I Cooked: Enchiladas!

I cooked! I have to say that I'm pretty proud that over the past month, I've made as many meals as I did when I was living on my own back in Chicago and fell in love with cooking. Veggies and spices and kitchen messes oh my! Taylor is quite the health-nut veggie like me, so it makes meal-planning and eating a lot more exciting knowing that I can finally share my food with someone!

Tonight was Creamy Spinach Enchiladas with a Red Cabbage Salad. I revamped the original recipe, which was dairy, to make it vegan (parve) and, luckily, it's gluten-free if you buy the right kind of corn tortillas!

Ingredients
10 corn tortillas, warmed (the recipe called for eight, but I had filling for 10)
10 oz. frozen, chopped spinach thawed and drained
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1.5 cups Daiya vegan cheddar cheese (original recipe was regular cheddar)
1 cup So Delicious Original Coconut Creamer (original recipe was regular heavy cream)
2 cans green chiles
salt
pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. 
2. In a large bowl, mix together the thawed spinach, corn, one can green chiles, and 1 cup of the Daiya cheese. 
3. In a small bowl, mix together the creamer, one can green chiles, and 1/4 tsp of each salt and pepper. 
4. Heat up the tortillas. 
5. Place about 1/3 cup mixture in each tortilla and roll. Place seam-side down into a shallow baking pan. 
6. Pour the creamer mixture over the top of the enchiladas and top the entire dish with remaining 1/2 cup of Daiya cheese. 
7. Cover with foil and bake for 10-15 minutes until sauce is bubbly. Remove foil and cook another 5-10 minutes. (Daiya cheese won't brown, but regular cheese will.)
8. Enjoy!

For the salad, take a large red cabbage and quarter it. You'll need about 4 cups of thinly sliced red cabbage, which is about 1/4 of a large cabbage, and two thinly sliced scallions. Throw the cabbage and scallions into a bowl with 2 Tbls olive oil, 2 Tbls fresh lime juice, and 1/4 cup papitas (I just used regular sunflower seeds). Mix up with a bit of salt and pepper, and eat!

I'm whipping up a simple dessert right now: Blueberry Crisp Ramekins. Some blueberries, sucanet, gluten-free flour, topped with Udi's Gluten-Free Original Granola. Thatsit. Bam.

Edit: It's done!

Fall Food: Sweet and Savory

Because it's Fall, and because I love to cook (who would have thought there'd be a day), I'm going to sporadically share some of my favorite recipes with y'all. Here's the first, a Pear-Butternut Squash Soup, which came out a little sweet, a little savory. The yogurt and nutmeg give it that perfect creamy sweet sensation of fall. (Which, might I add, is super because despite it being fall, it snowed here in Denver today, so it's nice to have a little bit of autumn in my bowl!)

Ingredients
2 firm pears (I used a Bosc and Green Anjou), cut into 1-inch pieces
1 small butternut squash, peeled, gutted, and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Yogurt and nutmeg for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Put pears and butternut squash into a roasting dish and drizzle with olive oil. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes until the squash becomes slightly soft and starts to brown.
2. Meanwhile, in a good-sized saucepan, heat olive oil on medium heat and cook the onions until slightly translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Throw on some salt and pepper, and then add the broth and pear-squash mix. 
3. Simmer the goodness for about 15 minutes, then blend with an immersion blender.
4. Top with some plain yogurt (I used Green Valley's Plain Lactose-Free Yogurt) and swirl for looks, then sprinkle on some nutmeg and devour!

Pairings
Since I'm gluten-free, the only thing I can really imagine pairing with this is a good Hard Cider, like Woodchuck, which is both kosher and naturally gluten free!

Recipe adapted from Clean Eating's newest magazine issue!

A Gluten-Free Challah Worth Screaming About

I know, I know ... this blog is about all things Jewish. All things gluten-free belongs over at www.kosher-critic.com, but that is just how excited I am about this. Watch the video, love it.

PS: Tuvia and I agree ... if you threw some salt on these, it would be akin to eating soft pretzels. I don't know why, but this recipe screams "pretzel challah," and that is a-okay with me.




Best Gluten-Free Challah ... Ever from Chaviva Galatz on Vimeo.

What I Fed My Mystery Guests

The bake.

For the second time since we've been in the Teaneck community, we were privy to take part in Mystery Shabbat. It sounds a lot more mysterious and spooky than it really is, and it is simply a way for the greater community I live in to get to know one another. People sign up as hosts or guests, the sisterhood matches people, and you find out at shul who you're eating by. The hosts find out who is eating with them the moment they, well, show up at the door. It's an up-to-the-last-minute surprise, and it allows people not to decline or prepare for certain guests (aside from dietary restrictions).

We had two couples and a single over for Shabbat lunch, with a total of three kids (one child, one toddler, and one baby). The only restrictions? A dislike of gefilte fish (bummer, but resolved) and dressing on the side. And, of course, my gluten restrictions. Here was the menu I chose, and the crowd was mighty pleased. The item that got gone the quickest? The Crapple, the recipe of which I got from @wifeofmottel, I simply de-glutenized for my noshing pleasure. Dig in!

