Food Holiday

May 14th is National Chocolate Chip Day.  Where would we be without chocolate chips, those little morsels of yumminess perfect for so many fabulous treats.  From muffins, to cakes, to cookies to an ice cream topping these little guys can do it all.  While chocolate has been around for many years, the idea of the chip was only invented in the 1930′s.  Ruth Graves Wakefield at her Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, was going to cook chocolate cookies for her guests, but she ran out of baker’s chocolate. When she substituted chopped up semi-sweet chocolate bits for the baker’s chocolate, Ruth discovered that the bits did not melt into the dough as baker’s chocolate does, the chocolate chip cookie was born and so was chocolate chips.

Approximately 25 percent of the cookies baked in the United States today are chocolate chip cookies.  We have found the best chocolate chips at Trader Joe’s they are kosher and parve and about 55% cacao. Another great option is the Whole Foods 365 brand. To get up to the preferred 70% cacao Whole Foods sells parve chocolate chunks.  In addition to using them in cookies and cake etc.  where they retain their shape, they do also melt well, since they are all the same size there is less risk of burning when making chocolate dipped strawberries or pretzels for example.

To celebrate National Chocolate Chip Day, pick up a bag and bake here are some great ways to use chocolate chips.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies by Jamie

Chocolate Chip Cookies by Tamar

Maple Cashew Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Chocolate Chip Challah

Peanut Butter Chocolate-Chip Muffins

Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

How do you like to use chocolate chips?

May 13th is National fruit cocktail day.  When we think of fruit cocktail most of think of a canned mixture of pears, pineapple, grapes and peaches with something they call cherries, but don’t really resemble real cherries and drenched in a sugary syrup.  Often packed in kids lunches, thought of as healthy, but that was before people read food labels or understood how much added sugar was in there.

According to Wikipedia, fruit cocktail is often sold canned, but does not have to be.  The word cocktail refers to it being an appetizer made by combining pieces of food. It was often served as an appetizer for a luncheon or dinner to precede the soup course.

Canned fruit cocktail according to the USDA must contain certain percentage distribution of the fruits mentioned above in order to be called and marketed as fruit cocktail and the cherries can be artificial.   And canned fruit cocktail contains diced fruit as opposed to canned fruit salad which would have larger chunks.

So, taking that in consideration we can’t consider any of the recipes here for fruit salad and instead will create this classic fruit cocktail using fresh fruit that will knock your cans off.  I would just wait until June or July when these fruits are at their best to make this.

The trick to this fruit cocktail is peeling the peaches.  To do this all you have to is score a thin at the top of the peach and place it in boiling water for 1 minute.  Then put it into cold water and the peel will come right off.

Dice the peeled peach and add to it a diced peeled pear, diced pineapple (make sure to remover the core) and add some diced green grapes and diced bing cherries.  The cherries will be bright dark red and look gorgeous or you can use the lighter rainier cherries if you want it to look more like the classic.

If you are up for going outside your comfort you can also try dicing some citrus fruits like grapefruits and oranges and combining them with a bit of chopped mint for a new kind of cocktail.

It seems kind of odd timing to have National Apple Pie Day on May 13th.  Apples are so Fall and we are counting on Spring.   Oh, well, apples are available all year round and an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Nothing seems more American than apple pie, but in fact it was invented in Europe sometime in the 14th century.  The first apple pie recipe recorded is from England and Dutch Apple Pie dates back to the late 15th century where they added a scoop of ice cream on top.

Traditional apple pie is baked in a round pie crust, either with another pie crust on top or a crumble topping.  You can find tradition in this Deep Dish Apple Pie.

For a pie with crumble topping try this Walnut Streusel Apple Pie.

For a real twist make these Apple Pie Hamanthashen Cookies.

Main image – Jamie introduced us to her Deconstructed Apple pie to save us time and offers a beautiful presentation in individual ramekins.

Today’s food holiday is a little different.  Most of them are so specific, like Blueberry Pie Day and Cherry Cheesecake Day, but today it is all about you and what you want to eat.  Now, this doesn’t mean that you should eat as much as you want of lots of junky foods, but it is a day to reflect on what food you really want.

Most of the time we eat what is in front of us.  Food that are easy to make and readily available.  We follow diet regimens and budget restrictions and limit the foods we choose from.  Today, is the day to find something you have been missing and go ahead and enjoy it, even if it means changing your menu at the last minute.

For some it might mean splurging on a rack of lamb or rib roast.  For others it might be decadent chocolates.  Still others might go for specialty potato chips or even plain old Lays they don’t normally let themselves eat for fear of finishing the whole bag.  Some might want a lavish cake others might want some fiddleheads or ramps.  Some might want a simple comforting bowl of mac and cheese.

