Beyond Stale Cookies

What do you do when the cookies you bought last week just aren't that fresh anymore? Well, you could eat them but let's face it, stale cookies just aren't worth it. So what do you do?

Make pie. Or pie crust that is.

Crush the cookies into crumbles, melt a bit of margarine or butter (try 1/4-1/2 cup), mix it together really well. Press into a pie shell and freeze until you're ready to make the pie.

Brown Rice and Mushroom Pancakes

Brown rice can be pretty unexciting. For some reason we seem to have more of it than we really need. Since I'm not such a fan of rice in general, especially brown rice, I tried to find something interesting to do with it. This should have been a great recipe using some common, easy to find ingredients. Instead it took too much time and while it still tasted good, it wasn't really worth it. I've made some changes for those who are still interested. (It should work better now but I can't guarantee anything...)

Olive oil

5 cups thinly sliced mushrooms

1 medium sized finely chopped onion

1 finely chopped red bell pepper

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon chopped thyme

1 cup vegetable (or chicken) broth

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 cup cooked brown rice

4 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs

2 large eggs, beaten

Salt

Pepper

Sauce:

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms, onion, and bell pepper; cook 10 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; cook 1 minute. Stir in thyme, salt, and black pepper. Remove 1 cup mushroom mixture, and set aside. Increase heat to medium-high. Add broth and cornstarch to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Keep warm.

Pancakes:

Combine reserved 1 cup mushroom mixture, brown rice, breadcrumbs, and eggs; mix well.Heat oil in a nonstick griddle or large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Spoon about 1/2 cup rice batter per pancake onto hot pan, spreading each to a 4-inch diameter. Cook 5 minutes on each side or until bottoms are golden brown. Serve with mushroom sauce.

In the end I made a few "pancakes" but we just fried most of the remaining rice. For now, brown rice will have to remain unexciting.

Perfect Brown Rice

As an afterthought (or really a before thought) I should explain how to cook the perfect brown rice, which you will need to do for the next recipe. Thanks to saveur.com for the innovation.


Here's how you do it... Cook it like pasta.


Rinse your rice with cold water in a strainer. Boil up a pot of water and when it's boiling, add the desired amount of rice. Let it boil for 30 minutes uncovered. Then pour the water and rice into a strainer. Return the rice to the pot and cover it, letting it sit for 10 minutes. Fluff and flavor.

French Toast for Two

• ... A July 4th treat! (Plus we had leftover chala that needed to be eaten.) French toast is great because you probably always have the necessary ingredients around. While there are many variations, this is probably one of the simplest.
• 
  
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 6 slices white bread (or any kind of bread)
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 
  
• -In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Add the milk, brown sugar and nutmeg; stir well to combine.
• -Soak bread slices in the egg mixture until saturated.
• -Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Brown slices on both sides, sprinkle with cinnamon, powdered sugar, or maple syrup (or in our case, date honey) and serve hot.

Coleslaw (Ramen Noodles + Almonds)

Great salad. Super easy.

1/2 head of a medium cabbage

2 medium sized carrots

1 package of ramen noodles

Slivered almonds

Shred the cabbage and carrots in the food processor. Crush the ramen noodles. Add slivered almonds to the noodles (or if you only have whole almonds try heating them up in the microwave to make them softer and very carefully chop them up). Keep the noodles and almonds to the side until you're ready to serve the salad (they will get soggy).

Then make this dressing:

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp white sugar
• Seasoning packet from the ramen noodles
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

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.