Do you know what it feels like...

We are in a state of war.  If you can, try to imagine for one moment what it feels like to know that there is an enemy who wants nothing less than to eradicate each and every one of us from the face of the earth, for no reason other than our existence.  This is how it plays out in our lives.

Things I am not doing:
- relaxing
- letting my mind wander
- getting rid of my headache
- staying away from my Facebook newsfeed for very long
- posting pictures of cakes and cookies on my Facebook page
- appreciating any light and fluffy posts or pictures, from either side of the ocean
- taking long, luxurious showers
- driving without paying 1000% attention to where it might be safe to pull over in case of a siren
- playing music loudly in the car
- walking into a store without checking where the safe area is
- wearing clothes that would look terrible afterwards if I had to lie down at the side of the road
- sleeping soundly
- letting my phone battery run down
- forgetting about the hideous, painful loss of our three boys
- caring what left leaning politicians and bigmouths have to say

Things I am doing:
- loving my family, my community, my nation for how amazing, thoughtful, caring you all are
- appreciating the hard work everyone is doing to take care of one another and keep spirits up
- finding extra meaning in every prayer
- mourning our lost soldiers, Hashem yikom damam
- feeling horrified at the level and intensity of anti-Semitism around the globe, and wondering why more Jews are not coming home
- welling up with pride at the 228 North American Olim who came home today, part of 1300 Olim in the last week
- continuing to help families celebrate their milestones with cakes and cookies, including marking the induction of their sons into the army, may Hashem protect them all and bring them home safely
- sharing whatever news I can with my friends and family
- feeling responsible to make sure the truth of what is taking place here gets out into the world
- using my words to challenge bias
- working to keep our family's life as normal as possible
- being grateful that despite it all, there is nowhere in the world I would rather be

Am Yisrael Chai!

There are no words, and yet...

 

How is it that in a time where the unspeakable is taking place, I feel thoughts pouring out of me?

On Friday morning, we started to receive information - actually, my teenagers did first - that some boys from the surrounding area were missing.  Teenaged boys, heading home Thursday night from high school for Shabbat, never made it to their own homes, to their own beds. A gag order on the press didn't prevent all sorts of wild rumors from being circulated throughout social media, heroic tales, stories with happy endings and some less so.  Time seemed to freeze at that point.  Since Friday, all we can do here is think about "our" boys, Eyal, Naftali, and Gil-Ad, and their families.  Are they alive?  Who has them?  Where are they?  Are they scared?  Are they together, or have they been separated?  Have they been given any food, any water? Are they in the dark? Are they cold, or too hot? Is their faith sustaining them?

Social media has been the new variable in all of this.  The #Bringbackourboys campaign is getting wide support, but also lots of hate from leftists and anti-Israel activists.  I type the hashtag like a prayer, hoping against hope that it will make a difference. The international media, while barely seeing fit to mention the kidnapping, refers to them as "seminary students" or "settlers," as if that justifies the evil act of stealing children.  I look at my Facebook news feed, and I wonder, how does anyone have anything to say or do that is not related to these boys?  I feel resentment at the posts celebrating birthdays, graduations, the art of the selfie. I want everyone, EVERYONE, to be sharing prayers and photos, reminding the world about these three innocent boys, and their unbelievably strong and inspirational families.

It is often said that it is important to maintain routine when "something like this" happens, so as not to give in to the terrorists.  But I hate that idea.  I want us to think of them all the time.  I don't want to go back to routine, as if to say that we should get used to this reality because a resolution could take a lot of time and life must continue on.  NO!! I want them home with parents who no longer have to wonder about the terror their sons are experiencing.  I want them home tonight.

And so I can't bring myself to post any work pictures.  Right now, that feels like giving in.  When they come home, whole and healthy, then there will be cake, and time for celebration, but right now, let's just pray for their homecoming, and do whatever little we can to help make that happen.

Blintzes like Bubby's

I can't help but think of food when I think of my grandparents.  I guess that's normal.  Though you might not know it to look at some of my family members, we are a very food oriented group.  If you ask my mom how a simcha or Shabbat was, you will likely get the full menu as a response, along with a thoughtful critique.  My camera and phone have as many or more pictures of food than of my family (I know, shame on me...).  And my dear husband and I have grocery shopping as our regular date, just the two of us, along with our favorite cashier, produce guy, and the repeating cast of characters on our same shopping schedule.  Very romantic.

