Turn Failed Meringues into Killer Cookies PLUS Passover Dessert Link-up

NOTE: Feel free to skip trying to make meringues and go straight to the super easy cookie recipes below.

Other Passover Desserts (all gluten-free, non-gebroks):
Blintzes
Fudgy Brownies
Banana Ice Cream
Fruit Compote

I've had a rough relationship with meringues. For years I would try making meringues and encounter one of several problems:

• My cheap hand mixer was insufficient or the motor would overheat before I had "stiff peaks."
• My own hand with whisk got tired before I reached "stiff peaks."
• I added the sugar too fast.
• I tried to make too big of a batch.
• My "stiff peaks" collapsed when I added cocoa powder.
• I got too creative "folding in" other ingredients and my meringues collapsed or turned to soup.

There's no reason to dump perfectly good egg whites just because they didn't 'peak'. With just a little encouragement and support, those whites can grow up into some very unique cookies that your family and guests will go NUTS over!

Chocolate Walnut Cookies

If you haven't already added cocoa powder to your whites, do it now. I usually start with about:

Kitchen Disasters: Sweet Peppers and Toast

I was looking forward to telling you about my perfect shakshuka. Eggs sunny side up, simmered or baked in a tomato based sauce, usually a little spicy, usually with sweet peppers.

It all started when I saw some beautiful, long, red peppers at the supermarket last week. I was nervous to touch them, so I picked them up with plastic. The sign said "Sweet peppers." I sniffed. Didn't smell anything sharp, so I bought a few. I also saw some beautiful orange bell peppers. So I decided to buy what I needed to make shakshuka. I grabbed another bag and used it to pick up what looked sort of like a banana pepper.

Extra Meaty Turkey-Cabbage Soup

Did you know Israelis eat more turkey per capita than anywhere else in the world?  Turkey shawarma accounts for much of this, but about half the poultry sold in the grocery store is also turkey.  And yet its practically impossible to procure a whole turkey, like the type us Americans like to feast on every November.  I usually grab a package of chicken when I'm shopping, unless I go to the meat counter and see how much cheaper the turkey is.  It's hard to resist the savings.

This week I bought three big ole turkey legs to make for Shabbat.  Unfortunately, we had a crazy Friday and I didn't get them in on time, so I was stuck on Friday night with three only mostly cooked giant drum sticks.  (Thanks to my good friend Hannah of Cooking Manager, I still had a DELICIOUS challah and potato kugel to make our Shabbat special.  Thank you, Hannah!)

Today I used my pressure cooker to make a delicious, meaty soup from the turkey and some vegetables that had over stayed their welcome in my fridge.  Into the pressure cooker went:

Mock Plantains / Banana Chip FAIL

First, some advice.  If you think about making something with green bananas, DO IT before your bananas ripen.  This might have worked with really starchy bananas, but instead I got a sweet mush.

My husband and I were reminiscing about how much we used to enjoy plantains.  My dad and I slice them, oil and salt them, and lay them out in the oven to bake.  We wait until the plantains are mostly brown.


I thought I might try the same thing with bananas, but they were too moist and just deflated into a wimpy goo, only fit for spreading on pound cake or putting on top of ice cream.

FYI, this idea isn't totally crazy.  Penniless Parenting had success with her Fried Green Bananas.

Kitchen Disasters

When I started my blog, I promised to document the bad with the good.  My husband suggested I post about kitchen disasters, of which I've have my fair share.  They usually end with the smoke alarm buzzing, all our windows open, and a pot of some burnt food airing out on the sidewalk.  And most of them involve incidents when I should have known better.

A few years ago I was carefully following the directions on a package of dry split pea soup mix.  The directions said it needed a few more minutes.  Within those few minutes I had a kitchen full of smoke and quickly discovered that the windows in my kitchen wouldn't open!  I called the management office and the meanest manager of them all picked up.  It was difficult to explain to her that I needed the handy man NOW, not when he had time at the end of the work day or tomorrow, without admitting to this bitter women my pea soup mishap.