The Bunny Box

I originally started this post last night to be exclusively about the mushroom soup but then I got distracted. Then today, I made the most amazing ginger snap cookies and they overshadowed the soup by a lot, so this is now about cookies, with a side note about the soup. The recipe I used for the cookies is the same one I used in my last ginger snap cookie post (which I'm too lazy to link to, sorry). The recipe is from David Lebovitz's blog . This time, though, I tweaked it to make it a little healthier. I was not expecting these to come out as amazingly as they did. I had been thinking I was making it a little healthier and cutting corners, so I was expecting the cookies to be decent, but nothing special. When I finally bit into one of these perfect, pillowy cookies, I was blown away by the subtle spice, the crunchy "crust" and the chewy, delicious center. These are the perfect cookies. Make them. Now. Perfect Ginger Snap Cookies (adapted from davidlebovitz.c...

Let me begin this post by apologizing for not having any pictures. If this bothers you as much as it bothers me, remember that I always accept donations to the camera fund. :oD Now on to business. For a while I've been saying that I want to start eating healthier, at least most of the week. This week I decided to actually do it. For this trick, I had to head to the grocery store and buy some healthy foods, like frozen vegetables, to stock up my freezer/pantry. As part of this, I planned my meals for the week by hunting through my blogs and piecing together some ideas. Meal planning is something I keep thinking I need to do more of, too, but it's hard for me to remember to do it. Also, I often make the mistake of planning something for two meals, and then I get reminded around night 2 that the Huz "needs" to eat a lot of food or he'll "starve," and the leftovers from the previous night just won't cut it for him. So here's my plan for this we...

So, funny story. I know how much you guys look forward to reading my posts and somehow I just got so caught up in school and other wastes of time that I completely forgot to post about the single greatest baking day of the season so far: Thanksgiving! Let me start off by letting you guys know that I'm not a big Thanksgiving celebrator. Before this year, I hadn't had a Thanksgiving dinner (well, not a REAL one anyway. Last couple of years, we had tacos) for about 6 or 7 years. I didn't mind, really. I missed my father's Thanksgiving cooking (he makes the best stuffing and gravy!) but that was about it. This year, however, my grandmother is back in town. She moved back here around March and unfortunately had some health problems (which are now resolved, thank G-d) and as November approached, it seemed to be taken for granted that we would have to provide her with a Thanksgiving feast. Okay. No biggie! It's just an excuse for me to try my hand at pie baking. ...

I admit it's been a while since I've posted anything interesting (read: food related). So I figured it was high time I made something I haven't already posted about. This morning I woke up in the mood for pancakes and, since I had a paper to work on, figured making some from scratch was a great way to procrastinate. I think I've mentioned before that one of the more awesome wedding presents I got (discounting gifts of money, expensive kitchen appliances, etc.) was The Joy of Cooking. I can't remember who bought it for me (sorry!) but it's come in handy more than a few times. There are those moments when I feel a sudden urge to make cookies and need a quick and simple recipe, or times like that today when I need a recipe and pointers on making pancakes. Since I wanted to keep this as simple as possible, I used their basic recipe, but I tweaked it a little to make it more interesting. I added some pumpkin pie seasoning to give it a Fall/Winter feeling. If I ...

Does this confuse you? Refer back to the first post for more information on the Bunny Box. Still confused? Yeah, that's what I figured. Be safe this Channukah! Keep fires away from bunnies and other flammable animals/children. Don't leave the candles burning unattended. Enjoy your Chag!

A couple posts ago ( here ) I wrote about a creamy pumpkin sauce that I had made and mentioned the changes I wanted to make to it. I'm now ready to post the completed recipe and a (sad, blurry) picture. The second time around preparing this sauce, I made the changes I wanted to make, but mostly I played it by ear. The resulting product was creamy and a perfect mix of sweet and savory. I piled it on my pasta (in a most unhealthy fashion) and was really satisfied with the taste. The pumpkin gives the sauce a slight nutty taste and a richness you don't find in your average tomato sauce. The main thing you need to know about this recipe is that I am seriously approximating all measurements. While cooking this, I didn't measure a thing. So if you choose to make it (which I strongly recommend) taste it often while cooking and be prepared to adjust. At one point while throwing it together, I accidentally added a bit too much salt. I balanced that out by adding more pumpkin...

