Apple and Honey Muffins (milk-free)

Apples and honey are eaten on the Jewish New Year to symbolize the hope for a Sweet New Year. These muffins are very easy to make.

APPLE AND HONEY MUFFINS

1 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons oil

1/4 cup honey

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup raisins

dash of salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray or use aluminum foil muffin holders. In a large bowl, combine applesauce, egg, oil and honey. Gently stir in all other ingredients, just enough to moisten. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until brown. Makes 12 to 15 muffins.

Easy Hamburger Casserole

This is another easy recipe and it's for a one dish meal. It just calls for simple ingredients. You may own a pan that will go from the top of the stove and can be used in the oven, too. That would make this a one pan recipe.

Easy Hamburger Casserole
(Serves 4)

• 1 pound hamburger


• 2 tablespoons oil


• 1/2 onion, chopped


• 1 stalk celery, sliced


• 1/3 cup rice


• 2 tablespoons barley


• 1 small can mushrooms, drained, or 3 or 4 fresh mushrooms, sliced


• 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables


• 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes (or some fresh parsley)


• 1/2 teaspoon Mrs Dash


• 1/4 teaspoon oregano


• 1/4 teaspoon cumin


• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder


• 2 teaspoons soup powder or a bouillon cube

Brown the onion, celery, and hamburger in oil. Add the mushrooms. When browned, mix together all ingredients and spread in a casserole. Cover with water. Put cover on pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour, or until meat and rice are done.

Jewish American Heritage Month

Did you know that May 2011 is Jewish American Heritage Month? President Obama will be hosting a reception on May 17, 2001. I wasn't invited to the reception, though. sigh. However, I salute all the Jewish American artists, writers, health care workers, scientists, musicians, Rabbis, teachers, lawyers, politicians, and on and on. There are so many Jewish people who have contributed to making our country aspire to greatness. "Justice, justice shall you pursue."

Spinach and Carrot Kugel

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  Spinach and Carrot Kugel
  
  2 tablespoons oil
  1 or 2 stalks celery, diced
  1 small or 1/2 large onion, diced
  14 or 15 ounce can sliced carrots, drained
  10 ounce package chopped spinach, thawed and drained
  1 tablespoon chopped parsley, or 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
  3 eggs, beaten
  salt and pepper to taste
  1/4 teaspoon marjoram
  1/2 cup matzo meal (or cracker crumbs)
  
  
  
  
  
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or spray with non-stick spray an 8 by 8 inch pan. Saute onion and celery in the oil until onion starts to brown. Allow to cool. Combine all ingredients and spread in the pan. Bake about 45 minutes, until top starts to brown. Serve warm or cold.
  

Orange Carrots recipe

ORANGE CARROTS
(Parve)
• 6 carrots, diced
• 1 orange, sliced
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• dash of pepper
• 2 teaspoons potato starch
Dice carrots and place in a pan barely covered with water. Add other ingredients except potato starch and bring to a boil. Cover pan, lower heat and simmer about 20 minutes, until tender. Remove cover and turn heat to medium and allow liquid to boil down for about 5 minutes. Watch closely so that fluid does not boil away. Mix the potato starch with about a tablespoon of cold water, and stir gradually into carrots. Stir until gravy thickens. Serve hot. Serves four

Passover Apple Pie

I wish I had a photo of this pie, but it got eaten up at the first Seder. My daughter and I were discussing what kind of dessert to make for the Seder, and my son-in-law asked if we could make an apple pie. Making a Passover apple pie is not the equivalent of mountain climbing, so I managed to put one together.
First thing you need is to find a good pie pan. We had a 10 inch aluminum disposable one. And you need some apples--we had 3 large Fuji apples. I you would like to make a pear pie or other recipe, be my guest!

PASSOVER PIE CRUST
2 matzos, crumbled
1 tablespoon oil or margarine
1/4 cup matzo meal
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons sugar
dash of salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Smash matzos and soak in a colander with cold water for about 3 minutes. Squeeze dry. Heat oil in a pan and add matzo. Heat and stir until matzo seems dry. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining ingredients. You will now have a depressing looking mass in the pan, but don't give up! Dump it into the pie pan and pat the mixture over the surface and sides.

APPLE PIE
3 large apples, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup sugar
slice of lemon, squeezed
1 or 2 tablespoons of matzo meal (flour if it's not Passover)
dash of cinnamon
1 tablespoon margarine
Combine ingredients and spread in pan lined with pastry

Apple Pie Topping
2 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons brown or white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup matzo meal (flour if it's not Passover)
Mix ingredients for topping together with your fingers and flip it on top of the apple pie.

Bake in a 425 degree preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes, until golden brown and apples are tender. Cool on a rack and serve warm or cold.

