A girl (or any person for that matter) can find herself eating alone from time to time—it’s normal, right? Having a set of hubby+kiddies, family in general, and friends promises no guaranties that there will be company at the table at any given breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I work at home and most days I have breakfast and lunch by myself. I don’t eat breakfast with the kiddies+hubby since I’m usually still in my PJ peeling, cutting and serving them fresh fruit (I really must shove it under their noses for them to eat it) and packing lunchboxes and… You know, it’s pretty much the same routine every day. Don’t you just love it?

Besides, I’m not a big fan of breakfast. My breakfast is a slice of toasted bread with something, or half a bagel with cream cheese, or scrambled eggs—so boring. Although lately I do treat myself to freshly squeezed orange juice or, more recently, fresh grapefruit juice—it’s SO refreshing!—every morning after the kiddies+hubby leave the house. (Shoosh, don’t tell them.)

For lunch, I usually don’t bother much since it’s a company of only one, me, so I end up making myself a sandwich (Or heat up leftovers from dinner. That is if I don’t plan on serving them a second time as dinner—lazy me.) Rarely, I pamper myself with something with a bit more kick/wow to it, like my fav sandwich with truffle oil. And now, now I have these swordfish tacos with an S—I had two. It was really, really good.

I love tacos. Don’t you?

Now, I can hear the squeaky noises of the gears in your brain… You must be thinking, “But isn’t a taco a type of sandwich?” I believe you make a good point.

I think they are, sorta. What would a Mexican say? I have no idea.

Well, you got “bread” on both sides with (hopefully) good stuff in the middle.

Broiled swordfish tacos

* 1 lb. of fish steak was enough for 3 servings + leftovers for 1

For the fish:

1 swordfish steak (about 1 lb.)

salt, pepper

olive oil

some sort of rub like BBQ rub or chicken rub

1 Tbs. butter, cut to pieces

Rub the fish with salt, pepper, some olive oil, and spice rub on both sides. Spread the butter cubes on top. Let sit for about 15 minutes in a baking pan lined with aluminum foil. In the meantime preheat the broiler and set the rack in the top 1/3 shelf.

Broil about 8 minutes. The butter will brown and the fat might cause some brunt-like smoke in the oven. If this bother you, grill it outdoors.

For the tacos:

1-2 tortillas/taco (flour or corn, doesn’t matter) + add what you like: avocado is always good, cilantro, grated cheese, a dollop of sour cream, corn, diced veggies, a splash of lemon/lime, etc etc

Enjoy your lunch! Enjoy the company!

When I started this post all I could think about were the fresh and puffy pillows of snow outside and how gorgeous and peaceful it is. But, it also meant that there won’t be any driving to the grocery store. So, I dug into some recipes that one can cook out of the pantry, fridge, or freezer.

We started the morning late with Ebelskivers

Yes, it’s a bit of work compared to making pancakes, but totally worth it.

It was the 3rd day of no school and having kids at home. Tomorrow schools will be closed as well and maybe on Friday too.

Some friends report they are close to losing their mind—well, with 1-3 kids in the house who wouldn’t? So why not make a smoothie instead of pulling your hair out? Melt your built-up tension out on the machine. Shred. Grate. Liquify. Buzz buzz buzz away…

For lunch/dinner, I’ve got an arsenal of pasta dishes you can make with whatever you have in the pantry, freezer, and fridge. Here are some ideas, from ones that need a few more ingredients or leftovers like Mishmash pasta dishes or Leftovers: Creamy Orecchiette with Roasted Vegetables, Chicken, and Leafy Greens

…to more basic ones like Noodles with cottage cheese or Orzo and garbanzo beans when your inventory is running low

How about tortillas wraps or tacos with whatever you have in the pantry, freezer, and fridge… Those are always easy and kid-pleasing and taste good. Here are some ideas:

Fish tacos

Mexican inspired grilled lamb tortilla wraps

Amazing, but simple, Chicken Wrap

Leftovers dinner (or lunch) in 10 minutes

I thought about baking beer bread. It only has 6 ingredients! But I found that our beer inventory is 0 right now (And our milk supply is running low—Soon I’ll have to drink teaaaaaaaaaaaa).

Snow is sure pretty and fluffy but I hate to be stuck at home for days. It’s starting to feel like a jail/asylum.

Thank God I love the kitchen—it keeps my hands busy and my mind off the craziness. Also, thank God for music and Disney movies and Netflix, and…

I’m looking out the window at the non-stop falling snow and praying for it to melt soon. Hopefully by tomorrow we’ll be able to go out and be back to normal.

In the meantime, keep safe and warm all’ya, OK? Don’t do any crazy stuff, OK?

I think I’ll go bake something now… Chocolate cake? I ‘m pretty sure I have some heavy cream hiding in the fridge somewhere…

Thinking about my recent trip to Israel, I realize that fresh and good food was so easy to find there, and at relatively inexpensive prices. The restaurant at the beach, the little falafel shop, the pastries at the grocery store at 10 PM, the street corner Shawarma place…  It was all good, fresh, and cheap.

I haven’t seen any junk food chain stores! Can you believe it? Well… besides McDonalds… McDonalds is everywhere, isn’t it? But it’s not very popular in Israel. (They say that even Starbucks did not make it there.) So, you get my point, good, fresh food—and coffee!—was all around. Oh, and fresh juice too. Freshly squeezed juice stores like this one below were on every busy street.

Inspired by that, we started drinking freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast at home. (The doctor says is has lots of fiber…)

We made fresh juice using these tools which failed to squeeze every sweet drop out of the fruit,

… and it was also somewhat messy and time consuming (Who has extra time in the morning to make orange juice?), so we went back to the boxed juice only to discover that the juice from the box, organic or not, with pulp or not, with added vitamins or not, tastes like nothing.

We are never buying/drinking that stuff again ever!

4 days later we rushed to the store and bought an electric juicer. (In case you’re curious where, click here.) What do you know? It takes only 5 minutes from start to finish, cleanup included, and the kids can do it!

Then, at 12:31 AM—Yes, 12:31 AM!!!—it hit me. None of the oranges we used had seeds!

In the morning, I had to test my revelation.

I cut all 4 different varieties we had in half. To my surprise, I found out that heirloom or not, organic or not, Navel or another… the oranges don’t have seeds besides a lonely, random speck of seed, see?

What happened to the seeds?

Who took them out of the oranges?

What does it mean?

And who’s gonna make fresh orange juice?

Saturday? Yes.

Snowy day? Yes.

Cold outside and warm inside? Yes, yes.

Coffee cake anyone? Oh, yes, please.

With cocoa nibs? Yes.

And cream cheese and crème fraiche? A-ha.

Go grab the recipe for here.

Baked pumpkin “fondue” is as easy as pie.

+

+

+ some other ingredients

=

then it’s time for

and… ta-da

So, where have I been lately?

I have been filling forms with personal information at different locations at different times. You know how it goes…

One of the questions is “Occupation” and I’ve been trying different answers like Homemaker, CEO of Remodeling, and , more recently, I’ve been using “Keeps Changing”. So, this is what I’ve been up to lately.

Yes, also, during summer–we only had 1 month of summer this year, yikes!–I’ve been focused more on home, and family, and outdoor activities. I was on the go, go , go not to waste a moment of sunshine indoors. It was quite breathtaking.

Anywhoo……….. we got to fall-soon-to-be-winter time which is, you know, the perfect time to snuggle indoors and to make baked pumpkin stuffed with somethin’.

I love Melissa Clark’s (NY Times food writer) recipe in her cookbook “In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite “ because it’s vegetarian and it has wine and cream (Although I used less bread and only 1/2 the liquid “filling”, baked at lower temperature and…). I liked Tea & Cookies idea to add something green and so i have added kale since I figured the kids are not going to eat this stuffed, sweet, savory, creamy pumpkin anyway–leafy greens included or not–and this is what I have done:

Baked Pumpkin “Fondue”
Serves 4 to 6

2 thick slices of crusty, stale bread (any that you like with sauce-soaking abilities)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup white wine (anything you like to drink ‘cause the flavor will come through)
1/8 cup milk
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
3 fresh sage leaves, if you have it, or thyme (if you have it)
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus additional for the outside
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (3-4 pound) sugar pumpkin, washed and cleaned from the outside
a few kale leaves, washed, dried and sliced (without the “ribs”)
5 ounces grated Gruyère cheese (1¼ cups)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400°F and toast the bread until golden brown 5 to 7 (or do this in a toaster) then tear the bread to pieces.

In a medium saucepan. bring the cream, wine, milk, garlic, and sage to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 5 minutes. Take the mixture off the heat and discard
the garlic and sage. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon of salt, nutmeg, and pepper.
Cut the top off the pumpkin and scoop out the pulp and seeds like you do for Halloween. Set the pumpkin inside a baking dish/sheet/pan.

In a bowl, mix the bread, kale, and gruyere. Fill the pumpkin with this bread mix. Pour the cream mixture on top. Cover with the pumpkin lid.

With your hands, rub oil all over the outside of the pumpkin (don’t forget the bottom) and sprinkle on some salt.
Bake until the pumpkin’s skin blisters and the flesh is tender (test with a small pairing knife) about 1 hour to 1 ¼ hours. Allow to cool in the pan slightly. Slice to serve.

***

The recipe is fairly easy to make. 3 thin layers of cake (OK, you do need 3 pans!) and whipped cream between the layers, ganache on top and a few hours later…. ta-da.

This recipe on Bon Appetit site is 90% similar to the one I made from their cookbook “Desserts”.

Note: I made 1/2 the amount of the ganache. I think it’s enough.

Now waiting for the birthday boy to come home. Ciao for now.

An update: Sooooooooooo, we cut the cake, and had a taste. It’s your basic chocolate-vanilla cake which is OK and lots of people love it just so. I thought it tasted like a Black forest cake minus all the special flavor. In my opinion, to be worth repeating, the cake needs a splash of some liquer, or a layer of jam, or coffee… something to boost the flavor factor up.

This cake is so old. It’s so old that if we had any leftovers they would have been covered with green fuzzy stuff by now.

But luckily, there were no leftovers.

I just got so busy with summer (Well, not really—it’s been mostly cloudy here this June.) and kids outta school… and swim lessons… and stuff… But I still wanted to share this easy cake with you that I have made for my son’s birthday. He liked it so much that I thought it’s worth documenting and adding to the family recipe collection.

So, being busy and all + I don’t have much patience for making fussy cakes

… my little prince had to settle for a vanilla, banana, and whipped cream cake with marshmallows on top that I could make in 15 minutes. The poor guy.

Well, that one and the additional 16 individual dirt cakes + 9 *13 dirt cake I made for his party. I’m such a good mama!

Vanilla-banana cream birthday cake

for a 10-inch tart pan

petite buerre biscuits (or graham crackers, but I think petite buerre taste better and has better crumbs/texture)
1 stick butter, melted
1 package instant vanilla pudding
2 cups cold milk
1 teaspoon lemon and/or orange zest
2 cups heavy cream whipped with 2 tablespoons sugar + 1 teaspoon vanilla extract to medium peaks
2-4 bananas, sliced and mixed with lemon juice to prevent browning
Marshmallow for decorating, or any candy you like
A sparkler!

Grind the biscuits with the melted butter in a food processor. Remove from bowl and press into the tart pan + the sides.

In a medium size bowl, prepare the vanilla pudding, milk, and zest according to the instruction on the package. Chill.

When pudding is chilled, fold gently with the whipped cream.

Scatter the sliced bananas on top of the crust. Pour and spread the cream over the bananas.

Decorate with marshmallow and/or candy. Chill until ready to serve.

Happy birthday!

I made dirt cake for the first time a few years ago when my son was 6 years old. I served it in beach buckets with shovels. It looked so real–—it was totally believable to be dirt–that my boy refused to try it even after he saw all of licking our fingers.

This year the cake made a come back by special request from the birthday boy. I think I took it to the next level, don’t you think? I even saved the card boxes from the nursery.

I thought I was a geniuos. I believed that since there is no baking involved this will take no time to make. Wrong! Collecting the pots, washing each and every one of them, purchasing supplies, preparing, assembling, etc, of 16 individual “plants” consumed a few good hours of my days. Thanks to my friend S who came to help with assembling and keep me company I did not lose my head spinning in the kitchen. (I rewarded her with Shakshuka for lunch!)

