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Holidays bring family and friends together to celebrate traditions while socializing, eating, and drinking. But with so many people struggling to maintain a healthy body weight, it is important to balance holiday meals with healthy nutrition. The essential thing to remember is that it is a “holi-DAY,” not a “holi-WEEK.” If you indulge a little bit more than you would on an average day, do NOT let it affect your whole week.

When I think of Shavuot, I think of gooey cheese blintzes, creamy cheesecake and other high-calorie dairy dishes. But it doesn’t have to be that way… Don’t get me wrong; dairy is not the devil! In fact, many dairy products are high in calcium, which is critical for good bone health. Still, high-fat dairy products contain excessive amounts of calories, cholesterol, and saturated fat that we are better off limiting. In fact, diets rich in high-fat dairy products are linked to chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

This Shavuot substitute low-fat or even non-fat dairy products in your favorite recipes. When making cheesecake, consider using a lower fat cream cheese and adding fresh fruit on top rather than heavier cream toppings. Add vegetables to dishes like macaroni and cheese, lasagna, or cheesy soufflés for added vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Also, make sure to serve (and eat!) plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains alongside the dairy-laden dishes. Keep portion sizes in check and practice mindful eating, while still enjoying yourself around those that you love.

This year, try my delicious quinoa and feta dish at your holiday gathering. Quinoa is an excellent source of protein and is rich in dietary fiber. It contains riboflavin (which improves energy metabolism within brain and muscle cells) as well as lysine (which is essential for tissue growth and repair). Quinoa has a low glycemic index, meaning that it won’t spike your blood sugar. Low-fat feta cheese, like most cheeses, is high in protein. It is lower in fat and sodium than the regular variety. Also, because feta has a rich taste, it only takes a small amount to get great cheese flavor.

Click here for my Quinoa Salad with Dried Cranberries and Feta.

A few years ago, when my two oldest grandchildren were still toddlers and were visiting for a few days, they asked for French Toast for breakfast.

Unfortunately it was Passover.

I told them “there’s no French Toast during Passover,” but they were too young to understand. And although they were thrilled with the matzo brei I cooked, they were a little disappointed.

That’s because I am the French Toast Grandma. The one who always has a giant homemade challah, so giant that there is always enough left over for French Toast the next morning.

Challah is so dense that it soaks up enough eggs to make a hen feel proud. It makes really splendid French Toast, don’t you think?

Good bread is the key to good French Toast. Challah may be wonderful, but I do branch out! Like when I have company for brunch and make my adult French Toast, complete with brandy or dark rum. For this I switch to French bread. I’ve also used white bread, ciabatta, raisin bread and more.

Basically, what you need is bread that won’t fall apart after an egg soak (no soft packaged white). And bread that’s mild rather than, say, pumpernickel or ones with nuts and seeds (like multi-grain) whose flavor or texture could be distracting.

Bread thickness is important too. We like the insides oozy and moist, so I cut the slices at least an inch thick (1/2-inch to 3/4-inch for drier pieces). The egg soak is simple: beaten eggs alone are fine but I always add milk, cream or juice – whatever I have — because its helps break up the eggs, making it easier for the bread to absorb the liquid.

For extra flavor? My kids like it with vanilla extract. But for my French brunch version I mix in freshly grated orange or lemon peel. You can try cinnamon, fresh ginger, almond extract, whatever suits your fancy).

I soak the bread for a long time, until every molecule of egg has been absorbed (turning it several times). And I fry it quickly so it’s still kind of billowy in the very middle, but crispy on the surface. For those who like it well-done, I cook the pieces a bit longer on a lower flame.

I have cooked too many versions of French Toast to count. Cheese-filled, almond crusted and so on. But let’s leave those for another day. I actually prefer the basic recipes. Here are my favorites: the classic, my brunch French Toast recipe, plus a dairy-free version I have used on numerous occasions.

Challah French Toast

Dairy Free French Toast

New Orleans French Toast

Don’t miss out on the Best!!!  We all share our best recipes with you…

Browse through our collection and find a new favorite for this year including No Bake Cheesecakes.

Going to set up Shifra’s yogurt bar for Shavuot or Mother’s Day? Make your own Greek Yogurt to save some money and get it just right.

Get more Summer Salad recipes from Jamie Geller, these salad can eat like a meal.

Check out all our articles, menus and recipes for your Shavuot meal planning. Who is excited for dairy?

Don’t forget Mother’s Day!  Give mom (or yourself) a break before the big Shavuot cooking frenzy and get Dad in the kitchen.

I was talking to a friend about a some fun new Passover seder ideas and we started to talk about an idea for edible makot or plagues.  What better way to liven things up and have some fun with the kids then to make the ten plagues into edible sweets.  I haven’t quite figured them all out, so I am going to share my list and hope you will chime in, in the comments with your ideas.

Blood – Red Jello

Make red jello from a package and cut into cubes or put into clear classes to symbolize the water that turned to blood.

Frogs 

Get a frog cookie cutter and make everything from Sugar Coated Marshmallows to frog kiwi or honeydew cut outs.

Lice -

Buy some dark chocolate Nonpareils to symbolize lice.

Wild animals -  you could buy some wild animal cookie cutters and make Passover cookies or you could get these super cool Plague of Animal Sour Jellies from Oh!Nuts, even gummy bears would do.

Disease on livestock – I am lost on this one, my kids said to make the animal cookies and splatter with red icing, anyone got anything better?

Incurable boils – Try some boiling tea in a glass pitcher or drops of dark vinegar in light oil like the picture above.

Hail – Ice Cubes with a red Strawberry inside them to symbolize the fire in ice that was the 8 plague.

Locusts – this one is easy, thanks to Zelda’s, just get their chocolate marshmallow locusts.

Chocolate Mousse with Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Darkness – Make a chocolate pudding or mousse or anything dark.
Death of the first born -  I am totally stumped on this one, please let me know your suggestions.

If eating your plagues is not your thing don’t miss our Makot Matching Game

At every holiday meal, there are the “wow” dishes that steal the show and showcase your efforts and talents as the cook. This beautiful dishes offer that perfect pizzazz, using the same minimal ingredients many of us are accustomed to cooking with on Pesach.

Mashed Potato Beef Roll Ups

STEAK ROLL UPS
Steak on the outside. Creamy potatoes on the inside. Served with a delicious savory sauce. Perfect for the meat ‘n potatoes men in your life.

Salmon Roll Ups with Onion Relish

SALMON ROLL UPS
The two-tone color of this salmon roll up adds visual appeal to this tasty dish.

Vegetable Stuffed Eggplant Rollatini

VEGETABLE STUFFED EGGPLANT ROLLATINI
A pareve vegetarian roll up that works well as an appetizer or side dish. If you don’t use tomatoes on Pesach, you can just skip the tomato sauce, as the eggplant rollatini is delicious as is.

Kishka Stuffed Chicken Rollup with Orange Sauce

KISHKA STUFFED ORANGE CHICKEN
Sweet and savory, with creamy kishka encased in succulent chicken.

As seen in the Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller Magazine Passover 2012 – Subscribe Now.

Cook’s Tip:

Measuring Starch
Do you know how to measure out starch to yield the correct measurements for your recipes? Using a large spoon, lightly spoon starch into your measuring cup. Do not shake the cup and do not pack the starch. Using the back of a knife, level off the starch with the top edge of the measuring cup. Do not use the measuring cup to scoop the starch out of the container, or you can end up with one and a half times the amount of starch that the recipe actually calls for.

In this month’s issue of Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller we celebrate Spring with salad.  As all the green starts to come back on the trees so to shouldn’t we bring it back on our plates.  We have lots of fantastic salads on this site actually over 600, but for the purposes of this post we will share a few that are kosher for Passover.  It is interesting to learn how many recipes have mustard in them, you can adapt many of them to work for Passover, but below are 5 salads that celebrate Spring and Passover.

