A Different Kind Of Easter

This Easter will be different. Yet maybe a cozy holiday in is what we need. It's not quite the same with the restaurant brunches or big family gatherings. It will do.

We can still have Easter ham with plenty left over. Hopefully everyone has their roasts and sides picked out. Baked beans are one great one. If you haven't bought a can you can still create you own. Just use onion powder, tomato sauce and three sweeteners, brown sugar, maple syrup and molasses, Apple cider vinegar and dried mustard are added for tang along with a splash of apple juice. It's then soaking and boiling the beans. Meanwhile, you can fry up the bacon and then add all the other ingredients. Many have potato salad with their Easter hams. A quick recipe involves boiled ones cooled and sliced. Add a good dollop of mayo and chopped celery (if you don't have it, then use celery salt) along with hard boiled eggs- which you should have.

Easter is a time of sweets, For a fun indoor/outdoor Easter egg hunt put chocolate eggs in the plastic ones. Another idea is creating cupcakes with clues in the frosting. Draw arrows or little pictograms in the icing. Since the kids are in a nd looking for activities , think about a frosting bar. Bake the cupcakes tonight and make a buttercream or chocolate butter cream as the first layer. Have jellybeans or  smaller bowls of colored frostings to create dots and stripes. It's a nice way to pass an afternoon. You could even have a contest for creating the most decorative or the one that looks the most like an Easter egg. Another fun Easter night treat is an Easter candy sundae. Layer whatever ice cream you have with jellybeans or any chocolate eggs. The last can be split in half for easier eating. Easter cookies can be turned into ice cream sandwiches.it's just putting a small scoop on one cookie, then topping it with another.

Easter will be different this year. Celebrate with traditional dishes and fun treats. Make the day memorable with favorite flavors and foods.

A Thoughtful Good Friday

This Good Friday is one where we are all thoughtful and prayerful. Our minds and hearts along with our souls  are with those who are sick with the Covid-19 virus along with those with other illnesses. Our thoughts and prayers are also those on the front lines too. If you want to do a good deed this Easter season along then donate food, whether pizzas, doughnuts or sandwiches to our brave doctors and nurses.  Do the same too  for Passover and Ramadam too. Be grateful for these healthcare professionals  who are giving up their holidays for us.  Thank those cashiers and food stockers at your grocery stores. They too are on the front lines as our the truckers, farmers, produce pickers and food plant workers.

This is the day to be thoughtful. Think of what you can do for your community. Sew masks, Donate food. Treat workers to a much needed slice of pizza or cup of coffee. Pray for an end to this, where everyone emerges happy and healthy.

Passover During A Pandemic

The holidays are entirely different this year, especially Passover. There are on line and streaming seders. Families are apart. It's certainly a strange time.

Amelia Nierenberg and Emma Goldberg both regular contributors  wrote this informative and interesting piece in yesterday's New York Food section. Passover means a time of ridding the house of unleavened bread along with other items. Vital pantry staples such as beans, bread and pasta fall into this category. Breads, cakes and cookies that are leavened with yeast are called chametz and are forbidden during this period. Usually a household's bread is either donated, eaten burned or sold to a non-Jewish person for a small fee and then bought back at the end of Passover. However bread is an important ingredient in today's kitchen and in high demand world wide. In Zichron Yaakov, a town north of Tel Aviv a Christian buyer told Rabbi Yair Silverman that he would actually keep the breads. The rabbi considered it a true sale then. Other items include foods like oatmeal and breads made with barley or kityinot. This also includes legumes and even corn and rice.

Many are adapting to this new holiday normal. One, Rachel Ringler,a food blogger, and challah baking instructor, had a Zoom seder in her Bridgehampton second home instead of her Manhattan apartment. She is serving rice and lentils a, custom of her half -Syrian son-in-law, who being a Sephardic Jew, can have corn, rice, and millet. This has been sanctioned by the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative Rabbis. They have also offered suggestion for the Passover plate too. Try a roasted beet and rice instead of a shank bone and egg along with any fruit or vegetable that can bring a tear to the eye instead of horseradish. Use ginger which is just as sharp or hot peppers. Most home chefs have usually cooked brisket in the past to accommodate huge numbers of guests. Now families have roasted chicken. There are Seder to go boxes , supplied by Chabad.org. a worldwide Jewish organization. These have matzah, wine, grape juice, and even a plastic frog to symbolize the ten plagues along with a Haggadah, the telling of the Exodus from Egypt. One thing that is forbidden in some areas is the burning of the chametz. Some fires have gone out of control in the past and fire departments have been called in. Since they're needed  now , fires are banned.

Passover will certainly be different .  this year as Jews recite "next year in Jerusalem" there is also that hope that they will be there or at a seder with all their loved ones in the next  year. That's the best hope for this holiday.

