MotherWouldKnow

05/15/2013 01:46 PM

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Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes

I didn't grow up to be a tea-sandwiches-with-the-crusts-cut-off kind of gal. In fact, in high school, my standard sassy line to my own mother whenever she (frequently) got on my nerves was a question about whether she really wanted me to be just like Tricia Nixon, sitting primly at a ladies tea eating white bread sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Fast forward a few decades and here I

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05/13/2013 01:30 PM

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Music to Cook By

I can’t imagine cooking (or baking) in silence. Sometimes I chat with whoever is around or listen to a conversational show on radio, but it’s music that really gets me in the mood to whip, chop, stir, and simmer . My musical talents are nonexistent; I can’t sing on key and when I gave up clarinet lessons in fourth grade, my father gave my clarinet to an Israeli kibb

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05/08/2013 03:00 PM

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Baked Lemon Tarragon Chicken

When dinner has to be quick-and-easy, I don’t usually think of baked chicken. But this recipe fits the bill. You can make it in less than an hour and most of that time the chicken bakes unattended. The dish requires few ingredients and it is delicious cold if there are leftovers. If those attributes aren’t enough, baked lemon tarragon chicken is a budget meal too. I made e

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05/06/2013 09:54 PM

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Matzo for Mother's Day?

My pal MarocMama kidded me that I should do a post entitled "Matzo in May" after I bemoaned having so much matzo (and matzo meal) left over after Passover. Instead I am writing about the Streit’s matzo company this month and this post has nothing to do with my leftover matzos, Passover, or even Jewish cooking. I’ve never been a brand loyalist when it comes to matzo and other P

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05/01/2013 05:22 PM

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Currant Scones

Even if my husband weren’t Irish-American, I would love scones. Buttery, crumbly, and altogether lovely, they melt in your mouth. During my vanillathon with Kelly last weekend, I started playing around with a favorite scone recipe that features candied ginger. Substituting currants and vanilla for the ginger takes the scones back to their traditional roots, but retains the

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04/30/2013 02:51 PM

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Vanillathon - Does Homemade Vanilla Make a Difference?

Last fall, Kelly (of KellyBakes) and I made homemade vanilla extract. We went in together on a bulk purchase of 4 different types of vanilla beans and then blogged about our extract-making. Our plan was bottle some of our vanilla bounty for holiday gifts and bake together (using part of the remainder) to see if we could discern a taste difference between the various types of vanilla be

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04/24/2013 07:00 PM

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Fennel Salad Reimagined

Few vegetables are as transformed by cooking as fennel. Raw, fennel has a faintly licorice-like taste. I love it, but not everyone does. Whether you find the raw version intriguing or not, cooked fennel is much milder - interesting to be sure, but not remotely bizarre. As the weather (finally) got warm this week, I got a hankering for Alice Waters’ shaved fennel sal

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04/19/2013 01:25 PM

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Finding Peace During a Difficult Week

Before this week, I never thought about how bombs are made. Now that I’ve heard too much about the pressure cooker bombs apparently used in the Boston Marathon attack, I can’t stop thinking about the perversity of using a cooking pot to inflict brutality and violence. Food brings people together. It is integral to large holiday celebrations, family get-togethers, and int

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04/17/2013 03:03 PM

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Easy Vegetarian Fried Rice

This month is the one-year anniversary of Wok Wednesdays. I can’t remember how I initially found Grace Young, Matt Lardie (co-founder of the group ), and the Wok Wednesdays crowd, but however it happened, it surely was a stroke of luck for me. From the moment that I ditched my non-stick wok in favor of a carbon steel one, I knew this was going to be fun. After learning

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04/12/2013 06:36 PM

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5 Weird Uses for Food - Part 2

Last week I presented weird food uses #1 (a bag of rice drying out an iPhone that had been dropped into water) and #2 (my daughter's recipe for “no poo” – using baking soda and apple cider vinegar instead of commercially produced shampoo.) As promised, we finish my list of with weird food uses #3, 4, and 5 this week. Here are the foods: Can you guess their uses?

