Transitions, Shmansitions.
12/19/12

Before I get into this post, I must wish a very heartfelt ‘refuah shleimah’, a renewal of body and spirit to my partner in blog, Jeremy.  Jeremy was hit by a car while walking home at night this past weekend.  Thank Gd, only suffering a nasty black and blue nose; the worst of it being the fact that the person who hit him drove off without offering apologies and responsibility.  If the past week hasn’t shown us enough, it’s a rough world out there folks.  Please make sure you look both ways and always remember to stop and say you’re sorry.

That's Jeremy, to my right, and the rest of our crew, being awesome on my wedding day.

That’s Jeremy, to my right, and the rest of our crew, being awesome on my wedding day.

It’s become increasingly obvious to me that one of the biggest challenges in parenting (for me at least) thus far, in all of my four and a half months of being a parent, is the number of transitions one goes through.  Let me get real on your a** for a moment.  I HATE transitions.  I mean it. I hate transitions.  And I’m a school counselor and I do not like using the word ‘hate’ but I’m gonna use it here because it’s true. The irony is, of course, that since I was 18 years old until we moved to Miami almost two years ago, I have been in a constant state of self-inflicted transition because of my inability to stay in one place. I lived in Chicago for 3.5 years and that was a wonder! I’ve lived for some amount of time in the following cities since I was 18 years old (I consider ‘lived’ being I had my own bed in an apartment, not crashing on a couch):  Wooster, OH; Milan, Italy; Washington, DC; Marietta, GA; Asheville, NC; Athens, GA; Jerusalem, Israel; Chicago, IL; Ann Arbor, MI; and Miami, FL.  I feel very strongly that I’m forgetting a city so maybe if Mom or Misty reads this they can fill me. Regardless, the point is I should be used to transitions by now but the fact of the matter is that I am not.  I don’t like them and I’m terrible at them. So it was a surprise for me when I had a little revelation that much of parenting is deeply imbedded in transitions and I might want to get over myself right quick-like.

I mention this because we are about two and a half weeks away from yet another transition—day care.  I spent the first 2.5 months of our baby’s life home with her during maternity leave.  If I’m being honest, I have to tell you, I truly struggled during maternity leave.  I was often unhappy during the first 2.5 months of my child’s life, not because I wasn’t head-over-heels for my little one but mainly because I couldn’t get to the purity of my love for her because I was dripping with anxiety and depression.  I so vividly remember asking my sister-in-law, Caitlin (found at her blog, The Joy of Caitlin), “Why doesn’t anyone tell you how hard this is?” And she so honestly said, “Because we want you to have kids.”   So it was difficult. It was difficult but it passed.  My husband took over our baby’s care when I went back to work and has been with her for the past 2 months.  He’s AMAZING with her and I count my blessings daily that he’s had this incredible opportunity to be with her.  I feel much more comfortable sending a 5 month old to day care rather than a 2.5 month old but I am still terrified.  I’ve already started telling my co-workers to be prepared to see me in a fit of tears the day we drop her off.  I should mention that we are doubly blessed that the day care is across the parking lot of the school I work in and I should feel better (always with the ‘shoulds’.  The ‘shoulds’ will drive you crazy) about sending her but I don’t. We’ve got such a nice little routine down and I feel a lot of comfort in the routine but come January 7th,  we will become a fulltime working family.  A coworker said to me yesterday, “Whitney. I don’t know how you leave her. I couldn’t leave my baby for 2 years.”  For which I replied, “Well, my landlord forces us to pay rent and I like eating so that’s how.”  Cheeky? Probably, but the point is we don’t have a choice so day care, here we come.

Someone Else in the Family is Starting to Enjoy Solids Too!

Someone Else in the Family is Starting to Enjoy Solids Too!

So what in the world does this have to do with today’s recipe? Absolutely nothing.  I just needed to get that out so thank you for listening.  Incidentally, this post’s recipe is one of my most favorite shabbat chicken recipes and follows in the footsteps of Jeremy’s Ina Garten post.  My dear friend, Annie, made this chicken for shabbat dinner on the first shabbat I landed in Ann Arbor (the second time. That’s right, I went back for more) and I fell in love.  It’s delicious, juicy and makes your guests think you’re a James Beard award-winning chef.  Bon Appetite!

P.S. I’m taking words of advice/encouragement re: the whole day care thing so please feel free to post in the comments section 🙂

Ina’s Lemon Chicken with Croutons (adapted)

What!?

  • 1 (4 to 5-pound) roasting chicken
  • 1 large yellow onion, sliced
  • 4-5 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 in. rounds
  • Good olive oil
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Garlic powder
  • 4 lemons, quartered
  • 6 cups (3/4-inch) bread cubes (I use fresh challah. It’s SO good)

How’s That Now!?

Remove any excess fat and leftover pinfeathers. Toss the onion and carrots with a little olive oil in a small roasting pan. Place the chicken. Place the lemons inside the chicken and around the outside. Brush outside of chicken with the olive oil, and sprinkle the top with salt, garlic powder and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.

Roast for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between the leg and the thigh.  The key to the juiciness of this chicken is basting. Baste every 15 – 20 minutes! Cover with foil and allow to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. (The onions may burn, but the flavor is good.)

Meanwhile, heat a large saute pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil until very hot. Lower the heat to medium-low and saute the bread cubes, tossing frequently, until nicely browned, 8 to

10 minutes. Add more olive oil, as needed, and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Place the croutons on a serving platter. Slice the chicken and place it, plus all the pan juices, over the croutons. Sprinkle with salt and serve warm.

Pepper

Pepper

Carrots and Onions

Carrots and Onions

Ready for the Oven

Ready for the Oven

 

 

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Leftover Latkes
12/11/12
Fourth Night Chanukah

Fourth Night Chanukah

I need creativity in my life. When I was growing up I was exposed to various forms of the arts—from art camp in downtown Atlanta to spending 8 years playing the viola and longer than that in musical theater. I was that right-brained child who couldn’t take an open-note Pre-Algebra test and pass but could memorize all my lines as the lead in a show. If it wasn’t obviously creative, than I wasn’t interested in it. This kind of creative world hit a peak in college when all of a sudden I was exposed to music of all sorts (shalom Ani DiFranco! What can I say, it was the late 90s and I was in a liberal arts college), plays, writers, musicians, and goth kids who turned the word ‘gargoyle’ into a verb. It was so exciting. However, as time has gone on and I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to work extra hard to be that immersed in creativity. In my 20s I was too busy moving around from city to city and from job to job in an attempt to ‘find’ myself to have that kind of all-consuming creativeness in my life. I had long put the viola down once I got a theater scholarship to college and was told I had to be in a show a quarter so there was no time to rehearse for a show and orchestra. When it came time to move to Israel in 2008, I made the devastating decision to actually sell that beautiful instrument (I die a little inside every time I think about it). And though that Israel trip led me to my incredible husband and subsequent child, I still have regrets. I’m haunted by dreams that I’m still in my beloved high school orchestra even to this day. I think it’s my subconscious trying to make me feel guilty for selling my viola and can I just say, it’s working.

Siona and me chanukah

By the time I started preparing for my Israel trip, so we’re talking around 2007, I was working at a non-profit in Chicago by day and working at a bar by night and with the ever busy social life of a 20-something in Chicago, there wasn’t any time for a true creative outlet. Aside from a few open-mic nights here and there, I was creatively starved. By the time I made it to Israel and found myself 5 minutes from the shuk, I had decided cooking would be my creative outlet and my new boyfriend (now husband) was my unwitting guinea pig. Now please keep in mind, my diet as a single, broke, lifetime Jewish communal non-profit employee ranged from veggie hot dogs, spaghetti, and salad to anything Trader Joe’s had in their ready-made freezer section. If that doesn’t help paint the picture of my cooking ineptitude then can I just tell you that the first time I attempted to make potato salad I didn’t realize you had to boil the potatoes first so I just cut up raw potatoes, added mayonnaise and wondered to myself, “Hmm, these potatoes seem kind of difficult to chew.” Now I actually consider myself a smart woman, but clearly, when it came to food, I was an absolute moron.

