The Betty Crocker Project : Chicken Tetrazzini and Greek Salad

I know what you are thinking - Isn't Chicken Tetrazzini suppose to be white?

And I have to admit - You're right.

But classic Chicken Tetrazzini is made with egg based pasta and processed flour. . . Our's is made with whole wheat flour and spaghetti. We used Braggs instead of salt and topped it with a pretty healthy load of nutritional yeast. . . and it WAS AMAZING! I know that word gets thrown around a lot - but seriously this dish was NO JOKE! I'm still thinking about it like 14 hours after eating it. . . a bit of a food day dream really. . . I think when we make it again - I'll add more veggies.

• 1 Package Whole Wheat Pasta
• 1/4 Cup Margarine 
• A Little Less than 1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour ( Remove about 1 Tablespoon ) 
• 1/2 Teaspoon Braggs
• 1/4 Teaspoon Lemon Pepper
• 1 Cup Vegetable Broth 
• 1/2 Cup Soy Plain Coffee Creamer ( make sure you only use the PLAIN - Original  ) 
• 2 Tablespoon Dry Sherry 
• 2 Bags of Morningstar Chickn Strips 
• 6 Sliced White Mushrooms
• 1 Cup Broccoli Florets
• 1/2 Cup Nutritional Yeast
• Olive Oil for Cooking

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cook and Drain Spaghetti - per instructions on the package.
In a cast iron skillet - heat at medium temp a few splashes of Olive Oil - till you get an even coating. Once hot, fry up the MS Chikn Strips and Mushrooms. Once they are almost ready - toss in the Broccoli. Keep stirring to keep the Broccoli from burning and make sure they get an even coating of the oil.
In a saucepan - melt the margarine over low heat. Stir in Flour, Braggs and Lemon Pepper. Keep stirring till the mix is smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in Broth and Soy Creamer. Then heat till boiling - about 1 minute.
Stir in Spaghetti, Sherry, Chickn Strips, Broccoli and Mushrooms into the sauce. Pour the mix into an ungreased 2 quart casserole dish. Sprinkle with Nutritional Yeast.
Bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until bubbly in the center.

So we started with my personal favorite salad to go with it - Greek. I mean let's face it - Is there anything better than a good Lemony Olive Oily dressing? We skipped the Feta cheese and replaced it instead with some nutritional yeast and French Fried Onions. . . we also added some Bacos because everyone loves those little guys. . . but we kept the peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and Kalamata olives. Really though - when it comes to a salad - it is the dressing that is the STAR. Here is our version of Betty's Greek Dressing - this is a real gem : 

• 1/4 Cup Olive Oil 
• 2 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice
• 1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
• 1 1/2 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 Teaspoon Braggs
• 1/4 Teaspoon Lemon Pepper

In a tightly covered container, shake all dressing ingredients.  Pour over your salad and when you eat say "HMHMHMMMMM" with every bite.

Betty Crocker, Here We Come

When Annie told me about the Betty Crocker project, I went through a wide range of emotions...

1. Hunger

2. Hunger

3. Brief reprieve of hunger

4. The anticipation of more hunger

5. Hunger

6. Hunger

7. Hunger

Annie, as you may know is one of the more talented amateur vegan chefs out there. I've actually been pushing her to start a vegan food blog for a long time now, and I was thrilled when she told me that she was finally going to do it. The fact that I was going to get to eat all sorts of delicious vegan deliciousness didn't hurt either.

So far the whole experiment has been a smashing success. Chicken Tetrazzini has been delicious for dinner this week, and the Ceasar Salad dressing has us actually having salads with dinner like we've always talked about. The Blueberry Banana Muffins have been a delicious addition to coffee & smoothies in the morning. And seeing Annie so excited about a project has been the best of all.

For my part, I've started riding my exercise bike again. That seems like a good idea with Annie cooking every night. So far that's been the extent of my contribution, but give me time. If Betty Crocker has a recipe for double bacon Boca burgers, I am all over that.

Oh, and I hope she doesn't leave me like the chick who wrote the book.

That is all.