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04/10/2013 03:35 PM

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Summer Rolls

I came to summer rolls late in life. When I was a kid, growing up in a New York suburb (during the Mad Men era of chow mein), the only Asian appetizer rolls I knew were so-called Chinese egg rolls. They were always fried or baked, filled mostly with cabbage, and definitely boring. I had no idea that infinitely better-tasting and healthier Asian appetizer rolls existed. No

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04/05/2013 03:53 PM

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5 Weird Uses for Food

What’s your favorite weird use for a food (ingredient)? Mine is the tech miracle of drying out a wet iPhone in a bag of rice. Here’s another one, from my daughter Eleanor. Next week, I’ll give you 3 more weird uses for a total of 5. Do you have other weird uses of food I should include on the list? If so, leave me a comment here or on the MotherWouldKn

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04/03/2013 04:08 PM

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Shrimp 101 and a Taste Test

Phil, of Stone Soup fame, has been looking for healthy and quick alternatives to chicken. He asked me to show him how to cook with shrimp, so we did a quick lesson yesterday. Here are the highlights: Shrimp are Nutritious With the caveat that shrimp are relatively high in cholesterol, they are also: High in Omega-3 fatty acids (which have been found to have protective effect

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03/29/2013 05:35 PM

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A Muslim Helps a Jew Christen a Tajine (Tagine)

Several months ago, I bought a tajine, intending to start using it right away. But when I took it out of the box, I found the tajine rather intimidating. It’s easier to preach “be brave” than to practice it. I gave myself all sorts of pep talks, ranging from the “you can do this,” and “what’s the worst that can happen?” encouraging

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03/28/2013 12:00 AM

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Spice Tips and the Spice Set Giveaway

Whether I'm roasting vegetables, grilling meat or fish, cooking a stew, baking chicken, or making a salad, I almost always use spices. There is no better way to enhance flavors of main ingredients than to add a touch of spices. I enjoy mixing spices and vowed earlier this year to learn to make my own curry powder. The best way to decide which spices you like is to experiment.

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03/27/2013 05:07 PM

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Tajine (Tagine) Tutorial

I met Amanda of MarocMama last year and we’ve had lots of long distance fun ever since. We bond over big events in our lives and silly little things. We trade stories and ask after each other's families. But most of all, we learn from each other. Although I have owned a Moroccan Jewish Cookbook for at least a decade and love the Moroccan food I’ve tasted

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03/21/2013 10:00 AM

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Coconut-Almond Macaroons

Macaroons are traditional at Passover because they can be made without any leavening or flour. A cookie that is gluten-free, contains no butter, oil or other added fat, and is Passover–friendly. What more could a person want out of a tiny morsel at this time of year? Good taste, that’s what. When I was a kid, we used to get macaroons out of a canister. Their c

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03/19/2013 02:45 PM

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What to Expect at Your First Seder?

We've always invited a guest to our Passover Seder from outside of our family and close friends. (It’s an Eastern European Jewish tradition.) In recent years, we’ve moved from inviting a Jewish guest without family nearby, who presumably would celebrate with his or her own family if they could, to inviting a guest who has never attended a Seder before. Hosting a non

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03/15/2013 05:18 PM

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How long can you keep matzo meal?

If this isn’t a burning issue for you, then either you never buy too much food or you don’t care about matzo meal. In either case, keep reading because this isn’t just about my food-hoarding tendencies, matzo meal, or Passover. I buy lots of matzo meal every Passover to make literally hundreds of Passover rolls. We eat them at the Seder and I like to send anyone at t

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03/13/2013 02:24 PM

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Soda Bread – Traditional & Irish-American

Before this week, I didn't realize that Sister Mary’s Irish Soda Bread is not Irish, it's Irish-American. I adore the rich and raisin-filled bread, and I've usually made it (or a close approximation) each year as St. Patrick's Day rolls around. I do fondly remember eating earthy, unsweetened brown bread when my family traveled to Ireland about 15 years ago. We called it "brown b

