Gratin Greatness

My father likes to joke that a meal with my mom's family is never complete without at least four starches on the table. He's kinda right....between the challah, some sort of matzah ball/kreplach in the soup, rice (usually to go with meatballs), a potato dish of some sort, and maybe even a pasta salad or noodle dish, we pretty much have the starch food group covered.

I love carbs.....might even consider myself an addict. Give me a box of pasta and I'm a happy girl. I'm totally trying to curb this starch love of mine, but once in a while, you just need a good bowl of mac-and-cheese. Or creamy risotto (which I've been making from scratch for 2 weeks now....yum!). Or anything with bread. Dr. Atkins and I would have never gotten along. But what can I say? For me, comfort food = starch. Starch = comfort food. I think there's a mathematical property that that follows.

Last week was one of those weeks when I just needed something creamy and carb-y. When my friend invited me for Shabbos lunch and asked for a side dish, I had potatoes on the brain. This particular friend happens to make a great Potato Gratin, but his is a milchig dish. So, I decided to make a pareve version to bring to his house for my contribution. And what can I say? Carbs haven't failed me yet!

(Cook's note: I decided to make this dish with pareve chicken soup in a carton because I thought that there would be vegetarians at this meal - it's actually called "No-Chicken Soup" from the Imagine soup brand. But if you're only serving carnivores, go ahead and use real chicken broth. I also didn't peel the potatoes out of sheer laziness....full discretion here, friends. Also, I had a lot of time when I got home from work, so I actually slow-cooked the onions on a very low heat for an hour till they were golden and caramelized - I just stirred them every 5-10 minutes. But if you're more pressed for time, just cook them over medium or medium-high heat, but be sure to watch them carefully.)

Potato and Caramelized Onion Gratin

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 stick of margarine, divided
1/4 cup flour
2 cups pareve chicken broth
2 cups pareve coffee creamer
1 spring rosemary
3 sprigs thyme
salt
pepper
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
3 1/2 lbs. of yukon gold potatoes, thinly sliced
1 cup flavored breadcrumbs

1. In a large pan, heat the oil over low heat. Add the onions and cook for 1 hour, or until caramelized, stirring every 5-10 minutes. (See Cook's Note above for alternative method)
2. In a small pot, melt 1/2 stick (4 tbsp.) of margarine over medium-high heat. Add the flour and whisk to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Add chicken stock and creamer and bring mixture to a simmer.
3. Add the rosemary and thyme and continue to simmer for 15 minutes, until mixture thickens slightly. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
4. In a greased 9x13 inch baking dish, layer 1/3 of the potatoes in a flat, even layer. Spread half of the caramelized onions on top. Add another 1/3 of the potatoes, followed by the remaining onions. Top with a flat layer of the remaining potatoes.
5. Remove the thyme and rosemary sprigs from the chicken stock/creamer mixture. Ladle it over the potatoes, pressing down to make sure it reaches all the way to the bottom. (Allow it to sit for 5 minutes to make sure it gets to the bottom, if possible. It will look soup-y; this is a good thing. The potatoes will absorb most of the liquid.)
6. In a small bowl, melt the remaining 1/2 stick of margarine. Toss the bread crumbs with the margarine and sprinkle liberally over the potatoes. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork-tender and the dish is bubbling.

Cinnamon Bin "Cin"-fulness

There is no time that I exercise self control more than when I walk by the Cinnabon stand in the mall and do not buy something cinnamony and gooey and ridiculously bad for you. I will actually admit something that I am very proud of - I have never bought one. Something in me can't justify eating an 880 calorie, 36 gram-of-fat snack. (Yup, those are actual figures; I just checked them out on their website.) But they do a good job of making my mouth water!

A couple years ago, my roommate and I were walking through Trader Joe's while we were in college and prepping for a Shabbos meal, and we stumbled across fresh pizza dough. They sold three varieties - plain, whole wheat, and herb - and we bought a couple bags of the plain variety and went to town with a couple experiments. The one the stuck and the one that we have made many times over the years is cinnamon buns. We rolled it out, buttered the dough, added brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins, rolled it up, sliced and baked it. They came out really well and were always a crowd-pleaser. But I always had 2 problems with the dough: it got a little hard when it cooled down (think about what pizza dough does in general), and it didn't rise or expand too much (again, think about pizza dough). But the really fluffy, really doughy dough is part of what makes a great cinnamon bun!

In looking at cinnamon bun recipes online, they all end up being made with an egg-y dough, similar to a brioche. Well, we're all familiar with egg-y bread dough - hello, challah! So, I decided to use a Kineret challah as the base of my cinnamon buns. (You know what I'm talking about - the kind that you find in the freezer section, that you allow to rise for a couple hours and bake off. It tastes as close to homemade as store-bought will ever taste.) This dough is meant to rise, which means that you end up with a light-as-air dough. When I tell you that they were perfect, it's an understatement. They were so soft, so sticky, so yummy-smelling, and even I was pleasantly surprised with the results! And, come on, can you beat a 5-ingredient recipe? I don't think so.

(P.S. I am going to be perfecting this recipe over the next few weeks. I want to try to come up with a gooey sauce for the bottom of the pan so that, when you invert them, the sauce spills over the sides. Or maybe an icing.....check back soon for an update :-) Also, the photo below shows what they look like in the pan. When I served it, since they were inverted on a plate, they were covered in liquid sugar, which made them shine. Oh so good!)

Super Easy Cinnamon Buns

1 box of frozen Kineret Challah dough
6 tbsp. margarine
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup raisins

1. Remove the challah from the box and defrost it until just defrosted. Do NOT allow it to rise.
2. Knead the dough into a ball with your hands.
3. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a 12 inch x 8 inch rectangle, with the long side facing you. (You may need a little flour so that the dough does not stick. It makes it very easy to do this on a cutting board.)
4. Microwave 4 tbsp. of the margarine for 10 seconds, to make it very soft. Spread the margarine all over the dough.
5. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the brown sugar, the cinnamon, and the raisins all over the margarine.
6. Starting with the long side closest to you, roll the dough up into a long snake.
7. Cut the dough into 11 slices, a little over an inch thick.
8. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with non-stick spray. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the remaining brown sugar all over the bottom. Place 8 of the cinnamon buns inside the pan, cut side up, leaving space in between.
9. Cover the pan with a damp towel and allow to rise 4 hours to overnight.
10. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the towel; the buns will have risen and just about doubled in size. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of brown sugar on top. Slice the remaining 2 tsbp. of margarine into paper-thin slices and scatter all over.
11. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the dough is cooked and the sugar is bubbling (but not burning).
12. To serve, invert the cinnamon buns onto a large plate. Pull apart and enjoy!

Mind your P's

Well, it's still fall, which means pumpkins are still all over the place, which means I'm a happy girl :-) I've talked about pumpkins before have even come up with a really delicious pumpkin bread pudding back around Sukkos. But this past weekend, I was with my family and we had this outrageously good pumpkin ravioli. I knew I had to do something to replicate this recipe.

When I say that this pumpkin dish was awesome, that's an understatement. It was fresh pasta, stuffed with a velvety smooth pumpkin filling, tossed in a brown butter and sage sauce. It was so good and so perfectly seasoned....but I've never made fresh pasta before, and ravioli is a bit heavy for a weeknight meal. So I decided to borrow all those flavors - the brown butter, the sage, the pumpkin - and combine them into a much simpler, much quicker, and equally delicious dish. It worked out great and it ended up being a perfect single-serving meal. Since I only used about a third of the canned pumpkin, guess what I'll be making again this week for dinner....:-)

Pumpkin Pasta
(serves one)

