Bridges to Lebanon

“My Abood grandparents came to Lansing in the 1920s,” Abood said. “There were already people here from their village in Lebanon.”

Abood’s late father was Camille Abood, who owned Abood Law Firm with his brothers. (The firm is still in the extended family, run by Abood cousins.) Her brother, Chris, is a neurosurgeon at the Spine Center and she is married to Dan Shaheen, president and owner of Team One Chevrolet in Charlotte.

While she splits her time between Harbor Springs and East Lansing, Abood’s intense affection for her hometown is evident.

“It’s been a special thing for me to come back to Lansing,” she said. “These are my people.”

A glance at the blog, which can be found at maureenabood. com, reveals a woman who is almost unfairly gifted. Her photography is divine, and the food is artfully displayed on beautiful blue and white platters alongside polished silver. The recipes are straightforward, painstakingly tested and presented more often than not with a story about how she came up with the recipe or where she first experienced the flavors.

The blog led to the eponymous cookbook, a vehicle in which Abood highlights the very best Lebanese recipes she has developed. Every word she writes is a love letter to her family, her culture and her kitchen. The writing is sometimes painfully poignant, but it is always exquisite.

“I feel like I have been writing the book for a long time,” she said. “I can see how all roads have led to the book.”

But starting with a blog was somewhat of a bitter pill for her to swallow.

“When people told me to blog first, I was a little bit disappointed because I was raring to go (on the cookbook),” she said. “But the blog has given me an opportunity that I didn’t anticipate.”

After a rocky start (“Hardly anyone was reading at the beginning.”), readership quickly began to grow and Abood began to appreciate the importance of her blog.

“I had been blogging as a means to an end,” she said. “But I soon discovered that it wasn’t going to be so easy. My readers became so important to me that I realized that every word, every photo, every ingredient, every recipe needed to be exceptional. And there were many times when they weren’t.”

Abood absorbed her failures in the kitchen and wove them into the fabric of her story.

“I wrote about failure and mistakes,” she said. “Dropping my camera and smashing it after I had just gotten a new one. Discovering that it wasn’t going to be so easy to keep the spinach pies closed while they were in the oven and having to do it 10 or 15 times. Making failure part of my story and sharing it has been so important, because we can all relate to that. We all have failures in the kitchen, and failures in life, but we really want them to be stepping stones to growth, to become a better person. A better cook. A better me.”

The blog was awarded the 2014 Reader’s Choice Award from Saveur Magazine, and Abood’s platform to showcase her contemporary spin on traditional Lebanese cuisine grew.

“I wanted to create a representation of my generation: a Lebanese-American presenting the food in a way in which I know it and love it,” she said. “I’m not of the old country, nor was my upbringing, and I feel like that can be a bridge to people who haven’t experienced Lebanese cuisine or culture.”

Locally, Abood frequents Maru, Bell’s Pizza (“Their Greek salad is the best.”), Tasty Twist and loves the patio by the fireplace at Capital Prime. Her affection for Michigan products is strong, and the blog frequently makes mention of Petoskey’s American Spoon.

“We have something very special with them,” she said.

Tonight, Abood begins a series of three Lansing-area events to promote her cookbook. At tonight’s event, she will sign cookbooks at the Schuler Books in the Eastwood Towne Center. Thursday she will host a Lebanese cocktail party and dinner at the Country Club of Lansing. The event is open to the public with purchase of a ticket. On May 15, she will present a lecture-style talk about the trajectory of her career at the Broad Art Museum in East Lansing.

Book signing and Lebanese treats

7 p.m. Wednesday, May 6 FREE Schuler Books & Music, Eastwood Towne Center 2820 Towne Centre Blvd., Lansing (517) 316-7495, schulerbooks.com

Lebanese dinner, talk and book signing

Open to the public, reservations required 6-8 p.m. Thursday, May 7 $35 Country Club of Lansing 2200 Moores River Drive, Lansing (577) 484-4567

The Art of Lebanese

Cuisine Lecture, book signing and Lebanese food and drink 6-8 p.m. Friday, May 15 $45/$35 members Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum 547 East Circle Drive, East Lansing (517) 884-4800, broadmuseum.msu.edu