bloviatrix

No new places that I know about. What's the name of the place on Mott? And where is it exactly? We did eat at the cafe at Makor (67th btw CPW and Columbus) several weeks ago. Blovie ordered fish and chips were pretty good. I had the onion soup. I was expecting a traditional onion soup with the cheese and crouton, but this was different. Very rich flavor, but I think some of the onions were scorched because I sometimes got a burnt aftertaste. I can't remember what our friends orders. It's a very casual dairy place. Prices a pretty reasonable. The problem was there was only one person working both the bar and the serving so things moved slowly (and we were in a rush to catch a movie). We ate our way through South Florida at the end of January and are still recovering. I know this is the wrong place, but there are some excellent kosher dining options down there. I can't wait to go back next winter as I didn't get to Juliette or Cine Citta which are both branches of Parisian restuarants.

Being that I had never tried a yeast hamentaschen, I stopped into Moshe's this afternoon and got a prune one. To quote Blovie "it's nothing more than a triangle danish." I've got to agree with him on this one. Although, it was pretty tasty.

And then there's the flagel - which is a bagel which is just crust. No doughy center.

I spent the better parts of Wed and Thursday cleaning my stove in prep for my forthcoming week of Purim baking so by the time Friday rolled around, I was burnt out. Thank god for the freezer and take-out! Dinner friday night was curried coconut-butternut squash soup, veal schitzel (with the crispiest crust I've ever managed!!), green beans, kasha varnishkes (courtesy Blovie), cranberry-tangerine relish and grapefruit for dessert. Lunch today was chopped liver, skinless southern fried chicken, cole slaw and more kasha varniskes. And, the oven still needs more cleaning. I know remember why I rarely make potato kugel -- it's a pain in the ass to remove baked-on fat.

One of my good friends is part Syrian. We've decided that after Passover we're going to get together and make all sorts of syrian delicacies such as sambusak (which I've once attempted), kubbeh, lahmajin, etc. I'm very excited about this prospect.

Here's a piece on Hot Truck from The Splendid Table http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/where..._hottruck.shtml

It's a little untraditional, but no reason you can't try it. Another good filling for rugelach is to brush the dough with melted raspberry jam and then sprinkle with chopped chocolate.

This recipe is actually for gingerbread men but it works very well for hamentaschen. Here's the recipe: 4 cups all-purpose flour 1 tbl ground ginger 2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg 1/2 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter (I use margerine to keep pareve) 2/3 cup light or dark brown sugar 2 large eggs 2/3 cup unsulfured molasses 2 12 oz jars of apricot butter 1. Place dry ingredients (except sugar) into mixing bowl and stir well to combine. 2. In mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time until the mixture is smooth. Add half the flour mixture. The stop and scrape the bowl and beaters. Pour in molasses. Scrape again, and add the remaining flour mixture, just until combined. 3. Divide dough into serveral pieces and press each piece into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Chill at least 1 hour or until firm. (Personally, I just wrap the whole thing in saran and break off pieces to roll out) 4. Preheat oven to 350 5. Roll out dough and cut with floured cutters. Spoon/pipe apricot butter into center and form into hamenaschen. Place on cookie sheets lined with parchment --allow for expansion. Scraps can be rerolled (it helps to refrigerate) 6. Bake about 10 minutes (in my oven it takes about 8). The cookie will be a little soft. Makes abour 70 hametaschen, using a 4 inch round cookie cutter These actually get better with age because the spices intensify.

I've wanting to go over there for the past week or so (I need a botnim americayim fix). Maybe I'll get there early next week. The fig sounds intriguing. Thus far, the plan is one batch of gingerbread-apricot (one batch yields about 70). And I'll make one plain batter and fill those with prune and cherry. I'm going to dip some of the cherry ones in chocolate.

That looks fabulous. I'm going to have to try that version. One of my favorite things to make in the warmer months is to pan roast whole rainbow trouts smothered in charmoula. It's wonderful served both hot and cold.

It's always nice to receive great press. Congratulations.

That looks amazing. Thanks for making the sacrifice of eating dessert. Neil, would you please share your recipe??? Pretty please? And for the ice cream, too? I love the idea of pumpkin ice cream.

I found cherry butter at the market yesterday. Of course I had to buy a jar for "experimental" purposes. I'm also tossing around the idea of dipping some of them in chocolate. I also bought cute preprinted boxes for the mishloach manot. And Blovie found plastic containers printed with Happy Purim on them and filled with candy corn.

Did they have anything new and interesting on display yet? I love the Englewood store... great stuff. Major pain to park there during normal business hours, though. They carry the full Abeles and Heymann product line, too. ← I couldn't get down the aisle it was so crowded with people working -- they had a bunch of distributors there trying to get prime spots for their products. From what I could tell, it was still mostly empty shelves. I hit the store at about 11:15am yesterday Was done by noon. No problems with parking. Plus, I found a short line for check-out and there was no wait for my EZ pass reimbursement.

Do you want to make a "cake" cake meaning it has a crumb, or would a mousse cake do? Alice Medrich has a cake called Chocolate Deception which is very rich and has no dairy. It also is very low in fat.

L'chaim.

How's this for a sign that Passover is officially around the corner.... I was in Shop-Rite (supermarket) in Englewood, NJ this morning and they were in the midst of the converting the entire kosher aisle to Passover products.

Stay away from this wine. We had it last week and poured out most of the bottle. It tasted like alcoholic sugar water. No fruit whatsoever!

BTW, if it's not to much of a schlep for you, Gotham Wines (in Manhattan) will be holding their 2nd annual wine tasting. I believe the date is April 10th. It's a wonderful event as most of the kosher distributors and some fo the winemakers are there and you can go from table to table trying many different wines. Their phone number is 212-932-0990. The guy who handles all the kosher wine is Costas.

I'm strongest on Bergen County, but you should be able to find a store with a strong kosher wine selection in West Orange.

If you're willing to go up to $30, try the Baron Herzog Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley. It should be available for $25/30. I've never been dissapointed with this wine and it will be perfect with lamb. Some other thoughts inclue the Roberto Cohen Cotes-du-Rhone Special Reserve. I've also had some really good Tishbi wines lately. A couple are out of your price range, but you should be able to find something for less than $30. Where are you? If you're in the metro NY area, maybe I can point you to a good wine store.

I don't find them on Seder Olam. If their web site doesn't give certification, they most likely are "kosher-style"

We're going out for dinner tonight. I made a pot of beef stew for tomorrow's lunch.

Catering??? What's catering? If we're home everything gets done from scratch. Neither my mom or my mil believes in ordering in. Of course, it's easy for my mil since I do most of the cooking. Now, I will admit that during chol hamoed Blovie and I pick up prepared food but that's because we're home for so few days it doesn't pay to switch the kitchen over. Of course, we're going away this year for the whole thing (I love saying that ) so I guess it's a type of catering.

If you can't find coconut milk in the store, it's very simple to make at home. Get dried, unsweetened coconut. Put in saucepan with an equal amount of water and bring to boil. Let cool and steep for a bit. Then puree in blender. Strain through cheesecloth (you want to squeeze all the liquid out). Voila! Coconut milk.