Life in Shiloh, "Getting to Know You" Over The Chopping Board

Last night here in Shiloh was the annual "Get To Know The New/Old Neighbors" event.

Maybe not all the tables/crews used chopping boards, but whether stirring puddings, sauces or kneading dough, newcomers worked with neighbors who had moved to Shiloh even before they were born. Age didn't matter at all when working together to make a quiche, pizza, salad, dessert or...

Master of the "Master Chef" came armed with ovens, cutting boards, knives, pasta rollers, bowls, burners and all sorts of foods and all the equipment needed for our intrepid chefs. A staff of "judges" were assigned to grade the delicacies. I just wandered around taking pictures.

I must admit that the event was much more successful than I had envisioned. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. I left as the food was being served and shared to all. Don't think it didn't look delicious; it looked just too delicious for my rather weak self-control.

Shiloh has grown so much in recent years that I can't expect to know everyone. But at least many of those I didn't know looked familiar. In all honesty, I'm glad that the yishuv, town, has  been absorbing many new mostly young families. It confirms that we chose well all those years ago when we moved to Shiloh. Gd willing our wonderful town will continue to grow and expand.

Suddenly Cooking Again

For the past couple of years, I barely cooked and didn't bake at all. When I didn't have a functioning kitchen I became very lazy. A few times I baked at my daughter's in Ofra and at a neighbor's, but that was it. If it couldn't be easily cooked in a pot on an eccentric electric burner or two, it just didn't get cooked at all. That had been my kitchen for the past year. And for quite awhile before that, when my old mini-ovens still worked, even before we retired the old stove top, which smelled of gas, no more than two burners were strong and reliable enough for cooking.

Now, I have a kitchen, bli eyin haraa-not to tempt the evil eye, and I must get used to making real meals again. No doubt that our food bills will go up, and I pray that my weight won't join them.

The first things I made in my new ovens were a supply of cake and challah. I couldn't make a super-sized supply, since we don't have much freezer space, just the fridge's freezer. Last week I also made us moussaka, one for Shabbat lunch and one for the freezer. Remember that we're only two people at home, versus the 7-9 we'd have at ordinary Shabbat meals a few decades ago, and don't do all the entertaining we once did. Nowadays, I'm overwhelmed when there are five to prepare for!

Yesterday I cooked the meat and poultry for Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah. I didn't make all that much, but it was more and more varied than I had made for a long time. Take a peek:

Saying "Goodbye" to The Pan

The "Pan" I'm referring to here isn't Peter Pan as played by Mary Martin. The "Pan" is my old trusty covered frying pan, which I'd used for so many years to make everything from fish, vegetables, omelets, potato latkes on Chanuka and more favorite foods.

This large frying pan and matching cover were the most used pieces of the set of EKCO pots my late mother-in-law had bought me when I got married. The cover was also used for the large "soup pot" in the set. This EKCO set was for dairy cooking, and I got a similar set for meat cooking but Farberware. I got married in 1970, and I must say that the pots have all survived amazingly well, though many are missing their handles, as are the covers.

Actually, it was because the large cover's handle had become shaky of late that I finally decided to retire them from use. This has been rather traumatic for me, since I cook in it almost daily nowadays. I've been a fan of stainless steel pots and pans "forever." Nowadays they are very hard to find, and if you do, the prices are outrageous. I'd still recommend them for people just starting out. They last a lot longer than most marriages. My kids will be able to divide my old pots up after I reach my 120. They are worth more than most of my jewelry.

I gave in and bought a specially treated aluminum pot with a glass cover. It doesn't claim to be covered with Teflon or silicon, materials I don't like at all. And I sent a note to the local email list that anyone who wants can take my old beloved dairy pan and cover from next to my front door. It's still usable, even as a dairy cake/pie dish, since the plastic handle is ancient history.

If I had found a good stainless steel replacement, I may have shelled out the money, but I didn't see any. I looked in a number of stores. So far I used the new pan and cover set once and for parve (neither meat nor dairy) cooking. I don't cook dairy for myself anymore. Yes, I'll, bli neder, blog about it, and I'll have to get used to different cooking temperatures. 

Safety Glove and Vegetable Soup

I'm sure that I'm not the only person who has all sorts of scars on my fingers from "cutting accidents." Somehow the knife slices fingers more easily than a tomato. That's what happened to me other other night, and not for the first time.

A few years ago, I bought my kids and myself safety gloves that we're supposed to wear on the non-cutting hand to prevent these annoying, unintentional and sometimes long-healing slices. They were definitely not the most enthusiastically and graciously received gifts. Only one of my kids even admitted that it's needed. The rest made it clear that I had wasted my money. I kept one for myself and must admit that it has been sitting a the drawer with lots of kitchen gadgets I'd been given by my husband never to be used. But that last cut really bothered me, more as a reminder than anything else. I didn't need professional first aid.

I wore the glove on my left hand when cutting up vegetables yesterday for the post-fast, Ta'anit Ester-Fast of Ester, and Mishloach Manot (Purim food gift) Vegetable Soup.

Here's an illustrated Vegetable Soup Recipe:

For this vegetable soup, you need two pots, cutting implements and boiling water.

1- take a cup of dried peas, put them in a pot, add boiling water, cover for an hour or more so they will be at least partially cooked before you add them to the vegetables.

Here are all of the vegetables I used, 3 carrots, 2 squash, 2 onions, 1 sweet potato and some fresh garlic. 

As you can see, my left had is protected by the glove, even though I did very little actual cutting. That's because I "cheated" and used the food-processor for the actual slicing.

As you may notice from the magimix 2000 written here, my food processor is old and small. I work in batches and keep emptying it when full. There are two major advantages to using one especially for larger soups.
1- quicker and safer preparation since I don't have to do so much cutting.
2- it slices the vegetables thin, so cooking takes much less time. 

1- I put all the sliced vegetables in a large covered pot with oil and let it begin the cooking process.
2- I also boiled water, and when it was boiling...
3- I added the parboiled (partially cooked) peas to the vegetable pot and used the boiling water to rinse out the pea pot and added all the liquid to the cooking vegetables.
4- Lower to simmer after it all reaches a boil, and then have it cook for 40-60 minutes.
5- Just before you turn off the flame/heat, add salt and pepper. You can add parsley or whatever other seasonings you want at the same time.

Wait at least 15 minutes after turning off the stove before you serve the soup.

This is a "never fail," "TNT-tried and true" Vegetable Soup.

Easy One-Pot Chicken Meal

OK, just to be totally honest, I must admit that although I call this a "One-Pot Meal" I serve it with more foods. I served this on Shabbat to my husband and a couple of guests. There were also a nice fresh salad and two other vegetable dishes. But I didn't bother with an additional carbohydrate, and most people would find this enough with either a fresh salad and/or additional vegetable.

Of course, you can always cook this with more potatoes and/or carrots. I actually added another potato before putting it in the oven.  Be sure to put the squash, if you use it, inside the chicken, or it will burn, since it cooks more quickly than any of the other ingredients. And vegetables should be cut in large pieces or not at all.

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
a couple of carrots
a large squash or zucchini
a potato or more
an onion
some garlic
paprika, black pepper and whatever you like

I baked it in an old Farberware, stainless steel pot, that had "lost" its handle. I started baking it without a cover, and after about a half an hour, I covered it with aluminum foil. It baked for a couple of hours, high heat. Use whatever heat your oven manufacturer recommends. Probably an hour and a half would have sufficed. It depends on the size of your chicken. This was a small one, which is why not all of the vegetables fit inside.

Everyone enjoyed the meal, and this sure is a good way to utilize an old pot of fantastic quality.

What Goes Around Comes Around, The Perfect Gift

What Goes Around Comes Around

A phrase meaning you get what you give.

 urbandictionary.com

About twenty years ago or more before going to the states to see my parents, I saw an adorable and practical kitchen "tool" of sorts. It was a raised wooden board that had a plastic "bowl" underneath, so you could easily "catch" the cut vegetables or fruit. I thought it would be the prefect gift for my mother who made lots of salads and vegetable. So, I bought one for her and afterwards wished I had also gotten one for myself. But I never, ever saw one again.

That is until a short while after my daughter got married. They came for a Holiday, and her husband had seen what he thought would be the perfect gift for me and bought it. Yes, it's exactly what I had bought my mother about a decade before.

I still use it daily!

Eaks!!! It's Inventory Time!!!!

It's times like this time of the year when I'm very glad that I don't have large freezer, and I don't have an extra freezer, because keeping track of the (chametz-forbidden on Passover) food to finish before the Pesach Holiday is complicated enough for me with my limited storage here.

At some point very soon, I'm going to have to put on my heavy gloves and check what's hidden in the back. As you can see, there are pittot, rolls, prepared food and lots of stuff hidden in those plastic bags. I know there's chicken (raw and cooked) and beef and cakes and flour, too. There's also a big mess of course as you can much too easily see.

Considering the mess, it's very obvious that I don't need a second freezer. There was a time I had a small one, but then fridges and their freezer sections were smaller, too. And even then I had trouble efficiently filling it. I make a point of generally having the basics for Shabbat cooking in the freezer, so if I end up not being able to shop, I can still make the chicken and meat. That doesn't take up all that much space.

I freeze leftovers, since my meat/chicken cooking is only once a week, and we just keep eating Shabbat food until I cook for the next Shabbat. I'm not home every evening. There are weeks that I'm not home any evening. This upcoming week may be one of those. And since my husband and I do have to eat, I just cook in advance, which isn't all that hard. Remember that we have five kids, and there was a time when they (and various guests) lived here with us, and I did cook everyday for all.

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov everyone!!

Cooking Up a Storm, Healthy Traditional Jewish Food

I haven't posted recipes for quite a while. Every time I cook it seems like I'm making some new version of old favorites. So, in some ways my food is all the same, but in many ways it's different.

This year's tzimmes has most of the usual ingredients, but is lighter than many:

Tzimmis ingredients, all cut, before adding water, to almost cover.

Relative quantities aren't that important:

• prunes
• raisins
• carrots
• sweet potatoes
• apple
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• fresh ginger root
• dark brown sugar
• water to almost cover

Cook it all on low flame in covered pot until soft. Yes, that's it.

With my very flexible and simple basic cake, I made an Apple-Fig Upsidedown Cake for Rosh Hashanah! Here's the simple one-bowl recipe. 

This is the basis for all sorts of cakes, including chocolate, apple, chocolate chip, etc. It can be multiplied, and I never make it with less than 3 cups of flour. Of course, it can be frozen and iced. I make it with whole wheat cake flour and brown sugar.
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 t baking powder
1/6 cup oil (soy)
1/2 cup water
1 egg
1 t vanilla
mix dry ingredients
add oil and water
mix
add eggs
mix
pour in pan
bake medium heat* 
until pops up when gently pressed in center of cake

This time I added cinnamon and nutmeg to the batter instead of vanilla.

On the bottom of the cake pan I put sliced apples and fig "jam." Then I poured on the batter and baked. It was a great success.

I also made Apple Cake with the same batter. I diced up some apple and placed the pieces in the cakepan. Then I poured in the batter and mixed.

They all baked up beautifully. It's very easy! I froze the apple cake and two little ones I made with the batter for later eating.

Cooking does not have to be difficult and stressful. I find that having simple basic recipes that can be varied is the best way to cook and enjoy myself. I can be creative and not get all hysterical and OCD over finding exactly the "right" ingredients. I base my cooking on what I have and what is easily available and reasonably priced. 

*My oven does not have regular temperatures, and I just "know" where the dial should be. For baking a cake I set the dial at just after 5 o'clock, if that helps you.  If the top seems cooked, while the batter is still watery, lower the heat.

Chop It Gadget

The other day my husband and I were in Center 1, and I couldn't get over the crowds watching the demonstration of some kitchen gadget. Honestly, my kitchen is full, and I get done what I need with what I have. I'm not a gadget person at all. I do have a food processor, which is used a few times a year, and I have an ancient blender for Passover, which I do use for my Passover recipes, a few at least.  Otherwise I just need a knife and cutting-board. But apparently, other people like and bought the chopping gadget.

the next generation

This little one looks nothing like me, as if the older one or their mother does, but we have lots of fun together. As you can see, she loves the computer and cooking. Plus we sing and act out "Eensie, Weensie Spider" and "I'm a Little Teapot."

quick, quick before I return to the kitchen

Kitchen basically in the Pesach mode
just diningroom table waiting for another felafel for dinner

cooked:

• beef
• chicken
• getfilte fish
• started soup
• boiled eggs
• blender dirty, so next will be the kugels

cleaned as much as I could

greased my hands with heavy-duty handcream

must just go over it all "sponja g'doila"

tooduloo!

Teach 'em Young!

My two pre-school granddaughters are learning how to cook. My daughter is a firm believer in teaching them young, whether it's cooking, cleaning or washing the dishes. She didn't learn it from me, unfortunately.

She's right. The theory is that too many of us stop/ped the kids from doing potentially helpful things, because the child is "too young" or making a mess. Then by the time the kid is "old enough," he or she couldn't be bothered.

My granddaughters are pictured here getting the rice ready, after checking for bugs, stones etc.

And while we're talking about cooking, please don't forget to send me links for the next Kosher Cooking Carnival!

Either send to shilohmuse at gmail dot com or to blog carnival. Thanks!!!