Quick & Kosher

Dear Jamie,

I was hoping that you might want to focus on Shabbat meals – specifically, those that can be prepared in advance and rapidly warmed for Shabbat. I plan for Shabbat from the beginning of the week, and don’t have time to prep on Fridays. (PS – I love the cookbooks.)

Thanks,
Michael

Hi Michael,

This is such a great question. Cooking for Shabbat is a challenge because you want your food to taste fresh, not be dried out or killed by the blech/hot plate/warming drawer/warm oven – whatever method you use. Even the best of the best recipes are not all suited for serving on Shabbat when you consider the need to cook in advance, throw it in the fridge, and then rewarm under unconventional circumstances.

Here are a few tips (my own, cherished, personal guidelines) that will help. Follow these, and you’ll be so proud of your Shabbat food.

(*Quick Note: there are many halachos involved with heating and reheating foods on Shabbat and differences between Shabbat Night (which enables you to place foods with liquids directly on a blech/hot plate or in a warming drawer prior to the onset of Shabbat) and Shabbat Day (which prohibits the rewarming of foods in liquids and in many cases requires the need for a 2nd tier/added layer between your food and heat source). For more detailed explanation of some of the basic laws please refer to this post from Rabbi Lawrence)

Beer Braised Brisket

1. Brisket: there are few cuts of meat that can handle the back and forth of oven, fridge (even freezer), hot plate. The brisket is one baby that not only can do it, but is better for it. It’s best to prepare it, refrigerate it overnight and slice it cold the next day. Submerge it in the gravy and re-warm; or return to the fridge or freezer until you are ready to re-warm and serve. Enjoy these Brisket recipes:

Beer Braised Brisket
Garlic Honey Brisket 
Pomegranate Braised Brisket
Brisket in Wine Sauce

For more brisket recipes click here.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

2. Red Meat: Like the brisket, any cuts of meat that are completely submerged in liquid and that become softer the longer you cook them are great for Shabbat night. I have a great recipe for Asian Steak that uses 1-inch thick bone-in chuck steaks – not an expensive cut of meat by any means – and the longer they cook, the softer and more tender the meat becomes. It also freezes beautifully. Flanken and pot roast recipes are two more good examples of great make-ahead cuts. Meatballs (cocktail or entrée sized) are another wonderful prep-ahead & freeze choice. Make sure they’re completely submerged in their sauce and you’re good. But be sure to let them defrost (if frozen) before rewarming them in a heavy bottomed pan over the lowest heat, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Here are some great prep-ahead red meat recipes:

Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Cocktail Meatballs
Coffee Glazed Pot Roast with Caramelized Onions 

For more Meatball recipes click here.
For more Pot Roast recipes click here.

Chicken Thighs with Roasted Winter Fruit

3. Chicken: two keys to making terrific chicken for Shabbat:
1) don’t overcook it. If it’s already dried out, you can’t save it. Most everyone overcooks chicken, especially the white meat.

So here’s the deal: a 3lb. chicken in 1/8ths should take about an hour to cook at 375 F uncovered. The white meat – anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour depending on the size; the dark meat pieces – about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes tops. A few tricks here: place the white meat pieces in a different baking pan so you can remove them earlier. Cook them for the majority of the time upside down; turn them right side up for the last 10 to 15 minutes to evenly brown the skin.

2) When you rewarm the chicken: allow it to come to room temperature first, and then don’t over-dry it when rewarming. If you use a warming drawer, don’t put it in prematurely. If you use a blech/hot plate, place the chicken on a second tier (always on a 2nd tier Shabbat day) so it doesn’t burn or get too much heat. Remember, you’re just warming it, not cooking. If you’re too “chicken” to try this with white meat, you could use only dark meat chicken for Shabbat; it has an added layer of (fat) juicy protection. When working with cutlets, follow the same tips as above. You have the option of serving these at room temp, if you like. Sure-fire Shabbat chicken recipes you’ll enjoy (provided you follow the tips above!):

Chicken Thighs with Roasted Winter Fruit 
Chicken with Apples
Speedy Coq au Vin
Honey Chicken
Date Glazed Roast Chicken 

For more chicken recipes click here.

