Meatball Nosh

I had a little cranberry sauce and a bottle of chili sauce and a small amount of ground beef. Not enough to use for dinner, so I made a version of the Elegant but Easy Cookbook recipe for cocktail meatballs (Marion Burros and Lois Levine). I didn’t have the recipe in front of me but remembered it was little meatball cooked in a combo of grape jelly and chili sauce. The version I made was delicious and just enough for a nice little nosh for 2. I made a fraction of the recipe below.

Gonna make these for New Year’s, when we have hors d’oeuvres at different points during the day (no actual dinner).

Cocktail Meatballs: heat 1-1/2 cups cranberry sauce, 1-1/2 cups chili sauce, 1/4 cup orange juice and 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger in a saucepan. Stir to blend the ingredients. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low. In a bowl, mix 1 pound ground beef (or use turkey or veal) with 1 egg and enough breadcrumbs to bind the mixture well. Make 1-inch meatballs and place them in the sauce. Cook for 35-40 minutes, spooning the sauce over the meatballs occasionally and turning them to coat all sides.

Makes 8 servings

Chicken Salad

This salad is my go-to whenever I want a light but filling meal. Chicken isn’t a constant — sometimes I use leftover salmon, beef or lamb instead — but the proportions are just right for 2-3 people (you can double it of course).

If you’re fasting for Yom Kippur, this is the kind of dish that’s perfect for the occasion. Substantial but not heavy and not salty.

Chicken Salad

• 4-5 small waxy potatoes (such as Baby Yukon Gold or Red Bliss)

• 3-4 ounces fresh greens

• 2 stalks celery, chopped coarsely

• 1/2 avocado, cut into bite size pieces

• 10-12 cherry or grape tomatoes cut in half

• 1/2 cup chopped cucumber

• 2 cups diced cooked chicken

• 3 tablespoons olive oil or avocado oil

• 3 tablespoons wine vinegar

• freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with water, bting to a boil and cook for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Let cool, peel and cut into bite size pieces. Place the greens in a salad bowl. Add the potatoes, celery, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber and chicken and toss the ingredients to distribute them evenly. Pour in the olive oil and toss to coat the ingredients. Pour in the vinegar and toss. Sprinkle with pepper to taste. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Makes 2-3 servings

Fruit Streusel Mini-cakes

Fruit Streusel Mini-cakes

As anyone who knows me or reads my posts knows, I do not like to waste food. So recently, when I overcooked some rhubarb, I wasn’t about to trash it. Because —anyone who bakes knows — fruit sauce (applesauce, peach sauce, even mashed avocado, etc.) is very useful for making muffins, quickbreads and cake.

I decided to make muffins, but rather than use a basic muffin recipe, I tinkered with an old recipe for applesauce cake and decided to go with that. Even though they look like muffins and they’re baked in muffin tins, I call them mini-cakes because the texture is more cake-like than muffiny.

I guess that means you can eat them for breakfast but also serve them for dessert (an ice cream accompaniment would be good).

If you prefer cake, use a 9” cake tin.

Fruit Streusel Mini-cakes

Streusel:

• 1/3 cup quick cooking oats

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 3 tablespoons butter cut into chunks

Mini-cakes:

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup butter

• 1/2 cup stewed fruit puree

• 1/3 cup plain Greek style yogurt (or use sour cream)

• 1 large egg, beaten

• 1-1/2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 6 tablespoons orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Make the streusel: Combine the oats, flour and sugar in a bowl and mix the ingredients together. Add the butter. Using fingers or a pastry blender (or a food processor on pulse), work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly. Set it aside.

The mini-cakes: Lightly grease 9 muffin tin cups. Beat the sugar and butter together with a hand mixer or electric mixer set at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the stewed fruit puree, yogurt, egg and orange zest and beat the ingredients for 2-3 minutes or until smooth. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat until well blended. Add half the juice and beat until well blended. Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Pour equal amounts of the batter into the muffin tins. Sprinkle equal amounts of the streusel on top of the muffins. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Makes 9

Matzo Topped Turkey Pot Pie

Our first night Passover dinner always includes turkey. My grandmother served turkey on Passover, my Mom did too and so I follow our family tradition.

Also, because we are a family where some of us eat dark meat and some eat white, I roast a whole turkey (instructions here).

I change the seasonings and basting fluids from time to time. Sometimes I flavor the bird with Balsamic vinegar-ginger-pineapple and sometimes with sweet white wine and thyme, sometimes a simple sprinkle of salt, pepper, garlic and parika and a cup or two of orange juice.

My daughter Gillian is our family carver. She is so adept at carving turkey that in another century she would have had a job at some royal household or other.

There is always leftover turkey.

That means we have turkey pot pie at some point during the holiday.

Here’s my recipe for Passover Turkey Pie. Matzo crust of course!

