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A few months ago I brought my daughter to the supermarket and she walked around asking for everything in sight.  Sound familiar?  When we got to the bread aisle, I figured I would let her choose which loaf to buy this week and she chose this gorgeous fresh baked pumpernickel bread.  She loves pumpernickel bagels and she vigorously shook her head yes when I asked if she would eat it, so I figured why not.  Fast forward three days and I had more than a half of a loaf left and couldn’t get my daughter to eat a single slice of toast.

I really hate to waste, so I knew I had to get creative fast.  I often make croutons with leftover bread and figured that these would actually taste really good in a hot split pea soup and they were phenomenal.

Salad with Pumpernickel Croutons

But I had a LOT of croutons and so I came up with a toasted bread salad filled with roasted veggies, it barely needed any dressing and my we could not get enough.  A little goat cheese just put it over the top, I am actually thinking of buying pumpernickel just to make it again.

Stuffed Roasted Chicken wtih Vegetables

Then I thought about stuffing, my favorite part of Thanksgiving.  If you haven’t tried pumpernickel stuffing you are in for a treat!  Filled with onions and apples, stuffed in a chicken or turkey or just cooked in the oven it is perfect for this time of year.

There is a popular Jewish custom to enjoy stuffed foods for Sukkot.   Stuffing is a perfect way to use up your leftover bread and follow this Jewish tradition with your family.

Perfect for Sunday Brunch!

After a hectic week of rushed mornings, why not take advantage of slow Sunday morning? Try cooking brunch together and devouring a
gourmet meal that everyone helped create. Stratas may be the key.

A strata is a layered casserole dish that’s perfect for brunch and works well year round. Mini stratas are an easy way to feed the entire family without short order cooking. Everyone, including your youngest, can help prepare their own fillings. You can also store the leftovers of this high-protein dish in the fridge for hectic weekday breakfasts. Your delicious four-star strata will puff up in the oven like a soufflé and can be enjoyed warm or at room temperature. This recipe can be made in stages: you can make the fillings the day before, then assemble the stratas the next day, and let them rest in the refrigerator for 2 to 4 hours. Each filling recipe creates enough for 6 ramekins.

Kid Tips!
Small kids can participate in the preparation by cutting the bread, zucchini, or pears with a butter knife, mashing the sweet potato, scooping ricotta, and sprinkling cheese.

Get creative with your stratas!
Use six ounce ramekins to make personalized mini stratas with a variety of savory and sweet fillings: zucchini, sweet potato, pumpkin, pear, and apple.

For high puffy stratas, don’t grease the sides, only the bottoms.

Assembly

Each family member can customize their own strata:
Place ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil (the stratas may overflow). Place 1/4 cup, about 8 bread cubes into each of the six ramekins, then layer the stratas with 2 tablespoons of vegetable or fruit filling, sugar, spices, the cheese, and then the egg mixture. Gently press down each layer with your fingers.

Get the recipe for Mini Stratas with steps for kids and tons of variations.

What do you like to cook with your kids for brunch?

Sukkot, rich with symbolism, is the holiday which tickles the senses and creates strong memories of warm sunlit lunches and dinners under a brisk star-filled sky spent with family and friends.

Start with…All that Glitters
While the Sukkah may be a temporary dwelling, we do our best to decorate it festively and set the table with holiday elegance. Add glamour to your humble hut with bold jewel tones and accents of gold.

Keep your sliced challah warm by tucking it inside this oven-safe stoneware basket.

Golden Garden china features delicate blossoms of gold (Villeroy & Boch).

Sipping tea from these Moroccan-inspired tea glasses  while dining under a starlit canopy of greenery will evoke our ancestors’ trek through the desert.

Ensure soup arrives at the table piping hot by serving it in individual soup tureens with lids.

Keep it Going…Warm Touches
Impress your guests with details that will keep them cozy.

Create a cornucopia centerpiece for your Harvest Festival table. Lay a vase on its side. Fill with flowers, foliage, and fruit spilling onto the table.
(Orrefors’ Sea Candy Vase, $40, amazon.com)

Fill in the blanks…Bee Whimsical
No Sukkot meal is complete, unfortunately, without a guest appearance of bees. Make peace with their presence by incorporating them into your theme.

Adorn each place setting with a miniature beehive honey dish (Quest Collection, $100)

A pomegranate honey dish of intricate enamel with Swarovski crystal “seeds” will create a buzz at your table (Quest Collection, $210, email info@questgift.com for a local retailer).

Wallace Napoleon Bee Flatware, ($150, kitchenclique.com)

Honeycomb napkin rings (Quest Collection, $36, email info@questgift.com for a local retailer)

Originally published in the Rosh Hashanah 2011 issue of Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller.

