Rosh Hashana Recipes

apples on the ground at a farm in New Jersey
Last week we visited a farm and bought way too many apples. So anyone have any good apple recipe ideas? I’ve already made apple cake (I skipped the nuts), and I plan to make apple pie. I cooked some apples with raspberries for my daughter last week when she wasn’t feeling well (no added sugar – I’ve been convincing her sugar is no good for the healing process).

Cooking Out of the Box hosted Kosher Cooking Carnival – the Holidays are Coming. Some links are Rosh Hashana recipes. I’m drawn to Hannah’s Rosh Hashanah Tips and Recipes, and I see one for stuffed cabbage. Maybe for Sukkot.

Here’s a link to Flamingo Musings’ brisket. She soaks hers in coffee. I’ve done wine in the past. My kids don’t like when I use a lot of cloves. Hers has no cloves. It does have garlic cloves. That would work for them.

I’m planning to make a Moroccan carrot salad – the kind where you steam the carrots briefly, then add the spices and bits of parsley at the end. My middle son said he is mostly likely to eat the simanim for carrots if the carrots are cooked, so I’ll leave some unspiced in the hopes our children will join us for this one.

I saw a recipe for quinoa salad among Rosh Hashana recipes in a local paper – it had pomegranate seeds and nuts. I will skip the nuts, as it is our family custom not to eat nuts on Rosh Hashana. Do you eschew nuts for this holiday, or are you like some of my friends who poo poo this custom as superstition or plain false?

Zucchini (or squash or gourds) are one of the simanim. Ordinarily, I would cook the zucchini (we have some new baby zucchini growing in front of our house, just in time for the holiday) with onions, but it seems more appropriate to skip the onions for the simanim dish. I will add some spices to some sauteed zucchini. No point in trying to get my kids to eat zucchini unless disguised in a cake.

More side dish ideas: as a friend who is a vegetarian will come one of the days (when I am serving meat), I will consider making kasha with mushrooms and onions. Maybe potato salad, too – that could be a side dish at any meal.

Honey cake seems like a natural for this holiday. I printed Ilana-Davita’s honey cake and Jewaicious Honey Cake.

Finally, I might try Mrs. S.’s blondies. At first, I was tempted in my mind to add blueberries (before carefully reading the recipe and realizing this would be a vulgar addition). But as this is really for my kids, chocolate chips will remain the only flavoring.

So, what’s cooking at your house?

Review with Many Mums

mums with pink buds
Mums with pink buds at a farm in New Jersey

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

Nature Notes: Stream Wildflowers

wild flower with bee
On Sunday we visited Lee Turkey Farm in East Windsor, New Jersey. Across from the farm is a stream, and some lovely wildflowers were growing. The yellow wildflower above seemed to attract bees.

orange yellow wildflower
This droopy pale orange flower added a wispy look to the scene.

green pads in the stream
These green, round leaves were growing in the stream, but I didn’t see any lilies.

honeysuckle
This white flower seems to be a kind of honeysuckle.

fairy aster
Would this little daisy-like flower be a fairy aster?

For more Nature Notes:
Nature Notes

Creamy Chickpea Soup

chickpea soup
This chickpea soup can warm your soul, whether it’s summer and served cold or fall and served warm. I got the recipe from the Macrobiotic Recipes page on Facebook. The original author is Montse Bradford, and I added amounts and tweaked the recipe a bit.

INGREDIENTS

  • chickpeas – 8 oz.
  • kombu (or a little bit of any kind of seaweed)
  • 1 large carrot
  • 1 onion
  • 1 stalk celery
  • garlic – 1 clove
  • 1 tsp. olive oil
  • 1 tsp. miso

Garnish (optional): cucumber, bread croutons, parsley, spring onions.

How to Make the Chickpea Soup

Soak chickpeas overnight with plenty of cold water. Discard soaking water. Place chickpeas in a pressure cooker or a crock pot with the kombu and water completely covering the beans. Bring to a boil, discard any loose skins or foam that arises to the surface. Cook until till soft.

Saute separately some finely diced onion and minced garlic with some olive oil for 10 minutes. Add diced carrots and celery to the onion. Let it cook for 5 minutes, then add it to the chickpeas. Simmer for 15 minutes. Put the soup in the food processor (or use a stick blender) and blend for a short time, so it’s a bit chunky. Season to taste with some miso. Make sure to add the miso when it’s still warm – the miso will blend better with the soup. You can serve this chickpea soup cold or warm.

I garnished my soup with scallions.

Niagara Falls Sunrise

niagara falls sunrise
Niagara Falls at sunrise: it is the last round of Summer Stock Sunday for the season, so I’m adding one of my favorite photos of the summer. This shows the Horseshoe Falls, photo taken from the Canadian side. You can see more water photos of Niagara Falls and some nature photos, too.

We are going apple picking later today – maybe I’ll get some nice photos to share from our trip.

What was your favorite part of this summer?

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