't find these ingredients?
What do you use? What's the best one? And another
one you could consider Melanie for Thanksgiving is the fatouche salad.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
Ooh yeah.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Toouche is just it's crave worthy. Uses pomegranate molasses in
the in the vinaigrette, garlic, and of course pita chips
are showered over the salad.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
And that sounds divine.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
That makes it so good.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Well, we've been told we're going to a non traditional Thanksgiving,
which I'm wondering what that's going to be. Will I
don't know. You know, David comes from a New England
family that they're they're like turkey. We've been eating poky
for two years in Hawaii. I don't know what to expect,
but I always volunteer to make the salad because I
like vegetables, I like the size. I'm a side girl,
(42:19):
so if a two sounds like a great idea because
I'm sick of lettuce. I want something different, some other textures,
and I like textural salads. That's what's good.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
Yeah, Oh, it's so good, you would love it. I
have another recipe that is like a village salad with
zero lettuce, but it also includes so it's cucumber, tomato
and diced apple.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Really roo, I think I may have all those ingredients
here because we finally found some edible apples down here.
We've lived in Apple Country in New York State, so
coming down to not Apple Country has been interesting. You
get apples here that we can eat, but you know,
you make do with what you can locally. Is there
(43:03):
one dish and lit will till I have that you
feel one or two dishes that you feel are the
embodiment of what you think everybody should? You know? I
hate doing people type cast cuisines and countries right, And
some people may have thought, oh it sounds like Greek cooking.
When when you google Lebanes sometimes it is mixed in
with Greek. They're completely different countries, completely different locations. What
(43:24):
do you want my listeners and followers? When I to
visualize and conjure up in their head. Flavor wise and dishwise,
it would be quintessential dishes you should try, whether you're
dining in or cooking it.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
For Lebanese cuisine, you think of herbs, fresh herbs, which
add so much flavor to anything you cook. You find
so much fresh mint in all kinds of Lebanese salads
and wraps and other dishes. I would say that the
(43:59):
men is really really key fresh and dried mint, and
the tabouli salad for example, that includes the vulgar wheat
and you know, from the sweet side. I would love
for them to know that they can bake a pan
(44:22):
of the Lebanese but leiwa Lebanese but lewa Bahclavah Lebanese style,
and that they can do it fairly simply with my recipe.
You know, you get your This is something that is
very very special but yet very doable when you break
it down and you look through it and you say, okay,
(44:43):
you could actually bake this and share it and feel
so good about sharing something Lebanese with with your friends.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
Yeah, and this is food that you can easily share.
It's great gifting as well, because a lot of people
don't think to make it themselves, and it's so as
I started with the show. It's very fresh and flavorful
and healthy and just brings up just a lightness, you know,
when you eat the food you don't feel way down afterward,
which I like.
Speaker 4 (45:10):
Great point, it's so true.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
Well, I hope I can get to Lebany Lebanon one day.
The Baca valley's calling me for the wine.
Speaker 4 (45:18):
You must it's beautiful there. It's yeah, we're just wine country,
and they're wines and olive oils. You'd probably really appreciate
an olive oil tasting.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
Yes, well, yes, well, when we travel for wine, we
buy olive oil. That's what we bring back. We don't
bring back wine, We bring back olive oil because she
usually they go hand in hand from many of the
countries you visit. Oh yes, yeah, how special.
Speaker 4 (45:38):
I hope you get there too, and I hope I
get back soon too.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Well, let's just all hope because it's such an incredible heritage.
It's on my bucket list. But in the meantime, I'm
excited to be trying recipes again. I'll hold up since
I couldn't get the photo to work. Where is it?
Speaker 4 (45:55):
There?
Speaker 3 (45:55):
We go it's sort of there well anyway, the book
is Rosewater and Orange Blossom and then Lebanese Baking. Great,
thank you. You can buy them anywhere, but you can
also go to Marine abud A Bood by the way
to learn more, get great recipes and buy some products.
So I want to thank you for sharing your time
(46:18):
with me and your incredible stories and flavors.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
Oh, Melanie, thank you so much. What fun talking Lebanese
cuisine with you.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Just really great. So everybody out there step outside your
comfort zone and go try some new flavors and cuisines
and dishes, because it's all about Even if you can't
get there to Lebanonette, you can have a trip in
your own kitchen and dining room table with a great
little Lebanese banquet with friends, which we're going to try
to do this holiday season. So thank you again. You've
(46:50):
been listening to Fearless, Fabulous You with Melanie Young. You
can find this show and all my shows on demand
anytime on more than sixty five podcast channels, including Heart, Spotify,
and Amazon Autoio. And you'll see the show on my
YouTube at Melanie Young. And you're listening to watching on
Talk for Radio and network, also on YouTube, so share it,
(47:12):
hear it, and always as I like it in my show.
You have choices in life on how you want to
live at every agent stage, and you can make changes
and do something different from what you're doing ten or
fifteen years ago, like we have. And always choose to
live life on your terms and not the terms of
anyone else. And always choose fearless and fabulous and never
(47:34):
say never. That's my theme for twenty twenty six. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (47:40):
Thanks Ni
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We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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(00:20):
be directed to those show hosts.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host,
Melanie Young, and I'm so excited to be here today.
It is November twenty twenty five. I've now been doing
this show for twelve seasons and we can be heard
on sixty five podcast channels, and of course you're watching
on YouTube. And my show is about highlighting inspiring women
(01:05):
and helping you live a fearless, fabulous, inspired life on
your terms. Because we want to grow older and bolder
at every stage and age of our lives. And I'm
going to be bracing even more of that in twenty
twenty six, which is going to be the year of
living fearlessly and with a now we're never attitude and
(01:26):
more on that, so fresh, fragrant, delicious, who does? And
healthy and healthy? Who doesn't love all of that in
your food? Well?
Speaker 4 (01:39):
I do.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
And one of my favorite cuisines is the cuisines of
the Middle Eastern area. And we're going to be talking
today about Lebanese cooking.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Now.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I have never been to Lebanon. I hope to go
some time. I've had the great pressure pleasure of tasting
many Lebanese wines tastings in New York when I live there.
I love them, and I love the food food. And
we have here in New Orleans Lebanon Cafe, one of
my little favorite family owned restaurants. But I'm really excited
(02:08):
because we're going to talk about making these wonderful dishes
here in your home. With me today is my guest,
Marine Abood. She grew up in a very large Lebanese
American family in the Midwest, specifically Michigan. She has a
food bog by the same name, Marina Bood, and two cookbooks.
(02:28):
The first one we'll hold up the covers. The first
one is Rosewater and orange Blossom. Okay, those are my
two favorite things rose water and orange blossoms. Fresh and
classic recipes from my Lebanese Kitchen came out a couple
of years ago, and I think we're going to show
that on the screen. And the second one is Lebanese Baking,
more than one hundred recipes for sweet and savory bake goods.
(02:51):
And I happen to love Lebanese cookies. And there's so
many interesting recipes in this baking book WHI you're going
to talk about, including some beverages that really stood out.
But as usual, we're going to walk by our guests. Welcome,
Marina Boot Fearless Fabulous Shoe. Hello, and I want you
to tell me your story. We'll get my nose back up.
I just disappeared on the screen. Tell me a little
(03:13):
bit about you. Your first generation, second generation here and generation.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Second generation Lebanese American. My grandparents were immigrants from Lebanon
to Michigan, all of them. My mother's parents emigrated to
the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and we always joke it
must have been summer when they got here, because they
(03:40):
did love Michigan. They ended up going down to Ohio
and establishing their businesses there, and my father's family the
boots came here to Lansing, Michigan, where there's a really
substantial Lebanese population.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Okay, I was wondering about that, because you know, fifty
sixs you choose Michigan. It's curious.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Yes, yes, they came, you know, as so many immigrant
communities do. They came to where some people they had
already known had come and they were drawn by the
jobs in the auto industry here in Michigan. And they
had those jobs, but they also had other very common
(04:24):
jobs of Lebanese immigrants. They had wholesale food and fruit,
grocery stores, businesses like that, and they raised large families
with their deep intention that they would have wonderful educations,
and that they did. My parents and then my parents
(04:48):
and their siblings, many of them all populated the world
with lots of cousins that I have, all doing wonderful
things in the world, and all of course quite proud
of our Lebanese heritage.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Wow. You know, I think it would be so much
fun to grow up in a large family like that.
I have a very small family. And you know, it's
interesting when I interview a lot of people are whose
family immigrated over here. Many of them ended up getting
their businesses started in the grocery business and eventually retail
because that was an easy way to sell for the
(05:23):
who you wanted to get the ingredients and do the
cooking that you're used to. So that's interesting, Yes, very
much so.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
And I think it's also related to our the magnet
of our communities, which is our food and our table
and our kitchens.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Well, I am curious you didn't start out writing about food.
You actually went to culinary school, which was kind of
your turning point.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Give us a.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Little bit about your evolution into becoming a successful food writer,
because it's not easy. We all know to you can write,
You can be a good writer, you may not be
a successful writer, so talk to me about that.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Also true, that journey is something that I treasure because
of the ups and downs along the way. And I've
always been a writer from a young age, considered myself
a writer, always loved stories. Studied literature in college and
a master's degree in literature.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Where did you go to college?
Speaker 4 (06:24):
I went to Saint Mary's College in South Bend, Indiana,
and then I moved back home to East Lansing and
studied literature at Michigan State good school, really really good school.
I love MSU and taught English and worked simultaneously doing
communications and marketing, and the allure of all my siblings
(06:48):
who were in Chicago took me over there. For many years,
where I was doing some freelance food writing, I wasn't
really dedicating my life fully to it. I kept thinking,
I want to write about levity food. It's not being
done at that time. It really was not. It was
not showcased to the degree that we're seeing Middle Eastern
(07:08):
cuisines now. So so I also thought, Okay, I've got
this cookbook that I want to write, and I want
to tell the stories. And it took some true grit
for me to leave my job, take that risk, that leap,
that fearless leap that took me to culinary school in
(07:34):
San Francisco, where I thought, Okay, I'm going to live
my dreams. You know, at that time, we had just
lost my sister in law. She was forty.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Oh that's young.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
She was young. And I got to think some of
my own turmoil too, got me thinking carpe dim let's yeah,
this is I'm not this can happen. We can lose
our lives and or life is short, and so these
things got me motivated to do that, and it was
(08:09):
the greatest move I've ever made. You know, not knowing
exactly what was going to happen turned out to be okay,
because I immersed myself so fully in the here and
now of my experience. I loved every second of culinary school.
Of course, I lived in a beautiful city of Santa.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
You're in San Francisco, right, Yeah, what school was it?
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Tot Marie's Cooking School.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Oh, it's a great school. Okay, you know a school school, Mary, Yeah,
very riskly. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
She was so good to me, and I just I
just learned a ton and I realized, you know, I
had been sort of pulling the pros in the field
to see do I need to go to culinary school
to be a cookbook author and to write things I
want to write? And everyone said, no, you really don't.
(09:03):
And then I had to face the fact that I
want to go regardless, you know, I want to do
this for me because I want to learn. And it
was great. And from there I moved back to Michigan,
up north, very quiet town, where I launched my blog
because I had learned through my networking, through my research
(09:25):
how I was going to build this new path, did
a lot of that to find out, and I knew
I needed to establish a platform.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
How long ago was that?
Speaker 4 (09:37):
That was twenty while I went to culinary school in
twenty ten eleven. And excuse me, I launched my blog
in twenty twelve. Okay, so in my book came out
in twenty fifteen. So I got the book deal in
(09:57):
twenty thirteen.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
And you need blog and presence to get the book deal.
It's important to have that all these days, if anyone
thinking about it, very important.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
And the social media platforms that are now so essential.
At that time, it was more the blogging where you
could build your platform, and now of course you really
have to. You got to go on so many different
channels and be so multi tasked. It's really too much.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
It's a lot, you know. I was recently at the
Southern Smokes and Posium event here and they were talking
about substock. Of course, the Subsack sponsored the substack, so
they were like, you got to be on subtack. And
I'm thinking, they're talking to all these people who are
very busy running restaurants. Who has the time to have
social media? Subtack make your food, do the pricing, hiring,
et cetera. It's a whole thing. Yeah, but you've done
very well and I spent some time on your side.
(10:49):
You have a great shop.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Oh thank you, idiots.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I don't have any of these ingredients. It's very hard
to find them here in New Orleans. So you have
for anyone who really wants to get authent tech Lebanese ingredients,
which we're going to talk about. Marinaboo dot com has
that and some really terrific recipes. I loved both the books.
I want to just talk I know the new one
is Lebanese Banking, but I do want to talk about
rosewater and orange boson, which are my two favorite things money.
(11:17):
You know, For people who don't well, let's talk about
For people who don't know geography, talk about Lebanon. You've been,
you've been. Let's talk about Lebanon as a country and
a culture location, what it's known for. Because the right
now a lot of people are not going. It's on
my list and I'm hoping to go. I really do,
(11:40):
so talk to them first about Lebanon itself.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Lebanon is a Mediterranean country. It's in the Levant. It
is it is a. It is a Middle Eastern country,
but it's perched on the Mediterranean Sea. Yes, southern border
Israel and also bordered by Syria. On is a tiny
little country, but it has always been served as a
(12:07):
crossroads in the Middle East and as a very cosmopolitan city.
Beirut holds treasures of many many sorts, from culinary and
food to fashion to you know, with the port there.
(12:28):
It's an amazing city. And the country itself has, though tiny,
it has many regions and there's certainly regional cooking, and
the cooking and the food is the ultimate expression of
the Mediterranean diet. Yes, you have. You have such a
(12:51):
beautiful array of the lean meats, the lean proteins, the
plant proteins that provide so much protein and fiber, and
the delivery of all this with fresh produce, fresh herbs, spices.
All of this helps us eat deliciously and healthy at
(13:13):
the same time.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
You know, I love the cooking there, and I think
it's important. It is the Mediterranean. A lot of people
don't know their geography that so much of the Middle
Eastern area lies on the Meta. It's the Eastern Mediterranean.
And I'm blessed because I've tasted a lot of Lebanese wines.
When I lived in New York, they would come over
and do big walkarounds. It's wonderful wine region, the wine,
the chemistry. There's also a French influence. What was the
(13:38):
French influence?
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Oh, thank you, yes, well, the Lebanon was a protectorate
of France for many, many years, and in that relationship
there was a great deal of influence. So so many
Lebanese speak Arabic, English and French, and then you see
the influence in fashion and food. When we went to Lebanon,
(14:05):
I was just amazed at the French cuisine that that
was interspersed, you know, the croissant with the Zasta spice
on it. So I thought, okay, this really is a
fantastic way of looking at how these two cultures have
melded here and and in my book, in my in
(14:28):
my most recent book, in the Lebanese Baking Book, I
really enjoyed bringing to bear some of the French influence
that that you see with the Lebanese baked goods.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
And there's a lot of French classic technique as well.
So I think it's important to understand that it's a
it's a beautiful small country with some French accents, but
distinctly Mediterranean, and the food reflects that. You know, many
people never get past thummis and the salads and sandwiches,
and there's so much more. What are to is the
(15:00):
basis in terms of the key spices and flavors and
signature dishes of Lebanese. First we'll talk about savory and
then sweet.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Sure, yes, and you know, the homus is a really
wonderful sort of a bridge, a gateway get in and
experience this, this really great food that is often eaten
as a dip or as a base for a bowl,
or as a condiment. But we have a wonderful style
(15:30):
of eating that the hummus is included in this this
sort of start to a meal or an entire meal,
the mezza, the masa, the small plates of many different tastes,
from salads to to the babelcanooge and the hummus to
the the yogurt, cucumber, salad, pickles and olives. All of
(15:54):
these make up the masa. And that's that's a fabulous
you know, you're ever in a restaurant and they offer
an array at ma masa where they fill the table
with all these small plates. It's a great way to
have a tasting, and that can be the whole meal. Yeah,
but it's not there the grilled, the kababs and the
(16:18):
main dishes. There's fish, there are kebabs. There's the kidby,
which is the national dish of Lebanon. Is this We
eat it raw, but it's got many iterations, so that's
not the only way we eat kidby, which which traditionally
would be very lean ground lamb or beef mixed with
(16:42):
softened fine bulgar, some puade onion, and then the spices,
and that can vary from family to family. But you
have this seven spice or baharat blend, which is sort
of like the embodiment of air flavor, Arabic food flavor.
When you smell the spice, you go, oh, that smells
(17:05):
like Middle Eastern food. So that spice is important.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Uh so, what's the spice again? Which one?
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Is it seven spice?
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Seven spice because Tatar so it's seven spice bahara.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Well, you know, it's not always just seven, it's it's
real combination, but often including paprika and cuman and and
cardamom and oh gosh, coriander, all kinds of spices that
make a blend that is really really fragrant. But you
(17:37):
mentioned the zacha spice, which I think is coming to
be known pretty well known as a Middle Eastern spice blend. Yeah.
People will often say zatar, but it's zata spice.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
The zata has three things dried wild thyme, or regano,
but most typically you see time. Although I was asking
a group the other night if they knew the ingredients,
and several people said oregano sumac, which is another very
(18:11):
typical spice. It's bright in color. It looks a little
bit like paprika, but it's more citrusy in flavor. It
has a very bright tang to it. It's really really good.
Sometimes it's used as a replacement for lemon juice in
a recipe where you don't want the liquid but you
(18:32):
want the flavor, right, so, and then sesame seeds. That's
the zata blend. And the zata is often spread on
top of a flat bread and this zata bread manaichhe
manushi is folded up with maybe vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers, loveny
which is the thickened yogurt in it, and wrapped and
(18:55):
that's a Lebonese breakfast.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
That's the way I like to eat, you know, I
like savory, more savory breakfast. So that's just.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Oh, we love Lebanese breakfast. Yeah. Well, that recipe is
in the Lebanese Baking Book, and I love the amount
of Ish recipe because the whole it breaks it down.
It breaks it down.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Yeah, barely our file and upload it was in the
wrong format. So here it is Lebanese Baking.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It's available out.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Yeah, the amount of Ish recipe it makes four eight
inch flatbreads, which to me makes it a very manageable
recipe to go ahead and and tackle if you haven't
made it before. And if you have made it before,
you'll find that the recipe works really really well for
(19:47):
this soft, foldable bread.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
And I want to underscore the baking is savory and sweet,
and there's also some beverages in there. I love the
fact that you had a recipe for pita because about
peda is gross.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Thank you for saying it in many parties, but in
many places it's it's terrible. It is not it's not good,
and it doesn't give it doesn't shine a light on
the beauty that is pea bread and we certainly we
have many restaurants here because there's such a large air
of American population in Detroit area especially but where they
(20:26):
make good pita. But homemade is so much fun. It's
really a lot of fun. You need to make sure
you have a super hot baking element in your oven.
You can use a pizza stone. I have, in desperate
times used an overturned sheet pan. But the best thing
(20:47):
is a baking steel that you place on your bottom rack.
This thing holds so much heat and you need that
heat for this roll piece of dough to puff up
and for the that magic to happen, the peda magic
to happen.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
It's all about the puff. And you don't get the
puff in the store bought. It's like poems who fla
When you come to your olnge you have palms who
fe You want the puff, not the flat. You know,
it's just a completely completely different thing. I mean, you know,
I I love the breads. I'm a savory girl, so
I was like perusing the breads and of course I
mentioned before the show my husband David bakes. I'm like, okay,
(21:24):
you're making this nap making you.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Ear marked e ear marked his tasks. Yeah, I did
have fun with it.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Then, but what are some savory pastries? And are there
certain times the Lebanies breakfast tends to be more savory,
but are there sweets that you have at certain times
of the day that are traditional? Yes?
