In the joyofkosher Kitchen

All about the energy  – In Neshe Antelis’s kitchen, healthful food leads to a richer life.

Neshe Antelis’s philosophy on feeding her family is pretty straightforward.  “Keep it simple! Use your time, money and energy wisely— so you’ll have extra time to spend energizing yourself. Then you’ll be able to put more into your family and your food.”

Besides for taking care of her big brood at home in Hillside, N.J., Neshe keeps busy teaching fitness between one and four hours each day. She’s a certified yoga and Zumba instructor, a certified doula, and an avid foodie. Her style in the kitchen reflects her philosophy: living life healthfully and simply. “I love being in the kitchen but don’t believe in time-invasive cooking. Life is too busy.”

Neshe's Simple Salmon

Neshe runs classes during the day in the local gym, in friends’ homes, or, when the weather is accommodating, outdoors in a friend’s yard. “I’m a complete junky for Zumba! It’s so joyful; and through yoga you achieve balance. Exercise brings not only physical benefits but mental benefits as well. It makes you calm and gives you the everyday strength that we all need to do the regular things we do; running after the kids, lifting, carrying. The more energy you use, by walking, swimming, moving…the more energy you’re going to have. A good night’s sleep is the key. If you’re well rested you won’t be reaching for the sugars and the carbs.”

Apple Pear Crunch

Neshe tries to go as natural as possible in the kitchen. “I’d love to say we eat only organic but it’s not practical. The prices are a little science fiction for our large family! So we buy the good stuff. I like to be consistent but not fanatical.  Consistency is good. Being fanatical is great in
theory but unhealthy in the long run!”

A Friday morning in Neshe’s kitchen will find her baking spelt challah, salmon, and baked gefilte fish. Her family loves meatloaf and mashed potatoes, turkey breast and either steamed or grilled vegetables with her special pesto. “My kids love pesto…all year round. We put it on brown rice, quinoa, noodles, salmon, steamed veggies.” Another favorite is her pureed vegetable soup using whatever vegetables are in season and
as many greens as she can. “Broccoli and squash pureed into a thick soup. It’s divine!”  Lots of salads with mixed greens, craisins, nuts and fruit and a big pot of brown rice round out the menu.

For those hot summer days the Antelis family relies on fruit smoothies for a cold pick-me up. “My family loves smoothies…doesn’t everyone?! I use the over ripe bananas that no one will eat.  I rinse them, peel them and freeze them. My basic recipe is 3 frozen bananas, frozen strawberries,
and washed frozen grapes. Add soy, almond, or rice milk. Blend till smooth and I like adding chia seeds or some essential fatty acid oil—about 1 tablespoon. Keeps you cool, healthy and it’s guilt-free!”

Neshe’s passion for life comes through, but with all that keeps her busy, her greatest love is being a mother. “I tell all my students to try to find some time for themselves, even a half hour, a few times week. Walk, dance…anything! Just move! It will make you a happier person and a better
mother.”

Tip from Neshe’s Kitchen: When cooking or baking with aluminum pans, line them first with parchment paper and lay another layer of parchment paper on top before you seal with silver foil. This will limit the absorption of aluminum into the food. It’s especially important when
cooking with acidic foods, like tomato products.

Neshe’s Simple Salmon

Apple Pear Crunch

It is my pleasure to introduce to you all the very talented husband and wife team that put together the Gluten Free Canteen’s Book of Nosh.  Lisa and Tim Horel have been baking gluten free for 10 years and working hard to make all our favorite Jewish treats gluten free so that everyone can enjoy our traditions.  Just in time for the High Holidays, this book will be your lifesaver if you are gluten free or have gluten free guests coming for a visit.  From mandelbrot to rugelach to babka you won’t miss a thing.  Today we talk to Lisa, the master baker behind the book and give you a chance to win your very own copy.

What inspired you to start your blog and write this book?

The truth? I ran out of Post-It Notes. I started the blog as a convenient way to record and organize my recipes and save a tree or two. I archived recipes until one day I hit the publish button and there was no looking back.

I’ve spent years working from childhood memories to recreate our family recipes.  Then over a decade ago we became a gluten-free home because of celiac.  My motto was no recipe left behind. Even the family recipes were going to get recreated gluten-free.  And that became the blog and now the book.

Quick Challah

Are there any classic Jewish baked goods you have not been able to adapt to gluten free?

I am sure there are many Jewish baked goods I’ve yet to adapt to gluten-free. Undoubtedly, some are easier than others. The challah, for example, is a work in progress. There are five versions in the book and we are working on more. If anyone has a request, we are more than willing to take on the challenge.

How has gluten free baking changed in the 10 years you have been cooking that way?

A decade or so ago there was but one gluten-free flour on the store shelf in our community and it tasted like sand. That more people are also trying their hand at gluten-free cooking and baking has only increased the selection and quality of products. Today, not only have we seen a huge growth in the marketplace for baking supplies that are gluten-free but we now have shelves dedicated to gluten-free foods and baked goods in our local groceries. There are gluten-free bakeries all over the world that are thriving. That there are superfine gluten free flours from places like Authentic Foods in Los Angeles which are almost indistinguishable from regular AP flours is nothing short of a miracle – no more taste or texture challenged baking is the biggest hurdle for gluten-free over that time.

How and when did you learn to cook?

Here’s a surprise. I don’t really cook, though I know how to cook. Sort of.  Growing up, my family ate the same thing every week and none of it was particularly good.  My mother could bake like no one else, but she had little to offer when it came to cooking.  But my mother-in-law taught me all about the world of food and luckily she taught her son too.  He’s good at it and cleans up, it’s a great trade.

