I used a combination of Ann Lander’s famous meatloaf recipe and my mother, Shirley Fried’s meatloaf recipe. This came out delicious! Noah and Hannah loved it! And that’s an accomplishment!

about 2 3/4 lb. 85 percent Angus chopped meat from McCaffrey’s

1/2 cup plain Jason’s bread crumbs

1 1/2 cups mixture of one 8 oz. can Contadina tomato sauce mixed with 4 oz. ketchup in a. pyrex measuring cup

just the powder- (sift out the onions and discard) of one envelope of Lipton’s Onion Soup

2 really big eggs

1. Mix the ketchup with the tomato sauce and spoon some of it on the bottom of 9 by 13 pyrex dish just to coat the bottom.
2. Mix beef, eggs, about 2/3 of leftover tomato sauce/ketchup mixture, bread crumbs, and onion soup with hands till well blended. If it looks a little dry, add a little more of the tomato sauce mixture. If it seems too wet, add a little more bread crumbs.
3. Dump into pan. Form into a loaf- that takes up most of the pan.
4. Coat with the leftover tomato sauce mixture on top.
5. Bake at 375 degrees on Convection roast for about 1 hour. Use a meat thermometer (Mine registered about 180 degrees.) Even with that temperature, it was still juicy!

Peel 5 lbs. russet potatoes and then slice horizontally so each potato will be in 2 halves, then cut each half in 2 pieces. Put in large pot of cold water, bring to boil and simmer until potatoes are soft- like for making mashed potatoes- fork goes in easily. I used a slotted spoon to pick up big pieces and shake a bit to drain and then I put the potatoes in a large mixing bowl. I sprinkled 3 tablespoons of white vinegar over the hot potatoes and then I put in fridge for about 30 min. Meanwhile, I sliced about 3 or 4 large celery stalks once vertically and then I sliced them into very small pieces I sprinkled some kosher salt in- probably about 1 teaspoon, and about 30 grinds of black pepper (or about ½ teaspoon. Then I diced up about 7-8 Claussen deli sandwich pickle slices, and about 1 ¼- 1 ½ cups of Hellman’s mayo. I used a rubber spatula and I folded everything together gently. This came out actually pretty, pretty, pretty good (as Larry David would say).

In the near future in fall of 2025, I am going to make both versions and between Benji and me, we will judge which one is better.

Recipe 1:

Today Oct. 29, 2020 I adapted Martha Stewart’s recipe: https://www.marthastewart.com/340253/french-onion-soup and Benji just said, “So good!” “Better than out!” 

So I sliced thinly about 2 ¼ lbs of Vidalia organic onions.

I put 4 Tablespoons butter to melt in beautiful enamel cast iron Dansk pot. Throw onions in. Sprinkle onions with 1 teasp kosher salt. Over lowest flame, saute for 1 hour to slowly caramelize the onions. Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon flour over browned onions. Then pour in ½ cup dry sherry from Trader Joe’s and 24 oz. of beef stock – the best you can find, 2 teaspoons freshly chopped thyme, 1 Teaspoon kosher salt, and about 15 turns of black pepper (½ teaspoon), simmer over low flame with cover partly covered for 30 min.  Taste and add more salt as needed. Toast ½ inch slices of french bread on both sides – don’t brown too much! Rub both sides of bread with fresh garlic. Ladle soup into crocks, put 3 slices of bread to cover soup in each crock. Sprinkle with (you grate it) a combination of gruyere and swiss about ½ cup of cheese per bowl. I’m sure it would be fine to use either all gruyere or all swiss. Place crocks on baking sheet and put in 375 degree oven till cheese melt, switch setting to broil and brown the cheese. 

Recipe version 2: I modified the soup when I made later in the week, and I liked it better. I added ideas from David Liebowitz’s recipe. Randi said it was the best thing I ever made. Benji adores it. I need to make it for Danny!

(use my large enameled orange pot to be able to brown onions more than in dansk white pot)

This time, I still put 4 Tablespoons butter but added 1 T of safflower oil  in pot but could easily have just used 5-6 T butter), but I used about 3 -4 lbs. of onions (use greater amount next time- 4 lbs). I used a mixture of vidalia (can be any type) and regular onions and 2 smallish cloves garlic sliced thin but all organic from Whole Foods. I sprinkled with 2 teaspoons kosher salt and a lot of freshly ground black pepper. I cooked onions till nicely amber colored and browned (this took careful watching and about 1 hr. 30 min.)   Then I added 2 teaspoons flour, and cooked onions with flour for 5 min or so. I added in ½ cup of the dry Sherry  from Trader Joe’s and ¼ cup relax white wine, and simmered for 5 min.   Then I added 1 quart of Pacific organic beef broth and 1 qt. Chicken free range organic  broth (Pacific not low sodium!), and 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves chopped finely. I simmered top off under lowest heat while still bubbling lightly for 1 hr. 15 min. 

Then, I made the toasts by cutting the French bread about ½ in. to ¾ in. thick on the diagonal, toasting till just starting to brown. Then I rubbed bread with garlic on both sides (I didn’t like the garlic flavor but Benji and Randi did a lot!). To serve, ladle soup in and put 2-3 pieces of the bread in each crock; then  sprinkle on about  ½ cup mixture of freshly grated swiss and gruyere over the top- Just swiss is fine (Make sure the soup is hot in the pot. Then ladle it in.) Put in oven about 375 degrees. Then switch to broil to brown the cheese.  

Dan made the brisket for Erev Rosh Hashana on September 22, 2025, and I loved it! This is what he told me he did:

Cut up 1 large onion, a few celery stalks, a few carrots, 1 28 oz. can Cento diced tomatoes, and 1 packet of Lipton’s onion soup. He covered the pot, and cooked the brisket (6 lbs.) at 300 degrees for about 4 hours. He sliced it, and put it back in the pot to be warmed up later.

Newest blueberry corn muffins: I picked Hannah up from school on at The Waldorf School, and she asked me if I had baked some of my blueberry corn muffins . I had anticipated that Hannah would want them! I had them in the car with me and Hannah had one and loved it. When we got to Randi’s house, Ezra had at least 2 and so did Noah. They are amazing.

Preheat oven to 400 and line muffin tin with cups.

Put dry ingredients in a medium bowl.

1 cup yellow cornmeal (Quaker)

1 cup unbleached organic king Arthur flour

½ cup scant sugar

3 teaspoon baking powder – aluminum free

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl:

Wet ingred:

⅔ cup regular milk

2 extra lg. eggs

½ cup oil (I used safflower)

Mix wet together.

Add wet to dry and fold in gently . When almost mixed add 1 cup washed organic blueberries and fold in gently . Use ice cream scoop to fill muffin cups. Add 1 or 2 blueberries to the top of each muffin if you have extra. Bake 20-25 min. Just till starting to brown . 

I love to eat warm with butter or even cut in half put in toaster oven and put butter on top.

I put a few recipes together, and came up with this heavenly pie, which I brought to Dara’s house tonight for dinner. Noah is really harping on me unrelentingly to try out for Master Chef. I do think the pie today was Master Chef worthy, even though by accident, I sprinkled the crumb topping with a little cayenne (instead of cinnamon) by mistake. The only person who detected something a “little spicy” was Ezra! I loved how the pie held together with just the perfect amount of firmness without being goopy at all.

Use the single crust recipe for only the bottom since we are putting a crumb crust on top:

Pulse the dry ingredients first for a few seconds in food processor. Then throw in the butter cubes and crisco, and pulse for a few seconds. Then while machine is running, drizzle in the ice water. Process till starts to come together. Take out and form into a disk and place in waxed paper and refrigerate at least 1 hour before you use.

1 1/4 cups Hecker’s unbleached flour

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

4 tablespoons (1/4 cup or 1/2 stick very cold salted butter) cut into cubes

1/6 cup of crisco (2 1/2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon)

3 tablespoons ice water

topping:

In food processor, pulse 2/3 cup flour, 1/3 cup light brown sugar very lightly packed, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) very cold salted butter till everything is into crumbs. Then pour out into a mixing bowl, and use fingers to form in clumps.

filling:

3 pints blueberries, washed and patted dry

1/2 medium sized apple, peeled and grated using microplane

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

dash kosher salt

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 1/2 tablespoons flour

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Roll out pie crust and place in glass 9 inch pyrex pie plate.
3. Insert tinfoil over the piecrust gently, and fill with dry black beans. Bake for about 20 -25 minutes.
4. Cover large cookie sheet with tinfoil which you will place in preheated oven while you assemble the pie and which you will bake the pie on.
5. Pour the blueberry filling including any juices into the precooked pie shell.
6. Sprinkle all crumbs over the top. Sprinkle the top of the pie lightly with cinnamon.
7. Place pie on foil covered cookie sheet. Bake about 30 min. and cover lightly with foil to prevent the crumb topping from burning. Continue baking 30 min. more or until the blueberry filling starts to bubble a little.
8. Let cool before slicing.

I’ve followed a few different pesto recipes over the years, and I sort of combined parts of Mark Bittman’s and Florence Fabricante’s recipes and came up with this recipe:

2 packed cups of basil leaves

3 tablespoons pine nuts

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 medium sized cloves of fresh garlic

about 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

about 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

red pepper flakes for serving if you like a little heat

Boil about 1 lb. of penne or rigatoni or bow ties till al dente.

In the meantime, when the water is coming to a boil, put the basil, salt, pepper, pine nuts, garlic cloves in food processor (or blender) with metal blade, and start the machine. Pour the oil into the feed tube and then pulse till mixture is pretty smooth.

Throw in the parmesan and pulse till just combined.

Drain pasta in colander and then put about 2/3 of the pasta into a serving bowl.

Add all the pesto and mix gently with a rubber spatula. If you think it’s too heavy on the pesto, then add more pasta.

Check for adding any additional black pepper and serve with red pepper flakes for a little heat.

Chinese Shrimp Noodle Bowl or Chicken or Tofu made with Noah on July 5, 2022 originally from Magnolia magazine (Tofu version made on July 27, 2023)

I made this with Noah on July 5, 2022 at my house. When Noah ate it, he said, “He said, “This tops the last time you made this” and “This is the best shrimp I’ve ever had.” I bought a bag of the extra large deveined shrimp from Target. I put them in bowl of water with ice to defrost, and then I laid the shrimp on paper towels to dry. I used about 1 lb. of the shrimp.

I put about 2 T safflower oil in large nonstick cast iron pan. Then put about 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes in pan with oil.  It got really hot and then I put the shrimp in and turned just till they turned pink. Then I transferred shrimp to bowl. (Do the same with thinly sliced chicken breast or flank steak or skirt steak) I set cooked protein aside.

I put about 2 tablespoons more oil in pan, really hot. I added 1 bag of Whole Foods organic broccoli florets which I had washed and cut stems off of. I cooked for 1 min. Then I added 1 box of baby bella mushrooms which had been washed and sliced by Noah. I added about 1 teaspoon grated ginger and a sprinkling of kosher salt, and about 4-5 garlic cloves chopped. I used tongs to turn until vegetables were cooked (al dente). 

Then we added all sauce ingredients: ⅓ cup Kikoman reduced salt soy sauce, 2 T. rice wine vinegar, 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, 2 T. light brown sugar.

I also put about 1 teaspoon cornstarch into about 2 T cold water, mixed and added. Then I added back the shrimp and cooked about 2 more min.  

I would have used sliced onion or carrots  after I added after the mushrooms , but Noah doesn’t like that.

Then I cooked fresh egg noodles from whole foods , like lomein (Servino) , and I mixed that with my shrimp, while Noah ate his noodles and some white rice on the side.

June 6, 2022: I made fish tacos and they were delicious! I bought tilapia from Whole Foods- 1 lb. for me, Benji, and Titi and it was perfect fish for the tacos. More recently, I’m using frozen wild cod filets from Costco. I sprinkled some light olive oil on both sides of defrosted filets. 3 filets are perfect for 2 people. Then I sprinkled both sides pretty well with Paul Prudomme’s Blackened Redfish seasoning. I heated up some oil in nonstick fry pan, and laid fish down once pan was really hot. Once it browned on the bottom, I flipped it, and cooked it through on the other side. I broke it up into nice size pieces that could go in the soft flour tacos. I warmed the soft tacos (Mission or Whole Foods brands) in the microwave for 10 seconds each.

I had made a homemade aioli earlier- I used ½ cup sour cream, ½ cup mayo, grated rind from one lemon, 1 T of lemon juice, and 1 microplaned garlic clove, a dash of kosher salt, a dash of cayenne, about ½ teaspoon of the blackened spice, and about 1 teaspoon of hot sauce (use Franks next time), and a dash of dill weed.

To serve: Put fish chunks along center of soft taco. Sprinkle with fresh lemon juice. Then sprinkle with grated monterey jack and cheddar cheese, shredded iceberg lettuce, halved cherry tomatoes, salsa, and Frank’s original hot sauce. Drizzle homemade aioli over the top.

I adapted this recipe from: https://www.veganricha.com/garlic-parmesan-orzo-pasta/

It sounded like this would be great for Ezra to eat on the side with my new orzo recipe. Ezra said it tasted so much like chicken, and he really liked it. I even liked it! It’s so easy to make! I think it would be great in a salad. When we were ready to eat, I sliced each slice on the bias into diagonal slices. It looked a lot like blackened chicken you’d put in a salad.

I bought a 14 oz. package of extra firm Whole Foods organic tofu. I took it out of the wrapper, and I wrapped in in paper towels, put it on a plate in the paper towels, topped it with another plate, and put a big can of tomato juice on top of the second plate. I changed the paper towels every 15 min. I did this 4 times.

I sliced the tofu on the shorter side and got about 12 1/4 inch thick slices.

I made a spice mix of the following:

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

scant 1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

I mixed up the spices with a fork. Then I dipped each slice of tofu on both sides in the mixture, even coating the edges.

In my good nonstick skillet, I put about 2 tablespoons of light olive oil, which I heated up on a medium flame.

I put each slice in the pan and sautéed the slices till they were nice and browned on the bottom. I turned them over, and added a little more oil, and sautéed them on the flip side till nice and brown.

I drained them on paper towels.

I sliced the slices on the bias for serving.