Mamma's Matzo Ball Soup

We all have those childhood favorite foods that remind us of holidays and special occasions. Well, for me it's my mother's Matzo ball soup. Everyone makes matzo ball soup differently (and equally delicious), but nothing says passover and the beginning of spring to me like mamma's matzo ball soup. Since we didn't have sedar at my parents' this year, she didn't make her soup. (Insert sad face here)
Missing it terribly, I decided to attempt the feat of re-creating the wonderfulness. I jotted down a few notes while she explained to me how she makes her soup. I had a VERY difficult time getting past the cleaning and cutting of a WHOLE CHICKEN! For those of you who know me well, you understand how difficult this is for me. I cannot handle the texture of raw meat, especially meat that actually looks like the live animal... eeeek.


So after many deep breaths, I bought the whole chicken...
I cannot imagine having to actually touch the raw meat on bones, so while I was in Safeway I asked the innocent, sweet looking butcher for some disposable gloves. When I explained that I needed them in order to make this chicken he stated, "You are kidding me, right?" Well no Mr. butcher man, I am not. But thanks for the gloves, I could not have gotten past this step without them!
I tried to take more pictures of me holding the raw meat, but I was so grossed out dealing with a whole chicken that it took 110% of my attention. After all of the torture, my matzo ball soup came out great!! and better yet, BOYFRIEND LIKES IT!!!! Food #3 that he will eat. Must be a winner!
Since my mom makes this soup from scratch and she gave me verbal instructions about how to make it, I tried to create some kind of recipe. This is what I have come up with so far:

Mamma’s Matzo Ball Soup

1.Place a whole chicken without skin or legs or wings,

WITH giblets into pot with water and bring to boil

2. Skim the ‘skum’ off the top

3. Lower the heat to a gentle boil

4. Add: 1 tsp chicken bullion and black pepper

5. Add: veggies- carrot (12), parsnip (2-3), parsley bunch, boiling onions (4), parsley (head)

6. Lower heat to simmer for at least 45 min – 1 hour. Longer = better

7. Take out giblets and chicken and pull off the bone – put chicken meat back in

8. Make matzo balls according to directions in a separate pot

9. Add mazto balls to soup 10 minutes before serving

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Passover. Next year in Jerusalem!

Passover Friendly Foods

Passover is a Jewish holiday that lasts for 8 days when we remember the exodus from Egypt. The most significant observance related to Passover involves the removal of chametz (leaven) from our homes. This commemorates the fact that the Jews leaving Egypt were in a hurry, and did not have time to let their bread rise. It is also a symbolic way of removing the "puffiness" (arrogance, pride) from our souls. For more details and explanations about Passover please visit the website. I'm pooped from educating my co-workers all week! So on to the good part: FOOD!

My good friend Gayle sent me an awesome Mandel Bread recipe that's kosher for passover:

Ingredients:

3 eggs

¾ cup sugar

½ cup oil

1 ½ cup matzo cake meal

1 tablespoon potato starch

Methods:

1. Beat eggs and sugar until thick and lemony looking.
2. Stir in oil
3. Fold in cake meal and potato starch
4. Add chocolate chips
5. Form 2 long loaves on greased cookie sheet
6. Bake at 350 forf 30 minutes
7. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar when taken out of oven-slice it and put back for 10 more minutes-if want crispy pieces

The Mandel bread recipe is super easy to make and so delicious too!

This year, we went to our dear friends' home for Passover Sedar. Here is a picture of the beautiful sedar plate:
...and the parsley and salt water to symbolize all those tears
What's passover without matzo?!
My absolute favorite passover treat: Charoset.

Recipe for Charoset

This fruit, nut and wine mix is eaten during the seder. It is meant to remind us of the mortar used by the Jews to build during the period of slavery. It should have a coarse texture. The ingredient quantities listed here are at best a rough estimate; I usually just eye-ball it. The recipe below makes a very large quantity, but we usually wind up making more before the holiday is over. Other fruits or nuts can be used.

• 4 medium apples, 2 tart and 2 sweet
• 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
• 1/4 cup sweet wine
• 1/4 cup dry wine
• 1 Tbs. cinnamon

Shred the apples. Add all other ingredients. Allow to sit for 3-6 hours, until the wine is absorbed by the other ingredients. Serve on matzah. Goes very well with horseradish. Courtesy of Judaism 101

Matzo ball soup
The infamous gefilte fish - GROSS. This year I was able to get through the first bite.. but the second one induced my gag reflex!
Must have many many glasses of red wine at the sedar.
Ronnie's famous Macaroons. Simply the BEST!
Her almond apricot cookies - these are good too, but it's hard to compare anything to those macaroons.
Happy Passover! And thank you to the C's for another great sedar together!