What is your most memorable cooking experience?

When we were starving students with two very small children we had few resources to splurge on buying fancy baking ingredients. But I scrimped and saved all week in order to bake something special every weekend. During that time I made my first choux pastry and it was surprisingly successful. We ate an entire plate of custard filled, chocolate topped cream puffs in one evening (recipe in the Canteen blog). Since then I’ve made plenty of choux pastries but none has ever tasted as good or meant as much as that first batch.

Honey Cake

Why should someone who is not on a gluten free diet buy your book?

Chances are when someone hosts a holiday dinner or get-together there will be someone in the group who will be eating gluten-free. Celiac and gluten intolerance awareness is growing world-wide and is only going to become more prevalent.
Because we developed these recipes using superfine flours from Authentic Foods, they are virtually indistinguishable from their gluten counterparts. That means no more double duty baking which pretty much eliminates the risks of cross-contamination. Not to mention the flour mix we use throughout the book leads with whole grain superfine brown rice flour – it’s good for you. And surprisingly it imparts a neutral taste in baked goods. It’s good to know that even though you may be eating one too many rugelach you are consuming whole grains and fiber without feeling like you’re eating tree bark.

Enter to win a copy of The Book of Nosh, tell us what recipe you would like to see made gluten free?
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I met Lindsay Landis on Twitter and she told me about her new cookbook, The Cookie Dough Lovers Cookbook . I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy. Being a dietitian, I knew I would save these recipes for special occasions, but with a few birthdays coming up it was perfect timing! I have a secret love of cookie dough. It all goes back to my TCBY days, I used to love their cookie dough topping and I still love cookie dough ice cream. I don’t know what it is about this stuff, but Lindsay clearly is head over heels for the cookie dough.

In The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook: Cookies, Cakes, Candies, and More, Lindsay starts out with a delicious egg free cookie dough recipe that can then be added to any other dessert you can imagine. Lindsay blogs at LoveandOliveOil.com and says the popularity of her Cookie Dough Truffles is what inspired this book. Just goes to show if you want more of something let us know. After reading through the book, I had a couple of questions for Lindsay, who says, even after making this book, she is not sick of it. That is true love.

Do you really think that your love of cookie dough stems from the fact that it is forbidden?

Lindsay: Partially, but also because it’s just so darn delicious.

Do you make desserts that are not related to cookie dough?

Lindsay: Of course! One cannot survive on cookie dough alone (although I admit, I’ve tried!)

On your blog Love and Olive Oil you share recipes that you make almost every day, how, where and when did you learn to cook?

Lindsay: I grew up baking with my mom, but I didn’t really start cooking on my own until college. My husband (then boyfriend) and I both lived in student housing but chose not to purchase campus meal plans, and so we had no choice but to cook. We’ve learned everything we know simply by doing and by making mistakes along the way.

You credit your husband to helping get food on the table, what is his role?

Lindsay: We’re always together in the kitchen. I’m the main baker, but for more savory things he takes the lead. He’s also the reason the kitchen doesn’t look like it was hit by a tornado (which is often the scene when I’m done baking).

What tips can you share with our readers for cooking food and dessert on a regular basis?

Lindsay: Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and try things you’ve never made before. If you start with a good recipe chances are you’ll succeed.

Cookie Dough Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

I owe to my readers and school age kids to try a few recipes out. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. I made the Cookie Dough Cupcakes for my kids’ birthdays and I will tell you they are worth the effort, everyone loved them!

Cookie Dough Ice Pops

I actually found one recipe that doesn’t break the diet, Lindsay’s Invisible Cookie Dough Ice Pops. They were the inspiration for my 90-calorie Fudge Bars. The flavor of cookie dough is achieved even if the texture is hard to match, nonetheless it was very refreshing and creative. Kudos to Lindsay! I even made them with soymilk so that they would be parve and we all loved them. .

If you want the recipes of the photos in the main image, Cookie Dough Krispies, Cookie Dough Smores and cookie Dough Whoopie Pies you will have to buy the book, you won’t be disappointed.  You also have the chance to win a copy right now.

Let us know in the comments below, what cookie dough recipe you want to make?

We verify winners have completed the task.

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Kleins Kosher Ice Cream graciously provided frozen treats at Jamie Geller’s Goodbye BBQ.  The kids and grown ups all gobbled them up as a perfect ending treat to a delicious BBQ.  These treats of course were non dairy, but Kleins offers all sorts of kosher frozen desserts from dairy chalav yisroel to vegan approved non dairy.

Klein’s was founded 60 years ago as the first Chalav Yisroel Ice Cream in the US. It is a remarkable story of true determination from a holocaust survivor.  It began with a barely running truck and 5 frozen novelties and has grown to a company with over 380 different products and 3 Ice Cream house shops where people can go and choose from any of them.

Klein’s does a wonderful job fulfilling a niche of chalav yisroel ice creams, non dairy vegan ice creams and all sorts of other products.  We enjoyed their ice pops, italian ices and fruit squeeze pops at the BBQ, but there is so much more they offer.

Have you had Klein’s ice cream? Have you been to one of their shops in Brooklyn? Let us know what you think.

For more than six decades Klein’s has been symbolic for producing the finest Kosher Ice Cream. We use only the purest, most premium ingredients and craft them into the most superb ice cream available worldwide. Klein’s boasts and unbeatable selection of luxurious ice creams, luscious sorbets, a world famous Vegan approved non dairy line, natural fruit bars, fun ices, and bulk items for caterers and the most exquisite miniature desserts. Commitment to quality is our way of doing business, and is the reason why Klein’s has epitomized fine ice cream for nearly half century.