4oz. (1/4) of penne
1 tbsp. margarine or butter
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
2/3 cup fat free half-and-half
1/2 tsp. ground sage or poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. While pasta is cooking, melt butter or margarine in a large skillet. Cook for 3 minutes over medium-high heat, or until it begins to brown.
3. Add pumpkin to browned butter and turn heat down to medium. Add half-and-half and whisk to incorporate. (The mixture should be thick, but if it seems especially lumpy, add more half-and-half.)
4. Season with sage or poultry seasoning, onion powder, sugar, salt, and pepper and allow to cook for 5 minutes.
5. When pasta is finished cooking, reserve 3/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Drain pasta and toss it with the pumpkin mixture, adding the reserved pasta cooking liquid to thin out the sauce.
6. Serve pasta with a liberal sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Soup-er Dinner

It's finally late fall/early winter, so you know what that means: I finally switched over my closet and now I get to wear all my boots and scarves and coats and fun wintery clothes! It also means that a thick hearty bowl of soup classifies as the perfect meal. There is nothing better than coming home on a cold, wet, almost-winter day, changing into sweats and cuddling up in bed with a bowl of soup. It's the best way to unwind. And today, when it was one of those cold, wet, almost-winter days, I was looking forward to the sweats-and-soup combo since the minute I walked outside this morning.

Broth-y soups don't do it for me on a day like today. I needed something thick with a lot of texture and great flavor. I decided on a corn chowder that I've been throwing together for years. The chunky vegetables make you feel healthy, but the creamy soup is perfect for these cold nights. And did I mention that this is quick? It literally comes together in 20 minutes. All things considered, this isn't a horribly unhealthy soup either - pair it with a salad or a piece of crusty bread, and I'm telling you - it's perfect. This soup can also easily be adapted for a fleishig meal - use real chicken broth and pareve creamer, and it can go both ways! Now, all I want to wash it down is a steaming mug of hot cocoa....mmmm.....

Creamy Corn Chowder


4 tbsp. margarine
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 bay leaf
1 15-oz. can of corn, drained
1/2 cup flour
4 cups pareve "chicken" broth
2 15-oz. cans of cream-style corn
1 cup fat-free half-and-half
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large pot, melt the margarine. Add the onion, celery, carrots, bay leaf, and corn and sautee on medium heat for 8-10 minutes, until the vegetables soften.
2. Whisk in the flour and allow to cook for 1 minute.
3. Slowly add the broth, whisking to combine with the vegetables and remove any lumps. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low.
4. Add the creamed corn and allow to simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes to allow all the flavors to combine.
5. Whisk in the half-and-half. Season to taste. Remove bay leaf before serving.

She put the lime in the coconut....

Whoa, it's been a solid month since I've updated this blog! The last few weeks have been a flurry of traveling and getting invited out and my cooking has been minimal, at best. But fear not, I'm back with a yummy new recipe :-)

I was actually away this past weekend, too. I went to New York City to visit some friends, and I was invited to a Mexican themed Shabbos lunch. (I guess Mexican themed meals are popular among the young Modern Orthodox crowd? Who knew?) I went up on Thursday afternoon, and I knew I'd have some time on Friday to cook and prep some food, so I told my hosts I'd be more than happy to bring dessert....it's how I make friends, after all :-P

Mexican meals call for something citrus-y, don't you think? You already know about my thing for lemon, and lime doesn't fall too far behind in my list of favorite flavors. I created a similar recipe to this for another Mexican themed meal back in the spring, and I actually posted it here on a cooking website. But for this meat meal, I needed to adapt the key lime filling so it was pareve. Ina Garten's lemon curd hasn't failed me yet, so by one-and-a-halving it and changing up the lemon to lime, I created this super tart curd that layered perfectly with the moist cake, sweet whipped cream, crunchy coconut, and just a hint of tequila. I actually made the curd in my own kitchen in Baltimore the night before I left and stored it in a tupperware container. (Yes, Mom, I had it on ice :-P). It traveled great, and then pretty much all I needed to do was assemble when I got to NYC. And it was a hit! I think I'm welcome back on the Upper West Side....I hope!