I didn’t keep track of what I was doing, I kinda winged it on the go, relying on the previous cakes I made, but my cousin asked for the recipe, so here goes…

For 16 “plants” (16 plastic cups that fit into 16 4-inch pots)

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, room temperature
2 1/2 cups milk
2 boxes of vanilla instant pudding (2.8 oz. each)
1 teaspoon orange/lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream, whipped with 2 tablespoons of sugar to between soft and firm peaks
2 boxes (16 oz. each) oreo* style cookies

For decoration:
16 sprigs of mint or any herb/edible flowers you have
16 plants tags
gummy worms
gummy mice (I put those at the bottoms of each cup, hidden by cookie crumbs)
chocolate “rocks”

To make the pudding: In a mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth, then add the milk, pudding powder, zest, and vanilla and mix. Transfer to a bowl and chill for a few minutes until it gets a bit firm. Then, gently fold the whipped cream with the chilled pudding.

Place the cookies in a food processor and grind until finely crumbled and looking like dirt.

Assemble the cakes: Put a layer of cookie mixture in the bottom of the cup, add a few spoonfuls of the pudding cream, and then another layer of cookie crumbs. Repeat with the other cups.

Chill for a few hours. Decorate with gummy worms, herbs and/or flowers.

* I used oreo style cookies that have no hydrogenated oils and no trans fatty acids. Look for brands free of those unhealthy ingredients.

For 9 * 13 inch pan

2 boxes of vanilla instant pudding (2.8 oz. each)
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups heavy cream, whipped with 2 tablespoons of sugar to between soft and firm peaks
1 box (16 oz.) oreo style cookies + 1 box vanilla wafer cookies (or whatever cookies you have in the pantry)

For decoration:
gummy worms
gummy mice
chocolate “rocks”
springs of herbs

Follow the same directions as above to make a 3 layers cake.

We’re into whole wheat lately. You know, “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be….” ah, never mind.

We fell in love with whole wheat not out of fear of a sooner death but because of pure pleasure. I have a whole wheat cheese and ham quiche that I’ve been wanting to share… It’s been sitting on the back burner (figuratively speaking) for months now. Since then, we made these pancakes with 50-50 all-purpose flour and whole wheat. Same for these fried calamari, and, you have seen the challa bread, right?

After all these trials, the premises I had regarding whole wheat got completely shattered. I thought it will be so undelicious and yucky, cardboard-tasting and such, but to my surprise I found that whole wheat flour is the real deal.

It has depth, it has “body”—like good wine in a way. A prettier color, and more texture—sandy (in the quiche crust), toothy (in the bread), and its flavor is earthy (we especially felt that in the pancakes. The kids, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice the change at all!). All-purpose flour, compared to it, is plain boring.

In short, whole wheat flour… It’s beautiful.

Today I tried in beer bread.

I first heard of beer bread only a few days ago after Mr. Husband very casually mentioned that his friend E. brought beer bread to work and let him try some. I love beer so, naturally, I was intrigued.

Turns out it also takes 5 minutes to make! 5 minutes! Really.

If you have a bread machine, now is the time to throw it in the back of the kitchen cabinet.

And, I trust that you know how to do this,

And you sure can do this, right?

I used Hefeweizen, one of my favorite beers. It’s amber and has hints of honey. It’s smooth and easy to drink.

A couple of minutes of beating in a mixer, you can also do this by hand,

Drop into a pan,

And 50-60 minutes later,

Conclusion: There’s no need to buy bread at the store anymore. 5 minutes!

I found the bread to be more “cakey” than “bready” in texture and flavor. It had a soft and a bit spongy crumb, unlike a typical yeasted bread. It was sweet although I used only 1/4 cup sugar compared to 1/3 or 1/2 cup in other recipes I found. But overall, it is a fantastic bread! Especially considering how easy it is to make.

However, I cannot ignore the potential it has to be turned it into a whole wheat cake. I plan to experiment with adding sugar, goodies like nuts, chocolate, some butter… It has great potential. Oh, I’ve said that already. Anyway, if you get around to playing with it, let me know?

Whole wheat beer bread

All the recipes I found online use pretty much the same ingredients and quantities with slight variations, so I guess there is pretty much a standard to what a beer bread is or should be.

Makes 1 loaf

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder (next time try to add baking soda as well)
1/4 cup sugar (next time I think I’ll use only 1-2 tablespoons)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
12 ounces beer, room temp
1-2 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter, or spray, a loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.

In a bowl of a mixer, combine all the ingredients besides the butter and mix well. Pour the batter into the buttered loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes.