Food does carry strong memory triggers.  I remember my cousin Jomo's bar mitzvah (31 years ago!) not just for the wonderful family time and the Rocky Mountain tourist experiences, but for the food: my first encounter with honey-mustard chicken - made with Plochman's mustard; using oatmeal as a binder for hamburgers; and experiencing a simcha where the baalat simcha (my aunt) did most of the cooking.  I remember attending my friend's wedding, when I was in my first trimester with my oldest daughter, and though I was overwhelmed with (not just in the) morning sickness most of the time, the stir-fried vegetables with ginger made me feel better and made me want to learn to cook with ingredients I had not used before.  (I can't believe I was ever so young or culinarily limited that I thought ginger was an exotic spice!)

My strongest food memory of my father's mother, my Florida Bubby, was making chremslach (deep fried potato puffs) with her on Pesach mornings, before the yom tov lunch.  We used a Mouli grater to shred the cooked potatoes - leftover from the karpas - and then mixed in salt and beaten eggs, always judging the recipe by feel to see if we had added the right amount.  Then we would deep fry the dumplings in a deep pot of nasty Pesach oil, and eat them with cherry jam, sour cream, or salt.

The irony of my food memories, though, is that many of them are idealized.  I have such warm feelings toward spending the time with my Bubby and making the chremslach, but absolutely no desire to make or eat them myself, now.  I would rather go to shul than be "enslaved" to the kitchen on Pesach, and deep frying is not my friend.  I remember my New Jersey Bubby's (Bubby Sarah) chicken soup as the all time best, but I am not sure if it was as delicious as I remember, or if I had always been striving to make mine as good as something that wasn't real.

There are a few foods like that with Bubby Sarah - her honey chiffon cake, rolash (like a babka), rugelach, cherry cake.  Maybe even her blintzes.  I loved her blintzes.  Bubby made a sweet, heftier-than-most blintz leaf with a delicious farmer cheese filling.  She also made potato blintzes with the same sweet bletlach, which, honestly, were kind of weird.  Don't try it at home. At some point, it must have been that someone she respected and admired told Bubby that adding some orange marmalade to the cheese blintz filling would make them taste even better.  They were wrong, but the bitter orange was always there from that point on.

Eventually, when the supply line of frozen blintzes she gave me started to slow down, I asked Bubby for her recipe.  In her inimitable half-English, half-Yiddish style, she told me to put four eggs in the blender, then half a blender of miluch (milk), a few spoons of tzucker (sugar), a little oil, a "glayzel" (meaning glass, literally the glass cup that had formerly housed a yahrzeit candle) of flour, a bissel zaltz (salt).  For the filling, take half of the giant brick of farmer cheese that my Zeidy would bring from the wholesaler ("Don't buy it yourself, Dvoyraleh, it's too expensive"), and add eggs and sugar.

It took a little work to make a recipe with measurements out of those instructions.  But I managed to develop it into something that is more or less her blintzes, and I am sharing with you today, if you managed to get all the way to the bottom of the page with all my reminiscing.  I guess I am trying to make up for a year of bloggy silence...

Bubby Sarah's Blintzes
Yields 22-24 blintzes

Ingredients
For leaves:
6 eggs
2 1/4 cups milk
6 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 cups flour
pinch salt
a teaspoon of vanilla (I have that on the written instructions, though I find it hard to believe Bubby used it!)

Combine the ingredients in a blender jar and mix until fully combined.  You may want to let it rest for a few hours before frying the leaves, but then again, you might not.

Filling:
2 pounds of farmer cheese (in Israel, 1 kilo of Tuv Taam or C'naan cheese.  I had only 3/4 of a kilo of Tuv Taam, so I added in cottage cheese to make up the difference.
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup sugar
cinnamon, to taste
vanilla, to taste

Combine all ingredients well.  My bubby used to mash the cheese with a potato masher, but if you don't have a dairy one (or you get old and flaky and forget that detail), you can just mix with a spoon or fork.

Heat a nonstick skillet or crepe pan over medium heat.  Lightly oil (I wipe the pan with a paper towel dipped in a bit of canola oil - before beginning to fry, and after every couple of leaves. Use about 1/4 cup of batter for each leaf, swirling to cover the entire surface. Cook until the top is dry and slightly inflated in spots from underneath. There is no need to fry the other side! Remove to a plate. 

Repeat, stacking the leaves, until all the batter is used.  When you are done, flip the stack.  Just trust me - it makes the leaves easier to deal with.

Lay a leaf down, brown side up, on a large plate or board.  Place a couple of spoonfuls of filling in a line on the leaf, about and inch and a half up from the bottom edge, filling only the center third of the leaf.  It should look like a face with an unsmiling mouth (no eyes).  Fold up the bottom edge to cover the cheese, then fold over the sides like you are making an envelope.  Roll up from the bottom to create your blintz shape.  Repeat until all the leaves and/or filling is gone, whichever comes first.

You can individually wrap the blintzes at this point and freeze them, or you can fry them immediately.

Fry over medium low heat until golden brown on each side. 

Allow to cool for a couple of minutes to let the cheese set up, then enjoy!!

Tortilla Soup, Ole! Plus May Kosher Connection Recipe Linkup

This month's Kosher Connection theme is croutons.  Croutons are delicious, crunchy, fun to eat, generally not so good for you.  But I love them - who doesn't, really?  There is nothing yummier than homemade croutons: a diced loaf of crusty bread, tossed with butter or oil and amazing seasonings, toasted until perfectly crisp on the outside, with a little chew on the inside, so delicious and addictive, and then you put them in some incredibly flavorful soup or a beautiful salad, mmmmm...

Sorry, distracted.  Where was I again?  Oh, yeah, right.  I figure that as a baker, I contribute to not such healthy eating for some folks, so I have to be more careful when it comes to the courses preceding dessert.  That's why I went with a lighter style crouton - tortilla crisps.  No frying here, and the only added fat is cooking spray.  No seasoning is added, though still delicious.  And they top off a bold and hearty soup, which, oddly enough, is beloved by every single member of my family.  How often does that happen?!

Tortilla Soup

Tortilla Crisps
Ingredients:
3 flour tortillas
Cooking Spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray both sides of the tortillas with a light coating of cooking spray.  Cut tortillas into 1/2" by  1 1/2" strips.  Spread into a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake for 5 - 10 minutes, tossing about 3 minutes through for even cooking.  Remove from oven when they are toasted and LIGHTLY colored.  Set aside to cool.

Soup
Ingredients:
2 medium onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
canola oil
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 yellow pepper, diced
1 green hot pepper, ribs and seeds removed, finely diced (be super careful about touching anything after dicing the hot peppers! Keep your hands away from your eyes, nose, mouth, children... And even if you wear gloves, remember that the cutting board may retain the spicy heat, so be careful when you wash it)
14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon each salt, cumin, and chili powder (the seasoning amounts are very subjective - feel free to adjust to your preference!)
8 cups chicken stock (use water and chicken soup powder in a pinch) + 1 cup water
1 cup frozen corn
2 chicken breasts, diced
1 can black, kidney, or chili beans, drained and rinsed

Saute onions and garlic in a small amount of canola oil until onions and translucent and tender. Add in red, yellow, and hot peppers and saute for 2 more minutes, until beginning to soften. Add in the tomatoes (drained or not, depending if you prefer a redder or less red soup, really not that important unless you have a child who only likes yellow soup. I wish I had made that up, but yeah, got one or two of those.), and seasoning and stir. Then add in chicken stock and water and bring just to a boil and then lower. Allow to simmer for about 20-25 minutes. Add in frozen corn and diced chicken and simmer for about 10 minutes, then add in drained beans and simmer until everything is just heated through.  Adjust seasoning and serve, sprinkling each bowl with a handful of tortilla crisps.  Serve additional crisps on the side, because they're so good.

And when you've had your fill of this delicious soup, check out what all the other talented cooks have contributed to this month's linkup!

So, Purim... what did we do?

Purim has come and gone.  A great time was had: megillah well read, matanot l'evyonim given, mishlochei manot distributed and received, a wonderful seudah with good friends enjoyed.  So I am sure you are all wondering - what did the Cookie Creators give for Mishloach Manot?  There's only so long you can rely on the old "we can't top it so why try" theory.  But in the interest of Shalom Bayit and sleep, there's a limit on what you can actually produce in addition to order.  What to do, what to do?

This year, of course, Purim is (was) a Sunday.  We had to work that in somehow, and I thought a fun way would be with a cookie decorated with an edible image of the Sunday comics.  There is not much we miss more than having a Sunday, and with that the Sunday paper, especially the funny pages.  From there, it was not too complicated.  We made cinnamon buns and banana chocolate chip muffins, packaged up egg shaped gummy candies, and threw in an orange.  Pop the comics cookie on top, and you've got a pretty decent mishloach manot.

Of course, we won't mention the fact that I am not a big yeast baker, and I have never made cinnamon buns before.  Or that I thought I would be really clever and somewhat healthy with my first attempt.  The lesson I learned was that fat is added for a reason, and that reason is deliciousness.  Just deal with it.  So my second attempt was far more successful, and, thus, went in the packages.  Maybe someday the experience will provide fodder for another post...