So, there I was living in Jerusalem, a stone’s throw from the largest selection of the freshest food I’ve ever been around, I got this cute new boyfriend and a new found thing called Shabbat in my life and all were begging for me to pick up the saucepan and start cooking. The first thing I cooked for new boyfriend/now husband was an omelette. He likes to tell how it was so incredibly doused in oil it could have greased an entire car engine so that was it for eggs. I tried making quiche in ready-made crusts but didn’t realize that maybe I shouldn’t use the ready-made graham cracker crusts and I DEFINITELY shouldn’t put them in the oven. You get the picture. Inept.

Grapes in the Shuk in Jerusalem

Grapes in the Shuk in Jerusalem

Olives in the Shuk

Olives in the Shuk

I tell you all this because where I’ve come in the kitchen makes me proud of me. I went in stubborn and terrified thinking soup is nearly impossible to make from scratch and now I’m in there with no recipes; only a hand mixer, some veggie broth and anything I can find in my fridge. I’ve truly come a long way and today’s Chanukah recipe is an example of my kitchen growth. It’s what happened when I discovered an insane amount of leftover cooked brown rice, some homemade cilantro sauce and a few other leftovers from this passed Shabbat. Most importantly, it’s the result of sitting at a stop light on the way back from work thinking, “I can do this. I can make up a recipe”. Of course any one can make up a recipe, but can you make one up that results in now husband exclaiming over and over again how good it is? I think not.

Southwestern Brown Rice Latkes with Cilantro Cream Sauce

Brown Rice Latkes

What?!

2 cups of cooked brown rice
1 bunch washed and chopped cilantro
1 bunch washed and chopped green onions
1/2 cup shredded Pepperjack cheese
1/8 cup green chiles (optional)
3 large eggs – beaten
Panko bread crumbs
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Garlic Powder
Canola Oil
Avocado for garnish

How’s That Now?!

Places all ingredients except for canola oil in a bowl and mix well. Please note that I do not recommend a measurement for spices because spices are subject to taste when it comes to latkes. Additionally, I started out with a little bit and kept adding as it was clear after tasting my first latke that you can lose the flavor to the strength of the fried rice so really, the more, the merrier (though careful with that salt, ya’ll).

Bowl of pre-latke goodness

Bowl of pre-latke goodness

Green Stuff

Green Stuff

Heat gobs of canola oil in a saucepan. Do not start your frying until you know it’s good and hot. Once oil is ready, use a large table spoon to make a golf ball sized ball out of the mixture. Place in frying pan and gently pat down until about 1/2 inch thick. Your brown rice latke will not stay together unless the it’s good and thick. Let cook on each side until golden brown, at least 2 -3 minutes. Transfer to towel lined plate for oil soaking to commence. Repeat until all mixture is done. Garnish with sliced avocado.

Delicious Latkes Complete

Delicious Latkes Complete

Bonus points for plating

Bonus points for plating

Cilantro Cream Sauce

What?!

  • 1 (8oz) Greek yogurt
  • 2 tablespoons sour cream
  • 1 (7oz) can tomatillo sauce or salsa (same thing, different companies label them different)
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon celery salt
  • 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 2-4 jalapenos, seeded (or leave the seeds in for extra heat)
  • 1 bunch fresh cilantro
  • the juice of half a lime

How’s That Now?!

