Ever thought of marshmallows as cute? You will now :)

Mucho deliciousa!

ROASTED GARLIC SPREAD

1. Take 9-10 bulbs of garlic and top and tail the cloves, leaving the fine skin on.
2. Chuck in a roasting tin with generous amounts of olive oil and sea salt
3. Roast for an hour or so, until the cloves are golden brown and can be easily squished by a fork.
4. Remove from the oven, pop out the soft inside from the skin and mash together with any oil that remained in the roasting tin.
5. Enjoy, it is addictive. Can be served warm or room temperature.

4-strand challah braiding instructions...

Gluten-Free (Flour Free) Delicious & Simple Peanut Butter Cookies!

 

Ever had a guest with special dietary needs and you fell short? It's not a great feeling. Now with this simple recipe you'll be able to offer wheat-free guests or guests with celiac disease a real treat. And in fact, you can whip these up at a moments notice if need be! Just be sure to set some aside for the guest for whom they were actually made, because if you're not careful the rest of the family will gobble them up, they're that good!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsweetened peanut butter
• 3/4 cup sugar (original recipe, via glutenfreegirl.com calls for 1 cup sugar, but we all found these a bit too sweet)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 large egg

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F (200C)
2. Mix ingredients manually with a spoon to form a ball of dough.
3. Line a cookie sheet or tray with baking paper.
4. Form about 30 balls, rolling each one in regular sugar before placing on tray.
5. Bake for roughly ten minutes, checking frequently to avoid burning.
6. If you have the time and want to make these even more special, drizzle with melted chocolate, or dip half the cookie in melted chocolate. Wow!

Note: I forgot to flatten cookies with a fork, in the traditional peanut butter cookie manner, so that's why my cookies are a bit dome shaped. Also, I forgot to use the baking powder and they were still good. I'm interested to make some more with the baking powder to see the difference! Enjoy.

Here’s a colorful seasonal alternative to traditional potato latkes:

Take your favorite latke recipe and substitute an equal amount of shredded parsnips and carrots for the potatoes (if you want them to be even more colorful, you can also add shredded zucchini, if you don’t mind that zucchini isn’t seasonal this time of year for most of us). The result is a lighter, more flavorful latke, and the parsnips and carrots make for a sweeter, more complex flavor than traditional potato latkes. Not to mention you can pretend you’re eating healthier because you’re eating veggie latkes instead of all those carbs (just forget about the whole fried in oil part). Chag sameach!

Chocolate and olive oil? I hadn't thought about it until I tasted the chocolate olive oil pralines made by Elie Tarrab, an amazing chocolatier in Tel Aviv.

These are adult brownies – dark and smooth, with a background taste of olive oil. For a sophisticated dessert, use a round pan and cut the brownies into wedges. A fruity but not-too-strong oil like Israeli Nabali or Picual is wonderful in this recipe.

4 ounces (100g) unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup fruity extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

¾ cup sugar

 ¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup lightly toasted chopped walnuts, hazelnuts or pistachios (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Line an 8-inch (20cm) square baking pan with parchment paper and spray the paper and sides of the pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Melt the chocolate over low heat in a double boiler or on low power in the microwave. Whisk in the oil and the vanilla.

Beat together the eggs, sugar and salt with an electric mixer until pale and thick. (A hand-held mixer is fine, but don't skip this step.) Whisk in the chocolate mixture. Fold in the flour and optional nuts, stirring just until everything is combined. Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. (A toothpick inserted in the center should still be a little sticky.) Cool completely and cut into squares.

16 squares

via http://www.healthyjewisheating.com/

I was served this dish on Friday night, it is light and tasty and doesn’t take long to make.

1 zucchini per serving
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
thyme, basil or rosemary
salt

Wash and peel the zucchini lenghtwise. In a small bowl, mix 3 tbsps olive oil, 1 tbsp vinegar, salt to taste and the herb of your choice. Brush the zucchini slices with the mixture.

Put the zucchini slices in a baking tray and bake at 480° F for about 20 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn over the zucchini. Serve with the remaining sauce.

As you probably figured out by now, I really like Ina Garten. I watch her on the Food Network all the time and own one of her cookbooks, Barefoot Contessa at Home. Every time I look through it, I bookmark more recipes to try. The day after I put a post it on her pavlova with mixed berries recipe, I watched the episode where she made meringues chantilly with roasted berries. I liked the idea of everyone having his or her own serving. I also liked the fact that the berries would be roasted instead of just fresh, especially because the raspberries I had were frozen (yep, from the same batch as the raspberry jam). I also found some packaged strawberries in the freezer, my dad probably bought those when they were on sale.

These were surprisingly easy to make, probably because I used the Kitchen Aid stand mixer. The hardest part was the shaping, but after one or two even that got easier. I didn’t have a pastry bag (uni-tasker!) or a star tip, but I did have a zip top bag and some scissors, and that worked almost as well.

In retrospect, I should have added more sugar to the roasting berries. I used brown instead of white, just for the fun of it. I thought the flavor was delicious, sweet while still a bit tart (I used way more raspberries than strawberries) and  definitely a good soft complement to the crispy texture of the meringues.

Ingredients:

• 4 extra – large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (I omitted this, only because we had none left. Though it makes whipping easier, it’s not necessary)
• Pinch kosher salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a small glass and a pencil, draw 4 (3 1/2-inch) circles on each piece of paper. Turn the paper face down on the baking sheets.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites, (cream of tartar), and salt on high speed until frothy. This takes only a few minutes. Add 2/3 cup of the sugar and continue beating on high speed until the egg whites form very stiff peaks. Whisk in the vanilla. Carefully fold the remaining 1/3 cup sugar into the meringue.

Carefully transfer the mixture into a pastry bag/zip top bag (use a star tip if you have one) and pipe a disk of meringue inside each circle. In one episode I saw, Ina started from the inside and made concentric circles until the edge of the circle, then made another layer on the outside. In the other, she started from the outside and made the circles in, then made a circle around the outer layer. The first way is WAY easier. This “lip” is pretty important because it holds the whipped cream and berries, yum!

Bake for 2 hours, or until the meringues are dry and crisp but not browned. Turn off the heat and allow the meringues to sit in the oven for 4 hours or overnight.

Here is Ina’s recipe for the roasted berries. If it was berry season, I would have used all these berries, but because it was fall the ones I had on hand/frozen are perfectly fine. I used the same method she did:

• 1 pint fresh strawberries
• 2 half-pints fresh raspberries
• 2 half-pints fresh blueberries
• 2 half-pints fresh blackberries
• 1/4 cup sugar (use brown sugar like me if you want!)
• Vanilla bean, split and seeds removed (or just some vanilla extract, because who wants to spend 6 more dollars on this dessert?)

Place the strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries on a sheet pan and toss with the sugar and vanilla bean seeds. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature before serving.

To assemble:

When cooled, add some whipped cream (preferably homemade/freshly whipped, but if you must use canned, go ahead) and a spoonful of the berries and sauce. Serve.

One thing great about this recipe is that if you omit the whipped cream, this is a delicious pareve dessert. I made the same meringues again with some strawberry sauce on top for a Shabbat dessert.  I just put some strawberries in a saucepan with a few tablespoons of sugar and cooked away. When it smells like pancake house strawberry sauce, you know it’s ready. I served it with fresh strawberries, too.

 

Can't wait to dig in... Always ready for another great kosher cookbook!