Recipe: Grandma's Sweet Potatoes

This has to my favorite recipe for Thanksgiving. In fact, I love it so much that I make it a few times a year. When Oh! Nuts offered me the choice of a product to use in a recipe I knew pecan halves were neccessary.

Ingredients

3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and steamed

1/2 cup sucanat

1/2 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1/4-1/2 teaspoon pepper (I prefer more pepper and a sweet-spicy taste.)

pecan halves

1/4 cup sucanat

4 tablespoons coconut oil

1. Mash sweet potatoes, sucanat, orange juice, and spices. 

2. Spread into casserole dish and top with pecans.

3. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of sucanat and dot with coconut oil.

4. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until sucanat melts and carmelizes.

5. Serve and enjoy!

FTC disclosure: I received the pecans from Oh! Nuts to use in a recipe.

Recipe: Savta's Silkah (aka Chard)

Every so often I make a dish that my husband declares is almost like his grandmother's. This results in many attempts to adjust the dish until perfection is reached. That's how this chard recipe came into being. 

I was making salads with the vegetables from the simanim for Rosh HaShanah and came across one for chard. Debate ensued about what chard is called in Hebrew because Aba's Savta only called it by an old Arabic term that no one could translate. He recalls her pulling over and picking the wild leaves by the side of the road. 

While the original recipe called for this dish to be served cold, I've found the texture and taste is better warm. If you want to serve it cold make sure you really cook the leaves. They should have a spinach-like texture with a hint of crunch from the stalks. If you are going to keep it on a plata/blech for Shabbat then cook until barely done as it will continue to soften as it warms.

I know its a little late to use for the simanim, but, if you are like me, you like to use the simanim in meals through the end of Sukkot. If you don't it is a good side dish and an excellent way to enjoy chard.

 Ingredients

1 bunch chard

3 cloves garlic, chopped

4 tablespoons olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

salt

1. Wash the chard but don't dry. Remove the stalks from the soft part of the leaves. Slice the stalks thinly and set aside. Chiffonade the leaves and set aside in a separate bowl.

2. Warm oil in a wide, shallow pan with a tight-fitting lid. Add garlic being careful not to brown or burn. Add chard stalks and cook until tender.

3. Turn heat to low and add the chard leaves. Just pile them on top of the stalks and garlic. Sprinkle with a dash of salt and clamp the lid on.

4. When the leaves have compacted, remove the lid and stir. Turn up the heat as needed to help the liquid evaprate, but be careful not to burn.

5. Add half of the juice and taste. Add salt and lemon as needed.

Baking with Batya

One of the things a lot of people have a hard time understanding is that multiples are not copies of each other. Each of the girls has a very distinct personality, interests, skills and abilities. Friday was another example of this.

As I prepare for Shabbat, the girls usually wander in and out of the kitchen looking for food, conversation and wondering what I am doing. Occassionally they will ask to help. Slowly Batya has become more interested in what I'm making and how I'm doing it. Last Friday she took the step.

"I want to help."

So we made Hamin. She chose what type of beans we used (white), how many potatoes (more), if we chopped the onion or left it whole (yuck!), how we cut the sweet potato (big) and how much of each spice we put it. Then she wrapped it up and turned on the crock pot.

I had already made most of the meal so there were just a few decisions left. Rice or couscous? Couscous. Meatballs or sausages? Sausage. Egg salad or deviled eggs? "Debilled." Then came the big question. What to make for dessert and breakfast?

We finally decided on banana bread with soft butter for breakfast (recipe coming soon) and cobblers for dessert. We couldn't decide which fruit from the freezer stash to use so we made one with Queen Anne cherries and one with mixed berries. We made the biscuit dough and assembled the berry cobbler together and then her sisters wandered in to see what we were doing so Batya got to instruct them on proper cobbler biscuit shaping and assembly.

