Pita and beans are perfect, don't bother with fennel al forno

Y'all, it doesn't get better than this. How can such simple and few ingredients make such deliciousness? I could make a meal out of this fresh pita, good olive oil and some salt. Wow. Because I needed the oven for the fennel dish, we did the pitas on the grill. As I've probably mentioned before, grilled bread just has that little something special about it- the smokiness imparted from the heat of the grill and any added wood chips is just great. This bread is doughy but light, full of flavor yet a great side too. I highly recommend trying these at home, and they will certainly become a staple over here. Thanks, Cyn. The ful was equally fabulous. Oh my. I just looove this. Slow-cooked favas, olive oil, lemon, parsley, garlic. Perfect, although my poor little Jack. When we got home from the gramps, we walked in and the house did smell incredibly earthy and beany. He immediately burst into tears, exclaiming "I smell something gross, so disgusting." Poor honey pie. I turned the vent on high.

Now, on the unfortunate flip-side, I cannot recommend yet another David Tanis recipe. This fennel al forno had everything going for it BUT ultimately lacked taste and any oomph. Beautiful ingredients emerged from the oven as a complete unmemorable blah.

No to cake, yes to homemade pita

The gramps invited the boys over for a few hours. This was a marvelous treat, and we've still got some time left. Aah. As T doesn't need cake, and the boys aren't here, I decided to nix the king cake idea and go instead in a different direction: homemade pita. I feel that it's exceptionally hard to find a good and fresh commercial pita, probably because traditionally they were eaten hot off the stone or out of the oven, not meant to have much of a shelf-life. I recalled that my friend, Cynthia, the terrific bread-maker had recently posted on her blog, The Solitary Cook, about making pita, so I went back and located her recipe and instructions. C swears that I will succeed in this, and that her recipe, which she acquired from another friend, Linda, is the best and foolproof. I like it. So far, it's not difficult, and at present our dough is rising ; 'll let you know how it goes.

On tap for Meatless Monday...

are the Fennel al Forno recipe from last Wednesday's NYT Dining section, and Ful Medames, my favorite middle eastern bean dish other than Lubieh bel Zeit. Ful is a marvelous slow-cooked fava bean dish flavored with lemon, garlic, cumin and olive oil. I could eat it every day but believe this most recent hankering came after the braised cranberry beans I made a few days back; those are now gone, happily devoured by moi. Anyway, I'm soaking the dried favas now. Everything about favas is pleasing to me, fresh or dried, pureed or whole, so I'm really looking forward to tonight's ful. If you enjoy middle eastern cooking and are in the market for an exceptional cookbook, investigate Claudia Roden's, The New Book of Middle Eastern Cooking. It is one great recipe after another, buttressed by the culinary history, traditions, and inter-country variations throughout the region. The fennel dish looks marvelous even though I don't tend to like gratin-like recipes. This, however, seems like it'll be an exception: fennel, fennel seed, garlic, rosemary, mozzarella, bread crumbs and parm. Yo!

Tomorrow is Mardi Gras- we might make a King Cake this afternoon but then again, do any of us need the sugar? Hmm...