Tomato Basil Pasta

This past Shabbat, Levi and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary!! It seems like just yesterday that we celebrated our marriage together with about 700+ of our friends and family. (I guess you could say it was a big wedding - so big that we found ourselves on the cover of the Daily Break in the Sunday paper - and if you were there, you know it was BIG time fun too!) Marriage is no simple feat - for two people to create a life together and stick with each other  certainly requires plenty of love, hard work and dedication. I am so grateful to have found such an incredible man to share my life with. Levi has been by my side every step of the way - cheering me on in the great moments and helping me through the challenges we have faced. It is my wish that we should continue to have many, many more happy years together!

Last night we had family and friends over for a little dinner to celebrate :) Decided to keep things simple in the kitchen - but turned out a delicious meal if I may say so myself. We had honey-mustard grilled chicken breast (thanks for grilling in the heat Levi!), tomato-basil rotini and a garden salad. We finished it all of with delicious crepes filled with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

Today I'll share the recipe for the pasta - and the chicken recipe will follow in a few days:)

Tomato Basil Pasta

1 lb cooked rotini

Olive oil

6 big leaves fresh basil, chopped

1 can diced tomatoes, drained well

Granulated garlic

Black pepper

Salt

Heat a little olive oil in a pot on a medium-high. Coat pasta in olive oil and then add chopped basil and tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic (usually I use fresh garlic, but alas I didn't have any yesterday.) Stir all ingredients periodically for about 8 minutes. Remove from pot and enjoy!

Grilled Pineapple

Finally! 5 out of 6 kids on the back of the couch! Took forever to get this shot - each time one kid would balance themselves..another would fall back into the pillows :) They LOVED this activity!

Made this sandcastle with the girls!

BEACH!

Wright Brothers place in Kitty Hawk

The sand was blowing all over the place when we went down to check out the monster waves!

LOVED watching the huge waves crashing against the sand

Sunset from the back porch 

Sunset almost over

A few  months back, Levi and I spent two days in Nags Head. On the way home I was busy on my iPad, checking out what it would entail to rent a home in Nags Head for a week in the summer. Levi shook his head at me and let me know that it was a pipe dream. I love dreaming and wishing - and I absolutely hate putting a great idea to rest. So I continued to search through tons and tons of rental homes until I finally found the perfect house for my family and our friends to call home for a week.

Having always been the "need to do things on vacation type" I was curious to see how I would enjoy spending a lazy week on the beach. The minute we arrived in our big, green house I knew I was going to love every minute of our vacation.

Mushky LOVED riding the waves

There were 11 of us in a great big house just across the street from the beach and we all had a BLAST! I loved hitting the sand for a barefoot runs in the morning and biking down the beach road with my hubby too. I loved seeing the thrill in my kids eyes as we spent hour upon hour playing in the sand and ocean. I loved seeing dolphins frolicking in the beautiful water. I loved spending quiet time looking at the waves and reading on our porch. I loved watching the kids enjoy playing with each other and doing crafts in the evenings and I loved our little spontaneous outings to a lighthouse, playground on the calm waters of the sound and a huge sand dune - and of course we all loved eating!

Keeping Kosher meant bringing along all of our food! Our van looked like we had packed everything but the kitchen sink - but believe me we had exactly the right tools to make sure we had yummy eats for breakfast, lunch and dinner for almost 6 days. We grilled and we made fries, popped popcorn and roasted plenty of veggies too!

My absolute favorite was the grilled pineapple! If you have never tried grilling pineapple - it is about time you do. Sometimes I season it it with a little lemon juice and salt and pepper - but this time we simply through the pineapple slices on the cute little charcoal grill and waited for it to get nice and soft. Grilling pineapple brings out an incredible sweetness and turns it into a fabulous treat!

Soooo....this recipe is super short....slice up a pineapple, throw it on the grill - enjoy!

Recipes to be posted soon:)

I can hardly believe I have let 6 weeks go by without posting any recipes. I assure that my family has indeed been eating during this time - but it has been a very busy 6 weeks and so I pretty much stuck to preparing the absolute easiest foods, the ones I can do in my sleep:) -which I have posted the majority of in the past. We just got back from an awesome vacation in Nags Head and I most certainly have some fun things to post from our eating experiences on our trip. Stay tuned, as I have a couple of posts planned for this week!

Race Day for the Brashevitzky Family

(I've had plans to post this since Sunday....finally got around to it!)

This past Sunday was a super busy day - with two exciting opportunities for our family to exercise together.

In the morning we all raced at the oceanfront, and then we celebrated Mushky's 9th birthday at my gym.

We got up bright and early on Sunday, pinned our race numbers to our shirts and headed out to the oceanfront for the JFS "Run, Roll or Stroll" My kids were all ready to run their mile - and I was a little nervous as I got ready to run my first 5k! Yes! You read that correctly, this person who could barely run down the block a few months ago ran a 5k (that's 3.1 miles)!

Learning to run has  been one of the most challenging things I have set out to accomplish. With the help of a super motivating running coach, I learned how to dig really deep and push myself and then push myself harder (nice little less for everyone - even the non runners out there!) until I was able to run a full 3 miles without stopping for any walking breaks.

A few weeks before race day, I managed to acquire a pain in my leg that ended up sidelining me for a few weeks. According to the doctor, I would have to sit this race out. This didn't sit well with me at all - I am one of those people who will do whatever it takes to complete what I have set out to accomplish. As the race drew closer and closer I got more and more upset about the prospect of watching everyone else run. I ultimately made the decision to run/walk the race. (I ran more than 2/3 of the race - even though I hadn't hit the pavement in about 4 weeks!)

