A Birthday Cake for Two – A Guest Post by Molly Yeh
08/07/14

 

Cake for Two

Cake for Two

Hi dear readers! First and foremost, I’d like to start off this post by wishing my sweet Miss Siona Mae a very happy birthday.  Yep, another year has gone by and the kiddo is 2.  I’m kind of shocked at what we’ve gone through together in the last 2 years.  We’ve traveled to Montana, North Carolina, Kentucky, New Jersey, California, and a few other states I’m probably forgetting.  We’ve had to say good-bye to her great grandmother while also meeting some of my oldest, dearest friends.  She’s learned how to walk, talk, swim, sing, feed herself, and ask for what she wants (while remembering her manners . . . most of the time).  She’s obsessed with Pharrel, sand and and the color purple (the actual color, not the book or movie.  Give her time people).  Forgive the extra layer of cheese with this paragraph, but I’m just so proud to be her mom.

WOW

WOW

 

My favorite picture of all time -- in our custom-made Jewhungry aprons.

My favorite picture of all time — in our custom-made Jewhungry aprons. The face she has is too much.

 

Ok, quick update before getting into this delicious guest post by the incredibly talented Molly Yeh of, My Name is Yeh.  When last we spoke, we were gearing up for husband to go back to Florida.  Well, the band-aid has been ripped off and he is officially back in Miami.  Saying good-bye was ROUGH.  I did my very best to keep the tears from flowing so that I could appear somewhat strong for the kiddo, but once we were outside and waiting for the Super Shuttle to arrive, the tears just came.  I wrestled with how I should present myself for the sake of the kiddo for so long.  Should I hold back the tears and stay ‘strong’ for her so that it wouldn’t freak her out to see mommy upset or should I just let go and let flow? Ultimately, what I realized was that it didn’t matter what I ‘decided’ was the best course of action for in that moment, I was going to feel what I was going to feel.  I want Siona to know that it’s OK to feel things, ALL things, whether good or bad.  I want her to know that emotions are not something to be ashamed of but rather, it’s what we do with our emotions that truly makes the moment.  And so, some tears came down and I explained why I was sad and where the tears were coming from, and then we immediately marched ourselves right upstairs to our neighbors apartment so that Siona could play with her bestie and mama could have a big ol’ glass of wine.  We now fill our days with lots of phone calls and FaceTime (I love technology).  I truly don’t know how folks existed before FaceTime.  I really don’t (**this post was in no way sponsored by Apple.  I just really, really appreciate technology).

A family portrait taken in the forests of Limekiln State Park

A family portrait taken in the forests of Limekiln State Park

My mom is in town now to help and I’ve had to hire a babysitter for a couple hours a day to take care of Siona during this time that I’m at work and her school is still not in session.  I keep thinking about good ol’ Hilary Clinton’s message about how it takes a village to raise a child. One never really understands how true that statement is until you move, leave your  established village behind and realize that the only way you’re going to survive is to hire a village. We’re in the beginning stages of this temporary single-parent situation and I’m balancing the emotions of panic and guilt. How fun! Guilt for every time I walk out the door to go to work and leave her with a babysitter and panic because I work at a school and there are back to school nights and parent luncheons and grade-level trips and how the @#*$ am I supposed to do all that when it’s just me? I miss my Miami village.  I miss my hubby.

Jewhungry the blog kosher birthday cake

 

Jewhungry the blog kosher birthday cake

my heart.

my heart.

But, enough of that.  There’s a cake to get to! An adorable cake made by Molly Yeh! If you’re living in a cave (albeit with amazing WiFi because you’re reading this post) and you’ve never heard of Molly Yeh before, let me please introduce you to her.  She’s got more charm in her pinky finger than I could ever hope to dream for.  She’s a Juliard-trained percussionist, recently engaged to her egg boy (MAZAL TOV!) and lives on his family’s farm in North Dakota. She also happens to be incredibly talented in the art of baking/cooking and photography.  We became modern-day pen pals when she wrote a comment on my shakshuka post and I couldn’t breathe all day because Molly Yeh had read my blog! I decided I should write to say ‘thank you for reading’ and several months later I got the balls to ask her if she’d write a guest post for my beloved Siona’s 2nd birthday.  To no surprise at all, because she’s that selfless, she said yes! Below is her birthday cake for Siona. It seems like such a yummy, user-friendly recipe I might actually attempt it myself.  Happy birthday to my Siona and thank you Miss Molly.

Jewhungry the blog kosher birthday cake

 

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A Birthday Cake for Two – A Guest Post by Molly Yeh

TO ASSEMBLE: You could do anything you want. You could spread the frosting on the cake and call it a day. This would be the easiest way. You could wrap the cake in plastic wrap and freeze it for an hour, and then either cut three equal rectangles or use a 2-3 inch biscuit cutter to cut out small round layers and frost in between them, for a little layer cake. Or if you’re wanting a challenge, you could do what I did and wrestle with a simplified miniature version of momofuku’s birthday cake. (the steps are here, under “birthday layer cake” http://milkbarstore.com/main/press/recipes-and-how-tos/). I subbed a biscuit cutter for the cake ring, parchment for the acetate, and omitted the cake soak and crumbs.

*taking a cue from Momofuku’s birthday cake recipe, I prefer Mmccormick’s clear imitation vanilla because of the nostalgic flavor that’s reminiscent of a boxed cake. It’s silly, I know, but taste it and you’ll see what i mean. you can of course use all-natural vanilla instead.

a necessary last step: sprinkles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ingredients

  • FOR THE CAKE:
  • 7 tb cake flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • a pinch of kosher salt
  • 2 tb butter, softened
  • 1/4 c sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla*
  • 1 tb vegetable oil
  • 2 tb whole milk
  • 1/4 c sprinkles, optional
  • FOR THE FROSTING:
  • 6 tb butter, softened
  • 1/2 c powdered sugar, or more to taste
  • a splash of vanilla*

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Grease and line the bottom of a small loaf pan with parchment. i use a tapered loaf pan that is 6 inches by 4 inches at the bottom.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar until combined. whisk in the egg, vanilla, and oil.
  5. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients until combined. add the milk. if using sprinkles, gentle fold them in.
  6. Pour the batter into your prepared pan. i highly recommend using a cake strip (an easy diy one here: http://www.thepancakeprincess.com/2013/03/15/how-to-bake-level-cake-layers-diy-cake-strips/#comment-84116) since this recipe is so small—you don’t want to have to level any off.
  7. Bake for 12-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. let cool for a few minutes in the pan and then turn onto a cooling rack.
  8. To make the frosting, use an electric mixer to beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until creamy (See the very top of recipe for assembly instructions).
https://jewhungrytheblog.com/birthday-cake-two-guest-post-molly-yeh/

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Live from L.A. – Creamy Chicken with White Wine + Mushrooms!
07/24/14

title

Well we did it.  We moved to Los Angeles.  We live in Los Angeles.  I can’t honestly believe it.  The last month has been some of the loveliest time of our family’s life.  I’d say the only thing keeping us from calling it ‘pure bliss’ is the fact that my beloved grandmother, and last living grandparent, passed away a week and a half ago and the fact that the world is hating on Jews right now (I mean, more so than normal).  As result of the increase in the world’s hate of Jews, myself, along with some fellow kosher foodies, have experienced some serious anti-Semitism over the last weeks for no other reason but for being Jewish and/or using the word, “Israeli” in a recipe post.  So, you know, not quite ‘pure bliss’.

chicken 2

So, OK, aside from the fact that I’m scared for my people and I miss my grandmother, July 2014 has been amazing.  We left Miami on July 1 at the crack of dawn.  We were stressed.  We were emotional.  The kid had a tantrum in the middle of the Fort Lauderdale airport at 6 am, the likes of which I had never seen before.  You could see the fear in our fellow passengers’ eyes, “Please don’t let that screaming kid sit next to me.  Please don’t let that screaming kid sit next to me.” Luckily, after 20 minutes of pure rage, she got out what she needed to and went back to being herself though we were on edge for the first two hours of the flight. So yes, leaving was rough. At one point, after boarding and before take off, I locked myself in one of the bathrooms on the plane, called 3 of my closest girl friends and just let it all out—the fear, the anxiety, the stress. I guess you could say I had my own little tantrum, though mine was in the privacy of a tiny airplane restroom. By the time we landed at LAX and realized we could step outside and not immediately break out into a sweat (so long Miami), things started looking up.  All of our stuff, including our car, arrived the day we landed.  Within 48 hours of landing, we were unpacked. Our goal was to create as much order in the chaos as possible in as quick of a process as possible so that the kiddo could feel some peace. And then of course, we could find some peace. I think it worked. At least it worked for the time being until her dad goes back to Miami for 2 months and we go right back to another transition.

But let’s get to the part about how awesome July 2014 has been.  We took a break from life.  The hubs, the kid and I just took a break.  After all the planning and the stress of the move we took the last 3 and a half weeks to enjoy life.  We ate ice cream . . . a lot.  We took long walks and went on road trips and explored new beaches, drank good wine (OK, the kid didn’t but she had some lovely water), saw whales and slept. Oh, did we sleep.  I don’t know if it’s because our new place has a lot more shade (unlike our old place in Miami, which had so much direct sunlight beaming into our windows it felt as though we were, in fact, LIVING on the sun) or what, but the kid sleeps later here. I mean, there was one day when we slept to 8:15am. Did you hear me? I’m a mother of an almost 2 year-old and I slept in until 8:15! I’m telling you, the 3 of us, this little family of mine, we were on vacation.

chicken 6

And yet, with less than a week before my husband goes back to Miami for a couple months, leaving his ladies to continue on in Los Angeles without his silliness and comfort, the real world seems to be creeping in.  I’ve been dreading this for so long it’s almost to the point where I just need to rip the band-aid and get it over with. Thank Gd, we’ve already started to make friends here.  I must have done something right in this life because we got blessed with some amazing neighbors.  Just two floors up is the sweetest family with a young daughter just 6 months older than my kiddo.  Siona is officially obsessed with her and I’ll be cooking our first family/neighbor Shabbat dinner for them this coming Friday.  Lord have mercy, I gotta start menu planning.

The chicken recipe below is something I cooked up last Shabbat dinner. Since going kosher, I have missed my fair share of creamy chicken dishes and casseroles.  But then the fine folks in the health food industry created dairy alternatives and some of them are actually good.  For this recipe I used good ol’ fashion Tofutti sour cream. To be honest, Tofutti doesn’t have much flavor, which is kinda a good thing for this recipe.  It does, however, provide a lovely texture and creaminess. I like to break out this recipe to impress folks (and by folks, I mean my husband).  Works every time.

collage

 (Scenes from a Pacific Coast Highway road trip)

 

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Live from L.A. – Creamy Chicken with White Wine + Mushrooms!

Ingredients

  • 1 package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 4 thighs)
  • 1 medium white or sweet onion, diced
  • 4 bulbs of garlic, roughly chopped
  • 1 carton of button mushrooms, roughly chopped
  • 3 - 4 Tbsp Earth Balance margarine
  • 1/4 cup white cooking wine
  • 1/4 cup of veggie or chicken broth
  • 1 giant spoon full of vegan sour cream
  • 2 Tbsp chopped chives
  • 2 Tbsp chopped dill
  • 1 Tsp of kosher salt
  • 1 Tsp of ground pepper

Instructions

  1. Using a Dutch oven or heavy pan with a lid, place 3 Tbsp of the margarine in Dutch oven and place on stove top on medium heat. Once melted, place the chicken thighs topside down and let them brown on each side for roughly 3 minutes, sprinkling salt and pepper on each side. You're not wanting the chicken to cook all the way at this point, just brown. Once brown, take out of Dutch oven and place on a plate lined with paper towel.
  2. Next, making sure the heat is still on medium, place another Tbsp of margarine in the Dutch oven.
  3. Place onions in the pan and stir for roughly one minute or until they are translucent.
  4. Next, add the mushrooms and garlic and saute for another 2 - 3 minutes.
  5. Add the white cooking wine and stir, making sure to get all that good crispy brown stuff that has cooked onto the bottom of the pan mixed into the wine. Turn the heat down to low and let simmer for a few seconds.
  6. Put the chicken back into the Dutch oven (topside down) with the onions, garlic, mushroom and wine mixture. Pour the broth into the pan, make sure the heat is on low, stir the pan a little bit and cover, letting the mixture cook for roughly 10 - 15 minutes.
  7. Once chicken is cooked through, remove from heat and stir. There should be about an inch of liquid left over in the pan.
  8. Stir in the vegan sour cream into the Dutch oven with the chicken. Once all combined, taste, adding salt and pepper as needed.
  9. Mix in the fresh herbs to the mixture. Serve over rice or Israeli couscous.
https://jewhungrytheblog.com/live-l-creamy-chicken-white-wine-mushrooms/

