Tonight We're Gonna Party Like It's 5799

Happy 5771 to all of my Jewish friends whose new year will begin at sundown tonight. To the rest of you:

a.       Have a great day off from school/work OR

b.      Try not to be too resentful of your Jewish co-workers who took the day off and left you with their workload.

As with most Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah is an opportunity to eat, and enjoy the company of friends and family, and eat, and contemplate life, and eat, and complain about every little thing that is bugging you…and eat.  So in that spirit, here’s what Kyra, Max, and I will be having tonight.  I hope that whether or not you are celebrating this evening/tomorrow, your year is filled with sweetness and hope.

Pre-meal: Apples and honey. Kyra will eschew the apples, for the most part, and eat the honey with a spoon. I will scold her for this…and then do it myself.

Throughout meal and probably for the next week:Round, raisin challah (normally, Kyra would have made this for us, but having just started back to school she’s a bit too busy; Cheryl Ann’s is a pretty good substitute, though)

The main meal: Wendy’s “Peace in the Middle East” Chicken; Mama Betty’s Noodle Kugel; green beans with almonds (recipes below)

Dessert: Nigella Lawson’s Eton Mess (recipe below)

Peace in the Middle East Chicken - serves 4

1 c. low- or non-fat Greek-style yogurt

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp Za’atar spice (this is a Middle Eastern spice blend of dried oregano, basil, thyme, savory, sumac, sesame seeds, and salt)

1 tsp dried mint

1 tsp lemon zest

2 good-sized garlic cloves, crushed

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (can use tenders; do not use thin cutlets)

1)      Mix together first 6 ingredients in a non-reactive bowl or casserole dish (I like my 8x8 glass baking dish)

2)      Add chicken breasts and rotate to coat.

3)      Allow chicken to marinate in fridge for at least 2 hours and as much as overnight

4)      Take chicken from marinade (make sure most of marinade is off chicken breasts so they do not burn) and DISCARD MARINADE (if you would like to turn these same ingredients into a dipping sauce of sorts, start over)

5)      Either grill or broil chicken breasts for about 5 minutes per side or until no longer pink inside.

Green Beans with Almonds

1 bag of pre-washed, pre-trimmed, microwave-right-in-the-dang-bag green beans

¼ cup whole roasted, salted almonds (you can use smokehouse or rosemary if you’d like)

½ Tbsp butter or olive oil (or a mix of both)

1)      Cook beans according to directions on package (if you’re not lazy like me and are using fresh green beans, steam or boil them but make sure they are still bright green)

2)      Put almonds in sandwich bag, seal and- using a meat tenderizing hammer- pound those babies until they’re coarsely chopped

3)      Heat butter/olive oil in pan over medium heat; add cooked green beans making sure NOT to add extra water

4)      When heated through and coated with butter/oil, toss with chopped almonds

Mama Betty’s Noodle Kugel (Note: Mama Betty is my paternal grandmother and was the very personification of the notion that food = love in spite of this NOT being a sweet kugel)

NOTE: I am trying this with wheat egg noodles and low-fat sour cream this year; I’ll let you know how that goes

12 oz. package of wide egg noodles, cooked al dente

¼ lb. (one stick) butter, cut up into tablespoons

3 eggs, separated

1 pt. sour cream

Salt to taste

4 Tbsp. butter

1)      Preheat oven to 400°F

2)      Mix ¼ lb. butter with hot noodles.

3)      Add egg yolks, 3 Tbsp. sour cream, and salt

4)      Mix well

5)      Beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks and gently fold into noodle mixture

6)      Grease 2 qt. (7 x 11- I actually use a 9 x 13 with fine results) dish and pour in noodle mixture

7)      Spread with remaining sour cream

8)      Dot with remaining butter

9)      Bake for 1 hour at 400°. Kugel should be crispy on top and around edges

Nigella Lawson’s Eton Mess (I usually half this)

4 c. strawberries, hulled and roughly chopped

2 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. pomegranate juice

2 c. whipping cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract (REAL vanilla; do not use “vanilla flavoring.” Yuck)

10 crumbled meringues (you can buy these at Whole Foods or make your own)

Sprigs of mint (optional)