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03/11/2013 01:40 PM

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Pasta Primavera

Last night we came home famished after a fun afternoon. My growling stomach said “think fast, cook faster.” Dinner had to be satisfying and on the table before I started snacking. A perfect night for pasta primavera. My version is not so much a recipe as a set of tips. This “recipe” requires only a bag or box of pasta, random vegetables, a few tab

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03/08/2013 05:13 PM

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Spice Set Giveaway

Fresh spices are the best. Whether you use them frequently or just every once in a while, you want spices to provide smell and taste, not just color. Have you ever checked the “best by” dates on your spices? If you wish you could throw out your old spices, but can’t imagine replacing them all at once, here’s your chance to do that without spending a dime.&

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03/06/2013 05:15 PM

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Appetizer Heaven - Caponata

Caponata, an Italian dish with eggplant, onions, celery, tomatoes, and olives, is one of my "go to" appetizers. Whether I'm having a big party, need to bring a substantial contribution to a potluck, or just have a compulsion to "feed" my freezer, caponata fits the bill. I got the original recipe from my friend Liz. Although I have adapted the directions and certain ingredients, I

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03/01/2013 05:05 PM

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5 Easy Ways to Save Money on “Work” Food

The sequestration craziness this week has turned governmental cost-cutting talk into a blood sport for politicians. But it can also become personal, as many who may be affected by sequestration wonder how long it will last and what personal expenses they can cut. As always, I'm all about food. So, here are 5 easy ways to save money on food and drink you consume at work or sc

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02/27/2013 09:07 PM

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Not-Quite-Homemade Chicken Mole

Chicken with chocolate sounds weird, no? But if the chocolate is spicy and not sweet, in a sauce that envelopes shredded chicken and the dish is served (in an enchilada or on its own) with rice and a salad of oranges and red onions, the result is delicious. Maybe you’ve had mole in a Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant and didn’t even realize there was chocolate in the sauce. T

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02/25/2013 04:28 PM

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5 Things to Know Before You Bake

You might be surprised, but I love skimming through Primer magazine. I’m definitely not in the “target demographic” but hey, I didn’t have to pass a gender or age test before opening up the tab on my browser. Today I found a great Primer article on laundry. Perhaps you're already a laundry expert or maybe you don't think knowing anything about it merits yo

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02/22/2013 01:28 PM

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Have You Ever Cooked Leeks?

If you’re stuck in a rut with onions, how about leeks? Milder, sweeter, and more complex than yellow onions, leeks are amazingly versatile. Use them in stews or soups, sauté them with other vegetables, or prepare them as a side dish on their own. They are good hot, cold, or room temperature. Although they are big and tough in their raw state (I think they resem

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02/20/2013 05:05 PM

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Easy Kreplach for Purim

Hooray, Purim is coming! Another chance to eat great Jewish food, this holiday is a gold mine of dough-filled delights called hamantaschen. Although you can now buy them at other times of the year, when I grew up, they only appeared at Purim, with fillings of all types peeking out from a cookie-liked dough triangle. My favorite hamantaschen fillings are poppy seed – not too sweet

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02/18/2013 04:38 PM

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How to Make Chicken Soup

With all the Jewish mother jokes that feature chicken soup, not to mention the many commercial products in the “chicken soup for the soul” collection, I hesitate to venture down this path. But with so many friends and family suffering colds and flu and with a blustery wind blowing here for the past few days, I decided to be brave – so here goes – my 2¢ on good, o

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02/13/2013 05:48 PM

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Marshmallows for Valentine's Day

This post began when I decided to make homemade marshmallows as a Valentine’s Day treat for my sweetie. After a bit of recipe research, I was confused and uncertain that I could really make this happen. Then I had a brainstorm – consult Stella. Not my grandmother Stella – though channeling her might be fun, she wasn't a good cook and didn't bake as far as I know

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02/11/2013 04:53 PM

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Is Buying Food in Bulk Cheaper?