 

Shana tied the whole thing together with a label that sent the message of "Enjoy your Sunday brunch, from the sunny side-up eggs and baked goods down to the fresh squeezed orange juice (you'll have to squeeze it yourself) and the comics, and have a great Purim."  There were, naturally, a few glitches.  We ran out of cookies at some point, and the oranges too, and then had to juggle a bit to make complete packages.  It was not all perfect, though it was fun.  But overall, we were happy, and we survived another year.

 

 

Happy Purim to one and all!

 

Dvora

Ridiculous Hot Dog Cookies for Purim - and Kosher Connection Recipe Linkup

Purim is a happy, carefree holiday.  If you're a kid, that is.  Costumes, candy, parties, and the cessation of education for at least two weeks.  It's awesome. 

But I get stressed out by this holiday, though I didn't used to.  I finally understood what my problem was recently, when a friend spelled it out for me.  You see, three years ago, we made awesome mishloach manot.  And I can't ever top it, so now I have put myself in a position where expectations are high, and I let everyone, especially myself, down when I give a lame old MM.

So what was so great about that year's MM?  Well, I finally relented and went with a theme beyond "it's Purim, here's some food."  Our theme was fast food, and everything (almost) was cookies and cake.  We made hamburgers,

hot dogs,

French fries with ketchup,

ice cream sundaes,

and chocolate milk - okay, that was real. And if I can't ever live the experience down, well, maybe you can share in my suffering as I share the recipe for the hot dog cookies.  They were bookmarked in my browser in a file called "ridiculous," which, obviously, they are, but you never know when a recipe like this could come in handy.  (I don't actually hve any ideas right now for when that could be, but I am sure they'll come to me.)  So I throw down the gauntlet: make these cookies for your Mishloach Manot, but keep in mind that they will impress your friends and and then everyone will expect to be wowed next year too!

As for me, I am sure we will come up with something, but if you have any great ideas for a theme for us that's not too complicated, we'd love to hear it!

Hot Dog Cookies
Adapted from TLC

Ingredients:
150 grams softened margarine (1 1/2 sticks or 3/4 cup)
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
red gel food coloring
1/2 teaspoon cocoa
Yellow and/or red buttercream frosting or royal icing

Directions:
Cream margarine with sugars.  Beat in egg yolk.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Remove 1/3 of the dough and knead in a small amount of the red gel food color and the cocoa. Chill both sections well, at least a few hours or overnight.  Remove the uncolored dough, leaving the rest in the fridge, and divide into approximately 12 pieces.  Form each one into a long cylinder, then use the side of your hand to form an indentation (mimicking the shape of a hot dog bun).  Divide the colored dough into 12, and form each piece into a hot dog shape, then place each one in a "bun."

Chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 350.  Bake for 15-17 minutes, until "buns" are lightly browned on the edges. 

When fully cool, put your frosting or icing in a decorating bag with a small round tip, and apply a squiggle of "mustard" or "ketchup" or both.  If you are so inclined, you can use things like cut-up gummy candies and shredded coconut to add "relish" or "onions."  With or without the additions, they will be adorable. Enjoy!

 

Wishing you all a happy and joyous Purim - and fun with the preparations!

And now for some real Mishloach Manot inspiration, check out the rest of this month's Kosher Connection recipes!

Sacher Torte Sandwiches - January Kosher Connection Recipe Linkup

I was trying to be super-creative for this one, trying to think outside the box.  I mean, I love miniatures.  I make mini-desserts, I love when foods are made single serving, what's not to love.  But then I realized two important things. One, my brain does not work in a straight line.  I don't really think a box could contain the leaps and bounds and stretches my mind makes when I think about things.  Second, I am always making miniatures.  What are cookies if not miniature desserts?

So instead of something totally different, I thought I would share my process with you.  This is how Dvora's Cookie Creations comes up with a new flavor.

1.  Have a food craving.
2.  If it's healthy, indulge it.
3.  If it's for something sweet, think about how the flavors I am dying for can be translated into a cookie form.

That's it.  There's not much of that "Cupcake Wars" notion of how can I fit a disgusting ingredient into a dessert.  I draw the line at that.  No cheese curls or crispy salmon skin in my desserts.  But this concept of translation has worked for me.  Thus, the orange-cranberry-white chocolate cookies (started with Creamsicles), the apricot white chocolate cookies (chocolate dipped dried fruit), the pecan shortbread (pecan pie), the samoa sandwiches (Girl Scout cookies), the Chunky Monkey bars (ice cream!! - still working on the Chubby Hubby squares), and today's example, the Sacher Torte sandwich.

