Easy Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

DISCLAIMER: Maybe I had a really good squash. I can't promise your soup will be as amazing as mine.

Fenugreek & French Toast

I first learned about fenugreek (chilba/hilba in Hebrew) when someone suggested my mother try it to relieve acid reflux. She bought the raw spice, but never really knew how to use it.

The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians used fenugreek for both medicinal and culinary purposes. If you are interested in fenugreek for purely medicinal purposes, you can purchase it in pill form in most health food stores.

Pizza Night: Guest Post from my Mom & Dad

My mom, "Bubbe", is an artist and graphic designer; and she has a very special way of staying connected to my kids.  Several times a week she uses her computer to sketch something interesting going on in her life.  On the "Drawing of the Day" there is a note about the drawing, and often a question that causes the kids to write back or answer on the phone.  Below are yesterday's drawings.  At the bottom you will find my dad's recipe for the pizza dough, followed by my own toppings suggestions.  Happy Anniversary Lala & Zeide!

Dear Adele, Mordechai, and Talia,

Tonight we celebrated Lala and Zeide's wedding anniversary.  Grandpa and I invited them over for dinner.  Grandpa made pizza; four pizza pies to be exact.  This is the story about how grandpa made the pizzas.

First Grandpa got out the electric mixer.  He put flour, water, oil, sugar, yeast, and an egg into the mixer the blend them all together to make the dough.

 Then Grandpa decided that both he and the dough needed a rest.  Grandpa divided the dough into four pieces.  He rolled them into balls, placed them on a pan and let them rest in the refrigerator for several hours.  Grandpa rested in a chair in the living room.

Odds & Ends Afterlife: Five Bean Soup

Last week I made a hearty. delicious soup while shooting the most boring 15 minutes of video footage known to man.  I kept the soup and scrapped 13.5 minutes of video.  I added salt to the remaining 2.5 minutes, and here it is:


video url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f94nRxNeU_0

Soup is a great way to use up little bits of grains or legumes that aren't enough for a full serving.

Our Olive Adventure Part 3: Brine

Also see: Part 1: Find Olives and Part 2: Pit and Soak.


Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/user/CookingOutsideTheBox?feature=mhum#p/u/3/bTcgMNQJzBU

To Stick or Not to Stick: Alternatives to Teflon

Yesterday my father sent me a link to a N.Y. Times article: How Not to Wreck a Nonstick Pan.  Excellent advice if you are using non-stick, but it touches on the dilemma of whether or not we should use non-stick cookware like Teflon.  The column by the same author, Teflon Is Great for Politicians, but Is It Safe for Regular People?  discusses the risks.

Non-stick coatings definitely release toxic chemicals when heated to high temperatures; that is undisputed.  These fumes are especially harmful to organisms with delicate respiratory systems, like birds.  Whether these pans leach harmful compounds into our foods during normal use is inconclusive.  In addition, if you really do use less oil with non-stick cookware, it is difficult to weigh the benefits of less fat against the possible effects of Teflon.

Fish Video: Dress, Bake, Eat

Amnon from the local outdoor market - shuk

soup nuts - shkedei marak

Last week I cooked some repeats (including Onion Challah, this time rolls with poppy seeds), and focused on some necessary family paper work while I let my husband handle the "cooking".  Besides baking frozen shnitzel (breaded chicken paddies) and serving pasta with ketchup, he managed to whip up a tasty simple vegetable soup. He simmered carrot, onion and celery with garlic powder and salt in plain water.  A good start and very welcome on a cold day.  Especially with the Israeli staple, "soup nuts".

I've also been playing with Windows Live Movie Maker, which I downloaded on my gorgeous new hand-me-down laptop.  Thanks dad!!  Below is a remix of my fish videos beginning with how to make a homemade mayonnaise-type sauce for fish. 






Below is the video of the lemon cutting method I mention in the video, followed by a pictures of the shuk at night, as promised.

Let me know what you think of my editing skills (or lack there of)!  I hope to have some new dishes and ideas up before you can say "Polly Locket picked a box of pickled olives."