Today we welcome a special Bread Blogger, Jennifer MacLeod, who got into bread making the lazy way (thank you no knead) and who aspires to make Aliyah one day soon just like Jamie. You can learn a lot about bread making here and comment below with any questions.  And make sure to head over to the Breadland blog for a chance to win a set of Kosher Kitchen Labels.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:
I’ve been baking for years, but a couple of years ago, I realized that too much of my regular blog, Adventures in MamaLand was being taken up with my latest obsession, which – at the time – was no-knead breads. So I found a similar Blogger domain name and took it from there! I don’t post there quite as often, but I like to think I have a dedicated core of kosher-bread aficionados who read it regularly.

What is your earliest cooking memory?
Baking one-pan brownies with my little sister in my mother’s kitchen. I didn’t really learn to cook at home, because my mother is as tidy as I am NOT and it didn’t make for a very comfortable relationship in the kitchen. But one-pan brownies, we could usually manage without messing up too much. Later on, when I was going to school and living alone with my future mother-in-law (my future husband was in a different city), I was amazed at how mellow a person could be in the kitchen – she didn’t care where I put stuff in the dishwasher and loved coming home to fresh-cooked and -baked food. With that freedom, I started experimenting! I remember making a jelly roll, step by step – baking it flat, rolling it up in a towel to cool, gently unrolling and filling it -and being so proud of how perfectly it turned out. Even though, these days, I’m usually rushing to get family food on the table, it’s wonderful to sometimes find a stretch of leisure time to cook or bake.

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?

Hands-down, my Danish dough whisk. Here it is on Amazon; it’s a beautifully simple gadget, made in Poland – they’re all made in Poland, apparently. Basically, a twisted coat-hanger on a wooden handle… but it WORKS. It’s great for no-knead doughs; literally, you just stir them together. But it’s also the best thing for muffins and anything that suffers from overmixing. And it’s super-easy to clean!

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?
Can’t every dish be a kosher dish if you fiddle with it enough? I didn’t grow up eating kosher, and I remember at one point missing dim sum terribly. Now, dim sum is practically the opposite of kosher – little dumpling pockets of shrimp, “mystery meat,” tripe, you name it (okay, the tripe never appealed). It’s all about presentation and little bursts of flavour. I didn’t mourn; I gathered ingredients, rounded up recipes, bought some bamboo steamers, and spent the better part of a day re-creating my favourite dim sum of all: “char siu bao,” the well-known “barbecue pork” buns… using kosher beef. They were utterly delicious, but it was a ton of work. I guess that’s a very long answer. In my work as a freelance writer, I interview a lot of caterers, who all claim that their food “doesn’t taste kosher.” I have no idea what this means, so my short answer is that my favourite dish to cook, period, is one we’ll share with friends and family. I love thinking about who’ll be eating it while I cook; it’s almost meditative.

Who is your cooking inspiration?
I don’t know if I have one. Honestly, any eishes chayil [woman of valour] who manages to cook a delightful meal for her family seven nights a week (or organize takeout or husband cookery for one or two of those evenings!), year in and year out, regardless of how she’s feeling and what else is going on, should be an inspiration to us all. In that sense, my mother was an inspiration – I guess everybody says their mother, but now, my jaw drops when I think about everything she accomplished. I have the same number of hours in the day… perhaps the difference is that she didn’t have the Internet and great sites like joyofkosher.com!

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers:
MEASURE! Cooking is fun, an art, but baking is a science. Measure your ingredients properly. A normal cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 120 to 170 grams; we North American home bakers are terribly lazy, but you can find good recipes that give exact weights, and you may be amazed at how much more reliable your baking becomes! Also: measure the temperature of your finished bread – 185 to 195 is a good internal temperature. My digital thermometer cost under $10 and it’s saved so many loaves from over- and under-baking! Again, it’s one tip: MEASURE! Oh, and don’t “punch down” your bread, no matter how many times your Bubby’s challah recipe says you must.

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?
Two recipes – one is an easy and practical Pareve Hamburger Bun recipe, and one is a Blender Challah Recipe which is a little harder to work with but which should yield the softest, fluffiest challahs you’ve ever tasted.

Jennifer is a Jewish supermama of four and my family’s adventures in learning, eating, growing, and living according to Hashem’s plan.  Visit her on her bread blog, BreadLand or on MamaLand or AliyahLand.

Erin Grunstein hails from Canada, at least that is what her email says and she and Jamie have a lot in common.  In turns out Erin didn’t really know anything about cooking until she got married, but once she gave it try she fell in love and decided to share that love with the world on her blog, Erin’s Kosher Cooking Adventures.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:

I’m not sure what inspired me to start a cooking blog – I’m not a professional chef, nor am I someone who really followed blogs. I honestly didn’t know what to do in the kitchen until getting married (only 3 years ago) and I’m still learning to this day. I found that frequently, friends were asking me for recipes, so one day last summer, I started posting my favorite creations. At first I was a bit shy, but I had a few people look at it and they loved it, so I shared it. I started getting amazing feedback from people I’d bump into all over the city, and from there, I decided to keep it going.

What is your earliest cooking memory?

I have pictures of myself as an 18-month-old baby baking cookies with my mom. As a kid, this was one of my favorite pastimes – especially baking sugar cookies and dousing them with multicolor (food coloring dyed) sugars.

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?

The magic bullet! It’s amazing for making salad dressings, pesto sauces, mincing garlic, grinding nuts… Also, it doesn’t take up too much space so you can easily put it into the dishwasher. As well, it comes with different plastic containers to process and then store your food in.

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?

