Have a Taste of Intimacy and Romance on New Years' Eve

Until not so long ago, going out on New Year’s Eve, was like winning the lottery – almost nonexistent. The kids were still young, and finding a babysitter was like finding the winning ticket.

 Every mid- December I would contact every female age 15-65, and try to ask, beg, or manipulate someone to stay with my kids.

One year I decided to beat the system: I notified the hubby that we are going to a top notch restaurant, and he should dress appropriately. On the big night, I put on a skimpy LBD, perfume and jewelry and found my husband waiting in his suit looking again like a groom. I invited him to enter our dining room, where candles, flowers, a nice tablecloth and beautiful tableware were awaiting..
 Yes my friends, I made a New year cocktail party for hubby and myself!   Bye-bye begging, Adios bribing babysitters. I went into the kitchen and made some great tasty small things to greet the New Year with style. And you know what? It was romantic, and I celebrated the beginning of the new year with the person I love the most.

Sometimes in life we simply can’t go big and celebrate the way we fantasize. Life gets in the way. It’s important then to think out of the box and find a way to have a special moment in mundane situations. If you don’t have time to cook something?  Simply buy cheese, nuts, olives, crackers and wine, dress nicely and make the effort. I bet you that your significant other and you will not mind that you are by yourself.

I think that welcoming the new year without  some type of luscious chocolate is impossible, so here is Debby Puentee’s recipe for espresso crème brulee. it's sweet, yet grown up, creamy and crunchy at the same time. Somewhat like the coming year with all it's flavors and life itself. Happy New Year to you all!

Espresso Crème Brulee

2 cups heavy cream

1 tbsp instant espresso powder

5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

6 egg yolks

3 tbsps sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup sugar (for topping)

chocolate-covered espresso beans for garnish

 

1) Heat oven 300°F

 2) In a medium saucepan, bring the cream and espresso powder to a simmer. Do not boil!!!

Whisk to help dissolve the espresso granules.

3) Remove from heat and add the chocolate

while the cream is still hot. Mix until smooth and set aside.

4) In a large bowl, whisk the

egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla together. Slowly add the chocolate mixture to the egg

mixture, whisking to combine. Strain through a sieve. Ladle the custard into six cups

(custard cups, tea cups, ramekins, you name it) and place in a water bath. The way to do it:

5) Boil water in a kettle and when the oven is ready, set roasting pan with custard filled

ramekins on the oven rack and carefully pour the hot water into the pan. Take care

not to let the water splash up and into the custard  Bake until the custard is set, but still jiggles in the middle. This takes

about 40 to 50 minutes.
6)Remove the pan from the oven and let the

custards cool IN THE WATER BATH. Remove from water bath and refrigerate for at

least two hours.

 

7)Before serving, sprinkle a couple of

teaspoons of sugar over each custard and either torch it with a propane torch until the

sugar bubbles and caramelizes.

 

Amada Restaurant: The Art of Tapas

 

A romantic getaway to Atlantic City landed us in an excellent restaurant of one of the best chefs in the United States.

 Jose Garces, won Iron Chef America after defeating chef Jehangir Mehta . A year before, he defeated Bobby Flay as a challenger in an episode that was featuring melon, and this is when I vowed to one day eat this chef’s food. You can imagine how delighted I was to see his restaurant while planning a weekend that included all play and no shame at all.
 Amada, in the Revel hotel, is also the name of Garces’ first restaurant that he opened in Philly in 2005. It’s a Tapas style restaurant.
 We entered this beautiful place, and were seated in a private and romantic “cabana”. While examining the menu I saw that one can choose tapas from the huge selection, but chef Garces also offers his own recommended selection. In a case like such, I always opt to having chef’s recommendation. The reason behind it being that I want to eat what chef is proud of. I also chose to pair with wines that were recommended with these dishes. I was really tempted to try the Sangria ( They have three types: red, white and rose’) but I chose the wine pairing.
This was the beginning of a culinary journey that embarked us on a taste, texture, aesthetic adventure. Tapas are small plates and we kept getting these palette teasers to our  table. From Aged Manchego cheese with thinly sliced apple and lavender honey to Serrano ham to flat bread with shrimp, chorizo and garbanzo beans puree as beginners. We continued with Spanish octopus and potato confit, Spicy potatoes, and unbelievably sweet scallops. The jewel in the crown was the Iberian pork , that is only served in three restaurants in the U. S. I am not a big pork eater, simply because I didn’t grow on pork. This pork, which is what Kobe is for beef, was succulent and could easily compete with any steak in any upscale restaurant. It was accompanied with a fragrant mushroom risotto with truffle oil. I cannot begin to describe to you how it introduced us to new flavors. We don’t get to eat a lot in restaurants and say: wow! This was something new but we did and it was fabulous. I don’t remember which desert was served. It was after that pork, that’s all I can tell you. We came out of the restaurant feeling great, and didn’t even blink at the check, which is about $100 per person.

I recommend it with all my heart. This chef is very accurate in the way that he presents flavors to his diners, and that makes the experience a truly great one.

על השולחן בעשר דקות. איך זה בשבילכם?

הערב הייתי במצב של אפיסת כוחות מהולה באפתיה קלה...
אבל ארוחת ערב היתה חייבת להיות על השולחן כשהחבר'ה חוזרים מהפעילויות.
מה עוד שרציתי אוכל שיהיה עם ויטמינים לאזן את הזבל שנאכל בבית הספר...
היו לי אפס רעיונות, לא זכרתי להפשיר שום דבר . בקיצור, בעיה.
הצצתי במקרר וראיתי קופסה של עלי תרד שהתעלמתי ממנה כבר כמעט שבוע.
ראיתי גם גבינה מלוחה. בהשראת מתכון של חברה.
נורה נדלקה מעל ראשי! יש
פסטה ברוטב תרד . לקח בדיוק 10 דקות והילדים והבעל מאד אהבו.

בבלנדר לערבל:
2 כוסות תרד
1/2 כוס שמן זית
כפית מלח
שן שום אחת או שתים לפי הטעם

להכין את הפסטה החביבה עליכם - אני הכנתי ספגטי

לסנן ולערבב עם הרוטב. להוסיף גבינת פטה ששברתם לחתיכות, רצוי צרפתית.

תהנו חברים

What To Eat- Part One

A few months back I told you about my new year’s resolution: to eat and live healthier.I promised you to research and give you the details about what could be reliable changes in our nutrition. I was sure that a week later, maximum two, I'll be able to write and tell you all about what to eat. Little did I know that I committed myself to reading a lot of studies about nutrition, and trying some of them so I can see how they affect me. I also had to let all this information sink in so I can find the theme/s that are in common. And here went by 6 months…

I would like to keep my promise to you. I’d like to share some of the methods that impressed me the most, tell you about new researches in nutrition- some of them are that largest and longest that were ever  held in the world and thus groundbreaking.
I think that I will dedicate each post for one method. That way you might be able to read about them and maybe try them out. I do not promise to tell you everything about each method.  My goal is to evoke your curiosity and maybe have you tell yourself if it makes sense to you or not.

I am not following any of these methods to the letter. I tried to derive from each one of them what made sense to me and what I thought that I can do in my own life.After I will tell you about these methods, I'll share with you what I am doing, what I am shooting for.I would love to hear from you if you have anything do comment, ask, or share.

When I started my journey (way before I even understood that I am embarking on one) I stumbled upon a book that later I found out was part of a method. The name of this book is: Green For Life by Victoria Butenko. To learn more about Butenko and her family: http://www.rawfamily.com/recipes
The importance of this book to me was that it it asked the question: What are human beings supposed to eat and hjow do we know it? Lets face it, we completely lost our natural instincts to just know what we should eat. We are the consumers of whatever we are told is good for us by parties with economic interests and by other confused humans with good intentions. What are we really supposed to eat? How much? How much of each nutrient?
Yes, we have science on our side, but shouldn’t we just know what’s good for us like every other animal knows? And if science is that great in this aspect, why do we still suffer from chronic diseases such as cholesterol, diabetes, not so shiny hair, not so strong nails when we hit our fifties? Yes, we live today until we’re almost a hundred years old, but in what condition? I am not so keen on sitting at the age of hundred on a wheelchair with some tubes coming out of me, thank you very much!
The author of the book, was just as confused as me. She decided to take a look at the diet of an animal that is genetically the closest one to humans, and compare it to what we eat. Certain African chimpanzees are 94% close to us genetically and their diet consists of: fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, green leaf, and some bark. Butenko was amazed by the amount of dark leafy greens that they ate, and by the way they chewed their food to a paste consistency. These observations led her to conclude that the human diet should consist of raw greens, fruit and vegetables. In order to mimic the paste texture, she created green smoothies with lots of green leafs such as spinach, kale, lettuce and mixed them with some fruit or vegetables so they will be fit to our modern taste. She is the “mother” of all green juices that even Whole Foods is selling today. Later, I found out that she was influenced by Dr. Ann Wigmore. Dr. Wigmore treated patients for 40 years and found out through experience that eating raw plants has an extraordinary effect on her patients’ health. You can read more about her: http://annwigmore.org/

