My version of Passover

Happy Passover to everyone observing Passover traditions with Seders over the next couple of nights.

Last year I celebrated Passover by inviting 3 of my friends over for dinner.  Not my original idea, but one of my friends wanted to do something for Passover.  At the end of it all I spent about 3 days preparing everything,  the food was delicious but my bar cart was a casualty at the end of the night and I spent the next couple of days cleaning up.  In total I spent about $200 on food for 4 people.

Well this year I just don't have that kind of money to spend on one meal, although my friend kept trying to justify it by saying I would have all the leftovers.  He was also supposed to chip in to cover a bit of the cost but that never happened.

So this year it's me alone but I will do my own version of Passover.   Although I have cousins who have their own busy lives I don't have my own family to spend Passover with but I am ok with this and if you knew my family you would understand why.

So this year I am going to do a combination of things I make and things I buy.  I know lots of people just cater their whole Passover dinners these days but there are some things that I just like to make myself that are better but some things are just not as cost effective to buy for 1 person.

For example,  I went to a Thornhill deli and picked up a small container of chopped liver.  Although mine is much better I always make too much and I can never finish it.  I also bought some sweet Gefilte Fish.  I never make this,  my mother would make it once every couple of years, it was never a regular thing and it wasn't something I was ever interested in making.  It's a bit of a long process and you have to search out special white fish.   For one person this is just a whole lot of time for a couple of pieces of Gefilte fish.  I also picked up 1 potato latke to try and realized that I like my latkes a whole lot better so I made a batch of them from scratch this morning.  You can see the difference in the photo of the 4 dishes all of those things were purchased at the Deli or other stores.  The latke photo on the top of the page are my own.  The one that I purchased was dense and greasy and it wasn't that flavourful either.  I add parsley flakes to mine and pepper and grated onion.  This time I also tried a trick I picked up from the Foodshare cookbook where they separate the eggs and whip the egg whites and then add them to the whole mixture.  This makes them a lot lighter than the usual latkes.   Most of the time I just make a Rostii style potato pancake that's crispy with no onions or eggs.  Just potatoes.

The other things I always make myself is Chicken Soup because it's really easy, it just takes a bit of time but I can control the amount of salt and flavour and I know there are no additives to it.  I use a package of Matzo balls though when I want matzo balls because it's just easier and it always turns out that way.  We always had a debate in our family,  my cousins preferred hard matzo balls while I like them light and fluffy.

I also make the Charoset which is a mixture of fruits and nuts.  I like to add Brandy and figs to the dates with walnuts and apples and cinnamon.  It's kind of like a chunky sweet spread that makes plain matzo's taste a whole lot better.  It's actually a great thing to have any time of day because of the ingredients, well you can skip the Brandy but it does infuse the flavour of it.  It would be a great thing to have with cheese even after Passover.  If you skip the apples and use only dried fruits you can keep it a lot longer.

I never buy Macaroons but I bought some to try and I think I prefer the ones I made myself last year.  I just didn't bother to make them this year.  A case of too much time and not worth making a batch just for myself.

One thing that occurred to me was that most of the foods seem to be either beige or brown.  I am not sure why that is exactly but I do know that my mother the color loving person that she was always made a special dish of roasted peppers with tomatoes that my cousins loved.  Yes it's not traditional but it tasted good on matzo's.

I am skipping the all day brisket making and will just make a piece of roasted chicken breast which is a whole lot healthier and more traditional for my immediate family.  My aunt would make a really dry brisket but my mother would make a roast chicken instead.  I don't think she knew how to make Brisket.  Probably better that she made chicken well instead of dried out brisket I suppose.

Well I am skipping any family drama and all the boring prayer books and other things that go along with the Passover traditions and I am just going to stick to eating some of my favourite Passover foods and honouring some of the things I learned from my mother and my aunts Passover dinners.

Enjoy your Passover dinners may they be tasty and stress free.