Remove from the oven, brush the top of the loaf with melted butter and return to the oven to bake for another 5 minutes.

Let cool for 10 minutes and remove from the pan.

That’s it!

A few weeks ago a woman in my book club who had heard that I have a food blog asked me “So, do you eat healthy food?”

Now, I know that for some people “healthy” in the context of food is a bad word—even to those who know better. So I proceeded carefully, “What do you mean by “healthy” food?”

… and then I preached to her my philosophy in short. Mainly, I believe that healthy food is all food that is grown in a healthy way. From soil and seeds it has everything to do with the way food is treated in all the steps of the process until it reaches the plate. So, yes, I in that sense, I do try to eat as healthy as I can.

However, like “those people”, I also tended to believe that “healthy food” tastes, if we put it gently, not-as-delicious as the “regular”, or “normal” food. (And this is what I thought she meant—which she did.)

But I didn’t start to eat, and love, kale, chard, and other green stuff because I eat “healthy”. I did it because as a fairly adventurous eater, in the 40 years that I’ve been living and eating, I tried many types of foods (like raw, local oysters and sustainably farmed mussels) and I get bored sometimes with food—GASP—there, I’ve said it! After all, it’s been 40+ years of eating a couple of times a day. Every day!!!

Sometimes I wish I could take a break from eating and then I could come back to it refreshed, with a new approach, like you (supposedly) feel after a vacation. Unfortunately, not eating cannot turn into a long vacation…

So, whole wheat… I have approached it out of boredom ‘cause I already know what white flour can do and tastes like. I was mentally ready to try something new. And I’m glad I did.

Of course reading that “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.” (Rule #37, page 81) in Michael Pollan’s Food Rules also served as a little nudge.

I highly recommend the book—it’s like a little handbook—and the introduction alone makes it a worthwhile read. Especially if you don’t have the time to read his In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto or The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. It’s easy to read and has lots of common sense advice.

And this is how I found myself buying whole wheat flour and substituting some of the white all-purpose flour with it. (Now my spouse and kid play with it too, making whole wheat fired calamari.)

The result was a bread with more body, more depth, far more interesting taste and bite to it. Not at all a yucky “healthy” food.

What can I tell you? I’m definitely hooked on whole wheat flour now.

As for that specific challa, I didn’t have the time to let the dough rise the second time so instead I started the baking in a cold oven, believing the slowly preheating oven will give the yeast some boost and make it rise more than if I had baked it in an already preheated oven… I never tried this experiment with a “control group” but the bread turned out great. Better than store-bought where I have seen flatter and denser ones… and this one had more flavor—nutty.

The original recipe was given to me by a friend and I think she got it from someone living in a kibbutz in Israel.

The preparation is simple and straightforward. Next time I’ll try to make the dough the night before and let it sit in the fridge to rise slowly and develop more flavor—it’s my favorite way to make yeasted breads and cakes.

I haven’t made challa in such a long, long time that at first shot, I forgot how to braid! This is how the first challa turned out

But at the second try the result looked prettier, don’t you think?

Whole wheat Challa bread

Makes 2 loaves

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 packet (7 grams) active dry yeast
7 tablespoons oil, plus more for greasing the bowl
400 ml lukewarm water
1 egg, lightly beaten to make an egg wash
Sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds

Place all the ingredients in a mixer bowl and let it knead on low speed (a rhyme!) for 10 minutes.

Scrape the dough out of the bowl and work it into a ball. Oil the bowl and turn the dough ball inside to coat. (Bowl, ball… did I confuse you?) Cover the top of the bowl with foil and place in a warm spot to rise for 1-2 hours (depending on temperature), or until it doubles in volume.

Divide the dough into 2 parts. Divide each dough into 3 pieces and work each one to make a long strand. Make a braid. Do the same with the second half of the dough.

Place both braids on a large baking sheet with space between them. Brush each challa with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds. Let rise in a warm spot*.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake challas for 35 minutes.

* I did not have time for a second rise so I placed the challas in a cold oven and heated it to 350 F, baked for 45 minutes or so.

Notes:
Next time try to add 1 egg to the dough.
Try honey instead of sugar.
Try 1 packet (7 grams) active dry yeast.
Let dough rise overnight in the fridge.
See more here: How to bake Challa bread at home?