Main pointers of these two methods combined:

1)      Green leafs are the most important diet change of all!- They are described as super foods, and one should eat as much as possible of them with emphasize on variety. Victoria Butenko sees them as a separate food group from vegetables. The green leafy vegetables should be eaten with fruit. In nature, you see that the chimpanzees roll fruit in leafs and eat them this way. The leafs help the fruit to be digested. More than that, Greens are a great source of protein that is easy to digest. Each leaf is a source of a single amino acid and therefore we should eat different kinds of greens. Greens also have lots of fiber and as such they help in digestion by absorbing poisons from our body and removing them out of it.
Regular western diet recommends 10 gram of fiber daily. Mrs Butenko recommends 70 grams daily. Sounds like too much? Chimpanzees eat an astonishing amount of 300 grams daily and they eat much less garbage than someone on a western diet, right?
Greens elevate the level of alkalinity in the body. Many studies tie high acidity to a array of illnesses among them cancer.
The big problem is that we are required to eat at least 2 pounds of leafs daily and that is how the green smoothies and the green juices come in to the picture- you can put a large amount of greens in them and just drink.
2)      Dr. Ann Wigmore based her diet not only on green juices but on wheat grass juice in particular. Wheat grass has the most amino acids and a lot of vitamins and if you drink a small amount of it, it counts as your daily amount of greens and vegetables. It’s supposed to be a superb cleaner of the digestive system which by her observation was the source of many serious illnesses when it doesn’t function as it should.It's really a magical plant and you can read about it: http://www.foodalive.org/articles/wheatgrass.htm
I drank it and It tastes horrible! It’s very acidic and when you start drinking it, you should drink one ounce.You can also mix it with other fruit.Even though it’s not tasty and never will be, it s so good for us that  I recommend having it whenever you can put your hands on this green!
3)      In a nutshell: Eat raw, eat plant based, sprout your grains, drink green juices and feel great.
4)      This method also puts emphasis on the connection between looking younger and healthier to what you eat.The claim is that when you eat raw only, you get rid real quickly of swelling, allergies, bad breath. It might be easy to laugh about this idea but to me it made a gut feeling sense:
Sure! My food affects my looks. Victoria Butenko even goes further and describes cases of people whose grey her changed back to dark hair, and she explains why pre mature aging is connected to eating too much animal protein.- An interesting concept in the age of no carb /protein is king diets.

That's it, boys and girls. You do not have to agree with Butenko and Wigmore's conclusions but you have to agree that their questions are valid. I wish you from the bottom of my heart to "have a wonderful think"!

Stockton Farmer's Market in NJ- A Nice Weekend Day Trip

I am a huge lover of farmer’s markets, and I try to check them out whenever I have a chance. I love buying produce from the people who actually make it; I love talking to them and seeing if they are proud in what they are selling or indifferent. I make a decision to buy or not partly by that factor. I love of course finding the seasonal, sustainable, organic, free range, grass grazing food- words that should make everyone happy. But I also love people’s creativity and what they make and sell with so much care and pride.

That is how I got into the car with my family and went all the way to Stockton Farmers Market in West NJ. It’s a year round market that operates indoors during the winter. http://stocktonfarmmarket.com/

From the outside it looked slightly disappointing: I thought that I got into a small store but once we got inside, we found a much bigger space that had so many wonderful farms, and vendors participating. Since my whole family shares the curiosity of trying new food we got to try a large variety.

We started off buying some local French feta cheese, and Califon Tomme, a semi soft raw mixed cheese that was aged in a cave for 3 months.

Then we spotted the Mexican stand El Mariachi.  Being back from a vacation in Mexico recently my kids were ecstatic. One quesadilla was immediately devoured, and then a vegetable tamale- excellent! I also bought an aromatic and dark mole sauce and I am planning to cook some chicken in it.

As we were sitting there my carnivore husband spotted the acclaimed Mighty Quinn BBQ where they sell mini sliders with fatty goodness. He bought a sample of each offering: Smoked brisket, pulled pork. We were unanimous that the smoked brisket was heavenly. If you want to read more about them: http://www.brooklynflea.com/2011/11/16/featured-vendor%E2%80%94mighty-quinns/

We also had a Mexican hot chocolate with ice cream in it from Half Pint Kitchens- One cup was too much for all four of us- that is how rich it was but it’s delicious. Mexican chocolate, cinnamon and cold ice cream- how bad can that be???

At this point we were a bit tired from all the tasting but then we spotted two more wonderful vendors.

One is the Tunisian guy from Mediterranean Delicacies from whom we purchased red mixed Zaatar- a mix of Zaatar, Sumac, and Fennel, Roasted sesame seeds, Anise, Coriander, Cumin and salt. It’s delicious on the feta cheese and on bread with olive oil which we of course bought from him because who can resist a man who tells you that his family has an olive grove in Tunisia and they bring it from there?

The second was oh so charming! Simple Living 101 http://simpleliving101.net/- This guy makes home-made jams, pot de crème, and cute red velvet cakes in these beautiful jars…  My son had one taste of the vanilla pot de  crème and knew it had to be his.

It was a fun day; we tried many things and met passionate and nice vendors. Highly recommended.

New Strategy of Survival: Weekly Meals Plan Ahead

I love to plan ahead. This is why I am almost embarrassed to admit: I never planned ahead our family meals. Every week I'd to go to the market and pretty much think about future meals while looking at the products. Problem was that once I got back home exhausted from the shopping, standing on line at the cashier’s register and arranging it, I completely forgot the wonderful meals that I invented.  Come Monday, and I am scratching my head what to make for my picky family.

Not anymore! After a few friends told me that they are planning ahead, I decided to give it a try.
I drew a tablet and started to put in lunch and dinner meals. One meal being lighter than the other.
The reason I plan these two meals is that you cannot imagine how many times I had only one meal prepared, and found myself getting them a take out for the other.
It took some thinking but after about 15 minutes I was done and went shopping accordingly.
I have to tell you that two days passed and my children and husband don’t know exactly what happened but they are extremely happy. More than that, I am happy.  I don’t mind cooking; I justmind coming up every day with a new somethin’.
Here are some advantages to planning ahead:
You can utilize leftovers smartly. If your kids are like mine, they don’t want to eat what they had yesterday. But I outsmart them by cutting the chicken leftovers, mixing with rice, adding a vegetable or a spice and voila! A new meal.  With this kind of planning, I can find a creative way ahead of time and not depend on my creativity de- jour.
You can balance the family’s meals. I can check if my kids are getting all the fruit, vegetables, proteins and grains that they need.
You can diet easier. By thinking about you meals ahead at of time when you are not hungry, you can make better choices also for yourself. Make meals that make you happy too, and ask yourself if you have a leafy green a day, if there is a variety of vegetables, if you are using lean protein, having fish at least once a week and all these question you will never ask when you are tired or hungry and want immediate satisfaction. Buy accordingly and the whole family will benefit.
You can raise your children’s awareness to balanced meals. Go over the weekly plan with them. Ask for suggestions; explain why you chose those foods. If they are going to school chances are they had health classes and they know the basics of balanced meals. It will be nice for them to see how you use these considerations in everyday life. Maybe when college days will come, they will order a salad instead of these fatty salami sandwiches and avoid those dreaded freshmen 15 extra pounds.

