Thanksgiving Grazing Board

Thanksgiving 2020 is upon us and it’s looking different than usual. Many aren’t able to celebrate with family and the traditional Thanksgiving feast seems excessive for small groups and gatherings.

But it’s still Thanksgiving. And as hard as this year has been, just being here means there is what to be thankful for. Even if that means we don’t get to feast with family. Or we’re feasting over Zoom with a turkey sandwich.

So we adapt. And if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s how to do that. We do the best we can. One day at a time. We do with what we have. And who we have.

This year Thanksgiving might mean putting out a snacking board and playing a game of Kahoot over Zoom. And that is more than ok. We can all celebrate something. Somehow.

This board was inspired by Abeles & Heymann all new cabanossi that come in natural kosher casings in both regular and spicy flavors! The mini’s are super fun, just warm them up for a few minutes at 350 degrees to give that casing some extra snap!

Wishing you and yours a very festive and Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Grazing Board

Abeles & Heymann assorted cabanossi
candied pecans
roasted cashews
grapes
capers
roasted chestnuts
corn muffins (bake in mini muffin tins)

Roasted Green Beans

1.5 lbs. green beans
2 tbsp olive oil
Trader Joes everything but the leftovers seasoning, to taste
kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spread green beans on a baking sheet and mix with olive oil and seasoning. Roast for 15 minutes.

Variation: use herbs de provence or dried herbs in place of Trader Joes spice.

Maple Cider Cranberry Sauce

1 12oz. bag fresh cranberries, rinsed
3 cinnamon sticks
3 strips orange zest
4 peppercorns
3 cloves
1 cup apple cider
1/2 cup maple syrup

Add cinnamon sticks, orange zest, peppercorns and cloves to a spice bag, or create your own using a piece of cheesecloth (just tie the corners together).

Place spice bag, cider and maple syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove spice bag. Add cranberries and return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, until cranberries burst and the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and rest until completely cooled. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Related Recipes:

stuffed dates with chestnut cream
baklava pumpkin pie
acorn squash with wild rice stuffing
cookie butter pumpkin pie
Mexican hot chocolate pecan pie

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Election Day Cookies!

I have to admit that I like to stay out of politics. Especially this year, with Covid, the BLM movement, and the Biden/Trump campaigns, it’s a LOT. Most days I’m just struggling to get dinner on the table and my kids into bed!

But I definitely recognize that as a proud American, I have the privilege to VOTE. It’s my patriotic right, no, duty, to have my voice heard!

I’m thankful to live in this country, with all it’s craziness these days, and even though I steer clear of politics, and I definitely don’t believe in pushing a political agenda on a food-related platform, I still encourage you to go out and V-O-T-E.

So in honor of election day, which only comes around every four years, I thought it would be fun to bake up some black and white cookies, but patriotic. How fun?!

I had a blast making these and after researching a whole lot of recipes, I really kept it simple without any cake flour or lemon extract – just simple ingredients that you have at home so you can whip these up easily. Sour cream is necessary though, for that tender crumb, but you can easily go pareve with vegan sour cream.

Feel free to use this recipe for class black and whites, just stir some melted chocolate into half the glaze and omit the food coloring!

Election Day Cookies!

10 tbsp unsalted butter or trans-fat-free margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/3 cup sour cream (may use vegan for pareve)
1 3/4 c all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Glaze:

2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
milk, as needed
1 ½ tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
blue and red food coloring

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Bring the butter, egg and sour cream to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the beater attachment, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add in vanilla extract, almond extract, lemon zest and sour cream until just incorporated.

Reduce speed to low and beat in the flour mixture.

Dollop 3 tablespoons of batter (a small ice cream scoop) onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes until browned only on the bottom.

Transfer baking sheets to wire racks and cool completely.

To make the glaze, place the confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix in about 1-2 tablespoons of milk,  corn syrup, vanilla and salt. Stir with a spoon until you have a very thick yet spreadable frosting (it will thin out further when you add the food coloring). Divide the frosting in half and add in the food coloring. Flip each cookie over and spread the glaze over the flat side of the cookie so that half is covered in red glaze and the over half is covered in blue glaze. Place on wire rack to set.

YIELD: 18 small cookies

Related Recipes:

Fourth of July tartufo
patriotic kettle chips
mixed berry frozen yogurt bark

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Bubby’s Marble Cake

I think about my Bubby a lot this time of year. Oh how I miss her. 

On the eve of Yom Kippur, just as we finished the first pre-fast meal, we’d walk over to her house to ask for a piece of lekach, or honey cake. This custom was instituted as a means of asking for something, in case it had been decreed that during the year one would need to resort to a handout from others, the decree would be satisfied with the asking for honey cake.

(Bubby’s recipe cards for Marble Cake)

One by one, my siblings and I would walk over to Bubby and whisper in yiddish, “Biteh ken ich huben lekach“, or “Please can I have a piece of honey cake”. We didn’t speak yiddish from home, but it was customary to ask in the yiddish language, and Bubby would wait patiently until we said it before handing us a piece wrapped in a white napkin. She would bless us with a myriad of blessings for the year, kissing our foreheads as the line to retrieve her cake wrapped in blessings continued to grow with cousins, aunts and uncles.

When my Zaidy was still alive, we were lucky enough to be blessed by his holy hands, as he cried and patted us on on the forehead in the way only he knew how.

On Sukkos, our house was permeated with the smell of Bubby’s stuffed cabbage and there was nothing like it. Her secret was adding ketchup to the meat mixture to keep it soft, sweet and juicy. And it was the BEST.

But really, Bubby was known for her cakes, and when my mom was growing up, she would always come home to a freshly baked cake after school each day. There was Bubby’s chocolate cake, her honey cake, blueberry pie cake, and of course, her marble cake. And I’m so proud to share a little piece of her with you all as I think of her this holiday season.

Chag Sameach!

Bubby’s Marble Cake

2 cups sugar
1 cup neutral flavored oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 cup water
2 tbsp dutch process cocoa powder

Method:

Grease a 9×13 inch pan and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla (you can do this by hand or with a mixer). In a second bowl, combine the flour and the baking powder. Slowly add the flour mixture and water to the wet ingredients, alternating between them until incorporated.

Pour 2/3rds of the cake batter into the pan. Add cocoa powder to the remaining batter in your mixing bowl. Add dollops of the chocolate mixture to the vanilla batter in the pan and use a knife to swirl it to create a marbleized effect.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Related Recipes:

Bubby’s challah kugel
Bubby’s cabbage soup with flanken

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Charcuterie Stuffed Figs

Leftovers! We all have a love/hate relationship with day-old food that we’ve already eaten. I mean we had it once, we enjoyed it, now why have it again, right?

Sunday night is usually our leftovers day because of all the food we have from Shabbosfest. I tend to repurpose the leftovers and find a new, fun way to serve them, because lets face it, the kids will turn their noses at it otherwise! It’s kind of a competition to me and I love to have fun with it – but we never touch it after the weekend.

Mondays is meatless in our house, and Tuesdays is for tacos (duh), which basically means anything with ground beef. Wednesdays I tend to make chicken, but it’s also the day that I’ll go through the fridge and see if there are any leftover ingredients that are going bad before I do my Thursday restock for Shabbat. If I have fruits on the fringe, I’ll know to make a fruit crisp for dessert and if my veggies are not quite crisp enough for salad, then there’s something with roasted veg on the menu.

This week, when I had leftover deli meat, and a couple of fresh figs, I came up with this sweet and salty appetizer – because that combo is my JAM! I won’t say how many I ate but it was many. And I could have probably eaten the whole tray in one sitting.

 

Charcuterie Stuffed Figs

15 fresh figs
2 cups chopped deli meat (see note)
1 tbsp mustard seeds
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp dijon mustard, plus more for garnish
1 tsp honey
pickled jalapenos, for garnish (recipe follows)

Method:

Trim the tips of the figs to remove the stems. Cut an X shape into each fig, as if you are cutting it into quarters, leaving the bottom intact. Set aside.

Add deli meat to a cold saucepan and saute over medium heat until the meat releases some of it’s fat, 6-8 minutes. Add the mustard seeds and toast for 1 minute. Add brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard and honey and stir until the meat is coated.

Stuff the figs the charcuterie mixture and top with pickled jalapenos and dijon mustard.

NOTE: use whatever deli meat you have on hand. I used a combination of smoked turkey and salami.

Pickled Jalapenos

4 jalapenos, thinly sliced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Add the jalapenos to a mason jar. In a small saucepan, bring the vinegar, water, sugar and salt to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt. Pour the hot brine over the jalapenos. Cool and store in the fridge for up to one month.

Related Recipes:

halva and ricotta stuffed figs
orange cardamom malabi with drunken figs

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Smoothies Two Ways!

I’ve never been a big smoothie drinker, and mostly because I just find it a hassle to have to blend everything up. You have to shlep out the blender, clean it after, and all for a drink? It doesn’t seem worth it.

But a new product on the market has totally revolutionized the smoothie industry – Swirbie! The fruit comes in nifty pods that all but dissolve in your drink, no blender required. I am hooked!

My kids have been drinking smoothies all summer, no blender necessary, and we even get to prepare smoothies on Shabbos. I love to add the pods to coconut water, seltzer or different varieties of milk for a truly refreshing drink.

One of the best parts about the pods is that since they’re frozen, you don’t need to add ice, so there’s no watering down your drink. I call that a win-win!

This chili lime smoothie was inspired by Trader Joes viral chili lime seasoning, and I’ve been drinking it on repeat, it’s that good!

Chili Lime Mango Smoothie

2 Swirbie mango pods
1 cup coconut milk
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp honey, or, to taste
pinch of cayenne pepper
tajin spice or Trader Joes chili lime seasoning, for the rim, optional

Method:

Add mango pods, coconut milk, lime juice, honey and cayenne to a mason jar and shake until the mango dissolves. Rub the lime around the rim of your serving glass and dip in tajin spice. Pour the mango smoothie into the glass and serve immediately.

One of my favorite smoothie blends that I picked up from living in Israel is banana + date + tahini + milk. The flavors pair really well and it makes for a filling breakfast on the go.

And for a truly decadent treat, top off your smoothie with some shredded halva (or halva floss, as I like to call it!), it really takes it over the top.

Swirbie pods are available in strawberry, mango, peach, blueberry, banana and spinach flavors. You can use them on their own or blend two flavors together for an equally delicious drink!

You can find Swirbie pods in the freezer section of your local kosher supermarket.

Banana Tahini Smoothie

3 Swirbie banana pods
1 cup almond milk
2 tbsp raw tahini
1 tbsp silan (date honey)
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of salt
sesame seeds and halva, for serving, optional

Method:

Add banana pods, almond milk, tahini, silan, cinnamon and salt to a mason jar and shake until the banana dissolves. Dip the rim of your serving glass in tahini and dip in sesame seeds. Pour the banana smoothie into the glass, top with shredded halva and serve immediately.

This post is sponsored by Swirbie.

 

Related Recipes:

pear ginger and oat smoothie
pumpkin pie smoothie
tahini frappuccino

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