Shaved Asparagus Salad with Pecorino

Lemon Herb Artichokes with Red Peppers and Almonds

Fennel Cucumber Salad

Sauteed Quinoa with Mint

Main Image – Potato Salad with Arugula

“Worries go down better with soup than without.” (A Jewish proverb)

I love winter’s crisp-cold air and the way the sunlight casts shadows. I enjoy the long dark nights and I especially love to cook during the winter months. I hunker down in my kitchens and bring long cooked soups and stews together with aromatic herbs, dried mushrooms and root vegetables

I notice my customer’s habits changing as well. Suddenly everyone is actually hungry. Summers dainty and delicate appetites are replaced with something a bit heartier. I really look forward to soups, making them and eating them. They remind me of my favorite sweater taken out from summer storage, cozy and familiar, like an old friend.

I teach cooking classes all over the country and am often asked how to make the perfect  broth and stock.

Here are some definitions.

Stock-is a liquid base from which soups and sauces are made. Stock is made by simmering bones and sometimes meat with mirepoix (aromatic vegetables) and herbs and spices.

Broth-is an already flavored stock or water with vegetables and sometimes starch added to make it more substantial. Many prepared stocks contain flavor enhancers.

Bouillon-In French means broth, it is broth simmered with vegetables, herbs, and sometimes meat or poultry.

Bouillon cubes- are made by dehydrating vegetables, meat stock, a small portion of fat, salt, and seasonings and shaping them into a small cube. Dehydrated broth is also available in granular form. Bouillon cubes are convenient but have little nutritive value since they mostly contain flavor enhancers from monosodium glutamate or yeast extract.

Stock is the backbone of every delicious soup. Sure, you can make a soup with water or canned broth, but you will not have the richness of flavor and mouth feel. As a professional chef and mother of three, I like to make my own stocks not only for reasons of attaining superior flavor, but also I like to know what exactly is in my soup. Every ingredient in the soup is in my control and I know that when I serve my family and clients, I am giving them a delicious and nutritious gift from my heart.

I make soup with a technique called Ad Hoc cooking. It means “for this.” What I mean by ad hoc is that I start out with the intent to make a great soup. Each ingredient is thought out and has a purpose. Many people make stock with “a little of this and a little of that” mentality. While you will end with stock, it will not have a defined flavor and texture. I tell my staff that stock should be made just as carefully as a sauce or braised dish. That means technique as well as love goes into the pot! I do not throw leftovers into a pot hoping for a great end-product. I start with carefully chosen ingredients and then add some touches usually in the form of garnishes.

So here you are my three favorite stock recipes. All should be kept in your freezer ready to go at all times to enhance everything you make.

Vegetable Stock

Veal Stock

Chicken Stock

Fish Stock

Charoset Recipes for you to try, tell us which one you make and share your own special recipe with us by submitting it here.

Everyone has a favorite and it is actually the most versatile food on the Seder plate and no matter how you make it there is no denying it goes well on a piece of matzah.  It is fun to try a few recipes, so take a look and find something different.

Yemenite Haroset

Traditional Ashkenazi Haroset

Persian Haroset

Moroccan Haroset

Italian Haroset

Egyptian Haroset

Here are more Charoset recipes from Ronnie Fein that really go crazy – Old World Charosis Gets a Hip Makeover

This year try something new.

In this month’s issue of Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller, Jamie shares her Cowboy inspired Seudah menu.  Last year in anticipation of making Aliyah she made Israeli food and now living in Israel she is going All-American.  What is more American than good ole mashed potatoes, usually with heavy cream, butter and gravy, which won’t work with Fried Chicken, Chili and BBQ Brisket.  Check out a few Quick & Kosher riffs on traditional mashed potatoes.

Wasabi Mashed Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes

Multicolored Martini Mashed Potatoes

Jamie is having an all-American, down-home, little-bit country, little-bit-cowboy Purim party Seudah.  If you want to follow suit we made it easy with these downloadable cowboy party printables.

Get your printable menu, napkin holders, wine bottle covers and banners to add an exciting feel to your Purim
party.

Purim Printables

Just download and follow instructions.

Printables created by the www.thepurplepaperie.com