The Betty Crocker Project : Blueberry - Banana Muffins

Back in the day - when Dan and I were still very new and navigating our way from "Just Friends" to True Love - we had a very awkward conversation about Banana Bread. Because in all the years we had talked about our most private feelings and the most intimates details of our lives . . . we had never baked together. Night after night we stayed up late on phones and sofas - talking and playing video games - mostly talking A LOT - but never baking.

So years later - I had to ask " Do you like Banana Bread? With Walnuts or Chocolate Chips? Or both?" He looked at me like I was asking about breathing Oxygen and said "Who doesn't like Banana Bread?" . . . I won't bore you with the rest. It really was just a lot of "What kind of Peanut Butter do to you like?" and "Do you butter your toast before you put on the jam?" - You know the conversation. We've all had some version. . . because no matter how well you think you know someone - Till you know what they eat - You will NEVER really know them. 

This brings us back to Banana Bread.

It was because of this conversation and the special role Banana Bread played in our relationship ( the first thing we ever baked together ) and because we had about 7 VERY ripe bananas in the fruit basket - that we started with Betty Crocker's Banana Bread - well muffins really - because there is just 2 of us and muffins are easier to hand out to visitors.

We replaced the traditional processed All-Purpose Flour with Organic Whole Wheat Flour ( of course ) and replaced 1 of the eggs with an over-ripe banana and the other with Ener-G Egg Replacer. We also went with the Blueberry version rather than Walnuts - using some organic Blueberries from Trader Joe's. I would love to say we started this experiment off with a Fourth of July fireworks display - but this is not a movie. Our first assignment in this experiment was more of a "Way to Go Kid!" banner.

 

They are a bit moist and after a day - the lovely little perfect peaks sunk.

They may have seemed better - if we hadn't actually baked some Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins recently that were pretty fabulous. . . So for those of you  looking to make a really good Banana Muffin - Here is our recipe - the one we have used all these years - since that first conversation.

Adapted from  Compassionate Cook : Please Don't Eat the Animals

• 1/3 Cup Margarine 
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 2 - 3 Ripe Bananas - Mashed ( depends how big and how much of the thing you can use - it should equal 2 Big Bananas) 
• 1/2 Cup Soy Milk
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.

With an electric hand-held mixer - mix Margarine and Sugar and then mix in Flour, Baking Powder, and Baking Soda. Add the remaining ingredients and mix - until there are no lumps. Fold in Chocolate Chips. Using a ladle - fill muffin wrappers about half way and bake till the tops are golden and you can pull a toothpick out without any goo on it. 

The Betty Crocker Project

I recently saw the movie Julie & Julia - being an armchair chef myself - it was actually surprising it had taken me so long to see a movie about a book about Julia Childs and a normal person finding her way through a classic cookbook in a normal kitchen. . . I love food - movies - books - eating. I was charmed at first. I mean here was a devoted vintage clothing wearing amateur foodie - who wore pearls in the kitchen ( one of my own personal dreams - though my dream pearls would be fake ). I admit I was charmed by finding someone so like myself in so many ways. . . but as you can imagine - she lost me at the Lobster Killer scene. . . and I never really bounced back. But that didn't stop me from picking up her new book Cleaving at the secondhand book store for $1 this weekend. It is all about her love of meat and butchery and how she ruins her marriage by being selfish. I'm 10 pages in. Needless to say -  she has lost her "charm" but I will read it. You can't just fill your life with things you relate to and like. That isn't healthy.

But that's a tangent for another day.

SEE - The Lobster Killer scene planted a little seed in my brain. I kept waiting for her to have a change of heart and save them . . . but she never did. . . and that is just not OK.

THERE NEEDS TO BE A HUMANE ALTERNATIVE TO LOBSTER KILLER

Yes - After years of meeting and knowing literally 1,000s of vegans from all over the world and working at the largest animal advocacy agencies on the planet - I can say with complete confidence - that no one in the world loves food the way a vegan does. We think it about food constantly - we read labels with a Christmas Morning eagerness - searching for those deal breaker words - Whey, Egg Whites, Skim Milk Protein, Casein and sit around talking about food like the gals in Sex in The City talk about orgasms. We send emails to all our friends and family telling them about new products to buy and use with a loyalty and eagerness that can only be compared to Beatle Mania. When I pitched to my dashing husband that we should cook our way through The Joy of Cooking ( considered by many universal eaters to be the bible of cooking) - making every recipe vegan - I might have teared up a little with his overwhelming eagerness to eat my experiments and maybe try out a few himself. He is the best thing to ever happen to me.

He patiently drove me to every secondhand book store in town to find it. See, I had a copy once. My mother had given it to me on my 16th birthday. I think it has taken me 18 years to realize that this is how Sicilian mothers usher their daughters into womanhood. . . making sure they have the skills and resources to feed others. I may have lost it in a roommate divide once or maybe a moving purge. I never used it much and until last week - didn't miss it much. After 4 stores, we both found ourselves wishing I had been more sentimental.

We gave in and went to Barnes and Noble. . . and that's when it happened. . . We looked through The Joy of Cooking. After seeing multiple recipes for "Liver Mousse" and "Lamb Shoulders" - Seriously people out there eat that - apparently - I found myself drawn to a bright red binder decorated like some Bavarian gingerbread. It was the reprinting of the original 1950s edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook. It was laminated. This book that had been reprinted for someone like me - in saddle-shoes and thick black rimmed glasses. . . had been sealed up so I guess less ethical versions of myself wouldn't steal pages from it. After some debate over if we would really feel any "Joy" eating vegan "Oyster Cakes" and what could possibly be inside this MARVELOUS cookbook that had been reprinted just for us - as well as the Top Chef cookbooks and various other amazing journeys through the art of mastering food art book things. . . you know the ones. . . we agreed on The Betty Crocker Cookbook . . . it is in a binder so we can add pages, large margins to write in and a wide variety of recipes to make vegan over this next year. Going off nothing besides my vast knowledge of Better Housekeeping circa 1950s - we decided to go for the one that we could look though and we suspected had more than just Pork Chops and Meatloafs.

AND THE BETTY CROCKER PROJECT WAS BORN. 

For as long as it takes - Dan & I will be veganizing every recipe in The Betty Crocker Cookbook and sharing our tips and secrets with you - our lurking readers who never officially "follow" for whatever reason. We have been searching for a project we could share but have struggled coming up with something we could prioritize with the Los Angeles Exodus and all these weddings and babies. . . but we have always said we can make ANYTHING Vegan and Fat . . . now we are putting this claim to the test! Thank you Lobster Killer for inspiring a project that I suspect you would hate. . .

Girlfriend's Mock Chickn Salad

( or sandwiches ) 

• 2 packages Morningstar Chickn Strips (fried up with a few dashes of Liquid Smoke)
• Half a jar Grapeseed Vegenaise
• 2 stalks of chopped Celery
• 1/4 of a large Red Onion - chopped
• 2 1/2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
• 3 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
• 1/2 cup chopped Parsley
• 2 pinches of Celery Seed

Salt and Pepper to taste

In a bowl mix all the ingredients and serve on a bagel with something green like Lettuce, Sprouts or Spinach - Tomatoes - Pickles - Mustard - Whatever Sandwich goodies you like.

The Chicken Free Pot Pie

(The photo is of Chickn -n- Biscuits* - See below)

• 2 premade frozen pie crusts - deep dish (they have vegan versions in most grocery stores - check labels of the generic ones. I would say they are the best bet. Most packages come with 2 crusts.)

Filling:

• 2 packages Morning Star Chikn Strips - fried up with some olive oil and the ol’ liquid smoke till it gets a bit crispy
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas and carrots
• 2 large potatoes - cubed and boiled
• 2 stalks of celery - sliced
• 1 batch of vegan gravy :

1/2 Cups unbleached white flour
1/2 Cups nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons canola oil
4 cups un-chicken or vegetable broth
2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
3 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning or 2 teaspoons seasoning salt
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon celery seed

Toast the flour and nutritional yeast in the oil until it starts to brown. Stir in the broth until there are no lumps. Stir in soy sauce/tamari, poultry seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, garlic powder, celery seed, parsley and black pepper. Heat till it thickens and starts to boil.

* This can get a bit salty if it gets too salty for you - you can adjust it with some soy milk for a creamy sauce or nutritional yeast for a thicker gravy. Sometimes I also add crushed garlic or diced onions for a little extra something.

To make the the pie:

Follow directions on the package of Pie Crusts. Bake one Pie Crust till lightly golden brown - defrost the other crust and gently pull from the tin and flatten out. When you pull out the baked crust leave the oven on.

Make Gravy, add Veggies and fake chickn and simmer on a low heat till it begins to bubble. At this point taste the mixture and see if it needs Salt, Pepper and/or Soy Sauce. Fill the baked Pie Crust with Filling Mixture(You are going to have a bunch left over - see *note below). Place flat raw Pie Crust on top and take fork to seal the  top crust down onto the bottom Pie Crust. Take knife and cut a small X in the center of the top raw Pie Crust. Put the finished pie back in the oven and let bake till it is a nice golden brown.

Eat Chicken Free Pot Pie and Be Happy!

*There is not usually enough Filling Mixture leftover for another pie - BUT  - put the leftover Fake Chickn Gravy mixture in small casserole dish and bake with some biscuits on top and you’re good!

Old School Vegan Sweet Potato Kugel

( I mean REALLY OLD SCHOOL )

• 6 small sweet potatoes, peeled and grated
• 3 apples, peeled and grated
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup matzo meal
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1 cup water

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Use a food processor to grate the sweet potatoes and apples. Combine all ingredients together.
Gently press into a baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes, or until lightly crisp on top.

A Robotic History of Passover

Many are not aware there is a unique relationship that robots share with the Jewish high holiday Passover. . . It seems problematic . . . since most of the more stricter Jews don't use electricity during the holidays. . . BUT maybe because robots would also survive the 10 plagues they feel a need to share a night of wine and food . . . drinking toasts to the end of oppression in the world and hopes that someday their home appliance and construction brothers and sisters will know freedom.

( Please excuse the obnoxious Israeli pop music - that I can only imagine was added to make this video "hipper" - yet sorta reminds me of the soundtrack to those "This is How Your Food is Made" videos they showed on Sesame Street )

Ziti all'Amatriciana

(Photo -  A Vegan Tour of Italy! - Baked Ziti, Fettuccine Alfredo, homemade Pizza and Herb & Garlic Olive Oil for Dipping )

• 2 ounces Ziti
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 package of Hickory Smoked Tofurky Slices ( or vegan Bacon substitute )
• 1 package of Firm Tofu ( drained and mashed )
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 pound cherry tomatoes, (or canned cherry tomatoes) chopped (about 3 cups)
• 5-6 fresh basil leaves
• 3/4 cup Nutritional Yeast

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add half of the Torfurky and sauté until crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer Tofurky to paper towels to drain (do not clean skillet). Reserve for garnish. Add 2 tablespoons of oil to same skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic and red pepper flakes; sauté about 2 minutes. Add onion, Tofu and remaining Torfurky; sauté until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes; simmer 6 minutes. Season sauce with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid. Return pasta to same pot. Add tomato sauce and nutritional yeast to pasta and toss, adding some of reserved pasta cooking liquid if dry. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer pasta to bowl. Sprinkle with reserved Tofurky and serve.

What will not be attending Dan & Annie's 4th Annual Secular Passover Seder Potluck :

1. Traditional Hebrew Readings and Prayers

2. Mass Bread Burnings

3. Jewverine can't make it.

4. Neither can The Hebrew Hammer

5. I guess these guys won't be able to make it till 2080 :

OX

The cookie that changed my life.

• 2 1/4 cups Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Brown Sugar ( I like to add a little less reg Sugar and replace that with Brown Sugar to make them more chewy - but this works )
• 1/2 cup Margarine
• 1/2 cup Oil ( one time I used this Hazelnut Oil and it was DREAMY )
• 3 tbsp Water
• 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup Soy Milk ( I like to use the Vanilla flavored Milk )

Preheat Oven 375
In one bowl mix : Flour, Baking Soda and Salt
In another bowl mix : Sugars, Margarine, Oil, Water and Vanilla Extract - till smooth
Add the Dry Mix to the  Wet Mix  - Stir till it is smooth
Add Chocolate Chips
Drop by the teaspoonful onto an greased cookie sheet
Bake till 8-10 minutes

Matzah Wars

Re-posted from : Frost Street

PS - Don't forget to read labels to make sure your Matzah is Vegan & Kosher for Passover

Matzah may be the least palatable food ever devised by man. But for a week, we must eat it, or tempt the wrath of God. So I've taken it upon myself to find the least offensive matzah on the market today. I've collected all the varieties of matzah I could find in various supermarkets (21 total) and conducted a taste test to identify the tastiest matzah of them all. (That's Frost Street: Eating all the crap so you don't have to). Before getting into the tasting notes, I should explain the categories of matzah listed below. If you lack patience for all this detail, you can skip right to my recommendations.

