clearly, there are two go-tos for chanukah cooking – my nani and my aunt linda.  this is hysterical because my nani never cooked a single meal during my lifetime, at least that i remember – ever.  next year i promise to feature papa joe’s potato latkes, because they are truly out of this world but, i realized about halfway through chopping potatoes that i had run out of cooking steam for 2011.

AUNT LINDA’S YUMMY CARROT SOUFFLE

serves: a dinner party

ingredients:

• 1 stick of butter, softened
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 cans (16oz each) sliced carrots, drained*

*truth: i gagged the first time i read the words “canned carrots”.  but i pushed through because my aunt linda is an awesome cook and i trust the woman and i’m so glad i did.  this dish is really not to be believed!

preheat oven to 350 degrees.  cream butter in food processor.  add eggs, then flour and baking powder.  process until just combined

spoon into large bowl and stir in the brown and white sugar.  and carrots and mix with a spatula.  don’t worry if there are some butter lumps – they will melt when cooked.

grease a 13″X9″ baking dish and bake for about 1 hour.

i prepared the souffle the night before, refrigerated it over night and then cooked it the next day and it came out great (and yes, ABN snuck a bite before i could take proper photos – it was THAT good)

WARNING: this post contains photos of raw meat – sorta makes me gag.  also, the recipe for brisket is a 3 day affair. really. i’ve done it in a day before and more than once, just overnight. it is not the same. prepare in advance for the time required. brisket, like true love, requires commitment.

NANI’S BRISKET-2007*

serves:8
ingredients:

• 5-6lbs brisket, first cut (you most likely need to go to a butcher to get brisket. unless you have a local stew leonards.  just go to the butcher.  it’s fine)
• kosher salt, cracked black pepper, paprika
• 6 red or new potatoes, cut into pieces
• beef broth or water (use beef broth)
• 4-5 garlic cloves, chopped and crushed
• 2 medium onions sliced (not part of nani’s original recipe – i think this is the 2007 part)
• 6-8 carrots, peeled and cut in 2-inch chunks

rub the seasonings on the brisket

refrigerate overnight in a zip-lock bag.  it’s a fun challenge trying to squeeze a 5-6lb brisket into a zip-lock bag…good luck.  apparently, the proper place to store you brisket, is next to your SKINNY GIRL

the very next day, pre-heat the oven to 350 and brown the brisket in a heavy bottom roasting pan or dutch oven.  it should be noted that when i called my mom to ask her if i needed to brown both sides of the brisket, her response was to ask if i was browning the brisket on top of the stove or in the oven.  this is a recipe that she gave me.  we always brown the brisket on the stove-top. but still, the questions.  she also wanted to know how long i planned to cook the brisket.  i’m following HER recipe!

season carrots and potatoes with a little oil (not in the list of ingredients, MOM), salt and pepper.  add onions, carrots and potatoes to brisket.**  cook in oven for one hour, un-covered.

remove carrots and potatoes; add enough beef broth or water to come half-way up the sides of the brisket.  cover the pan with aluminum, or the lid of your dutch oven and cook for another 1 1/2 hours or until fork-tender***

remove the meat from the pan, cook completely and refrigerate over night

slice the cold brisket and place in pyrex pan with gravy.  cover and heat at 350 for 1/2 hour

potatoes and carrots can be reheated in a second pyrex dish while the brisket is reating****

serve and slice

omg, it was so good and juicy and tender and…JEWISH!

enjoying her first of what is sure to be many brisket filled holiday meals

*i have no idea what the 2007 is all about – maybe this is the 2007 version of the recipe? but now that it is 2011 and i’m still following the same recipe, it seems silly to call it brisket 2007. hmmmm…

**please note, your veggies will cook much better if they are not ON TOP of your brisket.  my dutch oven was not quite big enough.  brisket is a learning process

***i cooked my brisket for another 2+ hours, adding more beef broth at about the 1 1/2 hour mark

****the veggies will need approximately 3 times as long to cook as the brisket, just saying

you guys, i’m having some blog issues – i know, #firstworldproblem.  but ABN did some tweaking over the long weekend and i thought we were up and running but we’re just…not.  so, you’ll have to wait a bit longer for the remaining chanukah posts.  i promise it will be worth the wait – we’re talking brisket and babies playing with mama-made beanbags.  but for now…let’s talk about “running”

it’s been a month since i decided to get my tush off the couch.  i can’t say exactly what the original motivation was (except that all my cool friends run and i still strive to be cool).  i mean, clearly, exercise was needed but for a girl who never ran a mile, even in high school (i had a great pout that got me out of a lot) it seems like a sorta weird choice.

