Monthly Archives: March 2010
New Blondies for Passover (with chocolate chips)
Submitted to Tuesdays at the Table.
Golden Silky Sweet Potatoes
I got the idea for this delicious side dish from Tamar Ansh. Her recipe is for Cinnamon Sweet Potato Crisps. In discussing the recipe with hubby, we both agreed, we did not want cinnamon on these sweet potato slices. I love cinnamon and usually want it on everything, but not this time.
After, I sliced the potatoes, I decided that brown sugar would be a good replacement for the cinnamon. I came up with a way to get the brown sugar on both sides of the slices, with a minimum of trouble.
Golden Silky Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients:
cooking spray
4 sweet potatoes, peeled
salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
brown sugar
Method:
Spray two baking sheets with cooking spray.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Thinly slice potato, using food processor.
In bowl with large flat bottom, put 3 tablespoons brown sugar and 2 tablespoons oil. Add as you go along.
Put pieces of sweet potato in bowl. Spray the tops of the potatoes and cover with brown sugar.
Arrange slices on baking sheets without overlapping.
Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.
The recipe in the cookbook said to bake for 45 minutes.
I am baking these again for only 15 minutes. I will change this, if necessary.
In the meanwhile, you have the recipe, if you want to try it. Trust me, they are worth it.
If you like sweet foods, this is yummy.
Submitted to Tasty Tuesdays where you find organization, good food and plenty more and to What’s cooking Wednesdays, a new blog for me and the Ultimate Recipe Swap.
Sweet Potato-Apple Puffs
I recently made, an apple-sweet potato kugel. I found that I had about two cups left, maybe a little less. I decided to experiment and make puffs out of them and I did just that.
Sweet Potato-Apple Puffs
Ingredients:
2 cups of leftover kugel or 2 cups of cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon potato starch
1 egg
1 tablespoon oil
2/3 cup ground nuts (filberts, walnuts, pecans
)
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cover cookie sheet with parchment paper.
To make sweet potato mixture smooth, put in food processor with your egg and oil and mix it until it is creamy and smooth.
Add to this mixture, all other ingredients, except nuts.
Refrigerate for an hour or two.
If the mixture is too wet to make balls out of, add some additional potato starch until it is the right consistency.
Shape the mixture into small balls and place on cookie sheet.
Sprinkle chopped nuts on top of puffs. The nuts should go down the sides.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
I have submitted this to Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
Butternut Squash Kugel Tamar Ansh —- for Passover and all the year
Please check out the Passover Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. It is amazing. It is the next post.
Butternut Squash Kugel
This is a recipe, I made, last year. It was good then and it is good now. Again, I must have goofed somewhere because mine came out more cakey. Look at Tamar’s and you will see what it should look like. Ours was more like a cake or bread but a delicious cake or bread. When it comes out softer, it is better, I must admit.
I found this recipe online here. The top photo is from the book. I wanted you to see it since I did not get anything nearly as good. I will place my photos beneath the recipe.
We enjoyed this immensely and I am hoping I will have time, to make it again, this Passover.
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Chocolate Chip Cookies for Passover
Tamar Ansh’s Pesach Cookbook, Pesach-Anything’s Possible, is truly my best friend, so far. I have made loads of recipes, from the book and will post those when I have time to type them up. Fortunately for me, her chocolate chip cookies are on her site so I did not have to type. I am not sure I made any changes but I will fill that in below. More likely, I will share how I handled this recipe. I think, this is the first year, I did make chocolate chip cookies. I don’t remember seeing recipes, in my other books, or at least, ones that looked so good.
They to not have the same consistency as regular chocolate chippers but they are chewy but not soft. I am not sure how to describe them other than magnificent.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe is from Mrs. Rikva Thumim of Golders Green, London. It is posted in Tamar Ansh’s book.
Makes about 45 cookies – or so. Hard to tell as they get eaten very quickly! (I made four trays (large trays) plus an extra 3.)
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup oil
2 packets, about 2 T. vanilla sugar (I didn’t buy any this year so I used 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.)
3_ cups very finely ground almonds – (almost flour consistency)
1 cup potato starch
1_ cup / 10 oz. chocolate chips
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C.
Cream together the sugar, eggs, and oil. Add in the vanilla, almonds, potato starch, and chocolate chips and mix well.
Freeze the batter for 10 minutes to make it easier to form the cookies. (I did not need to do this. The dough was fine for shaping. In between baking, I put the bowl in the refrigerator.)
It will be oily, but this is normal. Make small balls out of the batter using your hands or a mini ice cream scooper. Place them on a parchment-baking paper- lined tray. DO NOT flatten the cookies at all. They spread a lot in the baking process. The size cookie you see featured here was done with a mini-ice cream scooper and look how big they got.
