Rosh Hashanna

Happy Rosh Hashanna everyone!

Cooking was a bit crazy tonight. I’d been asked to make the lunch for tomorrow, since it was easier to get catered food for tonight. But because of the holiday and such, I unfortunately did not have my lovely assistants. So I ended up multi-tasking less and spending a lot longer in the kitchen. And I sliced my finger while cutting and juicing limes (luckily on the “meat” side of the kitchen…lol. Of course I immediately got myself cleaned up).
Because the meal needed to be parve and easy to serve cold, I opted for a Thai-inspired theme: Sweet Peanut Noodles, Savory Veggie Stir Fry, Lime Pepper Tofu, and some lightweight Raspberry Puff Tarts for dessert. Hopefully it will be good!

Raspberry Puff Tarts

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raspberries, crushed
• 1 cup raspberry jam
• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• Whites of 6 eggs
• 1 package wonton wrappers or similar

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Mix together jam and berries
3. Mix egg whites and sugar, and whisk until foamy
4. Fold in berry mixture and continue whisking until mixed
5. Spray three cupcake pans with Pam or similar
6. Line each cup with a wonton wrapper. If the wrappers are too small, use two overlapping wrappers to line the cup.
7. Spoon berry mixture into wonton wrappers.
8. Bake until wrappers are stiff and berry mixture has a thin crust.

Sweet Peanut Noodles

Ingredients

• 3 lbs rice noodles (dry)
• 2 cups peanut butter (Jiff or similar)
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

1. Boil one large pot of water on the stove for the noodles.
2. Meanwhile, heat water,  soy sauce, and peanut butter in a saucepan, stirring continuously.
3. Add spices to peanut butter mixture.
4. Add noodles to boiling water.
5. When noodles are tender, drain and rinse in cool water
6. Toss noodles in peanut sauce. Serve warm or cold.

Back to School

It was the first Shabbat of the year. The fact that I’m a senior (writing a thesis no less), has yet to sink in. I was also reminded of my incapacity to make cookies without them sticking to the pan. That, added to the fact both ovens had problems, made for a lot of scrambling and last-minute improv.
But such is life.

The menu for tonight:
Mediterranean Pasta Salad
Chicken Skewers with Savory Dipping Sauce
Green Salad
Chewy Lemon Cookies (While these are parve, and tasty, I had difficulties with them. Lesson learned: use the smoothest cooking sheet possible, with a good oven and lots of cooking spray)

Mustard Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

• 3 tbs dijon mustard
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp clove
• salt and garlic powder to taste

1. Combine ingredients in a small bowl
2. Whisk with a fork until mixed

Breaded Chicken Skewers

This recipe also works for tofu. Just substitute extra-firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes, for chicken.

Ingredients

• 3 lbs boneless chicken breasts
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 tbs black pepper
• 1 tsp tarragon
• 1 tbs paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp powdered dill
• 1/8 cup olive oil

1. Chop chicken into 1 inch cubes,  being careful to remove any fat
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
3. Place chicken pieces in a bowl, and pour in olive oil.
4. Toss chicken in oil until completely coated
5. Mix spices and breadcrumbs in a shallow bowl
6. Add chicken pieces, and toss in mixture until coated with crumbs.
7. Thread chicken onto skewers, about 4-5 pieces to a skewer
8. Bake for 20 minutes, or until meat is white throughout

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Ingredients

• 10 cups macaroni, cooked
• 3 green bell peppers
• 3 large beefsteak tomatoes
• 2 cups chickpeas, cooked
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbs balsamic vinegar

1. Remove the cores and seeds from the tomatoes and peppers

2. Chop vegetables into bite-size pieces.

3. Mix all ingredients except olive oil and spices in a large bowl

4. Combine vinegar, olive oil and spices in a small bowl; whisk throughly

5. Pour oil mixture over pasta and vegetables and mix until coated.

6. Serve chilled or at room temperature

Senior Week 2009

After neglecting this for a while (due to an overload of schoolwork), I owe people some serious recipe documentation.
Now that the school year is wrapped up, I got to spend a nice few days with some of my graduating friends. It was lovely– good company, good weather, and of course good food. Although other people contributed goodies, I’m only documenting the recipes which I wrote and made.

On the first night, we had burgers, with roasted mushroom skewers for the vegetarians, and Mexican hot chocolate brownies for dessert . The following morning, Michael and I made cinnamon french toast. That night, we had yakisoba with eggrolls and cucumber salad. The last night, we had japanese curry, and a variety of cheesecakes for dessert.

Dinner 3/27/2009

Yes, I’m late posting this. During the week, I had a bunch of things due at crazy times, printer trouble, meetings, you name it. On top of that, I’ve had some health issues (luckily for Team Awesome and the Hillel folks, it’s not catching).

Partly because of that, and partly because I had a late Physics lab, I planned a super-easy comfort food meal: mac-and-cheese, with steamed green beans, salad, and raspberry glazed brownies for dessert.

As usual, Team Awesome was awesome. I, however, am the idiot who managed to give myself a rather deep burn on my left knuckle while removing said mac-and-cheese from the oven. The moral of that story is to wear oven mits when you try this at home.

Spring Break II

Since I’ve been on break, I going to post a previous successful meal plan, which I refer to as “breakfast for dinner”. The meal consisted of hash browns, scrambled eggs (with spinach and mushrooms), fruit salad, pancakes (with clove glaze instead of syrup), and jelly doughnut cupcakes.
The most difficult thing about doing this meal is that everything is prep-intensive, but quick to cook and is served hot. The best plan is prep heavily beforehand– slice mushrooms, shred potatoes, mix batter, etc. as the batter and other ingredients can even chill for an extended period of time. When I made this, I made the mistake of cooking as I went. This wasn’t a big problem– I was able to keep the hash browns and pancakes warm in the oven– but it’s a lot smoother to have everything ready and then have a cooking frenzy.