cakewalk

There ya go. Perfect. Will we ever stop fighting the Civil War?

He passed on the bagels & fish and you wonder whether or not he's Jewish? Oy vey. And what's a peach Danish anyway? Peach? Puh-leeeeze! If he were Jewish, even if, for whatever bizarre reason, he didn't want a bagel, he'd take one anyway. For later.

Forgive my stupidity, but are we talking about NYC ? (I don't see any way to know....) ← You're right, there's no way to know. Sorry. Chalk it up to NYC-egocentricity, because it is NYC.

Y'know, there are times I read this thread and I shake my head, thinking: yuk, ohmygawd, how can she possibly eat something like that? And at other times, I will read the exact same thing and think to myself, wow, that's exactly what I want, right now! <Sigh>

Just noticed this thread, perhaps because I just bought a copy of the French Laundry cookbook today. I might even cook something out of it one day. But the thing that pushed me to buy it might interest some of you: it was on sale for $9.99 at Jack's World on 32nd Street near 7th Avenue (upstairs.) There were also several copies of Bouchon, and a few copies of Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, also for $9.99 each. So hie thee!!

There always seemed to be a Yerushalmi kugel at any type of event or party I went to when I was living in Israel, and they always disappeared fast. I don't ever remember them being particularly oily, which makes me wonder about the recipe in the paper. (I don't eat the stuff, because I don't like caramel flavor at all, it's one of the few things in the world that actually makes me nauseus; although I have tried to like Yerushalmi kugel at various times because it is the "boasting point" of many people, as in, "my mother makes the best Yerushalmi kugel ever.") Anyway, Yerushalmi kugel is a bit different than what we think of as kugel. The only real similarity seems to be that it's made with noodles (thin noodles, at that.) One of the big deals about Yerushalmi kugel, which I don't think was even mentioned in the article, is the way it is cooked and the way it is cut up. It's usually cooked in a deep pot, often in a bundt pan (or a "wonder pot," a unique Israeli item which allowed you to bake on the stovetop, because many people didn't have ovens) and, because it is so high, it is cut in layers. (It's hard to explain, and if one of you who knows what I'm talking about can help out with this description, I'd appreciate it.) Say the kugel is about six inchies high. For the first round, you would slice about two inches vertically into the kugel and then start cutting horizontally, or actually very slightly diagonally, going around and slicing off a piece every couple of inches or so, until you came back to your starting place. At this point, because you were slicing on a slight diagonal, you'd be a couple of inches below the starting point, and you just continue cutting around like that until you reach the bottom. The bottom layer is the most favored, because that's where most of the sticky, burnt caramel-sugar is. (If you like that sort of thing.) This cutting process has always been a "major draw" of the Yerushalmi kugel for me, and somehow if the kugel is baked in a regular flat pan where all you have to do is cut it into squares, it just isn't quite right. I think kugels, in general, are one of those wonderful results of the ingenuity of the poor. Potatoes were plentiful in eastern Europe, noodles weren't a big deal to make. Add an egg and some matzoh meal, salt and pepper, and voila! A pie for the whole family to enjoy. I don't think they knew from pineapples in their kugel. That came much later, with availability of the product and ability to pay for it, in the "new world." (Every time I hear of blueberry kugel I think of blueberry bagels. ) Shana tova everyone!

Besides the room in the freezer issue, for me it's the time issue. I don't bake all the time, and I don't bake professionally (to say the least ) Often in the evening I'll find a recipe that I want to try (I find it relaxing to read cookbooks), but I'm too tired to go through the whole thing, or I don't want to stay up that late -- mixing the batter, baking it, letting it cool, storing, cleaning up, etc. takes time, and if I'm just starting out at 8 or 9 in the evening, well, I usually just don't bother because I don't want to get to bed too late. And I've often wondered if I could just mix up the batter and freeze it and then bake it at some later point. I suspected that it wouldn't work, so I was also interested to hear if anyone could explain why it would work (if that were the case.) DiH -- you've certainly given me the message I wanted to hear! I think I will give it a go.

My gut reaction was also a "no," with no reasoning behind it, but since I'd really like the answer to be "yes" I figured I'd ask. I figure someone here has to know more about this than I do, and I could learn from someone else's experience rather than my own. (IOW, I don't really want to experiment and have it fail ) But I will eventually if there is no answer.

Can cake batter be frozen, then defrosted several days, weeks, or even months later for baking? If so, does this cause any changes in the way the cake bakes? This seems preferable to baking and then freezing the cake(s) because of considerations such as room in the freezer, but mostly, for me, because of time considerations. Has anyone ever done this?

Rising Matzah? Aren't there rules against that? If it's okay, can you send the pesto/roasted vegetable kugle recipe my way? I made a lot of pesto last weekend (a yearly ritual at the end of the basil season, it gets frozen in ice cube trays and whatever), and using some in a kugel sounds like a great idea. A while ago on a thread (about latkes?) someone mentioned a parsnip/sweet potato latke. I was too lazy to go through the frying routine, so I made a parsnip/sweet potato kugel. It was very good.