So let's talk cake for a minute.   I love cake of all kinds.  It's delicious, or should be.  But there's so much of it.  Even a little 6-inch cake is too many servings to just have lying around.  A cookie, however, is portion-controlled.  You can make some, freeze the rest of the dough, eat one, and put the other cookies aside for Shabbat or another occasion that calls for some dessert.

Sacher Torte is a traditional Austrian pastry; two layers of chocolate sponge sandwiching apricot preserves, covered in chocolate glaze.  Mmmmm.  So to translate this into cookie-hood, I decided to go the sandwich cookie route (which, let's face it, I do a lot of.  It just seems a great way to layer flavors and textures.).  I started with a chocolate but not excessively chocolatey roll out cookie, to which I added almond extract - not so authentic, but definitely screams Vienna to me.  I wanted one with a fair amount of leavening, so the cookies would puff up to resemble the texture (sort of) of sponge cake.  I cut the well-chilled dough into circles, cutting out a small circle from the center of half of the cookies to provide a window into the filling. 

After baking, I paired off the cookies, one solid and one with a peek-through, so that similar sized cookies fit together.  It's one of those annoyances that even cookies cut with a cutter are never all precisely the same, so it's just gotta be done.  I covered the backs of the solid cookies with apricot preserves, then topped them with the cut-out cookies.  Instead of coating the whole thing with chocolate, I chose to drizzle a zig-zag of chocolate across the cookies, as I felt a complete or even partial dunking would overpower the apricot and almond flavors.  And a drizzle is always pretty...

So there you have it, an actual cookie recipe from me.  It doesn't happen too often, so enjoy!

Sacher Torte Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients:
200 grams margarine, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

good quality apricot preserves
100 grams chocolate chips or baking chocolate
1 teaspoon oil

Directions:
Cream margarine with sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla.  Sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt, and add to creamed mixture.  Divide dough into three disks, wrap each in plastic wrap, and chill well, at least one hours.  Preheat oven to 350 F.  Roll out dough on well-floured surface, about 1/8" thick. using a 2" round cutter, cut circles.  Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Gather up scraps and re-roll.  Cut out a small (1/3 - 1/2") circle from the center of half the cookies.  Bake for about 7 minutes.  Cool and pair cookies, one whole and one cut-out, by matching sizes.  On the underside of the whole cookies, spread apricot preserves.  Top with a cut-out cookie.  Spread cookies out on a fresh piece of parchment.  Melt chocolate with oil in microwave on low power.  Pour into a disposable decorating bag or heavy duty ziploc bag.  Twist shut, and cut off tip/corner.  Drizzle chocolate onto cookies.  Let chocolate set, and - b'tayavon!

I can cook in Israel, and I'm proud (but it wasn't easy!).

When we made aliyah over six years ago, I knew there would be a lot of things to get used to: the language, the culture, the geography.  Little did I know that one of the biggest hurdles would be the supermarket.  (Cue ominous music here...dun,dun, DUNNNNNH) Without a bit of exaggeration, my first supermarket trip left me in tears and a desire to run back to ShopRite.  It is worth mentioning that the particular store I went to was probably a mistake, though I was sent there with the best of intentions.  It is not a local store, and it is not a normal chain for the country.  While it has a great supply of American products, it otherwise offers all the worst that the country can boast - horrific parking, poor organization, crowded aisles, lousy customer service, cashiers who take a sandwich break in the middle of your check-out.  And did I mention that in this country, you need a five shekel coin to release a cart from the chain that attaches it to its compatriots?  Kind of wish someone had before we went to the store. That started things off with a bang. The rest of the shopping expedition was no better.

But now it's 2013, and the sorrows of 2006 are mostly gone, though not forgotten.  The supermarket situation has improved radically since our arrival.  Between all that I have learned and all that has changed, I feel good going to the store now.  I have been privileged of late to be able to contribute to Jamie Geller's Joy of Kosher website, and some of my articles have included tips on adjusting your baking and cooking to the new environment.  This month's article includes helpful substitutions for some absent ingredients, and two recipes - Magic Salt, which is a copycat Seasoned Salt recipe, but with less salt, and Old Fashioned Sweet and Sour Meatballs, which is a classic recipe that represents absolute comfort food to me, yet offered a challenge because the basic ingredient for my sauce, canned tomato sauce, was not available here.  I hope you enjoy both the article and the recipes, no matter where you live.

But an article can include only so much information, so I wanted to include a few of the things that I learned, some the hard way, when it comes to produce shopping in Israel.  I have also learned that what I am writing is generally true for the country, but specifically for my area.  There may be some variations if you live in a different zone.

