We are thrilled that our friend Alice Faulkner Burch joined us to share her recipe for Black-Eyed Peas. Alice ate these when she was growing up, and she makes them again now. Alice’s peas have a milder flavor than those from other recipes we’ve tried--maybe because of the long soaking time. Her peas were creamy and soothing, and she taught us a few life lessons as we cooked like her mama used to do to her. Cooking the way her mama taught reminds Alice of the wisdom her mother shared, and we will remember her insights every time we make this dish.
I (Amelia) don’t know how you all are feeling this Boxing Day, but I, for one, am very ready to move on from my holiday feasting. Don’t get me wrong, I love chocolates and cinnamon rolls and cake and caramel and dairy and toffee and cookies and fudge and more cake and more chocolate and biscoff butter and oh my goodness I almost exploded from all of the food. Point being, do you need a break from decadence too? Great. We’ve got the recipe for you.
I (Amelia) am sure of what the best quiche should taste like: creamy and just the right amount of decadent. Never chalky, never overbearing. When mom ran into this quiche recipe fifteen years ago, it was the first time she’d actually enjoyed quiche. It was smooth and flavorful, nothing like the dry quiches she’d known before.
Sam discovered the ancestor of this recipe several years ago in Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem. We’ve simplified it A LOT since then. We have also changed some ingredients, and we love it. In fact, we prefer it to the original version. We love the flavors. We love that it’s exceptionally beautiful. We wanted you to have it now, so you had time to consider it for your holiday tables.
When the girls were barely old enough to go trick or treating, I (Kate) decided we needed to develop a traditional Halloween meal that could 1) be prepared ahead of time without inducing decision fatigue; 2) be sufficiently substantial to offset the day’s candy intake; and 3) taste so delicious that it could tempt bellies already satiated with sweets (back then, I naively thought they’d be eating treats at school Halloween parties as I had. I did not forsee parents who would buy pencils, plastic jewelry, and stickers instead of candy. Nor had I an inkling that I myself might collude with them).
Grandma’s been gone for almost twenty years, and I still think of her often. Sometimes thinking of her makes me hungry for tuna salad. I’ve come up with a new-fangled recipe that I know she would like, and I make it at the cabin where we used to spend time together, because it calls for the basic pantry ingredients that we take on vacation.