I don't know if I ever actually mentioned it on this blog, but a while back I started making a comic with the idea that I would eventually post it as a webcomic. Well, I'm not quite there yet, but just to give a taste and to get some feedback, here's the first comic I made. The art is...well, keep in mind, this was my first foray into digital art. The sketches in my notebook looked significantly better, but I still think this is pretty cute. PS -- some people have commented to me that it's difficult to tell what's going on in the last panel. The pink thing is a bag full of "love nubules" which the bunny is dumping on the table. Also, because I made the images a little small before putting them together into the comic format, it's hard to read what it says, so check below the comic to read the signs. The banner in the last panel reads: Black Market Every Other Tuesday 12-3PM Bunnies only. No law enforcement allowed. The sign next to the table reads...

Well, here I am in the midst of what would be midterms if I had any. Instead, I've got more than my fair share of papers to write before Thanksgiving. But that doesn't mean I'm not more than happy to distract myself by cooking something interesting for dinner and then blogging about it. So come on. Enable my procrastination and read on. On Monday I announced on Facebook that I had made pasta with a "creamy pumpkin sauce." I also mentioned that I hadn't perfected the recipe and wouldn't blog about it until I had. Here's the problem with that. I'm unlikely to remember to perfect it later on if I don't blog about it now. So here goes: I wanted to make pasta, but I didn't want to make boring ol' pasta with cheese. I wanted something quick and easy, but interesting and tasty. Well, let's say I got 3/4 of it right. It was quick and easy and definitely interesting, but it was definitely bland. In the following recipe, I'm ...

Hello ladies and gents! Welcome to my new segment, "L'Kavod Shabbos Baking." I can't promise that there will be one every week because usually my l'kavod Shabbos baking is really boring (aka - stuff I've already blogged about). But this week, while perusing one of my favorite time wasters, Tastespotting.com , I cam across a couple great things I want to share. The first is a blog called " Couldn't Be Parve ," which is written by a Conservative Rabbi on a mission to develop Parve foods that are so good, you can't believe it's not milchig. She has some pretty awesome sounding recipes on there, but my favorite thing is her In the Pantry section where she introduces all sorts of really great substitutions for dairy ingredients. I recommend checking it out if you like cooking Parve. The second thing I found is a very easy recipe for cranberry cake. If you're anything like me, and I hope you are, you love cranberries. So the choice t...

This week, The Huz and I stayed in for shabbos lunch and had my brother over. I did a little food experimentation, and some of it was good, some of it not so much. So here's the menu: 1) Homemade challah 2) Baked gefilte fish 3) Beef minestrone soup 4) Butternut squash stuffed with quinoa salad 5) Vanilla cake Challah I've discussed my challah recipes with you guys. I think I make some pretty tasty challah. But this week, I didn't feel up to making something that time-consuming. Instead, I experimented. Remember that pizza dough recipe? Well, I decided to try it for making a small batch of challah. Truth be told, if I cut my normal challah recipe to 1/4 it would probably be about as easy. But I didn't have the patience for math. So I went with what I had. The main thing I enjoy about the pizza dough recipe is that I don't have to leave it rising for hours. I did give it 30 minutes to rise after forming the dough and another 20-30 minutes to rise once sha...

This shabbos, I decided we were due for some time at home. So, I decided to make a soup shabbos, for simplicity. I made a huge pot of chicken soup (with kreplach) and some fish for dinner. I have enough of that left over to last quite a while, so I'm going to freeze some of it for later. For lunch, I took the minestrone soup recipe from this post but made a couple changes. First, I halved the recipe, because I needed it to fit in my crockpot. Second, I added some beef. Third, I took out the beans, green beans, and spinach, because I didn't really like them in the original soup. So what I ended up with was a REALLY good, hearty soup. It's perfect for Fall and Winter, and was really quick and easy to throw together. This is a meal soup, not a starter course. Here's the new-ish recipe: Beef Minestrone Soup Ingredients: 1-2 tbsp olive oil 1 clove garlic, chopped 1 small onion OR half of one large onion, diced 1 lb flanken beef, cubed 3 carrots, chunks 2 zucchinis...

Well, Yom tov has been great so far, and I'm really loving the stretches of nothing to worry about. However, eventually, all that "nothing to worry about" catches up with you after yom tov is over and you're scrambling to get all your school work done. So this post is a quickie. I just made some eggs. This may not sound too thrilling. In fact, it's not TOO thrilling. But these are good eggs. So I'll share their secret. Now remember, this is just between you and me, so no telling, k? The secret? {curry and s'chug} Did you catch that? Good. So here's the recipe. Enjoy! Yummy Spinach Eggs Ingredients: 1/2 Cup Egg Beaters (or two eggs) 1/2 Cup fresh spinach 1 tablespoon chopped garlic (from a jar) 1/4 Cup shredded mozzarella 1/4 teaspoon curry powder 1/2 teaspoon s'chug (Israeli jalapeno dip) 1/4 teaspoon onion powder salt and pepper, to taste Instructions: Beat eggs, cheese, s'chug and seasonings in a bowl. Spray a nonstick frying pan w...

I know what you're all thinking (all two of you!). "Two posts in one week?! Is she MAD?!" Yes. I am. But that's neither here nor there. I'm here to talk to you about the single most important food group out there: Soup. I have always been a soup fiend. When I go to restaurants, it's the thing on the menu that usually attracts me the most (and appetizers, my other favorite food group). I've often thought that if I were to go on any kind of diet, it would be a soup diet. In my opinion, there's just nothing more satisfying, more comforting, more spiritually uplifting then a big bowl of hearty soup. Now here's the sad part of my story. I have rarely been successful at soup-making. I can make all kinds of foods and make 'em delicious, but soups are the only things that have seemed to allude me. Whether I was burning the chicken soup because I hadn't yet mastered the concept of "simmering," or making vegetable soup that was ...

As promised, I return. I started out the night planning to make a minestrone soup that sounded amazing, but realized that since I have a paper due on Thursday it might not be the best idea to make something which requires so much prep work. So instead, I decided to make homemade pizza. It all started out innocently enough. I whipped up the dough in a matter of minutes (recipe below), preheated my toaster oven and took some pictures. Then, I rolled the dough out, placed it on a little baking sheet and put it in the toaster oven to prebake the crust a little to avoid sogginess. I start cleaning up and suddenly, my toaster oven breaks. It just shuts off and refuses to turn back on. Now, I don't have a milchig oven. My toaster oven (which was a wonderful wedding gift from my father's friend) was all I had for milchig baking. But I didn't have time to mourn that loss just then. I had pizza dough to save! Now here I was, two small pizza crusts all set, and my only option...

Okay, I admit it! I'm a failure. I haven't cooked or baked anything even remotely interesting in over a month. I haven't taken any awesome pictures either. I've barely even had time to read my food blogs and pick out recipes. I have some excuses, though! I've been busy. Really busy. So incredibly busy... playing video games... But you can't blame me! I have the best husband in the world who got me a USB controller and downloaded and set up Super Nintendo emulators and ROMs on my computer. How could I not spend all of my free time playing Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire, Super Mario and Yoshi's Island? I know, I know. You're not all nerds like me. Just trust me. There was no way around it. I hope to start working on something new after the yom tovim...maybe after my sister's wedding in October?...maybe when the semester is over, k? Just bear with me. I'll be back eventually. Le` Bunny

I haven't done any more interesting cooking recently (except for making pecan ice cream this past shabbos. It was delicious. Oh, and I made mozzarella sticks. Also tasty.) but I have been doing some artwork. A couple weeks ago, the Huz and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. We decided to make a weekend of it and spread the fun out. So Thursday, July 29th, we went out to dinner with some friends, Friday we went hiking at Piney Run, and Sunday we headed downtown for a day at the science center. Our hike at Piney Run was spontaneous. I wanted to do SOMETHING outdoors because it was a perfect day. We didn't have time for boating, but we figured the trails seemed like a good idea. We picked a trail and started walking. Our goal was to get near the water and enjoy the relaxing view, but due to recent storms, there were a lot of fallen trees and branches which kept us from getting all the way to the water. All in all, it was still a fun and beautiful experience. On another topi...