As in much else in life, the answer to whether it’s cheaper to buy food in bulk is (drumroll)… it depends. As a general rule, I do find buying from a bulk bin is cheaper than buying pre-packaged food. And typically, the larger size of the can, box, or bag, the less expensive the packaged food. Certainly when it comes to herbs and spices, my local grocery sells them in bul

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02/08/2013 04:18 PM

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What Foods are Aphrodisiacs?

Call me the Dr. Ruth of food if you must, I just couldn’t resist getting into a topic that is sure to embarrass my kids and my mom. After all, Valentine’s Day is next week and aphrodisiac foods seemed much more interesting than a recipe for a theme-decorated dessert. My first thoughts were rather pedestrian: Chocolate Red wine But there had to be more to this topic,

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02/06/2013 03:02 PM

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Single Serving No Fuss Mac ‘N Cheese

I consider mac ‘n cheese to be “kick off my shoes, ratty-clothes-I-can’t-wear-out, just-wanna-stay-at-home” food. Sure I might try lobster mac ‘n cheese at a trendy bistro, but most often, I want a simple, homemade version that uses better cheese than American, but still reminds me of the Kraft packaged version from my childhood. There are lots of great macaron

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02/01/2013 10:58 AM

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Superbowl Food and Drink Tips

I’m not a big televised sports fan. But I love the food and comraderie that come along with watching (or pretending to watch) a championship game. Hosting a Superbowl party doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to cook – you could do a pot luck or buy ready-made food. Even if you are cooking, there are plenty of ways to put together a perfectly wonderful me

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01/30/2013 10:30 AM

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How to Make Vegetable Stew

How often do you get to enjoy a poem while making dinner? Recently I was at a family wake, saying goodbye to our beloved Uncle Bill. Family and friends gathered and chatted quietly – a somber scene, but also one with lots of hugs and promises to keep in touch in good times as well as sad or difficult moments. As the winter afternoon turned into dusk and the crowd thinned,

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01/25/2013 02:50 PM

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Which Measuring Cups to Use for Liquids vs Solids?

Last Thanksgiving I pontificated to my visiting (grown-up) kids that one should always use solid measuring cups for solids and liquid measuring cups for liquids. Being well brought up, they listened politely and even nodded their heads as if I was speaking the gospel truth. But Eleanor, bless her “prove it to me” personality and determination, wasn’t satisfied. When

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01/23/2013 10:58 PM

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Curry Powder Curiousity

I’m all for adventurous cooking, so I was intrigued when Wok Wednesdays included a curry dish from Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge in the line-up. I’ve only been stir-frying correctly for about 6 months, but already I’ve realized how versatile a wok can be. After buying a proper carbon steel wok and seasoning it this past spring, I’ve made spinach, brocc

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01/16/2013 03:01 PM

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Shepherd's Pie

When it comes to comfort food, many people harken back to their childhood. In my case, I harken back to someone else’s childhood. Growing up I didn’t eat mashed potatoes. Or if I did, my mom made them from a box of dried flakes in the amount needed for a specific meal. We certainly never had leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge, begging to be eaten or used in

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01/14/2013 09:00 AM

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Onion Alternatives

This blog post is a tease, but hopefully you won't hold that against me. Last week, as I roasted shallots along with the garlic I was using for bruschetta, I thought about how many wonderful alternatives there are to the plain, reliable old yellow onion. Instead of burdening you with recipes or lots of information on onion alternatives, I decided to start this topic with a list of idea

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01/10/2013 11:00 AM

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Bruschetta – Traditional and Otherwise

The leftover baguette sitting on the counter immediately led me to bruschetta. This Italian antipasto or appetizer is simple; if you can cut up bread and tomatoes, you can make it. It's great party food, an easy appetizer that makes a big impression. Although I would much prefer local farmers market tomatoes for a dish like this, that features tomatoes, I find that good Campari