1.  Produce is seasonal!  I cannot stress this one enough.  It is not a matter of being willing to pay for out of season fruits and vegetables.  They are just not available.  Make use of what is beautiful, and pay attention to the prices.  A low price can mean one of two things: the produce is beautiful and plentiful, or it is nasty and should be avoided, even though it is unusually well priced.  This happens a lot with peppers, but can also be true of other items.

2.  Israelis do not know what good fresh corn or green beans are.  I am sorry, I don't mean to generalize or be prejudiced, it's just a sad truth.  They have not been exposed to the deliciousness that these vegetables can be.  Corn on the cob here is not what we got back in the Garden State - sweet, juicy, delicious - but is starchy and blah.  Just skip it.  Frozen corn is somewhat better, and so is (egads!) canned, but the fresh will just make you sad.

Same with green beans.  Fresh are starchy and icky.  We have been much happier with frozen, though that too will occasionally disappoint.  They are delicious roasted, steamed, or sauteed, and are available frozen both cut and whole, and even haricot verts, called "adina" (delicate) or "dak meod" (very thin).

3. Parsnips - fuggedaboutit! Parsnips were a mainstay of my chicken soup back in the States, but no more.  They really don't exist here.  My soup has had a radical transformation since we moved.  We make a veggie heavy soup, which includes, in addition to the staples of carrot, onion, garlic, and zucchini, along with the fresh dill and parsley that we always used, chunks of kohlrabi and pumpkin, butternut squash and/or sweet potato. On occasion I will include a whole tomato, particularly if I am making a Teimani version, which is made delicious with hawaij l'marak, a spice mix for soup which includes seasonings like turmeric, cumin, black pepper, and cardamon. (Don't confuse this with hawaij l'cafe, a spice mix for your coffee!) 
Celery is one of those surprisingly seasonal items which we add in only when it is worth buying - it ranges from sturdy and lovely to thin and limp.  And the celery stalks you are used to, they are called Celery Amerikai (American Celery), so don't confuse that with Celery Root.

4. Avocados - different, but still good.  Also a seasonal item, we never get the Haas avocadoes that we were accustomed to in the States.  The variety available here can be pretty hit or miss, sometimes failing to ripen, sometimes going mushy before your eyes.  But when they're good, they're very good.

5. Even apples have their off-season.  Lately, the apples in have been mealy and not particularly tasty.  The price is low (as I mentioned before), so apple sauce, pie, or cobbler is not a bad idea. Also, apple varieties are available sporadically.  So if you love you some Pink Ladies, if you see them on the shelf, grab a giant bagful because they may not be there again for a while.  In fact, that is a pretty good piece of advice for pretty much anything you see in the stores here.  You can't bank on most things being there on your next trip, so learn to stock up on things you don't want to live without.

I may add to this list as additional items occur to me, so feel free to leave any comments or questions so this can be as helpful as possible!

Dvora

A Christmas Story - and Kosher Connection Recipe Links

Maybe this post is not what it sounds like from the title.  No need for worry.  It's still a kosher blog.  But December 25 is a significant date for me: nineteen years ago today, I became a mother.  And it was all thanks to Chinese food.

Well, not exactly. Let's review.  It's Thursday, December 23, 1993.  I am over a week late with our first child.  I spend a lot of time going back and forth to the doctor.  The only report: there is no progress, and I will be going for yet another ultrasound on Friday.  On Thursday night, we have Chinese food (from Annie's Kitchen, where David had been the mashgiach).  I eat hot and sour soup (the best!), and then have no room for anything else, thanks to the giant baby taking up all the space in my stomach. I do open a fortune cookie, which tells me I will be having a pleasant experience.  Hmmm....

On Friday, we head to the ultrasound, where the doctor discovers that there is very little amniotic fluid left, and, in his words, "It's time to make the doughnuts."  Next stop, the hospital.  The ultrasound there tells us that the baby will be well over 8 pounds (my doctor says "Bah, humbug, not a shade over 7 1/2").  A quick exam lets us know that in the hours since the hot and sour soup, I have gone into labor.  The spicy deliciousness has done its job!  And I am going home because it is likely that labor will proceed faster when I can walk around, rather than be stuck in a hospital bed.

So home we go, and we learn that science is deeply flawed.  I walk around a lot, my contractions stop entirely, I have no more hot and sour to rev things up, and Shabbat morning we are back in the hospital to deliver a baby who must come out immediately.  Fast forward several hours, "It's a GIRL!"  (which we knew, accidentally, but it's still exciting to say).  She was 8 pounds, 9 ounces (Bah, humbug to you, Doc!). So we have our Christmas baby, who was supposed to be a Chanukah baby, but she had other ideas.  On the plus side, the hospital was very empty, and the lovely Jewish residents were happy to have something to do.  On the minus, my frum OB/GYN was on vacation.  Oy, the irony.

Thus the long standing tradition of Jews eating Chinese food on Christmas.  Perhaps that yiddishe mamma Mary had some too, to get things revving up for her manger delivery.

This month's Kosher Connection Recipe Linkup is Chinese Food. I would like to think it's in honor of the nineteenth birthday of my daughter/ decorating assistant/ indentured servant Shana, and the food that helped bring her to us.  Thanks for helping us celebrate!  While this month seems to have been a bit too intense for us to contribute a recipe - my advice, go buy some Chinese take-out, which is what we will be doing on the 25th - here are some great recipes from the other contributors, and we hope to be back next month.  B'tayavon!

Bread Pudding - November Kosher Connection Recipe Linkup

 

The theme for this month's linkup is Thanksgiving related - Stuffing.  The gauntlet was definitely thrown down for us dessert-y people, so I felt that I could not get away with another savory, defiantly non-dessert recipe.  I let my mind run amok, as it is wont to do anyway, and went on a whole stream of consciousness adventure.  Stuffed cookies, stuffed cupcakes, a cake with something fabulous hidden in the middle....the possibilities seemed endless.  But then work got intense, and the world got scary.  Elections, hurricanes, nor'easters - and none of that even where we live!  And now, we are embroiled in an unfortunate but utterly necessary military operation, and the world is a little scarier and colder place than it was before.

So the drifting in my brain became focused on two things: 1. the universal need for comfort food, and 2. figuring out what the sweet counterpart to savory stuffing would be.  Well, duh, if stuffing is stale bread with liquids, vegetables, and seasoning, then the sweet version is bread pudding!!  And let's be honest, call it challah kugel and serve it as a side-dish; call it bread pudding and it's dessert (yummy with Creme Anglaise!!).  And if you want to go all out, serve it for breakfast with some maple syrup and it's a fabulous French Toast souffle.  I get raves for this dish, especially from my family, who fight over the last piece...

Is it a side dish?  A dessert? Breakfast? Brunch? All of the above!!

Like almost all recipes I present to you, this is just a launching pad - feel free to change up the dried or fresh fruit components, or leave them out altogether.  Use any leftover challah you have, though I am partial to my own recipe, which happens to have a very soft crust, making it less crucial to trim the challah.  Make the seasoning more exotic, like cardamom and ginger, or more homey, with nutmeg and cloves in addition to the cinnamon.  Make the dish bigger, make it smaller, just incrementally adjust the amount of bread and the amount of custard.  This is a rather rustic looking dish, so don't sweat making it look perfect.  Just enjoy!

Sweet Bread Pudding
Ingredients:
8 cups cubed day-old challah, crusts removed
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced
1/2 cup raisins
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch salt
2 cups soy milk or non-dairy creamer or a combination of the two (use real dairy milk for a milchig/chalavi version)

Directions:
Toss the challah cubes with the diced apple and raisins.  Place in a greased oven to table baking pan.

Beat together the eggs with the sugar until the sugar is fully dissolved.  Add in the the vanilla, cinnamon, and salt, then slowly whisk in the soy milk or creamer to make a custard mixture. Pour this custard over the challah cubes, making sure to evenly distribute it.

Press down lightly to make sure all of the cubes were moistened.  Turn the oven on to 350 and let the challah soak while it preheats. 

Bake for about 45 - 50 minutes, until top is lightly browned.

Enjoy!

Now before I send you to see all the other delicious contributions to this month's link-up, please keep in your minds, hearts, and prayers the brave soldiers of the IDF, as well as the residents of the South of Israel, and the entire Home Front.  May we all be blessed to live in peace and security.

Dvora

Working means watching

If you have read this blog before, you know that from time to time, I wax rhapsodic about television.  I love TV, I admit it.  I am enthralled by the condensing of narrative into 42 (or 21 funny) minutes.  It's about all my attention span can handle.  I have several movies waiting for me to watch them, some for months now, but the idea of 1 1/2 hours of straight storytelling is a bit daunting.

I am really, really busy, these days, Baruch Hashem.  I should be working right now, putting cookies in the oven, but I was setting up a show to watch and got excited by the idea of letting you know what new shows I am enjoying (somehow, people know to ask me for TV recommendations, so here goes, in print).

