Pam R

My knish dough is basically a strudel dough (though for strudel we'd dust it with bread crumbs before rolling. The original recipe I worked from called for slapping the dough on the table 100 times but that just didn't make sense in a commercial kitchen. We did some side-by-side testing and found using the dough hook and letting the machine run for 8-10 minutes resulted in basically the same end product. Using the heated pot is interesting and not something I've ever tried -- but I never refrigerate the dough. You want it to be warm and soft and easy to gently stretch across the table.

When I was a kid we called these flying saucers and it was part of our camping gear. White bread and some form of cheese product cooked over the campfire -- or more often over a lantern in the tent as it rained outside.

Do you put the sliced pears in the sandwich? If so, before or after the sandwich is grilled? I'm a sucker for plain, salted potato chips at any time, which is why we rarely have them around the house. I agree that they play nicely off the grilled cheese sandwich. I put them in before I grill the sandwich -- for some reason I don't mind the warm pears but hate warm tomato slices so add them after grilling. If I'm really ambitious (which I rarely am because the grilled cheese is a great short-on-time, quick, comfort food thing) I might even toss the pears in a little (very little) cinnamon sugar. Like you might for a baked brie.

If I'm feeling fancy, smoked gouda with sliced pears is delicious. On rare occasions, I've used mango chutney with a variety of cheeses and really liked it. I rarely have soup with a grilled cheese, but there's something about plain (salted) potato chips that works as a side.

Thanks for the suggestions - I've got a few things to try now. I did check and the spray I have is Method, but it's not getting rid of everything. And I've tried the spray and wait technique. I was raised by a mother who loved Comet for EVERYTHING -- so I think I may start with trying to find the non-abrasive Comet and then go from there. I wonder why my counters pick up stains and others don't . . . (I have Blizzard white counters btw)

@rob1234 what do you normally use to clean it? I can't think of the brand at the moment, but I've been using something that says on the label that it's good for quartz, yet it's definitely not doing a fantastic job.

Isn't the whole (maybe not the whole, but a good part of the) point of quartz the fact that it's low maintenance and doesn't need to be sealed? And what about the marks that are already on it?

I have white quartz (Caesarstone) counters that I love, but I've noticed that they tend to pick up some light stains. Though I try to wipe up any spills as fast I see them, sometimes you just miss them. And things like tea, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce seem to leave spots even if you catch them quickly. Yes, I've googled this but have found some differing opinions on how to handle stains, and I'd rather not ruin my counters. So, I'm wondering if anybody has any solutions that you've actually tried that work without harming the surface.

My goto is challah and old cheddar. Butter the outside of the bread. When the bread is nice and toasty and the cheese is melted, carefully pull the two sides apart and slip in a few slices of tomato and lots of thinly sliced green onion. Simple. Comfort.

I don't know if this counts as a "whatever" but a good blueberry coffee cake with a layer of brown sugar/cinnamon in the middle is perfect as it is. And this one might seem a little strange, but for Passover I make a chocolate chip chiffon cake (using potato starch and cake meal) and it needs nothing else.

Reading some of my post from past years, I realize that we don't vary the menu much from year to year. Tonight, pre-fast dinner will be a rib-roast, cornish hens, kasha, roasted vegetables and maybe a mushroom and onion kugel. Lots of beverages. Tomorrow, for breaking the fast, our family will do dairy. My aunt hosts, and always starts with a soup. Usually a milky vegetable soup, but rumour has it she's changing it up this year. We always have some form of sweet yeast baking (last year I made blueberry filled buns, this year it will be cinnamon buns). Cheese kugel, fish (halibut I think), salad and ratatouille. Assorted baking and tea to finish. But ice cream sounds like a great idea. Maybe I can talk the family into that for next year.

Shana tova! Just wondering about the gribenes. . did you leave them chunky or grind them up? (From the picture I'd guess they were ground in there. . but the texture of chunkier pieces could be good.) We made about 80 pounds of chopped liver this year, but it was not so fancy.

