Parade Magazine’s Community Table: Learn About Haitian Cuisine With This Refreshing Seafood Salad

Haitian Carrot Crab Salad

Haiti is a country of courageous people. During the period of America’s colonial past, it was the only country to have a successful slave rebellion, and they continue to pay for their fighting spirit into our modern time. Besides an eventful past, Haiti also boasts a rich cuisine. Its dishes are influenced by Taino (Native American), Spanish, French and African cultures. When Haitian-American culinary curator Nadege Fleurimond decided to write a book about her motherland, she knew the research started with a journey to each of the Haiti’s ten regions. Although she already knew the recipes, she wanted to learn the soul of Haitian cuisine.

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Red Cabbage and Snow Pea Salad

Shredded Red Cabbage and Snow Pea Salad

Colors make my world go round. When creating a dish, the taste and visual appearance is what influences the creativity. The ability to imagine colorful combination on the plate comes from a graphic design background. One of my favorite color combination is green and purple, for they harmonize well together. When a salad uses vegetables with those colors, it’s visually stunning. This Red Cabbage and Snow Pea Salad is a type of cole slaw without mayonnaise or a creamy dressing. The surprise green vegetable is snow peas, instead of leafy green. The leafy vegetable instead is the red cabbage. Read more

Ginger Carrot Muffins

Carrot Muffins
Carrot Muffins

This is a first. Here it comes, “Summer, you were too hot for me.” There I said it. Out. Loud. Those are words of regret as I walk from two inches to six feet of snow by next winter. Being a child of the summer, I feel guilty. Those words are of the highest betrayal to my greatest love of the seasons. My love is now with the fair weather seasons of fall and spring. Summer smothered me with too much love this year.

I went to bed breathing in humid air. My skin was forever damp from the excessive sweating in our apartment sans air conditioning. The fan moved with me from room to room. My sunny disposition melted into an irritable attitude. Don’t. Touch. Me. Recipes requiring no oven were mandatory. Other food blogs enjoyed making pies, tarts and warm savory dishes. My food blog was mostly green salads, seared meats and frozen desserts. Luckily, there were a few cooler days to make birthday cakes, frittatas and enchiladas.

As August comes to a close, summer is dancing with fall. As this post is being written, Hurricane Earl isn’t being destructive, for it’s constructive. It brought cooler air. Such temperatures are a fresh breath of relief. I’m cooler, now. Read more