Limoncello Sauce

We had this at Joyce Norden's, where she served it with fruit sauce, a recipe from the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Gartner.  I thought it would be great over gingerbread brownies, and I was right.

But, also great with fruit salad.  The recipe says to add the limoncello to the fruit salad, but I added it to the yogurt sauce.

~7 ounces plain Greek yogurt
1/3 c. lemon curd
1 T. honey or agave
1/4 t. vanilla
1 to 2 T. limoncello

Mix all the ingredients.

Great with a fruit salad, and over gingerbread or brownies, or even better, gingerbread brownies.  You can have all 3, sauce + fruit + cake.

It was lovely over just plain blueberries.

It is rare that I ask for a recipe, so this is really good.  And easy.

Cinnamon Almond Macaroons

I clipped this recipe out of a very strange catalog which arrived a few weeks before Passover, loaded with electric appliances for Easter and Passover.  Some of the items were for very frum folks, so I looked at the address and the company is based in Lakewood, NJ.

I baked these and wow!  They were great.  Avruhm said they were the best macaroons he'd ever had, though the recipe doesn't call them macaroons.

The oddest thing about this 4 ingredient recipe is that when you add the confectioners sugar to the eggs, it takes FOREVER to get to the peak stage, like 5-10 minutes.  But it did eventually.  These spread a lot, so next time I will make them smaller, like a teaspoon each.

½ lb. ground almonds
1 c. confectioners sugar (not usually available during Passover, though)
2 egg whites
½ T. cinnamon

Beat egg whites until frothy, gradually add confectioners sugar, and beat until firm peaks form.

Preheat oven to 350. Line sheet pans with parchment paper.

With wet palms, take a small ball of dough.  Place them about 2" apart.

Bake for 12-14 minutes or until they look dry.  Cool completely before removing from the paper.

Would be nice with fresh fruit salad, or berries.

You Call This a Recipe Chicken Pasta

Clipped it out of a magazine decades ago.

I made this pretty frequently when you guys were kids because of its flexibility.  If someone didn't want the tomato sauce, I put aside the cooked chicken.  If someone didn't want to eat chicken, I could  heat the tomato sauce first,  put that portion aside, and then add the chicken.  Not like anyone in our house was a picky eater or anything, of course.

Basically the ingredients are a bottle of parve spaghetti sauce, or if you have time and inclination, any marinara sauce you'd like to make, a few tablespoons of flour, seasoned to your liking, and a pound or so of boned chicken, cut in small chunks.  Put the flour in a small bowl.  Heat oil in a large skillet.  Toss the chicken chunks in the flour and drop them in the skillet.  Cook until lightly browned.  Add the spaghetti sauce.  Like I said, you call this a recipe?

It is actually very good!

Sweet Potato Cornbread

I just tried a NYTimes recipe for sweet potato cornbread, which we liked a lot and is more nutritious than typical cornbread. Here is my adaptation.

Eventually it occured to me to add cranberries. It's delicious and actually quite nutritious.

When Eyal and Nadav come on Wednesdays, if I have some healthy baked goods I put them on a glass pedestal cakeplate with a clear dome on top. They head right to it for inspection. I do the same in Chestertown.
Presentation!

1 small sweet potato, boiled
2 T vegetable oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 ¼ c milk (use yogurt, low fat sourcream, or buttermilk for some or all of the milk, for denser texture)
¾ c flour (mix whole wheat and regular)
1 ¼ c finely ground yellow cornmeal
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
¼ cup sugar
½ t ground cinnamon
½ t ground nutmeg

optional: 1/2 c. halved cranberries

Bakes at 425 in the Breville, but no need to preheat. The 1/4 sheet pan for the Breville works perfectly!

1. Peel the boiled sweet potato and put it in a smallish bowl and mash.  Add eggs, oil and milk to bowl and stir to combine.

2. In separate larger bowl, mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add potato mixture and mix until just combined. Add cranberries gently. (Do not overmix.) Pour batter--which will quickly get spongy--into the 1/4 sheet pan (or another shape pan) until the cornbread is puffed and golden, about 12-14 minutes. Watch carefully - it browns surprisingly quickly.

This is very pretty - doesn't really look like cornbread at this point!

Matzah Stuffing

I have the real recipe for this somewhere, but in the meantime, you don't really need a recipe.  You can make it vegetarian, and use some for a turkey and some for a veg side dish.  You could leave out the egg and make it vegan, too.

One box matzah, crumbled into small pieces, or a box of matzah farfel.  I use whole wheat matzah

Onion/s, chopped

Celery, chopped
mushrooms, chopped

Margarine or oil

Apples, chopped (don’t need to peel them)

Walnuts, chopped
Chopped chestnuts would be an awesome addition.

Egg

Broth

Seasonings

In a large frying pan, sauté  the onions and celery in either melted margarine or oil until soft.  Add the rest of the ingredients to create a moist mixture.  I usually bake some and stuff the turkey with the rest.  If you are a stuffing regular, you can figure out the proportions and seasonings you like.  

Chopped chestnuts would be an awesome addition.

Rustic Cream of Parsnip Soup

This was just added to my pantheon of great soups.  Parsnips are one of my favorite side dish vegetables, more interesting than potatoes.  Uncle Steven came to expect them at our house.  They are good roasted, a nice addition, chopped, to motzah ball soup, and good mashed, too.

This soup is creamy without using half-and-half like most recipes do. One important thing is having a good sudoku knife - without that leverage it is really hard to slice and chop parsnips.  This recipe makes about 8 servings.

1 T olive oil (or butter)
one medium onion
2-3 stalks celery
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3-4 medium sized parsnips 
2 carrots, optional (they make it a more appealing color)
4 c. broth (vegetarian powdered is fine)
bay leaf
salt, pepper
dash of nutmeg
other optional herbs - parsley or dill for garnish

• Heat oil (or butter) in a deep pot with a lid.  
• Peel and chop the onion and add it with the garlic and saute at medium.  
• Chop the celery [or leeks] and add.  
• Peel the parsnips and dice, cutting the long way and then crosswise.  Add to the sauteing vegetables.  
• Add chopped carrots, if you like.
• Pour in 4 cups of broth, salt, pepper, the bay leaf, and a pinch of nutmeg. 
• Simmer for about 20 minutes, covered, until the vegetables are soft.  
• Using an immersion blender, process until smooth.  It's fine if some of the vegetables are still a little chunky, which gives a nice texture.

It's a fairly bland color (a good reason to add carrots), so chopped parsley helps! This gives a lot of flavor and depth for a vegan dish.

Daniel Rosen's Green Shakshouka Via Jo

We have an abundant kale crop over at the Sterns - I planted a row of kale for George when he was post-knee surgery, and now - 4 months later - these monster kale plants are super prolific.  Really, I can go pick a whole basket full and you can hardly tell any is missing.
Jo made this with me when she visited for my birthday and I made it again a few days later - very easy.  You could make it more complicated with hot pepper, tomato sauces, et al, but this worked really well.

onion, sliced
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
lots of  fresh kale
2 to 3 tomatoes, chopped
4 to 6 eggs
pepper, salt
optional: feta cheese to sprinkle on top when you add the eggs

Chop an onion and saute it, with minced garlic, in olive oil in a large deep fry pan over medium heat.  Make sure it has a cover, which you will need.

While the onion and garlic and cooking, chop up a lot of kale.  (Spinach would work, too.)  Add it to the pan, and let it cook down.  If you have fresh tomatoes, chop and add them, as well.  Season with salt and pepper.  After about 5 to 10 minutes, they will have cooked down to a dense consistency. Crack 4 to 6 eggs, one at a time , and drop each on top of the mixture.  Cover and poach the eggs. [a sprinkle of feta cheese would be good at this point.]  This takes just a few minutes, and you can turn the heat off for most of it.

It is a great brunch dish, and or lovely for a light dinner.  We used eggs from the Rosens' coop, quite a treat.