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Brown Butter

photo taken by Tracy Benjamin, on September 11, 20110, CC licensing

For best results, use high-quality fresh unsalted butter. Since you'll be reducing the butter by evaporating the water in it, you'd wind up with an inedibly salty butter if you start with the salted kind.

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Braised Brisket With Mushrooms

photo taken by jspatchwork, on October 9, 2011, CC licensing

Yield: 8 generous servings

Dried mushrooms flavor the brisket as it cooks, then fresh mushrooms are sautéed and added to the gravy just before serving, so they retain their meaty succulence.

1 ounce dried wild mushrooms, preferably boletus--that is, porcini or cèpes; shiitake don't work well here (1/2 to ¾ cup)

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Survival in Sarajevo. Jews, Muslims, Serbs and Croats working together during the Siege of Sarajevo, 1992-1995

Survival in Sarajevo. Jews, Muslims, Serbs and Croats working together during the Siege of Sarajevo, 1992-1995

 The Bosnian-Serb siege of Sarajevo lasted for more than three years, starting in April 1992. Electricity, water and food supplies were cut off and only sporadically supplied, 11,541 citizens were shot by snipers or killed by mortars - right in the heart of Europe.

In a faded, turn-of-the-century synagogue, a group of Holocaust survivors and their offspring created La Benevolencija, the Jewish humanitarian aid agency. Who worked there? Jews and Muslims, Serbian Orthodox and Catholic Croats - all those who never believed one ethnic group was superior to another. 

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