Quick and Easy Weeknight Dinner

I was pressed for time this week in between my travels and needed to think of a quick meal as I was STARVING after work. I stopped at Trader Joe's on my way home for some ready made balsamic rosemary chicken, veggies (yellow zucchini, broccoli, snap peas, mushrooms, and some cherry tomato - sized heirloom tomatoes), and bottled spaghetti sauce (only 40kcals per serving!).

When I got home I boiled some water for rigatoni. I sauteed the veggies with some EVOO and garlic, set them aside, and cut the chicken up into cubes. I left the tomatoes out of the saute so they didn't get mushy.

When the pasta was done I mixed in the vegetables, chicken, tomatoes, and some marinara sauce. I of course sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on top and enjoyed!

The BEST part of this meal is that it only cost me $15.00 and took about 20 minutes to make. I had enough food to feed me and my friend dinner, take some for lunch the next day, and still had enough left over for both of my parents to enjoy when they returned from vacation.

Who said eating healthfully was expensive?! The pasta was packed with colorful veggies and lean protein from the chicken - what else could a dietitian ask for?

Happy New Year. I wish everyone happy and healthy eating in 2010!

Coconut - Orange Snowballs

In true holiday spirit, the last cookies we chose to make for the party are called snowball cookies!
They look like little balls of snow, but taste like a mix between a powdered donut and citrus / coconut cookie - delish!
The cookies are actually dusted with powdered sugar twice. This first picture was taken after the first dose of powdered sugar. As soon as the cookies came out of the oven we rolled them in the powdered sugar.

After letting the cookies cool, we sprinkled even more powdered sugar to give them the true snowball effect. My kitchen was covered in powdered sugar by the end, but it was easy to clean and totally worth it. These little treasures taste just like they fell from heaven.
I didn't have any coconut extract, so I substituted lemon extract for a little extra citrus kick. The combination of the orange peel, lemon, and coconut create fireworks in your mouth - these cookies are a must have for any holiday party.

Recipe to follow...

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon coconut extract

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tablespoons grated orange peel

1/2 teaspoon salt

Methods:

1) Preheat oven to 350*F. Bake coconut on rimmed baking sheet until light golden, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes.

2) Using electric mixer, beat butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and both extracts in bowl to blend well. Beat in flour, orange peel, and salt. Stir in coconut. Cover and chill at least 1 hour and up to 1 day. Soften sough slightly before shaping.

3) Preheat oven to 350*F. line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. using 1 tablespoon dough for each cookie, roll dough between palms of hands into balls. Place on prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake until golden on bottom but pale on top, about 18 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks; cool 5 minutes. Place remaining 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar in bowl. Roll hot cookies in powdered sugar, covering completely. Cool cookies on rack. Roll cookies in powdered sugar again, coating generously

Recipe courtesy of: Epicurous December, 2003

Lil Kaplan's Rugelach

The second cookie we made for our holiday party is Rugelach - I had to add a little Jewish pride to mix of Christmas themed cookies.
My good friend Ronnie makes the best Rugelach I have ever had, so I used the same recipe.

Again, I used my apricot jam in this recipe. We filled some with just sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon, and some had all of the fillings. We added mini chocolate chips to some because who doesn't love chocolate?! The picture below is filled with cinnamon, sugar, walnuts, apricot jam, AND mini chocolate chips - YUM.
Again, this dough needed to be chilled for an hour, but was MUCH easier to work with than the Linzer cookie dough, and the process was a bit easier too. It was so much fun to roll all of the ingredients up into pretty swirls.
The Rugelach came out of the oven with a crispy outside and a sweet inside. I didn't think this recipe made enough cookies, so I may double it next time. I am traveling to Israel next month and hear they have the best Rugelach EVER - so keep an eye out for round 2 of Rugelach making in February.
My Rugelach didn't come out quite as great as Ronnie's, but they were quite delicious! With some practice I may be able to give her a run for her money!

Recipe to follow...

Pastry:

2c flour

1/2lb. unsalted butter

3/4c sour cream (I used 'light' sour cream like a good dietitian)

1 egg yolk

Combine all ingredients in food processor (I used a mixer) until it forms a ball. Chill for 1 hour.

Filling:

3/4c sugar

3/4c finely chopped walnuts

1tsp cinnamon

(I added mini chocolate chips too)

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl

Procedure:

Cut ball of dough into fourths. Roll each piece into a 1/4 inch thick circle and cut into sixteenths (wedges). Put about 1/2tsp filling on fat end of each wedge. Roll towards the point.

Place rolled rugelach on an ungreased cookie sheet and back for 30 minutes at 375*F until lightly browned.

