Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage Soup

Somewhere along the line I became the family cook. Along with this position comes the job of cooking birthday dinners for family members celebrating their special day. (Luckily I like to cook!) As you may know, the Hebrew date changes each day when the stars come out - meaning we get to celebrate our Jewish birthdays for a night and a day! 

As the sky turned dark last night, the date changed to the 27th day of Adar - also known as my hubby's birthday - and this was certainly a cause for celebration. It was certainly a busy day as I got to work  on preparing Levi's birthday dinner. I made dinner, wrapped presents, had the kids make cards, set the table with birthday decor and of course decorated cupcakes! 

My parents and one of my brothers came over to join us, and it was a fun and yummy evening for all. We began our dinner with a sweet and sour red cabbage soup, then moved onto steaks, roasted sweet potatoes, stir fried green beans and a garden salad. As the party drew to an end, we sang happy birthday, offered birthday wishes, gave Tzeddakah and then finished it all of with the super cute funny face cupcakes I decorated. (Thanks for baking the cupcakes Yisroly!)

Now let's talk about the soup! I found a red cabbage sitting in my fridge and knowing that Levi loves red cabbage I decided to turn it into a soup.  I have to say, I have experimented with this soup a number of times - and I am happy to report that yesterday's finished product was the best yet!

Here's the "recipe"...

Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage Soup

Olive oil

3 sweet onions, thinly sliced

3 cloves  fresh garlic

1 medium sized red cabbage, thinly sliced

4 ribs celery, sliced

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

Water

Balsamic vinegar

Brown sugar

Salt

Pepper

Sautee onions and garlic in a little olive oil until soft. Add sliced cabbage and stir occasionaly as cabbage begins to get soft. Add celery.  Add diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Cover veggies with water (about an inch above the veggies). Pour in some balsamic vinegar and then add a little brown sugar. Bring to a boil and then allow to simmer until all of the vegetables are soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Roasted Zucchini Soup

As many of you may know, getting in good amounts of exercise has become my new favorite thing to do. I started running and wake up at the crack of dawn to get to a 6 am workout class twice a week. Some people look at me like I am crazy - but most think it's great and then start to think about how they can start adding more exercise into their lives. Along with this new love comes a great desire for my children to be excited about exercise and keeping their bodies healthy.

Today was sunny and warm and absolutely gorgeous - and so I most certainly wanted to spend as much of my day outside as I could. I was certain that my kids should head outside right after completing their homework so they could have some healthy fun! Being the cook in the family, I knew that I would need to make sure that dinner was ready before their homework was done so that we could play outside until dinner time :)

While I love to cook - today was a day that I was thrilled to be able to make good use of the leftovers in my fridge. (As children, my brothers and I HATED leftovers, funny what becoming the cook of the house can do to you!) I had plenty of the hamburgers I made yesterday in the refrigerator and then I realized that I also had a whole container of the roasted zucchini I made the other day. I quickly sauteed some onions and then added the roasted zukes to the pot along with some fresh parsley and basil. I filled the pot with water - brought it all to a boil and then pureed it with my handy dandy immersion blender and presto - roasted zucchini soup! I created a salad and voila - dinner was done! (Yes - it is VERY similar to the first zucchini recipe I posted, but has somewhat of a different flavor because the zucchinis have been roasted.)

Dinner and homework completed, my kids grabbed their helmets, scooters and a big ball and we headed outside. For well over an hour my scooted happily and then joined me in a little running and then we had loads of fun playing monkey in the middle, kicking the ball and practicing volleyball serves. We all had a blast - and got our heart rates up too! 

Soo..as the winter turns into spring...why not make it a habit to make some easy dinners so you too can have time to play outside with your kids!!

Roasted Zucchini Soup

3 sweet onions

A handful of fresh basil

A handful of fresh parsley

Roasted zucchini

Water

Roast the zucchini: Preheat oven to 425. Wash and cut zucchinis in to half moons and then place on a roasting pan with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and oregano. Roast for about 20 minutes or until soft. 

For the soup: Cut onions into chunks and sautee in a little olive oil. Add in the basil and parsley. Add the zucchini and allow to cook together for a few minutes. Add enough water to cover the veggies, plus a little more. Bring to a boil and then puree. (Please note, you may have to add additional seasoning after you have pureed the soup. I found that mine needed a little more salt added at the end.)

A Twist On Tradition

Don't you love Purim? I LOVE Purim!  I love eating Hamentashen (who doesnt!!), I love checking out the cool costumes people put together and I love the opportunity to celebrate happy times with my family and friends! Along with all the fun and games, I also LOVE the Purim story! I think it is a great story  - with a great lesson too! In the Megillah we read all about how the Jewish nation escaped destruction with the help of Queen Esther - and of course with G-d working the story from behind the scenes. As one reads the story of Purim, it may seem as if the Jewish people were headed toward a horrific fate - we of course see in the end of the story that everything was turned around - with Haman facing his own demise instead of that of the Jewish people. Lesson learned? When things look gloomy, we must not despair - Hashem is always listening to our prayers!

Being the cookie lover that I am - I almost always get out my rolling pin and bake a whole bunch of Hamentashen! This year was no different - but this time I opted to try an experiment. In recent months, I have decided that I LOVE peanut butter! (My mother laughs every time I say this because as a child I wouldn't go near peanut butter.) Last night I decided to put a little twist on tradition and make some peanut butter and jelly Hamentashen.

After making a good number of regular Hamentashen, using my regular dough - I went ahead and added a good amount of peanut butter to my dough. I found that the dough really changed with the addition of the peanut butter. I also found that I had to mix extra flour into the dough before I rolled it out. While the dough was certainly more crumbly than the regular Hamentashen, with a little patience (ok - a LOT!) I was able to roll out and fill my cookies! I have to say, the pb Hamentashen, filled with jelly, were awesome!

Here is the "recipe". (It is my regular Hamentash recipe - with the addition of peanut butter.)

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

5 cups flour (you will need to add more when rolling out the dough)

2 tsps. baking powder.

Peanut butter

Strawberry preserves

Preheat oven to 350

Grease cookie sheet.

Beat eggs and sugar. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. 

Roll out dough, cut out circles and fill with strawberry preserves.. 

Fold in dough to create Hamentashen (3 corners)

Brush corners with water and pinch together. 

Bake for 20 minutes.