Category: Cooking

Aloha Friday: Roast It

Aloha Friday, Cooking

Yesterday, I wrote about roasting sweet potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash and red peppers. As the day progressed, I began to think about going through the grocery store to buy different vegetables to roast. I also began thinking about roasting fruit.

My Aloha Friday question for this week is: Have you ever oven roasted fruits or vegetables? If so, what fruits or veggies have you roasted?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #35

Cooking With TechyDad: Sweet Potato Fries and Roasted Veggies

Cooking, Health, Photos, Recipe

One of the simple things I love doing is roasting vegetetables. Roasting them brings out all sorts of wonderful flavors and is so easy to do. The basic rundown is: Slice veggies, toss in a little extra virgin olive oil, toss in salt and pepper, place on a cookie sheet in the oven until soft and delicious. I made some of these to go with dinner yesterday and figured I’d take some photos to share the details of my procedures.

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Cooking With TechyDad: Matzoh Brie

Cooking, Food, Judaism, Photos

During Passover, we eat a lot of matzoh. How much? Well, we had 15 pounds of it before Passover started and ended with just under 9 pounds. That’s 6 pounds of matzoh over 8 days for 4 people. That’s an ounce of matzoh, on average, every single meal. It might not seem like a lot, but it adds up. The challenge becomes how to avoid matzoh (difficult when it’s the only grain you’re allowed) or how to turn an ordinary slice of matzoh into something other than a flat, near-flavorless cracker. One of the classic dishes you can make with matzoh is matzoh brie, or matzoh pancakes. » Read more

Cooking With TechyDad: Apple Cinnamon Quinoa

Cooking, Food, Photos

As this post goes live, Passover will be winding down to a close. During Passover, cooking can be quite troublesome. First of all, you can’t use any bread products save for Matzoh. So no breadcrumbs, rolls, toast, english muffins, pasta, pitas, etc. In addition, Ashenazi (that’s Jews of Eastern European descent) have a tradition of banning kitniyot, substances such as corn, beans, rice, lentils and peas which historically could be “contaminated” with grains banned during Passover. This means that most of the dishes I’d usually make are impossible to do during Passover.

Last year, I wrote an Ode to Quinoa. Quinoa (being a seed, not a grain) doesn’t count as kitniyot and so is allowed. Last year, I made a Quinoa Pilaf and a Breakfast Quinoa with honey, cinnamon and milk. This year, while getting ready for Passover, I decided to try Apple Cinnamon Quinoa.

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Aloha Friday: Food Festival

Aloha Friday, Cooking, Food, Religion

This time of year always brings back fond food memories. Since we celebrate Passover, we would have a whole week of eating Matzoh in various forms. Matzoh and cream cheese. Matzoh Pizza (matzoh microwaved with sauce & cheese). Matzoh with schmaltz (rendered chicken fat – tastes like a rich butter) and salt (very unhealthy but oh-so-good). Matzoh Brei (matzoh soaked in water, drained, mixed with eggs and fried like a pancake). Are you sensing a theme here?

Yes, we eat a lot of Matzoh during Passover. It’s pretty much the only “bread” we can eat during the holiday. No rolls, bread, tortillas, pitas, pasta, cereal, or other bread product. In fact, since we’re Ashkenazi, we have more restrictions. No corn (or corn products), beans or rice (among other things).

As you can guess, cooking for Passover can be tricky. Especially when dealing with little kids used to breaded chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese and the like. In years past, we would buy a lot of pre-packaged, frozen foods at great expense. This year, we decided to prepare more fresh foods. Just today, I baked turkey burgers, wrapped them in romaine lettuce leaves and served it with a broccoli/mushroom stir fry in teryaki sauce. (Well, fake teryaki sauce since the real stuff isn’t kosher for Passover.) All in all a delicious, but not too fattening dinner.

My Aloha Friday question for this week is: What meals does this season remind you of? What do you do to eat healthy during holidays?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #32

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