Happy Chanukah!!!

We spent our morning shopping for food in Brooklyn and then hit the road to head home for the first night of Chanukah. (That is why Shalom spent the day in his pjs - his preferred travel attire.) While on the Eastern Shore of MD, we watched as the sun sunk into ground and our day turned into night. As soon as it was dark, Shalom made a big announcement that it was now Chanukah. Still being on the road, there wasn't much we could do to celebrate other than break in out in loud "Happy Chanukah" cheers - which we did with great gusto.

We finally arrived at home at around 7 pm..and having been in a car for my entire day, I suddenly found all sorts of energy. As Levi set up the Menorahs, Shalom and I danced around the house singing Chanukah songs! (So that you won't wonder - Mushky is far, far away having a blast in sleep over camp in Arizaon!) Once the Menorahs were lit, we did some more singing and dancing - and then we sat down for an unusual game of Dreidel. We decided to tally up our Gimmels - and whoever had the most after 15 minutes would win the prize...Shalom won by a landslide getting a Gimmel almost every time he gave the Dreidel a spin - Levi and I didn't even come close!

Next, I decided that it wouldn't be Chanukah without latkes...and I opted to do a little experiment and make Zucchini-Potato latkes (well, mostly zucchini). They turned out to be delicious - and when I told Shalom that I put zucchini in them, he tasted them and made sure to let me know that they were perfect and were just as good as "regular ones".

Happy Chanukah everyone!!

(PS...if you are in the 757 - make sure to come to the GIANT Menorah lighting in front of Waterside in Downtown Norfolk tomorrow night at 5:45 pm...lots of Chanukah fun to be had!!)

Zucchini - Potato Latkes


1 sweet onion
2 large zucchinis, unpeeled
2 medium size Russet potatoes
2 eggs
1 cup flour
A tiny  bit of white vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying


Peel onion and grind in a food processor fitted with a chopping blade. Pour onion into a mixing bowl. Remove the chopping blade and set up the food processor with the shredding/grating disc. Grate the two zucchinis  and add to the bowl. Switch the blades and put the chopping blade back in (of course you could do the potatoes first to avoid all the switching - but I wanted to do them last to keep my potatoes from turning grey.) Grind the potatoes until finely ground and add to the bowl. Pour in a tiny bit of vinegar - to help keep the mixture nice and white. Add in the eggs, flour and salt and pepper. 


Heat oil in an electric skillet (more even frying experience!) and drop the batter in by the spoonful (I use a small ladle.) Fry until crispy on one side and then flip. Remove to platter and enjoy!

Raspberry Rollups

Torah and Tea is one of the most fun parts of my week! Each week a group of "girls" get together for an hour of chitchat, treats and some Torah discussion. Taking a little break from my busy week to sit and shmooze with my friends is certainly loads of fun! Each week I put out my pretty box of teas, fill up the hot water pump and prepare some thought provoking qs to go with our summary of the weekly Parasha. Of course we always need something sweet to munch on - and so I make sure prep something yummy for us to enjoy!  The conversations are always lively - and I love that we are always able to draw comparisons between our own modern lives and those of the people we read about in the Torah. It's just a little reminder to me each week that while the Torah was written years and years ago - it is still super relevant to each of us!

Yesterday I decided it was time to bake something different for Torah and Tea. I got out my cookbooks and started to hunt for something interesting. A recipe for rugelach caught my eye in a very old cookbook (more about the cookbook another time.) I set to work on the recipe, but I quickly realized that something was off with the measurements and so I tweaked it a little and hoped for the best. Once the dough was set I took out a big jar of raspberry jam and got to work on filling my little pastries. I rolled them up and set them in the oven to bake.

When my "rugelach" were ready, I tasted one right away (the bit about not eating hot cakes is a myth - right?). I immediately realized that these cookies were not really rugelach, seems to have been the wrong kind of dough - but, whatever they were they were delicious! In my recipe files they are now known as "Raspberry Rollups".

PS: If you are local and would like to come check out a Torah and Tea session - just drop me an email and I'll get the details to you.

