Adapted from the Silver Palate Cookbook

Ingredients
2 teaspoons yeast
2 cups warm water
3 cups semolina flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 to 3 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 to 4 tablespoons cornmeal
1 egg

Preparation
Pour water over yeast in a bowl and allow yeast to proof. Add semolina flour and salt and stir well. Add 2 cups of bread flour and stir. Continue adding and kneading flour until dough is smooth and elastic. Pour olive oil over dough and turn to coat. Cover with towel and set aside until dough has tripled in bulk – about 2 hours.

Punch down dough, knead briefly and cover and let rise again until double.

Punch down the dough again, cut it into thirds, and shape each third into a thin loaf about 24 inches long. Sprinkle a baking sheet with 3 to 4 tablespoons cornmeal and arrange the loaves on the sheet leaving as much room between the loaves as possible. Cover and let rise for another 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Beat egg with 1 tablespoon water and brush on the loaves. Slash loaves decoratively on top with a sharp knife, making diagonal cuts.

Slide the baking sheet onto the middle rack of the oven and reduce heat to 375 degrees. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until loaves are brown and sound hollow when thumped. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

On Rosh HaShanah we need a lot of things. We need to evaluate the past year and make plans for growth and change in the future. We need to try to understand what the shofar call really means and work on crowning Hashem King. We need to imbue our tefillos with real cavana and renew our focus on our relationship with our Creator. And we need recipes – there are a lot of meals to make. Since we can’t help you with your spiritual lives, we are trying to ease your cooking challenge by offering yet another possible Yom Tov menus and recipes. This is what I am making for the second night.

Roasted Vegetable Soup
Honey Game Hens
Sweet Potatoes with Carmelized Apples
Roasted Asparagus
Pretty Little Honey Cakes
Harvest Pie

Not that long ago, I might have thought that I was qualified for the title foodie – after all, I like food. But once you have lived with someone who reads recipe books like they’re novels, who creates menus like a football coach creates plays and who ponders food combinations and possibilities the way a chemist plays with their beakers and bunson burners, you realize that true foodies are a breed apart. Julia Child and her alter ego Julie Powell were foodies.

This film is a delightful and warm journey of two very determined women who are incapable of living the lives of quiet desperation that others might have led in their situation. Their story begins with the universal feeling of being lost and in search of purpose and ends with salvation discovered no further away then your kitchen door.

Both Julia Child and Julie Powell follow their spouses to foreign cities allowing them to pursue their careers. Ms. Child has been brought to paradise in the form of a wonderful flat in post war Paris, while Ms. Powell is left to her own defenses in post 9-11 Queens. Ms. Child greets her neighbors with a big smile and “Bonjour Fredric!” Ms. Powell avoids making eye contact with anyone and tries to ignore the sounds of the trucks passing under her bedroom window at night. But after a slightly heavy handed scene of realizing her friends are all seemingly self-important if not fairly shallow, Julie Powell decides to attempt to make all of Julia Childs recipes while writing a blog about her daily challenge. It is no easy task. Along the way she discovers the strength required to make self-imposed deadlines, boil a lobster and debone a chicken… She’s our generations “Rosie the Riveter”, and since she’s also Amy Adams, she’s really cute as she stands to conquer her mother’s pessimism, her own self-doubt and her need to know what Julia would do.

Meryl Streep is wonderful as Julia Child. Of course Meryl Streep is always wonderful, but making the shrill voice and alcohol laden life of Julia Child sympathetic and vulnerable isn’t easy, but ultimately very rewarding for her audience.

Given today’s genre of “women’s stories” perhaps the most remarkable facet of Julia and Julie was that they didn’t need to leave their husbands or have torrid affairs to break out of their confines, but rather they worked hard to become very good at something that gave them joy and in the process brought them closer to their husbands and to the sense of fulfillment they so eagerly sought.

As the husband of an equally determined woman, who can bone a chicken, change a diaper, check her Google analytics and whip up a lemon dill sauce along with her Yerushalmi kugel, I found this story and movie to be a feast of enormous satisfaction.

Bon Appetit!

More kosher recipes at GourmetKosherCooking.com

Dicing vegetables or any food with a dull knife can be a real challenge, not to mention very dangerous. I like to sharpen all my knives in August before the high intensity cooking for the holidays.

The best way to sharpen a knife is to hire a professional who uses a sharpening stone. Rabbi Chatzinoff in New York says that you can use knife sharpening stones and the professional’s wheels to sharpen clean knives, and they do not get treifed up. Most Farmer’s Markets have professional sharpeners who come on market day and sharpen knives for as little as $2.50 per knife. Also, check for stores that provide the service in your town. Alternatively, most butchers use professionals and will often provide the name of their service to their customers

For more great kosher recipes, visit www.gourmetkoshercooking.com

With so much in the media about “going green” and limiting our carbon footprint, I have been thinking about how difficult it is to contribute to the “go green” lifestyle with a large family. We drive bigger cars with less fuel efficiency; we use more water and have more garbage than the average household. So how can we help keep this world beautiful for our children and grandchildren?