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01/07/2013 02:49 PM

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Salad Ideas and Tips

Salad is almost always on the menu at my house. Whether it’s a side dish or the centerpiece of the meal, salad always works. When I need inspiration, I inventory what's on hand, close my eyes, and imagine how a couple of the ingredients I've found might fit together in a salad. Here is a chronicle of some of my salad-making adventures and what I’ve learned from several dec

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01/04/2013 03:58 PM

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2013 in My Kitchen

How should I get a fresh start, kitchen and cooking-wise, this year? Resolutions are to easy for me to ignore soon after I make them, so I decided to pose 10 questions to myself. Are they rhetorical? Maybe. Should I learn from them? Definitely. These questions probably tell you too much about the state of my kitchen and my cooking life. But hopefully they

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01/02/2013 02:06 PM

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How I Define Cooking Sucess

Cooking isn’t rocket science. Unless you want to do molecular gastronomy, you can cook well with the most rudimentary equipment. Although it’s nice to have an oven, a cook top and a refrigerator, anyone who has ever eaten a great campfire breakfast, meat grilled over an open fire, or smores can tell you that a bit of kindling, some firewood and a match can do the job.

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12/31/2012 04:16 PM

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Citrus Black Pepper Cookies - Baketogether

This month’s Baketogether, Ginger Slice ‘n Bakes, is tailor-made for my obsession with candied ginger. Besides a hefty helping of that spicy-sweet delight, Abby Dodge’s recipe adds powdered ginger and black pepper to a buttery dough. But I just made Brian Samuel’s Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies (fabulous!!) and used up all my crystallized ginger in the

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12/29/2012 01:55 PM

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Layered Vegetable Paté

When it comes to party appetizers, I go for glitz. Layers, garnish, a nice platter, fancy serving knife implement - I’m all about presentation. (Remember the caviar pie?) Especially on New Year’s Eve, party food should look elegant. I tried the original version of this vegetable paté several months ago. It was lovely but plain, nice but not a &ldqu

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12/26/2012 04:18 PM

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Play with Your Food

At holiday time, I eat more than I should, over commit when I offer to bring a dish, and find that meal planning often goes out the window. My all-too-frequent holiday grocery store runs are not the organized affairs they should be and my brain seems to freeze up almost as frequently as my laptop. Is there a cure for this state of affairs? I doubt there is a drug or therapeutic remed

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12/19/2012 01:27 PM

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Not-My-Grandma’s Kindly or Kifli

I'm on a crusade of sorts - to encourage everyone to preserve and use family recipes as a way of connecting generations. Although I don't have many recipes from my own family, making them always brings me closer to my parents and grandparents. And I’m trying to pass down recipes and memories of family foods to my own kids. Recently my friends Sandy and Laurie came over and

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12/17/2012 03:32 PM

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It's All About Food - Even for Charity

At MotherWouldKnow the tips, hints and research are typically about food for you or cooking for family and friends. But today we're talking about food for others - those who won't have any unless we give. What motivates giving doesn't really matter, at least to me. Give because it's the right thing to do, or because it's a great gift, or because giving makes you feel good - or

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12/13/2012 12:18 PM

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Stir-Fried Ginger Broccoli

At Christmas and Hanukkah time, my food-related thoughts go straight to starch and sugar. I can spend hours planning which cookies I’ll make, or devising latke variations. Ogling my storehouse of cookie decorations, grating potatoes and using up more butter, sugar and flour than I care to inventory is pretty much my modus operandi at this time of the year. So it was refres

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12/12/2012 11:37 AM

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How to Make Great Latkes

Last week I made homemade strudel with two friends. (We used a recipe passed down to one of the friends from her Aunt Shirley.) To say that our dough was not “blogworthy” is putting it mildly. We did have a great time, but there were moments when I wondered whether we were baking or making a Three Stooges movie. After we put our strudel in the oven, I suggested tha

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