For the last few years I have been to New York for shavout and have been lucky to have ready made crepes available that you can fill on your own for traditional cheese blintzes. This year due to the pandemic we are in Luxembourg where I need to make everything myself. So I turned to my trusty friends Bina and Brocha who are sisters who always share the best true and tried recipes that are easy to do. Enjoy

Crepes

• 6 eggs
• 1 ½ Cups flour
• 1 ½ Cups milk
• 1 ½ Tbsp Sugar
• 170 Grs of soft white cheese

In a bowl whisk the ingredients until they are well blended. It is ok if there are a few clumps. Preheat your crepe pan and lightly Grease it. Pour in about a ¼ to a ½ a cup of batter and move your pan around to cover the surface. When the bottom is slightly brown slip it on to a plate.

Filling  

• 1 Kilo soft cheese
• 2 Tsp vanilla
• 3 Egg yolks
• 1 Cup of sugar

Mix all  ingreidents together fill the crepes and fry.
Happy Chag Shavout

I know it has been a very long time since I have written on this blog, and I want to thank my followers for encouraging me to continue.

I hope everyone had a wonderful pesach and enjoyed the very clean natural food that comes along with it.

After pesach I was left with way to many bananas and it seems I wasn’t alone because there is this one recipe that kept on surfacing on my friends pages and on the different food groups that I belong to on Facebook. And since my son Levi kept on tugging at my skirt asking me to make “taig” (dough) in Yiddish with his kids size rolling pin, I decided to try it.( even though no rolling pin is needed. Needless to say they came out really scrumptious. Credits to www.allrecipes.com

Banana Crumb Muffins

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 190°. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

I have a cookbook by the renowned kosher cookbook author Susie Fishbein called Short on time. It’ full of recipes for when you don’t have too much time in the kitchen. The following recipe is my all-time favorite.  I hope you enjoy it as well.

Cherry Tomato Crisp

INGREDIENTS :

4 tablespoons of olive oil

500 gm. of cherry tomatoes

½ cup of bread crumbs

2 tablespoons of fresh/dry parsley

1 tablespoon dried minced onions

2 cloves of garlic, minced

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 200°

Lightly coat your baking dish with one tablespoon olive oil. Arrange the tomatoes in the dish in a single layer. In a medium bowl, combine the bread crumbs, parsley, minced onions, minced garlic, salt, pepper and the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Mix well; sprinkle over the tomatoes. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Serve hot

I made the following salad last week which I got from my sister Rivky and it was a hit. It takes literally 2 minutes to prepare and even faster to consume. Enjoy

Creamy chickpea salad

INGREDIENTS:

1 can chickpea 400gm

½ cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons paprika

1 teaspoon cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Drain chickpeas. In a bowl mix all the other ingredients and pour over chickpeas and voila you have a yummy salad.

You know how sometimes you have peppers in your refrigerator that are kind of getting soft,

This salad is great for making sure they don’t go to waste.

Pepper Salad

INGREDIENTS:

2 medium onions

2 red peppers

2 green peppers

2 yellow peppers

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oil in a pot. Slice the onions in thin strips and fry till they are brown.( the secret of this salad is how brown to slightly burned the onions are). Slice the peppers in strips and add them to the onions. Let it cook for about one hour until they are cooked well.

enjoy

As you all know last week our family was blessed with the birth of our daughter Chaya Mushka. During my stay in the hospital my husband brought me food so that I had kosher food. However the hospital felt very bad that they were not able to accommodate me and give me warm meals. They kept on sending me different people from their kitchen team to the dietitian to see what they can do. I  told them that they can give me fruit that is not cut or peeled. So three times a day they brought me an assortment of fruit. This left me with more bananas then I was able to consume. Which led me to make a banana cake. I love this recipe its light and fluffy and easy to make.

Enjoy.

Fluffy Banana Cake

INGREDIENTS:

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

I cup oil

2 ½ teaspoons baking soda

2 ½ teaspoons hot water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 bananas

1 cup water

2 ½ cups flour

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 180°. Beat eggs and sugar. Add oil and mix well. Mix the baking soda with the hot water and add to the egg mixture. Cut up the bananas and mix into the batter. Add the remaining ingredients and mix another minute. Grease a pan and bake for one hour.

I have a very special guest in town who doesn’t come very often. My parents. So I am taking advantage and asking my mother to make one of her specialty dishes Lokshin (spaghetti) Kugel.

Have a good Shabbat and I am sure like me you are all waiting to taste your first bite of challah.

My mother’s Fried Lokshin Kugel

INGREDIENTS:

1 kilo angel hair pasta

6 eggs

4 tablespoons oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 medium onion chopped and sautéed

Oil to fry

DIRECTIONS:

Boil the pasta. When cool add the rest of the ingredients. Heat a frying pan with oil until its sizzling hot and drop the batter inside. Keep on high fire for 3-5 minutes until crust forms. Lower heat to medium to low flame and let fry for half an hour or until golden brown on the bottom. Using a large plate flip the kugel over and slide back into frying pan, and let fry for half an hour until golden brown.

