When my cousin invited me and 80 other people over for Shabbat lunch, I knew I had to chip in. I would make gluten-free cookies! Because what would be the point of bringing something if he couldn’t eat it? You see, my cousin has celiac disease; his body can’t digest gluten. Continue reading
Growing up, we always thought Grandma Rena was the best cook! Our parents still make fun of us that we liked her can of Hunt’s tomato sauce over a box of boiled pasta better than theirs, but what can we say, there was something special about it.
Recently, our dad started buying veal so that our mom could recreate his mom’s veal pasta. We’ve been trying to recreate her recipe, and while it will probably never be as good as grandma’s, we can come close to it.
Tomato soup is one of those amazing winter recipes. You can have it with noodles and cheese to make it a one-pot meal on a snowy evening. And it just improves in the fridge, so you can take leftovers for lunch! I had been thinking about making tomato soup with a can of tomatoes I had in my pantry when I watched Alex’s Day off. She combined fresh and canned tomatoes for an even more intense tomato flavor. Sure, her tomatoes looked better than the pinkish ones that I found in the supermarket, but after charring them on the stove and cooking them in wine, they really add some amazing flavor.
Quick, what’s the best part about a Meatless Monday dinner? It’s got to be that you can have ice cream for dessert!
You already know we love making ice cream, and David Lebovitz is one of the best sources for no-fail ice cream recipes. He served his white chocolate and fresh ginger ice cream with nectarine-cherry compote, but I just served it plain, and still got rave reviews. The ice cream was so creamy and the ginger flavor was perfect – not too strong, but still present. So if it’s winter and you still want to make ice cream but don’t want to pay $10/lb for cherries and nectarines to put on top, just skip them!
Even though I bake a ton of desserts and experiment with not–so–normal sweets, sometimes I just crave chocolate chip cookies. Baking them, that is. So this time I decided not to make just regular chocolate chip cookies (you know, the kind from the back of a chocolate chip bag), but giant ones with lots of chunks and some sea salt. A grown up version, I guess. Continue reading
I love making breakfast foods and pastries! You probably knew that already. So what better recipe to make than danishes? The buttery dough and cream-cheesy filling can’t be beat.
Of course you can make something that is sort of similar to danishes using store bought puff pastry (like Ina and Giada do). But it’s NOT the same! So if you have the time, give these a try.
A while back, Stephanie posted about kelsonnes, a traditional Syrian stuffed pasta dish. While many people use pre-made dough, making it from scratch is not so hard. It’s pasta that you can make without a pasta maker, so it’s totally worth it. The stuffed pasta is so giant that you get a ton of cheese, which is amazing. We usually eat these with egg noodles baked with butter. The buttery noodles get nice and crispy, mmm.
The recipe said that it yields 60 kelsonnes. I made 50. It really depends on the thickness of the dough. And no, I don’t serve/eat all of them at once. I usually make about 4 per person (of course we serve this alongside other traditional Syrian foods) and freeze the rest for an easy dinner later in the week.
I made individual bowls of noodles and kelsonnes here. You really don’t have to do that, but I like to take advantage of my oven proof bowls, so I do. If doing it this way, reduce the oven time and watch them closely. You don’t to burn the noodles too much!
Kelsonnes, adapted from the red Deal Delights cookbook:
For the dough:
For the filling (I cut the original recipe in half for you – otherwise there is WAY too much leftover cheese):
1. Make the dough: combine flour, eggs, and salt. Add the water in a slow stream and mix together until you get a soft dough.
2. Combine filling ingredients, set aside.
3. Split the dough in half and roll out each half of the dough on a floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness.
4. Drop a heaping tablespoon of the cheese mixture every 3 or so inches on half the dough (make sure you have enough room to close the dough between – see picture).
5. Cover the mounds with the other half of the dough.
6. Cut out the rounds with a round cutter (about 2 1/2 inch).
7. Repeat with remaining dough.
To assemble the dish:
For 4 people you will need:
1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
3. When boiling, add the kelsonnes. Boil for 5 minutes before adding the pasta.
4. Boil according to the time written on the package. Drain.
5. Combine butter, a pinch of salt, noodles and kelsonnes in a large casserole. Mix until the butter melts.
6. Bake in oven for 20 minutes, until the top noodles begin to brown and get crispy.
I had a jar of olives sitting in my fridge, waiting to be eaten. Sure, we could have eaten them plain, but we also had about 1/2 of a baguette waiting to get stale, so I thought it best to eat them together, before it was too late! I’m pretty sure this happens to everyone, doesn’t it? Naturally, I made an olive spread to spread on the toasted bread, which my genius husband suggested topping with cream cheese before adding the tapenade. Genius! So, you should do this too when you find yourselves in a similar situation and in need of a perfect midnight snack. Or appetizer. Or lazy dinner.
Remember when Jessica made kibbe with mushrooms? Well, she told you that it was just one of many ways that we prepare these little Syrian meatballs, and I’m here to share with you another one (and my favorite).
For some reason, I decided I really wanted to make butter pecan ice cream. I bought the pecans. I had the cream, milk, eggs, and brown sugar that I needed. I had some butter in the freezer. I just didn’t have the recipe. I searched and searched and finally came up with one that seemed okay. I didn’t use it. Instead I combined some of my own ice cream knowledge and came up with this recipe. It’s awesome.
Ingredients:
Directions:
1. Place pecan on baking sheet and roast for about 7 minutes, until they turn brown and fragrant.
2. When the come out, immediately add the butter and salt to them. Mix. Set aside.
3. Heat the milk over medium heat.
4. While the milk is heating, combine the eggs yolks and brown sugar. Whisk until combined.
5. Add the half milk to the egg mixture slowly, bringing up the temperature. Then, add the egg mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk. Heat over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens a bit.
