french toast in the ARL

ADG and I whipped up some challah french toast for breakfast yesterday and enjoyed a lovely breakfast with my brother Adam and his friend Dana. My mom's homemade challah is probably the most delicious thing in the world, and it was awesome as french toast. Check out my previous challah french toast posting here.

Shakshuka in the ARL

So last week when I got home from Buffalo for winter break I cooked up some Shakshuka for the family. My mom had never had the dish before, and since it is a QCC favorite I figured I had to make it for everyone at home. The entire family enjoyed, except I did neglect to add the jalapeno pepper, and so pepper wasn't added until the very end. Regardless, it was a delicious meal. Also, I used my new deep saute pan with lid--this pan is going to take my cooking and QCC to an entire new level. Watch out!

Also, check out a previous rendition of Shakshuka on QCC here

Returning to Buffalo on the second--more posts to come then.

end of semester baking!

So Monday night I was invited to a Hanukkah party with my fellow HT student teachers at our teacher's house. I decided it would be nice to bring dessert and since one of my classmates is vegan, I thought of making the krazy chocolate cake (a recipe courtesy of my mom) since it is vegan friendly. Naturally, I had to make the amazing oreo cream cheese icing (pictured in the mixer pre-oreo), so I only iced half of the cake (also pictured) so my vegan friend could enjoy as well. The cake was a hit!

I am really learning to love baking when I get the time, and it is so great having the kitchen aid mixer (courtesy of adg's mom). The cake recipe was featured previously on QCC.

!חג חנוכה שמח

Happy Hannukah from QCC! Last night, the first night of Hannukah, I had a Hannukah/Shabbat dinner here with some friends. I had a fun time setting the table with our blue plate ware from Adam's family and lots of gelt and dreidels.

For dinner, I made some oldies but goodies: kosher roast chicken, green beans, and a salad. Also featured are some delicious latkes courtesy of Chef Cohen and a store-bought challah courtesy of Wegman's.

Happy TGiving from QCC!

A belated happy Thanksgiving to all of QCC's loyal readers :)

(I am responsible for none of the amazing wonder pictured in these photographs...this is all mom, my extraordinary muse)

weekend delights

This weekend I made a recipe from Bon Apetit magazine, given to me by my mother, and featured before on QCC: a Chile Cheese Tart (a quiche, basically). The tart features eggs, cheddar cheese, chile peppers, hot sauce, ground pepper, all whisked together and baked in a pie crust. Yum! We enjoyed the quiche for a couple nights and there is still some left over.

I also made a chicken ceasar salad this weekend. I roasted 2 split chicken breasts (bone-in), removed the meat and put some on top of my homemade ceasar. There was extra chicken so I mixed some of the chicken in Frank's hot sauce and made us buffalo chicken wraps for Monday's lunch. Great weekend full of delicious food.

spaghetti!

Adam made delicious spaghetti and meatballs and I made my homemade low fat caesar salad. The plating isn't great, but QCC readers can't deny how delicious it looks, right??

Tuesday night's comfort food dinner

Sorry for the lack of posts recently...I'm working on it!
Rundown of last night's delicious dinner:

• Chicken breasts marinated in the Soy Vay Terayaki sauce and then grilled on the Foreman
• blanched green beans cooked in soy sauce--an oldy but goody!
• garlic mashed potatoes (delicious but not homemade....i used the boxed stuff)
• salad!

Great dinner! Stay tuned for spagetti and meatballs tonight--

salmon dinner revisited

I prepared a salmon fillet and a mozzarella, tomato, basil salad for dinner tonight. I used the last of the basil from my basil plant that I have been trying to grow in the apartment, unless of course I can save the plant and it starts to grow again.

This meal was delicious. I heart salmon...and mozzarella tomato basil :)

stir fry!

The other night I cooked up a chicken stir fry with broccoli, spinach, mushrooms and lo mein noodles. First I marinated the chicken in a white wine for an hour, and then I sauteed the chicken in a pan. After the chicken was cooked through, I added the chicken, veggies and noodles (which I had precooked) and stir fry sauce (soy sauce, cornstarch and water) into the wok. I heated it all up and mixed it all together into a delicious stir fry. It was really good! Next time I would use a different lo mein noodle because these ones were a little too thick, or I would just skip the noodles entirely. Also, next time I would try to make it a little spicier.

buffalo chicken <3

buffalo chicken tenders with salad and blue cheese dressing (ranch for ADG). One of my all time favorite things to order ou-- my first time making for myself. Next time I need to shake up the salad a little--this was just romaine, boring!! But the tenders were delicious. I bread them in panko with egg whites and flour and fried them up over the stove. As my brother pointed out: not something I learned from my mom, that's for sure!

roast chicken as per ADG's request

It has been nearly a week since I updated, sorry to all my loyal QCC readers. Hopefully a double update tonight:
Last night I made my kosher roast chicken w/ roasted potatoes and GBs (green beans) for dinner last night. Adam ate all the leftover chicken today so I guess it turned out pretty good.

