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Thanksgiving 2018

It’s hard to believe it’s November already and nearing Thanksgiving and then before we know it, it’s Christmas and then 2018! Is it just me or does time just seem to fly by? Here we are in November and it’s time to think about our Thanksgiving menus and that’s what I am doing now . I always set out to make some new recipes but my family is pretty fussy about expecting the same dishes on our table. It’s tradition and why screw with tradition.

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Fully Baked Cremini Pumpkin

So here we go again with my Thanksgiving recipes –for those of you who have tried them and love them please let me know and if anyone out there has some new great recipes I would love to hear about them.

Enjoy the prep and enjoy the holidays and mostly enjoy your families. Holidays can be tough on all of us but relax and enjoy! I am all for cooking some side dishes ahead and using hot trays to keep my food warm. Since it’s virtually impossible to cook everything and serve it hot you have to employ the use of a few tricks of the trade here. When possible serve some side dishes at room temperature. Use hot trays available on amazon and bed and bath. Make your life easier not more difficult. Cranberry can and should be made ahead as well as sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes. Stuffing can be made a day or two ahead and you can re-heat it later, uncovered , and drizzled with a little turkey stock or actual drippings from the turkey pan ( my Grandmother used this trick all the time).Make your salad dressing a day or two ahead as well as any roasted nuts etc. Just get as much together as you possibly can to make your life easier. That’s what it’s all about. I always set my table the day or night before and get out all your serving pieces , platters etc.

Also don’t let guests bring food that has to be prepared at your house, they have to bring food that is ready to go. That means it’s not ice cold , that means no whipping cream at my house , that also means if you’re bringing fruit salad make sure it’s already cut up before you get here and that means ready to go–on the hot tray but not in my oven!!!! I am all for help with the side dishes but not at the expense of having to use my kitchen! This is my golden rule.

Keep in touch with me –I love to hear your feedback and recommendations etc.

Wishing you happy cooking and happy holidays from my kitchen to yours. Remember be grateful not hateful and Gratitude not Attitude!

These are some of the recipes you may want to look at: I will be posting them one at a time.

Corn Bread Pudding

Butternut Squash Soup 

Sweet and Spicy Mixed Nuts

Kale and Brussels Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Pumpkin Lentil Soup

Pumpkin Walnut Bread and Hurricane Sandy Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

Cremini Mushroom Pumpkin Lasagna 

Pumpkin Penne Bake

Stuffing that will be on our Table or Cranberry Walnut Stuffing

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Candied Yam Souffle

Easy Peasy Marshmallow Sweet Potatoes

 Aunt Pammy’s Chipotle Sweet Potatoes

Fresh Cranberry Sauce, Karyn’s Famous Thanksgiving Cranberry Crisp and Joy’s Cranberry Sauce

Michele’s White Chocolate Jumbo Macadamia Cookies

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Apple Crisp

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Pumpkin Penne Bake

 

 

 

Pumpkin Lentil Soup (can be vegetarian)

Continuing on with more delicious soups for the Fall Season. Here is one of my family’s favorites.

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It’s Fall and that means it’s time to cook up some heart-warming soups! Pumpkin Lentil Soup is a delicious, hearty soup that you and your family will love.

This recipe has been around my family for a while. A friend gave it to me a while back, and I make it every fall.  Just because it’s fall and it’s pumpkin and this soup can wind up on my Thanksgiving Table if I don’t make my Butternut Squash Soup.   It’s hard to get canned pumpkin any other time of year, so I take advantage of it now and pick up a few extra cans and try to make it throughout the winter. Warm, hearty and pretty healthy. And what’s a little butter between friends? I actually lost this recipe, but luckily my friend Marcy still had it, so thanks Marcy! It’s good to share with friends, and now all my recipes will be posted on my blog…

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Creamy Butternut Squash Soup (no cream)

I just have to re-blog this incredibly delicious soup which is one of my family’s favorite soups. It’s that soup time of year! Enjoy!

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I decided to re-post this amazing soup as it is one of my most favorite recipes and one of my most popular recipes. So very easy to make with pre-cut butternut squash readily available almost everywhere now. If you’d like a little different flavor you can roast the squash first.

