{36 reasons} Independent Pancakes

The other morning, David asked for pancakes.

I love to cook. I love to make breakfast (after all, my Pinterest meal boards are called "My Favorite Meal" and "Not Breakfast"). But I thought this was a perfect opportunity to start him on cooking things other than baked goods.

And so I used the simplest pancake recipe I've ever made, to which Rebecca introduced me.

And I stepped back. Pretty much gave directions and let him do all the work.

And guess what?
He made pancakes.

Now he can even make dinner. Because everyone loves breakfast for dinner, right?

I'm aiming for total self-sufficiency...

Blessed are You, O God, Ruler of the world, who has given us skills and has enabled us to pass them onto our children, and who has helped to balance dependence and independence as our children grow, and who has brought me to this day.

Pinspiration

You have probably heard of Pinterest.
I have actually blogged about this back in November.
(If you want an invite, let me know.)

The other day was full of Pinspiration.
Here's what I did, all inspired by Pinterest:

 I displayed a bunch of photos, in a super-simple way. And Solly looooved it.
How beautiful is this? About six weeks ago I printed 50 free prints from Shutterfly (thanks to another obsession - online coupon sites), with the intention of creating something with them. And then they sat around...until today when I was inspired by this pin. (And it's very high-tech - I used scotch tape.)

 We also tried out the broken crayon project that has been pinned many times. It was fun, it didn't work exactly the way I wanted it to but we still had a good time. I wanted to use this project for Yael's upcoming birthday party but I'm not sure it will work. I have to muse on it a little more...

 AND I learned that you can freeze avocados. Did you know that?

What have you learned on Pinterest?

The BEST Kind of Leftovers

I have blogged before many times on my feelings about Halloween. I'm just not that into it.

But I do like candy. And I consider the candy "leftovers" to be quite a treat.

So this year we immediately (um, on Monday night) used up a good chunk of candy in these cookies which are totally misnamed.

Compost Cookies...which should be called Manna from Heaven.

They're a recipe from some famous place in New York City. Seriously, they are amazing. Every cookie should have potato chips and candy in it.

Plus, my oldest child (who got a haircut, by the way) has become a big fan of the baking experience.
Look how nicely he used that knife to cut up all the candy we used! This is a great recipe to make with kids because of the candy selection, unwrapping, and also the crushing of potato chips....

In case you're wondering about the other aspects of Halloween, yes, we did those too. You can't go wrong with this cute face:

If you like recipes and talking about food (which apparently, I do lately), check out this month's Kosher Cooking Carnival, a monthly round up of food posts in the Jewish world.

I'm participating in NaBloPoMo...are you?

I {heart} my CSA

Have you ever participated in a CSA? CSA is Community-Supported Agriculture, and you pay for a regular share. Usually CSAs are a summertime thing, but once before and now again I am participating in a Winter Share. Last time the share was once a month for three months, which was actually a little complicated. Too much produce to be eaten over the course of a month.

This time I'm doing a 10-week Winter Share, which works for me (summer is a little too complicated with all our time spent at camp), and we're in the third or fourth week of the season.

Here was my first delivery (it's actually more of a pick-up, but you get the idea):

In addition to the vegetables, we're getting 2 dozen eggs each week. I think I may have over-estimated our egg usage, but I'm finding ways to use them up.

I've been able to use almost everything we get, including an enormous butternut squash and a pie pumpkin, which I roasted, mashed, and froze for future use.

There has been an abundance of apples, which ended up being perfect for a huge batch of applesauce, made in my slow cooker:

Before:

 And after:

Simple recipe:
Peel and cut up a bunch of apples. Don't stress too much about the peels, a little bit of peel makes for nice color. Add in some water, I used about a cup. Add a little lemon juice, a bit of cinnamon and allspice, and I did put some sugar in but you could use honey or no sweetener at all. Cook on low for a while...4-6 hours was good. Then I mashed it up with a potato masher. I like it chunky, so I didn't worry too much about how fine it was.

A third went into the freezer, a third went into the fridge for eating, and a third went to a friend.

I look forward to many more weeks of my CSA this fall! (I do miss my garden, though.)
How are you enjoying the fruits of the season?

P.S. Welcome to November...it's NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month. As I've done for the previous few years, I'll be blogging every day during the month of November...join me!