Combine all the ingredients together in a food processor or blender. Puree until smooth. Transfer to a jar with a tight fitting seal, and refrigerate for up to 1-2 weeks. adapted from www.mrshappyhomemaker.com

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DIY Hanukkah
12/09/12

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This holiday season is a little different for me. And by a little, of course, I mean A LOT.  The last few years I’ve sorta avoided Christmas.  Britney’s song comes to mind, I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman.  You get the idea.  I was Jewish in spirit and solidarity.  Now?  I’m a woman, y’all.  Well.  You know what I mean.

 

In April I had my religion reassignment surgery so to speak.  I am Jewish.  And you know what?  It all seems easy breezy when you’re ready to make a switch.  You justify the change you’re going to make because you want to make it.  Then?  The reality sets in. Those Christmas trees look real cute this year.  They didn’t before.  The holiday lights?  I want to be wrapped in them.  I am not disappointed in choosing to become (BE) Jewish.  I’m just maybe having more of a Christmas Mourning (ha!) period than I had expected.

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Not to mention this time of year feels a little bit like living in a blender.  Holiday parties, shopping craziness, traveling to Florida with family.  It’s a crazy time.  Couple that with a busy work schedule (for me AND the husband) and you can only hope that a hot bath at the end of the day will bring you back to normal.

So what have I done other than purchase an enormous bag of lavender bath salts?  Well, Hanukkah started last night.  If I can’t really dig in to one holiday, how about another.  The trouble of course is that I’m a new Jew.  I don’t have a Bubbe’s recipe for latkes or a Zayde’s amazing recipe for applesauce that has been handed down for generations.  Sometimes you have to build it yourself.  So I did.

My favorite kitchen mentor at the moment is Ina Garten.  Ina who also happens to be a fabulous Jewess.  She’s not old enough to be my Bubbe, but let’s pretend for a moment.  It should come to no surprise to any of us that she made homemade applesauce AND latkes this week on her show.  One day when I’m old and gray, the recipes which follow will be the ones I pass to whatever little kids I can force to listen to me.  Let me just say this…you need to add homemade applesauce to your bag of Hanukkah tricks.  This stuff is worth fighting for.

Applesauce:

WHAT:

2 large navel oranges, juice and zest of

1 lemon, juice and zest of

3 lbs granny smith apples (about 6-8 apples)

3lbs sweet red apples (about 6-8)…I used honey crisps

1/2 cup light brown sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

HOW:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place the zest and juice of the oranges and lemon in a large bowl.  Peel, quarter and core the apples (reserving the peel of 2 of the red apples) and toss them in the juice.  Pour the apples, reserved apple peel and juice into a nonreactive Dutch oven or enameled iron pot.  Add the brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and allspice and cover the pot.  Bake for 1 hour or until apples are soft.  Remove and discard the apple peel.  Mix with a whisk until it’s as smooth (or chunky) as you like.

Boom.  You’re life has changed.  ENJOY!

Latkes:

I know errrbody has their own latke recipe.  Here’s Ina’s.  Give it a whirl.

WHAT:

2 lbs baking potatoes

2 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten

6 tablespoons flour

2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

6 tablespoons clarified butter

HOW:

Peel the potatoes and grate them lengthwise. Place them in a colander or kitchen towel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. combine the potatoes in a bowl with the egg, flour, salt and pepper.  Mix well.

Melt 2 tables spoons of clarified  butter in a skillet.  Drop a heaping tablespoon of the potato mixture into the sizzling butter. Flatten with a spatula and cook for 2 minutes. Turn, flatten again, and cook for another 2 minutes, until crisp on the outside and golden brown.

Now I didn’t do this fancy clarified butter business.  I went for olive oil, because I’m lazy. BUT…here’s a word on clarified butter from the Queen herself…

To make 6 tablespoons of clarified butter, slowly melt 8 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan. Set it aside until the milk solids settle. Spoon off any solids that rise to the top and then carefully pour off the golden liquid, leaving the milky part in the bottom of the pan. Clarified butter has a higher burning temperature than melted butter.

May your Hanukkah be everything you wish for and may those lights be full of blessings for you and yours.  Hanukkah Sameach!

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