Corned Ham For Easter

One of the constants right now is the holiday dinner. For many Christians it's ham on Easter, a comforting reminder of happier years and hope for a better holiday next year. Southerners can appreciate the rare corned ham, a specialty of Maryland and South Carolina

Brett Anderson, a restaurant critic and regular contributor to the New York Times wrote about this  rare Southern classic in today's New York Times Food issue. Traditional corned ham is nothing more than  fresh ham that's been cured in salt. It's found in St. Mary's County in Maryland, a peninsula between the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River where it's used for stuffed hams. It's also found in eastern North Carolina where hog farming has been the backbone  of the economy for generations. It's one region where it's still common for people to serve unembellished ham for the holidays. Some Carolinians boil their hams and them use the  rich broth, also called pot likker to cook sides like collard greens. Many slow roast the hams too. They get them at local Piggly Wigglys but many of an older generation corned the hams themselves.

You can make corned ham at home.  Just remember it's going to take up a lot of fridge space which is precious nowadays. (you can buy one on line from www.mortypride.com). It will take ten days so  maybe it can work as an after Easter dinner. You will need to put a ten to fifteen pound ham in a roasting pan and cutting incisions in it, namely around the shank and hip bones.  Stuff  as much as  kosher salt as you can in them. Its' then soaking the ham over night in  half of inch of water. Afterwards press parchment paper into the meat and seal the whole thing with aluminum foil.Cook it in a 325 F degree oven for twenty-three to twenty-five minutes per pound . A fifteen pound ham would be roasted for six and a quarter hours.Ninety minutes before the final cooking remove the foil and parchment. Turn up the oven's heat to 375 degrees F and return the ham to it.The intense heat will turn the top layer of fat into the added treat of a covering  like crackling.The best part is the leftovers. You can use the meat and bones in everything from pea soup to ham salad. You can even make a corned ham Reuben toofor a fun lunch or dinner.

Corned ham is a treat anyone can make at home. Celebrate Spring or time with your family with a home corned one.It's a great addition to your cooking repertoire.

World Health Day A Day To Eat Healthy

Today is World Health day where we celebrate nurses and midwives around the world. We could also take the day to consider our own health and eating right. We have been indulging in too many snacks and too many pre Easter goodies It's time for a healthy infusion of vitamins and minerals.

A lot of us have been living off of canned food.Let's face it. It's easy to store and easy to heat up. It's not time consuming to make, especially in these days of endless Zoom meetings and home schooling.Many soups are high in sodium ,plus preservatives. Most  soups are high in salt. A better bet is homemade soup. If you have chicken or turkey bones boil them into a stock. You can also use leftover meat and the  skin for a richer flavor. There should also be celery, onions and carrots for more taste. Use all of the celery, including the leaves and the tops. You should also have parsley too along with salt and pepper. Simmer for about four hours. Chicken stock can also be cooked in an Instapot and crock pot too. You can put whatever you want in it, from  ditalini to orzo along with sliced tomatoes, more onions and celery.  Shredded chicken or turkey is always good too.  As for chicken itself, it's tempting to buy up the frozen fried chicken, but a better choice would be chicken cutlets if you can find them (you can always get frozen) and bread them yourself using a light egg wash and a dredging of spiced flour. Fry in the air fryer for a lighter but still crispy crunch.

Snacks are also a big concern right now. How many of us have ripped into endless bags of chips right now. They are tasty, especially if they're served with a rich sour cream dip. Yet you can make them healthier by buying bags of the baked chips along with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. You can flavor the dip with onion or garlic powder or even chopped scallions for a different kind of flavor. Another healthier indulgence is pretzels. They're salty and crunchy but without all the calories. Plus pretzels can be put into all sorts of fun treats too, from sundaes to topping cupcakes. Tortilla chips and salsa are another good for you bite. Salsa can also be home made with sliced tomatoes, onions and jalapenos. Add fresh pineapple for a tasty different spin.A second healthy dip is guacamole, and again to give it an entirely different flavor, try cherry tomatoes instead of plum tomatoes to blend with the avocados. Sweet snacks are everybody's downfall right now. Yes, we all love those sandwich cookies, but try fruit  - even if' it's just an apple a day  with some cookies. Have fun fruits like grapes for the kids. These are fun nibbles , especially after a hard day of home schooling. Strawberries and pineapple chunks are also good and fun - especially if you have a vanilla Greek yogurt dip.

It is World Health Day, and we should honor all those brave nurses and midwives especially right now. Yet we should use the day to remind ourselves to eat healthier during this time inside. We'll feel better with better food in us.

Make And Freeze

if there's ever a time to make and freeze it is now. It pays to create a few dishes ahead of time or ones that will generate a lot of leftovers. All you have to do is just pop these  into the microwave or toaster oven. Doing this will save up time for meetings and schooling.

One of the easiest make and freeze is lasagna. It can be made even easier with no boil lasagna noodles and canned sauce. You can create an easy tomato sauce using your crockpot or Instapot and adjust the seasonings to your family's tastes. As for the meats try sliced sausages or ground beef. Once the ingredients are layered and baked , then it's time for freezing. Wrap it tightly in Saran Wrap first then aluminum foil .It can be refrigerated for a day and frozen for up to a month. Remember to thaw out the lasagna in the fridge before reheating it.It tastes better reheated in the oven so bake it in a  400 degree F oven for an hour. Another easy make and freeze is spaghetti and meatballs. Since this is a popular  dish make double for dinner. Let the kids enjoy it now and have it as another dinner or even lunch a few days later. Again you can have homemade or store bought sauce. Meatballs freeze very well, which is a plus. Freeze in Ziploc bags or freezer friendly containers. Keep in mind to wait for the pasta to cool. Freezing hot or even still warm foods can cause other freezer foods to melt or thaw. Remember to put the date you froze them on the begs.

Another food to think of freezing is turkey. You may want to have it as your Easter dinner for a fancier dinner. It's great for leftovers because there's so much you can do with it. Just remember to make sure the turkey and sides are completely cooled before you put the leftovers in the freezer. The meat should first be wrapped in freezer paper or foil and then sealed in air tight plastic freezer bags. Be quick about this - all packages should be placed in the freezer right away. As for the sides like mashed potatoes and green beans put into airtight freezer containers or plastic freezer bags. One of the most versatile meals that can be frozen before and after cooking is meat loaf.In fact some home chefs believe that freezing a meat loaf before cooking increases its' flavor. For first freezing, form the loaf and then wrap it very well in Saran wrap, then place in an air tight freezer bag. It can keep up to six months in there so you may want to make a few for the weeks ahead. The loaf should be thawed out in the fridge the night before cooking. As for freezing the left over slices, put in freezer containers and store for later use.

 Making and freezing  is your best bet if you're busy with Zoom meetings and home schooling. It frees you up for the more important sides of home life these days. Create now, cook later for easier living.

The Flavor Of Naples

One of the best comfort foods to have is any dish from Naples. The recipes are redolent with rich spices and freshly picked and made ingredients. It is worth revisiting the cuisine and the solace it brings.

Every Neopolitan family has a recipe for tomato sauce. They may all seem the same yet each family recipes varies sometimes slightly - sometimes a lot.One favorite recipe involves the inclusion of pork in the "meat" sauce.Usually called Bolognese by fancier restaurants many Southerners  just call their meat and it can have anything from sausage to ground chuck. Some add pork, usually lean ground into it too for more flavor. It give the flavor a sweeter, richer taste. You can also add pancetta or as it's occasionally  called Italian bacon. It's actually pork belly that's been cured  like bacon then cold smoked, or partially cooked. It melts into the sauce and gives it a richer flavor. Of course, the most important part are the tomatoes themselves. Many use fresh when they're in season, but most home chefs usually go for San Marzano ones. What is the best one here in the States? Surprisingly a panel of New York Times Food and the online zine Wire Cutter picked Target's Market Pantry sauce as the best. You can also try Muir Glen along with Stop & Shop Nature's Promise Organic Sauce and tomato paste.

Neopolitan kids go wild for mozzarella in carrozza. These are a kind of grilled cheese- croque Monsieur sandwich that's filled with gooey, melted cheese. It starts with white bread and mozzarella.  You can cut off the crusts if you like. The sandwich is then cut in half and dipped into a bath of beaten egg and a sliced garlic clove. The next step is dredging the triangles into breadcrumbs and frying in a quarter of an inch olive oil. Fry until the crusts or ends are brown and the cheese is oozing out. You can use the homemade sauce for dipping for a kind of pizza taste. To vary it , slather a layer of pesto on the mozzarella or add a slice of prosciutto or a couple of anchovies. Anchovies also figure in a savory zeppoli. (Some Neopolitan home chefs also put a bit of prune with this for a sweet -savory flavor). Zeppoli are usually a sweet treat , dusted with powdered sugar after being deep fried. However they can also be savory , with a simple dough of flour, water and yeast. The dough is proofed for two hours then rolled into balls. An anchovy filet is placed in the center and then the balls are fried in six cups of oil. Serve the golden puffs with hot homemade sauce.

There is nothing like Neopolitan comfort food. It is soothing and savory, perfect for these times. Create their best recipes for a delicious lunch,dinner or even snack.

Per Rose Russo Garguilo. Mille grazie per avermi insegnato alcune delle migliori ricette.