Matzo Topped Turkey Pot Pie

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 medium onion, sliced

• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced 1/2-inch thick

• 2 medium all-purpose potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size chunks

• 4 cups chopped cooked turkey

• 1-1/2 to 2 cups leftover chopped cooked vegetables

• 2-1/2 tablespoons potato starch

• 3 cups stock

• matzo

• 1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes. Add the carrots and potatoes and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the turkey and vegetables and stir to distribute the ingredients evenly. Sprinkle the potato starch on top and mix it into the ingredients. Pour in the stock and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened slightly. Spoon the ingredients into a casserole dish. Depending on the size of the casserole, soak one or two sheets of matzo in cool water briefly to soften the pieces. Press out extra liquid with paper towels. Place the matzo on top of the ingredients. Brush with beaten egg. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until crispy on top.

Makes 4-6 servings

Banana Chocolate Cake

Same-old, same-old. The family came for the holiday (TG) and I have bananas leftover.

When there’s leftover bananas at my house I usually make banana bread or muffins or a plain banana cake of some sort. But I got some wonderful chocolate as a gift and wanted to use part of it for this cake. It’s rich and festive looking so I’m thinking of making this again for New Year’s weekend.

If you’re having a dairy meal for Hanukkah, this would make a marvelous dessert too!

streusel-topped BANANA-CHOCOLATE CAKE

Streusel:

• 1/2 cup butter

• 3/4 cup quick oats

• 3/4 cup shredded coconut

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Melt the butter and set it aside. In a bowl, combine the oats, coconut, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix to distribute the ingredients evenly. Pour in the melted butter, mix to coat all the dry ingredients and set aside.

Cake:

• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate (1 cup chocolate chips)

• 1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 cup butter

• 2 large eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 3 large ripe bananas, mashed

• 1/3 cup buttermilk or kefir

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• streusel (above)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9”x13” cake pan or 2-9”round cake pans. Melt the chocolate and set it aside. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the brown sugar and butter for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat for one minute or until thoroughly blended. Add the bananas and buttermilk and beat for 1-2 minutes. Add the flour mixture and beat until the batter is well blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Pour the melted chocolate on top and use a knife to swirl it evenly into the batter. Scatter the crust mixture evenly over the top. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a cake rack to cool completely.

Makes one cake, serving 12-16

Turkey Bones Soup

Okay, okay, this is not gorgeous food.

But trust me, this is good soup. Good for the taste buds, good for the soul. And it’s a useful, delicious way to use the Thanksgiving turkey carcass.

Think of this as a special ugly duckling. I mean turkey.

Turkey bones Soup

• turkey carcass, bones, etc, scraps

• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced 1-inch thick

• 2 stalks celery, peeled, leaves included if available, and sliced 1-inch thick

• 1 medium onion, sliced

• 1 parsnip, peeled and sliced 1-inch thick

• 1 28-ounce can tomatoes plus the liquid

• 10 cups water

• salt and pepper

• 2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

• 1 cup short macaroni such as elbows

• 1 cup frozen peas

Place the turkey pieces, carrots, celery, onion, parsnip and tomatoes in a soup pot. Cover with the water, add salt, pepper and dill and bring the liquid to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat. and simmer for 3-1/2 hours. Add the macaroni and peas and cook for another 15 minutes.

Makes 8-10 servings

Pot Pie

Is it too early to think about Thanksgiving?

Not for me. For the first time in a few years — Covid!!!! — I am finally having my old, usual crew for dinner. My family plus my brother and sister-in-law, their kids and one grand.

HURRAH!!!

So, I am already planning the menu and doing what I can ahead.

With all those people at the feast there may not be any leftover turkey this year. But just in case — I’ll use the meat for pot pie.

I make pot pie a lot because with only Ed and me for dinner most nights, there are leftovers all the time and pot pie is one of Ed’s favorites.

The recipe below is more or less the one I use. I change the herb, depending on what I have (I’ve used dill, basil, marjoram) and of course the veggies change depending on what’s also leftover or what’s in the fridge produce bin. You need about 3-4 cups of veggies plus the potato and onion.

Sometimes I make this without the meat — just add some more vegetables.

Thanksgiving leftovers? For sure. But why wait? This versatile recipe is an all-year handy one. Bonus: you can freeze pot pie to serve when you want to just pop something in the oven for dinner. Place the dough on top and freeze. Then, thaw and bake.

Pot Pie

• 2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 1 medium Yukon Gold or other Eastern potato

• 2 carrots, sliced 1/4-inch thick

• 2 stalks celery, sliced 1/4-inch thick

• 1 cup bite-size zucchini chunks

• 1 cup corn kernels or peas

• 3 cups bite-size chopped cooked chicken, turkey, beef or veal

• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 3 cups chicken stock

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

• 2 teaspoons chopped thyme leaves

• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• pie dough or thawed frozen puff pastry sheets

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, for 2-3 minutes or until softened. Add the potato, carrots and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. Add the zucchini, corn and chicken and stir to distribute the ingredients evenly. Sprinkle the flour over the ingredients and stir to mix it in completely. Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently to let the flour absorb into the other ingredients. Pour in the stock gradually, stirring constantly. Raise the heat and bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the ingredients, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Stir in the parsley and thyme and sprinkle to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon the filling into a baking dish. Cover with the pie dough or puff pastry. Seal the edges to the dish. Cut 2-3 slits in the crust to allow steam to escape. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the crust is crispy and golden brown.

Makes 4 servings

Salmon and White Bean Salad

On Thanksgiving we ate a lot.

On Hanukkah we ate a lot (so far!).

And, of course, this year the two holidays were so close together that we ate a lot, a lot.

So, for us, now that the turkey-with-trimmings leftovers are gone and the latke and cheese fest is almost over, it’s soon going to be “reasonable eats” time for us.

Notice I don’t use the word “diet.” Good, healthy food doesn’t need negative words that make people feel stressed. Good healthy food can also be substantial and delicious.

Like this white bean and salmon salad.

Bonus: it takes just minutes to prepare.

Another bonus: I’ve made this with leftover cooked turkey instead of fish and have changed the herbs (you can use rosemary, dill, thyme, savory or oregano). All good. I’ve also used red kidney beans and added mango. Another option: add some crumbled blue or feta cheese. Or change the vegetable from peas to cooked carrots.

Salmon and White Bean Salad

• 1 15-ounce can white beans

• 1 to 1-1/2 cups crumbled leftover salmon (or other fish)

• 1/2 cup fresh cooked or thawed frozen peas

• 2-3 scallions, chopped

• 1/3 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts

• 3 tablespoons olive oil (or other vegetable oil)

• 2-3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Rinse the beans (save the liquid for use as aquafaba) and place them in a mixing bowl. Add the salmon, peas, scallions and hazelnuts and toss the ingredients gently to distribute them evenly. Pour in the olive oil and toss gently. Pour in 2 tablespoons of the white vinegar, sprinkle with rosemary, salt and pepper, toss. Taste and add more white wine vinegar if needed. Let rest for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 4 servings

Banana Almond Streusel Bread

You think I’d learn! I always buy too many bananas when my kids and grandkids come, but when my cousins came for a sleepover, I thought for sure I wouldn’t have any leftovers. Senior citizens are supposed to eat bananas!

I bought 3 bananas and all 3 were uneaten.

So I made this, which is awesome.

This would be a good choice to end Rosh Hashanah dinner or for Break-the-fast.

Banana Almond Streusel Bread

Streusel:

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup chopped almonds

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

• 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil (or vegetable oil)

 Bread:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (or melted coconut oil)

• 2 large eggs

• 3 medium very ripe bananas

• 1/2 cup almond (or other non-dairy) milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup chopped almonds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9”´5”´3” loaf pan. Make the streusel by mixing the flour, almonds, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add the coconut oil and work it into the dry ingredients with fingers or a knife until mixture is crumbly. Set aside. 

Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set it aside. Beat the sugar and vegetable oil with a handheld or electric mixer set at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is well mixed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Mash the bananas and add them to the mixture. Beat thoroughly until the ingredients are well blended. Add the flour mixture and beat for 1-2 minutes to blend the ingredients thoroughly. Beat in the almond milk and vanilla extract. Fold in the almonds. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Scatter the streusel on top. Bake for 1 hour or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the bread in the pan 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool on a cake rack.

Makes 10-12 servings

Passover Shepherd's Pie with Matzo Crust

I always try to make our Seder meals as festive as possible. Most years (sans pandemic) I roast a turkey and braise a big brisket. Lots of vegetable side dishes. Sometimes the second night is vegetarian. My grandma’s honey-soaked chremslach are a must. Ditto the Manischewitz concord grape wine (along with some lovelier selections).

But during the week — not so much. It’s regular meals. So, maybe meatloaf (with matzo meal substituting for bread crumbs). Or chicken cutlets crusted with coconut. Leftover turkey made into salad. Like that.

From time to time I make this “Shepherd’s Pie” — which really isn’t Shepherd’s Pie because there’s no potato crust. I include the potatoes in the meat mix and gave it a matzo crust. That crust is a crunchy, wonderful thing together with the softer, more tender inside ingredients.

Passover Shepherd’s Pie with Matzo Crust

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 1 large clove garlic, chopped

• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped

• 1 large Yukon Gold or other all-purpose potato, peeled and chopped

• 1-1/2 pounds ground meat

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, optional (or use 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme)(or use 1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley)

• 2 tablespoons potato starch

• 1 cup stock (beef, chicken or vegetable)

• 2 matzot

• 1 egg, beaten (or use olive oil)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, carrots and potato and cook, stirring frequently, for 7-8 minutes, or until softened and beginning to brown. Add the meat, salt, pepper and thyme and continue to cook and stir, breaking up the meat into small pieces, for another 5-6 minutes or until the meat has cooked through. Add the potato starch and stir it into the meat mixture. Pour in the stock and cook, stirring, until the sauce has thickened (about one minute). Spoon the mixture into a rectangular baking dish. Soak the matzot briefly to soften them slightly, then place them on paper toweling and press any excess water from them. Place the soaked matzot on top of the meat. Brush the surface with the beaten egg. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the top is crispy and browned.

Makes 4-6 servings