Asian Shiitake Mushroom Soup

4. Soups, Soups, & Soups – are a fantastic make-ahead course. I actually make soup only 3 to 4 times a year. I cook about 30 quarts of each of my family’s favorites and freeze them in individual 2-quart containers (and even a few 1-quart containers.) That way, I can take out whatever amount I need, depending on the amount of company I’m expecting. Also consider chilled soups for Shabbat day. They last nicely in the fridge and they’re ready to serve. Keep in mind that chilled soups are not only fruity and not just for the summer. Try these traditional and chilled soups:

Mango Strawberry Soup 
Classic Chicken Soup
Asian Shiitake Mushroom Soup 

For more soup recipes click here.

California Avocado Salad

5. Salads. I am always my own sous-chef – if I can’t commandeer Hubby. I wash, check, and cut my lettuce in advance and keep it in a salad spinner/crisper so it’s ready to go. In fact, I cut all my veggies and store them in the fridge in separate containers for easy salad assembly just before serving. (Hey, all the restaurant chefs have sous chefs. Why shouldn’t we?) And I usually double, triple (and even) quadruple my dressing recipes, so I have a big batch on hand for a few weeks’ time. I keep that in yet another container so I can assemble a fresh salad and dress it quickly just before serving. No soggy salads for us! Most leafy green salads are a one way ticket once dressed; you can’t go back. Check out these recipes:

Pomegranate, Orange, Papaya and Kiwi Green Salad 
Strawberry and Mango Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette 
Spinach Salad with Japanese Ginger Dressing 

Then there are those salads that just get better with age – the ones that benefit from marinating in their dressing to allow all the flavors to marry nicely. They can be made 1-2 days in advance. Just remember to slice in avocados if called for just before serving. One more hint: most salads are best served at room temperature, unless otherwise specified in the recipes. This allows all the flavors to emerge. Try these make-ahead winning salad recipes:

Israeli Cabbage Salad 
California Avocado Salad
Cucumber and Black Bean Salsa Salad

For more salad recipes click here.

Sweet Kugel

6. Sides: I find any potato sides are absolutely best made as close to serving as possible. They benefit from the crispy finish generated by oven cooking vs hot plate re-warming.

The exception is potato kugel, which can handle both prep ahead and fridge time. But I never, ever freeze a potato kugel (though I know people who vehemently insist that it’s ok. We’ve never gone to the mat over this one). If at all possible, allow roasted potato dishes to crisp up again in the oven before placing in a warming drawer or on a hot plate to keep warm. (Of course, this only works on Shabbat night and is the main reason I serve those types of dishes Shabbat night.) But even here watch that you’re potato dishes don’t dry out. I save the kugels for Shabbat day. Kugels are so popular because they re-warm very nicely – and aside from potato kugels (am I drilling in my POV here?) — freeze quite nicely as well. Noodle kugels, Challah kugels, and vegetable kugels (broc, spinach, zucchini, butternut squash, etc.) all fare well in both the fridge and freezer. Maybe that’s the reason kugel is such a Shabbat-y food – I mean, when’s the last time you made a kugel to serve on a Tuesday night? Try these make-ahead kugel recipes:

Salt and Pepper Kugel with Roasted Garlic 
Broccoli Kugel 
Sweet Kugel with Dried Fruit
Potato Kugel Cups 

For 67 more kugel recipes and ideas click here.

Baby French String Beans with Slivered Almonds

And when it comes to veggies, green beans are my fave Shabbat choice. They hold up best from fridge to blech. Again, just make sure not to overcook them initially. In fact, I usually prep them a drop under – until barely tender with still a bit of a crisp bite – and then rewarm them on the blech on a tier (whether serving them night or day). If you use a warming drawer, don’t put them in prematurely. Get ’em warm and keep ‘em green; not piping hot, soft and soggy. Try my favorite green bean recipes:

Green Beans with Three Onion Sauté
Baby French Green Beans with Slivered Almonds
Green Beans with Walnut and Green Olive Tapenade

For more green bean recipes click here.