As I ran, I managed to pretty much tune out the world around me (ok - the crazy wind on the boardwalk was a little hard to ignore) and give it my best shot. 43 minutes and 23 seconds later, I crossed the finish line. It's hard to describe the rush you get from finishing your first race - but let me just say I was mighty proud of myself.

Next my kids and hubby got ready to run the mile race! I was sooo proud of them as they all finished with their best times ever!

After the race we had a few hours to rest and then it was off to the birthday party at the gym. Mushky and her friends had an absolute blast completing a super fun obstacle course and participating in other gym related races and games. Watching the kids was proof that kids can exercise and have a blast at the same time! Before the party came to an end, we sang happy birthday and of course I provided yummy cupcakes for the occasion :)

While I rarely bake with chocolate (strange, I know!), Mushky wanted chocolate cupcakes with purple icing - and so today I will share the recipe with you. (It is the recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa container, with a few tiny modifications.)

Hershey's Cocoa Chocolate Cake


2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup soy milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup boiling water


Preheat oven to 350. Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add in remaining ingredients with the exception of the boiling water. Mix well. Add the boiling water and mix again. Use a small ladle to fill cupcake cups and bake for about 20 minutes.

Super Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

It makes me laugh to think of the foods that I hated as a child and love now! There were certain foods that my mother would always tell me were delicious, and I would always let her know just what I thought of those foods. I could never understand why people would eat sweet potatoes - and now I adore sweet potatoes. I couldn't fathom eating the dark meat of chicken - and now I am happy to. Amongst the foods on my "do not eat" list was peanut butter. I remember my mother telling me that I should try eating a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich and I also remember tasting it. I have this memory of standing at the sink drinking cups and cups of water after taking one little bite - because I couldn't stand the taste of peanut butter.

Well, fast forward a good number of years, and I am now in love with peanut butter! 

My father is the Kosher certifying rabbi at a peanut butter factory and the other day he brought me a bucket of peanut butter - fresh off the production line! Having a tub of super fresh peanut butter could only mean one thing for last night's Torah and Tea snack - peanut butter cookies! The cookies turned out great - and we even tried some with a little strawberry jelly:)

Super Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking powder

White sugar for top of cookies

Pre-heat oven to 350. (I put my oven on convection for these cookies.)

Place peanut butter and both sugars in a bowl. Mix well using a hand mixer. Add the egg and baking powder. Mix well again. 

Using your hands, roll the dough into little balls and then gently push them down. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Dip a fork in sugar and then proceed to create criss cross marks on each cookie. (You will have to dip the fork in the sugar for each cookie.)

A Trip to Nags Head

Last week, Levi and I headed out for a little trip to Nags Head for a little, mini vacation. After a good number of very hectic weeks, we decided to catch a little calm before the next storm of activity begins. Nags Head seemed like the perfect place to chill (literally too - it was freezing!!) and relax. Having never been to to the Outer Banks before, I quickly fell in love with the area. I loved that we were on a little strip of land with water on both sides, I loved the sound of the ocean roaring as I fell asleep at night, and I loved the relaxation that comes with being on a very empty beach. We walked the beach, climbed the sand dunes at Jockey's Ridge State Park and then flew our newly purchased kite at the top! (I was just a little annoyed with our kite which within seconds of getting up in the air the first time, took a sharp nose dive straight into the back of my head.) It was truly an enjoyable two days.

When we arrived at home on Friday afternoon, we had to create Shabbat dinner for about 18 people. Knowing that we would have limited time, I fell back on my easiest recipes that require very little hands on time.  My menu consisted of, homemade Challah, chicken soup with noodles, brisket (that I took out of the freezer!), spiced potatoes, roasted baby peppers, a garden salad, hearts of palm-avocado salad and a corn salad. (I even baked a cake - but there is a first time for everything - and my cake didn't bake properly, and so we had to manage without dessert.)

The menu was super easy to prepare and I didn't have to spend hours in the kitchen :)

Here is the recipe for the potatoes - super easy and super delish!

Spiced Potatoes

Red potatoes (leave skin on)
Canola oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Paprika
A small amount of Osem Consomme

Preheat oven to 425. Scrub potatoes well and cut into small chunks. Place potatoes in a glass baking dish. Add a little canola oil and all of the spices and the consommé. Mix well and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Place in oven and allow to cook until potatoes are very soft. Enjoy!

Strawberry Sorbet

In case you didn't already know, I love dessert. Sometimes I will figure out what we will have for dessert before I even come up with the Shabbat dinner menu :)

So it shouldn't surprise you that I needed a Pesach friendly dessert :) In our home we use only a select few processed foods, so this makes desserts a little more complicated for Pesach - making sorbet the perfect solution.

Luckily for me, sorbet happens to be VERY easy to make - because as you can imagine there isn't all that much spare time when trying to pull off two large Seders.

As we get ready to celebrate our freedom from Egypt so many years ago, I would like to wish you a wonderful Pesach!!



Strawberry Sorbet


A quick note about making sorbet...the best way to make sorbet is to use a sorbet maker. I have the Cuisinart one and LOVE it! It is my understanding that sorbet can be made without the machine, you would just need to keep taking the sorbet out of the freezer and stirring it as it freezes.


Fresh strawberries
Sugar syrup (1 cup water to 1 cup sugar)


Puree strawberries in a food processor.  Pour the pureed strawberries into a frozen sorbet maker bowl. Add the sugar syrup. Allow the mixture to spin in the machine for about 20 minutes. Transfer to a container and freeze. Enjoy!