Growing up, the only non-fish, non-seafood my family ate was poultry. We only ate it a couple times a month, and except for Thanksgiving it was never cooked in the house. When I was 15, I realized that poultry was just food to me and I didn’t actually enjoy it for itself, and I decided to stop eating it.
I’m not a huge fan of fake meat substitutes, and I don’t specifically seek them out. I’ve never eaten red meat and specialty gave up poultry, so I don’t want to eat something meant to mimic them, for me it defeats the point. As you can imagine, this has led me to seek an enjoyable substitute for a main course on Thanksgiving. After I moved to Texas, the first couple years that I prepared Thanksgiving I made tofu pot pies. I had not grown up eating pot pies, but after trying the commercial version from Amy’s, I really enjoyed it and wanted to make my own. The downside of eating this for Thanksgiving was that it didn’t leave me wanting all the sides that for me are integral part of the meal. Several years ago, I went in search of a recipe for baked tofu. I stumbled across this recipe, and while I really like it, I have needed to tweak it slightly over the years to streamline the recipe and make it more like the baked tofu I envisioned.
Citrus-Pistachio Sauce
Many years ago, after I had moved to Texas and bought my house, I was hosting a dinner party and looking at recipes. I had decided to serve salmon as the main course, but didn’t know how I wanted to flavor it.
Growing up in Oregon, we ate salmon almost every week, usually for our Friday night Shabbat meal. My mother usually cooked it simply by poaching it in the oven. While I always enjoyed it (except for a couple of years in high school where I got sick of eating salmon every week), it was clear that most people were used to eating fish either seasoned in an interesting way before cooking or having it served with a sauce.
Romanian Fried Noodle Pudding
When researching traditional Chanukah foods, I stumbled on this recipe for Fried Noodle Pudding. While it seems different from a traditional latke, it does have a lot in common – plain starch as the main component, onions for flavor, eggs to bind, and fried in oil.
Ashkenazic Cheese Pancakes
During the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years, I spent a trimester each year teaching cooking to the high schoolers in my synagogue’s religious school. I was so thrilled to be asked, and really enjoyed teaching them basic and advanced skills as we cooked our way through different dishes.
Our first year for Chanukah, we cooked sufganiyot, and last year we made five different latkes and other fried foods from various backgrounds. There are many resources, both internet and in print, for many, many traditional Chanukah dishes and some modern twists on traditional favorites. One of the latkes we made was this apple latke from Smitten Kitchen, which was definitely a favorite.
Potato Latkes, the Slightly Cheater Method
There are almost as many different ways to make a potato latke as there are people to eat them. Some of it goes back to what you ate growing up, or a new method you’ve found, or any one of a number of variables.
However, at the core is a very simple formula – grated potatoes, onion, egg, some kind of starch, salt and pepper.
Continue reading “Potato Latkes, the Slightly Cheater Method”
What I’m Cooking: Summer Desserts & a Salad
First, a small brag. These peaches are from the two trees I have in my front yard. It’s been a couple of years, and I forgot some cardinal rules, so I lost a fair amount of the crop to critters, but I managed to salvage a nice amount. I was also surprised to learn that the younger (by a year) of the two trees is actually a white peach!
I made three great recipes this week that I had to share with you all. The first is a pie that I haven’t made in years, but one bite reminds me why it’s been on my mind for years.
Continue reading “What I’m Cooking: Summer Desserts & a Salad”
Vegetarian Cassoulet
Like many meat-based dishes, cassoulet (a traditional French stew containing meat and beans) never entered my head, until I saw Gourmet’s Vegetarian Cassoulet recipe in 2008. It caught my eye in part because it used a lot of celery, and I often have half a head that languishes around. I made it several times within the next couple of years, and enjoyed it, but it never became a regular dish for me, and I forgot all about it.
Leftover Spaghetti Casserole
Growing up, my parents taught us not to waste food, as much or more by example than by words. We froze the surplus from the garden to use during the year, composted vegetable scraps, frequently ate leftovers, and my mom often planned meals around bits and pieces that needed to be used up.
I am not as accomplished as this, and frequently find bits of food falling by the wayside. It frustrates me, though, and I try to move closer and closer to being very low waste. Continue reading “Leftover Spaghetti Casserole”
Fresh Tomato Pasta Salad
I try to go to the farmer’s market every week, which is a ritual I love. I’ve been going to this market since I moved here over six years ago (I was a regular at markets back home before I moved, too), and at this point I know most of the farmers by name and so it is a combination of shopping and catching up. Continue reading “Fresh Tomato Pasta Salad”
Eggplant, Pomegranate, and Za’atar Salad
Just in time for the weekend farmers markets, I had to publish this recipe. Like many these days, I can get lost in time browsing Pinterest and food blogs. And I thought I had seen a similar salad, but when I went back, I couldn’t find anything close too what I wanted. So in true Liz fashion, I winged it. What resulted was the salad in my dreams, and one I’ve craved pretty much every week since.