On Sukkot there is such a major emphasis placed on "where" we eat, that "what" we eat is almost irrelevant. Whatever you're eating -- even if it has maple syrup on it -- just make sure you eat it in the Sukkah! And that means breakfast, lunch and dinner, so we're talking about a lotta food here. It's also a seven day holiday. So, you get the idea. The specifics of "what" seems to have totally given way to the importance of place. So this is really an opportunity to get the creative cooking juices flowing, so to speak, as there doesn't seem to be any real food tradition to stick with (or rebel against.) Just eat!

As Lenny Bruce would say (I am sure he would say it), maple syrup is goyish! Just sprinkle some sugar on that challah French toast, and all is well with the world.

I've heard of mayo in chocolate cake recipes, but never made one. The linked recipe has three eggs in addition to a cup of mayo. That seems like overkill to me (no pun intended.)

Me as well. I had an egg salad sandwich for lunch. ← Did you put any potatoes in that egg salad? I vote no eggs in my potato salad. Why ruin a perfectly composed dish of carbohydrates? But very heavy on the onions (or scallions, the white parts), tons of fresh pepper, and I much prefer olive oil than the whole mayo route. (Actually, I'll eat potato salad any way you serve it to me. )

I would love to see advertisements for McDonald's, Burger King, et al. in which every single person in the ad was obese. They don't have to change anything else. They can all still sing and dance and smile and talk about how much they love the stuff. But every one of the people in the ads should be obese. I wonder what that would do to sales?

Interesting, the "Strufoli-Tayglach Connection." The main difference between them seems to be that with strufoli, the pieces of dough are first deep-fried in oil and then added to a honey mixture. With Tayglach, the pieces of dough are cooked directly in the honey mixture. Since it's just pastry dough and honey, I guess it shows up in a lot of different cultures. But it's interesting that both tayglach and strufoli are particularly holiday treats, they're not "regular" desserts. (Personally, I've always hated tayglach. My teeth squirm just thinking about all that honey.)

Wow. And here all this time I thought it was an Irish thing. Ususally the only way to remedy such ignorance is through education. I mean, the waiter could have responded with a smile and some brief information about the recipe. (Actually, maybe he did; but that wouldn't change the fact that the woman was downright insulting.) But sometimes I find (and this is not just connected to food issues, not by a long shot) that people want to remain ignorant about certain things.

Lovely, such lovely photos. About the eggplant, this is what I heard a while ago. I have no idea if it's true or if it's an old wives tale, but it sounds good: eggplants were originally white and that's how they got their name, since they did resemble eggs. The purple ones evolved much later and I guess they just took over (don't know why, perhaps white eggplants looked too bad if they were bruised, whereas the purple eggplants don't really show it.)

I've been fighting the urge to buy an ice cream maker for some time now (I can sit and eat ice cream all day, and I mean ALL day), but that photo is pushing me in the "buy it, buy it!" direction. And the combination of that ice cream with a glass of wine is one I would never have thought of, yet they look like they are absolutely born for each other. And that's only post #1! I'm very much looking forward to the rest of your blog.

Did you leave a tip? (Congratulations!)

I think it sounds like Sam was just having a bad day. It happens. It doesn't sound like an attempt at punishment at all. It sounds like something I might do in the throes of some serious PMS -- but with a name like Sam, I'll assume that wasn't your problem! Pure conjecture, but I'd guess that if you were in a better mood you would have spoken directly to the server, she would have apologized and taken your plate back, and then would have re-served you with some good food. The guys at the counter probably had no idea which server was yours, so didn't know who to return the plate too, so just left it alone. (Is it still your favorite ethnic place?)

That's precisely why they're convenient. I don't think convenience foods are necessarily negative, although they often carry that connotation. I appreciate convenience. A lot. But there's often a trade-off, and the question becomes -- what are you willing to give up for that convenience? Taste? More money?Everyone draws the line at his/her own place, of course. I buy bagged spinach and, less often, bagged salad greens because I know I'll eat more of it that way, so it's worth it to me. It's convenient. To others, it might not be.

I have wonderful memories of my grandmother's borscht. Unfortunately, I don't have her recipes. I remember that it was sweet/sour, I do remember that it had a bite to it. But, just to respond to the request for regional differences, I remember that in our house borscht was a drink, not a soup. We drank it cold from the refrigerator, in glasses, and the best part was getting to the sliced beets on the bottom, which were eaten with a fork. I was an adult and out of the house before I ever heard of people eating borscht as a soup! (But I now love it that way as well.) We usually had it with dinner, which was invariably meat, so we never added sour cream or yogurt to it. (I love to do that now, mostly because of the magnificent magenta color it creates.) My grandmother was from Poland, the city of Plonsk, which is not far from Warsaw.

Thank you, Mayhaw Man. (I had no idea.) And yes, putting those into a fritatta is indeed inventive.

What are poppers?