Photos by Mark Wemple

Counting down the hours until the fast is over? Planning what delectable foods you will display on your plate? Are images of gourmet meals, penne vodka, hamburgers and other random dishes splashing across your mind?

Well, despite what our minds are telling us what we want to eat in our starvation, here is a list of what foods we need to eat to refuel and replenish our nutrient stores.

Hydration

The clock strikes the end of the fast. Quickly, your hand reaches for that steaming plate of Sambusak and you ravenously consume 3 in 30 seconds. Hold on. The first thing you should be reaching for is a tall glass of refreshing water. Dehydration from a mere 2% drop in your body’s water stores is likely causing the headaches, fatigue, lack of energy, trouble concentrating and other symptoms you may be feeling. Coconut water may also be helpful in replenishing potassium levels, an electrolyte lost during your fast.

Fruits and Vegetables

We drank our water and now we are ready to fill our stomachs with something delicious, but what? Along with drinking water, we should reach for fruits and vegetables with high water content and easily digestible carbohydrates. Great choices are watermelons, grapes and honeydews with a nice salad. Try and avoid acidic fruits like grapefruits, which may cause stomach discomfort.

Complex Carbohydrates

Finally, if you’re still hungry, you prepped your digestive system to be ready for some real food. Great choices are complex carbohydrates like sweet potatoes, beans, chickpeas and whole grains. Not only will they refuel your energy stores, but also some of these complex carbs are high in body-loving nutrients like vitamin A, C, potassium, magnesium, folate and beta-carotene.

High-Quality Protein

Another important food group to couple with your dish is a high-quality protein. Not meant to sound expensive, high-quality proteins can be as simple and cheap as eggs. With 6 grams of protein and 9 essential amino acids, eggs take little energy to prepare and digest so they make an “egg-cellant” choice.

Pace Yourself

Along with hydration, another key component of the evening is to eat and drink slowly. Studies show it takes an average of 20 minutes for your brain to get the signal that you are full and satisfied. Avoid overeating and feeling sick to your stomach by taking the time to chew each bite.

I hope you had an easy and meaningful fast and with these tips, a healthier break-the-fast!

Here are some of my “go-to” recipes for a break-the-fast meal. I refer to them as the “Syrian-staples” since they were passed down through the generations of Syrian, Sephardic Jewry, and are sure to be found in Syrian Jewish homes, like mine and around the globe. I adjusted them slightly to be more healthful but still retain the Mediterranean flavor.

Sambusak

Mini Pizzas

Spinach Jiben (Spinach Souffle in Pie Crust)

CBS will begin broadcasting a show called “Food, Faith, and Culture” next week.

This program looks at the relationship between food and faith in three world religions: Judaism, Islam and Sikhism.

We are so excited that they are featuring Moshe and Shana Wendel, the husband-and-wife team behind Pardes, an innovative kosher restaurant in Brooklyn, N.Y.  Pardes happens to be our Best of Kosher Restaurant winner from 2011.  Everyone who visits Pardes comes away with a positive review, at minimum you will never be bored.

Pardes serves kosher French food with a twist of Americana, a reflection of Chef Wendel’s training at well-regarded French restaurants. He serves interesting dishes like Beef Cheek Pizza, a Chicken and Chocolate Waffle, Sweet Breads, Ox Heart and Tartare of marrow.  Eating at Pardes is an experience and Chef Wendel should be perfect for this special.

In the last five years, Moshe and Shana Wendel have became traditionally observant and as they made their way from non-kosher to kosher and a fully orthodox lifestyle, Chef Wendel began to create a name for himself in the kosher restaurant scene.  In 2010, they decided to open Pardes,  a place where they can honor their faith and professional aspirations.

Find out where and when it will air in your area – . Let us know if you see it.

These perfectly-portioned desserts cap off any meal in grand style—and they’re easy and quick to prepare!

Fantastic Pistachio Parfait

This parfait is great in any form. If you dont have individual molds, you can pour the parfait into an 8-inch square pan and cut into cubes when it freezes. Or—freeze it in any large pretty silicone mold.

Black and White Dream Cups

The trick in this recipe is the presentation….the rest is extremely easy and fun!!

Chocolate-Coffee Layered Cream Dessert

A very simple and classy dessert. It’s easy to make and you can make and freeze it ahead of time.

Cashew Ice Cream “Sandwiches”

The cashew ice cream in this recipe is superb, but even so, I sometimes like to serve it with an interesting variation on a theme—here, I made ice cream sandwiches , but you can always use the ice cream recipe on its own.