Raspberry Rollups


7 cups flour
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup oil
1 cup orange juice
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 teaspoons baking powder
Raspberry jam


Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients, except for the jam, and place in the refrigerator for about an hour. Pull out pieces of dough and roll into balls - then pat them down to flatten them. Place 1/2 a teaspoon of the jam on each flattened piece of dough. Roll up the cookies - and place them on a greased cookie sheet (seam side down to prevent them from opening). Bake on 350 for about 30 minutes.


Mine out came nice and soft and fluffy!

A Healthy Frosty Treat

As you may have figured out by now, I like to create yummy things to eat. If you would come visit my kitchen, you would also know that I love kitchen toys, gadgets and small appliances. After all, how many people do you know with two different stand mixers, two food processors (one is most certainly not enough in my kitchen!), a hand mixer, an immersion blender, a regular blender, a sorbet maker and a deep fryer to name the more popular pieces in my kitchen. 

At some point, Levi let me know that it would be ok if I didn't buy anymore toys for our kitchen for a while - I have no idea why he said that ;)

So I was pretty good and pretty much hadn't bought anything for my kitchen for quite sometime.....until I came across the "Yonanas" machine. Luckily Levi was with me and he too agreed we should buy it and try it out. 

The "Yonanas" machine is really an incredible addition to our kitchen. Using frozen bananas and other frozen fruits of your choice, it creates a delicious - soft serve textured - frozen dessert. The frosty creations it churns out have zero fat and no added sugar. Simplicity and deliciousness at its best!

Truth be told, we were a little skeptical about this so called "super cool treat maker" but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it really does work. All you need to do is peel ripened bananas (finally - a use for those spotted bananas!) and freeze them in a container. You will also need to purchase frozen fruits or freeze some of your fresh fruit. When you are ready for a treat, you simply put the machine together and let the bananas and fruits defrost a little. Then you simply throw the fruits down the shoot - alternating bananas with other fruits - and what do you know, it comes out nice and soft. 

My favorite combination is strawberries and bananas - with a little dollop of whipped cream on the top. 

Soooo...in a nutshell - if you want a healthy, delicious and easy frozen treat - the Yonanas is the perfect solution!

It's Monday...and time to figure out what my family will be eating this week....here is my plan for this week? What yummy foods will your family be eating this week?

Monday: Sweet potato soup, cornflake crumb coated chicken strips, garden salad, rotini with spinach

Tuesday: Sweet potato soup (with star pasta added today!), grilled chicken salad, roasted carrots

Wednesday: Tomato soup, baked salmon with cucumber dill sauce, garden salad, steamed broccoli

Thursday: Tomato soup, salmon croquettes, baked potatoes, garden salad

If you don't want to do any food thinking..u can always pick some things from our menu plan...a good number of the recipes are already featured in this blog...I plan to post the dill cucumber sauce later this week!

Happy cooking and eating!

A Pareve Dessert for Turkey Day!

When I need to go to the grocery store, I try to go during work and school hours so that it is not crowded. Following these guidelines, I never have to wait to checkout at my grocery store of choice. This week has been quite a different story. Finding a parking spot was a challenge - and each and every register in the store had a line to wait in.

 Pre-Thanksgiving rush I suppose. (It's a good thing the whole neighborhood isn't preparing 3 course meals for Shabbat each week - because then my grocery store would always be full!)

As you may know, I have taken a very part time teaching job at the local Hebrew Academy. I love my job and especially love the great conversations I have with my cute third graders. With Thanksgiving approaching, I decided it was a good time for a unit on Modeh Ani. We talked about how we say Modeh Ani each and every morning in order to thank G-d for returning our souls to us - and entrusting us with another day to fill with amazing acts of goodness and kindness. We then moved on to speaking about the many wonderful blessings we have in our lives, and each student listed some of the things they thank Hashem for in their lives. The direction of our lessons then moved on to the importance of gratitude in our lives. We spoke about the importance of thanking those that help us and even wrote thank you letters to some of the important people in our lives. To culminate the unit, we read "Rivkah's First Thanksgiving" by Elsa Oken Rael - this storybook is about a little girl who explains to her immigrant family that Thanksgiving is a holiday for all Americans - and how as Jews in America their family (and all of ours too!!!) has soooo much to be thankful in this wonderful country.

Having spent a good deal of time teaching discussing gratitude with my students - I can say that I have plenty to be grateful for - things like a great husband, two cute kids, health for my family and of course the means to live a comfortable life! Along with the serious thanks - I am also grateful for whipped cream and other yummy treats!