There are so many! It’s so hard to choose. I love making food that not only tastes delicious but also presents beautifully and I have a thing for mini and individual food items. So I would probably say appetizers, like my Caprese Eggplant Stacks (the one pictures above) or my Asian rice paper rolls. I also should probably say anything with pesto sauce is a personal favorite- it’s just so yummy!

Who is your cooking inspiration?

My mother – she’s a phenomenal cook. The only problem is she never remembers what she does to make the food so tasty and she can’t give a recipe to save her life! Many of my recipes are spin-offs of hers (such as my Moroccan meat pie) or are mother-daughter creation, such as our Pesto-Stuffed Mushrooms.

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers:

Continuing with the pesto talk – when making pesto, always coat the top of the container holding the pesto with olive oil so that the basil does not turn brown.

Another tip when cooking for a crowd and to help make things run smoother: take a place in your kitchen (I just use my table) and prepare all your serving dishes and utensils beforehand, so that when serving (and your guests are waiting for their food) all you have to do is place the food on the plate, instead of scrambling to find each serving dish one by one. It sounds simple but makes a huge time (and stress) difference.

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?

Eggplant Caprese Stacks

Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms

Lebanese Chicken Kabobs

Allyson Kramer takes on the challenge of creating not only vegan foods, but gluten free too.  After living a vegan lifestyle for quite a few years by choice she was then diagnosed with Celiac disease.  It doesn’t seem to have fazed her one bit.  She put all her energy into creating delicious meals that satisfy this double diet and all of us.  Alyson blogs at ManifestVegan.com and recently published her first cookbook, Great Gluten Free Vegan Eats.  Let’s find out more.

You became a vegan as a teenager, what prompted that decision and how did your parents handle it?

There were multiple reasons why I became vegan as a teenager; much of it had to do with my family’s influence, actually. My sister had been a vegetarian for 10 years at the time, and my father was always talking about compassion as well as being an advocate for treating animals with respect. I also loved cooking, so I was always checking out new ways to prepare food and got really into vegetarian cooking at a young age.

It didn’t take long for me to learn about veganism when reading my vegetarian books, and the concept of eliminating all animal products from my diet and lifestyle seemed to resonate with me the most—both for my own health and for the health of the environment. My parents were not all that supportive or understanding at first, but they knew I was passionate about it.

I had a few moments where my mom or dad would be concerned about my health and they would make me drink cow’s milk or try and convince me to eat “some meat”, but over the years, they came to understand that veganism was important to me, and they eventually respected that. But, I do think it was a rather strange concept for them to grasp at first.

Enchiladas

You embraced cooking at a very young age, what is your earliest memory of cooking?

I can remember being a very small child (maybe 2 years old?) when I first started hanging around with my mother in the kitchen while she cooked, but my first memory of accomplishing a recipe on my own was when I was 8 years old and in the 2^nd grade. I spent the entire afternoon after school one day making a batch of cookies from a simple drop cookie recipe I found in my mother’s recipe box—which I have now converted to vegan and gluten free in my book as my “Sweetheart Cookies”.  I followed the directions to a “t” and they came out wonderfully. I shared them with my classmates the next day at school and one of my closest friends declared, “Allyson, these are the best cookies I’ve ever eaten! I can’t believe you made them!” And, from that moment on I was hooked.

Did you ever think of going to Culinary School?

I did, but not until after I graduated from art school. I ultimately decided to put it off because I knew that many of the culinary programs I was looking into (especially those which were vegan friendly) taught basic concepts and cooking techniques that I had already learned from studying cookbooks and had been doing for years in my own recipe development. Although I knew I’d pick up some more knowledge and skills at culinary school, I wasn’t convinced it was the best path to doing what I really craved to do for a living: writing cookbooks.

I decided to give blogging a shot first, and it eventually evolved into me being able to write cookbooks full time without the need to go to culinary school.

Vegan Calamari

What do you think is the biggest misconception about vegan food? And about Gluten Free food?

I think the biggest misconception about vegan and gluten-free food is that it is so restrictive! I wrote this book to show people that even though I eat vegan and gluten-free, I can still enjoy my ice cream, cake, cookies and pizza, and that it is just as delicious as the versions that contain animal products and/or gluten.  Now when people ask me what do I eat, or how do I survive without cupcakes, I happily direct them to my book or my website to explain to them that there is a world of great eats out there for us gluten-free vegans.

You have a list of subs on your site and book that will help turn any recipe vegan.  Is it really that simple?  

Aside from the obviously more difficult foods to replicate, such as a steak, I do honestly think it’s pretty simple to convert foods to vegan versions. When I first became vegan I was overjoyed at how simple it was to replace eggs and milk in most recipes, and how well vegan cream cheese subs and other non-dairy options worked in place of traditional dairy foods. When you are making very basic recipes, such as simple cakes, cookies, pies, etc. yes, it’s really as easy as replacing cow’s milk for almond or soymilk, and eggs can be swapped out for healthier alternatives such as flaxseed or tofu. Cooking and baking are so fascinating to me because there are a variety of ways to come to ultimately the same conclusion. My list of vegan substitutions–which is hardly exhaustive–is simple proof of that.

How did you learn to take food pictures?

I went to art school for 6 years and even though I mainly studied painting and sculpture, knowing the fundamentals, of color, composition, and intention in making art was a world of help to me. The camera is just another tool to create with, so it came pretty easily to me—but it also took a lot of practice and persistence to learn about the camera and how I best like to use it as well. I took a few photography classes while in college, which helped introduce me to concepts such as light, processing photos, and basics like F-stop and ISO. Even today, I take around 200 photos a day and often try new techniques or approaches, so I’m still learning a great deal about food photography; I hope to continue to learn as long as I do it.