Banana or Apple Passover Kugel

Banana or Apple Passover Kugel
(parve)

2 cups farfel
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons margarine
1 banana or 1 large apple, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 by 8 inch pan. Put farfel in a colander or strainer and pour cold water over it to moisten. Drain well. Mix all ingredients together and spread in the pan. Bake 1/2 hour. Serve hot or cold.

Brownies for Passover

This is my family's favorite Passover dessert--besides fresh strawberries, that is. I usually don't mix in the nuts, but I scatter sliced almonds over the top.

Brownies for Passover
1/2 cup oil
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup Passover cake meal
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon Passover vanilla (optional)

Grease an 8 by 8 inch pan (I use a disposable aluminum pan). Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat oil and sugar together. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in the cake meal and cocoa, adding nuts and vanilla. Pour batter into greased pan and bake for 30 minutes. Cut in squares.

Mushroom and Onion Kugel-Passover recipe

Here's one of my favorite Passover recipes:
(parve)
ONION AND MUSHROOM KUGEL

3 cups matzo farfel
2 large onions, chopped
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
4 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 minced garlic clove
sprig of parsley, chopped

Grease an 8 by 12 inch pan. Place farfel in colander and wet with hot water. Saute the onion, garlic and mushrooms in the oil. Mix with other ingredients. Spread in the pan and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Getting ready for Passover

Gosh, I haven't been posting on here as much as I should. My excuse is that I've been so busy getting ready for Passover. I've been cleaning and cleaning and shopping and shopping. Why is it that the stores around here have their shelves full of bags of Passover potato chips? I think we should all give up eating potato chips for Passover, it's only for a few days, after all. Perhaps the stores want to fill up the shelves intended for Passover food, and the chips take up a lot of space. There are really some Passover things that I would buy, I guess, if the stores stocked them. At least my favorite Matzo was on sale. My wonderful son-in-law came over today to shlep out my boxes of Passover dishes and pots.

Baking soda cleaning

One of my favorite cleaning supplies isn't found in the detergent aisle of the store. It's in the baking department--and it has the word baking in it's name--yes it's Baking Soda. The chemical name is sodium bicarbonate. Apply some to a damp sponge or cloth and rub to remove tea stains from tea cups or tea pots. And I like to use it to clean refrigerator shelves and the inside of the fridge. For this chore I choose a brand new sponge or a clean rag. I dampen the sponge and sprinkle on some baking soda, and wipe the surfaces. Then I rinse with plain water. I even find that baking soda is helpful for cleaning Corning Ware. That's only the beginning of all the uses of sodium bicarbonate. And don't forget that it is handy for many recipes that call for baking soda, such as cakes and cookies.

Spring cleaning starts, recycle paper for notepad

Spring is here! And we all know what that means--it's time for spring cleaning. One thing I like to do is a bit of recycling. I select pages from my junk mail that have no personal information on them, just ads and "Dear Friend" letters that have a blank back. I cut those pages crosswise. And I made a little stack of them. I have a clip magnet and I fasten the pages to the side of the refrigerator. I use the papers for shopping lists and chore lists. I just pull off a page as needed and with another magnet, I fasten it to the fridge for a shopping list. Or you might be one of those organized folks who has a bulletin board in the kitchen. Every time something is getting a bit low in supply in the house, I write it on the shopping list. If necessary, you can put a paper and pen in your pocket as you go about your chores, and make a note. The note can be a reminder to yourself to do something later, or to remember to purchase some cleaning supply that you are running out of. For instance, you are doing the laundry, and you notice that you will be needing more borax or powdered bleach. You can jot that down.

Rosalyn's Jiffy Hamantashen

In honor of the holiday of Purim, a fun holiday if there ever was one!

Rosalyn's Jiffy Hamantashen (Parve) The word Parve indicates: pure vegetable, no milk products or meat products

A note to anyone unfamiliar with Hamantashen--they are filled cookies made in the shape of a three-cornered hat. Just think of Napoleon's hat and you get the idea.
I wanted to make a Hamantashen without the bother of rolling the dough with a rolling pin or cooking a filling. And here they are! They are sweeter than the classic Hamantashen, more like a cookie than a pastry. These Hamantashen can be made ahead of time and frozen.

About 20 pitted prunes, cut in quarters
1 cup margarine
2 cups dark brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted
Grease cookie sheets or spray with non-stick coating. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream margarine and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Stir in salt, baking soda and vanilla. Gradually add flour. Take dough the size of a walnut and form into a ball. Flatten in your palm and place a piece of prune in the center. Fold dough up around prune into a triangle. Place on cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 11 minutes or until browned. Cool on racks. Makes 5 to 6 dozen.

Easy Kosher Cooking

I'm opening up this blog in anticipation of my book, Easy Kosher Cooking, becoming a Google ebook. My book was originally published by Jason Aronson Publishing, and is available from them at www.jasonaronson.com.