Of Weddings and Parties

What's not to love about a wedding? A little over a week ago my brother got married to a lovely girl from Brooklyn. We piled our two kids into the car and headed up to NY to celebrate. After an afternoon of getting everyone to look their best we headed off to the wedding.

What a fun night it was! If you have never been to a Chassidic wedding, it is hard to describe one. The music was lively and the dancing was high speed. Around and around in circles we went. My daughter Mushky seemed to have gotten a magical burst of energy and kept me dancing with her all night long.

Along with the lively dancing was the great thrill of spending hours with my family and my cousins many of whom I hadn't seen in quite some time.  It was also awesome to see how many of our friends from Norfolk (and some who used to live in Norfolk) had come to join my brother in his celebration.

Late at night the wedding came to an end and we wearily dragged ourselves home to sleep, however the fun was just beginning. After a Jewish wedding, the bride and groom attend Sheva Brachot (literally seven blessings). Each night for seven days after the wedding, friends and family throw parties for the newlyweds, which conclude with the recitation of seven blessings - the Sheva Brachot.

While the first few Sheva Brachot were held in Brooklyn, we had the pleasure of hosting four here in Norfolk.

At the party held in my home I made a vegetable soup, garlic bread and put together a salad bar with many delicious options.

Here is the recipe for the vegetable soup.

Vegetable Soup with Orzo

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 zucchini, diced

4 carrots, sliced into discs

3 stalks celery, diced

1 can chickpeas

1 can corn

1 tablespoon fresh parsley

8 cups chicken stock (can use powder soup consomme instead)

1/2 teaspoon dill (dried)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup orzo

Heat olive oil in a 6 quart pot. Add diced onions and minced garlic to pot. Mix often as it browns. Add diced zucchini, sliced carrots and diced celery. Allow vegetables to brown and get soft. Drain chick peas and add to pot. Add corn with the liquid to the pot. Chop parsley and add to pot. Add dill, black pepper and salt. Add chicken stock and allow to boil. Add orzo and allow to reboil. Simmer and allow to cook until all vegetables are soft.

Torah, Tea and Oatmeal - Craisin Cookies

Each week I host Torah and Tea in my home. A group of women gather in my home and we chit chat, sip tea and of course study the weekly Torah portion. This week we will talk about the meaning of freedom and the Mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh. Along with our Torah and our tea, I try to bake a yummy treat for all of us to share :)  This week I decided to go with oatmeal-craisin cookies. 

These oatmeal-craisin cookies are not your typical oatmeal cookies. These are special, gooey treats that seem to have some sort of addictive quality to them. My two kids who never touch oatmeal cookies were raving over these.

Years ago, a friend of mine by the name of Seena made these cookies for a Kiddush on Shabbos. I tasted one and I was hooked. After I got married I made sure to get this recipe so that I could make these delicious treats myself.

As much as I love these cookies, I haven't made them in a while. When I searched my computer for the recipe, I discovered that it was missing a few details, so this morning I followed the recipe as much as I could and then I made my own decisions.

I'm looking at the clock, and I see that it's almost time to open my door and get started, so here is the recipe.

Oatmeal-Craisin Cookies

3 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup Craisins (original flavor)

Mix oats, brown sugar and oil together. (I put on gloves and mixed with my hands.)

In a cup, mix 2 eggs with the salt and vanilla. Add the egg mixture to the oatmeal mixture. Add the Craisins.

Mix well. (I used a hand mixer for the last mixing.)

Spray a cookie sheet with Pam and drop spoonfuls of cookie mixture on to the tray. 

Bake on 325 for about 20 minutes. Delish!

Sweet and Peppery Noodle Kugel

The excitement in our house today is tangible. I believe you could reach out and touch it.

My seven year old daughter Mushky spent 10 days in Arizona at a special overnight camp for children of Shluchim. (Shluchim are the people who run the Chabad Houses all around the globe.) While Mushky was away we were lucky to be able to see some pictures of her online and see that she was really enjoying herself. My heart was beating rapidly as I made my way through security and proceeded to the gate to retrieve Mushky. Seeing her was such an exciting moment! Her eyes were sparkling and she spent the whole ride home giving us all the details. Being a good Jewish mother, I made sure to ask her if she liked the food and if she had enough to eat :) She let me know that some of the food was yucky and some was good - but that nothing was as good as her mommy's food! That being said, I figured we better create some of her favorite Shabbos foods for tonight's dinner.

Amongst the other items on the menu, we will be having a sweet and peppery noodle kugel which Mushky loves.

A few years ago my husband's sister Chanie came for a visit and made this kugel. We loved it so much that we asked for the recipe. I have made some very minor tweaks to the recipe and I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Shabbat Shalom and Happy New Year!

Sweet and Peppery Noodle Kugel

4 ½ cups water

¼ cup oil

1 cup sugar

1 tsp pepper

2 tsp salt

1 lb egg noodles

2 eggs

4 Tb dark brown sugar

3 Tb oil

Boil water, oil, sugar, pepper and salt.  When it comes to a boil turn off the fire but leave the pot on the stove. Mix in the egg noodles. Cover pot and let sit for 15 minutes.  While you are waiting, mix the eggs, brown sugar and 3 tablespoons of oil together. When 15 minutes are over add in the egg mixture. Cover pot and let sit for an additional 15 minutes. After 15 minutes spray a baking dish (around 9 x13) with Pam and pour the mixture into the pan. Bake on 350 until the top of the kugel is brown and slightly crispy.

Sesame Chicken

A Chinese Shabbat dinner - yum!

While it took lots and lots of preparation, last night's Chinese themed Shabbat dinner was delicious! We served up an Asian style gefilte fish, a colorful angel hair pasta salad, a crunchy bok choy salad, coleslaw with a soy sauce dressing and a garden salad. Piping hot chicken soup, served with chow mein noodles came along for the second course. The third course brought yummy sesame chicken, stir fried veggies and of course egg rolls and duck sauce.

I had lots of fun creating all these yummy Chinese style delights and had many requests for the recipes to appear on this blog. 

Tonight I will start with the Sesame Chicken.

A good number of years ago my cousin Esty told me she was making sesame chicken for dinner. I thought that sounded yummy and asked her for her recipe. She gave me some basic instructions (her family also isn't big on exact recipes) and I have experimented with this dish ever since.

Here's how I created the sesame chicken for last night's dinner. (Being that we were prepping chicken for 50+ people I don't really have any real measurements. I always change up this recipe, so just use your best judgement :)

Sesame Chicken

Boneless, skinless chicken breast

Flour

Water

salt

Canol oil

Brown sugar

Soy sauce

Ketchup

Garlic powder

Black pepper

Sesame seeds

Cut chicken breast into strips (chicken finger style). Mix flour and water together until it has the consistency of a thin paste. Sprinkle in some salt and pepper and mix. 

Heat oil in a frying pan. Dip chicken strips in the flour and water mixture and then fry until it is almost cooked. Place fried chicken strips in a pan and place in the oven to finish cooking. 

Sauce:

Mix together brown sugar, soy sauce, ketchup, pepper, garlic powder and lots of sesame seeds. Mix well. 

Place sauce in a pan and place in the oven to warm up while the chicken finishes cooking.

When chicken is cooked and sauce is hot, toss chicken in the sauce and serve. Delicious!!

Spaghetti and Meatballs

It happens to all of us. We have busy days filled with countless things to do and then we realize that somehow dinner needs to be created - and fast. We reach into our brains and scan our list of easy and quick dinners. This happened to me yesterday. Amongst other things, I went to Shalom's first violin recital. I loved watching his smiley face as he gently played the violin. As soon as the recital was over we headed home and then I realized that I had to make dinner quickly.

Having taken out ground beef I decided we would be having mushroom barley soup, spaghetti and meatballs and broccoli for dinner. I got to work and dinner was ready in under an hour.

Spaghetti and meatballs are really easy to make, yet the first time I made them they were not so tasty. I realized that I better get some meatball advice. I decided to call my aunt Breindy.

While I attended high school in Montreal, I lived with my aunt and uncle, Breindy and Berel. Breindy always made delicious meatballs and I loved coming home to yummy hot meatballs after walking home from school in the freezing cold. Breindy told me over the phone how she makes her meatballs. I tried them and they were delicious. 

Of course over time I began to experiment with the meatball dish and here is the recipe the way I made them last night.

Classic Meatballs

1 lb ground beef

A couple of squirts of ketchup

garlic powder

3 cans Hunt's tomato sauce

Oregano

Before starting with the meatballs, set a pot of water to boil for your pasta.