What do you recommend for someone interested in eating less gluten and less animal products?

Take a trip to your local library to get inspired by the vast number of books available on the subject/s today. And, check out my “links” page on my website and other countless sources on the web for gluten-free and or vegan eating. There is a wealth of culinary advice for anyone who is curious about cutting down on either and some beautiful and inspiring cookbooks on the market today. Also, I encourage everyone to just get in the kitchen and experiment using a simple vegan/gluten-free substitution guide. You may be surprised at just how much you can create without animal products or gluten!

Chocolate Salted Caramel Bars

What has been your greatest cooking influences?

My mother, my grandmother, as well as countless cookbook authors have influenced me tremendously in my cooking and baking. There are too many to list, but I’ve read hundreds of cookbooks in my time, and have picked up a valuable tip, trick, or technique from each along the way. Good friends, mothers of friends, chefs at my favorite restaurants, and pretty much anyone who has ever cooked delicious food around me have also been important in influencing my cooking over the years.

Can you share a tip for busy people who need to get dinner on the table?

Make a recipe with a large yield ahead of time and freeze in individual portions. Dishes like casseroles, pasta dishes or soups are wonderful for freezing, and can be portioned out before freezing for an easy (and still home-cooked) solution that’s on the table in less than 30 minutes. Just thaw and serve!

Thank you to Allsyon for being with us today and for sharing a few of her masterful recipes.

Black Bean Potatoes and Cheese Enchiladas

Compassionate Calamari

Chocolate Salted Caramels

We welcome Dena Price to our spotlight.  We first met Dena when she submitted her Stuffed Dates with Almonds recipe on our site, we quickly learned that she is in the midst of writing her first cookbook, The Everything Kosher Slow Cooker Cookbook due out in November.  We had to learn more about this librarian by day, food blogger by night.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:

Oh! You Cook! started out in 2007 as a website project for one of my grad school classes. Unlike my other term assignments, this one was actually fun to do! After graduation, I continued with it on and off as the blog Kosher Kuisine. In 2010, I decided to emphasize the recipes as delicious food that just happens to be kosher, so after brainstorming with the Hubby, we (and by we I mean he) came up with the new improved name.

What is your earliest cooking memory?

I recall helping my mother make Passover sponge cake. Even though I was barely tall enough to reach the kitchen table (our ancient Bronx apartment kitchen had no counter space), I learned how to gently wield a spatula through the batter and egg “snow.” After the cake went into the oven, my sister and I were then warned to be very quiet so as not to cause the cake to fall. Years later, we realized it was just a ruse by our mother to get a some peace in the house, if just for a little while.

Roasted Herbed Baby Eggplants

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?

My dishwasher. I used to joke that it saved our marriage, since both of us hate to clean up after dinner.

Bruschetta

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?

Chicken in Orange-Ginger Sauce. There were many crazy days when I had to cook with a blood-curdling colicky baby on my hip, so dinners that didn’t require a knife or measuring used to be the norm. Schmear oil on a pan, plop in the chicken, dump on the spices and shove into the oven. My youngest is a college sophomore, but crazy days go on forever.

Who is your cooking inspiration?

I have two, really. The Galloping Gourmet is the first. I’d practically run home from school to watch his antics. I couldn’t make anything he created on the show, but he really made cooking look like fun. Julia Child is the other. I loved when something didn’t turn out correctly, she managed to recover, even joking about it. She proved the maxim, “It’s not a mistake, it’s a new dish!”

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers:

There’s a french term, mise en place, which means get everything ready before you start. Assemble, peel, slice, chop, measure, then proceed. My tip is to ignore it. You’re not on TV. Scan the recipe before you start, and mentally figure out what can be done while something else is cooking (ie, first start up the water, then measure the rice and the other ingredients). Every minute counts on days I get home at 6, start dinner, serve dinner, clean up dinner, then arrive at a Hadassah meeting by 8.

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?

At this moment we are in the midst of a heat-wave, so here are a few easy recipes with little to no cooking:

Bruschetta (a simple diced tomato salad served on thinly sliced Italian or French bread)

Fruit Salad with Honey-Lime Dressing

Roasted Baby Eggplants, which can be made outside on the grill if placed over indirect heat

Today we welcome Tzirel Chana to the spotlight.  Tzirel has been reaching out to us and offering wonderful recipes and articles that connect to the spiritual side of our religion.  She gave us a challah shaped like the ten commandments for Shavuot and the well known Key Challah after Pescah.  She also shared Amalek kugel for Purim.  Today we are talking to Tzirel to learn more about her and her blog.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:

No stress in this kitchen.  For Suri Messinger cooking is a time to unwind.

Kimpeturin (women who just gave birth) in one neighborhood in Boro Park look forward to Suri Messinger’s dinners, including her special Eggplant Parmesan.  “It’s very different and always a hit.” A different opportunity for chesed, or perhaps a yom tov meal, might find Suri in the kitchen making pistachio crusted salmon with honey roasted potatoes. Suri is a busy mother, Pre-1A Morah, saleswoman for The Pampered Chef, and the kind of friend we all want to have around when we’re making a simcha.

Suri’s Special Eggplant Parmesan

“As a little girl I was always in the kitchen. I spent a lot of time sitting on the counter watching my mother cook and bake. She is an amazing cook! When I got older my mother gave me complete freedom in the kitchen. The deal was that I could do whatever I wanted—as long as I cleaned up after myself.” As a teenager she taught herself how to bake beautiful miniatures and sold them for simchas.

