Category: Easy Recipes

Healthy and Delicious Vegetable Frittata

This Frittata Is As Good As Quiche But Easier To Make And Healthier Too!

My mother and I were invited over to our friend Sherill Kobb’s house yesterday for lunch.  Sherill is an amazing cook and baker, and a wonderful person.  So between just spending time with Sherill and eating her amazing food, I was in seventh heaven.  It was such a treat for me to enjoy someone else’s cooking for a change.  I felt like a princess, because Sherill is such a gracious hostess, and she really makes her guests feel special.  Well, Sherill prepared a delicious feast which was as appealing aesthetically as it was gastronomically.  She started with French onion soup that was incredible, then she served this vegetable frittata along with a beautiful salad with goat cheese and her homemade mustard and white wine vinaigrette, and then she served a delicious apple cake and coffee for dessert.  What a treat!  

  • 5 extra large or jumbo eggs
  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 heavy tablespoon of sour cream (adds richness and tanginess, but you don’t have to use it)
  • 1 large red bell pepper
  • about 8 spears of fresh asparagus
  • about 4 green onions or scallions, yellow and white part
  • about 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley (parsley adds a fresh clean taste to the frittata)
  • about 3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
  • kosher salt
  • freshly ground pepper
  • about 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 tablespoon of light olive oil  or other vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 

Snap off the woody ends of the asparagus.  Then cut the asparagus into bite size pieces, about 1-1 1/2 inches long. Blanch the asparagus in boiling water until crisp-tender about 2-5 minutes depending upon the thickness of the asparagus.  Drain the asparagus and then run under cold water to stop the cooking.

Dice the red pepper into about 1/2 inch pieces.  Chop the scallions on the diagonal into pieces about 1/2 inch in length.  Melt the butter with the oil in a non-stick saute pan that measures approximately 8 inches across the bottom and 10 inches across the top of the pan.  Make sure you swirl the butter and oil around so the sides of the pan get coated as well.  Then saute the red pepper and scallions (season with a little salt and pepper) for about 3 minutes until the vegetables start to soften.  Turn heat off and take off stove, and set aside. 

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the whole eggs and the egg whites.  Add a pinch of the kosher salt and about 6 turns of freshly ground black pepper.  Add the tablespoon of sour cream if you are using it and whisk. (You will still see the sour cream in the eggs, and that is ok.)  Set aside.

Add the parsley and the asparagus to the sauteed red pepper and scallions in the pan.  Mix together gently.  Place back on the stove over a medium flame.  Pour the eggs into the pan.  Then sprinkle the grated Parmesan or Romano cheese on top.  As the eggs begin to cook along the outer edge, lift up the cooked part so that the raw eggs can slide under.  Do this until the eggs are pretty cooked around the edges but still uncooked on top.  Slide the pan into the preheated oven and cook for about another 5 minutes or until eggs are no longer raw looking on top and the eggs are just set.  Frittata should be a little browned and puffy around the edges.  If you like your eggs more well done and browned on top, put your oven on broil, and cook for maybe one-two minutes at most, watching very carefully.  When you take the frittata out of the oven, it will continue to cook, so be careful not to overcook this.   

Loosen the edges of the frittata with a spatula, and then slide it onto a  10 inch round serving plate.  If you don’t have a big enough serving platter, then bring the frittata to the table in the saute pan, slice it, and serve it right out of the pan. 

Note:  You may use any combination of vegetables that that you like.  You might use sauteed mushrooms, zucchini, or spinach to name a few.  You may also substitute grated cheddar, swiss, or gruyere cheese for the Parmesan or Romano, but the fresh Parmesan or Romano gives the frittata a great tangy flavor without adding too many calories!    

Delicious Potato Kugel (for Passover or Anytime at all)

Make this  kugel- it’s like making a giant potato latke!

When I hear the phrase “potato kugel”, I remember back to when I was a very little girl.  My Grandma Fried lived in a small apartment in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.  Maybe once a month, my father would take my brother Kenny and me to visit her.  My Grandma Fried was a very kind, sweet woman who had had a very hard life.  She was a very loving grandmother.  What I remember so well is when we walked into the apartment building, I immediately smelled the delicious aroma of my grandmother’s potato kugel.  I know that my father loved her potato kugel.  When I got married, I started to develop my own recipe for potato kugel.  My goal was to create a dish that would taste just like the best potato latke only bigger.  I achieved my goal.  This potato kugel recipe is perfect.  When you take a bite, it’s a little greasy, a little crunchy, and oh, so good! I like to make this recipe as a side dish for Rosh Hashana, Passover, or Shabbat.  It is so easy to make, and everyone loves it!

For a 10 x 15 baking dish                        For a 9 x 13 baking dish 

  • 5 pounds baking potatoes                              9 large potatoes

  • 7 extra large eggs                                            4 extra large eggs

  • 4 medium-large onions                                   3 med.-large onions

  • heavy 1 1/3 cups matzoh meal                     2/3 cup matzoh meal

  • 1 cup corn oil                                                    3/4 cup corn oil

  • additional oil for greasing dish                       additional oil 

  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt                                 2 teaspoons salt

  • 1 1/4 teaspoons pepper                                  1 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and cut potatoes into quarters.  Peel onions and cut into quarters.  Place one third of eggs, potatoes and onions into a blender.  Blend until mixture is the consistency of applesauce.  Pour the mixture into a very large mixing bowl.  Repeat this two more times to use all potatoes, onions, and eggs.  Then add matzoh meal, salt, and pepper to the potato mixture.  Mix with rubber spatula.

Grease the sides and bottom of either your 10 x 15 or the 9 x 13 pyrex baking dish with oil .  Then pour either the 1 cup or the 3/4 cup of oil into the dish.  Place in oven for about 5 minutes to get the oil really hot.  (If you think you might forget that your oil is in the oven, skip this step and just pour the room temperature oil into the batter; otherwise, you will have a fire if you leave the oil in the oven too long!) Then take the dish with the hot oil out of the oven and pour the hot oil into the potato mixture.  Mix with a rubber spatula to incorporate the oil.  Then pour the batter into the greased baking dish.  Bake for about 1 hour.  Take out of oven, and shmear a few additional tablespoons of oil over the top of the kugel.  Place back in oven for another 15-30 minutes until the top is very brown.  The kugel should be well browned on the bottom, the sides, and the top.

Note:  You may make this a day or two in advance, and then reheat it in a 350 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes.

Shirley’s Easy Hot Dog and Baked Beans Casserole

Cook this easy and delicious hot dog and beans casserole for your next barbecue!

My mother got this recipe from my Aunt Sally.  My Aunt Sally made this every year for her Mother’s Day barbecue.  My mother started the tradition of including this recipe every year for our annual Father’s Day Barbecue when I was growing up.  Father’s Day was the one day of the year when we had both my mother’s and my father’s sides of the family over.  It was a wonderful event even though it was a lot of work.  The guest list included my father’s wonderful family- my Grandma Fried, my Uncle Larry, my Aunt Florence, and my three cousins, Karen, David, and Debbie.  Then we had my mother’s equally wonderful family- my Grandma and Grandpa Hindes, my Uncle Nat, my Aunt Sally, and my three cousins, Paul, Bobby, and Janie.  The reason the occasion was so wonderful and so meaningful for me and for my brother Kenny was because it honored my father, Murray Fried, who was absolutely the best father in the entire world! 

Our menu on Father’s Day was pretty simple.  We had vegetables and dip, chopped liver with party rye, whitefish salad, barbecued london broil (little rolls from Margie’s Cake Box for steak sandwiches), sauteed mushrooms and onions, hamburgers and hot dogs, french fries, potato salad and coleslaw, sliced Jersey tomatoes, sliced red onions, sliced pickles, this hot dog and baked beans casserole, homemade blueberry pies with vanilla ice cream, chocolate chip squares, and fresh fruit.   

This casserole was so easy to make, and it was such a crowd pleaser. Everyone always asked if it was on the menu!

  • 12 kosher hot dogs (Hebrew National or Shofar), cut up into 1 inch pieces
  • 4 cans Heinz Vegetarian Baked Beans
  • 4 teaspoons dark brown sugar
  • 4 tablespoons Heinz ketchup
  • 1 teaspoon brown mustard

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all ingredients together; you can do this right in the 9 x 13 baking dish you will be baking and serving this in.  Bake this uncovered for 1 hour or until it is bubbly.  Half way through the cooking time, mix once.  

Note:  You may do all steps except for the cooking 1 or 2 days ahead and keep refrigerated until you are ready to bake it.

Aunt Helene’s Easy, Light and Creamy Cheesecake

You Don’t Have To Be An Expert Baker To Bake Your Own Outstanding Cheesecake!

I adapted this recipe from a recipe for cheesecake that I got from my ex-husband Joe Kahn’s wonderful Aunt Helene. Aunt Helene is a wonderful cook and baker, and I was lucky to have the chance to eat some of her delicious homemade food. This recipe for cheesecake is one of her specialties. I make this recipe for cheesecake often. It calls for less cream cheese than my other recipe and it is a little smaller. You will be surprised when you see how easy it is to make homemade cheesecake. Say goodbye to Sara Lee!

for the filling:

  • 1 pound (2-8 ounce bars) of Philadelphia brand cream cheese at room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 pint (16 ounces) sour cream
  • 6 extra large eggs (cracked and set aside in a bowl)
  • juice of one fresh lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • dash of kosher salt (1/8 teaspoon)

for the crust:

  • 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) melted margarine or butter
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans

to make the crust:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides going 3/4 up from the bottom of the pan of a 9 inch springform pan.

Mix the graham cracker crumbs with the melted margarine or butter. Pat the crumbs into the bottom and 3/4 of the way up the sides of prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes. Take out and cool.

to make the filling:

In large bowl of Kitchen Aid or other electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat room temperature cream cheese until it is smooth and as lump free as possible. Add the sugar and mix till blended. Then add the sour cream and blend on low speed. Pour in the eggs, the fresh lemon juice, the vanilla, and the dash of salt. Blend on low speed till filling is very smooth.

Pour filling into cooled crust. Place carefully in center of oven. Bake for 1 hour. a cure for genital herpes Turn oven off. Let cheesecake sit in oven for at least 3-6 hours with door closed. Take out. Let sit on counter until it isn’t warm at all. Then take the sides off the pan. Place the cheesecake (which is still on the bottom of the springform pan) onto whatever cake plate you will be serving it on. Wrap the cheesecake well with plastic wrap, and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. Serve the next day.

Serving Suggestion:

Slice 1 – 2 pints of fresh strawberries and pile on top of cake right before you serve it, or serve a bowl of sliced strawberries on the side.

Hint #1: If you like your cheesecake to be really light and fluffy, then separate the eggs first and set the egg whites aside. Add only the yolks to the cream cheese mixture initially. When you are done mixing all of the ingredients for the filling, whip the egg whites separately until stiff (but not dry) peaks form. Then fold the egg whites in right before you pour the filling into the crust.

Hint #2: I start baking the cake around 4 or 5 in the afternoon the day before I plan to serve it because of how long the cake stays in the oven after it finishes the actual baking. Helene just keeps the cake in the oven overnight and refrigerates it the next morning. I don’t feel that is necessary, but I’m sure keeping it in the oven overnight won’t hurt it.