To each his own.  We suggest using tonight, your Shabbat dinner to add something extra special just because you want it and if you can do it for the whole family even better, maybe you can guess what they would want.  Then spend the time to talk to your family and find out what it is that they would want to eat on Eat What You Want Day. See if you match up or if you are surprised by the answer.

What will you eat on eat what you want day?

May 9th is national butterscotch brownie day, but what is a butterscotch brownie? It all starts with butterscotch a candy made from primarily brown sugar and butter and a few other things.  It is similar to toffee, but it only gets brought to a soft ball stage, meaning a lower temperature so that it doesn’t harden.  It is often turned into a syrup for ice cream.  The term butterscotch is used anytime brown sugar are mixed together, that is why Butterscotch Brownies are often called blondies, because theyare made similar to brownies, but are not brown.  Really they are more like a cookie bar often with added pecans and white chocoalte, but many people like to use milk or dark chocolate chips, really anything goes.  Most blondies we have don’t have that distinctive butterscoth taste, it might be that we use margarine.  To get the real deal we got to use butter today to make the Best Butterscoth Brownie otherwise known as Blondie.

If blondies aint your thing but you still want some butterscotch try Butterscotch Pudding Ice Cream.

These Banana Walnut Butterscotch Bars look like another fun treat.

Today’s food holiday is not clear.  Is it Have a Coke Day? Coconut Cream Pie Day? or National Empanda Day?  It seems like it might just be all three.  While we often just choose one on these occurrences, these foods actually go together quite well so it seemed a shame to leave any out. Now you know what to have for lunch today so get in the kitchen, we have some cooking to do.

Let’s start with Empanadas.  These are the Latin American Sandwich although they originate din Portugal.  Beginning with a delicate pastry outside and filled with your choice of fillings from meat, to cheese, to vegetable to even sweets like Dulce de Leche, they are the perfect on the go food.  They can be baked or fried and freeze well too.

If you want to stay parve try these Vegetarian Beef Empanadas if you want to go dairy just fill  the dough with a mixture of cooked mushrooms and Gruyere.  Or go meat with traditional Baked Beef Empanadas.

You can make this variation using pizza dough  Mexican Pizza Empanadas.

This one using wonton wrappers might be even easier – Wonton Beef Empanadas.

Now on to dessert.  You can make a classic Coconut Cream Pie seen in the main image or try this Coconut Cream & Ginger Tower

Flush it all down with a coke!

The French love to set things on fire and don’t we all love a spectacle.  It really feels worth going out when you get dinner and a show.  That is why people love these crepes.  Crêpe Suzette is a French dessert consisting of a crêpe with beurre Suzette, a sauce of caramelized sugar and butter, tangerine or orange juice, zest, and Grand Marnier or orange Curaçao liqueur on top, served flambé.  The most common way to make Crêpe Suzette is to pour the liquor on top of freshly cooked crepes with sugar and light it.  The alcohol burns off so this is safe for children (from a distance at least) and results in a thick caramelized sauce.

There is some controversy over the origins of this dish, but it does appear to be one of those times when an accident actually improves a dish.  Let’s face it, who would think to purposely set their dessert on fire?  Don’t be afraid to try this dish at home.  Just make sure to have a long match or lighter, you don’t want to get too close to the flame.

Today, May 6th, National Crepe Suzette Day is the perfect day to give this dish a try.  Sure you could go out to brunch and maybe a restaurant by you has this dish, but we say make it yourself.

Here is a classic recipe for Crepe Suzette.  Let us know if you give it a try.

Orange Juice is one of the most popular juices in the United States and it is also one of the healthiest.  It contains high amounts of Vitamin C, Folic Acid and Potassium.  Make sure to stick to 100% orange juice and not those fake orange drinks with added sugar. For taste, fresh squeezed is the way to go, but that is obviously a hard way to go unless you live in Florida and have your own orange tree.  For nutrition, not from concentrate, from concentrate etc.  is pretty much all the same, so get what you like.

Now they even have orange juices with other added nutrients, like calcium.  This is a great option for those looking to boost calcium and don’t like or can’t drink milk.  There are also Heart Health orange juice with added plant sterols that should help lower cholesterol.  But beware of our portion size.  1 cup of OJ has about 110 calories and will leave a nice coating of sugar on your teeth.  Stick to no more than 1 cup and drink it before you brush your teeth, we all know it doesn’t taste good after you brush.

