Kosher foodie housewarming gift
Any suggestions for a $40-50 gift? Couple has been renting forever, so they already have a well stocked kitchen with the basics, but they have recently purchased their first house. Also, is the salt, bread, wine thing really a Jewish tradition?
-
-
-
-
re: cappucino
Thanks! Coffee maker and dish towels are a good idea too. I'll think I'll skip the chickens. I still have trauma from my grandfather doing Kaparot for us when we were kids on his front lawn. I haven't touched one since :)
I found Cuisinart ice cream makers on sale at Sur La Table for $49.95 (down from $110), so I'll probably grab one of those and some salt and bread for good measure.
-
-
queenscook
May 23, 2010 09:12 AM
Do they have a bread maker and/or ice cream/sorbet maker? I make all sorts of so-called "artisan" breads for Shabbos; this week's was Olive-Mint bread. Sounds like a strange combination, but was soooo good--and so easy with the machine. Just throw everything in, and three hours later, there's your loaf. Similar deal with the ice cream maker. I make many varieties of sorbet for Shabbos meals very easily. I make ice cream a bit less often, as I'm not into the really high-fat stuff, but it makes it easy to make it, if one is so inclined. I am also now playing around with non-dairy versions using this new Mimiccreme product.
›6 Replies-
-
re: mamaleh
queenscook
May 23, 2010 11:31 AM
Sure; it's from a book called The Bread Machine Gourmet. I'll give the amounts for the larger loaf:
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c. bread flour
2 T. minced fresh mint (or 1 t. dried mint)
2 t. minced fresh basil (or 1 t. dried basil)
1 1/2 salt (I used 1 T. kosher salt, doubling the quantity of regular salt called for)
1 1/4 c. water
2 T. olive oil
2 t. honey
4 t. active dry yeast
1/2 c. pitted & drained Spanish green olives (I used a mixture of green, Kalamata, Nicoise, maybe others from a mix bought at the olive bar at the new Aron's Kissena Farms)Add the ingredients, other than the olives, in the order appropriate for your bread machine (for mine, it's liquids first). Add the olives at the beep.
It produced a loaf which was exceptionally moist inside, yet extremely crusty outside. I set it so it went off just before Shabbat begins, and left it in the machine until we sat down to dinner an hour or so later, after shul. My machine allows this, as it doesn't beep after the bread is ready, but some beep every five minutes until it is shut off, so you have to know your machine. And you certainly may take the dough out and bake it in the oven, but we like to leave it in the machine to keep it warm until the Friday night meal. Two of us ate about 3/4 of the loaf Friday night, and easily finished it at Shabbat lunch. This hasn't happened in quite a while; we usually have some of the loaf left over after the meal. But this was the first time for this recipe, and it's going right to the top of the list of make-agains, especially now that it's spring, and I have fresh mint and basil growing outside! Next time, I plan to add more mint and basil; those flavors weren't as strong as I might have liked them to be, and with my plants outside, it's easy to increase the amounts.
-
-
re: queenscook
Queenscook, you are amazing. I knew the recipe came from you before i got to the bottom and saw your name!!! You are queen of foodies. I'm going to try the bread this shabbat. Usually we have food from a different country every shabbat, going through the alphabet, but not when one of us is gone. Having this bread will help compensate for my husband's absence. Come to think of it, using more mint it might work for Viet Nam inspired Shabbat coming up.
-
-
re: mamaleh
queenscook
May 24, 2010 11:59 PM
I served it last shabbos with gazpacho, but that's just because we have gazpacho almost every shabbos during the late spring and all through the summer months. I think it went well, but I imagine it would go nicely with many other soups as well.
-
-
-
-
