Roasted Mushroom Pizza With Fried Egg

November 18, 2009 by Stephanie | 3 Comments

I love pizza. I love making it at home, I love little mini ones, and I love pizza store pizza. Sometimes, homemade pizza needs a little twist. Tomato sauce and muenster cheese can get boring. When I saw Aida Mollenkamp make pizza with roasted mushrooms and an EGG on top, I knew I had to try it.

I made it once before, on one pizza dough, and with only one egg. That was definitely not enough – of course if two people are eating the pie they’ll fight over that lone egg. So this time I made the pizza I split the same amount of mushrooms over two pies, and put three eggs on one pie, and two on the other. The result? Well, aside from absolute deliciousness, it was a perfect meal for a busy/lazy day. I didn’t even to make a side dish that night. If you’re not lazy like I am, a nice big salad would be delicious with this. Continue reading …

Surprise Carrot Cake

November 16, 2009 by Stephanie | 1 Comment

I never knew that I liked carrot cake. Before making this one, I don’t even think I’d ever tried carrot cake. Why would I want to put vegetables in my cake, anyway? Well, vegetables make delicious desserts – trust me!

This carrot cake was a surprise for two reasons: I baked it for a surprise party, and I didn’t have time to add any carrot-like decorations on the top, so it was impossible to know what kind of cake it was from the white-frosted exterior. Surprise!

carrot

The cake was a big hit, and I don’t think everyone would have eaten it just to make me feel good about my baking skills; I genuinely think it was delicious. The recipe is from AllRecipes.com, and since I don’t like baking with nuts, I left out the pecans.

The World’s Best Pancakes

November 8, 2009 by Stephanie | 9 Comments

Everyone knows that brunch is the best meal of the week. On Sundays I like to stay in bed late, and eat a real breakfast that nobody has time for during the week. So when the headline, “The world’s best pancake recipe” showed up in my Google Reader one morning, I bookmarked it and knew that I would be eating the most delicious buttermilk pancakes for brunch the next Sunday.

buttermilk pancakes

The only ingredient that I had to buy before I made these was buttermilk. The writer of the original post suggests using the best ingredients you could find, especially real buttermilk; apparently grocery stores sell impostors. Since I live in Manhattan, I easily found the real stuff, but if you live elsewhere, I’m sure it’s well worth it to search for it.

Bizir, or Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

November 5, 2009 by Stephanie | 2 Comments

Bizir is the Arabic name for toasted pumpkin seeds. I’m not sure what the correct English spelling is; it can just as easily be bizid or bizit. There isn’t really a letter in the English language to substitute for the sound I’m trying to make, but it’s pretty much a combination of those three.

Anyway, bizir is something I grew up watching people around me eating. As a kid, it’s impossible to crack open the shell to leave an intact inside, so sometimes I would get frustrated and eat the whole thing (not a good idea). But now I’ve gotten the hang of it, and it’s a light and fun snack. My family often pairs bizir with dessert and after-dinner tea, but it can just as easily be a watching TV snack on its own.

Etrog Jam

November 3, 2009November 9, 2014 by Stephanie | 10 Comments

etrog jelly

An etrog is a very interesting fruit. You never really hear of it except for during Sukkot, and even then nobody eats it; we just shake it. It doesn’t help that they’re really expensive, and not that easy to eat.

This was my first experience cutting into an etrog. It’s a citrus fruit similar to a lemon, but you can’t squeeze the juices out. I guess you can use the outside like you would lemon zest, but it would be much harder, since the surface isn’t very smooth.

Jewish superstition connects etrog jelly to pregnancy and fertility. I have heard that it eases labor pains, helps a woman get pregnant, and can be eaten any time during pregnancy for health and luck.

Butternut and Acorn Squash Mac & Cheese

November 2, 2009 by Stephanie | 2 Comments

The cold weather means it’s winter squash season, as you know. And everyone knows those are the best types of squash. I recently got my hands on an acorn and a butternut variety and didn’t know what to do with them. Soup? Roasted? Boring!

After a long brainstorm, I thought to make macaroni and cheese:

Originally, I wanted to make risotto, but then I realized that I’d have to go shopping, and I really didn’t want to go to the supermarket, so I had to pick something that I could make with whatever I already had in the kitchen. Then pizza came to mind (I always have mini pizza doughs in the fridge), but I wasn’t feeling it. That’s when I thought of mac & cheese; I’ve read about camouflaging cauliflower in it to trick kids into eating more healthily, so why not put squash in it? I wasn’t trying to make it healthier, just different, but I went with it, and my little experiment was a big success!

Fig-Strawberry Jam

October 26, 2009 by Stephanie | 6 Comments

If you’ve been following us since the beginning (or if you’ve checked out the archive), you know that our first recipe ever posted was raspberry jam. We couldn’t believe how easy it was to make, how delicious it was, or how quickly our friends and family gobbled it up; we had to make more jam!

jam

Amish White Bread

October 25, 2009 by Stephanie | 16 Comments

I decided that instead of buying bread made with high fructose corn syrup I would make my own. How hard could that be? It happened to be very easy, until it came time to shape the loaves; the first time I made them they looked a little funny, but the bread tasted great! It was such a simple recipe, and made two loaves. I made sandwiches with one for an entire week and froze the other. That was a while ago, and these pictures are from the first batch of this white bread I’ve ever baked. Now I bake this about twice a month. It makes the house smell like a bakery and leaves my stomach and wallet happy.

Mehshi B’Laban, or Stuffed Squash, Dairy Style

October 22, 2009 by Stephanie | 2 Comments

I bought some giant zucchinis at the farmer’s market last week and wanted to make something special with them. This recipe gets its delicious flavor from butter, and is traditionally made with long grain white rice. I made a healthier version with less butter and brown rice. It had a delicious, nutty flavor. The recipe calls for slender zucchini, which probably would have been better than the fat ones I found. Make sure you scoop them out very well so the zucchini cook through. Continue reading …

Roasted Vegetables and Roasted Vegetable Soup

October 20, 2009 by Stephanie | 5 Comments

Two recipes in one! Making my life a bit easier…

I love roasting vegetables. It really brings out the flavor and is very easy…but it also takes a long time, something that between work and school I really don’t have. About once a week I have enough time in the kitchen to roast vegetables, and this week I decided to really take advantage of it.

A few years ago I found a recipe in a magazine (I wish I remembered which one!) for roasted fall vegetables with two more recipes using those leftover vegetables in different ways. I roasted two half sheet pans of veggies and served half for dinner that night. The rest I saved to make soup for an easy and delicious weeknight meal.