holidays and celebrations

sprinkle macaroons

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Sup, homies! Happy spring and also happy snow day (!) which leaves us with the best case scenario: a beautiful wintery day where the sun stays up long enough to enjoy it on the drive to (and maybe even from) the gym. These kinds of days are delicious because you get the coziness of the snow and the energy of the extra light, and the light has that perfectly diffused snowy quality that is all fluffy and cloud like. Is there a name for this type of winter weather that seeps into spring? Like Indian Summer, but for winter? And don’t say something like Annoying Winter, that’s not the point of this exercise. 

Speaking of exercise, I’ve been on a remarkable health kick, spawned by a sudden urge to eat kale four times a day. I’ve been eating kale and eggs for breakfasts, kale grilled cheeses for lunches, kale tacos for snacks, kale salads for dinners, I’m definitely going to get sick of it really soon but for now I’m riding it out and feeling excellent. The Adventures of Kalegirl and Eggboy!! Also, World Championship Ice Skating is on! Which is great, obviously, but did you also hear about the 13-year-old Russian figure skater in Junior Worlds who became the first female to land two quads in a program in competition??? Bonkers! The future is now! Additionally, I’ve gotten into so many awesome books recently, like Alon Shaya’s new cookbook, Jessica Merchant’s new cookbook, Stephanie Izard's Gather and Graze, and Call Me By Your Name, so if there was a sunny side of the street to be walking on right now, and if I actually walked anywhere, I'd be there. That's what's going on in my world!

But enough about kale and books, let’s talk about sprinkles. I feel a little funny that I’ve never funfetti’d macaroons before. I don’t know why it took this long but the other day a giant box of sprinkles from Beautiful Briny Sea arrived and I immediately felt compelled to fold them into egg whites, condensed milk, and coconut to make the first macaroons of the season. They were so tasty! Crisp on the outside, rich and moist on the inside. And how do you make a tasty thing tastier? Dip it in chocolate. It felt like the right thing to do, and then it felt more right to coat the chocolate with sprinkles. Eggboy said it was too many sprinkles! Can you believe he let those words exit his mouth?! I was stunned. I love the extreme amount of sprinkles because they add a fantastic crunchy quality that you don’t often find on a macaroon. And they’re fun to look at. And sprinkle flavor is good!! These ones are at least. (Use sprinkles you’d want to eat by the spoonful because you’re essentially doing that here.) I used these chocolate sprinkles in the batter and these rainbow sprinkles on the bottom.

All general sprinkle-flavor dessert rules apply here: do not use sanding sugar in the macaroon mixture because the colors will bleed and use clear imitation vanilla for that nostalgic birthday cake flavor that will also keep your batter bright white. As with almost all of the macaroons that I make these days, these are based on Danny Macaroons' delicious basic macaroon recipe. And speaking of macaroons, I wrote a little piece about them for this cool new huge Tablet feature that you should check out, 100 Most Jewish Foods. 

Happy almost Passover!

sprinnkle macaroons

makes 16

ingredients

1 c (283g) sweetened condensed milk (reserve the rest of the can to add to your morning coffee!)

2 tsp clear imitation vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 (14 oz) bag sweetened shredded coconut

2 large egg whites

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 c (48g) rainbow sprinkles, plus about 1/3 c (63g) more for topping and dipping

3 oz (85g) chocolate (any kind!)

clues

preheat oven to 350ºf. line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

in a large bowl, combine the condensed milk, vanilla, and almond extract. mix in the coconut and set aside.

in a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form. 

fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture and then gently fold in the 1/4 cup of sprinkles. spoon lightly packed 2" balls of the mixture onto the baking sheets, 1" apart and sprinkle the tops with more sprinkles.

bake until golden brown; begin checking for doneness at 18 minutes. remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes on the pans. transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

place the remaining 1/3 cup of sprinkles in a shallow dish. melt the chocolate in a microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each, or in a saucepan over low heat, stirring often. dip the bottoms of the macaroons in the chocolate, scrape off any excess, and then dip the chocolate in the sprinkles. place back on the parchment paper and let cool at room temp or in the fridge. enjoy!

these can be kept at room temperature for about 3 days or in the fridge for up to a week.

