How to Make Potato Latkes

Hanukkah really caught me by surprise this year.  Never in my lifetime has the holiday come so early. In fact, the last time Hanukkah came this early in the year was during the late 1800’s.

I certainly don’t want to make potato latkes (potato pancake) for Thanksgiving dinner. We always make the same potato dishes every year, at that time, and they have become a tradition.

So I’ve decided since Hanukkah comes at sundown this evening, this will be our latke day—tradition demands it. We will light the 1^st Menorah candle, say our blessing, and have our latkes with applesauce, or sour cream. Perhaps some barbecue chicken, steamed broccoli, and a salad would work well.  It won’t interfere with the preparation of cranberry relish or Waldorf salad which need to be chilled for Thanksgiving dinner.

Tomorrow’s dinner should be finished when it’s time to light the second Hanukkah candle. We will celebrate with a dessert—Pumpkin-Pie Cake (posted on this blog last year).

Then time to spin the dreidel!

     

Potato Latkes

 Ingredients:

      5 medium potatoes

      1 medium onion

      2 medium eggs

      3 tablespoons flour or matzo meal

      Salt and pepper to taste

      Vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

1. Peel potatoes and place in bowl of cold water until ready to prepare latkes.
2. Grate onion and potatoes alternately using large holes in grater.  Press out as much liquid as possible.
3. Blend potato mixture with eggs, flour, salt, and pepper.

4. Heat skillet with 1 inch of oil to medium high. Drop mixture one tablespoon at a time into skillet. Brown on both sides and drain on paper towel. Serve with applesauce or sour cream.

5. If there are leftovers place on a cookie sheet and freeze. Store in zip lock bag and keep frozen until ready to use.

6. To prepare later, heat oven to 450 degrees, place latkes on cookie sheet and heat until crisp. Do not store in frig or they will become soggy.

                                                 HAPPY HANUKKAH!

Bananas Foster

 October is still a good month to have a cookout in Virginia. Recently we had a nephew from out of town come to visit. He is single and eats out all the time, so he jumped at the chance to have a homemade meal.

When he arrived, at our home, the steaks were marinating in the refrigerator. The pasta salad—one of our favorites—was soaking in a succulent sauce of homegrown herbs, homemade purple basil vinegar, and olive oil. The green bean casserole was sizzling in the oven sending off the aroma of mushroom onion gravy.

All day long I had procrastinated the making of an apple crisp. That new bag of crisp apples would just have to wait for another date. Too late to bake anything and so I opted for a quick but delicious dessert I hadn’t made in years—“Bananas Foster”. While the guys tossed the steaks on the grill I set up the ingredients for my opulent dessert. This easy surprise is prepared start to finish in 10 minutes!

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons of butter

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup of your favorite rum

3-4 golden ripe bananas

Good quality vanilla ice cream

Whipping cream

In a medium size saucepan melt butter and add brown sugar. Stir until bubbly and pour in the rum.  Slice bananas the long way and add to the saucepan. Saute the bananas until soft and slightly browned then remove from heat. Place two scoops of ice cream in each of 4-5 stemmed dessert cups and top with your decadent Bananas Foster sauce. Add some whipped cream if you wish, and serve.

This mouth-watering dessert will hit the spot and everyone will want seconds or the recipe, so they can try it at home. You know, I bet it would be good made with peaches instead of bananas. What do you think? If you try it with peaches let me know how it turns out.

Borsh from Yulia's Kitchen

When September is here the chilly mornings give me a yearning for warm soup. Last weekend our daughter-in-law, Yulia, cooked up a batch of Borsh, (sometimes spelled Borsht). This is the recipe her Russian mother and grandmother prepared when she was a girl. The aroma of the beet red broth, fragrant with chicken or beef, often fills our house throughout the fall and winter. Hearty root vegetables of the north are used to prepare this never to be forgotten delight with: beets, potatoes, and carrots. Onions, garlic, and herbs intensify the flavor. Try it with a dollop of sour cream and serve with hardy peasant bread or croutons. But watch out, you could become addicted!

 Thank you, Yulia, for introducing me to your Russian delight, Borsh.

Ingredients:

Meat (chicken--skinned and deboned or beef stew-meat) 1 ½ pounds.

