My darling husband always encourages me to write. I never really know why. he's the talented one with words and thoughts in our family. I'm more creative, hand-crafty, free-spirited. Not the type who makes a good writer, which I believe requires a logical thought process that I genetically lack. However, I do love to think about food. I like to cook, too, and have always aspired to write a cook book of some kind. Again, lack of focus and accuracy will likely stymie any aspirations in that direction. However, my "big idea" is a good one, I think. the "Don't Panic!" cookbook. easy recipes suitable for Shabbat/entertaining, for people who host a lot, for people new to the idea of Shabbat guests, for folks (like me) who are eternally rushing around at the last minute with not everything done minutes before Shabbat has to come in. To this end, I have collected quite a number of recipes (and suitably altered them) that are either no-fail (even if you forget or don't have certain ingredients) very simple (5 ingredients or less), or simple and impressive.

On a personal note, soon I will be nailed to the couch for many hours a day, nursing our 4th child. My plan is to use this time to revive my blog and share some of these "winner!" recipes (as my mom noted in her recipe books). Hopefully someone out there can benefit from my hard-learned lessons (sometimes failures!) and be saved at the last second when they've discovered they're not hosting 2 but 10 guests on a Thursday night.

trgedy into triumph!

I have a confession. I love saving money. I'm a skinflint. In my defense, we don't have a lot of money, so it behooves me to save what little we have. But when presented with an amazing deal for something we usually buy, I go a little bonkers.
So, here's what happened: I burned the Challah. My favorite, yummy, wonderful challah. I put it in the oven to "proof" and then accidentally turned the oven on. The broken oven, which is either ON or OFF no temperature choice. The smell of burning plastic wrap tipped me off that not all was right. I panicked, because it was less than an hour and a half before candle lighting time. Would any bakery still be open? So I booked it off to the shuk and discovered the deal of lifetime. Bread for a shekel (about 30 cents). Huge bags of pita, rolls, bourekas, rugelach, and everything else, going at less than it cost to make (I know!). I cme home with 2 bags of 10 rolls each, 1 bag of mini panini rolls, and a huge bag of mixed rugelach ( cinnamon and chocolate) and potato bourekas. They were also selling strawberris at 3 kilos for 10 shekels, so I bought some of those s well. Not money I had planned on spending, but in the end, home made jam, chocolate bread pudding and whatever else I make from the stuff I bought will feed us cheaply for the end of the month. And, from now on, I'm planning my cooking to be done ahead so I can hit the Shuk late in the day on Friday and score more amazing deals on food treats for the fam!

Better than Bubbe's Matza Balls

I've been meaning to do this post for ages, but I really wanted to do it with photos, so you all had to wait until my camera finally arrived. This is the full recipe for my famous matza ball soup. If you want to learn ONLY matza balls, skip to the end.

You will need:
Heavy stock pot
Large bowl
Sieve that fits inside bowl

Ingredients:
Soup-
1 lb chicken parts (bones, wings, necks, whatever)
2 large onions
4 medium carrots
1 small bunch celery
handful of parsley
Salt
Hawaj (soup spice, a mixture of turmeric, cumin, and black pepper)

Place the pot on med-high flame. Once warm, add chicken parts and cook until brown on all sides
While chicken is browning, roughly chop onions.Add onions to pot once chicken is lightly browned. Cook until onions are limp and bottom of pot has a nice dark brown glaze.

Chop up carrots roughly and add to pot.Add Hawaj (I use 2 Tablespoons, you may want to use less until you know how much you like the flavor) and salt (to taste, about 3 T) to pot.

