From The Mouths of Babes

A few days ago I parked in the driveway after picking my kids up from school. As we pulled in we heard the sound of the Shofar, and one of my older kids asked "is that a neighbor's kid playing with their Shofar - or did Moshiach come?" To which my two year old starting clapping his hands and saying, "I want to go see Moshiach!!!" As you are aware, Moshiach had not yet arrived, and it was just the neighbors playing around. That said, this little story made me pause, as I thought about just how excited my baby was to see Moshiach. I was amazed that even at his young age he knew that it would be an incredibly exciting moment. It was a good reminder that our work is still not done and we need to continue to flood the world with Mitzvot! May it be the will of Hashem that we hear the sound of the Shofar announcing the arrival of Moshiach in the very, very near future! As we get ready to celebrate Yom Kippur and stand before Hashem as His gates are open before us, let us make sure to cry out together and ask for a time where we will know only peace and harmony and health and happiness!! 

I am in the midst of baking cinnamon buns for dessert, so I will share the recipe with you. (Thanks to my cousin Malkie for this awesome recipe!!)

Gmar Chatima Tova! May you be sealed for only good!

-Rashi

Cinnamon Buns

1 3/4 cups warm water

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup oil

3 tablespoons yeast

1/2 tablespoon salt

2 eggs

5 1/4 cups flour

cinnamon and sugar mixture

Mix warm water, sugar, oil and yeast and let sit for 15 minutes. Add in the salt, eggs and flour. Mix well. Roll out dough and brush with oil. Then rub on cinnamon and sugar mixture. Then roll dough up from the edge...as you roll up one layer, brush with oil and rub with cinnamon and sugar. Continue roll up until the whole thing is rolled up into a log. Then use a sharp knife to cut into slices. Place on a greased baking sheet. Allow to rise for about 30 minutes. Bake on 400 for 12-15 minutes. Top with your favorite glaze. Enjoy!

Lasting Sweetness

Mom, can I have some ice cream? Mommy can I have more brownies? Can we go to Israel for winter break? Can I have a sleepover tonight? As a parent I field questions all day long. Some reasonable. Some not so reasonable. Fielding all of these questions - and responding to them - is just part of the territory of being a parent. Children are not shy, and they will happily ask and ask and then ask again. Children are persistent - and you know what, sometimes it pays off. If you are like me, then your kids have certainly been successful at acquiring more toys than needed, extra desserts and so on. Some people might call that spoiling your kids but my theory is that they are my children and I have the right to give in to their requests. While it is quiet in my house at the moment (the question askers are still sleeping!) soon my house will be abuzz as we race around and get ready for Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year. Tonight we will dip an apple in honey, tomorrow we will sing Avinu Malkeinu. We will call out to Hashem as our Father and  King and ask for a good and sweet year. My dear friends, let us each remember that Hashem is our Father, and cares deeply about each and every one of us! I am going to take my cue from my children and ask and then ask for some more. While we are contemplating our choices that may have not been the greatest and while we are promising to change our ways, let us also beg Hashem to open His treasure trove of blessings and shower them upon us. My children are not too shy to ask for what they want and in turn I am not too shy to ask of Hashem to bestow us with a wonderful year filled with health and happiness. When dipping the apple in the honey we can note that honey is a type of preservative. We are asking that Hashem give us happiness that is coated in honey so that we may have lasting sweetness. As we wave goodbye to the year 5775 and welcome in 5776 please join me in asking Hashem for health, wealth and happines - and time to enjoy it! Let us also ask Him, as His children, to put an end to all pain and suffering and send us the ultimate, lasting sweetness with the coming of Moshiach speedily in our days! Shana Tova!

In keeping with the theme of sweetness, here is a new chicken recipe I tried out recently - my kids loved it! (Thanks to my cousin Bluma for the inspiration for this one.) My apologies that  I don't have any measurements for this one. 

Apricot Brown Sugar Chicken 

Bone in chicken

Salt

Pepper

Garlic

Dried chopped onion flakes

Paprika

Olive Oil

Apricot preserves

Brown sugar

Soy sauce

Set your oven to 375 degrees. Place chicken in a pan and sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic, chopped onion and paprika. Then drizzle olive oil on the chicken. In a bowl, mix the apricot preserves, brown sugar and soy sauce together well. Spread the sauce over the chicken and then turn chicken over to bake skin side down and covered. When chicken has almost reached your desired level of doneness, turn chicken back over and bake uncovered until it is nicely crisped and colored. Enjoy!! 

Blueberry Pancakes

With just a tiny bit of summer vacation left yesterday afternoon, I made the spur of the moment decision that we should go blueberry picking. My big kids had been at camp for 8 weeks and I wanted to do something fun with them before heading back to school. We had SO much fun! To begin with, Mushky and Shalom spotted some wagons and decided that they wanted to be passengers - we all had some good laughs as we pulled our 10 and 12 year old along in a wagon :) Shaya LOVED having his own wagon all to himself. Everyone enjoyed looking for good looking blueberries and Shaya's eyes were wide with wonder at the sight of one of his favorite foods growing on a bush! It was a perfect ending to a wonderful summer break.

