Brussels Sprouts with Almonds

I always joke that Jews and Italians are very similar - most things revolve around food and guilt.  This would explain why two of my best friends are both Italian.  When I received the  The Silver Spoon cookbook I was excited;  apparently it's a book that most Italians have in their collection.  I knew that I couldn't make a handful of the recipes in here (pork, shellfish, etc) and would have to amend some to fit kosher restrictions, but there were many recipes I could make as published.  When I had friends over for dinner I opted to make a meal entirely from this book.  The posts this week are the ones that I made for this meal.

I honestly don't understand why Brussels sprouts have a bad rap.  If I could eat them with every meal, I would.  The easiest (and delicious) way we make them are to just add a little salt, oil and roast until crispy.  But it's always nice to mix things up a little and try out new ways to enjoy your favorite veggies.  For the side dish I opted to try out this recipe for Brussels sprouts with almonds.  It came out very tasty and I would definitely consider making this again with a dairy or parve meal.

Brussels Sprouts with Almonds (from The Silver Spoon)

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs Brussels sprouts, trimmed
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup blanched almonds
1 garlic clove
zest of 1 lemon, chopped
1 1/2 tsp unflavored bread crumbs
salt and pepper

Directions
- Cook the Brussels sprouts in salted, boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain thoroughly, place on a serving dish and keep warm.
- Heat half the butter in a skillet, add the almonds and the garlic, and stir-fry for a few minutes.  Add the lemon zest, season with salt and pepper, and remove from the heat.  Remove and discard the garlic.
- Melt the remaining butter in a small pan and stir-fry the bread crumbs until golden, then stir into the almond mixture, spoon over Brussels sprouts, and serve.

Tyler Florence's Chicken Noodle Soup

When Sarah from A Taste of Home Cooking posted that this month's theme for the recipe swap was Celebrity Recipes, I was excited.  Though I think I was more excited to pass along my recipe for Rachael Ray's poached flounder than I was to receive my assignment.  I mean, why wouldn't I want someone else to try out one of our favorites?!

When I was sent my assignment of Tyler Florence's chicken noodle soup (submitted by Jaida of Sweet Beginnings) I was excited.  I love making chicken soup, but my go-to recipe is my grandma's which takes several hours to make.  This one takes less than an hour (including prep time) so I'm glad to add something to my repertoire for when I want soup but don't have all day to make it.  This will be perfect for if my husband or I come down with a cold or something and would like soup when we get home.

The soup was super easy to make.  I needed to cook the chicken to shred, so I put on a smaller pot to boil and then got chopping to prep the veggies that go into the soup.  Just before I put the veggies into the soup pot, I put the chicken breasts in to smaller pot and turned it down to simmer to poach the chicken.  By the time I had put the noodles into the dish, the chicken was ready to shred.

I am always buying chicken stock to use in recipes, but rarely use it as a base for soup, so I liked being able to season it up and have it as it was meant to be eaten.  I will definitely make this again!

***And check out Dawn's post about the poached fish!

Tyler Florence's Chicken Noodle Soup (adapted from this recipe by Sweet Beginnings)

Ingredients 
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced 
2 medium carrots, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices 
2 celery ribs, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices 
4 fresh thyme sprigs 
1 bay leaf 
2 quarts chicken stock (I used Imagine Kosher Free-Range Chicken Stock) 
8 ounces dried wide egg noodles 
2 cups shredded cooked chicken 
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 

Directions 
- Place a soup pot over medium heat and coat with the oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, thyme and bay leaf. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned. 
- Pour in the chicken stock and bring the liquid to a boil. Add the noodles and simmer for 5 minutes until tender. 
- Fold in the chicken, and continue to simmer for another couple of minutes to heat through; season with salt and pepper.

Soy-Glazed Salmon

My husband and I aren't huge meat eaters.  We'll maybe have chicken once a week, but that's about it.  So to get our proteins we try to eat fish at least once a week as well.  Salmon is very healthy (filled with Omega-3, etc) and it tastes delicious, so we eat it often in our household.

I'm always looking for a new way to jazz up our salmon.  When I first picked up Food Network Magazine last July, the Weeknight Meal section jumped out at me.  Not only because they were simple, quick dinners, but also because it included this recipe for soy-glazed salmon.  Yum!  The dish also included a cucumber-avocado salad, which we made the first time (see the picture below), but weren't thrilled with, so when we've made the meal since we substitute other sides.  This time we made some rice pilaf w/almonds as well as roasted brussels sprouts.

