Once again I come to you with a post inspired by Mama Kat’s Writer’s Worksop.  This week, the prompt that struck me was number 5: “Describe a home cooked meal that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.”  I like to cook and even more than cooking, I love to eat.  Home cooked meals are definitely the best and I have to say, I don’t eat enough of them.  It would be much better for me in terms of my health and my wallet if I ate more home cooked meals.  I think that I really need to figure out how to make my schedule next year such that I can!

I come from a family that sat down every night to a family dinner all through my high school career, yet when I read this prompt, my mind immediately went to my grandmother’s house.  She is always ready with a meal no matter when you come over, planned or unannounced.  I suppose it is kinda the “Jewish Grandmother” thing to do, but it certainly was great.  I was lucky enough to grow up only minutes away from all of my grandparents, so we spent a lot of time with them and celebrated many holidays with them.

This post pertains to my maternal grandmother.  I have posted before on the subject of corned beef, mostly just giving my grandmother’s recipe and talking about making it.  This dish though, is one of my all time favorite.  I don’t remember what holiday I really associate corned beef with, I think it is Hanukkah.  In any event, it used to be an annual treat to head over to Nana’s house and know that we were going to be having corned beef for dinner.  usually served with mashed potatoes or Latkes.  Can’t go wrong when it is with latkes!

This home made corned beef is unlike any that you get at the deli counter in the supermarket.  I think it has a lot to do with the glaze that we make for it.  Ham glaze, mustard, brown sugar… It makes such a sweet glaze.  I think there is probably something also in the cooking the meat in ginger ale as well, but I am not a food scientist (might be a fun job).  All I know is that, when made right, this corned beef is so sweet and tender that it might even convert some vegetarians. (Well, that may be a little extreme)

I can’t think of any other food that really makes me feel as warm and fuzzy as my Nana’s home made corned beef.  It reminds me of my family and being together and it is quite yummy-in-the-tummy.  It isn’t terribly hard to make and it is lots of fun to eat!

I am dedicating this post to a blogger friend of mine, Ella Unread as she has been longing for good cookies.  This recipe is one of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes.  The original recipe comes from the people at America’s Test Kitchen.  That is probably what makes the recipe a little more technical, but it is really yummy.  It is kind of a fun recipe to make as well.

You don’t have to do some of the things like bake on parchment paper, but it does help you clean up.  I did have a friend who, when making this recipe forgot that she was using baking sheets with no sides so when she went to turn the pans, the cookies (on the parchment paper) went flying around the kitchen.  I got a phone call that went something along the lines of “Ummm, Alex, how do I get chocolate chips off of the ceiling?”  Yeah, you should pay attention to that.

I haven’t actually had the time to bake this weekend yet, but I may tomorrow when we have a day off from the theatre.  I do get to do some fun cooking today though as I host a BBQ at the theatre between the shows.  It has become a tradition that we started during Les Mis when we didn’t have a lot of time between shows.  Now of course we just do it for fun on the two-show-days.  So, I get to be grillmaster for the afternoon and then smell like BBQ for the entirety of the second show.

So, if you enjoy some good chocolate chip cookies, let me know!  Also, don’t forget that if you have a recipe to share you can submit it.  I may try it out and feature it!

Even though my girlfriend is off to France for the week I am still heading up to her family’s home for dimmer tonight.  It is going to be a Corned beef collaboration.  I love an excuse to make this corned beef recipe, and this seemed like a good one!  I hope that you all enjoy this recipe as well.  It pairs well with mashed potatoes and challah rolls.  If you try it out, let me know what you think!

I Have decided to try something new.  I like to cook.  I probably don’t do it as much as I should, especially when we get into tech weeks for shows (which I am about to start).  However, I try to do some kind of cooking or baking on the weekends so it seems like a good time to post up some of my favorite recipes.

I also like to try new things so I have set up an interactive recipe book.  If you try and like my recipes, or if you just have a recipe to share, you can.  Just follow this link to the recipe submission page.  Once you submit a recipe it will have to be approved, and then it will show up in the recipe file.  You can find the recipe file and submission page under the archives in the main menu bar.

Hopefully you will enjoy my recipes and I will enjoy yours!

Here is my project for this weekend, I happened to have some ripe bananas in the kitchen, so it seemed like it would be appropriate to make:

So, another crazy thing that that has come through the news is the fact that your hotdog may be in danger.  Everyone knows a hotdog, you may not like them , you may not want to know what is in them, but a hotdog is probably one of the most recognizable foods next to the hamburger.  The hotdog is the staple food of America’s favorite pastime, baseball (along with beer), as well as many summer activities.  What would the summer be without barbecues, hotdogs and hamburgers?

Well the hotdog as we know it is under attack, it is in danger.  Why, you ask?  Because after a couple hundred years as a food, people have decided that it is too easy to choke on a hotdog.  Yup, that’s right, the argument is that the shape of a hotdog make it too easy to get it stuck down your throat.  Specifically the throats of children under ten.  Just tell me though, with many young kids we cut up most of their food, so what is different about hotdogs?

The proposal?  Well there are two.  The first is to change the shape of the hotdog.  I am not sure how that would be accomplished, but it seems that if nothing else it would make the hotdog a less friendly food.  I just can’t really picture say a triangle hotdog.  I mean how would you get that on a hotdog bun, or would that have to be redesigned as well?  The second option is to put warning labels on the packaging of hotdogs akin to toys with small parts.  The real question with this option is: is it really effective?  Personally I would be fine with this approach as I like my hotdogs the way they are!

Of curse, this whole debate begs the question: what makes a hotdog different from other long, round foods?  I mean is it actually easier to choke on a hotdog than a banana, cucumber, or pickle.  I mean, I suppose many kids don’t actually eat their fruits and veggies, but I don’t see difference.  Do we need to start genetically engineering bananas so that they don’t grow long and thin?  Maybe every pickle needs to be stamped with a warning that it is a choking hazard?

I don’t know about everyone else, but I think that the hotdog is just fine the way it is.