So let’s get back to food, shall we? Actually I sort of wanted to talk about kitchen gadgets. Gimmicky kitchen gadgets. Do you own any? I’m talking about silly things like Slap Chops (I own one! It’s collecting dust.), avocado slicers,  mango splitters and the like. Basically anything that a good ol’ knife would do FASTER. And then there is a whole new level of ridiculousness with the likes of egg poacher + english muffin toaster combo, andmarinade express tabletop unit(it’s $300!!). The good news is that some gadgets are AWESOME… even if you can in fact use something simpler to get the job done.

You are going to laugh at me but I love my strawberry stem remover. Yes, I can use a knife but it’s honestly so much fun using that little guy (and no, I will not be buying the strawberry slicerthat Amazon recommends with it… I do have my limits). And I recently purchased this cupcake corer. It looks gimmicky but I hate doing the job with a pairing knife. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Why am I even talking about kitchen gadgets anyway? Because the shredder attachment to my food processor rocked my world the other day. I sort of want to shred every single food item in the house now just to watch this beast process it into perfect little strips. Three pounds of potatoes processed in less than 1 minute. Box graters are so last year!

The recipe I used my favorite new gadget for was for kugelis, which is a Lithuanian potato dish reminiscent of a large hash brown cake. It took a little work (I wish those potatoes peeled themselves!) but the end result was a beautiful potato bake with a golden crust on the outside and tender potato on the inside. Adam and I both enjoyed it for our “restaurant meal in” (our new thing since our going out budget is tighter… there are no tvs, no computers, just the two of us enjoying a more indulgent meal together – catching up on random stories from the week)… but this would be a great dish to serve for brunch as well. I hope you make it and let me know how it goes!

Kugelis – serves 6-8 (recipe is largely based on the Please to the Table cookbook)

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs potatoes
• 4 oz bacon
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1/2 cup milk (if you want a richer dish, use all cream)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375*.

2. Fry bacon in an oven safe 10” skillet. Pour out most of the bacon grease, leaving enough to coat the pan. Blot bacon on paper towels then crumble.

3. Peel potatoes, coarsely grate.

This is where the food processor is your friend!

4. Wash grated potatoes in several changes of cold water, then place in a kitchen towel to squeeze water out.

Nice and dry! Watery potatoes are no good.

5. Combine potatoes, bacon, milk, cream, and eggs. Add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Transfer back to the pan and dot with butter.

6. Bake at 375* for about 1 hour, until the top is golden brown.

Crusty on the inside…

…soft and buttery on the inside:

These potatoes were definitely the star of our steak dinner. I also used these Green Giant green beans for a super quick side veg (*Disclaimer: I received a coupon for a free Green Giant product through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program).

Quick steam:

Then a 2 minute sautee with some EVOO and garlic.

Perfect

What are your favorite kitchen gadgets?

So here is the deal. I want to bring some old favorites back. I want to share them with you again. I want you to SEE, not just imagine, how delicious they are. And then hopefully even more of you will be inspired to make them. I’m definitely having a lot of fun making them again!

Let’s start with a little flashback going back to December 2009… when I had my parents and aunt from Russia over for dinner.  When I told you that this Cooking Light recipe for sweet-spicy glazed salmon was a recent favorite. It comes together in less than 15 minutes and is certainly impressive and delicious enough to serve to company. The salmon gets a quick sprinkling of salt and pepper and then bakes for 10-12 minutes. In the mean time, you can work on the sweet and spicy glaze made of brown sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar and mustard (I now use 100% dijon in place of Chinese mustard). The salmon is finished with a good slathering of the sauce. It’s shiny and sticky and finger-licking good.

Drooooool.

Of course you’ll need a side dish for the salmon. May I recommend this Food & Wine recipe for roasted brussels sprouts with capers, walnuts and anchovies? [Originally found through The Sweets Life] These babies are roasted at the same temperature and the dressing also contains mustard, which makes these two just meant for each other! I cut the oil in the dressing quite a bit and used a little less anchovies (PS – I hope you’re not scared of them, they are salty and just melt into the dressing. Don’t skip them!). This meal was so good that Adam broke the “no fish in the office” rule and took the leftovers (which were originally meant for me) to work for lunch the next day. He said it was worth the looks he got

I’m very seriously considering making these brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving this year. I loved how the sweet caramelized brussels sprouts were balanced by the salty/acidic dressing. Delicious!