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Yes, and you know that that that savory breakfast can
include can include some sweet things, but it isn't typical.
And then you know to have to have a sweet breakfast.
But you know the sweets, it's interesting because when you
look at them closely, you think, okay, wow, some of
(22:07):
this is it's rich. You know, we have lots of
butter involved and clarified.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I was going to ask you about that. Is it butter,
olive oil? Mediterranean? I think I think olive oil, but
then French butter.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Yes, well, with our baking we do have we do
use clarified butter or ghee. And you know it's it's
one of these things where you go all in to
make the best of these cookies that like the cover
this mott Mule cookie. You know, this is a this
is a short bread cookie that's made with butter, and
(22:39):
yet we don't eat so much of it that that
we're going to make the kinds of substitutions that you
would make if you're on a really strict diet. When
you're going to have the sweet, I have it the
way it's meant to be, unless you have a restriction,
of course, then then there are options, but to have
a a cookie, a little cookie with a cup of
(23:03):
coffee in the in the afternoon or when someone comes
to visit. This is a very traditional thing, the much
of it has had when when you're feasting, you know,
when you have a special occasion, because normally day to
day it'd be more like having some fruit after meal
and e. But like I have such a sweet tooth,
(23:24):
you have the savory. I love it all, but I
do have a sweet tooth, so I'm sort of like
throwing off the way the Lebanies eat most of the
time with the fruit, as they're sweet. I love to
have a little cookie or something. And these things freeze
so well that you can make them and pull them out,
(23:46):
and you know we have there are other just divine
savory items here. And one that I want to point
out to you is since you love the peeda bread,
is the arias and that is what was made. It's
the peeda bread cut in half and then filled with
(24:07):
a seasoned ground lamb mixture kind of like a kafta mixture,
and it's got all kinds of really mouth watering seasonings
in it, pressed into the pewa bread that's cut in
half and it's raw, and then you're going to see
it in a little bit of olive oil in a
(24:29):
sautee pan until it gets nice and golden and crisp,
and flip it over and do the same thing and
the meat cooks through and becomes very juicy. Dip that
bite into some yogurt dip and you you'll be coming back.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Oh, it just sounds stifferent. Well, David's making homemade yogurt now,
and I show them your recipe, see, because that's yeah, yeah,
Because we're trying like many people, Hello, everybody, we're all
trying to save money. You need healthy prices, I think.
So we're looking at things being we spend a lot
of money on every day, which we're gonna talk about.
And one of them is yogurt. One is bread, and
he's making it home and it tastes better. He's gonna
(25:09):
work on. We're caught, we're debating, We're caught a cuta cheese.
We're caught a cut cheese next, because that's a big one.
So what are some examples of some recipes where people
may be spending a lot of money buying it, but
they can make it home just as easily and better
that you would recommend.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Oh yeah, the yogurt's a big one. That's that's a
great one. And it does taste better because you can
control you know, we eat the yogurt savory most of
the time in each Lebanese cin okay, so you know
you want that, you want it to have a little
more complex flavor. Some of the plain yogurts that you
buy that they just lack luster there, they don't have
(25:47):
a lot going on. And then you can drain that
for the loveny, which is becomes like a spread like
Greek yogurt, and that that's a fabulous practice, almost like
keeping our dough. You know, you use one, you use
something from the prior batch, use a starter. Other things
you can make that I think are far better and
(26:10):
more economically made homemade. One of them would be the hummus. Yeah,
you know, talk about that. It's so easy to make
and you don't run the risk of having all these additives,
and it becomes almost like a processed food when you're
buying these giant, commercially made products like that. The one
(26:34):
thing that can take a little time to make a
really nice, creamy, smooth, homemade hummus is getting the chickpea
has a little skin on it. You want to get
that off? Yes, a little doing right.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
I have a little term for that, which we won't
talk about on air, but David lets me do it.
He says, you can circumcise the chickpeas. I just said there.
I'll be honest with you. Reader, jam My, good friend, reader,
Jamay Tommy. This Lebanies background like Caravel Champagne is a
wonderful champagne. She used to own the Caravel restaurant.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
So she comes to her.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Family comes from Lobana and I'm sitting here, we're having home.
She goes, this isn't good, it's not soapy because they
didn't peel the chickpias. And I went.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
What And so I'm obsessed. So for anyone out there,
it is time to see me. But it's almost like
playing online mashong or some with your hand. You could
sit there watching TV and peel the chickpias.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Yes, it's basically just like rubbing them to get in
some water to get the skins off. And that's using
a canned or a cooked chickpea as opposed to a
dry And I happen to source this amazing chickpea that
has the peel the skin already off, and I sell
that in my shop. Those are incredible. Those are fun
(27:48):
and nice to have, but you don't have to have those.
You can remove them yourself and then you'll see the difference.
You'll see the difference in your hummus.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Between it makes it so we actually have some raw
chickpias from it Italy that we need to figure out
what to do with because we've us from a can,
but they're raw, so we get figure how to cook them. David,
I don't think it's that hard. No, and then peel
them right, Yes.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Oh beautiful, that's really nice. So those are those are
some things, And then I would say absolutely the bread.