Place meat in medium pot and cover with water until 2/3 filled. Bring to a medium boil and reduce to a simmer. (Cook chicken for 10-15 minutes or slowly simmer beef for 60 minutes) Remove from heat and cover.

Prepare vegetables while the meat cooks:

1 large or 2 medium beets peeled and shredded  

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1/3 cup shredded carrots

½ cup chopped sweet onion

1 small can tomato paste

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon Creole seasoning

1 tablespoon salt

2 cups shredded cabbage

1 cup peeled cubed potatoes

1 bay leaf

Ground black pepper to taste

Ground oregano to taste

1. In large skillet add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. Heat, add beets and simmer for 3 minutes.

2. Stir then add carrots. Continue to stir for another 3 minutes.

3. Add onions and stir for a minute.

4. Add tomato paste, turn heat to low and mix in cumin and Creole seasoning. Stir well and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Cover with a well fitting lid and remove from heat.

5. Take boiled chicken or beef from pot and cut into cubes. Skim foam from broth.

6. Add salt and cabbage to broth. Bring to a simmer and let cook for another 3-5 minutes.

7. Then add cubed potatoes and carrot-beet mixture from skillet. If water has evaporated from broth add more until pot is 2/3 full or 2 to 3 inches below top of pot. Mix well and bring soup to a boil.

     8. Finally add cubed chicken breast or beef to pot and return to boiling soup.

     9. Lower temperature to slow simmer and add 1 bay leaf, pepper, and oregano to taste.                         

     Cover partially allowing steam to escape. Cook for another 10-12 minutes.

      Remove soup from heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

   10. Serve with fresh chopped parsley and top with a tablespoon of sour cream. Amazing!

This is labor intensive but well worth it. I promise it is a soup you will never forget.

Guacamole, Texas Style

I lived in the Midwest for years and never tasted an avocado until I was an adult.  I bought it at the grocery, took it home, and called a friend for advice on how to eat it. She said just cut it open, sprinkle it with salt, and add a little Italian dressing. Well, it was hard, I cut it open, and one bite convinced me I didn’t like avocados.

A few years later I moved to Texas and had my first guacamole. A new friend, Diana, invited me to her house. I watched as she made a big bowl of that tangy spicy dip. She squeezed the avocado and her thumb made a slight indentation. She explained that it was just ripe enough. She cut the avocados open, removed the seeds with a twist of the knife and scraped the soft insides out with a spoon. Then she squeezed the fresh tart lime over the soft concoction, sprinkled it with salt and used a fork to mash it—not too much. Next she chopped the sweet East Texas onion, ripe tomato, and diced the jalapeno and garlic. At last she sprinkled in some seasoning. When she was all finished she dropped one of the avocado seeds into the dip and covered it—a little secret that keeps the dip from turning brown. Since then every time I go to a Mexican restaurant or serve Mexican food at home, guacamole is on the menu, and I never forget the seed. Follow this advice and you are guaranteed great guacamole from a true Texan. Thanks Diana!

                                          Diana’s Guacamole

Ingredients:

4 avocados (ripe)

Juice from 1 lime

½ diced sweet onion

1diced medium ripe tomato

½ seeded, diced Jalapeno (or small can of green chilies if you can’t take the heat)

2 cloves minced garlic

¼ cup fresh chopped cilantro

½ teaspoon ground cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Serve with your favorite fresh tortilla chips. Don’t forget your seed and it will keep your dip fresh and green until you’ve devoured the last bite.

If you wash and plant the seed you can have your own avocado tree. I’m not kidding. We planted two seeds in February and now one of the trees comes almost to my neck!

Dilled Humus Spread

During the heat of the summer I like to make lunches that require little to no cooking.

I’m particularly fond of vegetables fresh from the garden—cucumbers, ripe juicy tomatoes, radishes, peppers, carrot strips, and sugar snap peas. I used to buy hummus quite often for dipping these delectable edibles, but have decided to make my own hummus since I found the missing recipe in a card file recently. I’ve made it twice in the last two weeks and it doesn’t last long. It is high in protein, low in calories, easy to make, delicious, and fits into the no-cooking category. Even my grandchildren love it. Find the blog entry for “A Beautiful Pea Green Boat” for another way to feed it to your children.

This recipe for Dilled Hummus came from a friend that I met in Texas. She was originally from Iran and invited me to her home for dinner quite often. This hospitable lady shared many recipes with me and this was one of my favorites.

  

Ingredients:

1-15 ounce can of garbanzo beans rinsed and drained, (or save money and buy them dried and cook them yourself.)

¼ cup tahini (or substitute 3 tbsp. peanut butter, and 2 tablespoons sesame oil)

3 tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 tbsp. olive oil

2 minced garlic cloves

2 teaspoons fresh chopped dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill weed (not dill seed)

¼ teaspoon salt

dash of pepper

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
2. Place in small serving bowl and sprinkle with more dill.
3. Serve with toasted pita bread cut into wedges, or tortilla chips and crudités of your choosing.

 

4. Or why not try this? Place hummus along with your favorite veggies in a pita pocket and top with sour cream or a Greek style cucumber yogurt dip.
5. Take this in your lunch and you’ll be the envy of the peanut butter and jelly crowd.

Cracker Caramel Cookies

A couple of weeks ago we went to my family reunion. As always, I kept an eye out for new tasty recipes to post on my blog. Since most of my family lives hours away, we spent a lot of time on the road. We stayed two enjoyable nights at my sister Lucy’s place. The first night we sat around the kitchen table, talking about old times and snacking on a bag of “Cracker Caramel Cookies”. Dylan, one of my grandsons, brought them along with chocolate chip cookies for the reunion. My daughter, Becky, (Dylan’s mom) made them. The “Cracker Caramel Cookies” didn’t stand a chance. They never made it through the night. When we arrived at the reunion, we arranged the other bag of cookies on a plate and placed them along with the other desserts and no one even knew about the cookies we devoured the night before. Thanks Becky!

Now I must say there were many tasty dishes: Johnnie’s barbecue beef and pulled pork, Lucy’s deviled eggs (I sprinkled them with dill weed), Wilma’s cowboy beans, Elaine’s giant chocolate chip cookies, and Lois’ famous Chinese salad. All the guests just out-did themselves.

There were great stand bys: potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw, and desserts aplenty. Who made that fabulous dessert? I think it was called “Better than Robert Redford” back in the day. It had whipping cream, butterscotch pudding and a crust on the bottom. But this one had fruit and nuts—I think. What was it and who made it? Let me know and I will post it. Meanwhile I will give you “Becky’s Cracker Caramel Cookies” recipe.

                                             Cracker Caramel Cookies

Line a large cookie sheet with foil. Set the oven to 425 degrees.

Ingredients:

1 1/3-1 ½ packets of saltine crackers

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter

1-12 ounce bag dark chocolate chunks or chips (or your favorite chips)

1. Place crackers evenly on foil covered cookie sheet.
2. Measure and combine sugar and butter in small pot and place on medium heat and cook until bubbly. Drizzle over crackers.
3. Place in hot oven (425 degrees) for about 2 minutes until sugar mixture is bubbly. Remove from oven.
4. Pour chocolate chips over hot caramel and place back in oven for a few seconds.
5. Remove from oven and spread chips evenly.
6. Place in freezer until cool. Remove from freezer, break into chunks, and store in zip lock bags.

I know you’re going to love these, but control yourself or they will never make it to your reunion, or picnic, or party….

Picnic and Reunion Fare—Brown Rice, Tomato and Basil Salad

The 4^th of July reminds me of picnics and family reunions with cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews galore—the perfect time to catch up on the latest family news and savor the recipes you remember from your childhood. I will be attending these celebrations this summer and will be looking out for some new recipes to add to my repertoire. May you also have the joy of family and friends to share your picnics and reunions.

This year I’ll bring some healthy salads to have with that pulled pork barbecue. Try this Brown Rice, Tomato, and Basil Salad with your vegetables straight from the garden.

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups water

1 cup long-grain brown rice

2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 tablespoon white wine vinegar

2 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound ripe tomatoes chopped into ½ inch cubes

1 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat water, salt, and rice in medium sized pot and bring to a boil. Stir once, reduce temperature to a simmer and cover. Cook for 40 minutes until water has evaporated. Turn heat off, cool and transfer to a large serving bowl and fluff with a fork.
2. In a small bowl whisk: vinegar, sugar, and olive oil. Poor over cooled rice.
3. Add chopped basil and tomatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Make at least six hours ahead. Cover and chill or place in refrigerator over night. Bring to room temperature to serve with your favorite picnic fare.