In a pot,bring the tomato sauce to a boil with garlic powder and oregano. While it boils mix the ground beef with ketchup and garlic powder. Form into meatballs and drop into the boiling sauce. Bring sauce back to a boil and then lower the flame as the meatballs finish cooking. Meatballs cook pretty quickly which is a good thing. 

When I have more time on my hands I have all kinds of variations to this recipe. Sometimes I will put eggs and bread crumbs and even chopped onion into the meatball mixture. Other times I will first sauté an onion and fresh garlic in the pot before adding the tomato sauce. There are also times where I throw in some fresh basil. When I am in a hurry, I stick with this very simple recipe and it's a winner every time.

Butternut Squash Soup

As I have written previously, I am a big lover of soups of all kind. With the freezing cold weather we've been having there is nothing like a bowl of nice, hot soup. About a year ago I picked up a butternut squash on a trip to the grocery store, but wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it. The poor squash sat in my house for a very long time before I decided that it was time to create something yummy with it. 

I decided on butternut squash soup. I had never had butternut squash soup before but once I tasted it I was hooked. This soup is sooo easy to make (the hardest part is peeling the squash), and you only need a very few ingredients. I will even venture to say that your kids might just like it! I told Mushky and Shalom that butternut squash soup is a cousin of zucchini soup and so they agreed to taste it. Turns out that they really like this soup, so much so that Mushky asked for a second serving last night!

So, here's how you make it.

Butternut Squash Soup

canola oil

1 butternut squash

2 big onions

2 cloves fresh garlic

4 big leaves fresh basil

chicken stock 

dried dill

salt 

pepper

Slice the onions and place in a pot with some canola oil. Allow the onions to get really soft and slightly brown. Then add in the garlic and allow to sauté for a few more minutes. Peel the squash and cut into chunks, add to the pot. Stir the vegetables and let the squash cubes get a little soft together with the onions. Wash (and check for bugs) 4 basil leaves, tear the leaves and add them to the pot. Cover everything with the chicken stock (enough water to cover and then a little bit more). Season with salt and pepper and dill. Bring to a boil - then lower and allow to cook until squash is soft. Once the squash is soft, use an immersion blender to puree the soup. Enjoy!

Recipe For Smiles

I am fully aware that this is a food blog - however today I will go with a recipe of another kind, a recipe for smiles.

When an idea falls into my head, I have a very hard time ignoring it. Recently a new Chanukah concept lit up like a light bulb in my brain, and I knew I had to run with it. My brain moved into overdrive and the "Chanukah Party Bus" was born. 

The concept in reality was quite simple; fill a bus with kids, take the kids to bring Chanukah cheer to local seniors AND make the bus ride a cool Chanukah party. 

I quickly lined up three assisted living facilities who were more than thrilled for us to bring children in for a Chanukah celebration. I then started spreading the word, and it took off like wildfire.

In the days leading up to the event I worked on getting the "party" part in place and took the opportunity to help the last few seats on the bus get filled.

Nothing could prepare me for the awesome experience it was. It is hard to describe boarding a bus filled with excited children (and their parents) with smiles beaming from ear to ear. To listen to so many voices singing Chanukah songs as the bus pulled away from Chabad House was awesome. After singing a few songs and taking part in a lively Q & A session with Rabbi Levi, we were already at our first destination. 

The seniors were THRILLED with the arrival of the children, and the kids looked so happy to be there.  At each of our three stops we lit the Menorah, sang a few songs, danced and gave out doughnuts and chocolate gelt to the residents.

On the bus, the party rocked on. A big puppet made an appearance as the story of Chanukah was told, a cool Chanukah movie was presented on the video screens, we played an exciting game where each side of the bus had to be the first to pass certain items to the front of the bus, we cheered and we sang. 

I loved watching as the children's eyes grew with amazement when I began to hand out giant chocolate coins, and I loved seeing the joy in their eyes as they received a dreidel bubble necklace at the end of the ride. 

Most of all, I loved that with one simple bus, we were able to bring Chanukah smiles to people of all ages. I loved watching the sweetness in the children as they went around to pass out chocolate gelt to the seniors we met. I loved seeing the shining eyes of the residents at each stop as they watched the next generation continue with the traditions of Chanukah.