farmhouse party quesadillas

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To know Eggboy is to know that, when left to his own accord, lunchtime means dumping a can of beans into a bowl and topping it with raw walnuts and dinnertime means going across the street to eat Eggmom’s salmon and roasted vegetables. In the past year or so he’s started salting his beans so that’s a step up. I used to feel guilty when I’d go out of town without leaving a lasagna in the freezer but I’ve witnessed him do the beans for lunch thing enough times even when there is a perfectly good leftover soup in the fridge that I think he actually just… likes it? He’s the first person I’ve ever really gotten to know who basically just eats to survive and doesn’t seek out the best bakeries wherever he travels. And yeah, aside from the occasional egg and my annual birthday cake, he doesn’t really cook! At all. I’ve never had an issue with it because he is a great dishes doer and also I like cooking haha. 

So imagine my surprise when he took up a tortilla making hobby! Last fall I returned home from a trip to find a baggie of really adorable amoeba shaped tortillas that were doughy and delicious. They were slightly thicker than the tortillas that we buy at the store and super dense. I thought it was a one off thing that he did while I was away but then there were multiple nights when I’d be standing at the stove stirring a pot of something and I’d turn around to find him kneading tortilla dough. It was so fun!!! I’d made Turkish Yufka before, which is super similar, and a few of our friends once had us over for tacos with homemade tortillas, but this was the first time we’d made tortillas at home and I can’t believe it took us this long. They are soo good. So for Chrismukkah I got him a few tortilla themed goodies like a server, a press, and a few taco holders to up our taco Tuesday game and we can never go back to store bought tortillas now. 

We always make a big batch to have some leftover, and when it’s lunchtime and we have leftover tortillas I usually make quesadillas. Quesadillas were the best already but when you throw in two thick doughy homemade tortillas, it is like, game over, it does not get much better. For the topping, I like to clean out the fridge of whatever vegetables we have on hand and pile them on top for a colorful fork and knife situation that is a total party. I usually start with a layer of something creamy, like yogurt or sour cream, and add some avocado, pickled onions, fresh herbs, chopped peppers, maybe some greens, a squeeze of lemon or lime, hot sauce, etc., etc., and when the tomatoes come back there will be those too. Inside the quesadilla, I have been using Cabot’s Farmhouse Cheddar which has a delicious sharpness that shines through brightly from under this bed of toppings. And it’s called Farmhouse! And Eggboy is a farmer! So it all checks out and I’m running with it! 

Note: lard is traditionally used in tortillas but we don’t typically have that on hand so we usually use canola or olive oil. I kinda wanna try schmaltz in a tortilla though?? Don’t tell Macaroni. 

Farmhouse Party Quesadillas

Makes 4

Ingredients

Tortillas

2 c (254g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp sugar

3/4 c water

1/4 c flavorless oil or olive oil, plus more for cooking the quesadillas

 

Filling and Topping

6 oz cheese Cabot Farmhouse Cheddar, shredded

Plain Greek yogurt or sour cream

sliced onions, pickled or raw

Sliced avocados 

Sliced Radishes

Fresh herbs

Fresh greens

Other chopped veggies, as desired

Lemon or lime wedges

Hot sauce

Kosher salt

Black pepper

Clues

To make the tortillas, combine the flour, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Mix in the water and oil and stir to form a dough. Turn it out onto a surface and knead for 5-7 minutes to form a smooth, slightly sticky dough, adding more flour if needed. Cover it with plastic wrap or a towel and let it rest for 30 minutes. (Full disclosure, when we’re hungry we skip this step. But letting the dough rest does make it easier to roll these out.) Heat a dry skillet over medium heat. Divide the dough into 8 equal parts and roll them out until they’re really thin, keeping the dough balls covered until you roll them out. I like a 1/16” or 1/8” thickness but wouldn’t turn down a 3/16” thick one. Cook them in the skillet on both sides until they’re just starting to show some brown spots. Keep in mind that they’ll cook more when you’re making your quesadillas so don’t be afraid to keep them on the undercooked side. Immediately transfer cooked tortillas to a large ziploc bag, stacking them up, and keeping the bag mostly closed while you finish cooking the rest. This will steam them and make them nice and soft.

