Memorial Day Weekend Baking

Banana muffins from scratch is probably the easiest baking I have ever done just because they don't involve using the mixer (if the batter is over-stirred it won't have the right consistency). For these muffins, first you mix 4 mashed bananas, one slightly beaten egg, 1/3 cup melted butter, and 1/2 cup sugar. Then in another bowl you mix together a tsp baking soda, a tsp baking powder, a tsp salt, and 1 and 1/2 cups flour (I used King Arthur white whole-wheat flour). Finallu mix together the wet and dry ingredients, being careful not to overstir. I added some chocolate chips to a few of them. Adding walnuts to the batter would also be delicious. See the before and after photos. The great thing about these muffins is that they freeze really nicely.

Ratatouille!

With our powers combined, Ari and I make some delicious meals. For Shabbat this week, Ari and I made Ratatouille. We cut up two eggplants, three zucchinis, one squash, a red pepper, a yellow pepper, peeled Roma tomatoes and basil. We mixed all the veggies together in a dish and then baked with a cover for an hour at 350. We also prepared a salmon fillet, and then served the Ratatouille over egg noodles.

Chicken, Broccoli & Brown Rice

Over the weekend I found I still had chicken breasts I had frozen in the Soy Vay Terayaki marinade so I defrosted those and ADG grilled them on the Foreman while I made brown rice and broccoli (fresh broccoli: first blanched in boiling water for 3 minutes then shocked in ice cold water for 5 and then sauteed with garlic). The chicken breast doesn't look as appetizing as it was but it was a delicious and healthy meal we both enjoyed.

A Very Jewish Hangover Cure

Although this hardly qualifies as cooking, please take a look at Hannah's delicious looking bagel. The MOTs enjoyed bagels, lox and cream cheese for Saturday morning brunch...we just can't get enough.

שקשוקה=טעים מאוד

Dinner party on Saturday night with all the girls visiting from the ARL, along with Ari, Adam, and our friends Krystal and Tom. By special request (Alli), Ari and I cooked up shakshuka for everyone to enjoy. We hadn't made this in ages and I always forget how good it is. LKK made a delicious salad with baby heirloom tomatoes, cucumber, pepper jack cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.
!טעים מאוד

spinach artichoke dip

Thanks to my mother, this dip has pretty much become a Shira Zemel special: I brought it with me to New Years at Danny's, served it at two parties in my apartment and enjoyed its deliciousness with the girls this weekend. Unfortunately I don't have any shots of the dip being served but here is a photo of the final product in the Cuisinart (thanks YAJ). The dip was originally just an artichoke dip recipe given to me by my mom but then when I made it last year with Ari, it was his idea to add some spinach, which gives it nice color and added deliciousness. So we've got:canned artichoke, a bag of fresh spinach (steamed), Parmesan cheese, lowfat plain yogurt, lowfat mayo, all mashed together in the food processor and then baked through the oven for a half hour. Absolutely delicious and a huge hit with anyone who tries it. Shout-out to the dip's two biggest fans: ASC & HPGK

Bfast 4 dinna

Dinner tonight was pretty self-explanatory: I made us a veggie omelette with tomato, red pepper, green pepper (Dalia, I know, I'm sorry), and onion. Then I made home fries (1 cubed russet potato, 1 minced garlic clove, and diced onion--thanks Knowles) and we toasted a bagel to split. Breakfast for dinner is always the best.

The First Sauce

I have to say that tonight I made one of the most delicious things I have ever cooked. ADG's favorite thing is seafood pasta and although I don't eat the seafood, how could I keep denying him his favorite thing? This was a new experience because though our kitchen is not kosher, which is clearly very convenient (cheaper meat, 1 set of dishes) I really had not cooked any non-kosher food before besides the mixing of milk and meat. I found a recipe for Shrimp Fra Diavolo in a new cookbook my mom gave me: Cook This, Not That by the authors of Eat This, Not That--great book. This cookbook offers lighter versions of restaurant favorites (Alli, we must try their version of The Cheesecake Factory's Mac&Cheese). In this case, the recipe is a twist of a favorite shrimp pasta dish at the Olive Garden boasting half the calories, half the sodium and 1/5 the fat.