Reap What You Sow: Basil into Pesto

I've blogged about my garden adventures a little bit before.

This year, I haven't actually written any posts about it, but my garden is looking bee-yoo-tee-ful!

We came home from camp to sprouting and flowering and bursting....thanks, Grandma, for the great watering help!

Yesterday, I harvested 8 cups of basil. Sam and Yael helped me pull all those leaves off the stalks:

Of course, we made a caprese salad...doesn't it look amazing? We don't have any ripe tomatoes yet (it was a slow start) but the fresh basil made up for the store-bought tomatoes. Mmmm....

I noted as we were taking this picture that I should have used a different color plate for better photographing...

And with the rest, I made pesto. Gobs and gobs of beautiful, delicious, amazing pesto.
Basically, I followed a few recipes but here's what I did:
about 4 cups of basil (washed well), handful of walnuts (no pine nuts in the house), about a 1/2 cup of olive oil, a lot of garlic, salt and pepper...whizzed together in the food processor until perfect, then added about 1/2 a cup of shredded parmesan cheese and mixed once more...then voila, delicious.

I decided to freeze most of it in cubes. Since I have an automatic ice-maker, I had once upon a time bought ice cube trays for a project. Yes, they're heart shaped. No, it doesn't really matter!

And now I have a whole big bag full of pesto cubes just waiting to garnish food, drop into soups and sauces, spread on toast....yum!

What's your favorite thing to do with the produce of your garden?

Puffy Pancake {How To}

I have a friend who doesn't cook. She claims that she can mess anything up. Her son spent the night at my house and I fed him this delicious Ima family favorite. I promised her that she could do it and she laughed at me. So, for my dear friend, here is a picture tutorial of how to make this recipe.

Easy-peasy, I promise.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees:

 While the oven is preheating, put about 2 tablespoons of butter into a 9x13 glass pan, and put that into the oven.

 Assemble your ingredients - 6 eggs, 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of flour, and 1/2 tsp of salt.

 Make a pot of coffee to drink while you're making this. Oh wait, that's just me. My friend doesn't drink coffee :-)

Put all those ingredients into the blender. Crack the eggs before you put them in. No shells. Make sure the lid is on the blender before you start it up. Trust me on this one.

 Blend everything until it's nice and mixed up, a little frothy, and looks like this:

 Once the oven is preheated and the butter is melted and bubbly, take it out of the oven. Swirl the pan so the butter covers the bottom. Pour the blended mixture into the pan. Note my mad photographic skills that I poured and took a picture at the same time.

 Set the timer for 20 minutes. This is important if you don't have a personal internal timer.

 Take it out of the oven when it looks like this:

 Sprinkle with powdered sugar...also good with syrup, jam, or even nutella.

See? Easy-peasy. My kids love this for dinner and leftovers reheat well. If there are any leftovers, that is.
In fact, this is dinner tonight!

Rainbow Pudding Pops

I was inspired by these two posts and thought that these Rainbow Pudding Pops would be a fun activity.

And they were. Pretty easy, too. Just make up a batch of instant white chocolate pudding, divide into separate cups, color each cup, and then make rainbow-ish layers in a clear cup (well, it doesn't have to be clear but if it's not, how can you see your layers?!) and stick a popsicle stick in the top. Freeze. Sounds simple, doesn't it? In practice, MUCH more complicated to get those pretty layers. I can't quite imagine how those other bloggers got such pretty lines. Also, I used two boxes of pudding and ended up with very small pudding pops. But that's okay because my children didn't even finish these smaller ones in one sitting. So it was fine.

Loading up the cups:

Pretty rainbow-ish pops ready for the freezer!

The last one, just a mishmash of the leftover colors...

But the verdict? They were yummy and the kids were pretty happy about the whole thing!

Oh, and I haven't even started my High Holy Day sermons. So this is um....procrastination posting?

Cookies for the Teacher

Last week, I substituted for one of our Hebrew School teachers.

I have been a Hebrew School teacher, of course. I don't do it regularly any more, since I do lots of other things during and for the Hebrew School. (We have a once a week after-school Hebrew program.)

I taught a group of 2nd graders who are just beginning their Hebrew education. One of them happened to be...my oldest kid. Oh my goodness. That kid has got energy.

I have always held our Hebrew School teachers in high regard. I know that the kids come from a full day of school, they are sometimes less-than-enthusiastic about the whole endeavor, and it's just plain hard to teach a language in a once-a-week setting. But after filling in for one of them? Even higher.

So...here are the cookies that I brought in for our Hebrew teachers this week:

Ultimate Double Chocolate Cookies, from Ghiradelli

Yield: 24 cookies

• 12 ounce(s) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 11 1/2 ounce(s) 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
• 6 tablespoon(s) unsalted butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup(s) sugar
• 1/3 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) baking powder
• 1 cup(s) chopped walnuts

Directions
In double boiler over hot water, melt bittersweet chocolate chips and butter. In large bowl with electric mixer or whisk, beat eggs and sugar until thick; stir into chocolate mixture. In small bowl, stir together flour and baking powder; stir into chocolate mixture. Gently mix in semi-sweet chocolate chips and walnuts. Using a sheet of plastic wrap, form dough into two logs, each 2 inches in diameter and about 12 inches long. As dough will be quite soft, use plastic wrap to hold dough in log shape. Wrap tightly; refrigerate at least 1 hour or until firm. Heat oven to 375°F. Unwrap dough; with sharp knife, cut into 3/4-inch slices. Place slices 1 1/2 inches apart on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet.
Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until shiny crust forms on top but interior is still soft. Cool on baking sheet; store in airtight tin up to 1 week.

Think they'll feel the love???

I hope so.


Day 4 of NaBloPoMo...wonder how many recipes I'll be posting this month!?

Hulling Strawberries - WFMW

There is a lot of controversy about strawberries in kosher circles. Here in the Ima-house (I take this funny turn-of-phrase from my kindred spirit over at the FrummieHouse...), we don't keep a formal style of Kashrut. It's perhaps a longer post, but in a nutshell, I have a little bit of trouble with the whole hechsher concept - how can I "accept" the hechsher of an organization that wouldn't recognize my own religious observance? So basically, we keep a vegetarian household - as organic and natural as we can get - using few prepared foods that would require a hechsher anyway.

All that said....I also am not as meticulous as kosher cooks are about things like strawberries. In fact, when I decided to write this post, I realized that this style of hulling strawberries will in fact render the strawberries un-kosher because they shouldn't have a hole in them. Oh well....

I can't remember where I learned this strawberry-hulling trick, but here it is. I was told once that the center part of a strawberry is bitter and should be cut out before consuming. This trick accomplishes that with very little waste to the strawberry. It also removes the greenery, which is for some reason offensive to my children.

You need: strawberries and a drinking straw

Stick the straw into the strawberry from the bottom end, up through the middle. Look what happens:

And voila, a neatly hulled strawberry. Wash and it's ready to eat!

It's best to avoid doing this until just before eating, if you can, since unwashed and uncut strawberries will last longer in your refrigerator.

That's what works for me!
See what works for other people over here....

Sometimes I impress myself...

Preparations for Pesach are underway! While I'm not as organized as some people, I do have my own little systems in place for creating a holiday experience. I don't have to make Seder, which is a blessing to me, and we're not frum about our Pesach observance. What do I mean by this? We eat kitniyot, but not in excess. I don't serve rice and beans, for example, but we'll eat soy hotdogs. This works for us!

I have finally figured out what I hope is a good system. Last year, I actually kept track of what I made and bought and used. I forgot that I had made this list, and was very excited when I found it. Hence the title of this post!

Here's what I made/bought/used:

 

Not bad, huh? I remember that we ate a lot of matzah with cream cheese last year. I also remember what a big hit those chocolate o's cereals were. Most people think they're gross, but my kids find them to be a delicacy since they don't get sugar cereals all year long. See how this works? (I find it hard to believe that I made only one batch of matzah brei, though, since I remember making it a lot. I think I made more at the end to use up all the extra matzah.) I know that last year I decided against matzah-meal pancakes because they're just too much work and I think I'm going to stick to that restriction this year. I never buy the pre-packaged mixes for things like muffins or brownies, either. I figure we can get by for a week without that kind of stuff. This doesn't take into account all the fruit and veggies that we buy and eat, also. I always eat a lot of salad during Pesach.

So I've got out my cookbooks...these are my two favorites...

and now I'm getting ready to plan the menus for the week of the holiday. This is always tricky, because you never know what the kids will eat. But I can handle it. David went through the kids' cookbook and picked a few recipes he wants to make. Since we're on Spring Break for most of Pesach, that should make for some interesting activity.

I'm definitely going to make a batch of Toasted Matzah Farfel, which I think is a great snack food. (And the Tam Tam's are back! Yay!) I was also noticing that there are some recipes that I've wanted to try but never have made. Like this one for something called Geschmierte Matzoh. Have you ever made it? It sounds yummy. Plus I have to plan for the Matzah Brei Cook-off, for which I've been quite a champion. Each year we have a cook-off on the first morning of Pesach, and I'm always trying something new.

Toasted Matzah Farfel
adapted from Passover Lite by Gail Ashkanazi-Hankin

3 cups matzah farfel
1/4 cup egg substitute or one egg
1 egg white
1 tsp oil
onion powder, season salt, garlic, or a mix of other seasonings to taste

heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat the farfel with the egg and spices. Spread on a cooking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes until it smells and looks delicious. When it's done, break it all up into smaller pieces and store in a bag or container for the week of Pesach. Start with a double batch. Good as "croutons" on salad, in soup, and as a nosh. Mmmm....

After writing this post, I noticed that Mother in Israel does the same thing.
How do you plan from year to year?

Happy Hamantashen!

The Jewish holiday of Purim is upon us (technically Monday night and Tuesday). I posted this: 13 Things I Love About Purim, go read it to learn more about the holiday.

One of the best things about Purim is the treats. We eat these delicious cookies called hamantashen. They're filled three-corner pastries that remind us of the bad guy in the Purim story - Haman, who in theory wore a three-cornered hat.

It sure is fun to make them - roll out the dough and fill with yummy stuff like jam or chocolate spread. I took Robin's idea for the chocolate spread (it's Israeli but we are lucky to have a great Israeli grocery store in the 'hood) and let me tell you, I'm never going back. (Side note: one of my kids asked if they could have it in their lunches and I, like Robin, also said no. It's definitely a sweet treat, though! And I think I'll make it a part of the Passover treats...) My creative addition to the canon of hamantashen baking is the sprinkles. If you spread them out on the table and then roll the dough out on top, the sprinkles end up in the dough and it looks really cool. The kids might've gone a little overboard on some of them....

 Somewhere in here is whatever must be my Best Shot Monday, right? The pictures from the Purim Carnival just didn't come out well. I think the battery on my camera must have been going...I'll try again over the next few days to get really good pictures of the kids in their costumes. Sam was a horse, Yael was a Dora the Explorer fairy (I don't really get it either, but that is the costume I bought in Tel Aviv for her) and David was a rock star (the great excitement there was that I ripped his jeans for him).

P.S. For some fun pictures of Purim in Israel, see this post from last year. 

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Haveil Havalim is up over here.

It's Alright to Cry

We had a LOT of onions in the house.

Way more than I could use all at once. So, I chopped 'em up.
Did you know that you can freeze onions?

Well, you can. Here are all those onions, all chopped up and headed for my freezer. To be used whenever chopped onions are called for in a recipe!

I don't know if it's scientifically proven but I find that when I chop onions with my contact lenses in, no tears. Except when chopping quite this quantity. There were definitely tears.

What other interesting things can you freeze?

I used some of my onion chopping to make this Brown Rice and Lentil Casserole. (I've adapted it a bit)

• 3 cups broth (today I used Very Veggie Juice (Thanks Dad!) instead of broth. 2 1/2 cups of juice and 1/2 cup water)
  
• 3/4 cup lentils
• 1/2 cup brown rice
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• can of mushrooms (didn't have any fresh on hand)
  
• season salt, pepper, garlic, basil, parsley
  
• 1 cup grated cheese (cheddar is what I had, I also added parmesan (which I keep in the freezer))

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.Mix all ingredients except the cheese in a baking dish (I use an 11 x 7). Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes. Then remove the foil, add the cheese, and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

 

I served it with spinach salad and baked tofu. Super yummy. 

This is what works for me. Go see what works for other people.

Pumpkin Carob Muffins

Around here, we celebrate Muffin Tuesday (and Pancake Wednesday and Waffle Thursday). Yes, it's the Ima's Breakfast Menu!

This means that I regularly have to be making muffins for my family to eat. They're relatively picky about the kind of muffins that they like.

Last month I got a pumpkin in my CSA delivery and as I was pureeing it, decided I would make muffins. I browsed through my cookbooks and found a recipe that sounded promising in Jennifer McCann's Vegan Lunch Box cookbook. I haven't made a lot of the recipes in it but I glanced through the recipe and decided to go for it.

Only after I mixed up the batter did I even realize that, duh, there weren't any eggs in it! (That would be the whole vegan thing...) I worried how they would come out and was very happily surprised that not only did they fluff up nicely, they tasted great and were a big hit with my kids.

And - they froze beautifully, were made with whole wheat flour, and were completely pareve (if you don't use real chocolate chips)!

This recipe is definitely a keeper. This week I made a double batch.

Pumpkin Carob Chip Muffins from Vegan Lunch Box

2 changes that I made to the original recipe: I didn't have any flax seed, which I think will just make it healthier, and I used real semi-sweet chocolate chips, which de-veganized the recipe (but I'm not), because I don't stock carob chips in my pantry!

makes 12 muffins

1 cup plain canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
2 TB ground flax seed
1 tsp. vanilla
1 2/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1/3 cup vegan carob chips
Cinnamon Sugar

Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray a nonstick muffin tin sprayed well with nonstick spray, or line the tin with paper muffin cups and spray the cups with nonstick spray. Set aside.

Put the pumpkin, water, canola oil, ground flax seed, and vanilla in a blender and process on high for at least one minute, until light in color and well-blended. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the pumpkin mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon or large spatula until well-blended. Fold in the carob chips.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, distributing evenly to make 12 muffins. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with some cinnamon sugar.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a cake tested inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then use a spatula to gently lift each muffin from the muffin tin. Finish cooling on a wire rack.

Go see what works for other people here!
And this post is also being posted to the Kosher Cooking Carnival.

Take the (Carrot) Cake

My cousin had a birthday this week, and so I baked him a carrot cake.
The list keeps growing of people who love this cake, who hope or expect (um, husband) a carrot cake for their birthday or sometimes when their favorite team loses the SuperBowl.

This past summer I suggested to make this cake for a friend's birthday. She protested, "oh, you don't have to do it." Her 7-year-old son came up behind her and whispered (loudly), "Take the cake, mom!" I delivered it on her birthday!

Even kids like this carrot cake.

Growing up, my Bubbie Rose (bubbie is Yiddish for grandmother) made it for our special occasions or whenever we begged for it! I used to put a piece on my plate on its side and eat it all the way up to the frosting and then eat the frosting last. It was quite a cake-eating-ritual. But Bubbie says my cake is even better than hers...I think she's biased, because she likes me better than cake.

I have made a few adjustments to Bubbie's cake. I've replaced most of the oil with applesauce and I'm pretty free and easy with the measurements in general. It always comes out for me.

Here goes:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar (technically you're supposed to sift with the flour but I often skip that part)
2 cups grated carrots (I usually throw 2 cups of baby carrots into the food processor and chop them up really finely)
1/2 cup oil
1 cup applesauce (I use the unsweetened kind and I think the unsweetend chunky is best, but it's hard to find.)
16 oz. crushed pineapple with juice
3 eggs (egg substitute works fine)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Mix the dry ingredients.
Add the wet ingredients plus the nuts.
Put into a greased and floured 9x13 cake pan.
Bake at 350 (*325 if using a glass pan) degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.
Let cool completely.

Frosting:
Blend 8 oz cream cheese, 4 oz powdered sugar, 1/4 cup butter, a little vanilla and a splash of milk if needed in the food processor or mixer...spread on the cake and lick the spatula.

I have actually made this into a layer cake before but it's just too much work. I frost it right in the 9x13 pan and we never have any leftovers!!!

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Five Places I've Been This Week...

Take a Weekly Retreat
Ugg Cargo Boots (I've got a birthday coming up, it's a good idea to point out)
Picture Perfect Snowflakes
Chocolate Cobbler....looks delightful
Meshuggah Mommy's Thanksgiving with Adopted Sailors - beautiful and so touching

From my delicious
Where have you been?

P.S. This week's Haveil Havalim is up over here. It's a good one!
P.P.S. Please read my post about this about-to-expire DonorsChoose project!