spiced beef matzo pie

we've just returned from a fantastic few days spent in florida for my youngest cousin's bat mitzvah, which, like all bat mitzvahs, made me want to go to wayyy more bat mitzvahs (and maybe have my own 90s-themed one someday?). because the parties are just like weddings but with many more mozzarella sticks, less mushy emotions, and tons of glow in the dark shit. and when done correctly, they have added bonuses like a t-shirt airbrushing station or sting-ray petting zoo. i'm not even kidding! this party last weekend was at the tampa aquarium and we were given the opportunity to engage in such things as eating a mini pizza with one hand and reaching into a sting ray tank with the other. then we did the hora and filled our bellies with sour patch kids and charleston chews. it was so great. 

after the bat mitzvah we drove our little red cozy coop rental car down to sarasota to stake out a place for retirement. and also because my friends george and sam were presenting a concert of reich and muhly and all of the music i adore, so we basked in the sweet sounds of that and then stayed in costume to party like college kids, eat fish around a bonfire, and ketchup with old friends (whose birthdays i still need to memorize...). during the day we walked over two bridges, past a baby dolphin, to the bookstore downtown where i bought brooklyn because i've been wanting to see the movie soo badly but it never came to our theater! so lame. so i guess i'm doing things the old fashioned way. although since the new season of house of cards is out i don't know that i'll have any units of free time leftover to read. 

other than that, now that we're back home i've been hurry scurrying quick like a bunny to meet the photo deadline for my book because it is right around the corner. today was soup and cake day, tomorrow is casserole and more cake day, and next week we are staging a holiday a party! good thing the chrismukkah bush is still up... uhh, hehe, oops...

and because soup day and casserole day just weren't enough, we also have pi day on monday! yayyy! *applies stretchy pants* pi day is great because it allows me to reminisce on all of my fun mathlete years back in the day, but it can also be intimidating because i'm quite clumsy with pie dough. i am no michelle or samantha or yossy. and probably have no place living on a farm in this regard. but! i recently learned about mina, which is a passover pie with sephardic roots that uses matzo instead of pie dough. it's often layered, like a lasagna, with lamb or beef or vegetables. but in zahav it's made in a round pie pan and then flipped onto a plate. i loved the look of that so i took that route as well. i also love what mike solomonov says in his headnotes, about how tasty it is when the fatty juices from the meat soak into the matzo. the result kind of makes me think of what a beef fatty ritz cracker would taste like if such a thing existed. 

the filling here is spiced with a bunch of cinnamon and cumin and will make your house smell better than thanksgiving. it's pretty rich so you'll be glad it's wrapped in matzo and not pie dough, and, with passover right around the corner, you officially have two great reasons to make this. so go on, flag down the matzo truck 🚚 🚚 🚚 🚚 🚚!!!! 

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spiced beef matzo pie

makes one 8-inch pie

ingredients

2 tablespoons flavorless oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
Kosher salt
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1/4 teaspoon allspice
Black pepper

5-6 sheets matzo
egg wash: 1 egg lightly beaten with a splash of water
Fresh parsley or micro greens, for serving

clues

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat and add the onion, carrots, and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring, until soft and translucent, 5-7 minutes. Add the beef and sprinkle it with the Aleppo pepper, cinnamon, cumin, allspice, 1 teaspoon salt, and a few turns of black pepper and cook, breaking up the beef with a spoon or spatula, until it is fully cooked and no longer pink. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. 

Grease an 8” cake pan and set it aside. Soak the matzo in warm water for a few minutes until it has softened. Line the bottom and sides of the cake pan with the matzo pieces, breaking it up as needed and packing it down firmly. It will look a little rustic and that’s ok. Use a paper towel to blot away excess moisture once the matzo is in the pan and then pour in the beef mixture and pack it down firmly. Cover the top with soaked matzo, pressing the edges to seal, and then brush it with a healthy coating of egg wash. Bake until browned, about 30 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes and then invert onto a plate. Top with parsley or micro greens and serve. 

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-yeh!

pictured: plates, cheese stone, and linens from farmhouse pottery

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labneh grilled cheese

Since I was in middle school, Tuesdays have been ingrained in my brain as grilled cheese and tomato soup day, thanks to my summer camp and its weekly celebration of American cheese and glorified tomato juice. No matter how hot it was outside or how strict we were being about our preteen “diets” in advance of the 4th of July dance, on Tuesdays at lunch time it was universally understood that we would take no prisoners as we ravaged through platters of buttery Wonderbreaded triangles of grilled cheese dunked in styrofoam bowls of tomato soup. It’d all get washed down with ice cold bright blue punch and then we’d roll ourselves Violet Beauregarde-style back to our bunks for an hour of digesting and writing letters home on Hello Kitty stationary. 

It was the life. 

Ah, I love a good camp memory and you know I’ll take any chance to relive it. But now 15 years later, since blue punch has been replaced by kombucha (ok fine, and wine) and Hello Kitty stationary has been replaced by emails littered with emojis, I’ve updated my grilled cheese game. It might not have the nostalgia of butter and American cheese, but it’s got the nuttiness of seedy wheat bread, the tanginess of labneh and za’atar, and the sharpness of white cheddar and parmesan. Which is to say that it’s fancy enough to eat as a grownup and good enough to write home about. And obviously it’s not complete without a little swim in hearty tomato soup. 

You can use homemade or store-bought labneh here, or in a pinch you could also sub out plain full-fat greek yogurt. It doesn’t melt down like a harder cheese, but when it’s sandwiched between melty cheddar and parmesan, you get a nice oozy center in your toasty grilled cheese.

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Labneh Grilled Cheese

Makes 2

Ingredients

Olive oil
4 thick slices seedy wheat bread
2 ounces shaved white cheddar
2 ounces shaved parmesan
1/4 cup labneh
Za’atar
Sumac
Tomato soup, for serving

Clues

Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Toast the bread slices on one side until lightly browned and then flip them over. Top two slices with cheddar and two slices with parmesan and then spread two of the slices with the labneh and sprinkle with a pinch of za’atar and sumac. Carefully sandwich them together, cover with a lid, and cook until the bottom is toasted. Flip, cover, and cook until the bottom is toasted and the parmesan and cheddar are melted. Transfer to a plate, cut diagonally, and serve with tomato soup. 

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-yeh!

The soup in this post is Progresso’s Hearty Tomato Soup! Thank you, Progresso, for sponsoring this post! 

olive oil blondies with chocolate frosting

oh hey! sorry you probably don't recognize me, i got a hint of a tan last week while i was hiking with the eggs in one thousand million degree heat down in the great american southwest... what was that? it wasn't the tan you were talking about? i look like a, like a taco??? ohhh, that sounds about right i guess. for the entire trip we had a rule that we couldn't consume anything that wasn't on a tortilla bed, even our hiking snacks were tortilla roll-ups. eggboy (née tacoboy) was in heaven, and that's not even considering that we were staying at the egggrandma house in a retirement community, aka surrounded by all of eggboy's best friends. 

we did a lot of hiking, so i'm pretty sure i calorically broke even with all of the tacos, and i'm hoping that i got enough sun to counteract all of my days spent cuddled up indoors this winter. on our way back we made a quick stop in los angeles and saw my family and my pops even played a concert with the calder quartet (do you know those guys? they're so cool and good!), and then we returned to a deliciously cloudy grand forks that is starting to put away all of his snow :-( it's a little goopy and muddy outside, but that hasn't been stopping sven cat and ole cat from climbing all about, indoors and out. 

is there a word for me now that i've made one cat gif? does this qualify me as a cat person? i don't know that i'm ready for such a title. but for what it's worth, i've also recently become a loyal follower of sir winston duke of goodland and he's so darn cute. sheep dog instagram is my favorite instagram.

for one second before our trip, we didn't have any sweets in the house, which is weird. but i needed something unfussy to hold us over, so i did something that i don't do often enough: i turned to blondies. they're so easy to make and more casual than a cake, and they stay fudgey in the fridge, so you can keep them longer and eat them at a moment's notice, no reason required. and these use olive oil because it turns out that good fruity olive oil and rich brown sugar go together like ramalamalamalama dingely dingy dong. also olive oil is healthy so these blondies are healthy (maybe????).

here i've used california olive ranch's limited reserve olive oil which is probably over-the-top fancy for sparkly sprinkly blondies but since olive oil is unlike wine in that it doesn't get better with age, i indulged. c.o.r.'s mild and buttery olive oil would also be awesome in these. actually you'd be good with any of their olive oils since they're all good on their own, and that's important with this recipe since the olive oil flavor really shines through here in the tastiest way possible. 