Mexican Key Lime Trifle

Key lime curd:
6 limes, zested
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks margarine
6 eggs
3/4 cups key lime juice

Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix, baked according to package directions in a 9x13 pan, cooled
1/4 cup tequila
2 cups pareve whipped cream, whipped
1 1/2 cups coconut, toasted in a dry pan until golden, cooled

To make key lime curd:
In a large bowl, cream zest, sugar, and margarine with a hand mixer until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, to incorporate. Slowly add lime juice. Pour mixture into a sauce pan over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, for 10-15 minutes until thick. (Initially it will look like it has curdled. This is okay - just continue cooking until smooth; then it will thicken.) Cool completely.

To assemble trifle:
Cut the cake into 1-inch cubes. Layer 1/3 of the cubes in the bottom of a glass trifle dish (or any clear dish). Douse the cake with tequila. Pour 1/3 of the lime curd and spread evenly. (Want to make it more alcoholic? Add some more tequila for fun - far be it for me to get between a you and a good time :-P) Spread 1/3 of the whipped cream over the lime curd and then sprinkle with toasted coconut. Repeat this process 2 more times. Refrigerate for 6 hours to overnight so the trifle can set. Scoop to serve.

There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's pie

I was off from cooking and baking last week, which was such a welcome change from the few weeks before - making a million things (and trying to be creative and come up with new ideas one after the other!) is exhausting!! Some people have asked me in the past why I don't do some baking and cooking professionally, and this is why - because I DO get tired of it after a while!! But, after a nice little break, I'm refreshed and rejuvenated and back!

I actually thought I was going to have this past weekend off too - I went to New York to visit some friends and celebrate one of their birthdays. It ended up being a whole weekend of an unofficial college reunion (my life tends to revolve around reunions, apparently), and I had such a great time seeing old friends and pretending to be 20 again. I didn't realize how much I missed that part of my life! Crazy how time flies!

So, traveling on a bus with baked goods was not something I intended to do, but one of my friends - my oldest childhood friend, whom I have literally known since the day he was born and have remained close with ever since - emailed me and asked me to bring him something yummy. How could I say no? I immediately thought of peanut butter pie, since you can freeze it and it travels amazingly well. But then I thought, how can I make this a little more special....and I came up with it. I'd do a "Reese's Peanut Butter Cup" version of the pie: I'd do half of the filling with my normal PB pie recipe and, with the other half, I'd do an adapted version of the recipe with chocolate-hazelnut spread instead of peanut butter. And then, for good measure, I decided to chop up some (pareve) peanut butter cups and sprinkle them in between the layers and on top. Oh my goodness, if you like Reese's, you MUST try this. Took me literally 15 minutes to whip up and it was such a hit! (Mom, I'll make this for you next time I come home! And, you know the Shabbos drill....no inside pictures....just trust me ;-))

Total side note: Talking about Reese's Peanut Butter Cups made me think of HersheyPark and how every year, as a kid, I used to wish I was a Twizzler or a Mr. Goodbar or whichever category was taller than I was! Haha these are your memories when HersheyPark is pretty much out your back door!

(Note: I did have to go to a specialty kosher candy store for the pareve peanut butter cups. If you cannot find them readily available, just skip them altogether.)

