This year, Thanksgiving and Chanukah (or Hanukkah) fall at the same time. Everybody is really excited about Thanksgivukkuh, and we’re no different. Apparently, the two holidays won’t coincide for another 70,000 years or something! Of course Jewish Americans everywhere are eager to celebrate! Continue reading
Author Archives: Jessica
5 Pounds of Challah
I love baking challah. When I taught 3-year-olds, I baked it with them every week. That made me an expert on kneading the dough by hand and knowing what it should feel like before setting it aside to rise. I still occasionally baked challah, in big batches and small ones, and always by hand.
Last year I got one of the greatest presents ever for my birthday: a Bosch Universal Plus mixer! It is THE ultimate kitchen toy for bread making. Just throw the wet ingredients in the bowl, top with flour, and mix. There was a bit of a learning curve using a machine vs. my hands to make the dough. I never knew how long to mix and stopped the mixer every few seconds till I thought it felt right. I actually still do that sometimes, since bread baking is different based on the weather, your mood, and just about anything. Continue reading
Roasted Vegetable Soup
Fall is here! That means butternut squash and soup weather. Now, I know we always share butternut squash soup recipes with you, but this one is different. This one also has roasted sweet potato and carrot. And coconut milk! Perfect for the rainy and gross weather today.
This is also one of the easiest soup recipes ever. No chopping and stirring, no waiting for the onions and garlic to brown and adding dashes and pinches of things. Just place vegetables in the oven and forget about them until a timer beeps. Then blend it all together. That’s it. It’s delicious and refreshing, and perfect for the cool fall days! Continue reading
Lemon and Pistachio Praline and Meringue Torte + Happy First Birthday, Eddie!
Today, my nephew Eddie turns 1! It’s not every day your first baby turns 1, so when Adele asked me to bake a cake for his birthday party, I told her to pick any recipe and I would make it. Adele loves lemon desserts, and she chose this awesome and fancy torte. I told her I’d only make it if I could make another cake, too. I ended up baking vanilla cupcakes so that Eddie and the other small guests would enjoy a dessert, as well.
His birthday party was a little early, because the holidays got in the way of his birthday plans. Which was great for our blogging schedule, because we were able to post this in time for his big day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EDDIE! Continue reading
Swiss Chard for Rosh HaShanah
I know we just shared a swiss chard recipe, but being that Rosh HaShanah is right around the corner, I also have to share the traditional seder swiss chard recipe.
It’s pretty easy to make, though washing and chopping all the swiss chard takes some time. Unless you let the supermarket do that for you… Continue reading
Cronuts
What are cronuts, you ask? Well, really they’re just croissants cut into the shape of doughnuts and fried. And they’re amazing. Really. We made these a while ago, but because of a crazy busy summer we have not had time to post much.
We’ve been hearing about the cronut craze for a while now, but have never been to Dominique Ansel for a real one. We’re pretty sure these homemade, fresh out of the fryer ones are just as good though! Continue reading
Rosh HaShanah Apple Cake + Linkup
Considering it’s still the middle of August, it’s weird to think that we are already thinking of the holidays. But whether or not we want summer to be over, they’re ARE coming! So be prepared. This month’s linkup is, you guessed it, apples! The quintessential rosh hashanah food. We decided to be a little different and make a European style cake filled with more apples than batter and spiked with a little bit of rum (that’s right, no cinnamon and nutmeg in here!). Continue reading
Watercress Pesto
Watercress is one of those “super foods” that I’ve been seeing a lot of lately. And summer is all about being healthy, so when I had a bag of watercress just lying in my fridge I racked my brain to see what I could do with it – and pesto was just the ticket! Pesto is a favorite summertime item because it’s so easy to make and extremely versatile. You can use it to dress up sandwiches, as a sauce on pasta, or even to spread over a simple fish or chicken. This pesto recipe is extremely easy to make, as long as you have a food processor or blender on hand.
Continue reading
Coconut Lemon Bars
I love lemon desserts! They’re tangy and sweet at the same time, and not too rich, like a piece of flourless chocolate cake would be. Plus, every time we go to the fruit store, my son picks up a lemon and just HAS to buy it. This means we have a lot of lemons in the house. So when I was racking my brains for a great summer dessert, of course something with lemons came to mind. Of course, lemon meringue pie was possible, but I wanted something that travels well. While flipping through the “bar cookies and brownies” section of my Bon Appetit Desserts book, I came across this recipe, and was happy to see I had all the ingredients to make the dessert! Decision made. Continue reading
Butterscotch Pie
This is one of the BEST desserts we have ever made. And stephanie and I make a ton of desserts. Let’s just say at a holiday table with about 10 desserts, this one finished. The pictures are from two different times we baked the pie. So that’s why you’ll see two different pie plates and two different kitchens. Continue reading