The bread. You know, I think most of us are
not eating as much bread as we may have at
other times in our lives. We're more aware of what's
in it, the refined the refined ingredients. But when you
(28:37):
make your own bread. It's so satisfying. Number One, you
can pick your ingredients and you will enjoy that bread,
you know, for a day or two and be done
as opposed to having a loaf from a from a
plastic bag that less forever while it shouldn't on your counter.
(29:04):
And and just realizing that this practice of baking breads
uh can be a really really nice addition to how
you cook for yourself and bake for yourself.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
It's also great gifting. That's what we're going to be
doing this holiday. We're gonna David, David, it's going to
be baking bread. And he's right now, he's looking at
apple cake. I'm doing homemade granola because it's which brings people. Dates.
One of my favorite dried fruits. Dates. Let's talk about
dates and Lebonese cooking.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
The dates are prized in Lebanese cooking and and throughout
the Middle East. The meguled date and many other kinds
of dates. These are chewy, so they should be chewy,
soft caramel like in their flavor brown sugary. These are
the flavors that come to mind when you have good sweeteners.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Good sweeteners if you don't want to use sugar.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Really good sweetners. Yes, because they carry with them, you know,
nutritional value. And we use the date. The date alone
is wonderful. You can you can buy them pit it
or you can very easily just just pull it open
and pull the pit out and replace the pit with
(30:22):
almonds or your favorite nut and saute it and it
just a tiny drop of olive oil and serve it warm,
dusted with lime or lemon zest and a little salt.
This is amazing.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Here's the picture. It's from Rose Water and Orange. Well,
I'm not a great photo, but it's here. It looks easy.
I picked up Rosewater and Orange Blossoms, your first book,
and we get up on the screen because we couldn't
get on screened. I picked up the library support your
local libraries, and I'm going to try to make these
warm dates with almonds and lime zest. I did an
article on dates and learn that they're very popular to
(30:59):
eat when you're at the end of a Romandan fast day.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
Yes, yes, Muslims do that and in the Christians. My
family is Lebanese Christian, and we use dates, you know,
for celebratory times too, and they make a wonderful filling
for all kinds of things. And in Lebanese baking, we
(31:23):
have date fillings for some of the breads, which are
also beautiful gift breads. And I'm so glad you mentioned gifting,
because baking and gifting or making of anything in gifting
is really just about the best thing you can do
for yourself and for the people you give to. The
There's a date ring that is in like every old
(31:46):
cookbook Lebanese and Middle Eastern cookbook I have, and I thought, Okay,
this is something not something that my mom made or
even my sito my grandmother made, but I thought this
has to be in the book because it's everywhere. And
I love loved developing the recipe for that the date filling.
You can make that paste just by pulverizing pitted dates
(32:10):
in the food processor, or you can cook them down
with a little bit of water and butter and they
become a paste that's spreadable on top of a enriched
a dough like a Brioche style dough that has eggs
in it and butter and roll it up and then
you bring it together and it forms a ring like
(32:30):
a wreath. Would be very pretty at the holidays, and
just it's a beautiful thing. The dates are all over
the place.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Well, let's talk about two of my favorite flavors, rosewater
and orange blossoms, which is the name of your first book,
but you've got them incorporated into baking. My pages open
to orange blossom madelins. But you also have some liquid
with orange blossom in it, and I just like they'll
fell over because those are my When I was going
through breast cancer treatment, orange blossom and rose water were
my scent that I could tolerate. Oh really, yeah, because
(33:03):
I could talk a lot. But those are my calming
me and those are my anti nausea smells. So for me,
that's amazing smell for me. Those two, Yeah, that's so neat.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Well, they really are special. They're so fragrant, so aromatic.
I don't do a demo that I don't pull out
a bottle of each and pass it around the room
so that so that we can enter in, you know,
enter in and in that scent, because the scent is
so important to our baking and cooking experiences. Yes, they're
(33:39):
so evocative of memories, you know, when I make homemade
blah blah blah, the Lebanese but leiwa with the orange
blossom syrup that goes over the top. I'm like, here's
my mother again with me. I truly, I don't make
it without thinking of her, and it makes me want
to keep making it because I want to keep her
(33:59):
with me, you know, and I want to keep remembering. Well.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I had to laugh about that because my mother baucleva,
which you start with, one of the first recipes in
your Lebanese baking. And I had to laugh because my
mother tried for so she tackled bauc lava. She hated
a cook left to bake and it was a I
was with her side by side as a young girl,
trying to help her get through the process of making baclova.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Oh no kidding, and she did it, huh.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Finally she was so proud of herself.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
That's amazing. Most of the most of the bit leila
that I make and most of us make, we use
the filo that we can buy that's frozen, and it's
it's fabulous. I love that because of its texture and
for all the reasons. But I wanted to include homemade
filo though, because I really wanted to understand this recipe
(34:50):
that our elders had to had to make if they
wanted to have the pastry, you know, and I came
to just so admire and appreciate their fearless, fabulous selves
from mastering these.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
It's a process, yes, but it's such a wonderful homemade bakaba,
so fantastic when you can get it. I'm curious you
talked about your mother and begging, but you did a
meal and memory of your father. I think that was
a very significant scenario. Talk to me about that, because
I think it was like your transformation into diving into
the food world more so, tell me about that.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
Well, I there came a point in time where I
started to realize the ways of the Lebanese that I
wanted to not just I wasn't just part of it.
