Leftovers – Dill Sauce

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Like Lori said, this recipe makes way too much dill sauce! So here’s my not-as-fancy version of eggs benedict. Okay, so it’s nothing like eggs benedict: no hollandaise, no canadian bacon, and a sunny side up egg instead of a poached one. At least there’s a toasted English muffin involved. Continue reading

Mejadra, or Rice and Lentils

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It is customary to eat lentils in a time of mourning, based on the food that Yaakov cooked when Avraham died. (Another customary mourning meal is a hardboiled egg with a loaf of bread, which symbolizes the circle of life.)

Rice and lentils is a popular Syrian dish. It’s often served as a weeknight meal along with jibben or a light fish, but that’s not why we’re posting it now; it is a one-pot meal and is it’s our custom to eat this on the night before Tisha b’Av (which is tomorrow!). Serve it with some plain yogurt and you have a pretty balanced (and simple) one-pot meal. Serve it alongside a million other dishes, like pizza, jibben, salad, knishes, sambusak, etc, and you have yourself a typical Syrian dairy meal. Continue reading

Lentils

Lentils are boring. I think the only way I’ve ever even eaten lentils is in soup (and that’s the red variety, the kind that Esav traded his birthright for) and in rice and lentils. But when Ina made her salmon with lentils and everyone about the lentils on the bottom, I knew I should try it. Continue reading

Another Short Ribs Recipe

My favorite thing to make in the dutch oven is short ribs. They’re so good! They get soft and flavorful from the braising and are easy enough to cook while busy with other things in the kitchen. The more you cook them, the more flavorful they become, so make them on Sunday and eat them on Monday. Plus, people love to eat short ribs on Monday nights. Better yet, make them tonight and eat them for Shabbat dinner!

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Mini Shells with Mushrooms

I used to think I didn’t like mushrooms, but here I am posting yet another mushroom recipe. I’ll admit it, I hate raw mushrooms. But when cooked, they have an amazing flavor that goes really well with pasta.

On my birthday I went for dinner and ordered a pasta with portobello mushroom sauce. It was delicious, but way too creamy and rich. I decided to recreate the intense mushroom flavor in my own pasta dish, without adding loads of cream. Here’s what I came up with.

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Baked Ziti with Roasted Vegetables

This simple dish is a healthier version of mac and cheese. I adapted it from Giada’s version, but she uses way more cheese and adds sauce. I decided to omit the sauce and make it more like mac and cheese, less like baked ziti. Her recipe also calls for 4 mushrooms, which is nothing. I left them out, though they probably would have been a great addition to the meal. Next time I’ll definitely use them.

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Ribollita

I’ve been wanting to make this soup for a really long time, so when I saw that kale was showing up at the market, I added it to my menu. It takes a pretty long time to make, so I decided to make it on a Sunday and serve in on Monday. On Sunday morning I woke up early, soaked the beans, and went to work. When I came home a little before six, I went shopping for all the produce needed: celery, carrots, onions, garlic, basil, and kale. There was no kale at the fruit store, they ran out and are getting more tomorrow. There was no kale at the supermarket, either. They also ran out. I already soaked the beans, so I had to improvise on the soup. It came out delicious, anyway.

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Leftover Frittata

My favorite thing to do with the leftover vegetables and herbs in the fridge is make a frittata. It’s pretty easy to do, and works for any meal of the day. It’s also very easy to make it to feed a crowd, or for just one. And you can put virtually anything in it! This morning, I had about 1/3 of a box of frozen peas sitting in the freezer, some leftover red bell pepper, and a carrot. Then I found some thyme that was just begging to be used (my fresh herbs often end up in the garbage, it’s rather sad).

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Roasted Butternut Squash-Onion Pie

You can’t go wrong with caramelized onions and roasted butternut squash. Here’s a pretty easy (once you get the pie crust out of the way) special dinner recipe. Sure, it’s a bit fattening, but hey, once in a while you just have to splurge. If you’re having some company over and making dairy, this is definitely a great recipe to impress guests with. The list of ingredients looks rather long, but I found that I had a lot of the ingredients.

This recipe is from The Art and Soul of Baking, a book that I haven’t used in a while. I’m happy to have it opened up again, and keep finding more and more recipes to try… Continue reading

2nd Avenue Deli Brisket

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When the 2nd Avenue Deli closed, I immediately bought the cookbook on Amazon so I could recreate the delicious flavors I grew up with. I didn’t know that it would reopen even closer to where I lived.  The first thing we made from the cookbook was the health salad. It wasn’t the same, but it definitely resembled the real thing. The next thing I made was the delicious brisket. It’s easy and is definitely worth the time put into it. Now that I have a dutch oven, it’s even easier than it ever was. Continue reading