Crapple!

Homemade Challah yes, I make it and don't eat it

Salad with cashews and craisins with a Raspberry Vinaigrette

Gefilte fish baked with honey and cinnamon

Matbucha, chummus, and chickpea salad

Crapple an oat and flour crust, cranberries and pineapple, with an oat topping

Roasted Potatoes a simple blend of potatoes with rosemary and garlic, roasted

Butternut Squash Cranberry Bake my favorite standby

Tarragon Corn the easiest thing to make, even mixing tarragon into cooked corn

Sweet & Spicy Chicken a huge crowd pleaser

BBQ Turkey Meatballs crumb-less meatballs bound with minced onion and egg in store-bought sauce

Chicken

Dessert was provided at the community oneg, which was part of the ending of the Mystery Shabbat festivities, providing a way for everyone to get together with old friends and new friends alike. Unfortunately, no gluten-free goods for me outside of fruit. Next time? I'm going to make some Coffee Cake or Brownies or my beloved Chocolate Mousse Torte!

Cooking w/Giveaway, Susie Style!

Ever since Pesach 2008, I've been in love. The love affair has taken me to flavorful heights and through disastrous experiences. No, I'm not talking about my life since meeting Tuvia, I'm talking about my falling in love with the kitchen and cooking. I've always loved baking -- for me, it was easy to throw together cookies or a cake or some brownies. But cooking? It required knowledge of recipes and vegetables and spices and oils and other things I had zero experience with. Home was not a place where I was prepared for the big, bad world of food, so I took it upon myself to learn. I never wanted to learn to cook. After all, my original desire in a spouse was for him to be completely kitchen trained. I dated a few guys with skills that would put Martha Stewart to shame (Manishewitz in a pasta sauce? you bet!), but in the end, I need to figure it out for myself.

More than two years later, I consider myself pretty skilled in the kitchen. I've cooked for a few people, for two families with kids, for my in-laws ... you name it. I'm confident in the kitchen (except when it comes to serving, and then I sit on the edge of my seat waiting for pleased responses). But I didn't get here alone. I've had the help of my favorite Kosher cooks: Jamie Geller, Susie Fishbein, and the Internet! Thus, here begins an ode to one of my chef partners, Susie Fishbein.

I promise you, at the end of this post, there will be a giveaway for the book I'm about to discuss, so keep reading!

I received a copy of Susie Fishbein's upcoming (as in, today's its release) cookbook, the newest in the Kosher by Design series, Teens and 20-Somethings, and upon receipt I 3M flagged the heck out of it. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. At first, I was amused by the cover design -- a spaghetti squash with headphones ... how silly. But I wasn't completely sold on the concept. I flipped through the cookbook and the first thing I noticed was the layout and design, which, to be completely honest, I wasn't jazzed about. As a proverbial "20-something," I felt sort of ... talked down to. I know that this cookbook is geared toward a variety of ages and that the goal is for the book to appeal not only to the title's demographic but also to those cooking for them ... but the design just rubs me the wrong way. It reminds me of 1980s teen style. Bright colors, paint splatters, quirky phrases. It's just trying to hard. Susie gives party ideas in the back of the book with menu suggestions, and the party suggestions seem very, well, geared toward a 5-year-old. Again, I felt like the book was talking down to me. But is the point of the book the layout and design? Probably not. But aesthetics are big when it comes to appeal and selling points. But let's move on to the food. That's why you're here, right?

I decided to make a few things straight out of the book to get a feel for this edition and whether it rocks my world as much as the others I have purchased since moving to Teaneck. I opted for the Mexican Chicken and the Blondies, both which surpassed my expectations in ease of preparation, cooking time, and taste. The great thing about the new edition is that Susie took the time to label each recipe with its "free-ness." That is, nut free, gluten free (GF), dairy free, etc. Although the number of gluten-free recipes is minimal, I'm a firm believer that just about anything can be made gluten-free. Neither of these recipes were labeled as such, but some simple replacements made for an easy cooking experience.


The Mexican Chicken was a breeze (once my husband chopped up some chicken thighs because, well, we're in the Poconos and the chicken selection is limited in the kosher department). All I had to do was crush some tortilla chips (corn = GF), some corn flakes (GF), and put in some taco seasoning (of the GF variety), throw it in a bowl, then toss the chicken pieces in some salsa to coat and then in the chip/corn flake mix to coat, in a pan, bake at 350 and blamo. Twenty minutes later I had some nommy eats. I mixed up the sauce offered with it, which my husband used to mask the seeming "salsa taste" that the chicken had. He doesn't dig salsa, I do. We compromised. It looks yummy, right? It was, believe me.

Once the chicken was in, I got to work on the Blondies, which, I learned, are basically chocolate chip cookies in brownie form (note: this is my first-ever blondie attempt). It was a quick and easy substitution of Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose GF Flour with some xanthum gum, mixed in with the other bits and pieces of the recipe (you'll have to buy the book for this, folks), and ta-da. Blondies. Oh, and don't worry if you messed up -- I put (on accident) probably two to three times more vanilla that I should have. And? Even still: soft, moist, scrumdiddlyumptious. And I guarantee a stranger wouldn't know they're gluten free, either.

