And the holidays are upon us...

Last year, I waited too long to buy latkes and I couldn't find any in the store. So, I was left no option but to buy a boxed mix. This year, I really wanted to try to make them from scratch.



Latkes, which are Yiddish for potato pancakes, are traditional foods eaten at Hanukkah time. Here's a small history behind latkes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_pancake.

So, after spending a good amount of time researching latkes recipes, I found this one and decided to try it. http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday7.htm#Latkes
I couldn't believe how utterly easy they were to make and I'll never have frozen latkes again. I swear by this recipe! The hardest part of this recipe was grating the potatoes which my husband helped with. I'm sure if we had a food processor, grating the potatoes would've been even faster and easier! I highly recommend watching the video before cooking the latkes. It's great to have a visual aid!

Today, I made spiced pumpkin bread, as a holoday gift, for our neighbor. I do enjoy making things from scratch, but I decided to try something semi-homemade this time. I purchased a box of Duncan Hines Spice Cake mix and made it as planned. Then, I added a can of 100% pure pumpkin. I mixed everything together and then threw it in a bread pan in the oven (at 325 for 30 minutes). I kept checking the bread and 30 minutes wasn't enough. I think it was closer to 45 minutes until the toothpick came out clean. The house smells great!

On to the new year and new recipes!

French Baguettes

I should preface this post by saying I don't own a bread machine and until recently, I thought you couldn't make bread unless you owned a bread machine. Maybe I shouldn't have actually admitted that publicly.
This recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/French-Baguettes/Detail.aspx mentions a bread machine is not needed. I have been waiting for day to try it. First, I couldn't find bread flour, but I did!
This time, I am actually following the recipe to a T, and I had my camera on hand. I dug out my dough hook for my mixer (which I had never used the dough hook until now).



I love my kitchen aid mixer and I try to use it as often as possible! After that, I gathered all my ingredients listed in the recipe.

I threw everything into the mixer bowl (I guess I stopped caring about the order of ingredients at this point!) and doubtfully looked at it. It looked like a big mess, but I decided to move forward anyway!
To the rescue came my Kitchen Aid mixer! After mixing that mess on level 1, it actually started to look like dough! I have learned from years ago that I must always use pans larger than expected. Don't ask how I learned, just trust me on this! So, I grabbed the largest bowl I had, greased it with some crisco and threw the dough in there. I turned the dough a few times so the doguh was slightly covered in crisco.
I covered the whole bowl in a dish towel (who knows where I cot this idea from) and let it sit for 30 minutes. I expected the dough to rise more, but here it is after 30 minutes.
I'm going to let it sit for another 30 minutes in hopes that it will rise more. After that, I'll start cutting it and baking it.

After 30 minutes, the dough rose a bit, but it definitely didn't double in size but I decided to just knead it out and form baguette shaped dough things! I rolled them out, then rolled up the dough pushing the air bubbles out and forming them.


Then, I sliced the dough every inch or so, laid them on a greased cookie sheet and covered them again for 30 minutes.

After this, I'll pop them into the over for 20-25 minutes on 375 (and don't forget the egg wash!) and hopefully the house will still be standing!

The final product is really tasty! Definitely worth making again!

Tandoori Chicken

Years ago, while working in Manhattan, I would frequent a sandwich place called Cosi http://www.getcosi.com/. It's a nationwide chain, but I didn't know it at the time. They have a delicious chicken tandoori sandwich. Since leaving New York, I think I've had tandoori chicken maybe twice. So, today while I was in Target looking for bread flour with no luck, I found a spice pack for tandoori chicken. I couldn't resist buying it.

Here's the history, if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandoori_chicken

One thing you'll notice in my blog is I rarely follow recipes and I rarely measure anything. The spice box only mentioned a few things regarding measurements, so I just improvised.

First, I started with boneless chicken breast, even though the recipe calls for chicken thighs. I prefer white meat. I sliced the meat and placed it in a tupperware filled with two teaspoons of lemon juice (as per the box) and refrigerated it for 20 minutes. Next, I mixed the following:

• a small onion
• 2 cups plain low-fat yogurt (the recipe specifically called for regular plain yogurt, and even mentioned not using low-fat or non-fat yogurt, but I simply couldn't bring myself to eat regular yogurt after reading the nutritional label)
• 1/4 of the spice packet (this I just guestimated, since the whole packet is for 4 servings)

I mixed everything together and by now, the chicken was ready. I threw everything in a storage bag (chicken, lemon juice, and yogurt mixture) and let that marinate for 60 minutes.

The only thing left to do is to cook the chicken (450 for 40-50 minutes or until the juices run clear). Our oven runs a bit hot, so I expect 35 minutes to be plenty of time.

The picture posted isn't the outcome, but I expect it to look similar!

So, back to the main reason for the trip to Target. I really want to try this recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/French-Baguettes/Detail.aspx but without bread flour, I'm stuck! I'll probably look for it on Friday. Stay tuned :)

Welcome!

My love of cooking and baking has grown, like the size of my kitchen! I first starting baking in my small kitchen in Brooklyn. My kitchen was so small that my refrigerator didn't even fit in the room. Times have changed and now, with plenty of counter space and all the appliances in the kitchen, I decided to start my blog!