That evening she helped put salads into serving dishes, set the table and chose which cobbler to serve. She shared her new skills with Aba who asked, "What did you make, Shira?" "Nothing. I watched She-Ra instead."

Review: KOL Foods

At Pesah I usually make a "resolution" around food. A few years ago it was salads, last year it was desserts for Pesah (and not buying a bunch of ready-made Pesah products) and this year it was to head back to our Traditional Food ways. As part of this, I took advantage of the KOL Foods buying club and stocked my freezer with pastured lamb and beef. How was it? Short answer: Amazing.

I used my regular meatball recipe (only substituting whole wheat matza meal for the bread crumbs) and they not only cooked up fabulously, they reheated without drying out. I ended up having to make another batch chol ha'moed because the girls devoured them and they asked to have it for Shabbat. Mind you, this was a recipe that was okay but not spectacular. Mainly I made it for the girls and because it was easy but no one was thrilled with it.

I also made a few lamb dishes. I used 8 pounds of lamb and have none left. What our guests didn't consume, the girls finished at lunches and Aba asked if I had any for meals where I hadn't planned to serve it. Shira has even asked me to make it again and in the past she has declared loudly, "I DON'T LIKE LAMB!"

I used to order from Golden West Glatt and preferred their meat over the markets, but KOL is better. 

They carry two lines of beef. One is American grown and the other is from Uruguay. I bought a mixture of both (depending on what was available for what I wanted) and couldn't tell the difference. (Yes, there is one based on the environmental cost of transporting beef from South America to the US as well as the support of American businesses and farmers. I'm just talking taste and texture.)

The price is higher than the market and there is shipping, too. Howeveer in our family we will save by not tossing leftovers that don't reheat well, are dried out or are just plain old because no one wants to finish it. I also have to say that I love having the freezer packed with meat so that all I can skip the kosher market for the most part and focus on supporting the local farmers markets.

Bottom line: I will continue to buy from KOL Foods and recommend it.

If you choose to try out KOL Foods, contact me for a referral link. You and I will get a $5.00 coupon. Win-Win! Also, if you are local to me and want to make a combined order to possibly save on shipping, let me know.

Bad Planning

My freezer is full.

Packed.

Stuffed to the gills.

As part of my attempt to have fun this summer and not become overwhelmed with September's holidays, I undertook a major preparation, preserving and packing campaign. I wrote out a month full of menus for July. I cooked a month's worth of rice and quinoa. I soaked and sprouted a month's worth of beans. I hulled, pitted, washed, peeled and cut the various batches of fruit picked or bought for a steal at the farmers market. I cut apart six chickens and repackaged a month's worth of meat. All of this got labeled and put into the freezer.

As we use up the weekly produce, I save the bits heading towards decay. I chopped onions, carrots and garlic and sauté them in some coconut oil. I whiz melon in the blender, strain and pour it into ice cube trays. Left-over chicken bits are picked clean. All of this is packed into jars, bags and boxes and head into the freezer.

I am using what I freeze. Last night Aba finished off the last of the grapes, the girls had watermelon popsicles and I removed 2 pounds of ground beef, some veggies and buns for dinner. I did put 2 more meals' worth of sloppy joes into the freezer, though.

The problem lies with space and containers. I've written out a schedule to prepare the main proteins and baked goods for the Yamim Noraim and Sukkot. (This year they come early and fall Wednesday night to Friday night. Adding in Shabbat, we have three day blocks September 3 to October 3.) This week I should be making six batches of Moroccan fish. But where shall I put them? I don't have any of the ingredients in the freezer to remove.

Even if I switch it with next week's cooking (cookies) it won't help. I don't have flour in the freezer so I'd be adding instead of taking.

I'll have to play around in both freezers and see what room I can make. And add more containers to the budget.

That said, there are less than two months until Rosh haShannah. If you are like me and want to have time to prepare yourself and your children for the beauty of the Yamim Noraim and Sukkot now is the time to start thinking about menus and cooking.