1)      Toss berries with sugar and pomegranate juice

2)      Whip cream until thick but still soft

3)      Roughly crumble in meringues; it’s okay if there is some sugary dust in there as well as large chunks

4)      Set aside about a ½ c. of the berries for garnish

5)      Fold rest of berries into whipped cream/meringue mixture

6)      Serve in pretty glasses and top with reserved berries and a sprig of mint if you have it 

The Lady who Lunches

So, yesterday P.B. (pre-blog) I posted on Facebook and Twitter about the fact that I made some oven-roasted tomatoes (and some unexpectedly candied bacon, but that doesn't figure into this blog). They did not come out looking as uniformly beautiful as Ina Garten's did (nor did they seem to dejuicify as much as hers did, but I was kind of lazy about taking the seeds out...and hello? I don't have a gazillion assistants and a house on the Hamptons and the world's most successful catering business and a really sweet husband who lives just to praise my food...er, where was I?). However, they taste pretty yummy, albeit a bit sweet.
Today, I put them on one of my useful-but-fairly tasteless Pepperidge Farm Deli Flats, added a couple ounces of fresh mozzarella, and a few leaves of basil - essentially Ina's Roasted Tomato Caprese (recipe below) offended by its bready base (my kingdom for low-cal ciabatta)!
I then FINALLY got around to making some low-cal cole slaw, a food which I crave in summer the same way I crave tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, grilled corn, (barely) grilled tuna and kisses from James Franco (hey, a girl can dream). Didn't follow any recipe, just winged it... and had I not tried to get cute, it would have been awesome. By "get cute" I mean, "Add black sea salt because those little flecks of black will look so great in between the pale green cabbage and vibrant orange carrots and creamy white dressing." Kids, do you know how black sea salt GETS black? They *dye* it black. And do you know what happens when you mix black dye with creamy white dressing? (there WILL be a quiz later, so pay attention) You get something that looks very much like New York City gutter runoff. Not so great-looking mixed in with the pretty cabbage-n-carrot mix. Sigh... ANYWAY, added a few tablespoons of peanuts because I used to love when my mom did that when I was little, and I have a very unattractive but nevertheless tasty and healthy cole slaw to pick at for the week. Recipe below.
Oh, and just kidding about the quiz. ;)

Ina Garten's Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad - serves 6ish
12 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise, seeds but not cores removed
1/4 c. virgin olive oil + some extra for drizzling
1 1/2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 large cloves garlic *Note* - I used like 3x this much. :)
2 tsp. sugar
Salt and pepper
1 lb. fresh mozzarella
12 fresh basil leaves chiffonade'd

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (yes, that low. It's not a typo).
Arrange the tomatoes cut side up and not touching each other. Drizzle the olive oil and balsamico evenly over the tomatoes, and sprinkle with the salt, pepper, garlic, and sugar. Roast for 2 hours (yes, that's long. It's still not a typo) until the tomatoes shrink down and caramelize. Allow them to cool completely before using.
Cut the mozzarella balls into slices/half slices (*Note*: Ovoline are about the size of a baby's fist and often come in containers with 2 4-oz balls, so two of these containers would work great if each ball were sliced into thirds and then those slices halved). On a platter, alternate slices of mozzarella with the tomatoes and scatter the basil chiffonade over the top. Drizzle with a little more olive oil (if you think it needs it), salt and pepper.


Wendy's Cole Slaw - serves 12ish
1 package (~10 oz) sliced cabbage (mix of green and purple looks best)
1 package (~8 oz) grated carrots
1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/4 c mayonnaise (I recommend canola or olive oil-based)
1/2 c non-fat Greek-style yogurt
White vinegar
salt (NOT BLACK) and pepper to taste
1/4 c roasted peanuts (optional)

Mix veggies in a big bowl. In a smaller, separate bowl thoroughly mix the mayo and the yogurt. Drizzle in a little (less than a 1/4 c) white vinegar until the mixture takes on a dressing-like consistency. Add the dressing to the veggies and mix thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste and, if you like, throw those goobers in the mix! Alternately, save the peanuts for topping your slaw when you serve it; they'll be less well-integrated, but they'll retain more of their crunch.

If you try either of these, I'd love to hear how they turned out! Enjoy!