If you are curious to know what is on my first ever weekly menu. here is a sample:

Last Wednesday:  vegetable dumplings for lunch/ Israeli salad with schnitzel.
Yesterday: Roasted broccoli with some parmesan shavings+ pasta/ dinner: Stir fry chicken and all of my leftover vegetables- carrots, the broccoli from lunch, mushrooms, cabbage etc’.
Today: They will get veal shanks because it’s part of a dinner I am cooking, roasted vegetables, and a Panini with salad for dinner.
Tomorrow: Mini meatballs w spinach and Sapgetti/ shakshuka (eggs in tomato sauce), salad, yogurt

As you see, I am playing with frozen items (such as the excellent dumplings), leftovers, and easy solutions such as Panini to make life easier and quicker without giving up flavor and health.

Iron Side- The Beauty of Cooking With a Cast Iron Skillet

Many years ago a kitchen wasn’t a kitchen without a cast iron skillet. Then, suddenly, these wonderful tools were replaced by aluminum, and other more modern cooking solutions.

I love cast iron skillets. And cast iron pots. And cast iron Dutch ovens. They are cheap ($30 a pot), easy to use and the results you get on the stove and in the oven is incomparable to any other pot. Plus, they will survive after you- that’s how durable it is, and I know a few people who have their grandmother’s skillet and they claim that the best results are achieved in grandma’s pot.

So why is it not as popular as it should be? I think that people today don’t have the patience that cast iron requires: It needs seasoning. You can’t just throw it into the dishwasher. But in fact it’s really easy to prepare a cast iron skillet for a long relationship and maintain it.
When you first get the skillet, pot, griddle you will need to season it. Seasoning means that you have to smear it with oil and put it in a 350F oven for one hour. After that first time, you are good to go.
Iron and water do not go together well, so when you want to clean the skillet after you used it, you can rinse it quickly with soap and water and immediately dry it and coat it with a bit of oil.
The traditional way is to throw into the skillet kosher salt and let it absorb the oil, wipe it and then coat it with oil. You have to smear a very small amount of oil every time after you use the skillet.
If you didn’t dry the skillet well and it developed rust, scrub it with steel wool and re season again.
It will be good as new.
Here are a few facts:
Although everything from Dutch ovens to cactus-shaped cornbread pans comes in cast iron, nothing is more versatile than a basic skillet. Either a 10- or 12-inch will do.
There's only one thing you shouldn't attempt in cast-iron cookware: boiling water, which will cause the pan to rust.
Cast iron takes longer to warm than other surfaces but retains heat remarkably well and diffuses it evenly.
Cast iron remains hot long after you remove it from the stove. As a reminder to be careful, drape a thick towel or a mitt over the handle.
Cooking in cast iron increases the iron content in food. The longer the food is in contact with the skillet, the more it absorbs.
Since you can bake, deep fry, sauté in a cast iron skillet I am giving you only 2 of my favorite  recipes to enjoy and will give more in future posts:

 Pan seared rib eye steak:

1 boneless rib eye, 1½ inch thick. Room temperature- Take it out about an hour before you want to cook but no more than 2 hours!
 Kosher Salt, black pepper
Canola oil to coat
Place the skillet (10-12 inches) in the oven. Heat the oven to 500F. When it reached temperature,
remove and place on the stove on high heat. Lightly coat the steak with oil on both sides and season generously with salt and black pepper. Immediately place the steak on the hot dry pan. Cook 30 seconds without moving. After 30 seconds turn to other side and cook again without moving 30 seconds.
Place the skillet immediately into the oven for 2 minutes. Then flip and bake for another 2 minutes.
(This time is for medium rare. If you want medium- give 3 minutes on each side.).
Remove the steak from the pan, cover loosely with foil, and let rest for 2 minutes.

Cast iron skillet corn bread

1 1/4 cups coarsely cornmeal                    1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup whole milk                                     3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk                                             1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten                                   1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 stick of unsalted butter, melted                 2 teaspoons baking powder

 Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and place a 9-inch cast iron skillet inside to heat while you make the batter.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Whisk in the milk, buttermilk and eggs.  Whisk in almost all of the melted butter, reserving about 1 tablespoon for the skillet later on.
Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F. Coat the bottom and sides of the hot skillet with the remaining butter. Pour the batter into the skillet and place it in the center of the oven. Bake until the center is firm and a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes and serve.