Aside from drinking, orange juice is a great cooking ingredient.  It can add tang and sweetness to marinades, it provides a lighter acid for salad dressings, it even adds flavor and a subtle sweetness to desserts.  Here are few recipes that use orange juice for a flavor pop.

Sweet and Tangy Chicken Wings

Roasted Tomato Cheese Tart with Spring Salad

Chocolate Orange Pudding Cake

A tart is usually made up of flaky, crispy crust, a creamy filling and topped with fresh fruit.  Raspberries are the perfectly baaanced sweet and tart fruit that will be in full bloom in July (available in your freezer all year).  Today, May 3rd, we celebrate the Raspberry Tart. While tarts can be made savory with things like mushrooms and Gruyere or a multitude of fruits from other berries to apples and pear, today we celebrate them covered in raspberries.

Here is an easy to make Raspberry Almond Crumb Tart, a slight variation on the original with it’s crumb topping and lack of creamy center, but works extremely well with frozen raspberries.

When using a crimped edge tart pan, these fancy desserts are surprisingly easy to make and come out looking like you bought them from a store every time. If you make the tart miniature size, they are called tartlets, like these Walnut Raspberry Chocolate Tarlets. Usually tarts are not for the chocolate lovers among us, but this one will is sure to please them all.

Do you have a favorite Tart?

Main Image:

Fudge and Raspberry Tart

Today, May 2nd, we celebrate Truffles.  We are talking chocolates not fungus, we can save that for another time.  Chocolate truffles are traditionally made with a chocolate ganache center and coated in either a hard tempered chocolate shell or cocoa powder usually shaped into a round ball.  The ganache filling can be infused with an unlimited variation of flavors or replaced with cream, caramel, nuts, nougat, etc.  And according to wikipiedia chocolate truffles are actually named after the fungus truffle because they resemble them.

While most of you will probably just go out to your local Godiva to celebrate this day, there is nothing more satisfying or fun than making your own.  It is a really fun activity with your kids, just plan for a chocolate bath to end the night.  The most important thing to remember when making truffles is to use high quality chocolate.  If it doesn’t start out tasting good, it will not end up tasting good let alone great and if you choose properly you can even enjoy it in good health.

We have just scratched the surface here on JOK with recipes for Mango Chocolate Truffles, Orange Chocolate Truffles, Raspberry Chocolate Truffles, 15-minute Coconut Truffles and Dark Chocolate Truffles that are all made parve, using either fruit purees or coconut milk, but the varieties are endless.

What will you try?

What does the word parfait conjure in your memory? Do you remember those Carvel parfaits, maybe they still have them, layers of ice cream with chocolate sauce in between and whipped cream and a cherry on top.  Oh, to be a kid again, enjoying one of those delicious treats without caring about how many calories was in it.  Today, May 1st is National Chocolate Parfait Day.

The word parfait originated in France and describes a frozen dessert made of sugar syrup, egg, and cream.  Basically it really just refers to layering and some people even make savory parfaits of mashed potatoes layered with gravy for example.  When it comes to ice cream it can be any combination of ice cream and syrups and fruits.  Parfaits are usually served in a tall narrow container with a long spoon to enjoy the lingering chocolate sauce that sits at the bottom. This is how it differs from a sundae in that the syrup topping can be enjoyed all the way though the ice cream and not just at the top, someone was wearing his thinking cap when he came up with this one.

Today we focus on the chocolate parfait, what flavor ice cream will you choose to make the Ultimate Chocolate Parfait?  Or you don’t have to stick to ice cream.   Jamie makes a Banana Chocolate Parfait using pudding or use yogurt with cereal and chocolate sauce to make a parfait you might even consider eating for breakfast, like this image below from Flickr by Phossil.

April 30th is National Raisin Day and we believe this undervalued fruit is due for a comeback.  Since the dawn of the Craisin in 1993, the raisin has been well, let’s just say swapped.  It seemed more exciting to make Oatmeal Craisin Cookies and Craisin Granola.  No doubt there is room in our world for both and recipe where the tartness from a craisin is needed, but juicy, plumped raisins deserve their day in the “sun” and here it is.

We all learned in Kindergarten that raisins are just dried grapes.  Sun or oven dried dark grapes get turned into our favorite dark raisins and small dark grapes get turned into the flavorful but miniature Currants.  To make the golden raisins, they add sulfur dioxide and flame dry the grapes, who knew? And there are even more varieties like green grapes in other parts of the world.