PS – The photos were taken in my new “photo studio” with a custom white balance and dimmed overhead lights. I like how much more vivid the colors are. The gorgeous orange hue of salmon helped of course!

Do you have any old favorites you’d like to bring back? Also…

Are you making any veggie sides for Thanksgiving? Share some recipes with me, I’m still trying to finalize my contribution to the table!

This corn was picked that morning!! Look at these juicy kernels!!

Dinner is served!

We ate out on the patio. I love summer nights!!!

On the menu (see links to recipes):

• Grilled Pacific ocean perch (it’s nice and firm and grilled up beautifully just in a few minutes)
• Fresh pesto from the Sweet Basil cookbook(aka the best pesto in the world!!)
• Arugula and zucchini carpaccio salad
• Grilled corn with bacon butter and cotija cheese

This salad was spectacular! I loved the spicy arugula paired with the lemon drizzled zucchini disks and shaved Asiago! Going on my favorite recipes list

We had a hard time making the bacon bits stick to the corn (I think I didn’t use enough butter to that much bacon and didn’t cut it up finely enough) and then the cheese didn’t really want to stay on the corn because it wasn’t wet enough… but we made it work. One delicious smoky, cheesy, corn-y (lol) bite at a time. [Edited to add: Jessica let me know that if you chop the bacon into teeny tiny pieces, it works great... so go ahead, make it! ]

Fresh, tangy, cheesy, buttery… so many textures and flavors. This was the perfect summer feast!

My kitchen is full of dirty dishes, which is a sure sign I’m finally back to what I love

Anyways, I’m cool now and I want to tell you about the dinner I cooked for my dad’s birthday last weekend (sticking to my 30 by 30 list and hosting dinner parties left and right. haha)! His birthday happens to be on my wedding anniversary. Adam and I celebrated the night, just the 2 of us, but I had plans to make it up to my dad soon enough.

When hosting a dinner party do you pick a theme or just go with delicious recipes?

I wanted to make sure this was really really delicious so for my main course I chose a recipe I’ve made (and loved!) before – chicken thighs on the grill (btw, I always tag my favorite recipes so you can find them easily… on the right hand side).

Next up were these lovely ravioli with prosciutto, sundried tomatoes, basil and mozzarella in Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef cookbook. The pictures have been enticing me for weeks and a special birthday dinner seemed like the right time to break out my pasta roller! [PS – you can find the entire recipe on this blog]

Seriously, such cuties!

It appears that I had an Italian theme developing so I went with it! Doesn’t strawberry ricotta cake sound kind of Italian? [If you say ricottttte like Giada, it definitely will ]

OH YEAH!

Add a few Russian cheesy profiterole-like puffs (recipe coming to Russian Bites next)…

Some green beans with wild mushrooms…

And we have dinner!!

My mom was a giant help with executing the menu. I got a little ambitious planning this… happens every time!

I was hoping this would turn into delicious comfort food, fit for a hole in the wall restaurant. I don’t know if I hit the bar quite that high (I’m pretty critical of my own cooking) but every single item turned out absolutely delicious… I can tell you that!

Happy birthday, dad!!

[Ha, he was trying to make a funny face when I pulled out the camera… I say that worked!]

Hope your dreams all come true!

The angel food cake meets Italian grandmother was so light and the perfect ending to our Italian feast. Adam asked that I add it to our rotation of desserts (which means I should start a rotation of desserts! Yessss). I’m adding more strawberries between each layer next time!

Have you entertained recently? Do you have go-to items for dinner parties?

You need the right batter than will not absorb too much oil and the oil needs to be at the perfect temperature (too low and the fish would absorb too much oil, too high and it will burn on the outside before cooking on the inside). 375* is usually the sweet spot. Get your food thermometers out!

I used this recipe for fried catfish (using halibut instead) and it was incredible!! I loved not only the taste of the cornmeal crust but also the crunchy texture).

