It’s simple, actually.  They each have three vetoes in their lifetime, which must be adhered to with the strictest bonds.  If Sassy wanted to get her belly button pierced, for instance, and Sabraman was against this, he could use one of his vetoes, and Sassy’s belly button would remain ring-less.  If Sabraman wanted to shave his head and have a picture of Brigitte Bardot tattooed on his naked pate, Sassy could get her veto in and Sabraman would continue to style his hair like Yemenite version of Tin Tin.

Tin Tin, erm, I mean Sabraman and Sassy — you can just about see that little shpitz on the tip of his head

And so they lived happily ever after.  Until this past February.

Sabraman and Sassy were staying with us for Shabbat and we all went over to My Favorite Magyar and his Karen for kiddush.  And there, in the middle of the kiddush table, was a block of the stinkiest, most rancid piece of goat cheese you could ever imagine.  It was as noxious as the stuff that came out of Union Carbide at Bhopal back in 1984.  Ju-Boy licked his lips in anticipation and headed straight for the putrid pile of penicillin on the plate.  I just shook my head and resigned myself to an afternoon of avoiding my husband; I hate the stuff, can’t even bear the smell of people hours after they have eaten it.  And while I sat there in resignation, Sabraman licked his lips in anticipation and try to cut Ju-Boy off at the sofa and get to the cheese first.  And then, just like in the Meatloaf song, Sassy called out, “Stop right there!”  And then she said, “Get away from the cheese, I’m using one of my vetoes.”  And there and then, stinky, rancid, noxious and malefic goat cheese was banned from their marriage forever!

Ju-Boy thinks this is  waste of a veto.  After all, in the next 50 years or so, she’s only got two left.  I think this is a brilliant idea.  Goat cheese would be banned from the house forever.  So would passiflora!  Just think, no more alien vomit in my kitchen.  I’d save the third veto for the Brigitte Bardot tattoo, Ju-Boy has a thing for her, who’s to say that in another 20 years he won’t have her likeness inked on his arm?

Good thing the veto isn’t part of our marriage, because in typical Miriyummy Man Plans God Laughs fashion, yesterday I was at a cooking workshop given by Tnuva for the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, and I fell in love with… goat’s cheese!  Oh no, this must mean the end of the world is nigh!  The Mayans may have been right after all!

Baked Goat Cheese and Pine Nut Blintzes

• 8 blintz leaves, defrosted
• 100 grams butter, melted
• 30 grams (1 ounce) roasted pine nuts
• 30 grams (1 ounce) roasted walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1 roll (200 grams, 7 ounces) soft goat cheese (I used Tnuva’s Froumez cheese)
• 1 large slice of sundried tomato, coarsely chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (320 degrees f).
2. Line a tray with parchment paper
3. Mix the goat cheese, pine nuts, chopped walnuts, chopped sundried tomato and the salt and pepper together into a smooth-ish paste.
4. Brush the blintz leaves with butter.
5. Divide the cheese into 8 portions, roll into a little sausage and place on the blintz leaf.
6. Roll up the blintz half-way, then fold in the sides and continue rolling until you have a cigar-shaped blintz.
7. Place seam side down on the parchment paper.
8. Brush the blintzes again with some melted butter.
9. Bake until golden, about 12 minutes.

Mix the goat cheese, pine nuts, chopped walnuts, chopped sundried tomato and the salt and pepper together into a smooth-ish paste.

Place seam side down on the parchment paper.
Brush the blintzes again with some melted butter.

Bake until golden, about 12 minutes.

Ya’ara’s Mushroom and Pea Lasagne

Hey, remember my friend Yaara?  She’s launched Rasta Pasta, her own cottage industry (literally) and has entered a recipe contest. If what you see in the picture is something you’d like to try, read on and get the recipe.

Come on, people, help a friend help a friend out!

In Yaara’s own words:

Dear Friends,

I am taking part in a pasta recipe competition and would like to ask for your help!   The competition is for the 100^th birthday of La Molisana pasta and it is organized by an Israeli foodie community. Top two prizes are a trip to Italy and visit to the La Molisana facilities and a cooking course. I am hoping for the second prize as I have been dreaming to do some professional training for a while.

The competition is on Facebook and the page is in Hebrew, but it is not too hard to find the vote button – it is directly above the picture of the lasagne, in a red rectangle with white lettering. You may need to “like” the competition page before voting, but you can always unlike it later. The link won’t work on mobile versions of Facebook (on phones, iPad, etc.). They only count actual votes of people who clicked the “vote” button, clicking like is not counted.

This is the link:

https://apps.nxp.co.il/la_molisana/photo/136

The recipe I submitted is for mushroom and peas lasagne.

Ingredients:

Pasta:

200 g pasta flour

2 eggs or 5 yolks

a pinch of salt

Béchamel:

70 g butter

100 g white flour

800 ml milk

salt to taste

Sauce:

200 g fresh mushrooms

100 g green peas

2 garlic cloves

½ onion

olive oil

white wine

salt, freshly grated black pepper, paprika

fresh basil

olive oil

vegetable broth

Place the flour in a bowl, make a well in the middle, add the eggs one by one and the sale and start incorporating with the flour using a fork, knead to a smooth dough. The dough should be quite firm, if too soft, add up to 50 grams flour. Let rest for 20 minutes. Use a pasta machine to create the pasta leaves.