To make the quesadillas, keep your skillet hot but add a thin layer of oil. Top 4 of the tortillas with the cheese, distributing it evenly, and top them with the remaining tortillas. Cook on both sides until they’re splotchy and golden and the cheese is melted. Top with a blob of yogurt or sour cream, any and all veggies and herbs as desired, a squeeze of lemon or lime, a few shakes of hot sauce, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Enjoy! 

Any unused tortillas can be stored in a ziploc bag in the fridge!

thank you, cabot, for sponsoring this post! 

-yeh!! 

photos by chantell and brett!

yogurt queso with cilantro cream

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If I had a hot tub the first thing I’d fill it with would be rainbow sprinkles so I could reenact all of those Instagrams that people take at the ice cream museum. When that gets sticky and buggy the second thing I’d fill my hot tub with would be queso and then I’d throw a B.Y.O. chips party for all of my friends. Imagine sitting around a bonfire but instead of a fire in the middle it’s a hot tub of queso, that would be the life. Now imagine that the queso is just slightly healthier, almost enough so that you could maybe actually eat a whole hot tub of it by yourself and you don’t actually need to share it with your friends. That’s yogurt queso! It's really inauthentic and I got afraid to post this after reading the truth about queso, so this is really a queso-inspired yogurty cheesy dip (I hate the word "dip" for some reason???) but it's tasty! And a little tangy from the yogurt and I love eating it with the extremely thick and salty and sometimes even chewy potato chips from the deli section of Hugo's, our nearest grocery store. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ 

Yogurt Queso with Cilantro Cream

serves 6-8

Ingredients

2 tb unsalted butter

1/2 small purple onion, finely chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped, plus more for serving

1/2 jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped

Kosher salt

1/4 c (32g) all-purpose flour

1 c (240g) whole milk

4 oz jack cheese, shredded

1 c (225g) greek yogurt (whole, 2%, or fat free), divided

1/4 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

Black pepper

1/4 bunch cilantro, finely chopped, plus more for serving

Clues

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, jalapeño, and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring, until soft, about 7-10 minutes. Stir in the flour and continue cooking for another minute. Add the milk and cook, stirring, until the mixture is thick and coats the back of a spoon. Add the cheese, stirring until melted, and then add 2/3 cup yogurt, the cayenne, crushed red pepper, a few turns of pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. To make the cilantro cream, mix the cilantro with the remaining 1/3 cup yogurt and a pinch of salt and a few turns of pepper. Serve the queso warm with the cilantro cream dolloped in the center. Top with additional fresh cilantro, chopped bell pepper, black pepper, and a sprinkle of cayenne.

This recipe was cut from Short Stack Yogurt. Preorder it now! 

salt & vinegar knishentaschen

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It’s like the last day of camp, I can’t believe that the Olympics are over :( It’s so sad. I made a list of things to look forward to now so I wouldn’t be tempted to just be a sad couch blob who does nothing but eat dry granola and watch slow motion replays of Jocelyne Lamoureux’s game winning goal over and over while I get nostalgic and cry. (But seriously, if you have the NBC Sports app, go look up their epic slow motion videos, they’re so cool.) Ok, here’s my list of things to look forward to:

Mackenzie’s Baby Shower! Emily and I are throwing Mackenzie a brunchy baby shower next weekend and there’s gonna be so much cute shit like fruit skewers and tiny smoothies and Eggboy’s building a bagel wall for it. You know, like a donut wall, but it will hold bagels.

Eggboy’s Trombone Concert! He’s playing in the town trombone choir for the premiere of a piece by Eric Ewazen, who was both of our music theory teachers at one point. IDK if he’ll remember us but we definitely remember him and his Jell-O impressions. I wanted to make him a Jell-O salad but Eggboy said no because Eggboy is no fun. 

~Whistler~ I’m busily getting all of my ducks in a row for my Passover cooking demos at Pesach on the Mountain, and also trying to put together some fun skiing lewks so that when I suck at skiing, I’ll at least look stylish. 

World Ice Skating Championships! Haha! You didn’t think that ice skating was over for the season right???? I’m looking forward to a Nathan Chen short program repeat of his Skate America magic, and just being able to watch Papadakis and Cizeron again. 