 

chicken 5

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A Hiatus from the Hustle.
06/09/14

It’s taken me about 2 weeks to write this post. Two weeks plus boxes and grade books and calendars and everything else that gets in the way of me doing what I want to do rather than what I have to do.  But, of course, those are all excuses because if we really and truly want to get something done, we do it, right? So as I sit here trying to write this post, I realize that the reason it’s taken me so long to sit down and write it is because I just didn’t want to do it.

Three weeks ago I attended my first and only BlogHer Food Conference.  I took a day off work, paid $200, begged and cajoled to be allowed to purchase a one day ticket as Shabbat prevented me from attending the whole thing.  I had been looking forward to it for weeks–my first food blogger conference (cough, cough, geek, cough cough)! I envisioned all the fellow bloggers I’d meet (bloggers whose work I had admired for years) and hopefully connect with.  I envisioned the Instgramming that would occur and the freebies I’d get.  It was all very exciting, nerdy, but exciting.

Home from BlogHer, loaded with swag.

Home from BlogHer, loaded with swag.

And then the big day came. I got up VERY early in the morning. I put on my favorite little Anthropologie number, made extremely strong coffee and made the trek to downtown Miami. After spending what felt like hours trying to figure out how to get to the actual conference room, I found myself over caffeinated and seated at the front of the room closest to the stage and the presenters (I’ve always had that slight hint of Tracy Flick), eagerly awaiting the presenters.  Within 45 minutes of the first presentation, after the speaker asked for a show of hands of those in attendance who employed folks to help them run their blog, I realized this was not for me. What followed was about 3 hours of reflection and introspection and, finally, a realization.  The time has come to take a hiatus on the hustle of food blogging.  This realization is probably the exact opposite of what the creators of the BlogHer Food Conference wants for their attendees, but it is what it is.

I sit here writing this, 3 weeks from entering a highly anticipated and emotionally-charged next phase in my life and I’m allowing myself a little forgiveness; a little break.  I used to carve out time for blogging.  I’ve sacrificed entire Sunday afternoons with my family to create, style and photograph a recipe.  Then there were the 2-3 hours (at minimum) of editing and actual writing just to get one post done a week.  One time I actually asked a dear friend to come over with her daughter just so I’d have something for my kiddo to do while I spent hours slaving over a post. I was barely able to spend time with my beloved best friend and her family, who were in town from Chicago for one day only, just because I HAD to get  a post done.  No one was telling me I had to get the post done except for me. I did this to myself.

Just me and this crazy kid.

Just me and this crazy kid.

Over the past year this blog has seen incredible success and I have no shame in patting myself on the back for that. I co-authored a cookbook! I had posts appear on Cosmopolitan.com and recipes and photographs accepted by Tastespotting.com and Foodgawker.com. These are huge accomplishments for a girl who once made potato salad but forgot to boil the potatoes beforehand. I’ve been blessed to be able to connect with highly creative and inspiring people from all walks of life.  It’s been amazing.  But all of that has come at the expense of quality time with the people I love not to mention a certain level of self-imposed stress, exhaustion and anxiety.  And now, as I prepare to spend the next year in a new city, with a new job and raising my daughter without the constant support of my beloved  husband, who will still be in Miami finishing his PhD, I have to just own the fact that this blog will have to take a backseat.  This doesn’t mean that I’m leaving it entirely, but I’m certainly not going to see it as a second or even third job, as I have the past year and a half. I hope you’ll stick around and join me as I chronicle this next phase in my journey. Sometimes I’ll have recipes and sometimes I’ll just have pictures and updates.  We’ll probably be in LA when you hear from me next—living life as the real life Beverly Hillbillies.  Thanks for your support and come back soon.

So long Miami. Thanks for the memories!

So long Miami. Thanks for the memories!

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