Caramel Pear Lattice Pie

7. Desserts: the ultimate make-ahead dish. Of course, any freezer desserts are perfect to prep ahead, in fact, designed so. Cakes, muffins, cookies all do well in a cake plate or covered container for a few days, or even in the freezer and then defrosted. The trick is not to lock in moisture. So let any baked goods cool completely before covering or packaging and freezing. I use freezer bags, not foil. Another tip: when you pull it out of the freezer – if the bag has condensation inside, take the goods out of the bag and allow to defrost before placing in a new, clean, dry bag or covered cake plate. Try these great dessert recipes:

Caramel Pear Lattice Pie
Carrot Apple Mini Cupcakes with non-dairy Cream Cheese Icing
One Bowl Amazing Chocolate Cake
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Mousse Pie

For more dessert recipes click here.

So now you’re all set! With these recipes you should be able to start cooking for the next 10 (or at least 7) Shabbatot.

The Big Q – What is Quinoa?

Everyone wants to know: Is it a grain? How do you use it? How do you pronounce it? Is it good for you? Is it kosher for Passover?

So I looked it up. Turns out, this trendy food is from South America and it’s a species of goosefoot, a “grain-like” crop. That clears everything up, doesn’t it?

But there’s more. The fact is that quinoa (pronounced keen-wah or kee-no-uh, your choice) is packed with calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and iron, and has a high protein content to boot. Unlike wheat and rice (but similar to oats) it contains a balanced set of amino acids, making it a complete protein source. It’s high in fiber, gluten-free and easy to digest. It’s so nutritious that NASA is considering it as a crop for their Controlled Ecological Life Support System for long-duration manned space flights. (So if your kids turn up their noses, tell them it’s astronaut food!)

It’s kinda like rice or couscous. Has a nice, nutty flavor too.

It seems that the ancient Incas were onto this little wonder food as far back as 3,000 years ago and it played a major role in sustaining their teeming civilization. It’s been a staple in that part of the world all this time, and we only just discovered it on our grocer’s shelves a few years ago. Go figure. But it’s time we got in on it. Any food that’s equally at home in a primitive mountain village or in outer space has my respect.

There. I think I answered all your questions. Oh, the Pesach thing. Ask your rabbi.

Listen, I can’t help with everything. Quick & Kosher doesn’t include clean up, doesn’t do your dishes and doesn’t answer tricky halachic questions. But I do have a year-round recipe for you: Asian Vegetables with Quinoa. Light and totally vegetarian, you will feel good about yourself after eating this for dinner. Do I get points for that?

And if you are looking for one skillet meat dishes don’t miss my my Chicken with Roasted Winter Fruit and Steak with Red Wine Glazed Vegetables.

I once thought skirt steak got its name because it was favored by chicks, like mushy movies. Ladies will love it, guys will fall asleep. Apparently, I wasn’t far off. Turns out, skirt steak comes from around the cow’s belly, the place where a skirt would be worn (if cows wore skirts, that is). A boneless, relatively inexpensive cut, it’s prized more for its flavor than tenderness. To minimize toughness, it can be marinated and/or grilled, or pan seared very quickly (think stir-fry) or braised very slowly. Slice thinly against the grain to maximize tenderness.

“Slice against the grain.” You see that instruction all the time and nobody bothers to explain it. I hear you. So let me translate this bit of chef lingo. Skirt steak (much like brisket and London broil) has long fibers running through it. You will see these distinct lines in the meat: these babies are tough. When you use your knife, instead of your teeth, to cut through those fibers, eating goes from “oy” to “ah.” So we cut “against” or “across” the grain: that means don’t slice parallel to those lines, but rather across those lines, ideally at a 45 degree angle. You’re cutting those long fibers into short ones to make it easier to chew. You don’t have to be a super chef to notice that cutting against the grain or cutting along the fibers spells the difference between meat that melts in your mouth and meat that’s tougher than your high school physics teacher. By the way, you can slice these meats before or after cooking, but if you cut after cooking, let the meat rest a bit. Everything behaves better when it’s rested.

Now let’s shoot for those speed flags. Our Steak with Red Wine Glazed Carrots, Parsnips and Mushrooms is seared only 4 to 5 minutes on each side and then removed from the pan to rest while we cook our veggies. Once they’re ready, slice the meat against the grain (you know how!) and return it to the pan for just 2 minutes to heat through and coat with sauce.