Now I could see it and think I'd like to
express this to the world. And when my father was sick,
he had a very compressed cancer and pancratic cancer, and
(35:52):
he passed away within it. We weren't expecting, and you know,
he was gone like that and fast. Oh my gosh.
Our community was of course, he was a force in
our community and it beloved. They came out and just
showered us with love, and that love in the form
(36:15):
of food was like, you know, just an incredible thing
that that I couldn't help but keep thinking about how
this is an important expression. And I know it's not
unique to our Lebanese community, but when there's trouble, just
as when there's joy, you want to do something to
(36:37):
express your love. And that was the making and sharing
of food that we experienced at that time. And it
took me a couple of years to fully flesh out
that that piece of writing that I ended up placing
in the Washington Post, but it was it was wonderful
(37:01):
experience for me because I just sat down and started writing,
you know, and then as I as I worked through it,
I was able to come to realize what all this
really meant, and that sent me on my trajectory of
food writing.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
I think that's such a great story because everybody goes
into it. You know, some it's you know, memories growing
up with the you know, cooking with mom. But the
father one was so special to me because I was
very close to my father. He didn't cook at all.
He you know, it was just a great guy, but
food was not his thing other than wine. So my wine.
(37:39):
So for me, my journey into becoming a certified wine professional.
Wine expert came through my father because he was a
wine educator. That was our bond, But I guess it's
you know, the bond is there. But I do like
to bake, and David always teases me. He said, that's
the one thing you got from your mother besides your
bossy personality. And I do like to be And there's
(38:00):
some terrific recipes in here. You know, we're not going away.
We just canceled our uh Thanksgivings coming up. Even though
this is an evergreen show, this is actually a week
before Thanksgiving. We're airing this show live and so we're
staying put because I had to cancel my travel due
to some recent surgery. But I'm kind of excited because
I love New Orleans and we're going to cook and
we're going to try different recipes and do really fun
(38:22):
things and start hosting dinner parties. And I think it'd
be so much fun to have a Lebanese themed dinner party.
What are you going to? So what does Thanksgiving look
like around your table? Oh?
Speaker 4 (38:32):
Well, I'm happy for you, and you've got some really
you've got some exciting things ahead then, because because making
dinner parties. Is a ton of fun. We love if
you do it, if you do it smartly, you know,
with a good plan. But the Lebanese at Thanksgiving is
a big thing in the Lebanese community, and then and
(38:52):
then in my community, which extends beyond, way beyond just
Lebanese people, Lebanese Americans. It's having these flavors that people
love and want to try and want to add to
their traditional feast. So we have a rice dish, hushwae
rice that is very traditional at Thanksgiving. The hushwee is
(39:19):
ground beef or lamb cooked and then you add your rice.
You add chicken stock or you could use turkey stock
and cook this, adding on top toasted pine nuts, and
then pieces of chicken or turkey are placed on top.
(39:41):
It's like it's a pea loff that's chok full of
all these good things. And I know some people actually
stuff the h hush we mean stuffing into the turkey
or into the chicken. That's not how we've ever done it,
you know, We've always made it stove top dish. But
boy is it delicious. It's our comfort food and our
(40:05):
feast food, both delicious.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
Great.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
We'll have we'll have a full Lebanese spread and a
full American turkey spread all on our buffet.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
Wow, that's a lot of fun. You'll come to your house.
Come on.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
The grapelye rules are also traditional for Thanksgiving, and the breads,
of course, I've been feverishly baking and freezing breads for
Thanksgiving too. Well.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
This is our first Thanksgiving in two years where we're
not in Hawaii where we usually have Pokey and we're poky.
So we're guesting and I'm and then we're going to
cook some stuff on our own and probably do our
own separate like I like doing leftovers another day. But
we're going to just have fun cooking and just make it,
you know, a holiday in a new way. Here in
(40:51):
New Orleans, which is a great place. And like I said,
there's Lebanese Lebanon Cafee and is a terrific little restaurant,
family owned over on I think it's Carlton Street. We
just passed it the other day when we to the
po Boyfest. But they do a lovely job and I'm excited.
I've got to find ingredients of Marina boot has ingredients,
(41:12):
but I need to try to see what other ingredients
we can find here in New Orleans. I wish they
had a really good Middle Eastern shop. I'm going to
ask some of the chefs I know to see where
they sho.
Speaker 4 (41:24):
That's a good idea, you know. And this is what
really inspired me to launch my shop is around the country.
I was hearing this weird, I can't find these ingredients?
