Making do with Cottage Cheese

This morning when I tried the cottage cheese for breakfast it didn't taste as delicious as it usually does. It wasn't as sweet and I could tell it had moved past its prime deliciousness. Since I still had quite a bit left, and didn't want to waste any (cottage cheese has become an expensive commodity around here), I looked for a recipe that would turn my sour-ing cottage cheese into a fantastic dinner. I found this sweet noodle kugel. Of course the description explains it as "old fashioned" - it's a KUGEL - and who hasn't had a kugel like this at least once in their life for a break-the-fast?

The recipe is pretty straightforward with room to change it up a bit. For instance, I didn't have any sour cream or white cheese so I used all my cottage cheese and adjusted the other amounts accordingly. I left out the vanilla since we didn't have any and used bran flakes instead of corn flakes (another item I was looking to use up). I'm pretty sure you can't go wrong with cheese, eggs, sugar, and noodles. YUMM.

Chahlizz

After Yoni and I decided we were making aliyah we had to figure out which appliances we would take with us, which we'd leave and which we wanted to replace. The KitchenAid was at the top of the list to replace and take with us. We went to this tiny store somewhere near The Village that we knew sold 220V appliances. While we were paying for it the check out lady started making conversation, asking us where we were going... etc. At some point she turns to me and said, "so you gon make chahlizz?" I must have looked confused (either because I didn't understand the actual words that she was saying or because I was baffled by the concept) so she repeated herself a couple times. Finally I turned to Yoni with a look that said, "Do you understand her?" He said "Yea, she's asking if you're going to make chala". We both smiled at each other knowing the real truth behind who would be making the chahlizz in our house.... and yet, almost a year later here I am, making chahlizz.

I promise to not get ahead of myself and start believing this will actually become a regular occurrence. But the fact that my very first time baking challot (yes, let's pronounce it so I can understand) was successful.... is very encouraging.

Thanks to my sister for the recipe (originally found in the Beth Hamedrosh Cookbook) and for coaching me through the tough times.

Here's the recipe I used:

1 T salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 cup warm water
2 packages yeast (each package is 2 and 1/4 tsp)
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
7-7 1/2 cups flour

Combine all ingredients in order given. Knead, let it rise in oiled bowl for 1.5 hours. Punch down and let rise for another .5 hr. Shape and let rise another .5 hour. Bake at 400 F (204 C) for 20 minutes.

Bringing Back Potato Salad

Potato salad is so underrated. You may have had it awhile back and remember it being kind of dull or it may not have made any impression on you at all. Well I'm bringing potato salad back. Follow these instructions for a tasty surprise.

1. Cube the potatoes and boil them on the stovetop adding 1 tablespoon vinegar for every 1 quart (4 cups) of water. Boil for 15-20 minutes or so. Keep checking the potatoes to see if they're cooked through. (Don't be fooled if they aren't clearly soft looking, the vinegar will help them keep their shape.) Then let the potatoes cool in the fridge for a bit.

2. For the dressing add 1 tablespoon of mayo at a time until the potatoes are evenly (and lightly) covered in mayo. Add the following spices in desired amounts - garlic, black pepper, and salt plus a bit of yellow mustard (not too much that it's noticeable).

3. Prepare the "extras" in advance (or right before, it doesn't matter) but don't add them till you're ready to serve the salad. These are the "extras": sauteed or carmelized onions (these you can add right away), shredded carrots and or diced celery, and diced (sour) pickles! Don't forget the pickles. These are the key ingredient.

Serve cold or room temp and enjoy!

Sorbet Series: Melon

This basically requires no explanation and yet it is ridiculously delicious. Cube the melon (cantelope in my case) and freeze in a food storage baggie. Once it's frozen take them out and puree them in a food processor or blender. Then make a 2 parts sugar to 1 parts water mixture (on the stovetop). Add the mixture a little at a time while puree-ing some more. Put in the freezer and serve when ready!

Got Cabbage?

Cabbage is a great sources of Vitamin C (surprising to me) plus all sorts of other good stuff and it can be really cheap. (Yes, that will be a theme.) I actually came across a site with over 200 cabbage recipes!

Things you can make with cabbage:

1. Turkey Cabbage Wraps

I used to eat these all the time in college. They were absolutely delicious and so easy to reproduce that I convinced Yoni pretty quickly. (See this previous post.) Whip up some coleslaw (I like to add mayo, vinegar, salt, black pepper and maybe a bit of garlic), get your tortilla wraps out, lay down your turkey deli slices, pile on a bit of coleslaw, wrap up and enjoy!

2. Coleslaw

Try above recipe or see this post.

3. Stir fry

Cabbage is a great base for a stir fry with tofu (marinate in sauce beforehand), mushrooms, snap peas, carrots, celery... etc.

4. Sauerkraut

Courtesy of the cabbage website, here's a really simple recipe. Seems like it could get more complicated but that's up to you.

5. Cabbage Casserole

This looks interesting. I would substitute ground veggie meat instead of ground beef and I definitely think we'll be trying this out soon with all our leftover cabbage.

6. Red Cabbage and Apple Salad

Yoni makes a salad like this and adds roasted walnuts.

There are of course, many other recipes of things you can do with cabbage including soups and stuffed cabbage but that's about it for my easy and/or tried and true suggestions.

Budget Menu in Season Only, Please

One of the challenges Yoni and I have talked about recently is keeping variety in our meals despite certain limitations. One - budget, two - availability of ingredients, and three - time. I have been doing a lot more of the cooking lately AND I'm constantly looking for new recipes using "old" ingredients. Plus I should probably mention that we don't have an oven yet which means I need recipes that I can make on our two measly electric burners.

So, I think I may have a solution. In addition to posting different recipes I/we make, I'll also focus on different foods one at a time, possibly talking about them a bit (although that's really more Yoni's thing), but really just collecting a whole bunch of interesting/delicious/simple recipes with ingredients that I can easily find. This is really an exercise I want to do for myself but since I would have found this helpful (had this already existed... maybe it really does) I hope you will too.

Split Pea Soup + Stovetop Croutons

The sub title for this post should be "A lesson in preparing your ingredients ahead of time". No wonder all those chefs on TV make cooking look so easy - all they have to do is throw their ingredients together and wait. No offense chefs on TV.

For this soup I basically used this recipe because I had all the ingredients it called for. To sum it up (I've rearranged the order so you too can learn the lesson of preparing ingredients in advance):

1. Dice carrots, potatoes

2. Prepare your 8 cups of chicken stock (OSEM soup mix)

3. Dice onions, mince garlic

4. Saute onions and garlic with olive oil, oregano, black pepper and salt

5. Add the carrots, potatoes, chicken stock, and split peas

6. Boil, simmer... etc... Cook until soft.

7. Zuzh or not, up to you.

And for the croutons... Another discovery that you don't need an oven to eat delicious food...

Dice up the bread, saute/fry (?) with seasoning (your choice) and olive oil. You can probably use any bread but I like to use the ends of the sandwich bread that have no other purpose in life. (Israeli style - they make them extra thick here). If you must see a more detailed (it's pretty simple) recipe try this one.

Simple yet delicious.