Dinner with Guest Chef: Dalia "Da Floozy" Miller!

Tonight, Dalia and I combined forces to make a delicious dinner! We created a salad of our very own design: the Shalia. The Shalia consists of some dark mesculin greens, red onion, cucumbers, tomatoes and hard boiled eggs tossed with some greek dressing (gazebo room shout out!!). I made some more fresh pesto and meanwhile Dalia fried some onions and made some Mrs. T perogies. We were in heaven during tonight's dinner...

saturday dinner w/ dalia!!

A beautiful pizza (we added tomato and basil to a frozen pizza), leftover pesto and a little salad

Banana Muffins!

So I figured I would bake something for Dalia while she was visiting, so I made banana muffins. Adam and I love these. The recipe is so easy and they freeze really well so they are easy to save for later. Check out the recipe--I found it online!:

-3 or 4 Large bananas, mashed

-1/2 cup white sugar

-1 slightly beaten egg

-1/3 cup melted margarine or butter

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-1 teaspoon baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1 1/2 cups flour

Mix the mashed banana, sugar, egg and margarine together. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour. Mix wet and dry ingredients all together, being careful not to over-stir! Pour into greased muffin tins, and bake in 350 degrees oven for approximately 20 minutes.

Shabbat with Dalia!

Tonight I made salmon, green beans (of course) and homemade pesto. I also picked up a whole wheat challah at Wegman's. Awesome Shabbat dinner--

!!טעים מאוד

So fun having Da Floozy visiting!

chicken pot pie!

Made a chicken pot pie tonight! First I roasted two split chicken breast, and then cut the chicken into pieces. Then I mixed the chicken in with a can of Cream of Chicken soup, some chicken broth mixed with a little bit of flour, and vegetables. Then I pour the mixture into a pie crust. Then i covered the pie with thinly rolled out crescent roll dough.
The pot pie turned out really well! Adam liked it and I was proud of myself for trying something totally new.

Lunch at Yelena's!

Another delicious meal at Yelana's. There are so many things to talk about on this plate: the chicken breast that I marinated in the Soy Vay, a fiery asian cole slaw that I made from a recipe my mom gave me, and my favorite green beans. Ari made delicious sesame noodles, and Yelena made the fabulous spinach salad (amazinggg). They also barbequed chicken wings, steak and yellow zucchini. Best lunch ever.

good 'ole spaghetti and meatballs

Tonight ADG made me spaghetti and meatballs and I whipped up a ceasar salad. Simple and delicious!

shakshuka. one word: YES

Uri, my new Israeli friend, was in town visiting Ari for the weekend. He (with a little help from me) whipped up the best shakshuka ever. I can't even describe how good. Ingredients: lots of onions, garlic, peppers, TOMATOES, tomatoes and more tomatoes, and finally eggs. You eat it by scooping it up on french bread. Words can't even describe...

if you be my bodygaurd...

Another delicious QCC guest post from the amazing Max Mix Chaiken:

For my second submission to QCC, we have two dishes that I combined into one: shrimp and snow pea stir-fry and yellow-rice and beans. Shrimp and Snow Pea Stir-Fry:
1. Chop up some fresh garlic and ginger and heat it up in some sesame oil in a skillet over medium heat
2. Add your shrimp (I used frozen, pre-cooked, but fresh would work great too! Traif, yes, but still delicious!)
3. Add your snow peas.
4. Sautee 3 minutes before adding a splash of soy sauce, some salt, and some red pepper flakes! Yellow-rice and beans: This is regular rice, but you add some curry powder to the water—enough to turn it yellow! When the rice is almost finished (when there are 2-4 minutes before you'll turn off the oven and the water is almost completely evaporated) add some beans! I used red in this dish, but you can use black beans, or chick peas - whatever you prefer!

Adam was really impressed with this dish and so am I! We may just have to head on over to boston to enjoy some stir frey @ chez mix!

saturday bfast

Nothing too special but as you can see this morning I made scrambled eggs (with milk--it makes all the difference) and we split a leftover bagel from break fast. yum yum

bbq at yelena's

Yelena had us over for a bbq last night. She made a delicious spinach salad with feta and hard boiled eggs--it was amazing. She made some really yummy mashed potatoes too. They also grilled lamb chops,chicken wings and zucchini.

My addition to the meal were chicken breasts that I had marinated all day in a sauce called "soy vay veri-veri teryaki". They were a hit (no leftovers)! The sauce is fantastic--not only does it have a clever name, but my mom says it can be used for all sorts of dishes, such as salmon-- and with chicken it was an A+

chicken parm!

