Drizzled Marble Cake

Purple Cookbook Challenge: Week 5, Day 3
Although I'm very busy these past few days, and haven't had time to post, I have still been in the kitchen cooking and baking for my family.  Cake of the week is the Drizzled Marble Cake (Spice and Spirit, page 366)  I liked the taste of this crumby yet not too dry cake.  My husband, on the other hand, didn't enjoy it too much as he found it too dry (although he did say it was much more moist then the bakery marble cake)

Savory Pizza

Purple Cookbook Challenge: Week 4, Day 6... and well on my way to my goal of at least 100 tried, photographed and reviewed recipes from the awesome Spice and Spirit cookbook.
Last night my family and I tried the Savory Pizza (Spice and Spirit, page 100).  With the blend of spices that was added with the cheese, the pizza was definitely savory.  Since my normally pareve oven had not been koshered since Shavuot (I bake more then we eat milchigs, so we use a toaster oven for dairy cooking) I took advantage and made large pies.  We all enjoyed the pizza, including the baby, who sucked on a piece of crust.

Have a good Shabbos!

Classic Cheese Blintzes

Purple Cookbook Challenge: Week 4, Day 5 (but first post o the week :-( )
Shavuot is gone, and all that remains is the slice of cheesecake in the fridge.  I had a wonderful Yom Tov, thanks to my amazing guest from New York.  My kids had a lot of fun playing all day with their cousins in our backyard, enjoying the gorgeous weather.
Although the food is gone, I did manage to get a picture of these blintzes before they were polished off.
I made the Classic Cheese Blintzes (Spice and Spirit, Page 84), and they were easy to make and perfect!

Cranberry Pot Roast

Purple Cookbook Challenge: Week 3, Day 5.
Although Shavuot is a milchig holiday, sadly most of the meals are meat.  I know quiet a few people who prefer the meat meals, but I wish I could get away with serving them all dairy.  One year I made both day meals dairy, and lets just say, the response from the male guest was not so good.  I even had a couple of them rummage through my fridge for some leftover roast.
After that occurrence, I vowed to make only the first lunch dairy, but make sure to have enough cheesecakes and other goodies that I can eat and serve to guest, in the morning.
And so, I come to you defeated, with a roast recipe.  The Cranberry Pot Roast (Spice and Spirit, page 198) is  a delicious sweet and sour recipe.  I mistakenly defrosted a shoulder roast instead of a top of rib, but it still came out wonderful.
Tip:  Always chill your roast before slicing, to get even thin slices that don't fall apart as your cutting it.

Eggplant Parmesan

I usually do only one post a day, but being almost Shavuot, I'll post another dairy recipe that I prepared yesterday.  As I mentioned a few times already on this blog, my husband is not a big fan of dairy.  One of the few things that he will eat, is eggplant parmesan.
One recipe that I always have success with is the recipe from the purple cookbook, Eggplant Parmesan (Spice and Spirit, page 89)  I wish I could post a picture of it all cooked, but I made it for Shavuot, so it'll will be baked closer to eating time, when I can no longer use a camera.  This picture is the assembled prebaked eggplant parmasan, that is now in my freezer waiting to go on my Yom Tov table.

Cream Cheese Horn of Plenty

Purple cookbook challenge: Week 3, Day 4
I love Shavuot for so many reasons.  Even though its long since I've left my school years behind, I still feel the magic in the air of the school year coming to an end.  For some reason, Shavuot, with its gorgeous weather, always meant for me the beginning of that end. 
Another reason for loving this holiday, is it gives me an opportunity to make all those dairy foods that I so long, but feel bad making during the year.  I cant make too much during the rest of the year because I know that for the most part, I'd be eating it all (really not a good thing) since beyond a little cheesecake, he doesn't eat too much dairy.  But Shavuot is the time that I can justify the 6 lb. of cheesecake I bought this week. 
Last night, I made the first of the many milchig desserts I plan to make. I started with a rugelach type of pastry.  I made the Cream Cheese Horn of Plenty (Spice and Spirit, page 114)  The dough was easy to work with, however, I did find it not sweet enough.  That was rectified with a good powdering with confectioners sugar.

No-Egg Cookies

Purple Cookbook Project: Week 3, Day 3.
Yesterday, I made egg kichlach, today it's eggfree.  No, I'm not turning vegan.  I was flipping through the cookie section and came across this recipe.  Funny how I've turned these pages so many times, yet I never noticed this particular one.  It's a simple cookie, with only 4 ingredients (yup you read right, only 4).  This was perfect timing, since I'm having a little guest for Shavuot who has an egg allergy.  Now I'll have a delicious baked snack, of No-Egg Cookies (Spice and Spirit, page 405), for this precious boy.
These cookies are actually very good with that drier texture like bakery cookies.

Egg Kichlach

Purple Cookbook Project: Week 3, Day 2.
As a child, I used to love going to shul with my father.  We kids would run around , having fun and making noise (much like my kids do today).  Thinking of going to shul back then brings back all sorts of memories.  When my father would go to 770 for mincha, when he was able to, I'd often go along.  When the Rebbe passed through on his way to his place, he would hand out dimes to us kids, making me feel so special to be singled out in the crowd of men.  Being in the crowd of men also brings back not so find memories.  Like my long hair constantly getting caught on peoples jackets as I would try to catch up with my father.
Shabbos, we went to one of the smaller shuls in the community, Shain Shul, where we kids ran around in the alleyway or basement.  After shul there would often be a kiddush, where the men would sit around and talk while we kids looked for good things to eat from the table.  One kiddush food I always liked were the kichlach.  Lightweight, airy yet crispy, covered in a course sugar, YUM!  It's been years since I've eaten one of them (don't see it at the shul I attend these days, in Montreal :-(  ). 
Today, while flipping through the Purple Cookbook, I happened on the Egg Kichlach  (Spice and Spirit, page 401) and knew that the time has come for me to try to make them myself.  Unlike the one in my memory, these ones are coated in a Cinnamon sugar not a course sugar, but my guess would be that it would come out fabulous with the sugar as well.  Taste, as expected... LIKE!

Perfect Knaidlach

Week 3 of the Purple Cookbook Challenge.
To those of you who are unaware of what this challenge is: I'm going through the all time basic kosher cookbook, the one that has so many go to recipes, the Spice and Spirit of Kosher cooking aka The Purple Cookbook aka The Kitchen Bible, and correcting the only thing wrong with it.  Ever since the kosher world has been publishing those cookbooks with the gorgeous mouth watering pictures, this awesome cookbook has been pushed aside to those other ones.  Well, I decided, enough with second class status, I will bring this cookbook back to where it deserves to be.  Hense, my Purple Cookbook Challenge was born.  I'm now about to start my 3rd week of cooking and picture taking.  My goal now, is to have at least 100 pictures of foods from this cookbook.
I know Fridays are long these days, but somehow, I always feel that Friday is never long enough.   Regardless of that, I still took an order for 7 cookie bouquet centerpieces, for a Shabbos kiddush.  Well I got back in the kitchen, to start Shabbos, at 1 PM.  Food has to be ready by 5:30, so that my boys can eat, and the house could be cleaned, but I cannot control how much attention will be demanded from my baby and my other 3 boys.  Instead of going through the Purple Cookbook, as I planned  I was stuck doing my regular foods as no extra thought had to be put into it.
Years ago, I made from scratch matza balls, and they feel were not fluffy and good.  Since my husband doesn't like Matza balls, I never attempted them again, (2 of my boys and I love them) and have just been using the mix, which comes out perfect looking all the time (anyone who knows me, would know that I never use mixes, but somehow that became how I do my matza balls)
This past Friday, I decided that was a simple enough recipe to make from the cookbook.  And so I made my first perfect, fluffy matza balls.  They were easy to make and tasted very similar to the mix I came to love.  I don't think I'll even being using the mix again.  Perfect Knaidlach (Spice and Spirit, page 140)

 

This is what I spent my Thursday evening and Friday morning decorating and packaging:

Szechuan Chicken

Purple cookbook challenge. Week 2, Day 5!
My husband has always been a fan of Chinese stir-fry.  Last night I decided to make Szechuan Chicken sans bean sprouts (because there weren't any at the store) (Spice and Spirit, page 245).  Although I made a lot of it, it was all finished up.  I think that that is a good sign.  The stir-fry had a nice blend of vegetables, and a tasty and spicy sauce (you can use less crushed red pepper, if you prefer less spicy)