Here are three simple ways that large families can help.

1) Buy reusable water bottles for your family. They can be purchased at www.sigg.com, Costco, and Target.

2) Use dishes and forgo serving children on disposable paper and plastic. If you have small children and need durable tableware, check out what IKEA sells www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50096905. It is dishwasher safe, bright and colorful and very reasonably priced.

3) Invest in a good roasting pan. These can be a bit pricey but worth every penny. First, they conduct heat much better than the aluminum trays so your food cooks evenly and more timely and they are very easy to clean. Image how many aluminum pans you throw away in just one month!

For more Kosher recipes, visit www.gourmetkoshercooking.com

I’m all for time-saving gadgets (see earlier blog about immersion blenders?!) but the amount of time required to knead challah by hand is actually so minimal that it seems hard to justify the extra cleaning, effort and expense of a machine.

Not to mention that the machines are frequently too small for the quantities we need to make.

So don’t be intimidated. Making challah by hand is as fast, as delicious and as easy as using a machine. You will only have one bowl and one spoon to clean (and maybe a whisk and some measuring cups).

To begin, check out one of the challah recipes in the Shabbos section.

For more recipes, visit www.gourmetkoshercooking.com

I love Caesar salad. I am not sure what it is exactly, maybe the
crisp, cold romaine lettuce, or the freshly shaved parmesean cheese,
or the toasty homemade croutons, or maybe the dressing, bold with a
hint of anchovy but just a hint so one may not even be able to
identify the anchovy.

But what is it about Caesar salad? I have yet to find a good one in a
restaurant. So many restaurants do not even spell it correctly on the
menu. I can understand that a meat restaurant would struggle with this
and in substitution offer something like a creamy garlic mayonnaise
dressing, usually overdressed and a bit under-chilled for my taste,
but dairy restaurants? What’s the problem? I’ve tried so many that
my husband has requested that I stop ordering it.

If you are a fan of Caesar salad try the following recipe adapted
from Ina Garten. It’s a big hit in my home and has that authentic
Caesar flavor. If you cannot get great homemade croutons from your
local bakery or bagel store, make your own with leftover challah.
They are worth the effort and can be used for more than one salad.

Caesar Salad

2 large heads Romaine lettuce
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups chunky croutons (homemade are the best)

For the Dressing

1 extra large egg yolk at room temperature
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
5 -8 anchovy fillets (optional)
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 lemons)
2 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ cups good mild olive oil
½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Wash the lettuce leaves carefully and spin-dry in a salad spinner.
Stack the leaves on a cutting board and cut them crosswise into 1 ½
inch lices. Place them in a large mixing bowl.

For the dressing, place the egg yolk, mustard, garlic, anchovies,
lemon juice, salt, and pepper into the bowl of a food processor fitted
with a stell blade. Process until smooth. With the food processor
running, slowly pour the olive oil through the feed tube and process
until thick. Add ½ cup grated parmesan cheese and pulse 3 times.

Toss the lettuce with enough dressing to moisten well. Add 1 cup
grated parmesan and toss. Add the croutons and toss with the rest of
the salad. Serve on chilled salad plates.

Everyone has their favorite kitchen gadget. The hands-down winner in my home is the immersion blender. Gone is the mess made in transferring batches of soup from pots to blenders to bowls and back to pots again. Instead soups, salad dressings and other sauces can be pureed directly in the pot or container.

This makes it very easy to make almost any type of pureed vegetable soup. You can start with this basic recipe and vary the spices slightly depending on the vegetable.

Zucchini Soup

1 onion chopped
8 large zucchini, chopped
1 tablespoon pareve chicken soup mix
1 teaspoon black pepper
10 cups water

Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 1 hour or until zucchini is soft. Remove pot from heat and allow soup to cool. When it has reached room temperature, stick blender inside pot and puree. (Do not lift blender out of pot while still on or your kitchen will be covered in soup!!)

For carrots, add a little cinnamon, maybe some curry. For cauliflower, add some nutmeg. For squash, add some cinnamon and nutmeg.

You can also make cold fruit soup for a refreshing summertime or even Pesach appetizer.

Strawberry-Mango Soup

2 pounds frozen strawberries, thawed
2 pounds frozen mango or frozen peaches, thawed
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
orange juice to cover

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Puree. Refrigerate until ready to serve. (Recipe may be halved)

And it’s great for emulsifying salad dressings.

I think I own 6 of them – milchig, fleishig, pareve – and the same for Pesach!

Feeding our children nutritiously and with ease is a priority and a struggle at some point for most mothers. I have spoken to many friends about this and each has their own strategy; some make a separate dinner for their picky ones and just serve what they like, others bribe their kids (don’t we all at times?) with dessert, and some just throw their hands up in frustration. My family has come up with a solution that not only works well in getting my family to all eat the same meal but also helps me save time.