Evan really enjoyed the blondies. Really.

Overall, I'm excited about many of the recipes -- which range from drinks to desserts and include a variety of cuisine styles -- in this cookbook, including Orange Butternut Squash Soup (p. 56), the Pizza Soup (p. 62), the Amalfi Chicken (p. 102), and, especially, the Confetti Spaghetti Squash (there's a squash at home calling my name; p. 160). Oh, and, of course, there's the Cappuccino Mousse (p. 210) and the Molten Deep-Dish Chocolate Chip Cookies (p. 214) -- gluten-free-ified, of course!

So now you know there are good eats, are you ready for the giveaway? Read carefully!

1. This giveaway starts now and ends on Tuesday, November 2 at 10 p.m. 
2. One winner will receive their very own copy of Susie Fishbein's Kosher by Design: Teens and 20-Somethings.
3. How do you enter? I'm giving you two options. 
1. Pick your favorite recipe from the Kosher by Design series and post it to the comments, and tell me what you love about it. 
2. If you don't happen to have the Kosher by Design series on-hand, pick your favorite go-to recipe and post it to the comments and tell me how you found it and why you love it.
4. BONUS entry for those who also post a link to a picture of their favorite Kosher by Design recipe! (Note: you have to have made the food in the picture, no taking pictures from Susie's cookbooks.)

I'll post the winner late Tuesday night. And if you don't win? Never fear. Following this giveaway will be another giveaway of Jamie Geller's new cookbook, Quick & Kosher: Meals in Minutes.

Also, probably the coolest part of this post and the giveaway? Your access to the Kosher by Design Recipe Index! Seriously, the best invention ever! No need to look through all of your KbD books, just check out the index if you can't find a recipe.

Rocking Kosher Fest with Susie Fishbein!

Finally, a little ditty with goods and details: Preorder your copy today at ArtScroll.com – enter the coupon code KBDBLOG at checkout to save 10% and receive free shipping in the continental U.S. Join us online to find more reviews and giveaway contests! Kosher by Design: Teens and 20-Somethings: cooking for the next generation is aimed at the young and digital-savvy fast-food generation and those who cook for them. Susie Fishbein is an everyday cook who loves to share her passion for cooking and entertaining with friends and family. Her enthusiasm for food and entertaining led to the creation of her best-selling cookbook, Kosher by Design, published in 2003 by ArtScroll Shaar Press. For more recipes and updates, visit our blog or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

A Cupcake in Your Eye!

Just finished my Shabbat cooking ... the highlight? Gluten-free cupcakes with some delicious Pillsbury frosting (I'm lazy). Here's Tuvia, er, a cupcake.

The rest of the menu? Carrot Kugel with a GF Chex topping, Corn Kugel, Acorn Squash a la Fall, Roasted Potato Wedges ... and ... what else? Oh right. A Chicken, Mushroom, Onion and Rice thing I threw together in a Dutch Oven. Overall, I'm crazy stoked. If they work well, and you're interested, recipes will fly at you!

Od pa'am, Shabbat Shalom!

Shabbos, Here I Come!

Well, let's just say I'm stoked that it's nearly Shabbos, and that Shabbos is starting earlier (if even just a few minutes). This day has me knackered. (In the, geepers I'm exhausted kind of way.)

I spent my entire day cooking, cleaning, and preparing for our impending guests, the illustrious @susqhb and @ravtex, who are heading off to Texas in a few weeks. We're glad to host them, even if it means we won't be at the home of @hsabomilner (feel better, toots!). The place looks pretty darn good, I think, and there are a boatload of photos up on Facebook if you're interested.

The menu, of course, is what excites me. I dabbled a bit online, a lot with Susie Fishbein's "Kosher by Design" series, and a little in my own stash of recipes. Here's what the Saturday menu looks like.

(Homemade) Challah

(Frozen) Gluten-Free Heaven Mill Challah rolls (for me!)

Garlic Salad (Susie Fishbein; think kirby cucumbers, mushrooms, garlic dressing, etc.)

Gefilte Fish (to be served on my hand-made gefilte fish plate!)

Thai Quinoa (Susie Fishbein a la "Short on Time")

Teriyaki Rounds (Ditto, except in "Lightens Up") + Butternut Squash Casserole (This goes to Paula Deen)

Slow Roasted Tomatoes (Fishbein in the original "Kosher by Design")

Rosemary Roasted Potatoes with Shallots (Also in "Kosher by Design" the original)
Greek Garlic Chicken (Can't remember which cookbook, but it was K by D)

For dessert, of course, I have the delicious Chocolate Mousse Torte with some fresh strawberries!

I also put together some of Our Best Bites' Quick and Easy Creamy Fruit Freeze, which I look forward to having tomorrow night as a snacky snack.

Yes, it's a delicious bounty of food. Yes, there's just going to be four of us. But, you know, we're people who like food and it's all a lot of seriously fresh food (I love the local Farmers Market store), which is good for most of us (not Evan, who won't eat most of the vegetables anyway).

So Shabbat Shalom, and I'll catch you all on the motzei!