Passover Seder Dinner- Jewish for a Day

My friend Brian decided that since both of us lost our parents we should find something to do for Passover this year.  He spent time with his sister on the first night but wanted to do something for the second night.  I haven't really done much for Passover in years.  Once in a while my cousins wife might do it but she is a busy working woman and I am sure she didn't have time to do anything on a tuesday night.  I suggested going to Caplansky's Delicatessen where Zane Caplansky has started an Annual Passover 2nd Seder Dinner.  He seems to be the only other Jew in town that understands Events outside of a Synagogue or Community Group.   My friend thought that $50 was kind of expensive for a meal.  But it did include a glass of wine.  I don't drink wine so that's lost on me anyway.  Somehow I came up with a stupid idea to maybe do it at my home.  And then my friend said we should see who else we can get to come instead of just the two of us.  I invited my Solo cousin who doesn't have any family here anymore and she was busy.  Her parents and sister have been gone for a long time so I guess she has found something to do over Passover for the past few years.   I just ignore it usually unless my other cousin invites me over.
When I was little my family would go to my aunt's house..  The solo cousin's mother and she would cook the whole meal and we would bring one or two things like my mother's red pepper salad or as she called it Salad de Pimente which my cousins called the red stuff.   Pictured above on the plate of various spreads.  I suppose my aunt had her daughters and husband help her make the dinner.  I was fairly young so I just showed up and ate and then left without having to do anything, so I never knew what went into doing the whole thing.   Later after she stopped doing it due to her health my mother started going to her best friends house on the first night to help her with her family's dinner.  They have a pretty large family.   My brother and I left to fend for ourselves most of the time on the first night.   Sometimes my mother would feel the guilt and make a big deal about having a Passover dinner on the second night after my dad passed away and would kind of do a half version of Passover.   She would make chicken soup, sometimes Gefilte fish, Chicken, potatoes and the red stuff and sometimes the odd other thing.  We didn't do any of the prayers we just ate what she made for dinner.  She would complain about how much work it was for weeks and would start the process two weeks before Passover.  We didn't really care about it as it didn't really feel like a tradition or an event but just to please my mother.   We would tell her not to bother if it was too much work.   I would help her with some of the things but some of it had to be made the day before or the day of so it was always a lot to do.  Lot's of dishes to wash with the salad plate, the soup, the main course and then dessert.  My mother would make a chocolate mousse or Angel Cake for dessert... the Mousse was my favourite.   She finally stopped doing it after we insisted it was too much and not necessary and we wouldn't care if she didn't do it.  It was never a big deal for me.   I liked the fish, and it was the only time of the year I ate chopped liver, sometimes bought and sometimes homemade.  My mother didn't make matzo balls but would use noodles mostly.   It wasn't so Kosher although she did use dishes we only used for company, but that's about it.  At my aunt's house she would have the full traditional meal with Brisket, although her Brisket was always charred to a crisp.  My cousin's wife on the other hand makes the most amazing Brisket and once she told me how she did it I understood the difference.

So fast forward to this year.  I probably wouldn't have tried to get some fish for myself and lately I have been making chopped liver trying to perfect it because it's cheap to make.  I probably would have made a chicken soup and probably would have made matzo balls since they are easy and it's the right time to eat it.   I wouldn't have done a full production for myself for sure.  I make chicken soup all the time when I have leftover chicken bones and vegetables I want to use up so that's no big deal for me.  I will freeze the rest and use it when I need it.

Well... so after I agreed to do it at my house and invited my cousin who couldn't make it but said it would probably cost me more than going to Caplansky's... I told her she was probably right but I didn't realize how right she was until I got in further.   My friend thought we should invite some of our friends from our Film Festival Group.  I didn't think many would be able to come since it was a tuesday night but 2 non Jewish friends decided to come and see what it was all about.  One is Irish who doesn't have family here and the other is English and something else but I can't remember what.  They never went to a Passover dinner so I decided to do it as close to what is normally done and the way my family did it.

That meant making

1. Brisket, I didn't want to make chicken because it's easier just to cook one piece of meat and then cut it up.
2. Chicken Soup from scratch but Matzo Balls from a Manichewitz Box.
3. Babaganoush
4. Roasted Peppers
5. Chopped Liver
6. Roast Potatoes
7. Roasted Brussel Sprouts
8. Cucumber, Tomato salad
9. Gefilte fish roll (bought from Metro) and Horseradish
10. Macaroons made from scratch for the first time.

and then I had to put the Seder plate together so I had to make sure I had an Egg, and a Shank Bone for the plate.  Not that we did that properly but I tried to get everything together.

Well the end result was that everyone loved the food and my friend said the food was better than the food he had the night before.  My other two friends weren't fans of the fish roll though..  but I didn't make it so that's ok.   My friends brought wine and one brought some fresh fruit.

All in all I spent probably just under $200 for everything and I went to 4 grocery stores and started cooking from Saturday to tuesday.  When I told my Jewish friend he said he never realized what it involved.  He's a guy so he probably just shows up to a fully blown meal and leaves after it's done and never has to help do anything.  That's how it was in my family although my cousin does cook and help his wife when she does it.  My brother never lifted a finger in all those years.   My friend finally realized that the Caplansky's dinner was probably a bargain, all things considered.  Although I am sure it wouldn't have been as much food or variety of food.   My friend said he would chip in $40 and appologized profusely and said next year we go to Caplansky's.   His other option was to go to some family relations of his that i don't even know.   That's not an option for me to show up at some strangers house and wait to be served.  It's not my thing.

Well all I can do at this point is reap the rewards of having some leftover Brisket and Macaroons and writing this Blog Post to encourage, warn or explain to people that don't know about Passover what it is.  It's really about a lot of traditions, prayers and history but when you are the one cooking for 3 or more days it becomes about organizing, timing, cooking, cleaning etc.   I worked so hard that I was in pain going to work on the monday and tuesday all day.

I insisted that my friend do the cleanup because I said I wouldn't do that too after working all day and then cooking as soon as I got home and getting things on the table.  I was wiped out.   He ended up standing around for a bit while the girls jumped right into getting the dishes started until one finally said he could jump in anytime.  I think both men and women should both understand what the WHOLE process is.  What it costs,  what it is, what it takes, how long it takes and what you have to do to organize it.   Everyone would appreciate it a lot more.

I found myself constantly wondering how my aunt and mother did it.   In my mother's case she had me as her sous chef and to pick up any ingredients from the store she needed but she spread it out over days to manage it.

What made it tough was using brand new dishes that had to be unpacked and all washed and repacked, and all the large heavy pots and pans that were needed.    You can see the results of my labour in the photos above.

I may never do this again unless people pay me to do it so this may be the only record of it.

My friend that convinced me to do it said I did a good thing and it was Karma.   I told him Karma isn't going to pay my grocery bills.  Did I mention I will be unemployed in two weeks... so probably not the best time to do this.... but I have to look at it as a learning experience and good content for this blog too.

P.S.  I took the rest of the Macaroons to the office I am working at and the disappeared pretty quickly.  One of the guys told me he loved them.   That was the first time I ever made them so at least I know I can cook food for Passover if I want to now.

And my 2 non Jewish friends became Jewish for a Day!

Mom's cold remedies

I have had an annoying cold all weekend and found myself thinking about the things my mom would do when I got sick when I was a kid.   So I decided to list the ones I have been using all weekend.
My mom's cold and flu remedies:

1. TEA - The first thing my mom would do when the first sniffle would start was to shove tea with honey and lemon down my throat.  I always associated Tea with being sick after that.  And still drink Tea when I am not feeling great for whatever reason.   Here's why it works:  The lemon gives you Vitamin C which you need to fill up on.  The honey coats your throat to prevent sore throats.  The tea well it is just a way to get more liquids down unless you use a really good organic herbal tea that has all kinds of medicinal properties.  I have been drinking Green Detox Tea mostly.

2.  CHICKEN SOUP- My mom's other stand by was always something that I always had when I was sick.  My mom always called it Jewish Penicillin.  Why it works:  There seems to be some sort of magical properties in boiling down the bones of a chicken mixed with vegetables like onions, celery and carrots which all have different health properties that are all distilled into a clear vitamin boosted broth that clears out your system while loading up on detoxifying, antioxidant, vitamin boosting vitamins.  If you add ginger and garlic to the broth you can boost your immune system even more.

3.  VASELINE - while it's not a food it is something you don't take for granted when you have a cold and blow your nose so much that you look like your nose was under a magnifying glass in the sun.  I went down to the drug store in my building because I put some cream on my nose that burned and wondered if there was a non greasy alternative to vaseline.  The pharmacist said probably not because the Vaseline adds a protective coating so that your skin doesn't dry out.

5.  WATER - This one is a no brainer.   The more fluids you can get into your body the better to flush out all the toxins that have built up and you rid your body of all the excess of mucus and other gross things.

6.  HONEY - I have found that honey has been working better than throat losenges for coating my throat.  The losenges kind of leave a pasty and burning effect while the honey just coats the throat with a nice smooth sweet flavour bonus.

7.  HUMIDIFIER/VAPOURIZER - While it's not food either it takes your basic H20 and puts it back into the air in the winter to get rid of the dry air that is caused by the extreme cold and the dry indoor heaters.  My throat and skin have been so dry that it's been uncomfortable.  So I finally broke out the vapourizer and added a couple of drops of Eucalyptus oil into it.  It's one of those subtle things that works and you only notice it when you don't have enough moisture in the air.  The one thing about keeping the room humid is that I heard that it is the skin in your nose drying up and cracking that will open up and let your nose suck in the airborne germs.  Sounds gross but true.  I know that our extreme cold and dry winter has probably contributed to people around town sneezing away.   I noticed it the last couple of times out on the subway and in stores.   That's probably how I got sick.  Everyone is getting sick right now.