I don't mind ecookbooks. On the rare occasion I find myself cooking from a cookbook, I generally copy the recipe onto a piece of paper to take into the kitchen -- I can do the same from an ebook. The one thing I LOVE about ecookbooks is the search function. If I'm looking for a specific recipe. it's much quicker (for me) than finding it in the index, assuming it's well indexed.

I made a batch tonight - mostly for a family dinner tomorrow night, but I have to say the BEST latke isn't served with sour cream or apple sauce --- it's eaten right out of the frying pan (well, after blotting with paper towel) au naturel while the rest of them are sizzling in the frying pan. What kind of potatoes do you use?

Bourekes - triangles (or rectangles) filled with any number of things. Popular fillings are potato and golden browned onion, mushroom and onion or leek, spinach, cheese, spinach & cheese, cheese and olives, etc. etc. Whatever you can think of.

Somehow, more than a dozen lamb briskets / breasts found their way into our freezer. These all have the ribs (what we would call Denver ribs) attached to a good chunk of meat/fat. I've taken some notes from this topic, but was wondering if there were any more ideas for the meatier part of this cut. I've made ribs plenty of times, but I've never had them with the brisket attached.

I struggle with this. I used to pick up interesting books at places like TJ Maxx at cut rate prices and then I'd feel bad about it knowing the author doesn't get their cut (and have seen one of my own books in the Canadian version of TJ Maxx which made me rethink things). Same thing at bookstores that sell books for 70% off the list price or more. When the books are being sold for so little, the author generally does not get much in royalties (I mean, they get even less than they would normally, which in most cases is just a small percentage of the sale price). I now try not to succumb to temptation. I do love real books - I love to buy books and curl up on the couch and read through them like novels and I still buy plenty. But, I am trying to get used to ebooks. One solution I've found is printing off a recipe from an ebook to take into the kitchen with me -- and it's actually a time saver because I'd often write out a recipe from a cookbook to take into the kitchen rather than taking the book. I use Kindle and using their cloud reader (https://read.amazon.com/) I just copy and paste a recipe into word to print it out. I don't think I'll ever stop buying real printed cookbooks, but I'm learning to work with the e-versions. And, as a writer, I highly encourage everybody buy books or e-books at full price.

I love dill with carrots and potatoes. Simply boil some new potatoes and dress with butter/olive oil, salt and a lot of finely chopped dill. Do the same things with carrots or make a carrot/dill soup. Delicious. And as Jason mentioned above, I always add dill to my chicken soup.

It's been a few years since I tried to bake macarons because my last attempts were such failures I refused to try it again. Then, about a month ago I decided to try it again, did a little reading and now love baking them. Last night I sent 20 dozen to an event we were catering (please excuse the quality of the image taken with my phone). One thing I can't do is pipe the batter. I find it's too loose for me to have good control over it. Instead I use a small ice-cream scoop to get them the same size and basic shape.

As far as I know, the meat filled kreplach were usually served with soup. It was a great way for our peasant ancestors to stretch any leftover meat and make it into another meal. My father says that his mother would occasionally brown them in oil to be eaten on their own, but that was rare. Cheese filled, on the other hand, are often served boiled and then browned in butter. With lots of sour cream. At least around these parts. BTW, here's a link to a kreplach tutorial I did for eGCI a few years ago: Kreplach link

Really enjoying your blog - thanks for taking the time to share with us. I've spent time in Israeli and Egypt but not Lebanon -- it's really interesting to see how many things are so similar, yet different. Language question: is zeit the general word for oil or is it specifically olive oil?

You need one with a "power-plus" element (Frigidaire pro line) - I often make chicken stock with frozen bones/pieces, fill large pot with cold water and it's simmering in 15-20 minutes. I'm with Chris on this one - love my smooth-top. (Plus, er, there's no gas in my building.)

I don't have a set recipe -- we never used one. Just boiled up some egg noodles in salted water, drain, add butter, cottage cheese, sour cream and salt to taste. Now, if you take that and add some eggs, pour it into a greased pan and bake it you have a lockshen kugel with crispy bits (always served with more sour cream and often served with frozen strawberries in syrup).

What kind of dough do you use for those?

BTW, I'm curious. Does everybody use matzo meal in their latkes? I never have - just use some flour.