If you are still looking for a pareve dessert to go with your turkey...here is a recipe that I found in Quick and Kosher by Jamie Gellar - hard as it may be to believe, I pretty much followed the recipe in its entirety - and it was AMAZING!

Applesauce Cake with Whipped Cream 
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
12 oz. applesauce
2 eggs
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt (I skipped the salt - just because I always do)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cinnamon sugar (I certainly used more of this!)
1/2 cup non-dairy whipped topping (I made a whole container)


Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 pan. Combine the flour, sugar, oil, applesauce, eggs, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and vanilla extract in a bowl and mix well. (I used a hand mixer.) Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Pipe whipped topping onto each slice before serving. Enjoy!

What We Are Eating This Week...

Cornflake Crumb Coated Chicken Strips

In case you need a little inspiration for your meals this week...I am sharing my dinner menu for the week. If you take a look, you will see that they are pretty simple dinners to make and include a fair amount of veggies too!

Here is what my crew will be eating this week:

Monday: Veggie soup, hamburgers, mashed potatoes and a veggie stir fry (broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms and red peppers)

Tuesday: Veggie soup, grilled chicken sandwiches (everyone gets to pick their fav fillings!) and a garden salad

Wednesday: Cornflake crumb coated chicken strips (what a long name!), pasta with tomatoes and basil, green beans and a garden salad

Thursday: Zucchini-spinach soup, honey-soy glazed salmon, roasted peppers and brown rice

What are you eating this week?

Sweet & Sour Meatballs

In order for dinner not to get ignored in my very hectic life, I like to create a dinner menu for the week on Sundays. Sometimes I actually follow it, sometimes we end up with more leftovers than I anticipated and can skip some things in the menu plan - and sometimes our days just spin out of control and dinner is whatever I can create super fast with whatever is in my kitchen. While these meatballs aren't in this week's menu, we feasted on them last week.

I had decided that I was going to make some sweet and sour meatballs as there is a recipe for them that Levi LOVES! Knowing that my two cuties don't like the sweet and sour meatballs I normally make, I decided to get two pots of sauce going for the meatballs - one with traditional Italian style sauce and the other with the sweet and sour sauce.

I quickly got to work on the Italian style sauce and poured some tomato sauce into a small pot and added some spices. I then got to work on my sweet and sour sauce and sauteed an onion and then opened a can of cranberry sauce and added it to the pot. This was when I realized that the recipe I normally use needs a whole bunch of ketchup - except all I had was one tiny little bottle of ketchup that was almost empty - not nearly enough. (I love ketchup - no clue how we were on empty of this staple!)

I quickly realized that I didn't have enough tomato sauce to make the Italian style meatballs for the whole family - but on the other hand was missing a main ingredient for the sweet and sour meatballs - and that's when I decided to combine the two.

I emptied the pot of tomato sauce, which was seasoned with oregano and garlic and mixed it into the cranberry sauce with onions. I then finished it off by adding the rest of the ingredients needed for the sweet and sour sauce. I quickly rolled the meatballs and dropped them into the boiling sauce - and then waited for dinner to taste my experiment - I was happy to find that my new creation was amazing!

Sooo..here's the recipe for the meatballs in sweet and sour sauce!

Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Sauce: 
Canola oil
1 onion, diced
1 15 oz. can of jellied cranberry sauce
1 29 oz. can of Hunt's Tomato Sauce
A few squeezes of Heinz Ketchup
Brown sugar
Oregano
Garlic powder
A splash of rice vinegar


Sautee the diced onion in a small amount of canola oil. When onions are soft, add the cranberry sauce and mix well. Add the can of tomato sauce, ketchup, oregano, garlic, brown sugar and a splash of rice vinegar. Make sure to mix the sauce frequently so that all of the ingredients become a smooth sauce. Bring to a boil - add meatballs - bring back to a boil and then lower the flame and allow to finish cooking. 


Meatballs:
1 lb ground beef (I use extra lean)
1 egg
A few tablespoons of cornflake crumbs
A few squirts of ketchup
Garlic powder


Mix all ingredients together - shape into meatballs and place in boiling sauce.