8.  REST - Getting proper rest is hard when you try and sleep and your nose starts running and you have to sit up and blow your nose.  But the more rest you get the more your body can heal itself.  The body regenerates when at rest.  Unfortunately my body doesn't seem to like to rest at night so I am trying to get whatever rest I can get when it is ready to rest.

9.  EGGS - This one is a maybe on whether it's good or not.  My mom used to always make me a fried or hard boiled egg.   And she used to concoct this thing she called "guggle muggle" which was an egg yolk beaten with sugar and vanilla, I always loved the taste but I don't know where that came from and if it worked but it tasted good.  I don't know if I would have it today with the chance of salmonella from raw eggs but it seems like when I was a kid you could eat raw eggs and raw meat without it being as big of a concern as it is now.

10.  TOAST - I think the toast mostly was given to me because it was a safe thing to eat most of the time.  She always made me toast when I had the flu.  I guess maybe just to soak things up and have something to prevent dehydration or who knows why but it's also something easy to make when you are home alone sick and don't want to make anything but need to eat.

Anyway.   The fact is that all of these things are simple things that have been around for generations and are basically things that have stood the test of time.   I am not a big drug person and got some syrup  from the pharmacist but found that the tea and honey worked just as well and I know what's in it.

The most important thing is what I haven't been very good at is building up your immune system with loads of antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables so that you can fend off these little annoying colds and flu's during our long winter season.

I suppose some of this stuff is working because I have enough energy to write this blog post now and couldn't even stop for less than 10 minutes without blowing my nose the first couple of days.


I hate being sick,  My skin is pale, chapped and my nose is red.  My hair is dry and lifeless and it just makes me look and feel old.   So anything that will help me look and feel better quicker is well worth it.   These are the things that have been worth doing for me.

I am sure everyone has their own home remedies and some people just load themselves up with drugs.  I don't like going the drug route because it always leave some sort of residue that you have to detox later.   Skip the drugs and find a more natural alternative if you can.

Stay Well and Skip the Kleenex Box.

Real Food Cold Cures

If you don't like to shop or cook and eat out all the time so never think about what happens when you can't?  Well what if you live alone and nobody lives anywhere near you?  You need to plan for those days where you might not be able to go to the drugstore or family doctor for a quick fix.   That's where the Real Food Home Cures comes in.

If you are going to keep the bare minimum in your house at all times I would suggest these things.  If you get sick and can only muster boiling water and plopping some stuff in a cup or a bowl then these things will keep you going.

1. Water.. most important thing for survival.
2.  Honey
3.  Lemons
4.  Green Tea
5.  Ginger - I have crystallized ginger... lasts a while.

Cold and Cough Cure which I am currently doing myself.

Boil water, in a cup add a teaspoon of honey, the bag of green tea, one piece of ginger and squeeze an eighth of a lemon.   Add boiling water to the cup and let the bag steep for a couple of minutes then remove.  Stir the ginger and honey and lemon and remove the bag.   Now you have a cough and cold cure with not a whole lot of effort hopefully.


The 2nd Food Cure is Homemade Chicken Soup.

This is where you plan ahead and either buy some chicken soup that you can freeze or make a batch of chicken soup after you roast a chicken and already have the leftover bones on hand.   I try and do the leftover bones method.   Try and always have Chicken Soup in your freezer because you never know when you might need chicken broth for a recipe or you get sick and don't have the energy to make a whole fresh pot.

Chicken Soup is also called Jewish Penicillin and it works without side effects.

These are my tried and true take care of yourself cause you don't want to go to a doctor unless something is totally broken.   These 2 things kept me away from doctors my whole life.  If I so much as sniffled my mother would want to drown me in tea or chicken soup.  She didn't use ginger or green tea but that's my modern kicked up health boosting version.   Ginger is an antiseptic.  Look it up.  Really.  And Honey coats the back of the throat to line it and protect it from coughing irritation.  Yes, Really.

So do as your momma would have done and make sure you have your Tea and Chicken Soup at the ready.   It's better than a Gun which won't help you if you get sick.

Spice it Up

Spices are one of my favourite things in the Kitchen. I am a bit of a Spice Queen. These spices you see are only half of the spices I have in my kitchen. I also have a lot of seasonings and some fresh herbs. Why do I have so many? I used to have a whole shelf full of spices. I love them because it allows me to travel the world of food with the use of a few spices.

Take a simple chicken, with a switch up of some spices you could have either Moroccan chicken, greek souvlaki, Italian scallopini, cajun chicken or spanish chicken.

Why have chicken that tastes the same every time you make it? Why not SPICE IT UP and experiment with flavours and try a new region every week with a few shakes of spices and seasonings.

If you like Greek food add Oregano to your garlic, lemon and olive oil marinade and you can make souvlaki flavoured chicken.

If can't go to New Orleans but want some Cajun feel make some blackened chicken with cajun spice rub.

Like French food then add some Herbs De Province and you will feel like you have been whisked away to a French Region.

You get the picture. Think of each spice as a place from around the world because that's where they came from. Each spice has been brought to us from somewhere in the world so we might as well use them that way.

Make your own custom spice rub if you do like your own specific flavours that you want to use everyday but mix it up.

One thing to note:

If you have one of those spice stands that has a whole bunch of spices that you never use or don't know what they are then get rid of them because you will probably never use them.

If you have had your spices in your pantry, kitchen cupboards, drawers or on the counter for years and never re filled them? Well it's time to toss them out. Spices should be changed once a year so buy a small amount of each.

Think of the foods you like when buying spices and try and buy spices to compliment those foods.

Switch it up and experiment. Smell the spices in a bulk store and see which ones smell good to you but you have never used and try them on something like chicken because chicken is like a sponge for different flavours. You can use almost anything on chicken but there are some things that just work better.

Here's a starter recipe that will get you thinking about spices differently when you cook your chicken. Roast a chicken and add some smoked paprika and salt and pepper on the skin of the chicken with olive oil before roasting and about 10 min before it's fully cooked take some blackberry jam and spread it over the chicken. You will end up with a smokey sweet bbq sauce glaze on your chicken. You can mix the paprika with the jam but I wouldn't suggest putting the jam on the chicken early because you may burn it because of the sugars in the jam.

Another way to do this is to pan fry chicken pieces until they are golden and then add a chipotle spice and blackberry jam mixture to the pan and melt it down and coat the chicken for about a minute or so. This makes a great sauce something like a chinese sweet and sour sauce.

Cinnamon is your friend. Did you know that Cinnamon has a whole bunch of health properties? Add some to your hot chocolate or your chicken or your stews.

Buy a new spice a week and experiment with it and by the end of the year you will be a spice expert.

A lot of spices have anti-infammatory properties like Tumeric and some aid with digestion like ginger so do your research and see what spices can do to give your foods a flavour and health boost.

Have fun and spice it up.

Enjoy!

All Food Things

This photo prompted this new Food Blog.


For the past month I have been off work and at home cooking a lot more than usual and for fun I have been  posting photos of what I have been making on my facebook page so my friends convinced me that it was time to do a food blog so this is the beginning of it.


This humble bowl of chicken soup was something I had throughout my childhood.  Mostly when I was sick or on special occasions with the matzoh balls but mostly with noodles.   My mother would make chicken soup on a regular basis so I guess it's probably one of the first things I learned how to make by watching my mother do it all the time.  


This time it's a little different.   I don't make matzoh ball soup very often, maybe once a year with the matzoh balls but I will make chicken soup for the stock but this time I made it for a different reason.  My mother is in a long term facility now with Dementia and can no longer even remember that she used to make chicken soup so I decided to bring her some today because she has been sick the past couple of weeks and has stopped eating.  I thought that if I tried to make something healthy that used to be one of her favourite things she might like it and eat it.  I tried but unfortunately even though the soup came out great it is no longer something she likes or remembers how much she used to like it.


For a foodie it's hard for me to understand how someone that used to be obsessed with getting her family to eat things but no longer wants to eat anything but pudding, ice cream and pureed fruits.


This blog will serve as my visual memory for the foods I love and all the foods of life.


I will post recipes, photos, restaurant recommendations and pans and favourite food network shows, celebrity chefs, eco and healthy food choices and foodie events.


Now in case you want the recipe for my mom's chicken soup here it is:


Chicken Bones from a kosher chicken
6 cups of cold water
1 Onion
1 Carrot
1 Parsnip
1 Leek
1 Stalk of Celery
2 Tablespoons of Fresh Parsley
1 Tablespoon of Salt
1 Tablespoon of Pepper
2 Bay leaves or a tablespoon of crushed bay leaves
A packet of OXO chicken bouillon (Optional)
2 Garlic cloves (Optional)


Wash, and peel and rough chop all the vegetables and put it in a stock pot with the chicken and cold water.
Turn heat on high and when the stock starts to boil turn it down to a simmer and skim any scum from the surface of the soup.
Let simmer slightly covered for at least an hour or to taste.   Check for seasoning and adjust.


For matzoh balls I used a package of Streits Matzoh ball mix.   You can use a mix or make your own if you have matzoh meal.  I use the mix because it's way faster.  It only takes a couple of eggs and some oil and 15 min to set and another 30 minutes to cook.


Then Enjoy.