Linzer Cookies

I had a holiday luncheon at work this week so Kitchen M, a friend, and I decided to bake cookies for the party rather than buying dessert. After 4 hours of baking, we came out with plates and plates of cookies.

These first cookies were the most difficult to make, but they were also the most delicious.
Unfortunately, It wasn't until we had the nuts cooked and the dough made that we realized that the dough had to be chilled for at least 2 hours... I think this is the most diffcult recipe / production I have tried during my short cooking career.

The dough came out of the refrigerator very hard, but warmed up and softened quickly. Once the dough got soft it was very difficult to work with, so we had to continually stick it back in the refrigerator to cool down. - took much longer to get the cookies in the oven than expected!
The kitchen was filled with wonderful aromas while the cookies were baking! I made apricot jam in June and have lots of jars left, so we used the apricot jam rather than the raspberry jam the recipe calls for. We were able to make a little more than 2 dozen cookies - I guess the cookies were thinner than the recipe says. The cookies are not too sweet, but the combination of the apricot jam and the hazelnuts is to die for!
The cookies were a HUGE hit at work and everyone is telling me how delicious they are. I guess it was worth all of the time!

Recipe to follow:
Ingredients:

2/3c hazelnuts (3oz)

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 sticks (1cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 12-oz jar seedless raspberry jam

special: A 2 to 2 1/4-inch fluted round cookie cutter and assorted 1/2-inch shaped cookie cutters

Methods:

1. Put oven rack in muddle position and preheat oven to 350*F

2. Toast hazelnuts in a shallow baking pan until fragrant and skins begin to loosen, about 6 minutes. Rub nuts in a kitchen towel to remove any loose skins (some skins may not come off). then cool to room temperature. Pulse nuts and 1/4c brown sugar in a food processor until nuts are finely ground.

3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

4. Beat together butter and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add nut mixture and beat until combined well, about 1 minute. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined.

5. With floured hands, form dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a 5-inch disk. Chill disks, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 2 hours.

6. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350*F.

7. Roll out 1 disk of dough into 11-inch round (1/8 inch thick) between 2 sheets of wax paper (keep remaining dough chilled). If dough becomes too soft to roll out, re wrap in plastic and chill until firm.

8. Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with larger cookie cutter and transfer to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging about 1 inch apart. Using smaller cutters, cut out centers fro half of the cookies, reserving centers and re-rolling along with scraps.

9. Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 10-15minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies from second disk.

10. Spread about 1 teaspoon jam on flat side of 1 solid cookie and sandwich jam with flat side of 1 windowed cookie. Sandwich remaining cookies in the same manner.

No nutrition info for this recipe - sorry! But from the taste of the cookies, I don't think we want to know!

Recipe courtesy of: epicurious, DECEMBER 2008

Happy HEALTHY Holidays

Still in RD mode, I made some handouts for my weight management class and decided to share the info with all of you also!

Did you know?
--Americans gain about 5lbs from constant celebrating this time of year.
*Considering 1 lb = 3500kcals, those kcal dense holiday meals add up quickly!
--A study from the New England Journal of Medicine found that most people gain about 1 lb. between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.

Tips to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain:
Eating regular meals and snacks every day makes it easier to resist over - eating at festive events. When you are busy preparing holiday gifts and meals and you skimp on meals, nosh on protein packed snacks, like low fat cheese or yogurt, to blunt your hunger before gathering with friends and family. Make it a new family tradition to go for a walk after the meal. A 1 hour walk can burn up to 250kcals... that's a large chunk of that delicious meal!
At parties, pile your plate with lower-fat foods to limit high-calorie splurges. The following foods have fewer calories, fat, and sodium and more fiber that other holiday items:

• Whole Grains: Whole wheat rolls, wild/ brown rice, and quinoa
• Shrimp, lobster, fish, and other steamed seafood
• Plain, or lightly dressed vegetables and salad greens
• Meat and poultry WITHOUT gravy
• Fresh fruit

Depriving yourself of holiday treats can backfire and make you crave that food even more, leading to over eating. Curb calories from "naughty" foods by taking small portions. The first few bites of food provide the most pleasure anyway. Pick which foods you want to splurge on before the meal rather than mindlessly nibbling on anything that comes your way. Once you have finished your "sweetie treaties", fight the urge for more by:

• Sitting far away from buffet tables, candy dishes, and cookie filled plates
• Excuse yourself from the table when you are finished eating
• Keep your mouth busy talking to friends and family
• Chew gum or suck on a breath mint to prevent picking at food and grazing
• If you can, brush your teeth - the taste of toothpaste dulls taste buds

Source: http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asparticlekey=77296