The Bunny Box

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