The fish was perfectly crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Not one bit greasy. Amazing!

My weird obsession with frying food just got stronger. Something about the oil bubbles… they mesmerize me and make me giddy. I don’t know…

Baked truffle fries didn’t hurt either [Coat sliced potatoes in EVOO and dried thyme, bake at 450* for 10 minutes, finish with a drizzle of truffle oil.]

Healthy-ish fish and chips. Mission accomplished!

Have you ever deep fried anything? I want more bubbles.

My dad’s side of the family is Jewish and although I lived in Israel ages 12-15 (middle school) I have to be honest that I don’t know enough about all the traditions in detail. For example – Passover to me (and this is the extent to which we followed it) is a week long holiday during which you’re not allowed to eat leavened bread. I’m ashamed to admit that that’s kind of all I seem to remember from my torah studies in Israel.

So when Cara reached out to all the local Jewish food bloggers with an idea of a dinner party honoring the tradition of Passover with a twist, I was excited to learn more and of course participate in the eating  

A few non-Jewish blogger friends joined us as well. Aside from Cara and me, Shannon, Jen, Megan, Amanda, Renee and Melissa ended up sharing a fantastic Seder plate inspired dinner at Cara’s home!

[Our Seder plate]

This may get slightly geeky… bare with me Some Passover basics:

The holiday honors the the story of the Exodus, in which Israelies were freed from slavery in Egypt. It is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread to rise. In commemoration, for the duration of Passover no leavened bread is eaten. That’s why matzo, which is unleavened, is the primary symbol of the holiday. (Thanks Wikipedia )

On Passover eve, a Passover Seder (ritual feast) takes place, which begins with retelling of the Exodus story and eating (or merely placing) certain symbolic foods on the Seder plate. A traditional dinner follows, which actually does not have anything to do with the Sedar plate. That’s where Cara decided to combine the 2… a modern twist on the tradition. Why not?

We each decided to prepare a dish inspired by a symbolic ingredient on the Seder Plate. The “rules” stated that each dish should be following Passover guidelines (no flour and anything leavened, no wheat, barley, oats, spelt, or rye) and general kosher guidelines (no meat + dairy together, no shellfish, no pork) but otherwise it didn’t need to be traditionally Jewish. Pretty fun, no?

[Prepping for the meal ahead]

So much good food to be had!!

Here is what we came up with…

Melissa made the horseradish cauliflower latkes inspired by the chazeret (bitter herb), which symbolizes the bitterness of slavery the Jews endured in Egypt

These were a really fun twist on the potato latkes. Still crispy on the outside, soft on the inside… and a bit lighter/less starchy.

Renee made the charoset, which is a sweet, brown mixture representing the mortar used by the Jewish slaves to build the storehouses of Egypt.

Jen used the traditional ingredients of charoset (nuts, apples, cinnamon) to make the crunchy apple slaw with cabbage, broccoli slaw, apples, almonds and scallions. Unfortunately I couldn’t have any due to the scallions but it looked super fresh and crunchy. I’m ready for summer!!

I made a massaged kale salad with roasted beets, goat cheese, walnuts and prunes, inspired by the karpas (green vegetable other than bitter herb) which is usually dipped in salted water which represents the tears of Jewish slaves.

[I “massaged” the kale with some lemon juice, basil EVOO and some sea salt, then added the mix-ins. Everyone seemed to really love it. I sure did ]

Amanda also made some horseradish and matzo crusted asparagus, which combined a few of the Seder plate elements (chazeret, karpas). Such a fun roasted veggie!

No Seder plate is complete without z’roa, which is typically lamb or goat shankbone, symbolizing the Passover sacrifice through lamb that was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem, then roasted and eaten as part of the meal on Seder night (fun fact that I just learned – vegetarians substitute beets for meat…looks like I got it covered in my karpas inspired dish!). Cara tackled this job with her spiced lamb and pickled eggplant filled matzo crepes.