Raisins are just dried grapes, no added sugar and so they retain many of the benefits of eating fresh fruit.  They have fiber and antioxidant properties, they are one of the richest sources of Boron and are high in Potassium. However, like all dried fruit, they are a concentrated form and so portion size is important or the calories do add up.  Dentists often warn against this sticky fruit causing cavities, but recent research has shown that raisins are actually good for oral health.  They actually fight the growth of  a type of bacteria that can cause inflammation and gum disease.

Raisins are so versatile we have over 100 recipes.

Raisins can be used in savory dishes to add a bit of sweetness often to counterbalance bitter or spicy as in this Broccoli Rabe Dish.

Broccoli Rabe with Raisins and Pine Nuts

Raisins are also the perfect on the go snack on their own or mixed with nuts and grains for a trail mix or granola.

California Almond Granola with Golden Raisins

They also add perfect sweetness to desserts like in these Raisin and Chocolate Filled Cookies.

Raisin and Chocolate Filled Cookies

Or these Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Banana Muffins

Whole-Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Banana Muffins

Whether you choose to celebrate this day with one of these 100 recipes with raisins or you just decide to carry a box and snack on them, Have a Raisin Day!

Since today’s holiday does not work for us (shrimp scampi) and we missed yesterday’s much more enticing food holiday we figured we would feature Blueberry Pie, even if it is a day late.  National Bluebery Pie Day is April 29th.  Maybe not quite as classically American as Apple pie, but a close second.  This sweet luscious pie can be filled with fresh or frozen blueberries or even canned blueberry pie filling, but nothing compares to the fresh especially during peak blueberry season usually around July, although the season starts sometime in May and ends late Summer.  Blueberry pie has also morphed into many other pie like creations from tarts, to cobblers to buns, check out our recipes.

Lemon Yogurt Pies with Blueberries

Lemon Yogurt Pie

Toronto Blueberry Buns (A Handheld Pie you can make with challah dough)

Peach and Blueberry Cobbler

Blueberry Tart

Bursting with Blueberries Tart

Main Image – Classic Blueberry Pie

Friday April 27th, today, is national Prime Rib Day.  It is so wonderful when it falls on a Friday, so we can really celebrate by enjoying a fancy steak often reserved for our Shabbat dinner.  Often served at Jewish weddings and other fancy celebrations Prime Rib is a celebratory meat also called a Standing Rib Roast.  It is called “standing” because to cook it, you roast it on its rib bones in a roasting pan, no need for a rack.

Sharon Lurie, The Kosher Butcher’s Wife, shares some valuable information about Prime Rib.

This is the Rib Section of the cow.  It is in this section of the ribs that the tender Scoth fillet or rib-eye musle is housed.  While still attached to the rib bones it is called a standing rib roast and makes a wonderful impression as it stands arched firmly on its flat boned base.  This roast can also be French-trimmed, where all the meat and fat are removed along the length of the bone tips for that extra-clean look.

Recipes:

Grilled Prime Rib with California Jumbo Asparagus

Standing Rib Roast

April 26th is a fun one, National Pretzel Day!!  If you are a salty snacks kind of person this is the day for you.  Pretzels come in so many shapes and sizes and today is the day to celebrate them all.

Thick or thin? Straight or twisted? Crisp and crunchy, or soft? Salted, unsalted? Covered in sesame seeds or caraway seeds? Plain or flavored? The choices can go on and on.

Soft pretzels were brought to America in the 19th century by southern German and Swiss German immigrants. The immigrants became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch and you can still find many handmade pretzel bakeries along the central Pennsylvania countryside.  The pretzel’s popularity grew and for as long as most of us can remember they have been available at sporting events, concerts, carnivals and even malls.

Hard pretzels were invented a little later when a Pennsylvania baker forgot about a batch of pretzels in the oven. Though these pretzels seemed inedible because they were dark and hard, they were actually quite delicious! Hard pretzels soon became a wild success across country.

You can definitely celebrate this day by just buying a selection of hard pretzels and munching away, but we suggest taking today to make your own soft pretzels.  Like bagels they are dipped in a boiling water solution, so be careful, but get the kids involved and start baking.

Other ways to celebrate national pretzel day are to make some Chocolate Covered Pretzels (great to prepare early for Shabbat).

Or this yummy, Pretzel Challah from Susie Fishbein or Jamie’s Chocolate Pretzel Crust Tart, great to make with all the extra pretzels you bought for your pretzel party.

Chocolate Pretzel Crust Tart

Finally, you can consider making Pretzel Crisp Nachos with veggie sausage a great snack or dinner.   These flat pretzels were only invented in 2004 and immediately attracted a slew of fans.