Eat Food at Home

How many Christmas cookie recipes do we need? Lots and lots!

// November 25th, 2011 // No Comments » // Baking, Cookies, Recipes For Holidays

Making Christmas cookies is certainly one of the fun activities of the holiday season. With the plenitude of Christmas cookie recipes on the net, it becomes a matter of deciding which cookies you enjoy most and how many will fill the bill. To my way of thinking, there can never be too many. Should they not all be consumed during the holidays, remember that most cookies can be frozen. After all, who’s going to turn down a cookie a little out of season?

Weekends or a free afternoon or evening are good times to start the cookie baking process. Gather your Christmas cookie recipes and make a list of the ingredients you don’t have on hand. Shop for your cookie ingredients. Now, you’re good to go. If family members are participating in this delicious task, get everyone to schedule time when they’re available, and then prepare for the fun! Clear off a table or a large section of counter space so you’ve got plenty of room for preparing at least a few of your Christmas cookie recipes in a single work time.

After your cookies are baked and cooled on a wire rack, get out any decorating ingredients and finish up. If you have a surplus of cookies that won’t be consumed in the next several days, flash freeze them on a large cookie sheet, then store in freezer bags. It’s best to frost frozen cookies after thawing, as frostings may not do well in the freezer.

What Food is Not Kosher for Passover and Why?

// July 26th, 2011 // No Comments » // Recipes For Holidays

As a general rule, any leavened dough products made of one of the five species of grain (wheat, barley, oats, spelt, and rye) are not kosher for Passover. This includes bread, bagels, pastries, cookies, and anything else made from the five types of grain. Any pastries, cookies, or even bread-like products made from matza-meal or potato starch is fine and can be consumed on Passover.

The reason for this, as we are told in the Torah, is that when the Jewish people left Egypt, they left in a rush and did not leave enough time for their dough to rise. As a commemoration, we today eat matza instead of bread and are not allowed to eat bread for 8 days (or 7 in Israel). Other reasons are given, such as that bread, which rises, represents haughtiness and on Passover we are commanded to be humble and remember the Exodus from Egypt.

Over time, besides the five types of grain, Ashkenazic Jews decreed that other items similar to grain are forbidden as well. These foods, known as kitniyot, include rice, corn, peanuts, sunflower seeds, chick peas, and others. The reason for this was threefold: One, because these items were often stored in the same warehouses as grains and the products could easily mix. Two, because the items are similar in appearance to grain and somebody else might erroneously think that the person is actually eating grains and go eat them themselves (known in Hebrew as maret ayin). And finally three, because farmers had the popular practice of alternating filed use between rice and grain for several years at a time, and it is possible that the two come to mix. When shopping for Pasover, keep an eye out for products which say they contain kitniyot, and if you come from an Ashkenazic background, you should avoid those products.

In terms of meat, all meat in its simplest form is kosher for Passover, as no grains or leavened products are involved. However, kosher meat items such as hamburgers, hotdogs, or stuffed birds must be carefully inspected prior to purchase as they often contain flour or kitniyot products.