New Foods

These are the new foods I'm crushing on right now:

This sherry vinegar, sharp and peppery, sets my head spinning with visions of cold, crisp vegetable salads and big wedges of head lettuce. It's spring-y and earthy and yummy:

These are black sesame seeds. The same size and taste as the regular white ones, but black. Mix them 50/50 with the white ones; they look soooo pretty. Imagine them on hot cooked pasta with bits of bright green cilantro or celery. Or sprinkled over a freshly baked loaf of bread. Or scattered over a dish of deep orange yams or butternut squash or acorn squash. Terrific!:

Speaking of orange, these petite orange lentils were a bit hard to find but SO worth it. They cook up more tender than their brown and green cousins. Perfect for making a silky-smooth lentil soup:

My fave new food has got to be this: date syrup. Oh, lordy! It comes in a jar and pours like a mahogany-colored honey. But it is deeply, thoroughly saturated with the essence of dates. Two nights ago I drizzled it over a hummus-like dip made of butternut squash and tahini: Divine. Yesterday I swirled it into my plain, nonfat yogurt: What a treat!

I can imagine it in haroset for Passover, or drizzled over a slab of generously buttered bread for a mid-afternoon snack. Or swirled into hot tea on a cold night---mmmmmm.

From now on, my pantry will never be without date syrup.