Never Have I Ever ...

Pin It ... Made a noodle kugel. Until now.

Kugelicious

Although my great aunt Florence was the first to introduce me to Jewish cuisine, I didn't know what a kugel was until I met my husband. I will admit that at first I was very leery. Italians don't put pasta into custard and bake it, generally. But after trying a few kugels, I found that they were actually quite delicious, if you can get over the expectation of this being a savory dish. Really, kugel is an excuse to eat custard at the dinner table. And I love custard.

Yom Kippur 2015: My mother-in-law asked me to make a kugel. I love being asked to make something new. I get to research and plan and craft a recipe from the expectations and ideas of others. I interviewed a few choice family members who know their way around the kugel world for what makes a perfect kugel. My husband was very, very clear: kugels should have cinnamon and should absolutely not have raisins, even if those raisins are drunk. Others said raisins were okay, but given my husband's staunch opinion, I left them out. No reason to start the new year with raisin-in-the-kugel drama.

My kugel did not disappoint. Somewhere in our fasting hunger, with the smell of kugel and toasting bagels in the air, I mentioned to my cousin that this has enough butter in it that you could slice it like bread and reheat it in a pan, frying it in its own butter, to make a crispy kugel toast. She added that a fried egg should be tossed in for good measure, because what doesn't a fried egg improve. My smart foodie cousin was absolutely correct.

Behold, the new breakfast of champions:

There are no words to describe how heart-stoppingly good this was.

Kugel For A Crowd

This makes one generous 9x13 glass pan of kugel. This is a very decadent kugel, but don't downgrade the fat content in the cheeses. It just won't taste as good, and this isn't something you eat every day!

Ingredients:

8 eggs
1lb cottage cheese (whole milk)
1lb cream cheese, room temperature (whole fat)
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 lb (16 oz) wide egg noodles
1 3/4 cups white sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract (optional)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
cinnamon sugar for dusting (optional)
handful of raisins, soaked in calvados overnight and strained (optional, but how could it be bad?)

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In well-salted, boiling water, parboil the noodles. I added mine in 2 batches, so they cooked for 5 and 7 minutes. This gives a bit more texture to the dish, but is not necessary. Drain the noodles and set aside.

In a medium bowl or stand mixer, whip the cream cheese and cottage cheese until smooth. Add in the eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract, and cinnamon. Blend well.

Using the wrapper from the butter, grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. Pour the noodles into the pan, and add in the raisins, if using them.

Pour the egg mixture over the top of the noodles and give the dish a little shake to help the liquid spread. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top.

Bake until set, for approximately 1 hour. Serve hot or at room temperature. For added flair to a room temperature kugel, sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.

Enjoy!

Kugel for breakfast?! Thanks, Mom!

#thecookieproject

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Yesterday, Grandma turned 90. The year she was born (1925), both The Great Gatsby and Mein Kamph were published, Mt. Rushmore was officially dedicated to be the site of the now famous monument (carving began 2 years later) and the Scopes Monkey Trial took place. Grandma is the youngest of nine children, and the only survivor of her siblings. She has three kids, 11 grandkids, and 13 great-grandkids. Today we celebrated her. The love in the room was palpable. To see an actual living, moving, laughing family tree all stemming from our A-Family matriarch. It is incredible. 

Although I am not blood-related, Grandma is my only surviving grandparent. She has taught me many things since our first meeting almost a decade ago, and I have tried to soak it all in. One thing Grandma is fiercely proud of is her baking. She is a true old-school baker. Nothing comes from a mix or a box, and everything is made with butter and love. Except the parve cookies. They are made with oleo and love.

Up until a few years ago, Grandma baked consistently. There were always cookies in the freezer, and when we would visit she would insist we eat a few. Then she'd tell us to wait a minute to eat them so we didn't break our teeth, and watch as we bit down. "Well, how are they? Are they any good?" she would always want to know. It wouldn't matter if you were there last week and had a cookie from the exact same bag. She wanted to know.

But she wasn't fishing for compliments. She did, in part, want to know if the cookie actually came out well, because baking is fickle like that and you don't want to keep feeding people awful baked goods. 

What she wanted to know was if the cookie was to your liking. If you had enjoyed that cookie. If it made you a little happier. And as someone who never used to bake more than an occasional boxed cake or my Italian meatball cookies at Christmastime, I never really understood or appreciated that until now. 

For Grandma's party, I wanted to make her cookies.

All her cookies.