Tonight I made chicken parmesan from scratch, along with a homemade cesear salad and some pasta! I started with skinless, boneless chicken breasts. I dredged the chicken in flour/oregano, then egg whites, and then Panko (japanese bread crumbs). I like Panko as opposed to regular bread crumbs, because Panko has a really great texture. I then cooked the chicken breasts over medium high heat for 2 minutes on each side with a little bit of EVOO in the pan. Then I placed the chicken, still in the skillet, into the oven on 450 degrees for 5 minutes. I then turned the chicken breasts over, spread 1 tbsp of tomato sauce on each chicken breast along with some mozzarella cheese, and placed back in the oven for another 6 minutes. I was nervous about trying this out but the it turned out great and adg liked it too!

Friend of QCC, Max Chaiken, shares his yummy meal with us!

My close friend and avid reader of QCC, Max Chaiken, provides today's delicious looking guest post:

Here is a simple, easy meal that I made last week:

1. Baked potatoes - easy and delicious

2. Baked chicken breast - lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, a bit of red chili powder and garlic

3. Israeli Salad - this is one of my signature dishes :) Chopped cucumber, tomato, onion, and green pepper with some fresh basil, fresh garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

A great meal!

I have to say, I'm very very impressed! I want to go to Max's house for dinner sometime. Max's signature Israeli salad looks fantastic--I'll definitly be trying that out soon. I also think the seasoning for the chicken breast sounds very yummy. I welcome all QCC readers to email me the meals you are making, so I can feature them!

Thanks, Mix!

up close and personal with my buff chicken wrap

This picture is really magnified so if you can't tell: tonight I made Buffalo Chicken wraps. I started out with chicken breasts, and cut them in half. Then I dredged the chicken in whole wheat flour, dipped them into egg whites and then dredged the chicken into bread crumbs (Panko). Over medium high heat, I cooked the chicken in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil so they got fried and crispy= homemade chicken tenders!!

After that I dredged the cooked chicken tenders into the buffalo sauce (2 tbsp texas pete, 2 tbsp white vinegar and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper whisked together). Then I put some blue cheese dressing on a whole wheat tortilla, some chopped lettuce and tomato and added the chicken. Voila!

french toast

I made a tray of french toast with the leftover challah from Rosh Hashanah. Talk about a delicious and easy breakfast!

rosh hashanah dinner

Here are pictures from my rosh hashanah dinner party I threw last night. Everything got so crazy that I totally forgot to take pictures of the food! I am so sad because I cooked so many awesome dishes (2 roast chicken, green beans, a salad, sesame noodles, roasted potatoes) and ari made an awesome brisket (an amazing recipe courtesy of my mom's friend--a buffalo native herself). I am so disappointed there are no pictures, but trust me when I say that the food was good--damn good.

happy bday adg!

I surprised Adam last night with a homemade bday cake. This was the most delicious, chocolate-y, moist cake ever. the chocolate cake is a depression-era recipe that my mom gave me. The recipe doesn't call for eggs, so it was a popular recipe then because of food shortages. Then I made a homemade oreo cream cheese icing, amazing! Check out the recipe for the cake below:

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups cold water

DIRECTIONS

1. Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa together into a 9 x 13 inch ungreased cake pan. Make three wells. Pour oil into one well, vinegar into second, and vanilla into third well. Pour cold water over all, and stir well with fork.
2. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes,

!!שנה טובה ומתוקה

pretty veggies

not so kosher....

cheeseburgers! delicioussss

check out the blog tomorrow to see pictures from my first ever rosh hashanah dinner party!

!!שנה טובה ומתוקה

chicken caesar salad for two

I used the barefoot contessa chicken for salads recipe and whipped up some low fat ceasar dressing, (light mayo, parm cheese, anchovy paste, small amt of EVOO, lemon & black pepper). Voila!

a quote for you:

"We dance round in a ring and suppose,/but the Secret sits in the middle and knows."-Robert Frost

our weekly fav

This meal has appeared here before. What can I say? We love our salmon and homemade pesto. I emailed Hannah Klausner the directions to make the salmon the next day, hopefully she and hola jewey enjoyed it as much as we do.

mediterranean chicken wraps

This past Friday night Ari had us over for shabbat dinner (he made a moroccan chicken dish which was fantastic!!) and he served Sabra Hummus. I looked at the underside of the lid to the hummus and saw a recipe for mediterranean chicken wraps. I read the recipe but I didn't take it with me but it looked easy enough so I gave it a shot tonight. I sauteed some chicken breasts, and then cut the chicken into pieces. I took two whole wheat tortillas, spread hummus on them, put the chicken on the hummus and then topped it off with lettuce and tomato. I also served tzatziki sauce for the wraps and as a side dish I served pickled vegetables (store bought). Delicious meal!!

burgers!

Adam and I grilled burgers on the George Foreman last night. I bought whole wheat rolls at Wegman's and made up some fixings for the burgers, and some corn on the cob and waffle fries as side dishes. They were so good I forgot to take a pic until I was half way through my burger. I'd love to do this meal again sometime soon-- I hadn't had such a good burger since Ray's Hell Burger!