You can also buy fresh pasta or use good quality dried pasta.  Remember that fresh egg pasta requires 1-2 minutes of cooking before layering with other ingredients, dried pasta is precooked and can be used as is (but fresh tastes better and has nicer texture).

Melt butter on low heat (make sure it does no brown), add flour and let is absorb all the butter.  Gradually add milk on low heat, while mixing continuously, bring to a boil, blend to remove any remaining lumps, curse under your breath and go to buy a Thermomix.

Sauté garlic in olive oil, add mushrooms, white wine and season to taste, cook uncovered until liquids are almost all gone.

In a separate pan sauté onion in olive oil, add peas, season to taste and add some broth, cook uncovered until liquids are almost all gone.  Artichokes (fresh or frozen) can be used instead of peas, it’s an excellent variation

Mix the mushroom and peas and leave on low fire for another few minutes.

Layer lasagne leaves, béchamel, and sauce. Add some parmesan and mozzarella halfway through and on the top layer. Bake until golden.

Thanks for the support!!

Yaara

Ya’ara and her yummy Paul, daughter Sivan and son Ziv

Meet Jean Roth.

One of my oldest friends once told me that I could be Martha Stewart.  But aside from the cooking (and a little bit of knitting and crocheting), I’m totally useless at crafts.  I’ve never met Jean in person, and to tell you the truth, I can’t even remember where I met her on the Net, but it’s a good thing I did, because Jean is so good at crafts, she even sells them online, and for real money!

I’ve often heard that people hate being born on the “present-giving” holidays.  Most of the time they end up getting a combined birthday/Chanuka or birthday/Christmas present.  There’s an Israeli slang word that classifies how these people might feel:  bassa!  (What a disappointment!)  Ju-Boy’s Hebrew birthday is the second night of Chanuka, and I always try to get him a separate Chanuka present.  The year he first became a grandfather I found him the perfect tee-shirt, at Jean’s Rotem Gear.  Ju-Boy is a fantastic grandfather, or a sababa saba in Hebrew, and Jean had the most brilliant idea!

My relationship with Jean’s Rotem Gear didn’t just end at that tee-shirt.  I use a lot of her graphics (always with a link) in my blog posts, and have a wish list a mile long of some of her funky designs.  She even has a baby line and I plan on doing a lot of shopping there soon!

So come and meet Jean!

Introduce yourself.  Who are you, what are you, why are you?

I’m Jean, a graphic designer and “creative alchemist.” (What?) I had to add that second title because when I deal with clients I find often myself bringing marketing into project, copy writing, social media, promotion into the conversation, all of which I have experience in.

Where do you live, and why?

I’m a native New Yorker living in Los Angeles. When I came back to the US after 8 years in Israel I considered various places but returned to where I had left from. I had supportive friends here and I knew there was a huge, active Israeli community, so I could feel “at home.”

What is your relationship with food?  Do you like to cook?

Once upon a time I was an enthusiastic cook. Some life changes along the way changed that for me, although I still enjoy whipping up tasty dishes for myself, my way. One of those changes was coming back to America, where it seems so much harder than in Israel to effortlessly have dinners with friends without scheduling hassles. However, my relationship with food has taken another form besides cooking and eating; I currently do graphic design work for a network of food-related magazines!

What is your first food-related memory?

Not really MY memory but I like the story: my mom says she used to put newspaper all around my high chair and gave me a spoon and let me enjoy feeding myself, even if I wanted the pudding first. Actual early memories of my own include eating Bonomo Turkish Taffy, which pulled out a dental filling and resulted in my having to get a tooth pulled. Creamsicles were the ice cream I preferred as a young child. I also remember the awful smell of hot cereal on rainy days at Jewish Federation summer camps. And how my grandmother would always — always — offer my brother and me chicken soup with those short thin egg noodles when we visited. She kept a crystal bowl with those Vienna fruit-filled hard candies too. (Didn’t yours?)

How would you describe yourself in the kitchen?

Kind of fast, influenced by working in a Japanese restaurant after college. I prefer a Japanese “hocho” knife for chopping, and I dislike having to stop and think about stuff. Usually, at least when cooking for myself, I don’t follow recipes or cook with specific things in mind; I cook instinctually, mainly quick meals according to what I have on hand, adjust with spices and seasonings, and I usually make myself very happy. I feel far more constrained when I have to plan ahead or cook for others, however.

As a host/hostess?

I put way too much pressure on myself. I like things to look “just so,” even if they are meant to appear artless. I don’t care if things are matchy-matchy or are formal but I do like creating a look that is mine, and using items that have meaning for me. This might mean dishes from Japan, or Armenian pottery from Israel, or vintage Stangl dishes which all my mom’s family had back in the day.  I also care about the appearance of food. Once someone watched me at a potluck and commented on how I placed food to alternate colors and textures and I hadn’t realized I was doing that.

What is your favorite comfort food and why?

Celery sticks. Haha! Not. Pasta, rice or maybe really good, warm bread. However, when I am under the weather, no chicken soup for me (I am a vegetarian); instead Asian style rice porridge hits the spot like nothing else. For me it’s so homey.

Desert island picks, name three foods you could not live without:

Luckily for me, I love mangoes and coconut so I might just get by on a desert island. Can’t live without good olive oil, tofu, and Japanese shoyu.