It's an easy way to make a delicious meal.  Make sure you load on the soy glaze so you can really taste it after it cooks!

Soy-Glazed Salmon (slightly adapted from Food Network Magazine, July/August 2012)

Ingredients
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp cornstarch
4 6-oz salmon filets
1/2 tsp olive oil
Kosher salt

Directions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Rub the fish filets all over with the oil and season lightly with salt.  Place the fish in a baking dish and back for 5 min.
- Mix the honey, soy sauce and cornstarch in a small microwavable bowl.  Microwave until just simmering (30-40 seconds).  Be careful of it boiling over.
- Remove the salmon from the oven and brush with the honey-soy sauce mixture.
- Return the fish to the oven and continue baking until just cooked through (approx 7-9 minutes)

Greek Garlic Chicken

I make chicken just about every week or two, and I'm always looking for new/different recipes to use so we don't feel like we're eating the same thing over and over.  I found this recipe in Kosher by Design: Short on Time.  I love kalamata olives, so I knew I wanted to try this one out.

It was pretty simple to make (though the whole "short on time" part didn't really apply to this recipe.  The "5 min prep time" took about 25 min, and that's before it cooks for an hour, but that's ok since I made this on a Sunday so I didn't have as much of a time constraint.  I made a few adjustments - the first being that the recipe in the book calls for 2 whole chickens, so I made half a batch (and actually only used leg quarters cut into thigh & drumsticks due to not being able to get to the better store to pick up a full chicken).  I mean, unless I had a family of 4 and wanted leftovers, there's no reason to make two whole chickens!

The chicken came out delicious.  My husband inhaled it and I know there's going to be a fight over the leftovers (only 2 pieces left!).

Greek Garlic Chicken (slightly adapted from Kosher By Design: Short on Time)

Ingredients
1 chicken, cut into eighths
1 onion, cut into large chunks
1 lemon
6-8 sprigs fresh oregano
5 cloves garlic, halved
salt
pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
3/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup kalamata olives, whole for garnish

Directions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Place the chicken pieces in a single layer, skin-side-up in a 9x13 baking dish.
- Add the onion chunks.  Slice the lemon in half lengthwise.  Squeeze the lemon halves over the chicken.  Cut each lemon half into 4 pieces, add to the chicken.
- Set aside 2 sprigs of oregano and strip the leaves from the rest.  Scatter the leaves and stripped sprigs over the chicken.  They will add their perfume to the dish. 
- Add the garlic and season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle with the oil and wine.  Toss the mixture together.  Sprinkle the chopped olives over the chicken.
- Bake, uncovered, for 45min - 1 hour, or until chicken is fully cooked and no longer pink, or a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 180 degrees.
- Transfer to a platter and garnish with whole olives and reserved oregano sprigs.

Trifle

The last dessert that I made for our party last fall was a trifle.  A trifle is a wonderful, delicious thing.  Though they always remind me of the episode of Friends where Rachel makes one with meat and peas because pages of the cookbook stuck together (though, of course, Joey likes it "what's not to like?  Custard, good.  Jam, good.  Meat, goooood").

The problem with a trifle is that they're usually huuuuge and you end up with a ton left over.  I personally think you should only serve it if you have at least 6 people there.  Otherwise it sits in your fridge covered in the trifle dish, or you end up putting it in tupperware and then it never looks as appetizing as leftovers (if anyone has ideas on how to store leftover trifle, let me know!)

I based this recipe off one I got from my bridal shower gift cookbook.  I honestly have no idea who gave it to me, as not all recipes are signed.  I thought it was from one friend who had brought a trifle once to a dinner party I threw and she and this recipe-giver both jokingly referred to the trifle as "The Bomb".  So if any ladies who were at my shower happen to be reading this and know who submitted this recipe, let me know so I can give proper credit!!

The only snafu I ran into while making this is that the round  cake pan that I had (a spring-form pan) wasn't an exact match for the size of my trifle dish, so to make it fit, I cut a strip down the middle of the cake and removed it.  That way, when I made the cake smaller, it was able to squish together just enough to fit perfectly in the dish.  Also, I made a full round cake then cut it in half length-wise so I had two smaller cakes to layer into the trifle.

I do have a confession to make - I used some mixes to make this.  I used a cake mix and pudding mixes.  It can be considered cheating, but when I was making so much from scratch, this was the simplest way to do this.  Next time I will make the cakes and puddings from scratch as well!  I did make the whipped cream myself, though.  I used very little sugar with my heavy cream, since the rest of it was so sweet I thought putting too much in would be a little too sweet.

