Happy Hannukah!

I've been enjoying these first few nights of hannukah, and I decided to make some hannukah cookies in honor of the holiday! Wohoo! My roommate gave me some cute cookie cuters shaped like menorahs, dreidels and stars of david so I've been wanting to use them. I looked around for some good cookie recipes, but then I thought, why not make corjiki!! (aka, my grandmother's russian sugar cookies). Now when I was growing up my mother never baked anything like chocolate chip cookies (or chocochip cookies as my mom likes to call them). Instead what we got a lot of were these crispy sugar cookies, which we call corjiki, which come from a recipe my grandmother used to make in Ukraine. Now these are nothing like those anemic pale sugar cookies you find in american stores. These are baked untl they are golden, have a nice crunch to them, and a slight tang from the sour cream used.

I generally avoid asking my mom for recipes. She's a great cook but she doesn't really write down any of her recipes so when she tells me them she generally gives me approximations or tells me to do things by sight (add half a handful of flour, or as much as it looks like you'll need ?!?!)

Anyways here is the basic recipe as she tried to give it to me:


3 egg yolks


3 tablespoons sour cream

1 cup sugar

3 sticks margarine (softened)

½ tsp baking soda & vinegar

2 cups flour (or more)



Mix the yolks & sour cream. In a bowl add the sugar and the flour. Make a small well in the flour and add the baking soda and vinegar. Add yolk/cream mix to flour and mix. Add sthe softened margarine. Add flour to reach dough that is of a soft consistency.

I followed the recipe as she gave it to me but found that my dough was wayyy too soft. I ended up adding a lot more flour, probably 3/4 of a cup.

And of course she didn't give me an exact temperature to bake these at (between 300-350?!) or how long they should be baked (until they look ready). So I decided to go for 350 degrees for about 20 min. Here are my cookies before going into the oven. Look pretty good, huh?

Well here are the cookies after being in the oven for 5 min:

Um, yeah so they just sort of melted and lost their shape. I ended up baking them for 20 min and took them out. They were really soft, so I let them cool and set for a bit. I don't really know why they didn't keep their shape, but my mom never used cookie cutter shapes, she just made them into circles using a glass. They tasted just like I remembered though! And I took the left overs to work where everyone ate them up, and didn't even know any better.

Snow Day

It snowed for the first time this winter this weekend! I decided it was a good weekend to stay in, especially since I have to work on my finals...meh. I got some studying done, and a lot of cooking/ baking! I made the chicken bruschetta from Kosher by design. I'm becoming really obsessed with this book... I also made the apricot squares from my Passion for Baking book, which were really yummy.

Chicken Bruschetta:

Apricot Squares:

I was really on a roll so I also made some egg rolls to take to work with me for lunch since I have no lunch stuff at home. They're really easy to make and pretty tasty! I used a min food processor that I use for grinding meat for this recipe, but you can also just shred some cooked chicken. You can also substitute tofu for the chicken. I bought my egg roll wrappers at WholeFoods, and I baked my egg rolls instead of frying for a healthier alternative.


Chinese Egg Rolls:
1 chicken bread, ground
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove minced
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
2 tbs cooking oil
1/2 bag packaged coleslaw (I used 1/2 of a 14 ounce bag)
1 bag bean sprouts (about 6 ounces)
4 tbs teriyaki sauce
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs sesame oil
12-15 egg roll wrappers

-Saute the chicken, garlic, scallions, and ginger in the oil until chicken is cooked through
-Add the coleslaw and bean sprouts and saute for 2 minutes
-Add the teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Saute for 5 more minutes
-Remove the chicken and cabbage mixture from heat. Wrap about 3-4 tbs of the chicken mixture in egg roll wrappers
-Spray the rolls lightly on both sides with nonstick cooking spray. Place on baking sheet and bake at 350 for ~10-15 min, turning halfway through.

Winter Blues

I've been sick for the past week and feeling pretty miserable. My throat is pretty sore so I've basically been eating soup everyday. I haven't really been in the mood to do anything, let alone cook, but I managed to throw together this 'three sisters' soup with stuff I had around the house. It was pretty easy to make and soothing for my throat.

I just chopped up a red onion and two celery stalks and then sauted them in oil for 5 min. Then I threw in 2 cups of diced butternut squash that I already had, added a can of corn, can of diced tomatoes, and some frozen edamame. For seasoning I used 1/2 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1 tsp garlic powder, and my secret ingredient: 2 tsps of Tabasco (adds a nice kick)! Add 3 cups of chicken broth, simmer for ~20 min, and voila!

Three sisters soup (based on recipe from kosher by design) with homemade wheat bread:

Thanksgivings past

I was going through some old pictures and I found some from Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. I was back home for the first time in 4 months after being in grad school full time, and I went all out with the baking! I made some sort of fruit pastry tart (probably requested by my mom) and a chocolate hazelnut torte.


Chocolate Hazelnut Torte:

Fruit Pastry Tart: