If the name of these potatoes seems complicated and difficult for you to pronounce, you can call them by their other name: Good Sister Potatoes. Why, one might ask, would these potatoes catapult me into the realm of a good sister? Well, that is a very good question, my friend. Y'see, I made these only because my sister asked me to come up with some new side dish ideas for her. And because I had some baby potatoes to cook. And these are delicious. But let's not discuss that now, shall we? In case you haven't noticed, I love making desserts. You haven't? This must be your first time here. Sure, a gal's gotta eat, and I really do enjoy cooking, baking and desserts will always have a soft spot … [Read more...]
Roasted Vegetable Chickpea Salad
***Before we start – have you signed up for my email newsletters? You’ll get new recipes, cooking tips, menu suggestions, kitchen deals – and more! Click here to signup.*** This salad has a long history. Very long. It started about three (maybe four?) years ago when I ate dinner with an excellent cook named Batya. She made a salad with some roasted vegetables and chickpeas, and I absolutely loved it. I went home and copied it, and served it to my sister. My sister loved it, and made it again, for me, when I visited her. Then I forgot about this salad, and I thought my sister did too. Fast forward a couple of years, when I spent the weekend at my sister's house. As I have mentioned … [Read more...]
Baked Butternut Squash Fries
While the majority of my job involves sales, I work on sales on a corporate level, so it's also a matter of building relationships with people, keeping customers happy, and other aspects of customer care. And while my company has a very loyal base of happy and completely satisfied customers, we are human, and like every company there's glitches that pop up and issues that happen and customers that get upset. And it's my job to deal with those unhappy people. And if an unhappy customer who spent a hundred dollars is a problem, you can imagine that an unhappy customer who spent a hundred thousand dollars is about a thousand times more of a problem. But it happens. And we deal with it. And … [Read more...]
Barbecue Flavored Roasted Corn Kernels: a Healthy Snack
I've been real quiet lately, I know. But I have a good excuse. No, a great excuse. Lets start with the month of Jewish Holidays, in which I cooked and fed a monstrous amount of food. No time for pictures, no time for writing up posts. No time to breath, really. All the while, I thought to myself "well, as soon as the holidays are over (they are now) I will be cooking up a storm, photographing everything I make...after all, I will have so much time." I must have forgotten ab0ut *work* when I formulated those thoughts. My company closed for the entire week of Succos, which is very nice on Succos. Then we all came back, and the reality hits. It's not like one person going on vacation, when … [Read more...]
Homemade Potato Knishes
Are you one of those people who thinks making homemade potato knishes from scratch is difficult? I used to think so. Then I made them. And I realized it's a lot easier than I imagined. I guest posted the recipe and some instructional photos on The Spiffy Cookie. Check it out here. Click here for the recipe. Enjoy! … [Read more...]
Apple Cherry Layered Crumb Cake (Kugel)
Remember the Kugel Quandary I had recently? Well, in case you were not yet confused about kugel, here we go. Honestly, I am highly uncertain about posting this recipe as a kugel. It's a cake, really. But when it comes down to it, a sweet kugel (such as this one) is really nothing but a great excuse to eat dessert halfway through your meal. And how can anyone not like that? To avoid confusion, I am going to call this a cake, going forward. Call it a sailboat if you want. The important thing is that you make it and thoroughly enjoy it. Now, a little bit of background on this cake. A number of years ago, just before a holiday, my father came down with a nasty infection and had to be … [Read more...]
Mini Shepherd’s Pies
What a week. I don't even know where to start. I guess with Sunday, when I worked a full day to make up for the days we were closed last week. Then came Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, all of which felt like a day later than they actually were. I got home on average 7:30 each night, and got straight to work in the kitchen. I went to bed after 2 am every night. Now it's Thursday, well after 2 and I am not nearly done in the kitchen. Did I mention that my company will be closed next week, so it's about doubly busy this week? Yeah, I did drink loads of coffee. Why do you ask? Enough complaining about me. Let's talk global issues. I honestly couldn't believe how saddened I was at the … [Read more...]
Sweet Lemon Lukshen (Noodle) Kugel
I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to describe a kugel to my non-Jewish readers. I know I am not the only one. I guess Kugel is one of those quintessential Jewish foods that have slowly seeped into the non-Jewish culinary world, but not nearly enough. A kugel is generally a side dish of sorts. It can be sweet or savory, and served with almost any meal. In some observant Jewish houses, (such as mine!) it doesn't feel like Shabbos (Sabbath) without potato kugel (a casserole of sorts, featuring finely ground potatoes). In many cases, especially for a holiday like Rosh Hashanah, where the tradition is to eat sweet foods, a sweet kugel is a great accompaniment to a meal. For my Jewish … [Read more...]
Spicy Carrot Chips
I've been hesitant to post this recipe. Not because it's not delicious, but because they came out of the oven at some ridiculous hour, and I didn't have the energy to get proper pictures. The one I'm posting seriously doesn't do these chips any kind of justice. But I'm going to post the recipe for a number of reasons. Firstly, there's going to be a complete sugar overload on this blog in the next week or so (you have been warned!) so I figured I'd preempt it with some delicious veggies. Because, as we all know, a vegetable plus a cupcake cancel each other out. Right? The other reason is that, as my Jewish readers know, it is traditional to ear carrots on Rosh Hashanah, the upcoming Jewish … [Read more...]
Two Colored Squash with Shallots and Herbs
So it turns out this Overtime Cook idea is harder than it sounds. Does it sound hard? It's harder. I get home at about 7:30 pm on a good night. By the time I cook and eat supper and start my baking, it's late. I finish at a ridiculous hour, then try to photograph my food, clean up, shower and get a few minutes of sleep before I wake up at 6:30 the next morning for another round of this. Whew. Just typing my schedule is getting me tired. Time for another super easy recipe, don't you think? Let's talk squash. Zucchini, to be precise. I'm pretty sure zucchini is my all time favorite vegetable. I love it's versatility; one vegetable can turn into a delicious side dish off the … [Read more...]