Is there any food you hate?  Why?

Like Jean, I’m not a mayo lover myself, but have found that adding wasabi to the mayo in a tuna salad makes is so much more yummy!

I have a visceral reaction to mayonnaise. Why? I don’t know! But I can’t even look at it, even in the jar. I used to visit a friend on a kibbutz in the north on many weekends. She loves mayo and would fill a bowl with it so there’d be plenty on the table. I still remember its hideous gloppiness in the turquoise plastic kibbutz-issue bowl. I quietly would place the water pitcher between the offending bowl and my line of sight. Don’t tell.

What is your favorite Miriyummy post and why?

What, I have to choose? I enjoy reading them all — the luscious food, the hilarious commentary and the wonderful off-the-beaten track insights into Israel… I used to love finding those hidden jewels — the pundakim, the lesser known nature reserves and historical areas.  Makes me nostalgic. But of course I was touched when you posted  my “I’m in ur kitchen eating ur latkes” and other greeting cards — what an awesome surprise!

Do you have a food-related story you would like to share?

Before I was a Japanese major, I had intended to be a Chinese major. My first teacher in college was a substitute for the professor on sabbatical, and she used to take us to Chinese movies and arts events. But the most fun was when she’d invite the class to her home to cook together — the caveat being that we had to speak only Chinese. Such a fun learning experience and we got to enjoy the results of our cooking!

I just had to post a few of my most favorite Rotem Gear designs:

Frankie Say Relax — in Hebrew! a bit of the 1980s with Jewish humor.

“Pride” in Hebrew plus a star of David motif makes this a perfect Jewish gift.

Vegetarian, environmental, sustainable, pro-animal and other good-vibey designs.

Robust coffee tee

Filed under: Chatting with Miriyummy Tagged: Graphic design, interview, Israel, Martha Stewart ]]> http://miriyummy.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/chatting-with-miriyummy-jean-roth/feed/ 6 32.183333 34.866667 32.183333 34.866667 miriyummy Chatting with Miriyummy msloofficesm sababa aprons no ad wasabi latkes http://miriyummy.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/man-plans-god-laughs/ http://miriyummy.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/man-plans-god-laughs/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 11:09:06 +0000 Miriyummy http://miriyummy.wordpress.com/?p=3113 ]]>

How many ways can you spell chicken?

If it can go wrong, it will.

Take the picture above, for example.  I was out with a bunch of hungry bloggers one evening and this was on the menu at the restaurant.  Since my friend Toby has a blog featuring jewels such as this one, I snapped a pic on my phone and sent it to her.  Now that I needed the picture for my own blog post, I couldn’t find it.  Luckily, I just hopped over to Toby’s blog and snatched it back.

I wish all of my life could be this easy.  But “man plans, God laughs” seems to be the theme song of my life.  Take last Friday night for example…

Part of the school uniform for the Jewish Hogwarts

Ju-Boy has several circles of friends, many of which interlink like a Venn diagram.  One of his circles contains a group of friends that go back more than 40 years to his glory days at Carmel College (the snooty prep school he went to back in England).  Every now and then these friends all get together and they reminisce about the days when they wore purple jackets, row-row-rowed their boats gently down the stream for gym class and snuck out to the local pub in the village when the headmaster wasn’t looking.  Think Hogwarts for Jews, and if Ju-Boy was Harry Potter, then his friend Mike was Neville Longbottom.  Even though Mike has been living here in Israel forever, we don’t see him very often, usually just at smachot (celebrations).  But lately we’ve been back in touch, socializing a bit more than trading small talk at a Bar Mitzvah or school reunion.  Last Friday night Mike and his lovely lady, Michal, came for dinner.  We pulled out all the stops, but I think we pulled a little too hard.  We planned, but we didn’t laugh…

HaBayit shel Benji

Friday is normally a busy day in and of itself.  This Friday we had a lot on the table, so to speak.  I got up early and prepared the challah dough for rising.  Then we went on the charity walk sponsored by the Benji Hillman Foundation to raise money to build HaBayit Shel Benji, a home for lone soldiers in Ra’anana (lone soldiers [“chayalim bodedim”] are young men who come to Israel on their own to serve in the IDF, or who come from disadvantaged backgrounds in Israel. These lone soldiers have nowhere to go when they are on leave. Habayit Shel Benji will provide them with a warm home during their army service).

Guess which one of these headless chickens resembles Ju-Boy the most?

After the walk I was back in the kitchen cooking while Ju-Boy and Shy-Boy went off to have the car cleaned and then off to visit Optimus Prime, the Rani, Crown Prince and Brave-Boy.  I had a kitchen all to myself until 5 PM at least.  Usually, on days when I know I’m alone in the kitchen I pretend I’m a Food Network star taping my own show, at least in my head, and sometimes out loud.  As I put the finishing touches on the chicken and the Brussels sprouts, I tempted the fates by telling myself this was going to be an amazing meal.  A little after five Ju-Boy blew into the house with the force of a headless chicken on a rampage.  I know better than to hang around when he gets like that.  I asked him if he needed me to help him with anything, or could I go upstairs and start getting ready for Shabbat?  He told me he was fine, he had “stacks of time” (one of his favorite Friday afternoon utterances).  Again, I asked if there was anything I could do to help.  He growled as only a British headless chicken could growl, and I went upstairs to take my shower.

As I lit the candles I looked at the wonderfully set table, the electric hotplate loaded with a wonderful Friday night dinner, the warm glow as the Shabbat Queen entered our home.  And once again, I tempted the fates by thinking we were going to have a great meal to show off to our first-time guests.

It was all clicking into place.  Mike and Michal showed up with a great bottle of wine in hand.  Didi and I chatted with them while we waited for Ju-Boy and sons to come home from prayers.  Ju-Boy made kiddush over the wine, and we passed around the challah (my first post-Passover batch, full of yummy flax seeds).  Everybody got a lovely bowl of hot chicken soup with kneidlach (matzah balls).  And then, disaster struck.  (What, you didn’t see this was going to happen?  There was enough foreshadowing, get with the program, people!)

The first indication was the fact that Ju-Boy, Shy-Boy, Didi and Chip all got up to serve the main course and… didn’t.  There was a lot of whispering going on in the kitchen, and then the part where God laughs clicked in — with all our preparation, someone (ahem, I’m not naming names) didn’t turn on the hot plate.  Our food was cold, or room temperature at least…  Roast lamb, cold.  Roast chicken, cold.  Brussels sprouts, cold.  Carrot kugel, cold.  At least Ju-Boy’s roast potatoes were still in the oven, nice hot potatoes served with room temperature gravy.  And my yummy dessert, hot chocolate fudge pudding, was lukewarm chocolate fudge pudding.  But our guests were gracious.  And hungry.  They proclaimed the food tasty even without any steam rising from the dishes.  Drinking the bottle of wine they brought didn’t hurt matters.

In spite of the hot plate glitch, it still was a great Friday night dinner.  As Didi excused herself from the table to go hang out with her boyfriend (it had been at least two hours since she had seen him last, poor girl) she proclaimed Mike and Michal one of the most interesting couples to every grace our table.  Even Ju-Boy’s kids said they liked our guests, and they usually snore through adult conversation.  We’re going to have to invite these two back, the kids like them, we like them, and I owe them a hot meal.

Tortured Chicken

I first came across this recipe on Recipezaar.  It’s always been a hit, and the poor little chickie perched on the beer can (or Coke can) is always a good talking point.  And as I found out this past Friday night, it’s pretty tasty even served at room temperature.  If you want the recipe as is, check it out on the Recipezaar page.  As is, one serving of this chicken contains 400% of the USRDA recommendation for sodium.  My recipe below is slightly tweaked.

• 1 large chicken, rinsed in cold water and patted very dry, inside and out with paper toweling (we cut off the wings and neck)
• 1/2 of a can beer (tall cans are best for steadying the chicken, you can also use Coca-Cola if you don’t want to use beer)
• 1/3 cup paprika
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1/4 cup black pepper
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).
2. Line a baking pan with parchment paper or silver foil, or even both.  This dish makes a mess in your pan and you will not want to spend time scrubbing up afterwards.
3. Mix the paprika, salt, black pepper and brown sugar.
4. Use this rub inside and out of the cleaned, dry chicken.  Give the poor bird a good massage with the rub.
5. Place the 1/2 can of beer in center of roasting pan (drink the other half while your chicken roasts).
6. Position the “bottom” of the chicken over beer and slide chicken over the can of beer until the chicken is”sitting” upright in the pan.
7. Roast uncovered for 1 hour.
8. Do not baste, do not turn pan.  Don’t even touch the pan because you might cause a chicken toppling.
9. The beer will steam the chicken deliciously.
10. When done, carefully remove can of beer from chicken and serve.
11. Chicken can also be carved while “sitting” on the beer can.  Again, this makes for a good talking point.
12. You can make as many chickens at once that will fit upright into your oven for the same one hour cooking time.

Three chickens-worth of rub ready for slathering

Rubbed chickens before the roasting

My three little chickies after their hour in the oven and prior to being de-canned. The juices in the pan make the best gravy!

Illuminated Israeli flag at Azrieli Center on Independence day, Tel Aviv, Israel
© Hanan Isachar / SuperStock

Tonight is the beginning of Israel’s 64th birthday celebrations.  All over the country people gather together in public parks to listen to music, dance a little, watch the fireworks and basically party.  And tomorrow?  Tomorrow the whole country heads outdoors for the national sport of Israel, barbecuing, or in other words, the art of mangal.

We get together with our friends in Ra’anana every year, and it can become a bit rowdy…

The day begins slowly.  We have partied hard the night before.  Okay, the kids have partied hard, since we’ve hit a certain age we’ve stayed home to enjoy the quiet house and watch a bit of TV).  We take advantage of the day off from work and sleep late.  Okay, the kids sleep late, we just sleep a little later.  By 9:30 in the morning we’re already downstairs gathering together all the food and equipment for the communal barbecue party soon that will take place in a few hours.

Ju-Boy and Marvelous Marc hit the park early to nab a choice spot under a large tree for our group.  Usually 7-8 families show up in dribs and drabs.  Some come early to get a place in the shade, others arrive later to take advantage of another family’s glowing coals.  The fires are started, the food is taken out, eaten, shared, cold beer is passed around and Karen always brings the ingredients for s’mores.

After time spent in gluttony one of the kids (they do eventually show up, late and hungry and still half-asleep) will take out a guitar.  Didi and Hilaly work on their tans.  Marvelous Marc goes to sleep in the relative quiet of the trunk of his car, and Karen tries to lock him in.  Once the coals have died down we all dump them in Miiiiiiiiichael’s barbecue and we head off to the main street of Ra’anana to watch the annual Independence Day Parade.

This group has been getting together for almost 25 years.  Some traditions are decades old, some are new.  All are fun.

Marc naps in the trunk of his car

Didi interrupted mid-tanning session

There's always a hint of danger at these events...

... but a good time is had by all!

Sick Salad

Every year, on Israel’s Independence Day, we all go off and have a barbecue in a public park together with friends and family. Every year, without fail, my Ju-Boy makes his Sick Salad. Ju-Boy is British, so sick means barf. And it really does look like barf. People rave about it, although I wouldn’t know, I really can’t bring myself to eat it, although that one time I did taste it (with my eyes closed), it was actually pretty tasty! Here it is, in all it’s glorious, sick splendor!

Barfeliscious!

1. Saute the onion and mushrooms in the oil until soft.
2. Dump it all into a bowl with the rest of the ingredients.
3. Serve well chilled with barf bags on the side.

Enjoy!

Hila Betzaleli poses at the Mount Herzl parade grounds, two hours before the tragedy in which she lost her life (photo credit: Channel 2 News)

Remembering Israel’s fallen soldiers on Yom Hazikaron

The siren will sound at 8:00 PM Tuesday evening in Israel, and the entire country will observe a moment of silence.

Wherever you are, please stand together with us.

1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

10:00 AM Pacific Time

Related articles

• IDF chief lays Israeli flags on fresh IDF tombstones (timesofisrael.com)
• Yom HaZikaron begins at sundown tonight (bokertov.typepad.com)

Meet Rivki Silver.  She once interviewed me, and now I get to interview her.

Rivki is one of those wonderful women that I am fortunate to meet in the blogosphere.  I think I came across her blog, Life in the Married Lane, because one of my blogging buddies commented on a post and it showed up in my feed.  I clicked on the link and have been hooked every since.  I find Rivki’s blog inspirational, thought-provoking, and a teensy bit voyeuristic (check out how she met her husband).  One day I hope to meet her in person, but but I’m probably never going to make it to Baltimore, so Rivki is just going to have to come to Israel.  In the meantime, check her out, and maybe you too can find “meaning in the mundanity.”

(Apologies, this interview is a few months old, so I hope the answers are still timely.  Rivki, feel free to let me know…)

Who are you, what are you, why are you?

Short answer: I’m Rivki.

Long answer: Like many women, I’m a lot of things to a lot of people.  I’m a mommy to two energetic little boys who keep me pretty busy, as well as on the edge of sanity.  I’m married to a wonderful man, who is a doctor, and works very hard, and a lot.  I’m also a musician, trained in piano, clarinet, flute, sax, and voice.  I’m very happy to have had many opportunities to perform on a regular basis.  I like to blog (www.lifeinthemarriedlane.com), and I spend too much time online (I’m working on that).  I love to read books, usually informative ones, but I do enjoy a good mystery.  I love to walk, a little obsessively sometimes.  I also like to nap.  And cook, and bake, but more on that later.

Where do you live, and why? 

I live in Baltimore, ’cause that’s where my husband got a job.  We’ve been here for just about four months, and it’s been fabulous so far.  And exciting.  We’ve experienced an earthquake AND a hurricane.  Cleveland (where we lived before) didn’t have anything except a lot of snow.

What is your family like?

Right now we are young-family-ish.  Our kids are 1 and 2.75 years.  Sadly, we don’t have any family in town, but we are fortunate in that we have the ability to visit them, and that they have the ability to visit us multiple times per year.  It’s very important to us to have family involved in our kids’ lives, and I look forward to seeing my kids develop relationships with their extended family.

In the house, I’m the housekeeper and cook, and my husband is the breadwinner and official taste-tester.  My kids are the food critics.  My baby has been known to throw his food off his tray in protest.  I can just hear him thinking, “too salty, try again.”

What is your relationship with food?  Do you like to cook?

I love food.  A lot.  I like to snack, I like to cook, I like pretty much everything about food except cleaning up after cooking (though sometimes I don’t mind that, either).  I love the creative aspect of taking ingredients and blending them together into something nourishing and yummy for my family.  Even if it’s just microwaving a piece of cheese on a piece of bread for my picky toddler, it’s still a pleasure.  With my family in its current incarnation, I can’t potchke around in the kitchen as much as I would like, but when I get the chance to make something fancy, I love it.

What is your first food-related memory?

Not Rivki, but her story and the look on this little girl's face match perfectly!

I don’t actually remember this, but this is a story I’ve often heard my mother tell:

As a little girl, my mother didn’t feed me sugar.  When I was in kindergarten, a classmate of mine brought cupcakes to celebrate her birthday.  This was the first time I had ever experienced refined sugar, and apparently it was AWESOME.  As the story goes, I went around to all my classmates’ desks and finished their leftover cupcakes.  All of them.  The teacher was a little concerned, and informed my mother about my, uh, unusual behavior.  My mother continued to make healthy food choices for me, but I think she relaxed a bit on the sugar thing.

How would you describe yourself in the kitchen?  As a host/hostess?