Before we know it the summer will be over and our children will be back at school. Instead of being consumed with new shoes, backpacks, uniforms, and school supplies, we will readily turn our attention to our Rosh Hashanah menus.  As a crafter of sorts my brain works a bit different.  I see the Yom Tovim in texture and color, and I think to myself what can I make (AKA CRAFT) that will add vibrancy to my table and get my children excited about the upcoming holiday.

What I love about the craft that I am about to show you, is that you can not only do it by yourself, but you can also have your children join you too. It’s easy, simple, and a super inexpensive serving piece that can be used all year long!

Supplies

• Martini Glass & Plate (You can get these at the dollar store) – Does not matter if it has grooves, it will only add texture. You can also use thin china plates.
• Folk Art ENAMEL Paints – These have an E at the top. DO NOT buy the regular acrylic ones.
  You want to get (1) White and (1) color in 2 different tones. So if you want to make a pink cake plate.
  Buy (1) dark pink and (1) light pink and (1) white.
  To make an antique cake plate buy gold or silver and white. You can purchase these paints at any Michaels store near you.
• E6000 Glue or any other strong glass glue.
• (1) Large Flat Brush
• Paint Palette – you can also use a paper plate

Instructions:

Step 1 – Clean your pieces with water and dry them with a towel. The paint will not adhere to a dirty surface.

Step 2 – On a paper plate or paint palette squeeze out the 2 tones of the color that you chose. In my case, I chose to make a blue stand, so as you can see in my photo I squeezed out light blue and dark blue paint. 

Step 3 – Using your brush, paint the top side of your plate, mixing the colors so you have a nice even tone of your two opposing shades. Let it sit and dry. Repeat the same procedure with the martini glass. Make sure to paint the top, stem, and bottom of your martini glass. 

Step 4 – Once dry, squeeze out some white paint onto your paint palette or paper plate. Using a TINY bit of paint spread the brush very LIGHTLY over the painted plate and martini glass. Since you don’t have a lot of paint on your brush you will see the color paint underneath and it will start to appear crackled and weathered. . You can also add some gold to give it an antique look.

Step 5 – Once you are finished painting your pieces. Let them sit and dry for 24 hours. There are (2) ways to cure the paint on the glass so they can be washable. The first way is to BAKE them (NO I am NOT crazy) in your oven on the rack at 350 for ½ an hour. The other way is to leave it aside for 21 days and it will cure on its own. If you are baking your pieces, the best thing to do is to turn your martini glass upside down, so the heavier part is sitting on the rack. Your glass should not break in the oven. Trust me, I’m a glass painter

Step 6 – Now that your pieces are set you can glue them together. Add a liberal amount of the E6000 to the top of your martini glass and to the back of your plate. Stick the pieces together and turn the plate stand upside down. Put a very heavy book on top of it and let it sit overnight.

Step 7 – Once it’s dry, USE IT, LOVE IT, and BRAG ABOUT IT!!!! 

Psssstttt…… By the way, you don’t only have to use these simanim platters for Rosh Hashanah, they also make FABULOUS cake plates for during the year!! 

Don’t want to go to all the trouble of making your own? Come on over to Not2Shabbey.com and I can ship one out to you.

***Giveaway***

Abbey is graciously giving you all the chance to win one of these distressed Salad Bowls.  All you have to do is enter the Rafflecopter options below for your chance to win.  Make sure to follow through, we do check to verify the winner.

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These tried-and-true tips put the fun back into preparing simple and healthy, school lunches. Your kids will thank you!

1. Mix-It Up

Enlist your kids on a Sunday to make a batch of trail or party mix for the week. The possibilities are endless! Most will keep for over a week in an airtight container. When kids need snacks-on-the-go, scoop a handful into a Ziploc bag.

No Bake Trail Mix

For No-Bake Trail Mix: in a large bowl, combine 3 cups whole grain cereal, such as Cheerios, ½ cup plain or yogurt-covered raisins or dried cranberries, ¼ cup mixed dried fruit such as apricots, plums, or apples, ½ cup peanuts, almonds, pecans or walnuts, ¼ cup mini pretzels.

Sweet and Spicy Popcorn

For Sweet and Spicy Popcorn Mix: heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large pot, until hot but not smoking. Add ½ cup popcorn kernels, cover. Once the kernels have finished popping, transfer to a large bowl, and add 2 teaspoons brown sugar, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon garam masala or sweet curry powder.

2. Make It Mini

Kids love finger-size foods. Spend an afternoon baking bite-size, kid-friendly treats. Store the baked goods in the freezer. Pack them in the lunchbox frozen; they will defrost by lunchtime. Use mini muffin tins to make tiny cupcakes and a melon baller to scoop cookie dough into “cookie bites.”