Today, Suri is known in her family as The Dessert Queen and enjoys making frozen and baked desserts for family and friends.  Suri works out of a “tiny, tiny kitchen” which she sometimes finds limiting. Still, she manages to bang out a lot of food for such a small space. After she was married three years, Suri’s husband asked her what she wanted as an anniversary gift. Her reply? A freezer! Since then, the Messinger home is always stocked and ready. There is always a supply of molten brownies, crinkle cookies and chocolate chip cookie dough to pull out in a hurry.

“When I’ve had a tough night I find it relaxing to get into the kitchen and turn out something delicious. The more intricate the better! When I work on an elaborate, detailed dessert it releases the tensions of the day and I’ve produced something beautiful that someone will enjoy. I never stress in the kitchen.” For a recent spate of Bar Mitzvahs and charity functions, Suri made 150 tiny trifles, an array of attractive miniatures, and her special peanut butter cups mounted on sticks and tied with a bow.

Who had more fun: Suri for creating the desserts or the guests who got to eat them?

Suri’s friend Joy, says she loves Suri’s Eggplant Parmesan and the “Never Fail Salad,” as she calls it.  “It’s the first thing to go at all events and occasions.”  The dressing goes beyond salad, it is a staple in Suri’s house! Her husband uses it as a shmear for sandwiches and the whole family loves using it as a dip for fresh veggies.

Rainbow Ices

What is it that really makes Suri a success in the kitchen and a true balabusta? “I put all my heart into my food. When I feed my family or my friends, I can make them happy. There’s no stress in my food! Only love and warmth, and it comes through.”

Cooking Hints from Suri:

Add the spices to the egg mixture when you’re breading eggplants, chicken cutlets or fish. The spices will be more evenly distributed.  Crush the dry herbs with your hands before using to bring out the best flavor

Suri’s Kids recommend her Rainbow Ices.

This articles was originally published in the Summer 2011 issue of Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller.

We welcome Chaya Selig to our spotlight.  Chaya is the author of 2 active blogs featuring easy delicious recipes that are mostly gluten free.  Chaya comes across warm and friendly and all about sharing with fabulous linkys on her site.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:
One day, I came upon the world of foodie blogs and as I looked through them, I thought to myself, this would be fun to do.  I did not realize the high caliber of cooks, we have in Bloggerville. A few lovely bloggers took me under their wings and  helped me along.  My photos were atrocious and the way I shared recipes were equally so.  What frightens me is that someday, I may look back on my present blogs and say the same thing.
My first blog was a kosher gluten-free blog but as time went on, I realized, I did not want a gluten-free blog even though my two blogs now are 90% gluten-free.  The difference is that when I don’t term it that, I can sneak in a non GF recipe without making a big fuss to watch out for the gluten.  It did take off a lot of pressure.  That was good-bye to Chaya’s Comfy Cook. 

My current blogs are My Sweet and Savory and Bizzy Bakes.  My Sweet and Savory is better established, having been around for two years longer although I am happy to see Bizzy Bakes growing into adulthood.  They were meant to have different purposes but I am not sure that is seen.  Bizzy Bakes was to be mostly for baking and quick, easy and delicious recipes (QED).  My Sweet and Savory has a wonderful linky for meatless  meals and I leave each Monday with tons of ideas.  Bizzy has a new linky called the Recipe Box which I have plans for and hopefully will develop into something that will be fun and filled with deliciousness.

Please come and visit.  I am open to all suggestions and questions and would love to hear from you.

Honey Almond Strawberry Spinach Salad

What is your earliest cooking memory?

I remember having nourishing meals, on the table, every night but nothing about what happened in the kitchen.  My Mom was a plain cook.  A meal would be a piece of chicken, baked potato and some green beans.  Of course, years ago, ingredients we now use, were considered exotic. When I got married, I knew how to boil water and that is a serious statement.  I have a patient and loving husband who knew more than I did and I had a Betty Crocker cookbook.  I have to pat myself on the back.  I was baking breads within a few years but that stopped after the first two children arrived on the scene. My children are all great cooks except for one and that includes the boys as well as the girls.

You asked about my earliest memory which was after I was married and had made this “elaborate” chopped meat casserole which I dropped on the floor where it stayed in the midst of shards of ceramic.  I didn’t care about the casserole dish.  I cared about my meal.

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?

 OXO Good Grips Multi-Purpose Pastry Scraper/Chopper.  Don’t laugh.  I have three, two for the year and one for Pesach.  I keep them out and use them daily.  I use them to chop, slice, pick up, scrape away —- you name it —–it does the trick.

Who is your cooking inspiration?
My oldest daughter.  She took to cooking and baking like a fish to water and had her own business for a while.  She is one of those people who works quickly and efficiently and produces wondrous dishes. I have learned more from her than anyone I can think of.  Perhaps, it is her joy in cooking that is what I am inspired by.

Avocado No Mayo Egg Salad

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers:

Simply organization.  Clean up as you go along.  Keep your tools and ingredients in logical and neat areas.  Clean them out often so they stay that way.  Organization saves time and makes food prep much more pleasant.

Nut Sweet Potato Patties

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?

Honey Almond Strawberry Salad 

Orange Veggie Polenta Dish

Avocado No Mayo Egg Salad

Nutty Sweet Potato Patties

For years, I thought I was a decent cook.  Three years ago, when I started blogging, I found out differently.  There is a whole world of new foods and new techniques for me to expand my horizons with and I am working on that. I blog at Bizzy Bakes and My Sweet and Savory.