Now add water to the pot, until it is nearly full (the amount will depend on your pot). Then chop parsley and Celery (including the leaves) and drop into pot.
Lower heat and let simmer for several hours, up to 10 hours. The longer it goes, the better. I average about 6 hours. Keep adding water as necessary.
Later, your soup will look like this:

Not so yummy looking, but trust me it will taste wonderful! Put the strainer inside the bowl and pour the contents of the pot into the strainer. scrape the sides of the pot to get the gunk off.Pour the broth back into the pot and bring it back up to a gentle boil. Now is the time to add any veggies, barley, rice, noodles, whatever to the soup. My husband is a purist, so no veggies for us. Oh well.

Now, get ready to make the matza balls!!!


Matza balls-
Small bowl
mixing fork
2 eggs
1 T Oil (any kind)
1/2 c matza meal
1 tsp baking powder

Crack the eggs into the bowl and add oil. beat it...just beat it...
Put the matza Meal in and the baking soda. Beat...oh wait, no, just mix it all until just combined.
Put it aside for 15 minutes. In the fridge, if you're unusually worried about salmonella, but the counter works fine for me. Now, get ready to form balls by wetting your hands. take 1 Tbl or more of the mixture (depending on the size you want them) roll it into a soft ball (no perfection needed) and slide it into the boiling broth.Repeat until you run out of batter. Never, ever boil your matza balls in water. bland city. it also works best if you are going to serve them in the next hour or so after you make them. keeps them from being too mushy.

Now, sit down and enjoy your soup. It cures many ailments and keeps kids happy.

The best bread in Israel.

Or anywhere else for that matter. When We were dating, my husband made this bread, which was yards better than any Challah I'd ever made or tasted, but he refused to give me the recipe until we were married. Now I make the bread, and I can give the recipe out, and you don't even have to marry me to get it. The best part about this Challah is that it is moist and dense rather than bland and fluffy like many Challah recipes. If you try it, let me know how it turns out. If you'd rather I made it, stop by my house any Friday night.

Challah (mix it up on Thursday night!)
4 1/2 C warmish hot water
1 1/2 c sugar
7 tsp yeast
7 egg yolks
¾ c oil (olive is best, but any kind works)
4 Tb Salt
5 Lb flour
1 egg
3 Tb sesame or poppy seeds.

In a large bowl mix the water and sugar, then add the yeast. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add egg yolks, oil, sugar, and salt and mix thoroughly. Slowly begin adding flour, mixing completely each time. After a while it will be impossible to stir, so turn the dough out onto a floured surface and begin kneading in the rest of the flour (it all has to go in for halachic reasons. If you find the dough is too dry, add more water.) Put dough ball into LARGE (really large) oiled bowl or pot, cover with plastic wrap (spray the top of the dough ball with pam or oil to keep it from sticking) and let rise overnight in a warm place, or at least 6 hours. The longer it rises, the better the flavor, punch it down a few times if you need to. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface, separate challah with a bracha, and burn the portion. Cut the dough into the desired number of loaves (I make 12 loaves, but they are small. It makes 6 large loaves nicely), then cut the loaf section into 6 pieces and braid. (If you want to learn this, it is explained in the Spice and Spirit cookbook. It takes some practice to be fast at it, but the result is worth the effort.) Place braided loaves onflat pans lined with parchment paper, cover with plastic wrap or a towel and place in a warm spot for 40-60 minutes, until the loaves have approximately doubled in size (if you are pressed for time, you can put the loaves in to bake right away, but they won’t be as pretty or soft). Meanwhile, heat the oven to 375. Take the last whole egg and beat it with a little water to make an egg wash. Use a brush to coat each loaf with the egg wash, the sprinkle with sesame seeds or poppy seeds, or both. Place pans in the oven for about 35 minutes, until the tops are light brown and when you tap on the top of a loaf it is hollow sounding. If you have to use 2 racks because it is a small
oven, switch the pans from top to bottom to ensure even cooking. The secret to nice challah is to not over-cook it. Trust me. People prefer things slightly underdone, whether they realize it or not.


There's the big secret. It was worth marrying the guy just to get this fantastic recipe! If I get requests for them I'll put up some other Shabbat food. We make killer Matza Ball soup in this house.