Mini Cheese Crisps

To make Mini Cheese Crisps: combine 1 cup grated cheddar cheese, ½ cup of softened butter, 1 cup of flour and 1 cup crispy rice cereal. Using your hands, shape mini-size balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.

3. Kool Kabobs

What child won’t love eating lunch off a stick?

Perfect for kids with serious aversions to healthy snacks, skewers of melon balls, grapes, blueberries, and orange slices look as gorgeous as they taste. For a new spin, make a sandwich kabob by skewering cheese cubes, grape tomatoes, pickles, and cubes of bread on a stick.

4. Delightful Dips

Stock up on the smallest containers you can find and fill them with dips to accompany bread sticks, fish sticks, cut fruit, and of course, sliced
veggies.
For Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce, blend 3 tablespoons mayo, 2 tablespoons Dijon or whole grain mustard, 2 tablespoons honey, and 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice.

For Tartar Dipping Sauce, in a food processor, pulse to combine ¼ cup light mayo, 5 baby gherkin pickles, 1 teaspoon minced red onion, ½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoonsugar.

For Yogurt Dip, in a blender or fruit processor, combine 1 cup vanilla yogurt, 1/3 cup cream cheese, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice.

For a shortcut, try Gold’s Squeeze Tartar or Honey Mustard Sauces.

5. Sandwich Cut-Outs

Instead of slicing bread in half to make a traditional sandwich, use cookie cutters to make sandwiches in all sorts of shapes.  Spread peanut butter or cream cheese and jelly on bread. Press a cookie cutter through the sandwich.

More School Lunch and Snack Ideas

Originally published in the Rosh Hashanah 2011 issue of Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller.

Why does a dining room need to follow a template? The owner of this dining room wanted something fresh—a modern and cozy space where her family and friends would love spending lots of time together around the table come Shabbat and holidays. Designer Pamela Jemal did all that and made it practical too—with an entire wall of storage space.

Top Off the Room

The moldings on the top of this dining room are made of ribbon mahagony—the same wood used in the dining table and wall unit.

The Modern “Touch”

Blue polished glass inserts make this wall unit fun and interesting.

Tired of Crystal?

White Murano glass, straight from Italy, is glamorous and modern.

Bring on the Guests

The two 18-inch extensions on this table are stored inside, adding three feet to this ten foot table in a snap. There’s no need to lift those heavy leaves and pull the table apart to seat your company.

Stain-Resistant Fabric

This velvet-like fabric may look decadent and impractical—but it’s not! This cobalt blue moidore fabric is mildew, soil, and stain-resistant. It’s also super soft and comfy.

The white lacquer doors

(not shown) on the wall-to-wall unit are “touch latch.” Simply press to open.

No Tarnish on My Silver

The drawers inside this buffet are lined with Pacific cloth, which keeps silverware from tarnishing.
Photos by Morris Antebi
Design by Pamela Jemal Designs
732 245 5151

Accessories by The Gift Box and Surrey Lane, both of Brooklyn, NY

Originally printed in the Rosh Hashanah 2011 issue of Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller.

I can think of few things that inspire fear in the hearts of many cooks more than a soufflé.

Maybe it is the meringue that makes people nervous, or the thought of a flat pancake dessert, or maybe it is the timing issue? I think it is all of the above. The fact is that a soufflé is actually easy once you understand it.

Potato and Cheese Souffle

A soufflé (French: [su.fle]) is a lightly baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé comes from the French souffler which means “to blow up”.

A soufflé is made up of two components.

1. A crème pâtissière which is a cooked custard base made from: egg yolks, a starch which adds stability and what I call “hang time”, more on that later, which can be: flour, corn starch, arrow root or other starches, and flavor.

2. Egg whites beaten to a soft peak meringue.  The base provides flavor and stability and the egg whites provide the lift. Souffles can be savory
or sweet and should be fluffy and puffed when served. A soufflé will fall after 5-10 minutes.

Souffles can come in all sizes but are most often served in ramekins either individually or for sharing. If a soufflé is too large, it is more likely to collapse.  The components for soufflés can be made ahead of time and can be assembled last minute or, the entire soufflé can be assembled ahead of time and can sit for up to 3 hours before baking.

Part of the secret to the soufflés rise, (ba –dum-ching!) is that the ramekin or baking dish needs to have a crusty coating for the soufflé to crawl up and cling to. For dessert soufflés, the ramekin is buttered all the way to the top and then generously sugared so that the soufflé can climb
up the sides. For savory soufflés, the ramekin is oiled or buttered and then bread crumbs or parmesan cheese are added.