Yesterday, I received a magazine in the mail. I've been getting it for three years, though I never read it because it was addressed to my grandfather (who lived in this apartment before he passed away). Sometimes I would throw it away, other times I would pass it on to my father with all the rest of my grandparents' mail. Today, however, something on the cover caught my eye, and I took a look inside. The magazine is called "Chemical Heritage" and is the publication of the Chemical Heritage Foundation. The article which caught my eye was called, "Silver and Sunlight" and is about the history of photography. I went on to read several more articles and now I feel pretty confident I'll never throw one of these out again. The significant part of this story is that it got me thinking about my grandfather. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when he was alive and well and this time be wise enough to speak to him more. As a child, I never found h...

Earlier this week, my mother and I headed into Annapolis for a little day trip. I mention this only because I wanted to include that picture. It's a pretty place and probably a lot more pleasant to hang out when it isn't 90 degrees out. Now on to cooking. Wednesday night, I made some D-E-LICIOUS sweet and sour meatballs for dinner. The recipe was given to me by a friend who we stayed with for Shavuos last year. She had made it as an appetizer for a yom tov meal, but I felt pretty confident that, if served with whole wheat pasta, it would make an excellent weekday dinner. Boy was I right! It was not only incredibly yummy, but it was really good and filling too! It lasted two nights (even with Yaakov eating it!) Now, here's what I discovered: It's a little difficult to take appetizing pictures of sweet and sour meatballs with a point and shoot camera. But here's what I've got for you: The above photographed meatballs are not fully cooked. Once cooked, ...

As my avid readers may be aware (hi, Mom! Just kidding. My mom doesn't read this...), my brother and his wife are currently in town visiting from Israel. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to have my sister-in-law as a baking partner in crime. Together, we've tackled two projects. The first was challah, last Thursday. This time I tweaked the recipe yet again. I used 1 and half times my previous ingredient amounts and managed to get the whole five pound bag of flour into the dough, so I could do hafrashas challah with a bracha. Also, my SIL gave me some excellent advice for getting my challah to come out moist and awesome- put a pan of boiling water on the bottom rack of the oven while the challahs are baking. They came out amazing. They were the perfect texture and the perfect flavor (just a little sweet, but not overly so) and were a big hit. It's a good feeling to finally perfect a recipe. This made 3 large challahs, 3 small challahs, and 3 rolls. So this ...

This week I decided to try making more of those lime meltaway cookies from last week, but this time I made them without the zest and with the right amount of sugar. And guess what! Turns out the zest adds something after all. Don't get me wrong, they're still decent cookies, but without the zest they lack a certain...well...zest. I did, however, manage to take pictures this time (See above ^_^) I also made a second batch of these cookies which used almond extract instead of lime juice. Now, since almond extract has a much stronger flavor than lime juice, I decided to use only 1 tablespoon instead of 2. I don't think the flavor came through too well, though. I might try using more next time. I'll update this post on Sunday when the votes are in from the rest of the family. Oh, and good news! I left two logs of dough in the freezer to bake later, when my brother and sister-in-law are in town. That way they can have some fresh from the oven. You're welcome! :...

Well, if you haven't heard yet (and I'm pretty sure that everyone who reads this blog has heard) my wonderful big sister, Rachel, is engaged! :oD You can read the FAQ about the engagement here . Needless to say, we're all very excited. But my excitement over the engagement doesn't keep me from baking. Last week, I forgot to blog about the gingersnaps I made. The recipe is from David Leibovitz, Chez Panisse Gingersnaps I didn't take any pictures of the cookies, but they looked pretty much like he pictures them. These were my first attempt at "icebox" cookies. I was surprised to find that after about an hour in the frechallaezer, the cookies still smushed instead of slicing cleanly, like I'd anticipated. It didn't effect the outcome of the cookie, which was delicious. So much so that I didn't even care that they were crunchy! They were also VERY easy to make. If you read his blog post about them, that was the exact point of the recipe...

For a while now, I've been wondering how my George Foreman grill would handle veggies, like zucchini and peppers. So today, on a whim, I decided to find out. I sent Yaakov to the store this morning to get chicken fillets, zucchini, yellow squash, a red bell pepper, a purple onion and some mushrooms. After seasoning and grilling the chicken, and grilling all the veggies, I put everything on a plate and served it with various spreads (chummus, schug, mayo, pesto, etc.) and tortillas so that everyone (that being the huz, my brother and myself) could put together their own wraps. This seems to have worked out well. Everyone enjoyed it and it was filling and relatively healthy. If you want to really rev up the health factor, it might be smarter to make it a salad instead of a wrap considering that tortilla wraps add calories, carbs, sodium and fat that you don't really need. But they also add flavor, depth and fun, so I'm all for them. To assemble these guys, put a tortill...

I just went ahead and added a blog roll on the right side. I don't read all of them so regularly, and I certainly don't cook recipes from all of them, but I like the pictures. Plus, even if I can't cook everything on every blog, I can dream, can't I? I think I've decided that after this upcoming semester, I'm going to see if I can't convince my parents and grandmother to get together and buy me this . It's a Canon EOS Rebel XS. It's not the newest model (which means it's cheaper) but I think it would still be a very good starter dSLR and I really want to take a photography class in the Spring. (Seems like a very good time to take it, no?) That's all for now.

So, I'm sitting here right now, about two hours before I want to light candles for shabbos, eating the scraps left over from my Wednesday night lo mein. I spent the majority of my day today baking cookies for my dear friend's shabbos kallah. Don't worry, I didn't bake 12 dozen cookies alone. I had my lovely assistant, Diana, to help me out. (Hi, Diana!) First we made a big batch of my staple sugar cookies from Joy of Cooking. I accidentally made the cookies a little too big, so the dough didn't go as far as I would have liked. We got closer to 45 cookies instead of the 60 I usually get. But all's well because I made a very nice sized batch of oatmeal cookies with craisins and chocolate chips. They look delicious and I can't wait to watch people eat them! The last cookies I made were an Idea I got last shabbos when my dad brought some cookies home from a kiddush. One of them was chocolate with what I first assumed to be white chocolate chunks. After e...

I'm trying to get in the habit of planning my weekly meals when I shop. I started it last week and I'm continuing this week. So my menu this week was/is as follows: Sunday night: we went to a BBQ Monday night: We ate at my parents' (before posting this entry, I previewed it and it's a good thing because I discovered that this said, "We ate my parents." Which, I assure you, we didn't do.) Tuesday night: Grilled chicken and green beans Wednesday night (tonight): Lo Mein Thursday night: Hamburgers Shabbos: No plans yet. ~shrug~ So tonight is lo mein night. I've always been a fan of lo mein but never really tried making it, which is silly since I've just discovered how easy it is. I got the idea to do it when I was emailing my sister-in-law last week. She had read the post on the pesto chicken and pasta salad I made and was excited to try it until my brother told her he doesn't like pesto. I think I knew that... Anyway, I suggested she use ...

Some of you may remember that last week I made a challah recipe given to me by my friend's chosson. I mentioned that I wanted to try it with more yeast and sugar and maybe some vanilla. Well, that's what I did tonight. I added 1/2 cup of sugar, used the whole packet of yeast instead of 1 tsp, added 1/4 cup of honey and a tablespoon of vanilla. I also added extra water and flour in an attempt to use enough flour to say a bracha on separating the challah, but since I wasn't sure if I used enough in the end, I just didn't say it. (Though, in retrospect, I probably did use enough. It was about 11-13 cups and I'm pretty sure it was most of a 5 pound bag, but because I hadn't paid close enough attention to be sure, I didn't want to take chances.) Result? The most amazing challah I have ever made (ever!) with only slightly more effort than last time (because the dough was stickier) and quite possibly the best challah I have ever eaten. I consider this a work...