Our Olive Adventure Part 2: Pit and Soak

Part 1 challenged you to find olives.  The first step toward making your fresh olives into tasty, edible olives is to remove the oleuropein, an extremely bitter compound.  It's a miracle anyone figured out that olives are edible.  I challenged my poor, innocent, son to try one of the raw olives, and he swore he would never eat my olives and there was nothing I could do to make them tasty (see video below).  We'll just see about that!


My friends' mom says that the minimum time it takes to get tasty olives is about four years.  I've come across a few options for speeding up the process.  You can crack olives with a mallet or stone, like Sarah of FoodBridge or slit them open with a knife.  I chose to try pitting my olives.  I haven't seen anyone do this.  I'm not sure if it will lead to mushy olives, or if it is just considered less gourmet, but I happen to own a cherry pitter, which was itching for some excersise this winter.  I have tried to use it on olives from a can, and it works much better on firm, raw olives.



My pitted olives began in a baking soda bath.  I used 4 tablespoons of baking soda per cup or 1/4 liter of water. 

The video cut out, but I went on to pour some water and baking soda into the tall jar, put the olives in, fill the jar to the top with the solution, then shove in a silicone cupcake/muffin cup to keep the olives submerged.  I covered the jar loosely and changed the solution four times over a week.  After that I switched to plain water, which I changed every other day.  The olives are currently still in plain tap water while I wait for an opportunity to buy more salt.  (I used all my salt for curing my black olives.)

Tomorrow I plan to transfer the olives to a brine in small jars using Sarah's curing method.  I've done a lot of research, and her formula seems the best for my purpposes.  However, I'm not interested in having spicy olives, so at least for the time being, I'm going to stick to just salt and vinegar.  Stay tuned!

Avocado

Israeli avocados have very thin skins and large pits.  They are delicious, but if you try to use the usual methods of spooning out the meat or peeling them, the skin breaks apart and makes more work.  Hannah K. of CookingManager.com sent me this avacado video from Risa from Isramom.blogspot.com.  I was very exited to try it!



You can make a quick and delicious avocado salad with 1 to 1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice, one small clove of garlic, and one tomato per avocado.  Below is a video of Hannah making avocado salad in my food processor.  Lesson learned: know your equipment.  I cut out the part where she had to fish out the chunks of tomatoes and cut them by hand before putting them back in the food processor.  Hannah has a Magimix, which I remember hearing excellent things about on the Splendid Table.  If I want to make a non-mushy avocado salad in my low-end processor, I need to start with smaller pieces of tomato.

Pressured

Soltam Pressure Cooker 8L

The first time I was in Hannah K.'s kitchen, I saw a pressure cooker sitting on her stove.  Ever since I realized  normal, modern people use pressure cookers, I've been a little obsessed.  My husband saw me browsing pressure cookers online a couple weeks ago and said, "If you buy that, we won't be able to afford food to go in it."
After what seemed like a never-ending and downright abusive summer, winter stormed into town yesterday morning.  In the afternoon I was simmering black-eyed peas and thinking about broaching the pressure cooker subject again, when my husband came out and said, "You can buy a pressure cooker."

www.bookdepository.com

The pressure cookers made today are much safer and quieter than their predecessors.  I've been doing lots of research and many pressure cooker owners were recommending books by Lorna Sass.  I couldn't choose just one, so I am purchasing Pressure Perfect and Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure.  I don't use many recipes, but I like cookbooks as reference and educational texts, and these seemed to fit my needs for a reliable pressure cooker tutorial.  In addition, with a pressure cooker, you can't stir, watch, taste, and feel your food as it cooks, so I thought that I could use some instruction to keep from ruining a lot of food or my cooker while I'm getting the hang of it.

I've determined I want an 8 qt pressure cooker, if I can afford it, but I'm not sure which one.  Do you have any experience with old fashion or modern pressure cookers?  Do you have any cookbooks you can't live without?

UPDATE:  I've done a lot of internet research and checked out some local pressure cookers.  I just determined that the Israeli brand, Soltam, may be the same as Fagor (but $50 more).  I'm currently waiting for my books to arrive before I commit to a purchase.  But my current leader is this Fagor set on Amazon: