Archive for February, 2011
Driving Under the Influence of . . . Cholent?
February 28, 2011Does Anyone Understand the New Google Recipe Search Feature?
February 26, 2011Google has just introduced a new feature that allows you to search for just recipes from the Google page, but the recipe pages have to be marked up in a certain way. Does any other food blogger out there understand this?
I e-mailed Elise of Simply Recipes about this issue, and she has sent me a link to a tutorial that she had put up on this topic.
Grandma’s Chocolate Applesauce Cake
February 25, 2011My grandmother’s signature cake was this super moist chocolate applesauce cake, topped with chocolate chips and cinnamon sugar (and sometimes chopped walnuts). It freezes incredibly well–I just pulled this cake from the depths of my freezer from I-won’t-even-tell-you-how-long-ago, and it tastes as good as the day I made it. Well, the chips aren’t all melt-ey and gooey as they are fresh from the oven, but I supposed I could fix that by warming it up.
It is not the intense chocolate experience of some deep, dark cakes. Rather, it is a more subtle chocolate experience, like hot cocoa, with an undertone of cinnamon and apples, with the chocolate chips giving you an occasional jolt of pure chocolate. It is the way that these flavors combine that makes this cake so irresistible.
It is not a fancy dessert, just a humble 9″x13″ pan snack cake. But, cut it into squares and platter it nicely, and you can serve it at the fanciest dessert buffet. People will devour it. (more…)
Parshat Veyakhel Project
February 25, 2011Okay, so this has to be just about the worst picture I have ever posted (and that is saying a lot), but (a) I got the parsha project done before Shabbos, and (b) it was one of the most successful projects I have ever done with the kids. (more…)
Perfect Brownies
February 23, 2011No, there is no recipe (sigh). Dvora makes stellar brownies–for me these are the platonic ideal of brownies, cake-ey/chewey with a deep dark cocoa taste. But, she doesn’t do recipes. So, if you want some, you have to get in touch with Dvora.
Dessert, Straight from Israel
February 23, 2011Thanks to my fellow bloggers, I discovered the Israeli dessert queen, Carine Goren (hat tip to Chavi, who has diligently worked to perfect Carine Goren’s challah. Not to digress by Chavi is a fantastic source of challah recipes–her blog is turning into a challapedia. Oh, and here is another post about Carine’s challah).
Anyway . . . enough rambling. Does anyone have a recommendation about which recipe to try first from this book? My husband says that when he bought the book at Steinmatzsky, the clerk raved about this book, but didn’t give any specific recipe recommendations.
Note: here is a US source for her books.
Update: Here is Dvora’s take on Carine’s challah, which includes a link to the recipe in Hebrew and a video of Carine making the recipe.
Tastes Like the Real Thing Vegetarian Chopped Liver
February 20, 2011I will try to post a better picture later, but I don’t want to delay posting about this delicious and healthy vegetarian chopped liver.
I have served this appetizer many times, and invariably someone assumes it is real or asks (after tasting it!) “Is this real chopped liver?!”
The taste and texture is that close to the real thing. (more…)
Parsha Ki Tisa Pavlova Har Sinai
February 18, 2011(I had the idea this week to make fondant figures with the kids and then make Har Sinai out of chocolate meringue, actually a pavlova recipe. I’m using the fondant figures to do a stop action synopsis of the parsha.)
In this week’s parsha, Moshe comes down from Har Sinai to find the people worshiping an idol, the Eigel HaZahav: (more…)