I am not typically a fan of lamb and was just going to have a bite not to be rude, but I absolutely LOVED this dish. It was definitely the highlight of the meal for me (partly because it was such a surprise). Cara braised the meat for hours, making the meat super tender while allowing it to soak up all the spices. It had a really great sweet and sour balance. If lamb always tasted like this, I’d be all about it

Last element of the Seder plate beitzah, which is hard boiled egg symbolizing mourning (over the destruction of the Temple and our inability to offer any kind of sacrifices in honor of the Passover holiday). Megan got this covered with her deviled eggs!

Let’s not forget the matzo!

Bloggers in action

Cara is an amazing hostess. Look at these pretty napkins that were on each plate (all different and so bright!).

… and of course there was Manischewitz wine which I’ve never had before. Yup, it tasted like grape juice. This stuff could definitely be trouble

Everything was so so delicious. Food bloggers definitely know how to cook! When it was time for dessert, Shannon’s wasabi white chocolate truffles with crystalized ginger were the perfect chazeret inspired dish!

[The wasabi was mellowed out by the sweetness of the smooth wine chocolate – the ginger actually added some bite. These little truffle babies were amazing!]

Cara also surprised us with a little bonus dessert – chocolate dipped almond butter merengues. Still kosher for passover!

Such a fun concept to honor the Passover tradition in a new way. I loved learning more about my culture and hanging out with old and new blog friends.

Hug sameah and happy Passover to my Jewish friends (and family)!!!

Do you usually celebrate holidays in traditional ways?

SO, if you’ve seen my post on Russian Bites, or my facebook/twitter you may have known that I had my parents and parents in law over for dinner last night. It’s been long overdue and I’m really excited that we finally had a change to do it. It was really fun! So fun, in fact, that I totally forgot to take pictures of all the food (namely the appetizers) so I’ll you’ll have to use your imagination if you’d like to pretend you were at the Healthy and Sane household last night.

This was the smoothest and least stressful dinner party I’ve ever had. Here is why!

• I took shortcuts! Pre-dinner nibbles included green olives marinated with lemons and garlic (purchased from the Whole Foods deli department), aged gouda (just cut up), mozzarella/grape tomato skewers (super simple – Adam assembled them!) and hummus with baby carrots and crackers (hummus was the only thing I made from scratch for the apps).
• I made dessert the night before (I had to given the recipe, but I just LOVED not worrying about that course at all the day of the dinner).
• Despite my overambitious self, I stuck to “just” one main course (which I’ve made before <- I knew what to expect!!). I did make a side of greens, although I accepted help (my mom washed the escarole and helped me with dessert the night prior; Adam made the mozzarella/tomato skewers). Thanks guys!
• I invited guests a few hours prior to dinner being served. This gave everyone time to chat, drink and munch… and gave me more time to prep (I always stress about having everything ready when people arrive! No need this time!!).

With all the wine our guests brought in and additional desserts (see below), we certainly had no shortage of food and drinks. So here we go, last night’s (pictured) eats!

My father in law LOVES Italian and happens to be the pickiest eater of the bunch (although I think my mom sometimes tries to give him a run for his money ) so choosing an Italian main entrée was the easy choice. I decided that spinach, artichoke and feta stuffed shells was a fun and impressive enough dish for a family dinner. It fed a crowd too! I made 1.5 times the recipe and it made two large pans (we hardly finished one of them so there were plenty of leftovers… not complaining here ).

This was carby, cheesy and comforting. A simple side dish of escarole and pine nuts (doubled) nicely broke out the richness of the main course.

There was also garlic bread which apparently broils within seconds (ok, more like 2 minutes… but still) – hey, fire and smoke with the price of admission

My mom saved the day (scrapes them off and I reapplied the garlic/EVOO paste – crisis averted!).

See, all good!

I think I can safely say everyone really enjoyed the main course!!

I left plenty of room for DESSERT!

My mom brought granny smith apples wrapped in puff pastry dough (like a lazy apple pie) – yum!

Jane, my mother in law, made chocolate covered strawberries. Just in time for Valentine’s day!

And I, with the help of my mom, made my very first gorka cake!!!! Check out Russian Bites for the recipe. You’ve been asking me for it for years, so now it’s your turn to make it. SOOOOOO good.

Happy bellies = happy guests… and a happy hostess.