Elementary - modern Sherlock Holmes retelling
Vegas - the mobbing up of the desert in the 1960s
Arrow - CW + comic book hero = same winning combination as Smallville, but darker
Mindy Project - uneven, but I love her
Apartment 23 - love watching Dawson lampoon himself

And not new:
Firefly - ten years old, just found it, sad that it had such a short lifespan (how did I miss it?  Loved Buffy, think Whedon is awesome!)
Mad Men - started downloading episodes 5 years ago, finally got around to watching.  So much fun to identify the guest stars by their other roles, while being thrown off by vintage clothes and hair
Top Chef - only kind of reality show I really enjoy
Homeland - so, so good, not much more to say, except yay to Israeli creativity!
Parks and Recreation - Amy Poehler, you rock!
Fringe - overwhelming final season, but sticking it out (PLEASE don't pull a Lost on me!)
The Middle, Modern Family, Suburgatory - genius line-up
Bones, Castle, Grey's Anatomy, The Office, Scandal, Covert Affairs, going to stop now before I embarrass myself any further.

Okay, I think that's enough.  Feel free to leave your recommendations or protests in the comments.  I suppose I will get back to the work of baking - and of course, watching TV.

Shavua tov!
Dvora

Orange Soup - Kosher Connection Recipe Linkup

Ahh, root vegetables.  This month's theme brings to mind autumn.  Caramelized roasted vegetables, hearty stews, warming soups.  It all sounds wonderful, like fall foliage, roaring fires, warm slippers, and fleece blankets.

Well, it would, if only we actually had a fall season here.  It's still very much summer outside, with today's forecast hitting around 90.  The A/C is on, flip-flops are the footwear of preference, and it's too warm to think about running the oven or standing over the stove for a long time.

And yet, my family is still a bunch of soup lovers.  We have chicken soup each and every Friday night of the year.  One daughter even enters the house on a regular basis with the delightful greeting, "Did you make soup?  Oh, no?  (insert sad and pensive face here)... Maybe I'll make some myself (put upon look)."  Oh, my poor sweetie, I was too busy eating bon-bons and polishing my toenails, while the elves were busy taking care of the housework and running my business.  But I digress...

So tonight we are having soup, and so can you, whether it's autumnal or or not (yet).  "Orange soup" is an Israeli classic, a pureed soup made of a variety of orange vegetables.  It can be sweet or savory, depending on the other components, from the added vegetables to the seasonings.  This version, which in its original form came from my friend Shoshana, is an easy and delicious addition to your table any time.  It stars carrots and sweet potatoes, along with pumpkin, zucchini, onions, and garlic.  It tastes great and it's not so heavy that you feel overheated just from eating it.  There is no sauteeing, no hard work aside from peeling and cutting.  And it cooks rather quickly (easy enough for a teenager to put together after school!).  Shoshana makes this in a meaty version, browning some stew meat before adding the other ingredients, and then removing the meat and some of the carrot slices before pureeing.  Because we love to have soup on hand all the time, I turned this into a pareve version, adding a bit of cumin for a smoky, beefy background flavor.  If you have beef flavored soup powder, it is a tasty enhancement, but we just don't find it too often on the grocery shelves in our part of the world.  For a special accent, you can add knaidlach, which makes this extra-enticing for my youngest child, who believes all things are better with matzah balls. Garlic croutons are great with this as well.  Feel free to play with the quantities and proportions of vegetables to suit your taste and your refrigerator!

Orange Soup

Ingredients:
2 onions
1 head garlic (If you are fresh garlic-phobic, you can add in a few frozen cubes instead)
4 carrots
2 zucchini
2 sweet potatoes
small chunk pumpkin (optional)
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon beef soup powder (optional)
several shakes cumin

Directions:
Peel and chop onions, carrots, zucchini, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin.  Peel cloves of garlic.  Place all ingredients into stockpot, and add water to cover.

That's it, all the hard work is done!

 

Bring to a boil, then simmer until vegetables are very tender.  Puree with an immersion blender. 

To add knaidlach:
NOTE - these are not the matzah balls we add to the Friday night chicken soup.  Those are delicate things of beauty, with a carefully combined batter that gets a rest in the refrigerator to let the matzah meal absorb the other ingredients.  It is then gently rolled into balls and dropped into a pot of boiling water flavored with salt and chicken boullion, and cooked until perfectly round, light, and fluffy.  These are not them.  These are rustic knaidlach, a little chewier and heartier, quickly mixed and dropped into the simmering soup by teeny tiny spoonful.
Mix together
1 egg
1/4 cup matzah meal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Drop into simmering soup by teaspoonful, and cook about 10 minutes.  Enjoy!

Now that you can make your soup and eat it too, check out the other Root Vegetable recipes on the Kosher Connection this month.  And leave a comment to tell us what you thought!