A warm, 1-skillet steak supper, perfect for a cold wintery night! Super yum!

If you missed yesterday’s one skillet supper check out my Chicken with Roasted Winter Fruit.

The all-purpose (extra-large if you need it) stovetop to oven skillet is a kitchen essential. Mine works overtime and never lets me down. My skillet and a pair of tongs (which I would take with me if I was stranded on a dessert island – assuming that dessert island had a cooktop) turn out delicious dinners for my family. In the upcoming Chanukah issue of Joy of Kosher Magazine I have a week’s worth of 1-Skillet Meals in Minutes and this week at JoK.com I am sharing 3 special skillet suppers with you all.

Today we have Chicken Thighs with Roasted Winter Fruit. The wonderful thing about skillet chicken is the crisp golden brown skin you get when searing for about 8-10 minutes on each side and then finishing off in the oven. Searing also lock in those juices so you have nice, moist, flavorful, did I say moist! chicken.

Your best friend and must-have-on-hand ingredient for skillet chicken is broth. I use boxed broth and always have extra in my pantry. This recipe comes alive with sweetness from apples, pears and grapes. A combo of mustard powder, cinnamon, garlic and thyme round out the flavors of this dish. Finish off with a drizzle of balsamic for a little tang to balance the fruit.

Anybody out there who doesn’t love cake?

I don’t believe you. Well, if it’s true, I guess you’re lucky ‘cuz you’ll never hear a cake calling you into the kitchen in the middle of the night. I think I can speak for the other 99% of humanity when I say that if there’s a really good cake, I can eat the whole thing myself. Even a not so good cake. I don’t need anyone else at my one-woman party – I actually prefer it that way. I can cut a slice, and another and one more sliver, without eyebrows going up all around me.

So just 2 weeks after giving birth to my new baby, I figured it’s the perfect time to celebrate her entry into this world by testing some of our “Take the Cake” recipe contest entries. A girl can’t start too young when it comes to important things like this.

Honorable mention MUST go to Melinda Strauss (check out her blog at Kitchen Tested). She sent us so many deviously sweet entries. My kids loved decorating the top of her German Plum Cake. My oldest daughter made a peace sign out of the plum wedges and then I filled in the empty spaces with more plum wedges (and ate a few plums) and filled in and ate, until there was no cake in sight. Our plums actually weren’t too sweet (didn’t keep us from eating ‘em though), but once we sprinkled them with sugar and a touch of cinnamon, as Melinda calls for, and baked them up – hot, juicy heaven! I can’t wait to make Melinda’s Rainbow Layer Cake for my Hubby’s B-day this week.

Cinnamon Bun Cake by Nechama

As for our finalists: Let’s just say I never met a cinnamon bun I didn’t love – so the Cinnamon Bun Cake from Nechama Tawil was an instant hands-down finalist. This way you don’t have to commit yourself to just one bun – not to mention that it looks fabulous, a total show stopper.

Red Grape Cake with Olive Oil by imarealtor33162

I tested the Red Grape Cake with Olive Oil from imarealtor33162 for a Chol Hamoed Sukkah party. Now I love olive oil so much I could bathe in it, so I was not just intrigued by this cake, I KNEW I would love it. The test would come when I serve it. Will others feel the same way? I slid it into the oven just as my guests were arriving, and of course everyone wanted to know: “Nu nu… so what are you baking?” When I said Red Grape Cake with Olive Oil, you can’t imagine the nasty faces. Some people didn’t believe me. But when I served it, the response was incredible. It was so light, so exquisite, so perfectly sweetened, so moist and yet still slightly nutty from the cornmeal and ground almonds – in a word (or two), absolute perfection. Imarealtor33162’s recipe header note says “Tastes like a Hungarian cake as per my Hungarian niece! (Hungarian baking-the ultimate compliment.)” That was quickly confirmed when I served it to my Hungarian (Transylvanian/Romanian) mother, who could not stop repeating “This is something your grandmothers would have made!” Maybe it’s the cornmeal, maybe the the light hand with the sugar so it’s just sweet enough to be considered dessert, without being overly sugary. Dunno. But it sure is good and it tastes authentic.