Traditional Matzah: This is your garden-variety bread of haste, made from special Passover wheat flour and water (more on what makes the flour special in a second). Sometimes egg is added for flavor and body. The point is that these matzahs are perfectly suitable for the Passover table, and are mass produced so as to be widely available.

Shmura Matzah: This is the pascal equivalent of artisinal bread. The word "shmura" means "watched", a reference to the requirement that a rabbi watch every stage of production, from the harvesting of the wheat, through its threshing and milling, on to mixing and baking, to ensure that no water is introduced before its proper time. Shmura matzah is made in small batches, often of whole grain flour, and typically in hand-formed round wafers (distinguishable from the square shape of mass-produced varieties). Most shmura matzah is made in areas with large Jewish populations, and sold to the local community (the most notable exception being shmura matza made in Israel for sale in the United States). I have included in my tasting only one example of shmura matzah, found in a grocery store.

Designer Matzah: Much of the matzah on the market today is not kosher for Passover. Nine of the 21 matzahs I found fell into this category (six of them carrying the Manischewitz name). These matzahs usually contain added flavors -- some of them are even flavored with malt, a definite Passover no-no due to the fermentation taboo. No observant Jew may eat these products during Passover, and no rational creature would eat them if not compelled by religion or starvation to do so. Their raison d'être escapes me, but my guess is that there are many Jews who like to obey religious imperatives in spirit rather than in letter, so I have evaluated them all the same.

Traditional Matzah

Streit's This is the grand old matzah of the Lower East Side, manufactured here by five generations of the Streit family for almost a century. Light and neutral in flavor, not too brittle nor too grainy in texture, this is the benchmark against which I'll judge all the other traditional matzahs.

Manischewitz Sodium Free Manischewitz (pronounced man-uh-SHEV-its) is the Wonder Bread of matzah. You can find it just about anywhere matzah is sold. I was unable to find a kosher-for-Passover Manischewitz matzah that had any sodium; presumably this is the standard product. It is a bit darker than Streit's, with a more burnt, carbony flavor. Some may find this to be a welcome alternative to the utter blandness of other matzahs; I do not. There is also a faint musty aftertaste to the Manischewitz; this may be a result of improper storage, but improper storage may be an inevitable consequence of Manischewitz's massive volume. This comes in a bigger box (16 oz. instead of 10 oz. for most other matzahs).

The Vegan Passover Sedar! The Remix.

We all know the classic movie with Charlton Heston and the lyrics to Swing Low Sweet Chariot - But you may not know that those things have anything to do with Passover. See Passover is the Jewish celebration of when God spared the Jews from the curse of the first born and freed them from slavery in Egypt. The traditions behind this 7 day celebration of unleavened bread and freedom have gone on for literally thousands of years and are there to remind Jews that God doesn't approve of oppression and exploitation. So it's about time we celebrated new school style!

So let's break it down . . .

Can you really celebrate the end of slavery with eggs and meat on your plate?

The traditional Sedar plate includes an egg (Beitzah) - some say this represents a sacrifice others say it represents a new beginning.No matter why you have on it on there - there is no disputing that that egg laying hens suffer unthinkable cruelty - including intense confinement, debeaking and a short life lived in ammonia filled sheds. I like to replace the Beitzah with an avocado. Not only does it replace the egg aesthetically - the seed inside reflects the sentiment behind this place on the plate without contributing to an industry that is completely indifferent to the suffering they profit from.

Of course there is also the roasted shank bone ( Z'roa ) - to represent the lamb that was sacrificed and eaten at the Temple of Jerusalem and also the blood that was used to mark the doors of the Israelites . . . but just like Jews have come to embrace technology like airplanes and running water . . . embracing advancements like more compassionate alternatives to meat truly reflects the spirit behind Passover. I used a piece of TVP for my plate. . . but I've heard of people using a beet ( which gets a big thumbs up from the Talmud ). Whatever you use - the facts are that today's factory farms are hell on Earth for animals and even certified Kosher slaughterhouses have been exposed as being careless and wantonly inhumane and their by-products are about as far as you can get from a celebration of freedom.

With so many recipe sites that offer vegan alternatives to traditional Passover favorites - it is easier than ever to have a Sedar that reflects the true spirit behind this celebration and what makes this one of my favorite Holidays!

I hope you'll consider making your Sedar vegan this year and to help - Here's just a few of my favorite recipe sites to help :

Passover Recipes
Post Punk Kitchen Forum
heebnvegan
Veg Source Passover Menu

Shalom!

4 Products that Should be in EVERY Vegan Kitchen

So there are the obvious food stuffs ( like Tofu and Potatoes ) that all us vegans usually keep a well stocked supply off. . . and of course the staples - the Flour and the Brown Sugar ( a great substitute for white sugar in cookie recipes to keep them chewy ) . . . BUT these are the REAL gems! The 4 Products that can make a vegan kitchen step out from behind the Granola Lentil Loaf Stigma and amaze even the most meatiest of haters.

In no particular order :

• Nutritional Yeast : Yes -An unfortunate name that keeps many people from trying this little bit of heaven turned into a yellow powder that is the perfect replacement for Parmesan cheese ( I mean seriously sprinkle it on pizza, salad, popcorn - whatever ). It is also the key ingredient to the best Mac & Cheez ever ( see below ) and making a vegan gravy that you'll want to eat like soup.
  

• 3 1/2 cups elbow macaroni
• 1/2 cup ( 1 stick ) vegan margarine
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• Pinch of turmeric
• 1 1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• A few dashes of liquid smoke
• Paprika & Black Pepper, to taste

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Cook the elbow macaroni according to the package directions. Drain and set aside.
• In a saucepan, melt the margarine over low heat. Whisk in the flour.
• Continue whisking over medium heat until smooth and bubbly.
• Whisk in the boiling water, salt, soy sauce, liquid smoke, onion powder, garlic powder, and turmeric - add a few dashes of black pepper to taste.
• Continue whisking until dissolved. Once thick and bubbling, whisk in the nutritional yeast flakes.
• Mix 3/4 of the sauce with the noodles and place in a casserole dish. Cover with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with the paprika.
• Bake for 15 minutes.
• Broil for a few minutes until crisp.

• Liquid Smoke : A substance produced from a variety of wood smoke passed through water that can be found in any grocery store and added to any recipe you want to add a smoky cheddary flavor to ( see above ) and to any mock meat or tofu to add a grill or meatier flavor to. . . Also what I plan to name my first child . . . I love you Liquid Smoke.
  

• Morningstar Farms Grillers Chik'n Veggie Patties : Yes - They are vegan ( but it is Morningstar so read the package to make sure they haven't changed the recipe ). We have been eating veggie burgers for years. It is the perfect easy meal after work or summer BBQ staple. . . but these mix it up a bit and you can even shake and bake them for fried chik'n. . . also try mixing together some Olive Oil and Liquid Smoke and bake. . . Healthy and you can cut them up to put on top of a salad or in a sandwich.
  

• Wine : A nice glass while you cook is always a good rule to live by but cooking with the wine can make a recipe unique and healthier at the same time. Cooking up Tofurky Italian Sausage in some olive oil and red wine can add a bit more flavor to a Marinara or Summer sauce and make it so you can use less oil . . . a splash of white wine can make a vegetable or potato soup more flavorful without adding salt. It may take some experimenting BUT so worth it!

Thank me later - with cookies!

Challah at your Goys!

SO - Admittedly we have sucked at keeping up with this thing. . . BUT NOW WE'RE BACK!

With Passover right around the corner we using this page as a resource for recipes, Sedar tips and of course the annual "Will Not Be Attending" List. . . All coming soon!

Until then - Here's an educational film where 50 cent and a Robot help a hip Rabbi tell us a little but about plagues and the reason for the season. . .

Next year in Jerusalem - Mutta F#@*as!