What do you use? What's the best one? And another
one you could consider Melanie for Thanksgiving is the fatouche salad.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
Ooh yeah.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Toouche is just it's crave worthy. Uses pomegranate molasses in
the in the vinaigrette, garlic, and of course pita chips
are showered over the salad.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
And that sounds divine.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
That makes it so good.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Well, we've been told we're going to a non traditional Thanksgiving,
which I'm wondering what that's going to be. Will I
don't know. You know, David comes from a New England
family that they're they're like turkey. We've been eating poky
for two years in Hawaii. I don't know what to expect,
but I always volunteer to make the salad because I
like vegetables, I like the size. I'm a side girl,
(42:19):
so if a two sounds like a great idea because
I'm sick of lettuce. I want something different, some other textures,
and I like textural salads. That's what's good.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
Yeah, Oh, it's so good, you would love it. I
have another recipe that is like a village salad with
zero lettuce, but it also includes so it's cucumber, tomato
and diced apple.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Really roo, I think I may have all those ingredients
here because we finally found some edible apples down here.
We've lived in Apple Country in New York State, so
coming down to not Apple Country has been interesting. You
get apples here that we can eat, but you know,
you make do with what you can locally. Is there
(43:03):
one dish and lit will till I have that you
feel one or two dishes that you feel are the
embodiment of what you think everybody should? You know? I
hate doing people type cast cuisines and countries right, And
some people may have thought, oh it sounds like Greek cooking.
When when you google Lebanes sometimes it is mixed in
with Greek. They're completely different countries, completely different locations. What
(43:24):
do you want my listeners and followers? When I to
visualize and conjure up in their head. Flavor wise and dishwise,
it would be quintessential dishes you should try, whether you're
dining in or cooking it.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
For Lebanese cuisine, you think of herbs, fresh herbs, which
add so much flavor to anything you cook. You find
so much fresh mint in all kinds of Lebanese salads
and wraps and other dishes. I would say that the
(43:59):
men is really really key fresh and dried mint, and
the tabouli salad for example, that includes the vulgar wheat
and you know, from the sweet side. I would love
for them to know that they can bake a pan
(44:22):
of the Lebanese but leiwa Lebanese but lewa Bahclavah Lebanese style,
and that they can do it fairly simply with my recipe.
You know, you get your This is something that is
very very special but yet very doable when you break
it down and you look through it and you say, okay,
(44:43):
you could actually bake this and share it and feel
so good about sharing something Lebanese with with your friends.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
Yeah, and this is food that you can easily share.
It's great gifting as well, because a lot of people
don't think to make it themselves, and it's so as
I started with the show. It's very fresh and flavorful
and healthy and just brings up just a lightness, you know,
when you eat the food you don't feel way down afterward,
which I like.
Speaker 4 (45:10):
Great point, it's so true.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
Well, I hope I can get to Lebany Lebanon one day.
The Baca valley's calling me for the wine.
Speaker 4 (45:18):
You must it's beautiful there. It's yeah, we're just wine country,
and they're wines and olive oils. You'd probably really appreciate
an olive oil tasting.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
Yes, well, yes, well, when we travel for wine, we
buy olive oil. That's what we bring back. We don't
bring back wine, We bring back olive oil because she
usually they go hand in hand from many of the
countries you visit. Oh yes, yeah, how special.
Speaker 4 (45:38):
I hope you get there too, and I hope I
get back soon too.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Well, let's just all hope because it's such an incredible heritage.
It's on my bucket list. But in the meantime, I'm
excited to be trying recipes again. I'll hold up since
I couldn't get the photo to work. Where is it?
Speaker 4 (45:55):
There?
Speaker 3 (45:55):
We go it's sort of there well anyway, the book
is Rosewater and Orange Blossom and then Lebanese Baking. Great,
thank you. You can buy them anywhere, but you can
also go to Marine abud A Bood by the way
to learn more, get great recipes and buy some products.
So I want to thank you for sharing your time
(46:18):
with me and your incredible stories and flavors.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
Oh, Melanie, thank you so much. What fun talking Lebanese
cuisine with you.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Just really great. So everybody out there step outside your
comfort zone and go try some new flavors and cuisines
and dishes, because it's all about Even if you can't
get there to Lebanonette, you can have a trip in
your own kitchen and dining room table with a great
little Lebanese banquet with friends, which we're going to try
to do this holiday season. So thank you again. You've
(46:50):
been listening to Fearless, Fabulous You with Melanie Young. You
can find this show and all my shows on demand
anytime on more than sixty five podcast channels, including Heart, Spotify,
and Amazon Autoio. And you'll see the show on my
YouTube at Melanie Young. And you're listening to watching on
Talk for Radio and network, also on YouTube, so share it,
(47:12):
hear it, and always as I like it in my show.
You have choices in life on how you want to
live at every agent stage, and you can make changes
and do something different from what you're doing ten or
fifteen years ago, like we have. And always choose to
live life on your terms and not the terms of
anyone else. And always choose fearless and fabulous and never
(47:34):
say never. That's my theme for twenty twenty six. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (47:40):
Thanks Ni
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