One Bowl Amazing Chocolate Cake

I don’t profess to be a seasoned baker or even to love baking all that much. Eating cake, yes; baking it, eh, not so much. But I do have one fab cake that includes mayo to make it extra moist – I guess that’s the savory cook in me, yearning to break out: it’s My One Bowl Amazing Chocolate Cake. The trend these days among my sister, friends and I is to make this as cupcakes. Give it a try – but when doing cupcakes start, testing for doneness after just 20 minutes – you don’t want to over-bake those little darlin’s.  For a twist on tradition try my Molasses Spice Bundt Cake with Bourbon Pecan Glaze.

And now to announce the winner of our Best Cake Recipe/Take the Cake Recipe Contest, chosen by you, our dear (and discerning) readers…

imarealtor33162′s Red Grape Cake with Olive Oil

Confession time.  The Geller family is not big into lamb. But I know there are people out there who are,   so I developed this recipe for Seasoned Lamb Skewers with Couscous especially for you lamb lovers! It’s fun, fantastically seasoned, and it’s ready in under an hour. (Just between us, you can substitute beef for the lamb, which is what I do.)

If you plan to use wooden skewers, don’t forget to soak them in water for at least 30 minutes before using.

The lamb (or beef) is combined with soaked whole wheat bread, red onion, parsley, red wine vinegar, cumin, oregano, cinnamon, and lemon zest. The couscous is tossed with pine nuts, raisins and chopped chives.  Instead of the chives, you could sauté some chopped red onions or shallots for a soft, sweet caramelized addition.  This quick dinner is nice enough to serve your guests on Yuntif.  Or CholHamoed.Orany weeknight.So what I’m saying is – enjoy it anytime!

Quick dinners, quick dinners, we desperately need quick dinners.  The best way for me to develop something for you is to think of what I need. We’re all in the same boat.

So I can’t get enough recipes for quick weeknight dinners. Of course, I could just make the same four or five dishes, rotating them on a weekly basis – but that’s so boring!  I love serving something new; an easy meal I can fix with my kids’ help, or just let them mill around me as they settle in from school. One minute we’re just chatting and throwing a few things together and then – abracadabra – something hot and fresh hits the table and we all dig in!  It’s not really magic, just a good, quick and easy recipe.

So over the next few days I’ll share 5 simple dinners with you, a week’s worth of new stuff.  We’ll start off light. It’s still kinda warm outside, so I’m not in the mood for a heavy din din. We’ll save those for when there’s snow building up on the windowpanes.

Seems to me, Mandarin Spinach and Chicken Salad is just right for this time of the year.  You’ll need about 1 to 1 ½ pounds of chicken cutlets for this recipe (As a starter, it serves 8; but since we’re using it for dinner, this recipe really gives you about 4 nice dinner portions.)  Bake, grill, sauté or prep your chicken however you enjoy it best.  You can also use leftover chicken for this slightly sweet citrusy salad.  Oh, and you’ll love the dressing – a flavorful combo f honey, Dijon mustard, rice vinegar and olive oil. Double it and keep it in the fridge for a rainy day.

Never enough creative chicken dinners in this world to satisfy my family.  I have to constantly reinvent my presentation of this bird because there are always leftovers or cutlets in the fridge. I seem to have an abundance of cutlets most of the time. Like there are always more than I bought last time. Does anybody know of scientific evidence that cutlets can reproduce right in your Frigidaire?

Anyway, if your people are anything like mine, try this quick dinner recipe for Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches.  If you don’t have leftover chicken, you can bake, grill, sauté or cook your cutlets however you like best. Grab some fresh crusty bread or sandwich rolls, slather on some mayo and buffalo sauce, then top with butter lettuce (or whatever lettuce you fancy), sliced red onions, and tomatoes. Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches are now being served in the Main Dining Room.

So what’s your favorite chicken sandwich?

To me, eating loaded baked potatoes for dinner are like a comforting hug from my mom.  Now you all know that she didn’t – doesn’t – and probably never will cook, but I have fond childhood memories of her taking us to the local diner for dinner and ordering up those yummy loaded potato skins.  I really miss ’em. So I created my own recipe, which, incidentally, has gotta be light years healthier than the stuff I ate as a kid. I call it Mexican Baked Potatoes.  You just load on sour cream (or lite sour cream), chunky salsa, some fresh cilantro, chopped (or mix a cube of the frozen cilantro into your sour cream) and top it off with a great Mexican blend of shredded cheddar (or other cheese).  If you want nice melty cheese, throw it in a broiler for a minute or two until it oozes.  If you want more of a potato skin style recipe (that’s not fried)  try this one, Zippy Potato Skins.

Divine.

Who doesn’t love tater tots?  If you have a few borderline fish-eaters in the house, the tater tots are the perfect bribe to get them to eat their fish.

The seasoning on the taters – celery salt, dry mustard, pepper, paprika, nutmeg, & ground ginger – is a homemade version of “Old Bay” Seasoning. It’s delish with the fish.  I find that the cornmeal and flour crusted tilapia really goes over well and down easy, even for the non-fish lovers in our brood.  I think of battered and fried fish as a delicacy – even with tater tots, out of the bag, as a side.  Enjoy this recipe and if you are daring enough you can even try making your own tater tots.

What’s your favorite frozenfood?

There are few culinary pleasures in this world like enjoying a heaping spoonful of peanut butter while standing in your kitchen.  Not much can match it – except for the 2^nd spoonful.  Given my ’druthers,  I’d joyfully  work peanut butter into most every dish – noodle recipes, salad dressings, tofu dishes, chocolate desserts – and serve it on every occasion.  But Hubby, ever so rightfully, cautions me against it in big crowd situations.  Lots of folks are allergic to peanuts, so we lose the peanut butter unless we know for a fact that everyone present can eat it. Can’t be too careful about that.

So entertaining with peanut butter is somewhat of a lost art these days, but if there are no in-house peanut allergies you’re safe to indulge at home.  This is the perfect, crispy, homemade Sweet Peanut Butter Cereal Bar recipe for your kids (and you!)  You probably have all of the ingredients on hand, assuming you stock Chex and Honey Nut Cheerios.  Ok, maybe you’ll need to make a special trip to the store for the sunflower seeds, but in my opinion, they’re worth it.  Their mild nutty taste and soft texture go a long way. And you’ll need honey (a great compliment to peanut butter) but who doesn’t have plenty of that around right now? You’ll also need brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and of course –the glue that holds it all together – the hero of our cereal bars… smooth, creamy peanut butter.  And I won’t tell if you help yourself to a spoonful or two while you’re preparing this.

Do you have a favorite peanut butter recipe?

I remember the first time I realized that granola ain’t exactly a low cal diet food.  SO disappointed!  I mean, it just screams healthy, doesn’t it?  Shouldn’t a girl be able to eat all she wants of the stuff and go on losing pounds & inches? But I got over it. In an incredible feat of denial, I decided granola shouldn’t be a guilty pleasure.  I still categorize it in the “good-for-me” food group.  Hey, better granola than Godiva.

My recipe for Homemade Granola includes flaky light coconut chips and is sweetened with brown sugar, maple syrup (with its rich, earthy flavor) and raisins.  You can swap in an equal measure of craisins or chopped apricots, or pineapple, or any dried fruit of your choice in place of the raisins.

I love my granola in yogurt or ice cream – how do you enjoy yours?

Trail mixes are so satisfying.  My mom loves them and so do I. It’s a DNA thing.   We’re similar in so many ways (more ways than I care to admit), especially when it comes to food.  We are the type that will run in to those little groceries in the highway gas stations and buy a bag of trail mix instead of a package of Ring Dings. Just blows Hubby away. It’s so beyond him, buying nuts & dried fruit when you can have sweet fluffy chocolate cake with cream inside. Well, it seems to me that I’m in good company ’cause I’ve noticed that all those snack food places carry tons of trail mixes.  Somebody’s buying  ’em – probably mothers.