Do you have any dinner party tricks? I’m really happy with how smoothly everything went last night. And now, if you excuse me, I have gorka leftovers to devour (ok, that’s a joke… I already had some after breakfast )

The idea actually came to me after seeing Cara’s posts on fun latkes variations. She assured us all that it was ok to eat them even after the holiday, so I took her word for it and planned a whole meal around latkes.

On the menu:

• Sephardic style chicken with dried fruit and almonds (thank you again, Cara, for all the recipe suggestions!)
• Two-potato (baked) latkes (as seen on Pink Apron)
• Roasted haricot verts
• Rugelach (from the new Weight Watchers cookbook)

I started with making dessert first… of course! I can’t find the recipe online so here are just some pictures of the process that will hopefully inspire you to get in the kitchen. The rugelach were really fun (and easy!) to make and while I didn’t love the outcome (we all unanimously rated these 3.5/5 – they needed more butter!) given my love for the full-fat version, I know I’ll be trying again. Next year, if not sooner!

Easy, right?

Now fast-forward to dinner. I originally wanted to make brisket (the most traditional protein served for Hanukkah) but Whole Foods didn’t have any (maybe they only have this cut during the holidays? not sure…) so chicken it was. I LOVED the sweet dried fruit in combination with the chicken. I used 2 lbs of chicken drumsticks (skinned) + 1.5 lbs of skinless chicken breasts and only 1/2 of the spices, oil/water, prunes and apricots called for in the recipe. I also omitted the onions and any additional sugar the recipe called for. This was super sweet as is. Consider yourself warned. Oh and it only took 40 minutes in total (15 minutes covered, 25 uncovered). I was pretty proud of myself at the end!

[My dad and Adam thought it was too sweet. Don't listen to them... they're just silly. My mom and I were all about this dish. ]

The two-potato latkes gave me some trouble. The first batch stuck to the foil with no way to salvage the cakes without breaking them apart (still yummy though, you know I ate them! ). The next 2 batches went on silpats which worked beautifully. I loved the sweet addition of the sweet potatoes and I didn’t miss the extra grease from the traditionally fried version.

Sweet chicken + sweet latkes needed some salty roasted green beans. Salt, pepper, EVOO at 400* for about 20 minutes. Finished with a bit of soy sauce. Yum!

I was kind of nervous before dinner because I was serving recipes I’ve never tried before (and made modifications, like chicken pieces vs. whole) but it all came together wonderfully. We finished the meal with some rugelach, plus some dessert my mom brought over.

Sour cherry tea cake…

… and rabbit shaped coookie sandwiches. Because 2011 is the year of the rabbit. Yes, my family is cheesy like that.

Do you ever try to healthify traditional holiday meals or indulge in the “real thing?”

PS – If you haven’t already, check out my post on sustainable seafood and enter the RainCoast Trading giveaway. Also I forgot to mention that RainCost Trading is also hosting a giveaway on their site. Enter here for a chance to win a year’s worth of canned seafood for 2.

As an update, I actually did quite well. I brought a cup of coffee which kept my hands and mouth busy and I just tried a few bites of cookies that looked especially delicious, then ate 1 whole one of my favorite one. I originally packed a bunch to take home with me (planning to freeze them) but then decided to just let my officemates go to town. I saved a few for myself and ate one of them later in the afternoon and one this morning. I’m considering this one a success!!

Moving on to a  topic I wanted to discuss today… I think those of you trying to lose weight (or have in the past) can probably relate, especially if you ever counted calories, points, protein/carb/fat grams, etc.

Going over your target number of [insert the thing you’re tracking… Weight Watchers Points+ in my case] for a specific meal and having a mini-freak out about it. Let me expand by backtracking a bit.

Sunday night I decided to roast a whole chicken we got in last month’s meat CSA,  create a roasted carrot recipe (for Adam’s potluck lunch at work… someone’s gotta bring veggies!!) and make brussels sprouts with truffle oil. Oh yeah! I had both of my ovens going – it was so much fun!

I rubbed the outside and inside (under the skin) of the chicken with Stonewall Kitchen’s chicken & pork rub and slipped lemon slices under the skin as well.

See? Yeah, it’s a bit of a dirty job but so worth it. This added so much flavor with no additional fat/calories!