Earlier this week, I found a recipe that caught my eye for two reasons: 1) Delicious looking picture and 2) The instructions consisted of one line. "Mix together all ingredients and serve." How could I resist? I'll tell you. I couldn't. The recipe was for Chicken, pesto and pasta salad . Sounds amazing, right? Click the link. Really. See that picture? Yeah, it was just as good as it looks. :) So, the minute I saw it, I determined I was going to make it sometime this week. I planned out the week's dinners and decided that Wednesday would be a good night to experiment. So I bought pasta and chicken at 7-Mile Market, but couldn't find pesto. I tried Shoppers, too, with no luck. I was worried I might have to break out my food processor and make it from scratch (heavens, no!!) until my father gave me the idea to check out Giant, where I pretty much never shop. I'm thinking I might have to start shopping there because they have pretty much everythin...

I just realized that I failed to report on the chocolate peanut butter cake I made for shavuos. First, so as not to keep you in suspense, I will tell you that it was a very yummy cake. However, it was a lot more trouble then it was worth, and it didn't turn out quite how I imagined it would. In my head, it was going to be a giant Reese's Cup. In reality, it was a cake that was very peanut-buttery (and a bit dry) with a frosting that was also very peanut-buttery, and neither were very sweet. The redeeming value was the chocolate sauce, which played off the peanut butter in that way that only chocolate can. But really, there was just way too much peanut butter and not nearly enough chocolate for my taste. My key problem with this cake was assembly. Icing, stacking and glazing the cakes was a real pain, especially because I didn't remember to let the glaze cool before pouring it over the cake, so it kind of just slopped all over the place making a huge (delicious) mess....

Over the past few years, I've had pretty bad experiences with challah making. The first recipe I ever tried was taught to me by a good friend, and makes a really delicious challah, but is utterly exhausting to make. Each time I attempted to make this recipe, I felt that nothing was worth that kind of work. I tried out several recipes in a breadmaker which I was given for my wedding, but they never really came out right, and I would get frustrated and end up, once again, exhausted and just feeling I was better off with store-bought challah. Now, a few weeks ago, The Huz and I went to a friend's house for shabbos dinner, and her fiancé had baked some pretty good challahs. He informed me that it contained only 5 ingredients (water, sugar, yeast, oil, and flour) so I asked for the recipe. So, yesterday morning, I set out to bake challah, feeling a little hopeful. What I found was that this recipe was both simple and tasty. I proofed the yeast, and mixed in the flour using my...

So, ok, it's been a while. On the bright side, I finished my paper and my semester is rapidly coming to an end. I have two finals next week and then I can relax and enjoy my shavuos . In big news, Hubert grew his first sprout! I tried to get some pictures, but I couldn't get them to come out right. They're all blurry. Let's just say, Yaakov and I are very excited! :) Nothing else too exciting is going on, so we'll move onto food now. (mmm...food...) Last week, I baked some more cookies, this time trying out oatmeal cookies. I thought it would be interesting to take the recipe on the side of the oat canister and see if what would happen if I substituted 3/4 cups of oil for 1 cup of margarine. I think I should have used more oil, though, because the cookies came out pretty crisp (which everyone but me seemed to enjoy). They were very tasty though, especially when they first came out of the oven and were still gooey. I mixed in some chocolate chips and craisin...

So, I'm sitting here right now watching the very very psychedelic screensaver on my netbook, eating some butternut squash soup, and trying to stall with my paper-writing. You know how sometimes, your final paper sounds so easy, you think it must be a trick. Surely your teacher doesn't actually just want you to summarize large sections of your textbook. Surely she wants us to use deep insight to apply the concepts to real life circumstances. But no. She really does want exactly what she asks for. Now I just have to stop wasting time and write it! My semester is slowly but surely winding to an end. This semester has been, well, let's not call it easy, but certainly not a challenge. As a result, the last 3 weeks of the semester which are usually characterized by cursing, crying, and desperately wishing it could all be over are looking to be pretty calm. I have this paper due in about 2-ish weeks, (then a wedding in Lakewood) then I have two finals, then a sweet summer...