Here’s what we do. On Sunday morning, my oldest daughter gets out a piece of paper and together they make the weekday menus for me. They each get one night to pick the meal of their choice. They negotiate with one another and sometimes veto something that we had last week or something they know I am unwilling to make. They not only have a great time (sometimes they pick things from cookbooks), but they work together and get excited when it’s the day for their meal. Remarkably, they try to choose meals that they know most of them will like. The great part for me is that I can organize a grocery list on Sunday night and be prepared for most of the week.

More ideas to make meal time successful and nutritious:

· Eat with your children. They will eat better and try new things if you eat with them.

· Give food fun names like meatball cake, or salmon with candy sauce.

· Try things many times. Slowly over time and repetition children will develop and broaden their taste.

· Dip. Kids love dipping foods into things from ketchup to yogurt to salad dressing. Dipping makes eating more fun for them.

I like bananas. I feel virtuous and healthy when I eat one and they are more substantial than berries or other fruit. I don’t share my children’s aversion to their smell and enjoy them plain, with cereal and milk and even, as a rare treat, with sour cream and sugar.

The only caveat is that I need to catch that banana at its exact perfect moment – when the green has just disappeared and before the advent of any brown.

If I miss this window of opportunity, however, there is no cause for despair. I have some wonderful recipes calling for rotten bananas – the blacker the better.

Banana Muffins

This is a favorite with my teenage daughters.

1 cup mashed bananas (3-4 bananas, depending on their size)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
½ cup margarine (1 stick), room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together the bananas, baking soda and hot water. In an electric mixer, cream together margarine and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour and baking powder, then banana mixture and finally chocolate chips. Spoon into a greased muffin pan and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

Banana Loaf

This is very basic but good. The walnuts add a nice crunch and I’ve resisted the urge to add chocolate to keep it from being too sweet.

½ cup (1 stick) margarine, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup water
1 cup mashed bananas (3-4 bananas depending on their size)
½ cup toasted (optional) walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using an electric mixer, cream together the margarine and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda and add to mixture alternately with the water, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix in bananas and nuts. (The walnuts don’t need to be toasted but they have extra flavor and crunch if you do) Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour.

And last but certainly not least.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

This is a wonderful Shabbos dessert. I use plain tofutti cream cheese to keep it pareve.

For the cake:

1 cup (2 sticks) margarine, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (3-4 bananas depending on their size)
1-3/4 cups flour
2/3 teaspoon baking soda
5 tablespoons non-dairy creamer
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together margarine and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and bananas, mixing well. Stir in flour; then add buttermilk and vanilla. Mix well. Pour batter into greased 9-inch round pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans for about 10 minutes; then remove to racks to finish cooling. Do not ice until completely cool.

For the frosting:

1 package (8 ounces) tofutti cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup (1 stick) margarine, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon juice

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the cream cheese and margarine. Beat in powdered sugar, vanilla and lemon juice until no lumps remain.

To assemble cake:

Put one layer on a cake pan. Put thin layer of frosting over cake. Top with second cake. Cover top and sides with frosting. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Matza Balls: the Key to Success

There is nothing like a white, fluffy, matza ball in rich, warm chicken soup. If I want to serve another soup on Friday night, I still need to make chicken soup with matza balls for my kids. It just isn’t Friday night without it.

Good matza balls need to be flavorful, round, and light. For many, this outcome is not so simple. Here are some tips for perfect matza balls every time.

· Do not overmix the batter
· Refrigerate at least 2 hours before forming balls
· Gently, and without too much handling, form the balls
· Use seltzer instead of water in your favorite recipe

Fluffy Matzah Balls

4 large eggs
2 T vegetable oil
½ c seltzer
1 c matza meal
salt and pepper to taste

Mix eggs well with a fork. Add the oil to combine. Add the matza meal and salt and pepper and mix well. Mix in the seltzer. Cover and refrigerate for several hours.

Bring water and salt to a boil in a large pot. Dip your hands in cold water and gently make about 10 balls slightly smaller than ping-pong balls. Place the matza balls in the water. Cover and simmer about 30 or until soft.

I have the same conversation with my kids everyday when I pick them up from school. They get into the car and without breaking stride ask, “What’s for dinner?” And I always say, “How about ‘Hi mom, how was your day?’” To which they dutifully respond, “Hi mom, how was your day? What’s for dinner?”

The dialogue never changes. And the question of what’s for dinner never ceases to plague us.

And not only that. On top of the creative challenges of weeknight dinners, we also have the responsibility for Shabbos and Yom Tov meals. It can be a bit overwhelming.

But a lot of fun and a tremendous source of satisfaction as well.

Please join us as we explore fresh new weeknight ideas (along with some old and familiar standbys), unique Shabbos menus (and of course the traditional too) and some particularly delicious holiday offerings.

We hope that you will enjoy this site and we want to hear from you. Send us your feedback, your recipes, your thoughts. Refer your friends.

With every meal, lovingly and thoughtfully prepared, we are each adding a new brick to our miniature Bais HaMikdosh.