"Reese's" Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
1 chocolate graham cracker crust
3 tbsp. creamy peanut butter
4 oz. pareve cream cheese, divided
1/2 cup. powdered sugar + 1/8 cup
1/3 cup pareve chocolate hazelnut spread (I used Schneider's Dellinut spread)
1 cup pareve whipping cream, whipped
12 pareve peanut butter cups, chopped

1. Bake the pie crust in a 375 degree oven for 5 minutes. Cool completely.
2. In a small bowl, whip together the peanut butter and 2 oz. of cream cheese. Add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
3. Beat in 1/2 of the whipped cream and whip for an additional minute until fluffy. Pour mixture into the bottom of the cooled pie crust.
4. Sprinkle about half of the chopped peanut butter cups all over the peanut butter mixture.
5. In a separate bowl, beat together the chocolate spread and the remaining 2 oz. of cream cheese. Add the remaining 1/8 cup of powdered sugar.
6. Beat in the remaining 1/2 of the whipped cream and whip for an additional minute until fluffy. Pour over the peanut butter mixture and peanut butter cups.
7. Top with the remaining chopped peanut butter cups. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. (Note: This dessert can be made up to a week in advance and frozen. Remove the pie from the freezer 4-6 hours before serving and defrost in the refrigerator.)

Pizza Pie? Caprese Crostata?

Hi, all! We made it through another holiday season....woohoo! Now back to 5-day work weeks....yay! :-P

I spent my first weekend in a long time back at my apartment and saw many of my friends for the first time in weeks....we had such a nice Simchas Torah, and it was great to see everyone for singing and dancing and meals and desserts and lots of fun!

I ended up not having to prepare too much this weekend and I only really experimented with one recipe. (But....I didn't take a picture!! I don't know why I didn't, but I am going to post a picture of a similar recipe that I found online so you can see what the finished product looks like.)

We got invited out for Shabbos lunch, which was a dairy meal - a welcome change after weeks and weeks of such meat-heavy dinners and lunches. I decided to make a cheese and tomato crostata. A crostata is basically a free-formed pie or tart. You can make a crostata for any course - appetizer, entree, or dessert. Just vary the fillings and you'll have a totally different take on it! Mine was a "caprese" crostata, after my dad's (and my!) favorite salad - a caprese salad. Who doesn't love slices of fresh mozzarella and tomato and sweet basil? Yum yum! Good kosher mozzarella is hard to find, but since this dish is all melted anyway, whatever you can find in your store will be great. I bought a braided log of mozzarella, simply because it mirrored the size and shape of the tomatoes I got, which meant everything would look pretty :-)

I made this as easy as humanly possible. Didn't make my own pie dough, just mixed the filling together, layered on the tomatoes and cheese, folded it up, and popped it in the oven. It sliced up nicely and ended up going over really well! It can be served hot, but mine ended up being served closer to warm-ish (maybe even room temperature) and it was still great. This is a great one for any pizza lovers and is a nice side dish for a dairy or fish meal.

(sorry again about the picture....but this one is close!)

Caprese Crostata

2 frozen pie shells (regular, not deep-dish size)

7 oz. ricotta cheese

1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

1 tsp. minced garlic

salt and pepper, to taste

4 roma tomatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch slices

1 16-oz. braided mozzarella cheese, sliced into 1/4 inch slices

1 egg

1. Defrost the pie shells in the refrigerator overnight.

2. When the pie shells are completely defrosted, remove them from their metal pans and knead them to form one disc of dough. Roll out the disc until it is a 14-16 inch circle and place it on a greased cookie sheet. (Note: This is easiest to do between two sheets of plastic wrap or in a 2 gallon plastic bag, which you cut at the seams for easy removal.)

3. In a small bowl, mix together the ricotta cheese, basil, garlic, salt and pepper. Spread in a thin layer over the pie dough, leaving a 1 1/2 inch border around the edges.

4. Starting from the outside in concentric circles, lay down alternate slices of tomato and mozzarella cheese, until the entire layer of the ricotta mixture is covered.

5. Fold the outer uncovered pie dough over the filling, making folds every 2 inches. 

6. Beat together the egg and 1 tbsp. of water. Brush this egg wash over the folded dough. Bake the crostata at 375 degrees for 40 minutes, or until the dough is browned and the mozzarella cheese has melted and begins to brown.