Bake them for 12 minutes, until they are lightly browned and crinkled. Let them cool a bit on the paper and then remove them. Hide them quickly if you want some for later, and yes, these do freeze well.
Brown Sugar Baked Salmon for Passover and All Year
During the year, we buy kosher salmon that comes individually wrapped from Costco. It is not kosher for Passover (Pesach). They do have one huge piece of salmon that is kosher for Pesach and we went with that, for the holiday. Hubby cut it up into separate servings and begged, yes begged me to make it, last night. We always say Passover food tastes better than the rest of the year. You know, I make salmon weekly and this was the very best, even though the recipe was similar to others, I make and it is not yet Passover.
Good recipes, I share with my blogger buddies.
Baked Salmon with Brown Sugar Marinade Ingredients:
2 salmon fillets
Marinade:
1/4 cup brown sugar packed
2 tablespoons melted margarine
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
a few squeezes lemon juice (I did not measure it. Determine the amount to your own liking or use 1 tablespoon.)
Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine marinade ingredients in a small bowl.
Put salmon in baking dish. I used an aluminum foil pan which I will be doing a lot of, for the next two weeks.
Marinate for one half hour to an hour. (I skipped this step. We were hungry. It did not seem to affect the taste.)
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.
Enjoy. 
I submitted to Food on Fridays with Ann and Kelly the Kitchen Kop for Real Food Wednesdays. Would you like to link up too?
Passover Recipes – On the Way – Good for those on Gluten Free Diet
I have finally organized myself and my kitchen to move ahead and start cooking for the holiday of Passover. I would guess that most Jewish families celebrate this holiday, in some way. I am Orthodox andwe have a clear and joyous celebration. We do not eat the five grains, wheat, oat, rye, barley and spelt. We also do not eat rice and beans. The Sephardic Jews do eat the rice and beans.
Let me make it clear to you that I am sharing how I observe by the recipes I make. Others will share differently. If you read something, in another blog, that is different, they too are sharing their observance.
I am not going to discuss this from a religious point of view, but I think you might be interested in what we do to our kitchens before we can start to cook. I have some photos to help. Basically, we take our kitchen apart. I have a group of cabinets on one wall where I stuff everything that I am removing from my kitchen. I also have a closet with shelves to hold these things. This includes pots and pans, flatware, glassware, baking sheets and pans and dishes. We reline our shelves. You will see, I used freezer paper which I will remove after the holiday. I don’t worry about appearance. I make do by using tape to hold it in. Not pretty but it works…….
I empty the pantry and cabinets that hold food items such as sugar, flour and all baking items. I replace these with special food for Passover. Much of it will look familiar to you but much of it is especially made for Passover. Some items are good throughout the year and Passover.
I baked my first Passover recipe tonight. I am going to split the posting of recipes between My Sweet and Savory and here.
Today, I am going to simply show you some photos to set the feeling in my most glamorous kitchen.
We cover the areas behind the counters with aluminum foil. We cover the counters with various materials. This is a true but temporary transformation.
Do you think I have too many skillets? I do. I am going to keep some to use during the rest of the year. I had several that did not wear well and I got rid of them. Each year, I forget that I have replaced them and buy another. Not this year. I have this photo to remind me - I do not need any more skillets. This is an embarrassing moment.
No, the shelf is not crooked. It is under the counter and I was crouched down to take the photo. I guess, I was leaning to the side.
Some casseroles. I have a matching set of the pumpkin colored ones for during the year.
Speaking of being organized. Don’t the two below go together? No? I have learned to use the space and fit in what is necessary. Cupcake liners can be squeezed in almost anywhere.
The shelves below usually hold my cookbooks and loose recipes. For Pesach, I am putting in the vegetables, I can’t fit in the refrigerator. We buy vegetables in quantity. Potatoes – 40 pounds, carrots – 10 pounds, onions – 20 pounds – bell peppers – 6 at a time…..I think you get the idea.
One of my favorites by Susie Fishbein, who you have heard of before, at Comfy Cook and My Sweet and Savory.
Yes, it looks battered and beaten. It has been used so often, it is showing wear and tear. Luckily, I have an earlier edition, which is not identical but has many of the recipes. In the meanwhile, this is going strong. Please, look at that cover and tell me, you don’t want a piece. I will try to get a better photo. I took this one with the book laying down. For all our Gluten free members, Jewish or not, this is the book for you. Every single recipe is gluten free. When Passover is over, I plan to make a list of some of the recipes and if I can get permission from Tamar Ansh, the author, I will also show you a few photos. I want to make every recipe in the book.
Below are some of by older Passover cookbooks. I have gotten recipes from all of them, over the years. Yep, we keep eating Passover food for weeks, after the holiday. We don’t mind at all.