Yogurt Book Launch! In the last week we’ve gone from planning one local event to three! Two of them are in Fargo, one is yoga related (because who else occasionally calls yoga “yogurt?”) and all three are going to be so much fun. Keep an eye out on my events page for details.

Purim!!! I love a good Purim celebration and also I love Hamantaschen because they are like dumpling cookies and just so darn pretty. And I love seeing all of your sprinkletaschen this year!!! Keep the pics coming, please.

This year I have gone savory!!! And combined my Hamantaschen with a Knish to make a Knishentaschen. I mainly just wanted an excuse to make knishes because it’s been too long since I strolled the Upper West Side eating a Zabar’s sweet potato knish and I couldn’t stop looking at these Zak the Baker beauties on Instagram. And with both a knish and a hamantasch being filled baked goodies, the combination of the two was inevitable, right??

In my knish dough research, I came across a super easy dough in The Gefilte Manifesto, originally from Mrs. Stahl’s knishery in Brooklyn. Flour, oil, salt, water, essentially the same as the simple and satisfying Amy Thielen-inspired cracker crust pizza dough that we make all the time for Friday pizza. So guess what I did? I doubled the dough, made knishes for lunch and pizza for dinner. 2 in 1 dough, what more could you ask for?

The filling here is salt and vinegar potatoes for an acidic twist on your basic potato knish. Love an acidic twist. If salt and vinegar is not your flavor, first of all, gtfo, but also know that you can forego the vinegar here and still get a mighty tasty mashed potato knish. A heavy pile of parmesan rounds all of this out, but you can definitely switch up the cheese or omit it for a dairy-free option. If you omit, sprinkle some flaky salt or other herbs and seasonings (everything bagel seasoning???) on the outside to give it an extra somethin. The bottom line is, these aren’t rocket science and you can play with these fillings as you see fit, you can even add spinach. In the end you will have a hearty, carby handful of delight with soft potato innards and a chewy satisfying crust. 

And I like these with ketchup. Obviously. 

salt & vinegar knishentaschen

makes 12

dough adapted from mrs. stahl's knishery, by way of the gefilte manifesto

potatoes adapted from epicurious

ingredients

for the dough:

1 3/4 c (224g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

1/4 c (50g) vegetable oil

1/2 c (118g) water

 

for the filling:

1 1/2 lb (680g) russet potatoes, diced (3/4”)

1 c + 2 tb distilled white vinegar

Kosher salt

2 tb (28g) butter or olive oil or vegetable oil

1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced

Black pepper

1 large egg, lightly beaten

4 oz (113g) shredded parmesan

Fresh chopped chives, for topping

Ketchup, optional, for serving

clues

Preheat the oven to 400º. Line two baking sheets with parchment and set them aside.

To make the dough, combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add the oil and water and stir to combine. Turn onto a work surface and knead for 5-7 minutes, dusting with flour as needed, until smooth and slightly sticky. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rest at room temp while you prepare the filling. 

To make the filling, place the potatoes in a large pot with 1 cup of the vinegar and 1 tablespoon salt. Add enough water to cover the potatoes by an inch. Bring to a boil and cook for 30-40 minutes, or until very soft. Drain and pat dry. Meanwhile heat the butter or oil in a skillet over medium heat, add onion and a good pinch of salt, and cook, stirring, until softened and browned. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, onions, additional salt to taste, a bunch of black pepper, and remaining 2 tablespoons vinegar in a bowl and mash coarsely.

On a work surface, divide the dough into 12 balls. Roll them out into 4" circles and brush them with a thin layer of egg. Top with a pile of cheese (leaving some to go on top of the knishes) and a big scoop of potato filling. Fold the edges up and over the filling to form a triangle shape, overlapping the corners and pinching them to seal. Transfer to the baking sheets an inch or so apart, brush the outsides with egg wash, sprinkle with remaining cheese, more black pepper, and a few chives, and bake until lightly golden; begin checking for doneness at 20 minutes.

Let cool slightly and enjoy with ketchup, if desired. Leftovers can be kept in the fridge for a few days and then reheated in the microwave or oven.

-yeh!

P.S.

 

Have you pre-ordered Short Stack Yogurt yet?? Get to it!