My wife requested pineapple upside down cake for her birthday, and even though it’s a day early, the kids and I decided the birthday weekend was a good enough excuse to make the cake a day early. I think we’ll be skipping over the remnants of two Thanksgiving pies already in the fridge to give this sucker some attention tonight.

I’ve been eating horribly for the past couple of months, and though I’m not generally one for making New Year’s resolutions, the beginning of a new year is a great time to start eating better again after the holiday glut.

Right now I have a hankering for fresh, minimally processed foods. I’m not big on most raw veggies, and I’m certainly not going all raw or Paleo or anything (hard to do with kids, even if they are pretty pliable in terms of food). But I think I can work more fresh, raw foods into my diet. I’ve been enjoying hummus lately but wanted to try making my own. While looking through one of my Moosewood cookbooks for a hummus recipe, I saw a reference to tabouli, which I first had earlier this year and loved. So while I had chickpeas soaking, I whipped up this batch of tabouli, which is fantastic. My wife is downstairs making pita bread from scratch now, and I’ll make the hummus once the chickpeas are done cooking in a bit. Lunch tomorrow is going to be a real treat.

Bulgur mixed with olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper, and garlic. Next to that, parsley, mint, and scallions.

The finished product. After food processing the green bits and mixing with the bulgur base, I added tomatoes and some cucumber. This stuff is delicious.