Friday, October 03, 2008

Some Dishes from Rosh haShannah

Before candle lighting I was able to snap a couple pictures of simanim and some salads. I was hurrying so some pictures are a bit blurry. Sorry.

Chard with a few halved pear tomatoes for color. This is one of those dishes I'm attmepting to replicate but never get it just right. Aba's safta a"h used to make a chard dish. I made it once and it was "just like safta's" but since then I havent' been able to replicate it. I'm pretty sure this is the recipe I originally used, but there is just *something* missing.

Blackeyed peas tossed with the standard olive oil/lemon juice/salt/pepper/garlic/parsley dressing. I also added some red onion.

Selek. The girls were so confused because I usually get yellow beets, but I wasn't able to make it to the farmer's market on Wednesday. We asked if they wanted selek and they said no, they wanted "that one" pointing at the red beets.


Cedarline makes a yummy chickpea salad that I've been working at replicating. Again, soooooo close but just not there yet. I didn't put the edamame in it and the spices are off. I just might have to pick up another package of it and season mine when they are side-by-side.

Matbucha and pomegranate. If anyone has a chance to cacth the Good Eats episode on pomegranates, you have to watch it just for the part on getting the arils out without them exploding. I peeled nine of them and not a speck of red. (I'm pretty sure it is in this half of the show.)


Carrots. Notice where someone was slipping carrots off the dish? My girls attack salads. You would think I don't feed them.


I didn't plan it this way, but we ended up with five fish heads. Aba was kind of grossed out by it. The girls were just confused because the rest of the fish was gone.


I got some raw honey from Marshall's Honey (LOVE Local Harvest!) and put three different kinds into Moroccan tea cups to serve. We had Wild West, orange blossom and Napa Valley wildflower. All were yummy but I love the richness of the Wild West.


Another Local Harvest find, I got the kahlal dates from Pato's Dream and hung them in the kitchen to ripen. Some are still yellow, crunchy and tart and others are so sweet it isn't funny. I bought 5 pounds and still have a fair amount left. Needless to say around July I will start haunting their site to get updates on the new crop.

This dish was wonderful! It is butternut squash that is baked with just a bit of water. While that is going on, you saute some onion, garlic, olive oil, cinnamon and honey until it is almost a confit. Then you spread the onions on the gourd and top with plumped raisins and bake a bit longer.


I'm really bummed that I forgot to get a picture of the cake. The girls are into birthday cakes so I kept telling them that it was the world's birthday. i made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and then sat the girls down with some big star-shaped non-pareils and they decorated it. They had a blast and the cake was cute and delicious.