On the way home we discussed what we would do with our big bag of blueberries - and it was decided that we would have blueberry pancakes for breakfast for the first day of school. I am not quite sure what I was thinking when I agreed to make pancakes, while knowing that I had to be at work early. But, a promise is a promise! I got up bright and early, got in a small workout and then headed home to make the pancakes! It was a great start to the school year!

Here is the pancake recipe! In reality it is the regular pancake recipe I use..but with the fun addition of blueberries!

Blueberry Pancakes

2 cups flour
4 tsps. baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup orange juice
1 cup water
2 1/2 tbsps oil
A sprinkle of vanilla extract
A few handfuls of fresh blueberries. 


Add all of the ingredients into a bowl - except for the blueberries - and mix well. I find that a whisk does a nice job of mixing pancake batter. Then gently fold in the blueberries. I make my pancakes on my Cuisinart Griddler. I spray the griddler plates with some Pam before I start. I set the griddle to to about 350 degrees. Using a small ladle, pour pancake batter onto the griddle. Wait for the pancakes to bubble - this is your cue that it is time to flip them! Happy pancake eating!

The Rebbe's Dinner

My kitchen looks just like it does on almost any given Friday. Flour all over the counter from my challah baking, cake ingredients resting on the counter and oven stuffed with food. Then there is me, looking just like I do on Fridays - dusted in flour and sugar and running from stove to counter and back over and over again as I create my Shabbos dinner. In reality, I am thinking it is not really "my" Shabbos dinner that I create each week, but maybe it is the Rebbe's Shabbos dinner.

Let me explain...

This Shabbat marks 21 years since the Rebbe, the leader of Chabad, no longer was able to lead us in a physical sense. While we can no longer physically see the Rebbe, he remains a VERY influential force in my life. Quite truthfully, it is the Rebbe, and his teachings, that define my very life. As a child I had many opportunities to visit the Rebbe and see his warm smile, and receive his blessings. Throughout the years I have studied the Rebbe's teachings and now as an adult I have defined my life by these very teachings. The Rebbe was a visionary - and had this dream of spreading the light of Torah and lessons of kindness across the globe. I am proud to be called a "shlucha" -emissary -of the Rebbe. I am proud that my family and I are amongst the thousands of families all over the world who are following his lead and reaching out to others with a warm smile and a helping hand.  While it may be 21 years since he has left this world, the Rebbe is very much alive in everything we do!

So back to the Shabbos dinner...why is it the Rebbe's dinner? It is the Rebbe's dinner because I truly do not just cook for myself and my family. Part of what we do is invite people from all walks of life (including an IDF soldier who just got out of the army and Levi asked to join us tonight!)to join us in celebrating Shabbos each week. This is the Rebbe's work, his dinner.  

As I type this, one of my children is asking about the box of food we are packing up on our counter, and I hear Levi explain that the food is off to a family that is in town visiting their family that sadly had a horrible tragedy after a car accident yesterday. Magically, as happens so often, the food I have cooked manages to expand and become enough to pack up for someone who got stuck in town, is visiting family and keeps kosher or any number of reasons why we may need to provide someone with a kosher Shabbos dinner. I cook and bake and chop and mix - all because we have learned from the Rebbe to treat everyone with loving kindness. We have learned to think about what we can do to help someone along their way on this journey called life. 

And so, it is time for me to stop typing and go finish packing up the food - knowing that by the guidance of the Rebbe I can touch someone's life with the food I have cooked. 

Of course it wouldn't be a blog post without a recipe...and so I share a recipe of a beet salad that we quickly made for this last minute food delivery. 

Good Shabbos!

Beet Salad

Pre boiled beets (found in the produce section in the grocery store)

Fresh Italian flat leaf parsley

Lemon juice

Olive oil

Salt

Garlic

Cube the beets. Finely chop the parsley. Season with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and garlic. Mix well and enjoy. 

Nash Nash A Hamentash!

There is nothing like a snow day! I admit that I love getting that phone call that says, "stay home and enjoy your day" (albeit within reason). There is something about seeing waking up to a world blanketed in beautiful and white snow. Last week we enjoyed our second "snow cation" and I settled in for some fun days with my kids. We spent many hours outside playing in the snow, playing games inside, drinking hot cocoa and of course baking yummy treats With Purim coming up we decided to bake Hamentashen last week. We made some raspberry, brownie and brownie-marshmallow fluff filled Hamentashen. Breaking from tradition I decided to try out a new dough recipe this time around.

My cousins and I have a WhatsApp group that keeps all of us informed and entertained...and often times causes what we call "What'sApp peer pressure". This is when one cousin posts a picture of something yummy she has baked and the next thing you know, all of us are busy trying it out! My cousin Sari posted a picture of her Hamentashen along with her recipe, and I certainly wanted to give them a try! We mixed up our batter and then mixed up some brownie batter to use as one of our fillings - it was a fun and yummy afternoon together with my kids!

With Purim beginning tonight,  (PS visit www.chabadoftidewater.com if you still need to RSVP for the Purim party!!)I am sharing Sari's recipe for delicious Hamentash dough!

