Hava Nagila

So, for my Children's ministry class, one of my classmates and I prepared an Old Testament Feast and we celebrated during class. Now, feast normally implies food (and all the Feasts do include eating [unless it is a fasting Feast]), but really Feast in this sense means celebration. It was more about the remembering what has happened in the Hebrew history and celebrating God's goodness. Yet, you cannot do a class project that has the word Feast in it without cooking something!

I made Challah (braided bread), Kreplach (like a meat dumpling), and Potato Kugel. Therefore this blog will be intense on the recipes and pictures!

Challah
Ingredients:
2 packages of dry yeast
2 c. warm water
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. oil
4 tsp. salt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
7.5 c. flour

Pour the water in a large bowl. Make sure it is warm, not too hot, not too cold, but juuuust right!
Soften the yeast in the water (pour the contents of the packages in the water and let it soak for about 5 minutes).
Add the sugar, oil, and salt. Blend in the eggs (keep a Tbsp. of egg whites for brushing later!).
Add 3 c. flour - beat well, no lumps allowed!!
Let it rest for 5 minutes.

Resting

Gradually add the rest of the flour.

Adding flour

Oil your hands! And the table or board or whatever you will be kneading on.
Knead for 10 minutes.

Knead Me

Place the kneaded dough back into the bowl, cover it with a clean cloth, and leave it in a warm place.

Ready. Set.

Rise!

Let it rise for 1.5 hours.
Now it's time for shaping/braiding the bread!
Divide the dough into 6 parts (the recipe makes 2 loaves!).
Roll out the 6 parts into 6 logs.
Make an asterisk (*) out of 3 logs. Cross the sides on the bottom and top halves.
Repeat with the other 3 logs.
You can sprinkle cornmeal on the bottom to texture it if you'd like, but I didn't (mostly because I didn't have any).

Braided and Rising.

Now brush the tops of the loaves with the reserved egg whites.
You can top the loaves with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coarse salt and finely chopped onions, or you can just leave it plain with the egg wash!
Now, let the loaves rise for 1 (more) hour.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes. The bottom should sound hollow if you tap on it!

Challah!

Holla!!

Kreplach
I used the recipe from here.

Potato Kugel
I used the recipe for Bubby's Potato Kugel.

They both turned out really well and I'll probably update this to include those recipes on here, as well. But for now, you've got the links!

Fiesta!

When my Momma was in town a few weeks ago, I had a bunch of first year CFMers over for dinner.

It was similar, yet different to the party we had at Jazmine's a few weeks ago. However, this time, I did all the cooking for my friends instead of all of us contributing.

We had a Mexican Fiesta with tacos (with home-fried tortillas), Mexican rice, guacamole, and black bean salsa (both chilled and warmed [warmed is my preference!]).

I'll add the recipes for each of these things soon, but for now here are the pictures!

Mexican Rice

A little bit of everything.

Black Bean Salsa

Guac

Ingredients!

LZ and Jazmine

Torrey and Jordan

Lemon Bars Doubled.

First off, doubling the lemon bar recipe is a bad idea!

"Why?" you may ask. Because if you're doubling and aren't using two 9x9 or 8x8 dishes, it just doesn't work. I don't have two of those dishes. So, I decided to double the recipe and use a 9x13. And 117 sq. in. (area of 9x13) is not the same as 124 or 162 sq. in. (area of two 8x8 or 9x9 dishes, respectively).

I should have one and halfed the recipe, honestly and it might have worked out better.

"What was wrong with the lemon bars this time?" you may be wondering even. Well, they did not bake and set all the way. I baked them longer in preparation of the different pan, but they were totally done on top and would have burnt if I did not remove them from the oven. Yet, then when cut into, they were still gooey and liquidy and did not set like they should have. They also did not taste as good as the first batch.

Therefore, do not double the lemon bars!