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.

My children refer to this as dish as Chicken with the Jewish Spices, but I think you will like it even if you aren’t Jewish!

My two boys, Danny and Benji both love chicken.  This is one of the healthier chicken recipes that I make for them, and they love it.  It is so tasty, and I like the fact that it is pretty healthy, too.  It is a snap to make. 

• cut up chicken (I use only breasts), with the skin
• Kosher salt
• pepper (I use ground pepper, but you make use fresh ground if you like)
• garlic powder
• paprika

Preheat oven to a broil setting (I have a low broil setting, and I use that).  Sprinkle both sides of chicken with spices, but go a little heavier on the paprika.

Cover a half sheet pan or other baking dish with sides with heavy duty aluminum foil or two sheets of regular foil.  Put the seasoned chicken pieces on the foil lined pan, skin side up.  Put the chicken on a lower rack in the preheated oven.  Broil for about 15 minutes.  Watch to make sure that the chicken isn’t burning.  When the top of the chicken is really browned, take it out, and turn the chicken over so it is skin side down.  Put back in the oven and broil another 15 minutes.  Take out.  Turn the chicken over so it is skin side up again.  If you don’t think it’s browned enough, put it back under the broiler for another 5 minutes.  You are not finished cooking the chicken yet.  Take the oven off of broil, and change the temperature to bake at 375 degrees.  Cover the chicken with aluminum foil (make sure the foil is not touching the top of the chicken).  Cook the chicken for 15 minutes more.  If you are using dark meat, then you will need to cook the chicken for an additional 5 or 10 minutes.  Put the chicken on a serving platter.  You can make some au jus gravy from the drippings in the pan.  Just add a little hot water right to your pan, and try to get all the browned bits off the foil and mix with the water. You will get a really dark and delicious au jus gravy from those pan drippings.  

Note:  You can drizzle a little oil on the top of the chicken before you start to broil it, but I have found that there is enough fat in the skin, and the oil isn’t necessary.  Leaving the oil out also makes this recipe healthier. 

My Children’s All-time Favorite Dinner Recipe

If I had to name the one recipe out of all my recipes that I have made more than any other, it would be my recipe for chicken with the crumbs.    When I was growing up, my mother made chicken for dinner every other Friday night in honor of the Jewish Sabbath.  She made two chicken recipes, and this recipe was one of them.  But my mother used a whole cut up chicken rather than cutlets, which I use.  I loved her chicken! Occasionally, we had leftovers, and I loved eating the chicken cold, too.  I will never forget the time that my mother packed a leftover piece of chicken for me to take to camp for lunch.  When I got to camp, I realized that I had left the lunch bag in the driveway.  To this day, I still haven’t gotten over the disappointment!  I was devastated, because I didn’t get to enjoy that 1 piece of leftover chicken for lunch.  Anyway, when I started making this recipe for my children, I realized that they didn’t enjoy eating chicken on the bone, so I adapted the recipe and switched over to cutlets.  This recipe quickly became my children’s favorite, and I definitely made it at least 2 times a week.  I can still hear either one of my sons, Danny or Benji saying to me, “Mommy, can we have chicken with the crumbs?”  I especially remember all the times I picked Benji up from his morning nursery school.  When we got home, Benji would go into the family room, and get real cozy in front of the tv to watch some of his favorite cartoons.  I’d say, “Benji do you want some leftover chicken with the crumbs?” Of course, I knew what the answer would be, so I’d fill up a plate with the chicken, and I loved bringing it to him.  He was my little prince.  Then years later, when Danny would come home from college, the first thing he asked me to make was of course, chicken with the crumbs.  I couldn’t make it fast enough for Danny. Please, try this recipe.  Your kids will be asking, “Mommy, can you make us some chicken with the crumbs?”

• thin sliced chicken cutlets (I find that Purdue are the thinnest and the best)
• Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Crumbs
• oil (light olive oil, corn or canola)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cover a half sheet pan (or other baking pan with sides) with aluminum foil.  Grease the foil with a tablespoon or so of the oil.  Put some oil into a bowl- about 1/2 cup to start.  Then put all your cutlets into the oil.  Smoosh the chicken around in the oil.  Pour some corn flakes crumbs onto a large plate, about 3/4 cup to start with.  Take one cutlet out of the oil after you make sure the cutlet is coated on both sides, and lay it on the crumbs.  Turn the cutlet a few times, patting the crumbs on it.  I go pretty heavy with the crumbs, but you can go light if you wish.  Then, transfer the cutlet to your prepared sheet pan.  Repeat with all cutlets.  Then, drizzle the remaining oil from the bowl over the cutlets.  The cutlets only need a drizzling of oil on top.

Bake in center of preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until chicken is cooked through.  If you are using thicker cutlets, I recommend you reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and cook about 30-35 minutes.  If you are using chicken pieces, I recommend cooking at 350 degrees for about an hour.

Note:  I usually use light olive oil when I make these because it’s healthier, but for the best flavor, I sometimes use corn oil.

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. 

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