Challah is an egg bread that holds deep religious significance in the Jewish faith.

“According to Jewish tradition, the three Sabbath meals (Friday night, Saturday lunch, and Saturday late afternoon) and two holiday meals (one at night and lunch the following day) each begin with two complete loaves of bread.  This “double loaf” commemorates the manna that fell from the heavens when the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years after the Exodus from Egypt. The manna did not fall on the Sabbath or holidays; instead, a double portion would fall the day before the holiday or sabbath.” (excerpt from Wikipeda)

Challah recipes always make enough dough for two loaves. Three important steps to the perfect challah are; three risings instead of the usual two (one of those being a slow-rise in the refrigerator), using two coats of egg wash for a shiny laquer-like crust, and not over-baking.

Challah is delicious used the next day for French toast.  Especially loaves with raisins, or in this case, crasins.  I substituted dried cranberries for the raisins, as my family prefers craisins to raisins. We’ll be enjoying the plain loaf with our Easter dinner on Sunday and the craisin loaf for a French toast breakfast on Easter Monday.

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These buttery rolls are surprisingly light, perfect for soaking up the broth from the lobster bake.

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I made this cornbread to go along with my Two Bean-Two Corn Chorizo and Poblano Chili on our “no poultry” day (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving).  But is equally delicious served with leftover turkey and gravy or with a creamed turkey mixture served over the top.

I even toasted a half slice and had a poached egg on top for breakfast, it is that versatile, so top it with anything you would like.

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I’ve been pulling out and putting up the Halloween decorations these past two days and since we were in Canada last Halloween, the storage boxes were literally buried in the shed. It was a chore to get them out of there… I’ve got the cuts and bruises to prove it.

The motivation was our weather. The last couple of days have been gorgeous; windows are open, air is off, and life is good! Well, at least for now, because it is  going to be 93 degrees on Tuesday, 97 degrees on Wednesday, and 99 on Thursday! What is up with that!?! Ninety-nine degrees on October 13th… that is not right! Not. Right.

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I am completely “committing to the chai” with this French toast. It goes without saying that this is delicious served with the Vanilla Chai Tea Hot Toddy for a perfect fall brunch. Enjoy!

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In case you still have your Arizona Republic newspaper from today (May 23rd), check out page 4 of the D section.  If you don’t get or don’t still have the paper, you can see the same thing at this link from AZCentral.com

We attended a wonderful college graduation party on Saturday for my dear friend Laura’s daughter Megan.  Laura and I have been friends since high school, we were in each others’ weddings, and are godmothers to each others’ children. Laura’s two sisters, Mary and Shawna, are like my sisters, they are my second family, so there was plenty of reminiscing going on all afternoon. One of the many things that came up was food (of course!) and one of those foods was these wonderful little garlic bread balls served at a restaurant at the Venice Pier in Marina Del Rey, California, C & O Trattoria.  They are called “Killer Garlic Balls” for good reason – they are free, brought to the table throughout the meal, and are amazingly addictive.  If you think the endless chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants are bad…

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As promised, here is the fantastic recipe for a traditional Irish Soda Bread, given to me from Sharon Cereska. The recipe writer in me couldn’t help but rewrite it a little bit, but I only changed one actual ingredient from the original recipe, and that was using unsalted butter instead of margarine. I don’t use or buy margarine, sorry, can’t help being a foodie snob about that one! My reworded recipe is first and Sharon’s original family recipe is below. But first, here is what Sharon wrote to me when she sent the recipe, accompanied by a lovely treasured family photo of hers.  Thank you Sharon for sharing with me and everyone out there in the blog-a-sphere.

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You know that saying, right? It means you measure any wood you are working with twice to make absolutely sure that your measurement is correct because you only get the one chance to cut it right. That is how I feel about greasing a pan when baking. I am not a huge fan of baking or making desserts. Too many things can go wrong, at least for me they seem to. So the one thing I try to get right is to get the dessert out of the pan in one piece.  Easier than it sounds, unless you use parchment paper. Whenever I make a cake or quick breads, I always (even when I forget to put it in down on a recipe) grease the pan, line the bottom of the pan with parchment, and then grease the parchment. Works every time, as you’ll see in the pictures below.

I’ll be on Channel 12 NBC Valley Dish live today at 3:30, making a wonderful winter salad, in case you want to watch. I’ll post a link to the taped show along with the salad recipe tomorrow. AND… a very happy birthday to my sweet Jennifer! I adore you! xoxo

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Turkey-Day is only 7 days away!!! Complete Thanksgiving Planning Guide and Timeline.

Shhh, don’t tell my family, but I am going to make different rolls this Thanksgiving. This is a big deal!  There will be whining, complaining, moaning, crying, and even a possible revolt, but I’m still going to do it! Our traditional roll is the absolutely delicious and addictive James Beard Potato Bread Rolls that I made each year. The thing is, I also make these rolls only a short 4 weeks later for Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas day dinner, and use the same dough for my killer Cinnamon-Pecan Rolls on Christmas morning. So… these people, who I have to feed every single day, (sometimes up to 3 times a day!) can try something different on Thanksgiving this year! That something different will be cloverleaf rolls.

Cloverleaf rolls sometimes have tiny crosses marked on each of the three sections, referencing the Holy Trinity, which in Ireland is often compared to the clover. I’ll save that little embellishment for Easter. You may also dip the balls in melted butter after forming and before placing in the muffin cups, that makes for one very rich roll!  Another option is to brush the tops of the rolls (after rising in the muffin tins) with and egg wash or melted butter and then sprinkle the tops of the rolls with sesame, poppy, or mixed seeds. Do so if you wish.

The composed butter that accompanies the rolls calls for pomegranate molasses, which I’ve posted about before and you can get the recipe for by CLICKING HERE. You can make a full 1 cup recipe or reduce it by two-thirds, which will produce exactly 1/3 cup, as called for.  And finally, I’ve added a pumpkin variation for this recipe, just in case, you too, want to mix things up next week. That and the measurements for a scaled down amount of pomegranate molasses are found at the bottom of this post.

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I am trying to avoid the aroma that is currently flowing from my kitchen and filling the entire house… baked sweetness. So instead I shall write about something else that may not seem so sweet at first, but truly is… compost.

Some thirteen or fourteen years ago I began composting. I would love to say that I am an avid composter, but honestly I’m more of a sporadic composter. It all began when I spotted an article in the newspaper stating that the City of Phoenix was recycling old worn out trash cans into compost bins and all you needed to do was call and they would gladly deliver one to your home … free! I was into gardening so the idea of composting appealed to me and the word “free” – of course, was all it took. The next day a city truck arrived and dropped of my new bin. What they had done was cut off the bottom of the large rubber trash can, cut large holes all around the sides of the can, and taken off the hinged lid, leaving an opening where the hinge had been – voila, a compost bin was born.

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