Enjoy

I found this recipe in one of the many cookbooks I have. Kosher by design entertains by Susie Fishbein. When I read the recipe it sounded different. I decided to try it and loved it. Warning put on gloved when handling  the jalapeno peppers, I didn’t and my fingers were tingling and burning the whole day.

Happy Pesach Cleaning.

Thai Slaw Salad

INGREDIENTS:

1 ½ cups shredded red cabbage

3 cups shredded green cabbage

½ cup grated or shredded carrots

2 scallions, thinly sliced

½ red onion, thinly sliced

½ cup slivered almonds

1 cup craisins

12 cup plus 3 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

Juice from 2 lemons

1 jalapeno pepper, ribs and seeds discarded, minced

¼ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground pepper

Black and white sesame seeds for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, toss the red cabbage, green cabbage, carrots, scallions, red onions, almonds, and cranberries. Toss to combine and set aside.

In a medium bowl (or in the bowl of a food processor) with an hand blender, combine the oil, sesame oil, lemon juice, jalapeno pepper, salt, and pepper. Blend until it is very well blended. Pour dressing over the salad. Mix to combine. Garnish with the sesame seeds. Allow the flavors to mingle for at least a ½ hour before serving.

A while back my sister in law Gittie gave me a really easy pesto sauce to put over salmon or pasta. Personally I enjoy it over spaghetti but it is also very good over a slice of baked salmon.

Pesto Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons frozen basil

1-2 cloves of garlic

¼ cup olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

A hand full of pine nuts

And when using it with pasta a hand full of toasted pine nuts

DIRECTIONS:

Place all the ingredients besides the toasted pine nuts in a food processor and blend well.

Mix together with pasta and place the toasted pine nuts as garnish. Enjoy

Have  you ever made salmon only to find that you left it to long in the oven and it dried out, or it has no taste. I find that a good dill dip is a perfect cover up. There are many variations, but as you already know I like simple.

Dill Dip

INGREDIENTS:

 A big bunch of fresh dill stems cut.

1 lemon squeezed

1 clove garlic

A ¼ teaspoon Salt

A dash Pepper

¼-½ cup mayonnaise

DIRECTIONS:

Wash the dill well. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend. Enjoy

Have you ever looked for an easy cookie to make that won’t turn out the opposite of what it should?
Well these cookies will do just that. It takes about 3 minutes to put the dough together and about 10 minutes to shape the batch and about 12 minutes to bake. And since cookies are not really a place where I shine if I am telling you these don’t fail you can trust me.

Bon Bon Surprises

INGREDIENTS:

240 gram margarine softened

½ cup confectioner’s sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ¼ cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

Colored sprinkles

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 190°. Grease cookie sheets. In a mixer bowl cream margarine and sugar, blend in the vanilla extract. Add the flour and salt. Form  2.5 centimeter balls and roll in colored sprinkles.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden and let it cool.

You can make your own variations of this cookie. You can wrap them around chocolate chips or nuts or be creative in your own way.

My sister in law Shainy like me, enjoys to experiment in the kitchen. However she is braver than me. She recently told me how she made homemade Lox. To tell you the truth I was a bit wary about trying it since it just doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that you make at home and tastes good. But I figured she tried it she said it was good so there is no harm if I try it. To tell you the truth the first time I took it out to taste it was awful, but that was because I was a few hours to early. When I tasted it a day later it was great. It is easy to make and absolutely delicious.

Homemade Lox

INGREDIENTS:

1 fillet of salmon

A few tablespoons of vodka

½ cup of salt

½ cup sugar

¼ fresh dill

DIRECTIONS:

Pour a few tablespoons of vodka over the salmon and let it sit for 20 minutes. Dry the salmon and mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Pat the mixture all over the top and bottom of the salmon and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and place in a container or pan so the juices don’t leak all over your refrigerator. Place something heavy on top. Refrigerate for 3-4 days. When you take it out there might be parts of the top layer that got hard just slice them off.

As I stated last week I love quiches. But the quiche I posting this week is my all-time favorite. I don’t make it often but when I do I know that it can be finished within minutes. So if I am making it for a special occasion I try to make it when as close as possible to the time I need it so I have more of a chance for it to last for the time I need it for. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Eggplant Tomato Quiche 

INGREDIENTS:

1 big unbaked pie shell or two medium

1 medium to large Eggplant

1 medium to large onion

1 can of crushed tomatoes 400gm

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon basil

4 eggs

DIRECTIONS:

Slice the eggplant in thin round slices. Sprinkle salt on top and let stand for 20 minutes in a strainer. Preheat the oven to 180°. Rinse off the salt and dry the eggplant. Fry the eggplant on both sides till its brown. slice the onion in small pieces and fry until light brown. Add the tomatoes and spices and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the eggplant and take off the heat after two minutes and let it cool. Once it’s cool mix in the eggs place in pies shell and let it bake for about 25 minutes or until it sets.