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olive oil blondies with chocolate frosting

makes 9 large blondies

ingredients

2 cups flour
2 cups lightly packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup california olive ranch olive oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

frosting:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
a pinch of kosher salt
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

sprinkles, optional

clues

preheat the oven to 350ºf. grease and line an 8" square pan with parchment paper.

in a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. in a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and pour the mixture into the pan, spreading it out evenly. bake until the center is set, begin checking for doneness at 35 minutes. let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, remove to the rack and cool completely.

to make the frosting, use an electric mixer to beat together the butter, confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder, salt, heavy cream, and vanilla. spread it on the blondies, top with sprinkles (if desired), and cut into squares. store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

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-yeh!

thank you so much, california olive ranch, for sponsoring this post!

cheesecake eggs with shortbread soldiers

i found the town bookstore!! this whole entire time i thought that the closest bookstore was an hour and a half away in fargo, but it turns out that i just assumed that because of eggboy's barnes and noble obsession. (every time we go to fargo, eggboy does not allow us to leave until we have spent ample time at the barnes and noble.) but so on valentine's day, when the sunday political shows ended and after we'd had our cake, he suggested that we go to the university of north dakota book store to get some fiction for some upcoming trips and it blew my mind! i mean, it's not a full blown barnes and noble, but it had enough to keep us occupied for the afternoon until we got hungee. i bought room. 

and then we made zucchini noodles and watched the terrifying season one finale of jane the virgin. so that was our valentine's day! how was yours? did you eat enough chocolate?

we are spending the next few days in some warmer climates. not that i don't like the beautiful snow that has melted just enough so that macaroni have enough courage to take their little field trips out the tree in the yard and the other tree in the yard. but some vitamin d could do me some good right about now. 

oh, and before i get to this egg recipe! some bits and bobs:

-i will be speaking at sxsw this year! i've never ever been, so i am equal parts nervous and excited. come say hello if you are there!

-there are just a couple more spots available for the australia workshop that i am hosting with luisa and sophie, so if you want to come make cake and hang out with koalas*, sign up now! (*i don't actually think koalas are coming to the workshop, but i'll be arriving in sydney early to go meet some and you are invited to come to that too.)

how many dollars do you think i could make if i bred macaroni to start laying eggs filled with whipped cheesecake and lemon curd? do you think willy wonka would want to be my friend? could he loan me an oompa loompa or 12??? whoa that escalated fast.

eggboy and i are officially freaking out over these cute little eggies, which are from aimee twigger's new book, love, aimee x. this is definitely something you should bookmark for your easter table, but i wanted to show you now because her book just came out in the states and it is such a gem! everything in it is as cute and creative as these eggs, it's like a crafting book on steroids where everything is edible. there's chocolate salami, eton mess cupcakes, and bakewell tart ice cream!!! if ever you feel like you're in a dessert rut, get this book because it is all sorts of inspiring. congratulations, ms. aimee!!!! 

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cheesecake eggs with shortbread sliders

slightly adapted from aimee twigger's love, aimee x

makes 12

ingredients

12 eggshells

cheesecake:

1 c whipped cream
3/4 c cream cheese, softened
1/4 c confectioners' sugar
zest of 1 lemon

1/4 c lemon curd or marmalade

shortbread:

1 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c cornstarch
1/3 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, cold and cubed

clues

pull out the filmy part from your eggshells and wash them in boiling water to kill any germs. allow to air dry.

to make the cheesecake, put the whipped cream and cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer and fold in the confectioners' sugar. whip until thick and fluffy and stir in the lemon zest. 

spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe some into each eggshell. add a teaspoonful of lemon curd or marmalade for the egg yolk.

to make the shortbread, preheat the oven to 350ºF and line an 8" square baking tin with parchment. 

combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. add the butter and pulse until the dough comes together. press the mixture into the baking tin. slice into rectangles, poke with a skewer, and bake for 30 minutes. remove from the oven, re-cut the rectangles, and cool on a rack. 

dip the shortbread soldiers in the eggs and enjoy! 

(ooh! and i added just a teensy bit of nutmeg on top to look like black pepper!)

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-yeh!