Happy Passover to all my Jewish readers.
For those, who are gluten free, there is a gold mine here and I will attempt to share some of it with you here and at My Sweet and Savory.
If you are looking for creative gluten free recipes, here is the place to go, Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.
I have shared this at Tasty Tuesdays. Balancing Beauty and Bedlam is the place to be on Tuesdays and every day. Not only, are there exciting new recipes but tips on everything, budgeting, fashion….you name it. Have some fun and visit and enjoy.
You might enjoy visitin Cooking Thursdays where I submitted this.
Haluski
I grew up on a dish, we called, Noodles and Cabbage. We used farfalle instead of a long noodle. I have doctored it to change
2 cups cabbage, sliced thin
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste.
Method:
Cook gluten free spaghettiaccording to package directions.
In skillet, in oil, saute onions and carrots for 3 minutes.
Add cabbage and cook for additional 4 minutes.
Add noodles, salt and pepper.
Place in serving dish and enjoy.
Cabbage, Carrot, Potato Muffins
Cabbage, Carrot, Potato Cakes 
Ingredients:
1 cup cabbage, shredded
3 potatoes, boiled
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 egg beater
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup soy flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum (optional)
Method:
Preheat oven.
Spray muffin tins.
B oil potatoes until ready to be mashed (20 minutes).
Chop onions and carrots. I used the food processor. I was not looking for small chunks. I wanted to be slightly chunkier than puree. The processor seems to do a better job of this than my chopping, myself.
In skillet with a teaspoon of oil, saute onions and carrots, just until onions are soft.
Mash potatoes.
Blend in carrots and onions.
Mix cabbage in. If you would like cabbage finer than shredded, chop it in food processor.
Add dry ingredients.
Add egg beater and oil. Combine thoroughly with dry ingredients and vegetable.
Add spices and blend in well.
Fill each muffin tin with mashed potato mix. You should see flecks of green and orange.
Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees until top is slightly browned.
This is very tasty. We are not spice people but feel free to use garlic, rosemary or anything you like with potatoes.
Most important, enjoy. 
Spaghetti and Cheese
I knew what I wanted for dinner tonight. It would be easy to make and yummy to eat. I was thinking mac and cheese. This morning, I saw on a blog, this fantastic macaroni and cheese and I thought I would try it. It had me hungry hours ago.
Skipped out of school – the students don’t even do this. I headed straight for home. Without a care, I dropped my books, got a cup of coffee, decided to check my email and then make dinner. So far, so good.
Time for the kitchen and that mac and cheese. I don’t usually yearn for food but I was yearning. Then the everything went wrong. No macaroni. In my cleaning up for Passover, of course, I did not buy any. I felt deflated.
I was determined so I pulled out four half opened spaghettis, different sizes, different brands, all gluten free, of course. I didn’t care how weird this was going to turn out, I was going to have spaghetti and cheese instead of mac and cheese. Why don’t we use spaghetti? I figured, it had to do with the surface. Spaghetti might be too thin for a thick, gloppy sauce. Not true. It worked nicely. I have some relative close-ups so you can see how the cheese adhered to the pasta.
3/4 pound different spaghettis (you can use one kind) How do you pluralize spaghetti?
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons whipped margarine
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mustard
I wanted to add 2 tablespoons of sour cream but I was out of it.
Method:
Cook spaghetti according to package directions or when using different pastas, follow your gut and hope for the best. Drain and rinse.
In saucepan, melt margarine. 
Add milk and combine.
Add cheese and salt and combine and allow to melt into each other.
Add mustard and mix it in.
Return pasta to this saucepan and combine until spaghetti is coated and gleaming.
Grab a fork and a salad and eat. Enjoy.
I did not use that delicious looking mac and cheese, I saw this morning. I am waiting to use it with real macaroni. This recipe was decided upon, as I took out items from my fridge. I stopped at the chocolate ganache. Someone else can try that.
I darkened the largest photo to show how the cheese adhered to the spaghetti. I think it is clearer.
I have been telling Ruth fromPresto Pasta Nights, each week, that it is the last week, I will have a contribution. Must get rid of the pasta in the house before Passover. I planned to return after the holidays. Happily, I got in, at least, two weeks. I feel like getting my weekly recipe to Ruth, is part of life. She is such a pleasure to deal with and it is fun to check out all those pasta dishes. Granted, I am getting more limited in what I can produce but it is pasta. Thanks Ruth who be found at Once Upon A Feast and of course at Presto Pasta Nights.
Our host, this week from Served With Love has a great blog. You must check out the poem she has for Presto Pasta Week. She also has some recipes, worth checking out.