Hamentash Recipe

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil
1/3 cup apple juice (I used OJ)
5 1/2 cups flour - add it slowly! you may not need all of it
3 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract (optional - I did not use)
3 tsp baking powder

Beat eggs and sugar until creamy. Add oil and beat. Add juice and extracts and beat. Add baking powder. Gradually add flour until it becomes a good dough consistency. Roll out and cut out circles. Fill with your favorite filling. Bake at 350 for approximately 10 minutes. Enjoy and happy Purim!!

Shehecheyanu & Strawberry Applesauce

The sun went down and the day turned to night. While it was dark outside, around the globe Jewish people were illuminating the world by lighting the first Chanukah candles.

With latkes sizzing in the pan, our family gathered to light the menorah for the first time this year. Levi and Shalom began by singing the first bracha, blessing, for the menorah. The first blessing thanks Hashem for giving us this special Mitzvah of lighting the Chanukah candles. They then continued on to recite the blessing which thanks Hashem for the miracles He performed for our people so many years ago - as well as for the miracles we see around us on a daily basis! The third blessing, "shehecheyanu", is the blessing said when we do a Mitzvah for the first time during the year, hence it is said on the first night of Chanukah, or on whichever night one lights candles for the first time on Chanukah.

We say, "blessed are You, Hashem, King of the Universe, who has granted us life, sustained us and enabled us to reach this occasion."

What a beautiful blessing this is! Amidst the fun of Chanukah, the pretty lights, the chocolate coins, the yummy latkes, the fluffy doughnuts, the dreidel games and of course the Chanukah gelt we give to our children, we take a moment and thank G-d for bringing us to this moment. Recently whenever I say this bracha it is a reminder to me of how truly blessed I really am. It reminds me of how lucky we really are that here we are once again, being afforded the opportunity to light the menorah and remember the miracles of long ago - and for this I am truly grateful.

We must recognize the importance of each moment that Hashem grants us, and follow the example of the flames on the menorah, and use these moments to light up the world. If G-d has chosen for me to be here today, then I must do my best to do good things and make this world a better place! Take each day and celebrate the beautiful miracle it is!

Happy Chanukah!

Last night we enjoyed our first latkes for Chanukah with strawberry applesauce. When I lived in my aunt's house in Brooklyn, she would make delicious strawberry applesauce, and this year I decided to do the same! This one is super easy!

Wash fresh strawberries and place in a food processor fitted with the chopping blade. Pulse a few times until the strawberries are processed and smooth. Add a jar of plain applesauce to the bowl and pulse a few more times until well blended. Chill in the fridge and enjoy!

Kreplach in Chicken Soup

Yom Kippur is almost here and my house is abuzz. Challah dough rising on the counter, lots and lots of chicken baking in the oven and two honey cakes are baking in the other oven - filling my house with a delicious scent of cinnamon. Levi kindly offered to go to the grocery store to buy the ingredients necessary for making the rest of our pre Yom Kippur meal - and so I have a few minutes to think and reflect..and share a recipe with you.

One of the foods I will be making will be "kreplach". What are kreplach you might ask? Kreplach resemble wontons and are filled with chopped chicken mixture and then either boiled, fried or baked - and are traditonaly eaten in chicken soup.

Believe it or not, I have eaten kreplach before Yom Kippur for years and years and years, but somehow never quite thought to ask why we eat them. So today I did a little researching on the matter. On a very simple level, the meat (chicken) inside of the kreplach symbolizes the severity of judgement - while the white dough on the outside symbolizes G-d's mercy. As we prepare for Yom Kippur by eating a special meal, we symbolically "cover" the severity with kindness. When we eat the kreplach it reminds us to ask of Hashem to sugarcoat anything harsh that may G-d forbid be in store and to envelope those things with mercy and kindness.

They can also serve as a reminder to each of us of how to deal with the people around us. They can remind us that instead of being quick to judge those we love and we could judge others favorably. Instead of reacting to the ones with love with harsh words, we can do our best to use kindness and passion. When Hashem sees us treating others in this fashion, I have no doubt that He will judge us favorably as well!

May it be the will of Hashem that each and every one of us be blessed and sealed for a wonderful year filled only with health and happiness and joy! May blessings be showered upon us with reckless abandon and may the only tears we cry be tears of joy and may we merit to see the coming of Moshiach in the very near future!

Gemar chatima tova!!!

Kreplach

Wonton wrappers
Cooked chicken  (I will use the chicken from my chicken soup.)
Oil
A small onion, minced
Salt
Pepper


Sautee the onion in a little bit of oil. Add in the cooked chicken (shredded or chopped) and season with salt and pepper (I might add some garlic too.) Sautee until just starting to slightly brown and remove from the pan. Place a small amount of the chicken mixture on a square wonton wrapper and fold over to form a triangle. Seal with the edges with a little bit of water. 

To cook: Either drop them into a pot of salted, boiling water, fry them  or bake until crisp at about 400 degrees. 

Enjoy!

(Photo credit to my cousin Rashi Weiss.)