I love soufflés! A soufflé in the oven is a celebration. The light, airy and creamy-egg concoction practically screams PARTY! When my kids were younger, I made a weekly soufflé dinner night. I made our family favorite Potato-Cheese Soufflé for dinner and with a salad and bread, we had a
very elegant and complete dinner.

Non Dairy Chocolate Souffle

For dessert, we had a different soufflé each week. Sometimes, they were chocolate, banana, lemon, vanilla bean, strawberry, pumpkin and more. My kids and I loved soufflé night. The magnificent puff, hovering over the ramekin never failed to delight. As they got older, they used to time the “fall” and I scored points each week with exclamations of GOOD ONE! Or LAST WEEKS WAS BETTER etc…

My kids did not realize that their elegant dinner was really little more than fancy scrambled eggs. They used to invite friends over for soufflé night and brag about their dinners to classmates. I will never forget other mothers in car-pool lines, telling me that I ruined dinners for them with their own kids now asking for soufflés.

My youngest son’s preschool teacher announced, to the class one day, that there was a Special treat that day. My son Jonah, asked, in his booming voice, if it was a Soufflé. The teacher explained that another child had brought some packaged cookies for a treat. Jonah announced
that cookies were not special. Souffles were special!

What type of souffle are you going to make?

Favorite Potato and Cheese Souffle

Best Chocolate Souffle (non dairy)

We are big fans of these Tishbi Preserves and they continue to create new flavors to amaze us.  Today one lucky winner will receive their new award winning flavors the Cherry Shiraz Preserves and the Onion Cabernet.  Cooked in small batches at the Tishbi Winery, these chunky fruit preserves are made using local fruit and award winning kosher wines in Israel. We wrote about them a few times on the site starting with our product review from Kosherfest 2011.   Don’t miss your chance to win, just click on over to Jamie’s article on 4 Summer Party Appetizer Ideas and let us know what your favorite appetizer is.

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Tell the kids they are mad scientists, who get to alter the flavor profile by deciding which fruit and tea flavors to use. While your little chefs are concocting their own brew, they’ll also be creating summer memories they’ll never forget.

Iced Tea Fruit Coolers using Turbinado sugar, a less refined alternative to regular sugar. It absorbs moisture well, making it good for tea or coffee.

Strawberries and Watermelon Smoothies and Popsicles

Here’s how to get the kids involved:

Kids 2 and up: With a plastic knife or metal butter knife, slice the strawberries and cube the watermelon.
Adults with kids: In a blender or food processor, combine strawberries, watermelon, and Iced Tea Fruit Cooler. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and taste—if need be, add more. Blend entire mixture well.
Kids 8 and older: Thread fruit onto rainbow colored toothpicks. Pour puréed fruit drink into plastic cocktail glasses and garnish with cubed fruit.
For Popsicles: Pour puréed fruit drink into popsicle molds or small plastic cups and freeze for at least 6 hours.

VARIATIONS:

Blue Lagoons: Try replacing a few raspberry tea bags with blueberry tea bags. Substitute 1 cup of strawberries with blueberries.
Jungle Fun: Use orange mandarin tea instead of raspberry tea and blend in mangos or pineapples for a tropical flavor.

Originally published in the Summer 2011 issue of Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller

Chef Jeff is the well known proprietor of the Kosher restaurant Abigael’s in New York City.  He really knows his food. After touring through the Farmer’s Market with Cheff Jeff Nathan of Abigael’s we get to cook and eat his fabulous foods.

Jeff Nathan's Asian Chicken Stir Fry

Pan Roasted Salmon with Summer Vegetables

Jeff Nathan's String Bean and Tofu salad with Soy-Wasabi Vinaigrette

Pepper Crusted Tuna

Berries with Honey Ginger Zabaglione

It all started with Bacon Salt and a dream to make everything taste like bacon to go way beyond Bacos.  Two young entrepreneurs, Justin and Dave, followed their dream and now have over 9 products to help everyone including kosher consumers enjoy the smokey flavor of bacon.  Even though bacon is not kosher, these products are able to replicate the taste.

Today, you can win a sampling, a basket of J&D’s bacon flavored products including 1 Bacon Salt, 1 Baconnaise, 1 Bacon Ranch, 1 Bacon Gravy, and 1 Bacon lip balm (not so sure about this one, but to each his own).  Value – about $20.

See rafflecopter to enter.
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Find out why we eat dairy during the 9 Days leading up to Tisha B’av and recipes to inspire you.