***Giveaway*** We are kicking off Summer with 10 Days of Giveaways!

Win a Mauviel New Msteel Fry Pan 9”  (approximate value $100)

To enter:

Submit a recipe (make sure you are logged in) on the site, each recipe will count for an entry – there is no limit to the number of entries you can have.  Every recipe that is submitted between now and July 13th will automatically be entered into this contest.  Please make sure your recipe complies with the laws of Kashrut.

Contest ends July 13th  at 9:00AM EST. Make sure to check our contest page daily for new and exciting giveaways.

One winner will be chosen by online randomizer on July 13th .  Winners will be announced on the contest detail page.

All contests are open to US Residents 18 years old and up.

Today we shine the spotlight on The Kosher Foodies.  Identical twins, Jessica and Stephanie, have always loved to cook together and make a mess together.  Their syrian background influences their cooking style, but their modern lives bring on new and different flavors for them to experiment with.  We are delighted to welcome them today in to the spotlight.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:

Our blog is The Kosher Foodies, and we started it almost three years ago. We have always loved cooking, baking, and experimenting in the kitchen. We have also both been into photography since our father bought us a digital camera in 2002. Friends and family would always
ask us for recipes and tips, so we decided to write things down, take pictures, and post for all to see. We saw that there were not enough
kosher food blogs, and wanted a place to document all our kosher recipes and ideas.

What is your earliest cooking memory?

Stephanie and I have been cooking for as long as we can remember.  We used to help stock the freezer by rolling yebra, making kibbe, and
scooping mechshe when we were still in elementary school. In high school, we once cooked Shabbat dinner for the whole family and gave
our mom a break, and after that have really not stopped in the kitchen.

Veal Tomato Sauce Pasta

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?

I appreciate many of my kitchen gadgets, since growing up we didn’t have anything fancy! If you follow our blog, you’ll know that our mother does not have a stand mixer or a food processor. I definitely love my Kitchen Aid, and use it often, especially because now I invested in a bunch of attachments.

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?

My favorite dish to cook is…that’s such a hard question, and I definitely go through phases. Right now I’m cooking a lot of cauliflower, mostly because Richie loves it. It’s pretty versatile, so we’re not getting bored. I’m making it in the form of soup, gratin, steaks, and just simple roasting with salt and pepper. I’m also spending a lot of time baking cakes and cupcakes, probably in anticipation of his first birthday (7/2).

Red Lentil Soup

Who is your cooking inspiration?

My cooking inspiration is…I can’t say that I have one. I grew up watching cooking shows (back before Food Network was cool), so those
original celebrity chefs are pretty special to me. I love Ina Garten’s style and simplicity, and Alton Brown for his food knowledge, both history and science. He taught me that anything can be homemade, and I definitely work on that a lot.

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers:

A very helpful cooking tip that I always share with people who ask is to always read and reread the recipe before starting it. I have often thought I was ready to cook/bake something, only to realize halfway through that it needed to rest for an hour, or baking took two hours and I only had 45 minutes till dinner. So definitely read the recipe carefully. Also, prepping all your ingredients before starting to cook or bake is key. Makes everything SO much easier.

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?

I’m sharing three very different recipes with you. The first is a simple salad, made with roasted corn and peppers. The second, a classic Syrian soup, and the third, a pasta with veal dish that our grandmother used to make.

Roasted Corn Salad

Ades Red Lentil Soup

Grandma Renas Veal Tomato Sauce Pasta

The kosher foodies are twin sisters Stephanie and Jessica. They love baking, cooking, and experimenting in their kosher kitchen. Jessica, a grad student and new mom, wants her 10-month old son to make her breakfast in bed for mother’s day. Find out more at TheKosherFoodies.

Looking for more blogger spotlights – check it out.

***Giveaway*** We are kicking off Summer with 10 Days of Giveaways!

WIN a basket of Products worth $100 from Star Fine Foods.

Contest details and how to enter can be found here and below.

Make sure to check our contest pagedaily for new and exciting giveaways.All contests are open to US Residents 18 years old and up.

We are overjoyed to be shining the spotlight on Miriam Pascal, who shares her tales of an Overtime Cook through recipes and photos on her blog, OvertimeCook.com.  Miriam is a helpful Twitter friend and generally someone that just wants to share her knowledge with everyone else and we appreciate that.  Let’s welcome Miriam and find out a little more about her and her blog.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:

Believe it or not, I started my blog because I had spare time, and wanted to do something productive with it. (I can’t remember what spare time feels like anymore!) I had been baking and cooking a lot at that point, and was constantly giving out recipes. I decided to create a blog where I could direct people to for my recipes. My nature is that I really like to be prepared, so I did a lot of prep work before getting started. First, I had a professional photographer that I work with teach me about food photography. We spent a long time on all of the basics, and I really feel that it helped the success of my blog. Next, I spent forever picking out a name. I had a really hard time choosing, but I do feel that Overtime Cook describes my current situation quite perfectly.

What is your earliest cooking memory?

Believe it or not, it was a baking flop! I was really young, and trying to bake a basic vanilla cake. I don’t even remember what went wrong with it, but I have very vivid memories of everyone assuring me that something was wrong with the oven, not the cake I had made. Looking back, I’m pretty sure I used a plastic drinking cup to measure a cup, and a plastic spoon for a teaspoon, so it’s not hard to figure out what wrong. I’ve definitely learned my lesson: even now as a very experienced baker, I always measure my ingredients very precisely.

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?

My kitchen aid stand mixer has a special place in my heart, probably because I use it so often! Also, I can’t imagine life without my 8 inch chef knife. It makes really quick work out of chopping 20 onions. (Sadly, it doesn’t do anything about the tears.;)

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?