All was pretty ambitious. I had to narrow it down drastically or go broke trying. I asked a few family members for favorites, took note, and set to work. Since this was largely done during the day, I took it on as a family project, in effort to teach my kids some of their heritage while honing math skills. 

We started with mandelbrot. I have made biscotti that hasn't turned out awful (and some that has) so this seemed like a good starting point. Julia the Child was all about making this, and did a good portion of the mixing on her own. Our house smelled amazing. I didn't let anyone touch a single piece until Hubsy came home. He tried it and said it wasn't quite right. It was good, but it wasn't really like Grandma's. 

Fortunately my recipe is dairy-free, and I have a DF friend who gladly took the "failures" off my hands. I tried again. And this would become the story of making 500 cookies. (Not an exaggeration. I feel a bit embarrassed about thinking I may have not made enough now...) 

The kids and I would bake. 

Then I'd torture my husband with something like this: 

Even if they looked right, I'd make him eat some to be sure. I became an anxious hot mess over the replication of cookies. Once they were deemed perfect, I'd splash them all over Instagram with my #thecookieproject hashtag to document actually getting it right. Friends got used to being taste-testers and I got used to running errands covered in flour and smelling like creamed butter and vanilla.

Every dough I made, I'd remember a story or comment Grandma had told me when passing on her recipes. Meringues will fall if you make them on an overcast day. Yeast dough is a joy to work with once you work some flour into it. Richard always loved the crinkle cookies best. I'd tell the girls what Grandma told me. And I'll tell them again. And again. They'll get sick of it eventually, but then some day they'll roll out yeast dough with their kids and comment on how their great grandmother always said the dough was a joy to work with once you got flour into it. They'll defy old Jewish bakers' wisdoms and make meringues regardless of the forecast, just to see what happens.

They will know that baking these cookies isn't only for a treat, it is a labor of love. In a world full of shortcuts, cookies like these shine. I know it is commonly perceived that stay-at-home parents have the luxury of time, but not like these cookies took. (Or any, ever. Time is an illusion.) Good thing my kids like to bake and my husband is willing to do dishes and laundry when I abandon adult responsibilities for a project of this magnitude. Even the baking dishes from the day. He's awesome.

Unwrap 72 Rollos? SURE! I wasn't doing anything with that hour.

In the beginning, I thought I'd just whip up a batch of cookies every week for a month and that would be that. In the end, it turned into a multitude of ingredient substituting (seriously, Nestle, bring back the Choco-Bake. What were you thinking?), bulk orders of brickle, grocery store runs and late-night, all-hands-on-deck cookie rolling. And we had fun. A lot of fun. 

This morning I found the giant tray I have never had need for and lined it with origami paper, since my doilies have been fashioned into doll blankets and Valentines. The cookie project capstone was Grandma's infamous chocolate cake, which must be made for every A-Family man's birthday, because it is what they grew up with and all they ever request. (This one I actually have down pat, for someone who "doesn't bake.")

I forgot the chocolate chip cookies in the freezer.
Meaning this isn't even all of them.

My husband drove to the party more carefully than he did when we brought our babies home from the hospital. No casualties were suffered.

Watching Grandma watch her family, all of which would not have been possible without her, I understood that although the countless number of cookies she baked over her many years were in part because they were delicious and in part that she found baking to be joyful and calming, the underlying reason for all her effort and time was love. Who doesn't love to make people happy? Baking is one way, a big way, Grandma conveys love. That's why she wants to know - are they any good? 

With the blessing to share, Grandma's (and Pillsbury's) Rollo-filled cookies recipe:

Kefir Bread

Pin It I made a Dublin coddle for supper, and what goes better with coddle than Irish soda bread?

It was slightly more attractive before we tore it to bits and devoured it.

Not much, but I had no buttermilk and, of course, a napping toddler.
I did, however, have some raw milk kefir I had let culture a bit too long to drink, and before I tested it out, I poured it in with all my other kefir. (The raw milk made those kefir grains multiply like rabbits.) Now I have a ton of slightly-too-sour kefir. I figured, why not. It is close enough to buttermilk, right?

It was brilliant.

2 c. bread flour
2tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 c. Kefir (or buttermilk, if you want to make real Irish Soda Bread)

This bread could not have been easier. I have botched many loaves, but this one actually came out as intended AND with the toddler fully involved in every step. Really truly.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Add the egg and kefir. Blend with your fingertips until a shaggy, wet dough forms.

Flour a work surface and turn out the dough. Gently knead the mass a few times until it forms a ball. Do not overwork! I kneaded mine maybe 4 times. Maybe.

You can either put this on a pan or in a cast-iron pot/dutch oven. I did the latter. Either way, spread a little bit of olive oil around, then sprinkle with flour. Place the ball on/in the vessel and pop it in the oven. If you put it in a pot it will take about 40 minutes to bake, less if you put it on a pan. When it is golden brown and sounds hollow when thumped, it is done!

I love it. This bread is dense and it is best torn, not cut. You could divide the loaf and make rolls. This is fantastic for soaking up juices, broths, stew, and even better the day after with some jam and tea.

What I wouldn't do for some clotted cream right about now.

Quiche, Two Ways

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I love quiche.  I was under the impression that Hubsy does not love quiche, so I haven't made one in a very long time.  (Note: I was wrong.  He does not like onion-dominated quiche, but likes quiche in general.)

I had a delicious quiche a few weeks ago (at Starbucks!  Of all places!) and have been craving quiche ever since.  Today was going to be The Day I Made Quiche.  (Originally it was yesterday, but as any mom of a toddler knows, you don't plan to start something like quiche at 4pm.  It will either get made at midnight, or not at all.)

Quiche isn't difficult.  At all.

Here is how I used to make my quiche:

Night before:

Make a crust.  This is easy as pie, particularly if you have a food processor.
1.5 cups flour, 1 stick of cold butter, 1/4 tsp salt, a little pepper (it is a quiche) and 1/4 c. cold cold water.
Mix the flour, salt and pepper.  Cut up the butter and throw it all (except the water) into the food processor and blend, adding water slowly, until a ball forms.  Wrap that up and put it in the refrigerator.
Wash the processor, and do whatever with the rest of my evening.

Next day:
Roll out and lightly bake the crust.
Toss together quiche fillings. Fill the crust and bake while eating leftover crust bits with jam.
Take the quiche out and let it rest for a few hours.

Eat some delicious quiche.


Here is my new reality - how I make my quiche with a toddler.

Night before:
I can't find my keys, I don't know what I went upstairs for, and these blocks need to be picked up for the 45th time today.

Next morning:
5am: I haven't come to terms with being awake so early, but I'm going to get this quiche made.  Take the spinach out of the freezer.
10am: Right, I'm making quiche for lunch.  Start The Hunt.  Toddler has realized that she reaches the measuring cup drawer if she stands on her toes.  Most of my measuring tools are missing.  All except for the 1/3 cup, which is not useful at all.  Check the obvious places: under couch, in drawers, in the dishwasher, recycling, bath tub, diaper pail, dog bowl, dog bed... nothing.  Finally find the 1/4 cup in the "sensory bin" tub and do all measuring with this.
Now we need to find the parts to the food processor.  I have a vague memory of screeching and gingerly taking the blade away from the baby two mornings ago when she discovered the cabinate and somehow unbaby-proofed the lock box the blades are stored in.  Search all high places and drawers.  No luck.  Find a dough blade (dough blade?) and use that.  Only it won't go on the stick in the middle.  Make it fit!  Regrets are for later, right?  After-quiche later.
Okay.  The dough gets made and into the refrigerator.  It needs to be refrigerated for at least an hour. 45 minutes ought to do it.  Start to make tea.  Get caught up in cleaning the living room and locating other missing kitchen utensils, and forget tea.  And that I'm making quiche.

11:45 -
Roll out the dough.  Fairly easy.
Make the filling.  The spinach is defrosted, nearly six hours later.  Squeeze the spinach fairly well, then toss in a whole can of artichoke hearts that I've minced, since my toddler can't eat the leaves unless they are teensy.  Cheese?  Dump it in.  Pour in some milk and some egg whites (and a few whole eggs... we're healthy now, but we like delicious, too) and pour it into the shell (not as baked as it should be, but close enough).
Share the crust and jam.  Yell at the dog for snatching crust from the baby and give very sad baby your crust while putting the dog in her crate.

Bake the quiche.  Try to explain to the 16-month-old that it needs to set.  (Ha!)  Try and convince her that the banana you cut up is just as good as the quiche, you swear!

20 minutes later - cool enough.  We're eating this thing.  Having not set, it is runny, but it is still delicious.

All that said, I prefer my crazy quiche over my calm quiche.  Because sharing quiche with your kid is infinitely better than the former.

And I can serve it on the fun Ikea kiddo plates!

Matzoh Matzoh Bark

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It is part of Pesach tradition that people try to mask matzoh and make some amazing thing using matzoh instead of flour.  Then everyone takes a bite and complains about how it isn't as good as the real thing.

Having been raised Catholic, I get the complaining.  Being a great cook, I refuse to accept it.

I embrace matzoh.  And I don't put it where it doesn't belong.  

My mother-in-law asked me to bring my matzoh bark, even though I had my eye on a cake.  (Fortunately, my sister-in-law is every bit the chocoholic that I am, and made the chocolate almond cake I had been dreaming of.  I pained myself to eat a nice big piece, regardless of how overstuffed I was.)

Ever make bark?  It is delicious and simple.  When I taught, I would whip some of this up after holidays that involve candy, using the candy as topper.  Winter holidays?  Use candy canes.  Halloween?  Anything you have left in your bowl.  (See my Halloween bark recipe here.)

Passover is a little different, because you need to use matzoh and you can't top it with just anything.  (Certainly not Butterfingers.)

If you are serving this at a seder, you are going to want to use the non-dairy options.

I made 2 batches.  The recipe below is for one batch.

You will need:

For the caramel:
1/2 stick (2 oz., or 1/4 cup) of butter (dairy) or margarine (parve)
2 Tbs honey
1 c. white sugar (you can use vanilla-scented sugar - it is delicious)

For the rest:
3-ish sheets of matzoh
5 oz (1/2 bag) of chocolate chips - these are parve and kosher of Passover - I found them at Star
toppers - I used sea salt, slivered almonds, chopped dried apricots, and shaved coconut.


To make the caramel, put all ingredients into a pan and stir until sugar is melted.  Then, bring it to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and don't stir it until it is good and golden.  It is hard to resist and easy to burn.  Somewhere in here I always believe I can be one of those Food Challenge competitors that makes brilliantly delicate sugar candies for cakes, and get so caught up in making thin, golden strands of delicious that I come very near to ruining the whole batch.  So try not to do that.

While you can't stir the caramel, line a rimmed sheet (I used a cake pan - all my cookie sheets lack sides) with parchment paper or aluminum foil.  Spray with non-stick spray or use a little margarine.  (Pam is not Kosher for Passover.)
Place the matzoh on the sheet, covering the entire bottom.  You may need to break it up a bit, or overlap it.  Just don't leave any gaps.

Once your caramel looks like this:

pour it over your matzoh.

Then you can eat whatever is left on your spoon.

Yes.

Now, melt your chocolate.  I like to put mine in a glass mixing bowl in the microwave and heat it slowly, on half power, stirring every 10-20 seconds.  Chocolate melts from the bottom and burns easily, so stir it, even if it looks like the chips are still whole.  You may be surprised.

Spread the chocolate over your caramel and top immediately with whatever delicious you have chosen.

The two trays of finished product:

Let this cool until the chocolate is hardened and break it apart.  It is that easy!

Applesauce Quick Bread

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I have a ton of "baby food" (applesauce) to use up, and I need it all out of the little cups they come in by Friday at the very latest.

How much applesauce can you make your kid eat in one sitting?

Not that much.
(And seriously, how do people afford to feed their babies 3 meals a day of baby food?! This stuff was half off, and I still thought it expensive!)

I love to bake with applesauce.  It is healthier than oil, and adds flavor to dishes.  Just make sure you aren't buying applesauce loaded with preservatives and sugar.  The Up & Up baby food above has apples, carrots, water, and ascorbic acid (vitamin c).  I feel pretty good about that.

This recipe makes a double batch - I made one loaf and one square pan.  You can make one large, 9x13 pan, muffins, a million mini muffins, 2 loaves, 2 round pans and frost them and tell people it is cake... whatever you like.

Whatever you choose, line or grease it appropriately.

Preheat the oven to 350.  This is going to bake for an hour if you chose loaves and pans.  I don't know about muffins, but if I had to guess, I'd say 30 minutes.  (But please, watch them.  And if you do try, let me know.  I'm terrible at guessing bake times.)

Ingredients:

3.5 cups of applesauce or baby food.  (That's 28 oz. Each of the above tubs are 4oz., and I used apple carrot.  Go ahead, stick a spinach in.  They'll never notice.)
2/3 c. brown sugar
4 eggs
1/2 c. vegetable oil* (applesauce is a good, but not total, replacement for oil)
1/4 c. Kefir or milk
2 c. whole wheat flour
2 c. white flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (you could use your favorite spices to total 2 tsp if you don't have/like this)
pinch of salt (I forgot to add this into mine.  It turned out fine.)
Stir Ins, if desired (chopped nuts, dried fruit, fresh fruit, chocolate chips)

A good baker would tell you to mix all the liquid items and sugar in a large bowl, blending well.  Cream them, if you like.
Then you should sift (I don't sift a thing.  The French would be so disappointed.) all your dry ingredients together.
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just mixed.  Add stir-ins if desired.

That is what a good baker would do.  An overly-caffeinated mom on a Target deal high trying to develop a recipe who is more concerned about how many of the baby food containers this will yield dumps all of the ingredients into a bowl, curses, tries to blend the baking soda into the flour with her fingers before it touches the wet ingredients (nobody will thank you for a clump of that in their bread) and after stirring vigorously realized the mass is entirely too dry because half the eggs were left out.  Ever forget to blend in the eggs?  Trust me, don't.  It isn't like you are trying to mix water back in.  They will fight for their independence.

Either way, you end up with batter.

Pour the batter into your chosen vessel(s).
Bake 60 minutes if in a loaf pan or glass baking dish.
Test by inserting a toothpick (when desperate, I use a chopstick.  It's all the same.) - the bread is done when the toothpick/chopstick comes out clean.

It rose more than I thought it would, but smells terrific!  Now we have a whole lot of bread to eat up! (Quick bread always disappears ... quickly... in my house.)

* I used 1/4c in mine and, after tasting it, changed this.  My bread was a bit dry.  I didn't compensate for the whole wheat flour.  It isn't bad with 1/4 cup, but I got a bit of heart burn.

Blueberry Muffins

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I love when blueberries are BOGO at the grocery store.  V. and I always eat a pint as soon as we get home, if we wait that long. The remaining pints are consumed over the next day or so, and then I return to the store in hopes they are still on crazy sale.

This time I bought four pints, we ate two, and then they started to get mushy.  The only answer to that is to make blueberry muffins.  (It didn't help that Laura was going on and on about the delicious blueberry bread she had..  she's pregnant.  All her posts make me hungry.)

Baking is not my forte.  I was looking for something quick, delicious, and that I could make from all the stuff I have here.  I found Ina Garten's Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins.  The major flaw to these is not the crazy amount of sugar, the complete lack of anything healthy besides blueberries, or the fact that they say "2 half-pints".  No, it is that this is coffee cake and there is no streusel topping.  Honestly, when I started, I only intended to change that.  But then the inevitable happened, and I'm glad it did.

These muffins are amazing - sweet and light and full of berries - and are mostly healthy.  I have done the impossible.




Ingredients:
For the muffins -
12 TBS (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 c white sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
7-8 oz of baby food or applesauce (I used pear blueberry food, but you could be sneaky and use veggies if you wanted to sneak it into your kiddo, or use yogurt - any flavor.)
1/4 c. Kefir* (or milk)
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 pint blueberries

For the streusel -
1/2 stick butter
4 TBS brown sugar
1/2 c whole wheat flour
a few TBS of almonds, minced
a few sprinkles of cinnamon

If quality control is going to eat half the blueberries, double the amount above.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line muffin tins.  I did a mix of regular and mini muffins, using silicone liners.
(This made 12 small muffins and about 16 large muffins... I haven't finished the batch yet, so maybe more...)

If you have a stand mixer, use the paddle attachement.  If not, do what you do.
Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs in one at a time.
Add in the kefir, baby food, and vanilla.

In a medium bowl, mix (or sift, but I don't do that...) the flour with the baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add this to the mixer a little at a time just until it is all incorporated.

Dust your berries with some whole wheat flour.
(They won't sink in the batter if you do!  This works with most stir-ins.)

Don't forget to make  your streusel!  Melt the butter and mix all ingredients together with a fork.

Detach the bowl from your stand and stir in the berries.  Scoop into the muffin pan, filling each cup to just above the top, and top each muffin with some streusel.

Bake the muffins for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.  The small pan took 15 minutes.

Clean your mixer well.

That went over well.

Enjoy!


* I've been making homemade kefir for about a month now, and we love it.  It is easier than you would think, and costs as much as whatever milk you choose to make it with.  You can use store-bought kefir, too.  Kefir just gives it that extra boost you won't get from milk, and is a little tart.  If you don't have or want to use kefir, buttermilk would be a good substitute.