It’s definitely fall and my first soup of the season  is almost always butternut squash soup. I’ve simplified the recipe along the way so that now it is just the way Joel and I like it. it’s pretty easy as long as you buy the squash pre – cut (available in every supermarket, and corner produce store). I just made my first batch of the season, and the squash is sweet and delicious. I always add a little butter to it, but you can totally leave it out. It tastes so creamy you’ll swear there’s cream in it, but really, there is none.  I love a little…

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Easy Chicken Soup with Orzo and Lemon

I am re-blogging this post from October 2015. It is one of the easiest best soup/meals ever. Super Delicious as well. Enjoy!

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photo 4 (24)photo 5 (27)photo 2 (33)I literally started this soup at 5 p.m. and app. one hour later I was eating it.  Now that’s always a good thing in my book. Usually I slow cook my broth etc. and it takes hours ( Homemade Chicken Soup ) but this time there was no time, I wasn’t feeling great and wanted that homemade flavor without all the work . You can certainly cook your own chicken if it works out for you time wise. This would also be perfect with leftover chicken. I bought a rotisserie chicken and this is what I did. For those of you who saw it on Instagram and Facebook–this one’s for you. One more little thing, the fresh dill is the secret ingredient and gives it that wonderful layer of flavor, don’t skip it. I also squeezed fresh lemon into each bowl of soup , this added yet another wonderful layer of flavor to…

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Mushroom Barley – Side Dish

cookingwithcandioct7 003this is an old recipe of mine that I’ve played around with and made last night for this evening. it came out delicious. it makes a perfect side dish anytime of the year. not too difficult to make , takes a little playing around but pretty easy . i used Manischewitz egg noodles in a toasted barley shape this time. you can use pearl barley which is available in almost every supermarket out there. i have to say this product worked very well. Not exactly Mushroom and Barley?? but barley shape

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1  3/4 cup Pearl Barley or any kind you can find ( I used Manischewitz egg noodles in a toasted barley shape) it doesn’t have to be toasted it can just be regular barley shape noodles. I love to use this product , it’s usually found in kosher section.

1 lb. fresh mushrooms sliced

1/2 spanish onion chopped

2 – 3 cups chicken stock

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Kosher Salt

Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Directions:

i use a very little bit of vegetable oil ( maybe 1 tablespoon) and saute onions, then mushrooms till cooked down. i salt and pepper generously here. i remove the mushroom/onion mixture from saute pan, wipe the pan clean with a paper towel . melt butter or margarine in pan, brown the barley for about 4 – 5 minutes, move it around as you brown it. in the meantime transfer mushroom/ onion mixture to a 9 x 13 baking dish (spray with pam) when barley is browned place in dish with mushrooms and onions and mix well. add 2 cups of chicken broth. cover with aluminum foil, and bake in oven covered at 350 degrees for app. 45 minutes. remove from oven, and add a little broth, depending on how dry it is, i would say i added about 1/2 cup , you may need to add more, add the 1/2 cup and mix well and see if you need more, not too watery, keep it dryer. cover, and i put it back in oven for 10 to 15 minutes. taste for salt and pepper. and there it is. very delicious.

Un-Stuffed Cabbage

I guess it’s time to start posting my recipes for Rosh Hashana . Time to think about what we’re going to be making for the Jewish New Year. This is a wonderful addition to your holiday table. Happy New Year and Happy Cooking.

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photo 3 (4)photo 2 (2)photo 3 (4)photo 3 (5)photo 4 (3)photo 2I love stuffed cabbage and my Grandmother made the most amazing stuffed cabbage ever . I love stuffed cabbage but do not feel like dealing with the actual stuffing of the cabbage, it is way too labor intensive for me.  I have made several variations of this and found this one to my liking the best. You can play with the ingredients which is what I did . Original recipe is from Kosher by Design and it is perfect for Passover by just leaving out the rice and substituting matzoh meal in its place. Basically this is meatballs in a sweet and sour sauce with cabbage . I doubt very much that Joel would ever eat real “stuffed cabbage” but he liked this. The cabbage cooks down so much that you don’t even realize you’re eating cabbage. I also used 1/2 chicken ground meat and 1/2 beef ground meat , this is entirely up to…

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Recipes for Jewish New Year–Rosh Hashana 2018

