The Bunny Box

In past years, I've left cooking for the holidays largely up to my parents and in-laws.  We'd split meals between our families and at most, I'd be making some sort of dessert.  Well this year, with our toddler's nap and bedtime schedules, eating out for the meals really wasn't going to be practical.  So this year, I decided to go it alone and cook enough food to last for a 3 day holiday. I wanted to keep things simple, but I also wanted to incorporate the simanim (symbolic foods) into my menu. So here's what I came up with: Round raisin challahs Sweet & Sour Gefilte Fish Honey Glazed Meatballs (served over mashed sweet potatoes) Sauteed Carrots and Leeks Roasted Beets Acorn Squash Stuffed With Brown Rice & Dates Apple Ginger Crumble Everything came out tasty, but there was WAY TOO MUCH FOOD for two people and a toddler. So we have leftovers (yay!). By far, the most interesting and successful recipe of the holiday was the ...

Heaven.... A while back, I saw something on the internet about making coconut milk whipped cream.  It sounded simple enough, and it definitely sounded healthier than making anything with Rich's Whip. ~shudder~ So about a month ago, when I started noticing strawberries in my grocery store, I picked up a can of coconut milk and decided to try it out. See that cool, smooth, creamy whippiness? I was pretty impressed with the results.  It whipped up well, it was perfectly sweet, and most importantly, it didn't really taste like coconut. I quickly came up with the idea of making a strawberry shortcake, and knew I'd want to make it chocolate cake because...well...I like it? Chocolate cake, whipped cream, and fresh strawberries. What could be bad?! The problem was that I just couldn't justify making a whole cake for just myself and my husband (because this is way too much sugar to give to my toddler).  So I'd been waiting for the opportunity...

It's been a long long time since I've made cookies.  I just couldn't take it.  Had to get back on that horse. But with baby around, I have to be a little more conscientious about what I bake. You know I like to make my cookies SLIGHTLY healthier with little changes like oil instead of butter, whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose, etc. But for my baby?  Doesn't feel like enough! Call me crazy.  Go ahead.  Do it. Anyway, with healthiness in mind, I made these cookies with apple sauce instead of oil, honey instead of white sugar, whole wheat flour, and less brown sugar.  I had to add more flour to the recipe to thicken the dough.  In the end, they came out tasting like kind of awesome muffins.  If I make this again, I'll put it in a muffin tin and add in some shredded zucchini, apple, and a dash of cinnamon. Oatmeal Muffin Cookies 3/4 C brown sugar 3/4 C honey 1 C apple sauce 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extr...

This is going to have to be a quickie post, because I have to go to bed. You see, our upstairs neighbor is in the habit of blasting his music at odd hours on Sunday mornings Today he was blasting it around 4:30. I was not amused. Tomorrow I have a long day, and as you can imagine, I'm tired. So this will be quick. Cookies. Gingersnaps. Made them on pure impulse (and some other ingredients). Recipe below. Gingersnap Cookies Ingredients: 1 Cup whole wheat flour 1 Cup all-purpose flour 1.5 tsp baking soda 1.5 tsp ground ginger 2 tsp cinnamon .5 tsp salt .5 tsp pepper 4 Tbsp butter/margarine 7 Tbsp canola oil 1/3 Cup sugar 1/3 Cup Splenda (or other bakeable sugar substitute) 1/2 tsp vanilla 1/4 Cup molasses 1 Large egg Extra sugar for rolling Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the dry ingredients (all except the sugar) in a bowl (or in a tupperware container, and s...

Rosh Hashana has come and gone, and Yom Kippur is coming fast. How did all this time just fly by me? Two years ago, I used this time to work on myself, pray as hard as I could, take on resolutions to do better with everything, in the hopes that G-d would see and finally let me have a baby. It must have worked, because almost exactly one year later, I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl. I had hoped to spend that Rosh Hashana thanking Hashem for this amazing blessing, but when the time came, I was just such a mess, so exhausted, and so overwhelmed, I barely noticed the holidays pass by. And then we get to this year. I am exceedingly grateful for my daughter and all the amazing gifts I've been given, but as Rosh Hashana approached, I was yet again too busy to properly prepare myself. I still have almost a week until Yom Kippur, and my goal is to use them as best I can. If any of you have suggestions, please let me know. How DOES a wife, mother, student, intern, etc., m...

Things are heating up here on the East Coast, and the humidity doesn't help. So this week for shabbos, I decided to try my hand at a simple sorbet. I went for watermelon because I'm seeing them everywhere and they're just sooooo tempting when you feel sticky and icky after being outside for only 10 minutes. And as I had also bought a bunch of mint leaves so I could make some Limonana , I figured why not add a little mint. The result is this beautifully pink, deliciously refreshing, and wonderfully icy treat. Make it. Love it. Watermelon Mint Sorbet (Note: This recipe is based off of Paula Dean's recipe for Raspberry Sorbet .) Ingredients 1 seedless watermelon, cut into chunks, without rind 2 Cups sugar (note: I actually halved the sugar and water in this recipe and made only 1 Cup of simple syrup, adding a about 1/2 cup of Splenda to the sorbet while it mixed in the ice-cream maker. You can try the original 2 cups, but remember that it was for raspberr...

Hello everybody! As you may recall, a couple weeks ago, I went cherry picking . Well this week, I went peach and plum picking! And I wanted pie. So badly. That I broke out some mini frozen pie crusts. Here's the result: All this is is frozen pie crust, sliced peaches, sugar and a little pumpkin pie seasoning, topped with a lattice crust. Now, here's the problem: SOGGY PIE BOTTOM! If only I'd added a little flour or corn starch! Anything to soak up those nummy juices! I'll know better for next time. For now, this is a pretty darn tasty pie. :) In other news, THIS IS POST #100 ON THIS BLOG!! Get excited! I'm throwing a little party in my brain. ~wiggle to the left, wiggle to the right~ I hope you've all been enjoying it. See you later at post #1,000. :-D

As I mentioned in yesterday's post , I recently went cherry picking and decided to use some of those cherries to make an ice cream recipe I'd been contemplating for a while. I also promised in that post that I would share my results today. :) Let me begin by saying that I took a very basic recipe (basic vanilla ice cream + cherries + chocolate chunks) and did it my own way, as usual. The result is, I believe, an acquired taste. Let me explain what I mean by that. You see, my original plan was to take a container of Sweetened MimicCreme , add a little vanilla extract, put it in the ice cream maker and then add cherries and chocolate chunks. But then I was thinking about the last time I made ice cream that was JUST MimicCreme, and how it had frozen solid. It was delicious and creamy, but you had to let it soften for a while before you could get at it. So I thought, what can I add to keep it from getting so hard? My brilliant idea? A tiny dash of white cooking wine that I ha...

A while back, I discovered a new substitution for heavy cream that, supposedly, can be used in any recipe where one would normally use cream. The ingredient is called Mimiccreme and is a non-dairy (and pareve) nut-based cream. Shortly after discovering it, I mentioned it to my father who checked it out online and discovered that their warehouse in Albany was changing the packaging for their sweetened version and as a result were selling the old packaging for a $1 per carton. Considering that this stuff usually sells for closer to $5 per carton, it was a no-brainer that if I planned on experimenting with this stuff, it would be useful to get it dirt cheap! So naturally, when I heard that my husband's uncle would be coming down to visit from Albany, I asked him to bring me a couple cases. Unfortunately, the week he was supposed to come he got into a nasty car accident while driving through New Jersey. While he was fine, his car was destroyed (along with one of my poor container...

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...

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. ...

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...

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 ...

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...

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 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....

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...