It depends.  In a perfect world, I am in my element, starting off with a clean workspace, tidying as I go, multiple recipes brewing simultaneously, content and efficient.  Really, though, I’m usually juggling around dirty dishes (there’s that cleaning thing again), cleaning what I need when I need it, and making the quickest dish that I can muster before the boys start destroying the house.  I’m not giving up the dream, though.  This is just the state of things with little, little people around.

I’m lacking in hostess experience, but I try to be relaxed and attentive (but not TOO attentive).  The hostesses that I have enjoyed the most are the ones who seem to be able to anticipate what I need (i.e. toys, highchair, a 10-year-old to entertain the baby, chocolate, etc.), so I try to think of ways to make my guests comfortable.  I don’t know if I’ve always succeeded.  Maybe I should make an exit survey or something.

What is your favorite comfort food and why?

Right now I love crackers with hummus.  I generally like salty food for comfort, though I have never said “no” to a pint of Ben and Jerry’s.

Desert island picks, name three foods you could not live without:

Coffee, crackers, cheese sandwich.  Wow, I really feel like I should have a fruit in there or something.  Well, I guess there’s probably fruit on the island.

Is there any food you hate?  Why?

I’m not fond of caviar.  Yes, that’s random, I know, but I mentioned once to my (Russian) mother-in-law that I enjoyed it (I really thought I did, once, a long, long time ago), and so she, being very nice, bought some for me.  And it was HORRIBLE.  I could barely swallow it, but I felt like I had to, ’cause I *had* told her that I liked it, hadn’t I?  Thankfully, that was the only time she bought it.

What is your favorite Miriyummy post and why?

I really like this post – Isn’t It Romantic?  First of all, it’s about your anniversary, which is sweet, and I cracked up at the description of how you found your present.  The recipe is great, and I hope to use it to get some vegetables into my boys’ diet, as they primarily consume carbs.  Plus, you used the word “zhuzz” repeatedly, and I just love that.

Do you have a food-related story you would like to share?

A few years ago, my parent came for a visit over Thanksgiving weekend.  I don’t really do Thanksgiving, but not for any philosophical reason or anything.  I just don’t feel like cooking the equivalent of two Shabbos meals in one week.

My mother told all her co-workers that we weren’t doing Thanksgiving, but that it was okay, ’cause she was visiting her grandkid, etc (poor thing; what a trooper).  However, I had decided to surprise my parents by making a Thanksgiving-themed Shabbos.  I pulled out all the stops for a traditional Thanksgiving meal, and even used fancy-shmancy recipes.

They were SO happy when they found out, and my mother was able to go back and tell her co-workers that she had the best Thanksgiving EVER.  It’s now a tradition for us, and this year will be the third year we do it.  I have scaled back on the fanciness of the recipes, but the essence is still there, and it’s a great pleasure for me to see how much my parents enjoy spending Thanksgiving Shabbos with us.

Thank you so much for this opportunity to share with you!  It was very enjoyable. 

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Sassy on her school trip to Auschwitz

I am a classic second generation Holocaust survivor.

My third generation kids are unabashedly Jewish and unabashedly Israeli and I so wish my parents were around to see how I have raised my phoenixes out of the fires and ashes of the camps.

Last year for Yom Hasho’ah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) I posted a story about my mother’s relationship with chocolate that still gives me goose pimples.  On the eve of Yom Hasho’ah this year I always find myself thinking of my parents, and how the Holocaust shaped their lives and my life, and how it almost always revolved around food.

Brewed coffee and Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, one of my favorite flavor combinations

My mother didn’t so much love chocolate as revere it.  Chocolate for her was something to be savored, not an everyday treat.  Coffee, on the other hand, was almost a religious experience.  I have vivid memories of coffee in various grinds and brews in our house.  Unlike chocolate, I was not allowed to partake, to worship at the Mr. Coffee machine, but the love of the magic bean must be in the genes (in spite of the fact that I’m adopted), because I dearly love my brew.

My father's sister Sara and her three children, turned to ashes in Auschwitz.

The ceremony for Yom Hasho’ah will start in about two hours.  In Israel, your regularly scheduled television shows are replaced by documentaries, movies and interviews all having to do with the Holocaust.  The radio only plays somber music.  Tomorrow a siren will go off all over the country and most everyone stands still in remembrance.

Tonight I think I want to remember through a tradition taught to me by my parents, we remember what was and we celebrate what we have today, through food, of course.  And what a better way than to combine two of my mother’s food favorites, chocolate and coffee.

Super Fudgy Triple Chocolate Espresso Brownies

Not for the faint at heart, although if you are faint at heart, this should certainly give yours a jolt.

• 200 grams (8 ounces) dark chocolate
• 3 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons instant espresso or 1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee powder
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into quarters
• 3 large eggs , room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup  flour

1. Adjust the oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 180 C (350 F) degrees.
2. Spray 8-inch square baking pan with nonstick vegetable cooking spray.  Even better, line with parchment paper.
3. In medium heat-proof bowl set oven a pan of almost-simmering water, melt chocolates and butter, stirring occasionally until mixture is smooth.  You can also do this in the microwave, nuking on high for 2 minutes, stir, and nuke again for one minute and stir until smooth.
4. Whisk in cocoa and espresso powder until incorporated.
5. Set aside to cool slightly.
6. Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a medium bowl until combined.
7. Whisk chocolate mixture into egg mixture; then stir in flour until just combined.
8. Pour mixture into your prepared pan, spread into corners and level surface with rubber spatula; bake until slightly puffed and toothpick inserted in center comes out with a small amount of moist batter clinging to it, 35 to 40 minutes.
9. Cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours, then remove brownies from pan.  If you used parchment paper you can just life the whole thing out of the pan on to a cutting board.
10. Cut into 1-inch squares and serve.

These brownies are delicious at room temperature, but even better frozen and slightly hard and wonderful to gnaw on.

Photo by GaylaJ on Recipezaar.com

Oh no, it’s that time of year again!  My 2011 edition proved to be helpful to many of you, so break out the bleach and hide those breadcrumbs, Passover is coming and it’s unstoppable!  Here are some helpful ways to get through the holiday when you once again can reunited with your panko and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream:

Before the holiday even starts and you have your first glass of wine and first dollop of charoset, you need some energy to prepare!  Use up your supply of flour and oatmeal and make some Vicki Bikkies to get you through your marathon of cleaning and Hagaddah hunting.

Before you even start cooking, you should visit Mrs. S. at Our Shiputzim and check out her pre-Pesach preparation guide, where she twists herself into a pretzel.

My own go-to blogger for organization and everything you wanted to know about everything, Cooking Manager, basically has the omnibus posting when it comes to this holiday:  Passover Recipes and Cooking Techniques (2012). Be prepared to be impressed (I certainly was!).

Baroness Tapuzina recently lost her father, and we all wish her comfort in her memories.  But a link on her most recent post takes us back to Shiva, Matza Balls, and the Morpurgo Family, where you can find a link to the Baroness’ recipe for chicken soup, comfort in a bowl if ever one was needed.

Hopefully you won’t just be trapped at home this year and will have a chance to enjoy the outdoors.  If you do, try some Fish on the Beach.

Over at Cafe Liz I haven’t seen any Pesach recipes up yet, but she does offer up a lovely dish of golden rice with nettles (or spinach) for those of us who do eat rice on the holiday.

If you are in the camp that believes quinoa is kosher for Passover (I am, unfortunately Ju-Boy isn’t), then head over to Ari Cooks for some Ari’s Quinoa Salad.

Sarah Melamed, the brains behind the beauty of Food Bridge, has a recipe for a sandwich that is decidedly not kosher for Passover, but since April is fresh garlic season in Israel, and since the sandwich filling would go so beautifully on some whole-wheat matza, you really should check out her post on her dried tomato, feta cheese, basil and garlic confit sandwich.

Mimi of Israeli Kitchen had a senior moment which may just become our lunch for the first day of Pesach this year.  Have a look at her recipe for Chicken Sofrito, it may just become part of your holiday repertoire as well.

Yes, I know, we eat a ton of eggs on Passover, but who said they had to be boring?  Try a pan of Shakshuka this year.

The Gush Gourmet hasn’t posted any Pesach-specific recipes just yet, but last week posted a recipe for roasted cauliflower and leek soup that is just perfect for the holiday.

Ima 2 Seven, who will soon be making aliya (yay!) and will find out that keep kosher for Pesach in Israel just might be a bit more insanity-inducing than being KFP in the States, posted her recipe for Passover Granola.  I wish her all the luck in the world finding matza farfel in this country, and slivered almonds that are kitniyot-free, and …

One of my favorite ways to end the Seder meal:  Baby Pavlovas with Chocolate Creme Patissiere.  To make this KFP I use potato flour and real milk and cream.

Batya, the very grounded blogger who meanders over at me-ander, hosted the Nissan edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival.  Absolutely worth checking out!

Katherine Martinelli just came out with her first cookbook on a very not-kosher-for-Passover item, puff pastry.  It’s worth getting it for the rest of the year, but for Pesach you really should check out her evilly delicious recipe for Pistachio, Cherry, and Dark Chocolate Bark.  This should make anyone suffering from yumminess deprivation happy!

Shira, who goes by the smile-inducing blognomer of Fat Girl Foodie, posted a recipe for Portobello Mushrooms and Port Wine Reduction that sounds and looks divine!

Over at Culinart Kosher it’s been Pesach time since like… forever, at at least since March 19th.  Give Marc Gottlieb and his blog a visit, you won’t be sorry.  While you’re there, don’t forget to answer his poll on what is your favorite item on the seder plate (mine is the chazeret, I love the hot flavor of it).

I can pretty much recipe by heart what we eat every year for Pesach:  eggs, potatoes, matza, potatoes, Tirat Zvi hot dogs, potatoes, and more potatoes.  But over at Cook Kosher you can get a whole bunch of ideas for a No Potato Passover and win a cookbook while you’re at it.  Sign me up now!

Last year I posted Ju-Boy’s recipe for Passover Pizza, and it’s too good not share again.

Margo Sugarman, the latest addition to my foodie blog addiction, writes The Kosher Blogger.  She’s been posting like a Passover fury lately, making sure I get enough ideas in my head (and probably calories on my hips) to last me for several years worth of Pesach.

I make Faye Levy’s Almond Macaroons all year round, but in our family they call them Pesach Cookies.  Don’t overbake these babies, you want them chewy!

And if this isn’t enough to get you ready for Passover, just Google it…

Filed under: Passover Tagged: chocolate chip cookie dough, Cook, cooking, dessert, Food, Israel, Jewish Cooking, kosher, Matzah ball, Passover, Passover Seder, Pesach, recipe ]]> http://miriyummy.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/dont-pass-over-these-recipes-the-2012-edition/feed/ 6 32.183333 34.866667 32.183333 34.866667 miriyummy getting-rid-crazy-egyptian-dictators-passover-ecards-someecards vicki bikkies http://miriyummy.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/expanding-the-passover-table/ http://miriyummy.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/expanding-the-passover-table/#comments Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:51:20 +0000 Miriyummy http://miriyummy.wordpress.com/?p=3028 ]]>

When you have a blended family the holidays can either be full of happy noise as your ever-growing family fills the house, or it can be sadly quiet as it’s the other parents’ turn to surround themselves with the children.  Ju-Boy and I have experienced both situations, and we can assuredly say that it’s so much more enjoyable when the table expands to accommodate children, grandchildren and friends.

When Ju-Boy and I married we each brought a table to the table (so to speak). His dining room table could fit 12 easily.  My table could fit 10, 12 at a squeeze (but with family, what’s a little squeeze here and there?).  We ended up donating his table and keeping mine since it was in better condition.  But with two parental units, eight children, three children-in-law, two grandchildren, well, even a little family squeeze can become uncomfortably tight.  And once you open the door to let in Eliyahu (the prophet Elijah), well, he would have to drink his wine standing up.

Last year we were just 10 around the Pesach table — Ju-Boy and myself, Tinky and Didi and one of our favorite families, the Irish/Aussie blend which gave inspiration to my Famous Seamus Brownies and my Luscious Lambies.  There was just enough room at the table, but just.  The turkey that Ju-Boy roasted took up a good percentage of space, and the bottles of wine just kept piling up.  By the time we finished eating and were ready to sing Who Knows One and Chad Gadya some of us had already migrated to the sofa.  For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, it’s a similar feeling.  You have to move away from the food and give your body a chance to digest in peace (unbuckling your belt is optional but advisable).

Brave-Boy is ready for his solo

After the Passover holiday was over Ju-boy and I went hunting for a new table, one that could accommodate our ever-enlarging family.  We did so much research we each could have come out with a Ph.D. in dining room furniture.  In the end we bought a table that when fully expanded will fit 18 comfortably, and 20 at a crunch.  Eliyahu Hanavi can even bring a friend this year.  And this year we plan to utilize every table leaf.  We have almost all of our children with us.  Sassy and Sabraman have elected to spend the Seder night with his Yemenite grandparents, but pretty much everyone else will be there.  Even our Irish/Aussie friends are coming (we had such a good time with them last year we decided to make it a tradition).  And Brave-Boy makes his Ma Nishtana singing debut this year as well!

But in order to have a successful Seder you have to invest a lot of yourself into the preparation.  Cleaning for Passover, the original spring cleaning, is something you cannot gloss over.  Many of us have asked why we celebrate the holiday of freedom from slavery by becoming slaves to our own homes?  Perhaps the Powers-That-Be figured that we need to feel the slavery so we can appreciate the freedom?  Perhaps the Power-That-Be were men who sat and learned in the yeshiva while their wives were the ones at home experiencing the slavery-to-freedom experience?  The cabinets have to be re-lined and stocked, the floors have to be shined to a mirrored gloss and even the oven is scrubbed to within an inch of its life (and even past that, how many times have a shorted out the entire house by over-zealously cleaning the oven?  Raise your hand if you’ve done this as well!)   Israeli supermarkets have started their cleaning supplies price war, and I’ve already started stressing… until this morning.  When I opened up my email inbox I found the latest video from the Ein Prat Fountainheads — Breakin’ Free.  I figure that if I play this song in the background a few times (or a few hundred times) while cleaning and cooking, the hours will just breeze by (one can only hope…).

My favorite part is at the end, when the house and table slowly fills up with family and friends.

Vicki Bikkies

Photo by Debbie R. of Recipezaar.com

The days (or weeks) before Passover, when you are busy preparing your house for the holiday, is marked by several characteristics.  You want to get rid of all the flour you have in the house, you want food that is easy to prepare and you want snacks that will give you energy to keep going until you collapse into your first glass of wine at the Seder (how I LOVE that first glass of wine!).  These cookies tick off all the boxes, they are easy to make, use up all your flour and keep you whistling while you work.  As a special Pesach tie-in, I got the recipe from my favorite Seder guest (sorry Seamus, it’s not you, it’s your mom).

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup flaked coconut (unsweetened)
• 125 grams margarine (5 ounces)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (or golden syrup, or honey)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon boiling water
• 1 egg

1. Mix the flour, sugar, oats and coconut in a bowl. Make a hole in the center.
2. Melt the margarine with the maple syrup.
3. While that’s melting, mix the baking soda with the boiling water.
4. Add the baking soda/water mixture to the margarine/maple syrup mixture. Mix well.
5. Pour this into the hole in the dry ingredient mix. Mix well.
6. Add the egg, mix well.
7. Form into cookies (1 tablespoon per cookie) and place on a greased baking sheet (I use parchment paper).
8. Bake at 180 degrees C until the cookies are golden, around 20 minutes or so.