Finished Product Apple Cake

Finished Product Apple Cake

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Un-Stuffed Cabbage

DSCN2648DSCN4230DSCN2642DSCN4225DSCN4234photo (2)DSCN4230Summer is the most easy-going time of the year and then along comes the Jewish holidays right on the heels of Labor Day and just like that it is over. Kids are back to school and we’re cooking dinner again and preparing meals. Before you know it,  it’s Thanksgiving! Oh well here we go again, for those of you who have been reading my blog you may have made a lot of these recipes and welcome aboard to the new readers.  I am sort of a traditionalist when it comes to holidays and my family always looks forward to the same things. If I introduce a new recipe it’s always hold your breath time and what was wrong with the old one looks on everyone’s face.  Final decisions haven’t been made but I know that there are some things I’d never leave out. Here is a list of suggestions and by all means cruise through my blog and see if there is anything else to your liking. These are just a list of suggestions. I will be posting a few new ones this week, so be on the lookout. Rosh Hashana recipes are tagged Rosh Hashana if you are trying to look them up on my blog. I may sneak in a recipe or two this week if I can get in the time. So sad summer is over but it’s time to move on .

For those who celebrate have a very Happy Healthy New Year! Shanah Tovah!!

Homemade Chicken Soup with not so Homemade Matzo Balls ( even though this is for Passover we eat it a lot on Rosh Hashana)

Happy New Year Brisket

Unstuffed Cabbage–a great alternative to meatballs

Chicken Marbella

Honey Roasted Chicken

Old School Meatballs

A Noodle Pudding from Ellen

Another Noodle Pudding from Marcy *kosher non dairy

Noodle Pudding with Apricot Nectar–probably one of the all time best kugels ever

Noodle Pudding from Julie

Mushroom Barley

Kasha Varnishkes

Grandma Millie’s Cauliflower

Applesauce and Raisin Cake

Don’t let the Apples go Bad Cake

Julie’s Honey Cake

Plum Torte

My farewell to Norah Ephron- her Tzimmes

Summer Peach Salad with Tomatoes and Mozzarella

It’s Labor Day Weekend and this signals the end of the summer. Let’s enjoy this delicious salad as we enjoy the last weekend of the summer! Be safe and be happy ! And Keep on Cooking with Candi!

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It’s the end of the Summer and the Palisade Peaches are here in Colorado along with the most beautiful heirloom tomatoes. It’s a no-brainer salad going on here made with the freshest of ingredients. Fresh Mozzarella is readily available almost everywhere now and grab some fresh basil while you’re at it. This salad worked out well with a few easy ingredients and it packed some super delicious flavor. Hurry to your farmers market or produce store to grab some of these beauties before they’re gone .

*this recipe is for 2-4 but can easily be doubled for more

Ingredients:

1 pint of cherry tomatoes ( I grabbed some heirloom cherry tomatoes)

1 large peach or 2 small (Palisade Peaches here in Colorado have been amazing)

4 ounces fresh mozzarella

1 shallot

some fresh basil–throw in about 8 pieces and add more or less depending on your own particular taste

1 1/2…

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Cauliflower, Orzo and Feta Salad

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IMG_0858 Completed Salad

IMG_0854 Before I added the spinach

I just purchased Chrissy Teigen’s new cookbook “Cravings” and I was super impressed by the book and her recipes. I have to admit I follow her adventures in cooking and life on her Instagram account so when I saw the book was coming out I wanted to buy it. It has some amazingly delicious recipes in it and this one jumped out at me and begged to be made. It was totally delicious and I have made it numerous times now.  So thanks to Chrissy Teigen for this recipe and check out her cookbook,  it’s very worthwhile.

I made cauliflower and orzo in the morning and put together ingredients as they cooled down. The cooling off of orzo and cauliflower was the only time-consuming event in making this recipe. You can refrigerate salad once cooled down, but I would bring it to room temperature prior to serving.

This…

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7-UP Bundt Cake

Amazingly Delicious Bundt Cake made with 7UP Soda!!!

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IMG_7176IMG_7179IMG_7183IMG_7238IMG_7237IMG_7234IMG_7222Now you have to wonder how a cake like this ever get discovered in the first place? Baking with actual drinking soda sounds both disgusting and intriguing but I was up for the task. I promise you it was delicious. IMG_0563IMG_0561  I gave up drinking soda a few years ago and now I’m going to put it in a cake? But that’s exactly what I did. I had to wonder how a cake like this came to be,  was someone drinking 7-UP and spilled 3/4 of a cup in by accident? OMG it’s a lot to think about it but all I can say is WOW! I did a little research on the recipes and there are quite a few out there, most of these “soda” cakes seem to hail from the South.  Baking is a little tricky up here at high altitude but it went well. Bundt cakes make you look like…

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