That’s why the annual “Back to School” mindset means that moms are stocking up on trail mix. No real clue as to why or how this turned into a fall kiddie treat, as trail mixes are not “kid food” per se.  I guess all kids love small munchy, crunchy things.  And trail mix doesn’t spoil, fall apart, or get squished in a lunch box. Anyway, I decided to honor Back to School season with a couple simple do-it-yourself trail mix recipes, one Sweet Trail Mix and the other a Savory Snack Mix.  Why choose between sweet and salty? You can have both!

Sweet Trail Mix

They’re easy to make pareve too: use non-dairy chocolates for the sweet recipe and substitute pareve crackers for the cheese crackers in the savory recipe.  Then just mix it up!  (Get it? Trail mix, mix it up.) Sorry.  Couldn’t resist.

Here are a few more mixes to help get your juices flowing:

Make Your Own Snack Mix

Walnut Trail Mix

Asian Popcorn Medley

Walnut Cluster Snack

Cereal Snack Attack

What’s your fave trail mix combo?

So this is where it all comes together.  All the thought. All the planning. The testing. The tasting, the tasting, and the tasting. (That’s the best part).  A simanim-inspired menu brings added challenges, but also adds a level of meaning to your Rosh Hashanah meal.  I have been doing this for the past few years, using the opportunity as a Rosh Hashanah conversation starter with my kids during our cooking and prep time together. My guests, my kids, my guests’ kids – everybody loves identifying which simanim are on the table openly or “hidden” as an ingredient. Our discussion takes on a special Yuntif energy that only comes with Rosh Hashanah.

I hope you enjoy preparing and eating these simanim-inspired dishes and menus as much as I did creating them.

Which ones will you incorporate into your holiday menus this year?

 Menu 1

Gefilte Fish Cakes with Horseradish Sauce

Apple and Parsnip Soup

Wild Rice with Carrots and Beets

Date Glazed Roast Chicken

Garlic Honey Brisket

Spicy Sauteed Leeds and Spinach

Carrot Apple Mini Cupcakes

Menu 2

Spicy Thai Beef Salad

Honey Chicken

Black Eyed Peas and Green Beans

Roasted Sweet Vegetables in Cider

Apple Cardamom Tart

Menu 3

Carrot Quinoa and Spinach Soup

Spinach Noodle Kugel

Chicken with Apples

Veal Stew with Apricots and Prunes

Baked Apple Strudel Egg Rolls

Menu 4

Spiced Gefilte Fish

Leek and Mushroom Chicken with Spaghetti Squash

Carrot Cupcakes

Candied Apples

So call me crazy –but one of my absolute all-time favorite dessert is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  It’s one of those inborn tastes, literally. My mom ate it incessantly when she was pregnant with me, so I was born craving the stuff.  She also swears that a glass of fresh-squeezed, cold carrot juice is better than ice cream. Try selling that to my six-year-old daughter! I mean she adores her Tavi (our version of “Savta” – don’t ask) but doesn’t buy the carrot juice thing.

Anyway, back to the cake.

I am not going to mess with developing the ultimate honey cake for Rosh Hashanah. There are several reasons; glad you asked. One: I don’t like honey cake. Can’t perfect a cake you don’t even want to taste. Two: I’m more than happy to use my stepmother-in-law’s recipe – since Hubby already thinks hers is the best.  Why mess with the best?

But I start salivating at the thought of creating another version of a carrot cake (or, better yet, a cute little cupcake)! This is my 3^rd version of a carrot cupcake. I have one in each book (one sweet, almost cornbread-ish, but super moist; the other slightly spicy with chunks of pineapple). And now I’m ready to present my Carrot Apple Cupcakes with sweet ‘n’ creamy pareve cream cheese icing.

This is the first time I went for the icing.

I don’t particularly like smearing Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (a non-dairy substitute) on bread, but boy, is it great in recipes – from my Macaroni Turkey Salad to my Mini Lemon Tarts! (I always keep a container on hand so a terrific dessert is only minutes away.) Now I’ve put it to fab use in this icing.

So this Rosh Hashanh, enjoy my latest and greatest carrot and “cream cheese” accomplishment.  Have a happy, sweet ‘n’ creamy new year.

What’s your favorite kind of icing?