I had never made my own sauce before so this was a lot of fun. The recipe calls to first saute the shrimp and remove from heat. Then saute 1 chopped onion, 2 fresh garlic cloves minced (I made it 3), 2 tsp red pepper flakes and some oregano. Once the onions were soft, I added a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes with basil and a cup of white wine. I allowed the sauce to simmer for about 20 minutes while I stirred. Meanwhile I was cooking up spaghetti, homemade caesar salad, and fresh garlic bread--I minced garlic and mixed it with some butter, and then spread between each slice of the bread loaf. I wrapped the loaf in tin foil and baked for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Once it was all ready, I folded the shrimp into the sauce and tossed with the spaghetti. With a bit of parsley, we were ready to go. The sauce definitely had a nice heat to it, but it gave what is for me a usually boring marinara flavor some kick. The onions and garlic in the sauce was to die. Ever since I found that Goldstein Ristorante ad in the Cooking Light magazine, I have been dying to bring some Italian into 415 and we sure did it up tonight. Plus, you know its a hit when your roomie packs it in his lunch for tomorrow.

Get Your Bake On

A week off from school clearly called for some baking: I made my mom's crispy chocolate chip cookie recipe. Featured here are all the ingredients needed: 3.5 cups white whole wheat flour, a cup of sugar, a cup of light brown sugar, a tbsp baking soda, a tsp salt, a tbsp milk, 2 tsp vanilla, an egg, a stick of butter, a stick of margarine, 3/4 cup canola oil and chocolate chips, oats, and corn flakes (1 cup each). This recipe makes A LOT of cookie dough and it freezes really well, so today I only made a few cookies and then froze the rest of the dough for when the girls come to visit next week. First I sifted the flour with the baking soda and salt. Then I used the mixer (I am a lucky duck to have a kitchen aid; an amazing gift from ADG's mom--I believe it first belonged to adam's grandma-- the gift that keeps on giving!) to cream the butter/marg/sugar/brown sugar/vanilla/milk/egg etc. Then I slowly added the oil and flour to mix together and voila: crispy chocolate cookie dough! Pictured here are the cookies on my new plate, an awesome bday surprise from LKK.

Fish Taco Tuesday!

Ari and I decided to do a reprise of our famous fish tacos and we were not dissapointed. Pictured here is my signature pico de gallo (white onion, tomato, cilantro, jalepeno pepper and lime juice), ari's guac (avocado, tomato, onion, cilantro, lime juice), broiled tilapia (ari heated the glass pans under the broiler for 5 minutes, then put EVOO in the pan along with the tilapia fillets w/s&p and broiled for 5 minutes). Along with mini tortillas, this meal was the best. We had a really, really good night. Shout-out to the marg man, adg.

QCC is BACK with chicken curry!

After a terribly long semester of student teaching without nearly enough time to cook, QCC is back and better then ever. With my first year of grad school finally finished, I am using these early weeks of summer to cook, cook, cook. Apologies and lots of love to all my loyal readers--not to worry, there will be plenty of posts with new dishes this week and in the weeks to come.

Tonight, I attempted chicken curry. I first tasted this version of the dish at HPGK's house way back when, and Barbara and Hannah so graciously hooked me up with the recipe. Although this photo doesn't look too appetizing (for some reason it looked a lot better in person) it was absolutly delicious and Adam really enjoyed it as well. I served the dish with garlic and whole wheat Naan and Basmati rice.

The curry is surprisingly easy to make: saute red pepper and onion in EVOO, add chicken breast and cook through. Then to make the sauce, add mango chutney, curry powder, a can of cream of mushroom soup (clearly not a kosher friendly dish), some milk, and a tiny bit of light mayo. So good!