The carrots got a sprinkling of S&P, about 1/2T EVOO per pound (I made 4!!) and baked at 400 for 10 minutes covered, then for 10 minutes uncovered… and then on the skillet for a few minutes with some ponzu sauce which caramelized. Crazy delicious!!

Everything turned out super flavorful. I made a plate of what I thought was a reasonable portion and dug in.

This, my friends, is apparently what an 11 Points+ dinner looks like (I ate the skin off the chicken while putting my plate together). I get 29 Points+ a day so it seemed like a lot so I packed a skinless, slightly smaller piece of chicken for lunch and went about my day (err night).

Monday at lunch, though, I had a bit of a freakout. My lunch was 10 Points+!!! With breakfast and 2 snacks under my belt, dinner and cookies to be made, is that too much? How the hell can I stay within my Points+ range if I eat like that? [And btw, this was supposed to be healthy – doesn’t it look it?]. Ughhhhhhhhh

You know what, dinner ended up being just 6 Points+ and it was good. I made a giant veggie stir-fry with tofu and red curry sauce and it was amazingly satisfying. If I didn’t end up consuming 3 cookies that night, I would actually be UNDER my daily allowance even with that 10 Points+ lunch. The point is that some meals or snacks will be higher than the number that you *think* you should allocate to a meal but it’s relatively easy to adjust elsewhere. I planned on doing the stir-fry anyways so in my case, there was even no compromise to be made. It really should balance out if you focus on nutrition, hunger levels and eating until you’re satisfied, not stuffed!!

Do you ever feel like you had a balanced and healthy meal yet the numbers still look scary? Or do you beat yourself up if a meal was more indulgent than you originally “planned for?” If so, when you looked at your whole day overall, did you find that if you didn’t give up into the “hell, I’ve fallen off the wagon, might as well screw it” mentality, that it evened out at the end? For me, the key is not falling into that trap and it usually works out!

So let’s see, what have you missed…

Eggplant “meatball” subs (it tasted like eggplant parm in a baguette!)

Dover sole picatta (I used this recipe, originally found through Meals & Moves, but of course subbed fish for chicken).

I actually made the chicken version first and it was so amazing (quick and incredibly flavorful and healthy!) that I wanted to try it with other proteins. Fantastic recipe! It’s definitely going to make the best of 2010 list! Saucy…

After over a year, I finally made the brussels sprouts recipe everyone raved about after the 2009 Foodbuzz festival. I know I’m late to the party but it was worth it! No leftovers here…

Thank you, Shannon, for all the weirdo ingredients! I used pancetta instead of guanciale.

There was one baking disaster – protein banana muffins, aka banana flavored rubber in muffin form [I won't link to the recipe I modified... and clearly screwed up.]

There were definitely baking successes. Oooh yeah. In cupcake form. Namely oreo cupcake and margarita cupcake form. Yes, you read that right and you should really find an excuse to make them right away. Especially the margarita ones. Tiffany, you are a genius for setting up a cupcake party!

I also met one of my baking idols – Joanne Chang, the owner of Flour bakery. But you probably already know this if you like me on Facebook (you do, don’t you?).

I spy someone on the right

I already bought all the ingredients for the granola bars. Can’t believe I get to make them myself!!

Ok, looks like there were even more sweets. Chocolate sausage:

… and FRIED food? Say what? Hey it was for the blog! Chicken Kiev:

… and I did have salad with it!

In fact, based on what’s on my camera, there were a few salads…

Mixed greens, grapes, grape tomatoes, goat cheese, pecans and rotisserie chicken (my new favorite thing… I get 1/2 a chicken at Whole Foods for just $5 and it lasts a few days!!)

Mixed greens, strawberries, tofu, pecans and goat cheese

And here is that chicken again in a chicken salad with dried cherries, walnuts and greek yogurt

Aside from the food, there were a few workouts. But not nearly as many as I wish there were. I’ll talk more about my lifting program in a separate post. Gotta give you something to come back to.

How have you been? Did you miss me?

I missed you, although not blogging didn’t really free up my schedule as much as I thought it would. Watching tv is extremely time consuming.

If you have a food blog, do you think you’d eat differently if you took a break for 2 weeks?