Austrian-Style Potato Salad

I love potato salads of any kind; they are usually what I go for first at a barbecue or other warm-weather get-together. And yet I can’t tell you how many times I’ve botched my own attempts at making a good potato salad. The potatoes have ended up either too mushy and falling apart or too hard and unyielding. I finally figured out that the right variety of potato makes all the difference.

A potato is a potato is a potato, I used to think. Not so. And this is particularly crucial to those of us living in new places where the potato varieties are unfamiliar and labels can be confusing. Here’s what I’ve learned:

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Chicken Satay Skewers with Peanut Dipping Sauce

We were supposed to be in Thailand now, lounging on a beautiful beach, listening to the palm trees sway and rustle, dipping our toes into warm blue waters. Instead, our family was hit with Flumageddon and then our little one was hospitalized with pneumonia over the holidays. Alas, we decided we had to cancel the trip and focus on a healthy recovery at home.

As I hear news about protests and roadblocks in Bangkok, I wonder if it’s a good thing after all that we didn’t travel there now. Still, the allure of Thailand’s beauty, warmth, and delicious cuisine remains. For now, we’re enjoying a modest little taste of Thailand at home, in the form of chicken satay skewers with a tasty sweet peanut sauce. Here’s a toast to health and family, and the promise of Thailand another day.

Little Spiced Plum Cakes

Picnic Pasta with Roasted Chicken, Olives & Artichoke Hearts

This pasta salad, with marinated artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, green provencal olives, and chopped leftover roasted chicken makes an easy picnic spread or summer meal

Provencal Herb and Lemon Roasted Chicken

As far as French cuisine goes, most days I’d choose cooking from the French countryside over fancy Parisian Michelin-star fare. I particularly love the culinary style of Provence, with its heavy reliance on aromatic herbs, lemon and fresh ingredients, and its rustic, no-fuss preparations.

One of my favorites to cook – and serve my family – is roasted chicken.

Sarajevo Sour Cherry Buckle

Visit Sarajevo’s open-air markets, and you will see bins upon bins overflowing with fresh produce of the season. On summer mornings when I was there, I would often buy bags of deep-red sour cherries