remember that episode of FRIENDS, when phoebe and rachel go for a run in central park?  i’m just saying…

i don’t love it.

but i also don’t hate it – at least not every minute of it.

i wouldn’t say i look forward to my next “run” (they happen 3 times a week, i’m following a plan) but as soon as the music starts (i’m discovering my love for hip hop at 30 1/2) – i don’t know…something happens.  my ponytail starts swinging for sure.

the view isn't bad either

today, for the last 45 seconds of my “run” which, according to my australian lady, who talks to me through my iphone, included more than 16 minutes of running (don’t worry, not all at once), i did my first fartlek*.

i think it’s time to register for that 5k.  anyone want to join me?

*okay so i didn’t do a fartlek.  i don’t know what a fartlek is.  but i did sprint at the end of my “run” and by sprint i mean i just wanted it to be over as soon as possible

remember when i said i would get a few recipe posts up this weekend? clearly that didn’t happen. i’d say it had half to do with the fact that friday/saturday i was in the middle of a post-breastfeeding nervous breakdown and half that on sunday/monday i was trying to stay away from my computer to prevent myself from doing any “work” and enjoying some time off with my little family. i do have a couple more recipes to share (hopefully later today) but i didn’t quite make it to 8 – while the miracle of chanukah might have lasted 8 nights – that’s just a hell of a lot of cooking.

after EBN was born, there were a couple of things that i swore i would share with my soon-to-be pregnant friends, that no one had shared with me. i had received a ton of advice over the 10 months i was knocked up and really appreciate the knowledgeable mothers in my life or sharing (you will cry every day for the first several days after your kid is born.  and it’s fine).  but there were for sure still surprises along the way.

1. you will be really swollen for several days after giving birth. like swollen to the point that you might think you are dying. apparently, this is totally normal (and when explained to me, by the nurse i called at about 3am on my first night home with the baby, it made total sense too – you have a lot of extra fluid in your body and it has no where to go!) but i had no warning and so the fact that my toes, feet and ankles looked more like giant footballs attached to my also trunk-like legs was beyond terrifying.

2. babies don’t sleep on the 3rd night after they are born. again, apparently, this is like, common, but no one told me. the first two nights in the hospital – EBN slept – and so the two other BNs slept as well. huh, this was going to be easy.  sure there were feedings every 3 hours, but the baby has been through so much (you know, birth) that she’s wiped out and needs to catch some z’s (or so i was told). by night 3, the baby is all caught up and most likely none too interested in sleeping. it seems like after night 3, things calmed down a bit but i swear that no one in our house slept that first night home – after-all, how could anyone sleep when mama was blowing up like the marshmallow man?

now that i’ve weaned, i’m adding one more thing to my must share list – 3. weaning sucks. a lot. for me, it hasn’t been engorgement (which probably shows how little milk EBN was getting those last few weeks – oops) or even missing the time together (she has traded nursing for kissing so it’s really fine). it’s been my hormones. for days (probably less than a week but still) i was out of control depressed and i had no clue these feelings were coming. i cried a lot (including when i did a load of EBN’s laundry only to realize as i pulled it out that i had washed one of her board books – that was messy), didn’t even want to watch tv (I KNOW!) and talked a lot about how maybe we didn’t need to have a 2nd kid because i couldn’t imagine going through any of this again (talk about dramatic!). ABN and i even got in a tiff on saturday morning because i fell off the wagon. it is a little like kicking a drinking or smoking habit – i mean, i assume.

the good news is i’m starting to feel back to my normal self. a normal self who has a 13 month old that doesn’t stop moving unless she is sleeping. one second she’s on her play-mat flipping through her beloved shabbat book and in the blink of an eye she is pulling all the tupperware out of a drawer in the kitchen.

truly, life will never be the same

yep, she rocks elbow patches

it’s been quite a week.  between all the cooking and teething and not breastfeeding – i’m spent.  my mood is less than stellar and while there’s a ton of great stuff out there to share with y’all – i’m just not feeling it.  on top of everything else i think my dvr is on strike because TOP CHEF didn’t record.  and yes, this made me cry.

next week i promise a post about “running” – yep, i’m still at it.  and check back throughout the weekend because i’ll be back with more chanukah recipes.

but in the meantime, this totally made me smile: