Beef and Broccoli

Want the taste of Chinese food in your very own kitchen? This beef and broccoli dish really tastes like Chinese food! And there’s no MSG. And you can make it with brown rice and not charge $1 extra. I just wish I had a wok, because that would make cooking this dish extra fun. Try it even if you don’t have one. Cast iron works wonders. So do dutch ovens. Continue reading

Salmon in Lemon Broth with Pea Puree

When Stephanie sent me this recipe to try, I giggled. And then I knew I had to make it. Pea puree! I decided to make this on my next day off. It’s a perfect Thursday night dinner, in my opinion, and since I already had all the ingredients, except for the salmon, wouldn’t take much thinking (Yes, you should always have peas in your freezer). Also, good thing I live pretty close to a fish store. If I didn’t, who knows if this would have ended up on the menu. We loved this. The broth was lemony and fresh, and really added a nice flavor to the salmon. The pea puree was just delicious, and oh-so-easy. I love peas. They are delicious in a puree. The salmon was great dipped in the puree. Just a good combination altogether.

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Hamburger Buns

So you invited people over for barbecue only to realize you have no hamburger buns in the freezer. Fine, you’ll just run to the store down the block to get some. Uh oh, they’re out, too! Well, now you’re in luck. While usually burger buns and other breads are something you’d think about making in advance, this recipe takes 40 minute. That’s right, in under an hour you can have fresh homemade burger buns. With or without sesame seeds. Without HFCS.

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Lentil and Brown Rice Burgers

Everybody loves the Chef at Home (aka Magen David) cookbook. It has bright colors, pretty pictures, and no capitals in the titles! Okay, that’s not why they like it. They like the easy to follow recipes and everyday dishes. I’ve made quite a few recipes from there, but haven’t blogged about them (sorry!). So I decided to make something awesome from there on my day off and share it with you. Now I know we’ve posted quite a few veggie burger recipes lately (fine, two. But that’s a lot!), but I like to make healthy dishes that I can freeze and just heat up when I need a quick lunch, dinner or even snack. And I’m trying to stay away from processed foods, so Morningstar items only a last resort. Continue reading

Two-Day Challah

Happy birthday to our big sister, Rayna! This year, instead of a birthday cake, you get a birthday challah:

We already have a few of challah recipes on this blog, but I always like to try new ones. This recipe splits up the process into two days, but I’m pretty sure you can use the same process for most other challah recipes; just make the dough and let it rise overnight in the fridge rather than a couple of hours at room-temperature.

Here, I display my loaves, one 6-strand braid and one 4-strand circle, on my beautiful new challah board that my Aunt Joyce made.

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Guest Post: Pumpkin Dump Cake with Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

By Melinda Strauss of kitchen-tested.com

Countless blog posts and Food Network episodes are dedicated to answering the seasonal question of how to re-purpose Thanksgiving leftovers. But I want to know what to do with all the extra groceries I bought when I over-shopped for the holiday. Why did I buy 10 cans of pureed pumpkin when I only needed 2? I’ll admit that I always over-shop at the grocery store, and especially for Thanksgiving. I am always freezing raw turkey and whole cranberries, and storing cans in my pantry. On the bright side, I can cook Thanksgiving food throughout the year on a whim or a craving without needing to run to the grocery store! It’s pretty impressive…or at least I think so. For my first post-Thanksgiving-use-my-extra-groceries dish this year, I decided on a Pumpkin Dump Cake with Homemade Non-Dairy Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. Now don’t be afraid of the name “Dump Cake!” It describes the baking process. Everything gets dumped into the pan and then bakes to sweet perfection! The pumpkin filling is creamy and savory while the cake topping is sweet and crunchy. Such a great balance of flavors and textures! Pumpkin dump cake is topped with homemade tart cranberry ice cream that makes my mouth water. Continue reading

Potato-Wrapped Fish with Lemon Aioli

Potato-wrapped fish is like fish ‘n’ chips, but combined instead of side-by-side!

I remember seeing a recipe for this in Bon Appetit a while back, complete with instructions on how to wrap the fish, and I put it in the back of my mind. One day, with not much in the kitchen except frozen fish, potatoes, lemons and some greens, I thought of this technique. It’s a great dish to have in store, too; simple ingredients with an easy execution that looks impressive and fancy.

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Onion Tarte Tatin

Caramelized onions are one of my favorite things ever, so any recipe that I come across that involves caramelized onions (or shallots) instantly goes on my to-do list! This one has literally been on there for years, and I really suggest you don’t wait as long as I did to make this. I never wanted to make it for a holiday, since my mom doesn’t like cooked onions (she tolerates raw ones, though…), but ended up making this at her house, anyway, as part of a huge meal, so don’t worry, she had plenty of options (like homemade pasta) to choose from!

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Artichoke Chicken

Shabbat shalom!

Here’s a great Shabbat main dish for you, complete with two bottles of wine, in case you’re entertaining a bunch of friends who can’t agree whether to drink red or white wine.

When I sent this dish over to Gary at Royal Wine Corparation, he told me that artichokes are hard to pair with wine, and sent me an unoaked Chardonnay (Binyamina Reserve) and a fruity and acidic red (Ramon Cardova Rioja).

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