Add this refreshing and colorful treat to a  brunch buffet!

This is a recipe that I loved as a child and still love as an adult.  My mother, Shirley Fried made this recipe for some special occasions.  When my sons, Danny and Benji had their brisses, I made full brunches that were served buffet style.  I included this jello mold, and it really made a hit. 

• 4 3-oz. boxes of lime jello
• 6 cups of liquid (liquid which was drained from crushed pineapple along with boiling water)
• 16 oz. crushed pineapple in natural juice
• 1 pint sour cream
• 20 maraschino cherries, cut in fourths (optional-I prefer it without)

Dissolve jello in the boiling water and pineapple juice in a large mixing bowl.  Place bowl in refrigerator.  When the jello has cooled, but has not begun to jell, take it out and add the sour cream.  Mix in the sour cream using a whisk or the whisk attachment of your mixer. 

By hand, add the pineapple and the cherries.  Pour mixture into a large mold.  Refrigerate overnight.  When you are ready to unmold, put the stopper in the sink.  Add a little warm water in the sink.  Put the mold in.  The water should come up halfway to the top of the jello mold.  Swish in water for about 30 seconds.  Then take out of sink.  Place serving platter on top of mold.  Invert.  Jello should come down.  If it doesn’t, then put it back in the warm water for another 30 seconds and repeat.  Refrigerate the mold until you are ready to serve it.

Serve this amazing side dish to go along with a light dairy meal, as part of  a brunch buffet, or for your Yom Kippur break the fast feast!

My wonderful mother, Shirley Fried, got this recipe from her best friend and our favorite neighbor, Adele Hochheiser. I think the recipe is nicknamed Sister’s, because Adele’s first cousins affectionately referred to her as “sister.” My mother made this often, and oh did my mother, my father, and I love it. For some reason, my brother Kenny was not fond of this dish. My mother made this to go with our fish night- our Wednesday night dinner. I don’t think I’ve written about my mother’s weekly dinner schedule yet- when I was growing up, so this is as good a place as any. Throughout my entire childhood, we basically ate the same thing every week. And believe me, that was not a bad thing. There is something very reassuring about knowing what your meals are going to be. My mother’s meals were all extremely balanced, too. I loved each and every meal. How I looked forward to them!  Here is our weekly dinner menu:

Monday: rib steak ( and sometimes London broil, which was cooked by me in my teen years after we had a gas grill), french fries, LeSeurr peas, salad with Wishbone Italian Dressing, and years later, Ken’s Caesar, or Milani 1890 French)

Tuesday: stew (Adele Hochheiser’s recipe) with rice and salad, or spaghetti and meat sauce (my Aunt Sally Hindes’s recipe) with salad and garlic bread, or sweet and sour meatballs with mashed potatoes, frozen spinach, and salad, or vegetable soup with flanken (a rare treat)- soup served separately and flanken served on a plate with mashed potatoes, or meatloaf (Anita Lapidus’s recipe) with baked potatoes, string beans and salad

Wednesday: a beautiful platter of tuna salad served on a bed of lettuce surrounded by sliced cucumbers, radishes, green peppers, and a plate of sliced Jersey tomatoes (in the summer), accompanied by macaroni and cheese casserole, or this noodle pudding recipe, or brown rice pudding, or apple fritters

Thursday: same as Tuesday

Friday: My mother alternated between chicken and brisket. She cooked one Empire frozen chicken cup up in eighths baked with either Saucy Susan, or Kellogg’s Cornflakes Crumbs, or fried Southern style by our beloved cleaning lady who I loved, Harriet. The chicken was served with one 8 oz. can of peas and carrots, salad, and my mother’s delicious pineapple noodle pudding. She served her brisket with our favorite potato dish, brenta, peas and carrots, and salad.

All dinners were followed by either a half of a grapefruit, fruit cocktail, sliced canned peaches or pear halves, a wedge of cantaloupe, or jello.

This was followed by dessert. My brother Kenny and I were allowed one Tastycake, or 3 Hydrox, or 3 Chips Ahoy cookies. This was my father’s favorite part of the meal.  He would take out one package of chocolate Tastycakes, Krimpets, peanut butter Tandytakes, or  a  Tasycake Junior, and he’d eat the entire package with a few glasses of ice cold skim milk.  How my father adored his Tastycakes!

Anyway, here is the recipe for Adele’s noodle pudding.  It is rich and delicious! 

for the filling:

• 1 pound extra wide or broad egg noodles (such as Pennsylvania Dutch)
• 1 1/2 sticks of butter or Fleischmann’s margarine
• 1 cup granulated sugar (reduce to 1/2 cup if desired)
• 1 pound small curd or whipped cottage cheese I use Friendship brand cottage cheese)
• 1 pint (16 oz.) sour cream ( or substitute plain Greek yogurt)
• 5 extra large eggs, beaten
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup raisins (optional)

for the cornflakes crumbs topping:

Mix one cup of Kellogg’s Cornflakes Crumbs (this comes already prepared as crumbs in the box) with 3 tablespoons melted butter or margarine.  Set topping aside.

Or crush by hand about 3 cups of corn flakes, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of melted butter or margarine, and about 1 tablespoon of sugar.

for an alternate cornflakes crumbs topping:

Make cornflakes crumbs yourself by placing cornflakes in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, and pulsing until the crumbs are quite fine. Continue until you have one cup of crumbs.  You will probably need about 3 cups of cornflakes to make one cup of cornflakes crumbs.  Mix with 3 tablespoons of melted butter or margarine. Set topping aside.

for a more rustic cornflakes crumbs topping:

Place about 3 cups of cornflakes into a ziploc bag.  Using a rolling pin or your hands, crush the cornflakes until you have crumbs that are not quite so fine.  Mix cornflakes with about 6 tablespoons of melted margarine or butter.  Set topping aside.

for the filling: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 13 glass baking dish.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Cook noodles till al dente.  Drain noodles in colander.  While noodles are draining, put the margarine or butter into the same pot to melt on low heat.  When margarine or butter is melted, take the pot off the heat.  Put the noodles back in.  Add the sugar and mix with a rubber spatula.  Add the cottage cheese and mix in.  Then add the milk, the vanilla, the beaten eggs, and mix in with the spatula.  Finally, add the sour cream, and blend in.  (add raisins at this point if you wish)

Pour filling into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle cornflakes crumbs topping evenly over the top of the filling.  Bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour 10 min. to 1 hour and 20 min. until starts to puff in the center, and until the bottom and sides start to brown.  The center should be set, and a toothpick should come out clean.

Notes:  The topping is optional.  If you prefer, you can just sprinkle the top with cinnamon.  You can also reduce the calories in the dish by reducing the sugar to 3/4 cup and reducing the margarine or butter to 1 stick.  You may also use a lowfat cottage cheese.  I do not recommend using a low fat sour cream or low fat milk. 

You may freeze this unbaked without the topping.  Wrap it well, though.  Then defrost it in the refrigerator, make the topping, and bake it.  You may also prepare this up to 2 days before you wish to bake it, and keep it refrigerated without the topping on it.  Then make the topping the day you will be baking the kugel, and put the topping on it right before you put it in the oven.  If you are baking this right out of the refrigerator, it will probably take about 20 more minutes of baking time. 

May 18, 2011

My daughter Randi asked me to make the kugel with whole wheat noodles.  Luckily I found Ronzoni whole grain egg noodles at the Stop and Shop in Aberdeen.  The bag is only 12 oz. but I basically kept the quantities of everything the same since whole grain tends to absorb more liquid.  Changes included for the filling: I used about 1 1/4 cups milk, I used only 1/2 stick butter, I added about 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon to filling and 3 small boxes of organic raisins, I used 1 teaspoon vanilla, I used a heavy 1/2 cup sugar, I happened to use 1 pound Friendship 2% cottage cheese- pot style,  I used 16 oz. Daisy sour cream, 5 extra large eggs.  For the topping, I melted 2 tablespoons butter in a bowl, I added 2 cups of coursely crushed corn flakes crumbs, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Follow above directions for baking.

My wonderful mother, Shirley Fried, had dinner parties when she and my father (the most amazing father in the world, Murray Fried) were a young married couple.  I guess I was just too little, because I have no memory of these parties.  My mother has reminisced fondly about those parties, and those days.  One of the side dishes she served was baked stuffed potatoes.  The potatoes are so easy to make and so elegant.  I have made them many times.  My kids love them.  I don’t know why I don’t make them more often.  Try them instead of a plain baked potato or mashed potatoes the next time you have a dinner party.  Your guests will love them!

• baking potatoes, either Russet or Idaho (the size of the potato is up to you, but I usually use pretty large ones)
• butter or Fleischmann’s margarine, at room temperature (1-2 tablespoons per potato)
• a little milk (optional)
• kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• paprika

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Wash as many potatoes as you like.  Using a fork, pierce the top of the potatoes in a few places.  Then bake the potatoes until they are totally baked.  The time will vary, depending on how large the potatoes are, but it will be somewhere around an hour to an hour and a half. 

Take the potatoes out of the oven.  Using a sharp serrated knife, slice the tops off the potatoes.  Make sure that your slice is no more than 1/4 inch from the top of the potato.  Then using a small spoon, scoop out all of the insides of the potatoes, and put it in a mixing bowl.  Add the room temperature butter or margarine, the milk, Kosher salt, a little pepper.  Use a fork or a potato masher and mix together well.  I use about 1 to 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine per potato.  Then, using a small spoon, gently put the potato mixture back into the potatoes.  The potato mixture should come up higher than the sides of the potato skin.  Sprinkle paprika over the top of the potatoes. 

You can prepare these in the morning for your dinner, and refrigerate them.  Place them back into a preheated 350 degree oven (uncovered) for about 30 minutes to get them piping hot.   

This recipe is the one I developed and have used for years whenever my family is in the mood for potato pancakes.  These are the real thing.  I always make them by the dozens for Chanukah.  A few years ago, I included them in my menu for a Christmas Eve party at my boyfriend Jim’s house.  The funniest moment of the night to me was when one of the guests, who was Italian walked in and asked me if I was cooking potato latkes.  My potato pancakes disappeared as quickly as I served them.  For a party, I like to make them small, about the size of a silver dollar pancake.  I usually use matzo meal in them, but I have often used flour instead, and they come out fantastic.  They have a slightly lighter texture with the flour.  Try them both ways, and decide which you like better.  I serve them with apple sauce and sour cream.  They are extremely easy to make, so please try your hand at this.  You won’t regret it!

I usually double this recipe.

• 3 large sized Idaho or russet potatoes
• 2 large eggs or 1 jumbo egg
• 1 medium to large onion
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour or matzo meal  
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• Vegetable oil for frying (for the best taste, use corn oil)
• Sour cream and applesauce for serving

Peel and quarter the onion. Then peel potatoes, and pat them dry with paper towels, and quarter them. Crack egg or eggs into a blender. Add a few pieces of one potato, and then blend it. Then add the rest of the potatoes and the onion. Blend on high until the mixture is the consistency of apple sauce. The mixture should not be so pureed that it looks like liquid. It needs to be lumpy. But there should not be any whole pieces of potato or onion in it. When the blender is full, dump the mixture out into a large mixing bowl. If you are doubling the recipe, repeat and dump the mixture a second time into the large mixing bowl. Then add the matzo meal or flour, the salt, and pepper. Mix with a rubber spatula.

Heat oil ,about 1/8 to 1/4 inch high, in large frying pan over a medium to high heat (I use both non-stick and regular). Drop spoonfuls of batter into oil, about the size of silver dollar pancakes. You will be able to see when the latkes are really starting to brown. Loosen them with a good, sharp spatula from the pan, and if they are really browned on the bottom, flip them over. Then brown them on the other side. As they are done, take them out and put them on paper towels to drain. Flip them over on the paper towels to drain on the other side. Eat immediately with applesauce or sour cream. Or, you may freeze them once they have cooled.

If you are heating up your frozen latkes, take out as many as you wish right from the freezer, and put them into a preheated 375 to 400 degree oven on a sheet pan covered with aluminum foil, or a disposable cookie sheet with sides, and heat for about 15 minutes or until they are hot and bubbly.

Note: If I freeze them, I usually use an aluminum tin, and I make layers without overlapping the latkes, and I put a sheet of aluminum foil in between my layers.

The Jewish holiday of Chanukah has always been a wonderful holiday for me.  The special  childhood memories I have of Chanukah always include potato latkes.  When I was a little girl, I would, as usual, be in the kitchen when my mother was cooking.  I loved to stand right next to her as she made her latkes.  She used her mother’s (my Grandma Rose Hindes’s) delicous recipe.  My mother would make a batch of these, and then she would put them in the freezer for a dinner we’d have later in the week.  In other words, these latkes were not meant for immediate consumption.  As I stood next to my mother while she was frying the latkes, I prayed for these words to come out of my mother’s mouth- “Judy, you can have one.”  She always let me have at least one  (She would allow herself to take one too.) She also allowed me to pick off all the little crunchy browned bits around the edges of the latkes.  When I became a mother myself, I was so happy as the holiday of Chanukah approached because that meant it was time for me to start making my mother’s latke recipe.  I loved making them and calling my kids into the kitchen to tell them they could have some hot off the presses.  I also loved making lots and putting them in the freezer, just like my mother did.  There was nothing as gratifying, for me, as watching the expression on my children’s, my husband’s, or especially my mother’s or father’s faces as they put one of these incredible latkes in their mouths.  Please, understand that there is nothing hard about making these.  Once you get the hang of it, you will be making them by the dozens, too!

I usually double this recipe.

• 3 large sized Idaho or russet potatoes 
• 2 large eggs or 1 jumbo egg
• 1 medium to large onion
• 1/4 cup of matzo meal or 1/4 cup flour (you can use flour, but I think the texture and flavor are better if you use matzo meal)
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• Vegetable oil for frying (for the best taste, use corn oil)
• Sour cream and applesauce for serving

Peel and quarter the onion.  Then peel potatoes, and pat them dry with paper towels, and quarter them.  Crack egg or eggs into a blender.  Add a few pieces of one potato, and then blend it.  Then add the rest of the potatoes and the onion.  Blend on high until the mixture is the consistency of apple sauce.  The mixture should not be so pureed that it looks like liquid.  It needs to be lumpy.  But there should not be any whole pieces of potato or onion in it.  When the blender is full, dump the mixture out into a large mixing bowl.  If you are doubling the recipe, repeat and dump the mixture a second time into the large mixing bowl.  Then add the matzo meal or flour, the salt, and pepper.  Mix with a rubber spatula. 

Heat oil ,about 1/8 to 1/4 inch high, in large frying pan over a medium to high heat (I use both non-stick and regular).  Drop  spoonfuls of batter into oil, about the size of silver dollar pancakes.  You will be able to see when the latkes are really starting to brown.  Loosen them with a good, sharp spatula from the pan, and if they are really browned on the bottom, flip them over.  Then brown them on the other side.  As they are done, take them out and put them on paper towels to drain.  Flip them over on the paper towels to drain on the other side.  Eat immediately with applesauce or sour cream.  Or, you may freeze them once they have cooled. 

If you are heating up your frozen latkes,  take out as many as you wish right from the freezer, and put them into a preheated 375 to 400 degree oven on a sheet pan covered with aluminum foil, or a disposable cookie sheet with sides, and heat for about 15 minutes or until they are hot and bubbly. 

Note:  If I freeze them, I usually use an aluminum tin, and I make layers without overlapping the latkes, and I put a sheet of aluminum foil in between my layers.    

My friend Leslie made these carrots when she had company, and I really liked them.  I usually make this recipe for Thanksgiving dinner because my daughter Randi really loves it.  I haven’t changed Leslie’s recipe except that I have proportionally increased the quantity of each ingredient.  This dish looks pretty and tastes delicious. 

• 1 pound carrots                                 
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup orange juice, not from concentrate (You may use fresh squeezed)
• 2 pinches of granulated sugar

To make a larger quantity:

• 1 1/2 pounds of carrots
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 1/2  cups orange juice
• 3 pinches of granulated sugar

Peel carrots.  Then slice them on the bias or diagonal, about 1/4 inch thick.  Then put some water on the bottom of a saucepan, about 1/2 inch high.  Put a steamer insert in the pan.  Put the carrots in the steamer insert.  Put the top on the pan, and over a medium-high flame, steam the carrots until they are soft, but not mushy.  If you can put a fork into the carrots easily, they probably are done.  Set the carrots aside. 

Dump the water out of the pan.  Dry the pan with a paper towel.  Put the butter in, and melt it.  Then add the orange juice and the sugar. Simmer for about 15 minutes until the liquid starts to look less like liquid and more like syrup.  Take the pot off the stove, and add the carrots back in.  Toss the carrots in the sauce and serve.

Note:  You can definitely make these one or two days in advance, store them in a plastic container, and then warm them up in the microwave.  I love to go to my local deli and buy a bunch of plastic quart containers.  I use those containers for storing and freezing many items I cook.