Trifle (adapted from a recipe given to me, original source unknown)

Ingredients
1 box chocolate cake mix (or make your own!)
chocolate pudding mix
1 box Heath Bar bits
whipped cream

Directions
- Bake the cake either in two shallow cake pans or one higher one.  Let cool completely.
-  Make the pudding.  Let cool completely.
- If you have one large cake, cut in half lengthwise so you have 2 equal sized round cakes.
- Put one cake on the bottom of the trifle dish.
- cover with 1/2 of the pudding.
- cover with 1/2 of the whipped cream.
- sprinkle with Heath bar bits.
- Repeated again - cake, pudding, whipped cream, Heath bar bits

Butternut Squash Soup

I feel like a broken record when I say this, but I thought I didn't like butternut squash.  That is, until I actually tried it.  Last year I was at a friend's baby shower and they were serving butternut squash soup as part of the buffet, so I decided to try it out.  Boy was I surprised when I actually liked it!  When my husband and I were coming up with a menu for our party this fall, I knew I wanted to serve some sort of soup, so I did a search and came across this recipe.

I've made this soup twice now.  The first time I bought a full butternut squash which I peeled and seeded myself.  I did a bit of searching to find out how to do this and came across this video on YouTube.  The video is about a minute long, so it must be easy to do this yourself, right?  Yeah, not so much.  The cutting and seeding part isn't so awful (though you have to be careful when cutting since you don't have flat surfaces to let it sit securely on), but it's the peeling that was difficult.  The video makes it seem like you can just use a regular vegetable peeler.  But the skin was too thick to do this, and the squash wasn't a good shape to peel, so I ended up doing it all with a paring knife.  It took a very long time, so the next time I made this, I bought the pre-cut squash that my supermarket sells.

The other thing that I realized after the second time I made this that another thing I can change is that I can just use my immersion blender to puree this in the pot instead of having to take the squash out of the pot with a slotted spoon and use a blender, then put it back in the pot to finish off.

This really makes for a wonderful fall/winter dish.  I plan on making this again before winter is over.

Butternut Squash Soup (slightly adapted from this recipe posted on Foodnetwork.com)

Ingredients
2-3 lbs of butternut squash (approx 1 large), peeled and seeded
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 medium onion, chopped
6 cups of Imagine No-Chicken Broth (vegetable stock can be substituted, or regular chicken stock if you do not keep a kosher home)
salt, pepper, and ground nutmeg to taste

Directions
- Cut squash into 1 inch chunks. 
- In a large pot, melt butter.  Add the onion and cook until translucent (about 8 min).
- Add squash and stock.  Bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender (about 15-20 min).
- Using an immersion blender, puree the squash and onion.  If you do not have an immersion blender, remove squash and onion chunks with a slotted spoon and place in a blender to puree.  Return the blended squash and onion to the pot.
- Stir and season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Zucchini Bread

I think I've mentioned on here that I love the show Top Chef.  When I heard that Gail Simmons had written the book Talking with My Mouth Full, I knew I wanted to read it.  The book was so interesting that I ended up finishing it within a few days.  The best part of the book?  The recipes she shares at the end!

Due to my newfound love of zucchini, I was immediately drawn to the recipe that Gail shares of her mother's zucchini bread.  The recipe makes 2 loaves, but I opted to make one big loaf and then two mini loaves.  My husband and I ate the larger loaf over the week after I made it, then I brought one mini loaf to my office where it was devoured (ok, not going to lie, I ate some of this one in addition to the one at home, this was so good!!) and then we froze the final loaf.  To freeze it, I wrapped it in clingwrap and then in foil.  When we wanted to serve the frozen loaf, I took it out of the freezer earlier that day, removed the foil and let it thaw out in the clingwrap.  A few hours later it was just as moist and delicious as it was when I first made it!

Zucchini Bread (recipe from the Gail Simmons book Talking With My Mouth Full)

Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups shredded zucchini, drained
1 cup chopped, toasted walnuts
1 cup raisins

Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Brush two standard loaf pans with softened butter
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.  Set aside.
- In another large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with a fork until frothy.  Add the sugar, oil and vanilla extract, stirring well to combine.  Stir in the zucchini, then add the flour mixture, walnuts and rasins.
- Using a rubber spatula, fold ingredients until just combined.  Do not overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared loaf pans.  Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 45 min).
- Let the bread cool in the pans on a wire rack.  When they are cool enough to handle, run a knife around the edges of the pans, invert and release the loaves.