My favorite thing to make is cookies. Cookie recipe ideas constantly pop into my head, and I have to try them out! I have about 20 cookie recipes on my blog, and I’m constantly adding to those.

Spiced Corn Fritters

Who is your cooking inspiration?

I get inspiration from all over the place! I own a ton of cookbooks, (and I’m constantly getting more!). I read lots of cooking magazines, and more food websites and blogs than you can imagine. You never know what might inspire the next great recipe! Also, both of my parents are excellent cooks, so I definitely grew up in an environment that inspired cooking and baking.

Grilled Vegetable Rice Salad

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers:

Grilled Vegetable Rice Salad

They hate tuna fish.  No cold grilled cheese please.  The school says: nothing made with, next to or in the same facility as peanuts or any other tree nuts.  It’s enough to make me nuts!  I hate school lunch.  I don’t have to eat it.  But I do have to make it.  And I found an App to make it easier.  Thanks to Ronnie Fein’s daughter for creating LaLaLunchbox for us.

With LaLaLunchbox, kids get to personalize and design their own customized lunchboxes with fun monsters and bright colors, and then plan their lunches for a whole week at a time. They simply swipe their choices into their lunchbox from a large selection of fruits, vegetables, proteins, and snacks.  Covering all the major food groups, NOT just chips, chocolate cola and candy!  You can also add your own special foods with your own pictures so it is completely customizable for your family.

The best part is you can download the menus for all of your children into a grocery list you can take with you into any supermarket.  The App stores prior weeks’ menus and shopping lists so you have everything you need to plan your kids lunch in your purse or pocket.

I gave it a test run with my kids (ages 7, 5 and 3).  They loved the pictures and concept.  They also liked being able to use my iPhone.  As for the lunches?  They were mixed, but we’re making progress.  As a dietitian and a mom, I believe that when kids are involved in the kitchen they are more likely to eat what comes out of the kitchen.  LaLaLunchbox is fun and easy.  Two words I’ve never used to describe school lunch.

Rella Kaplowitz is the blogger behind PennyPinchingEpicure.com.  He philosophy is about budget cooking and just happen to be gluten free as required by her personal allergies.   We love that many of her recipes have dollar amounts at the bottom so that you can really see how to cook on a budget.   Rella shares easy recipes for everyone.

1. Tell us about your blog and how you got started.

I started my blog in September of 2009. It was kind of a whim–I love cooking, and have since I was pretty young (lucky for my Mom!). People are always asking for my recipes, so I thought maybe other people would be interested in them too. And if not, I figured at the very least it would be a great repository for my friends.  And so was born the Penny Pinching Epicure.

My philosophy is that you don’t have to spend a ton of money to make delicious, really flavorful food. Shortly after I started blogging, I discovered I was gluten intolerant, so all of my recipes (except for a few at the beginning) are totally gluten-free and largely dairy-free.

Honestly, I wasn’t even sure anyone would read it when I started. But it turns out, there are lots of people interested in budget cooking, especially when you have food allergies.

Baigan Bharta with Chickpeas (eggplant)

2. What is your earliest cooking memory?

This is a little embarrassing, but my first actual memory is being in a restaurant eating dinner with my family, getting my food stuck in a chair, and falling over backward while at the same time flinging a cup full of ice all over the people sitting around us. Apparently, I was so cute nobody cared!

Seriously though, my Mom got us into the kitchen very early. The funny thing is, she’s never really enjoyed cooking all that much, but somehow she imparted a love of food and cooking to both my sister and me. I mean, check out how excited I am to help roll out hamentaschen dough at three years old!

3. What is your favorite kitchen implement / gadget / utensil?

I live in a pretty small apartment, so multi-functional kitchen utensils are absolutely essential. I suppose it’s a toss-up between my slow cooker and my KitchenAid, although I had to completely rearrange the kitchen to find space for it. I also love my food scale–I do a lot of gluten-free baking (even more of a science than regular baking) and exact measurements are key. Oh, and I love my immersion blender too. You know, you’d be hard pressed to find something in my kitchen I don’t like (as long as it isn’t dirty in the sink…).

4. What is your favorite kosher dish to cook?

I love kugels. When I went gluten-free, a lot of the usual kugels were off limits until I figured out how to adapt them to be Rella-friendly. My favorite (and the favorite of all of my friends) is my twist on a corn kugel: Savory Sage Corn Kugel. It’s so easy, you pretty much just dump everything together, pour it in a pan, bake, and enjoy!

5. Who is your cooking inspiration?

You know, I’m not sure I could pick out any one person. I definitely have food personality favorites, but I think I’m more inspired by the food itself. It’s nerdy, I know, but I absolutely love food shopping, whether it’s at the farmers market or a mainstream supermarket. Walking around and figuring out what I can make any ingredients into is really fun for me.

Unstuffed Cabbage

6. Please share a cooking tip or trick with our readers

I love coming home in the evenings and cooking dinner–I find it relaxing, and it gives me a little bit of “me” time. However, between work and life in general, that isn’t always an option. Enter, my slow cooker. You can make pretty much anything in there, from soups to stews to chicken to jam–and of course cholent! You can even prep everything and refrigerate the crock, then just pop it into the heating element before you leave for work.

7. What recipes are you sharing with us today?

Today I’m sharing my absolute favorite gluten-free recipes: My whole grain Blueberry Breakfast Scones, Baingan Barta with Chickpeas (Indian Eggplant), and Unstuffed Cabbage.

I’m a gluten-free, dairy-free, self-proclaimed food geek. The Food Network is my background noise. I love to cook, bake, and feed others. Visit my food blog at pennypinchingepicure.com.