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Shavuot cheesecake—YUMM!!!
Say Cheese (Cake) Please!
Shavuot, which begins at sundown on Saturday, May 26, commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai and is also the Festival of the First Fruits.
Dairy foods such as cheesecakes, kugels, and blintzes are traditionally served for Shavuot. Cheesecake is always a hit and you can make various versions from just one basic recipe. Smaller individual mini cheesecakes baked in cupcake pans take even less time to bake than a large cheesecake. You can also vary the fillings — e.g., chocolate, vanilla. Substitute different liqueurs (e.g., orange, coffee, hazelnut, or almond) instead of vanilla extract. You can swirl melted semi-sweet chocolate into the batter for a marbled effect. Fresh berries make terrific toppings. For praline cheesecakes, use brown sugar instead of white and garnish with pecan halves.
Hot cheesecake makes an excellent brunch or lunch dish for Shavuot. Once you’ve tried this, it will probably become a family favorite that you’ll make all year round. Dairy delicious!
Norene’s Easy Cheesecake
Adapted from: “The New Food Processor Bible” (Whitecap)
I’ve been making this recipe for years, with rave reviews! You can substitute chocolate or vanilla wafers in the crust.
Crust:
18 single graham wafers (about 1 1/2 cups crumbs)
6 tablespoons soft margarine or butter, cut in small chunks
2 tablespoons sugar (granulated or brown)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Filling:
4 cups (2 pounds) cream cheese, cut in chunks (light or regular)
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs (or 2 eggs plus 4 egg whites)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or 2 tablespoons lemon juice)
Topping of your choice
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. For crust: Break wafers into chunks. Process on steel blade until coarse crumbs are formed. Add remaining crust ingredients and process until blended, 5 or 6 seconds. Press into sprayed 10-inch springform pan. Wipe bowl and blade with paper towels.
3. For filling: Process cheese with sugar until blended, about 15 seconds. Add eggs and vanilla extract. Process until smooth and creamy, 20 to 30 seconds longer. Pour over crust.
4. Place a pie plate half-filled with water on lowest rack of oven. Place cheesecake on middle rack. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. When done, edges will be set but center will jiggle slightly. Turn off heat and let cheesecake cool in oven with door partly open for about one hour. It will firm up during this time.
5. Refrigerate. Add desired topping and chill for 3 to 4 hours before serving. (Can be made a day or two ahead.)
Makes 12 servings
279 calories per serving (without topping), 30.4 g carbohydrate, 0.3 g fiber, 7 g protein, 14.4 g fat (6.6 g saturated), 80 mg cholesterol, 364 mg sodium, 2.9 mg potassium, 1 mg iron, 187 mg calcium, 30 mg phosphorus
Lighter Variation: Use granular Splenda instead of sugar. Use half cream cheese and half dry cottage cheese, 2 eggs and 4 egg whites. One serving contains 171 calories, 12.5 g carbohydrate and 9.8 g fat.
Cheesecake Toppings
Fresh strawberry topping: Cut off stem ends from 4 cups of strawberries; cut strawberries in half lengthwise. Arrange cut-side down in an attractive design over cooled cheesecake. Microwave 1/2 cup apricot preserves on High for 45 seconds, until melted. Gently brush glaze over fruit.
Mandarin orange topping: Drain three 10-ounce cans mandarin oranges. Pat dry. Arrange in an attractive design over cooled cheesecake. Microwave 1/2 cup apricot preserves on high for 45 seconds, until melted. Gently brush glaze over fruit.
Canned pie filling: Spoon a 19-ounce can of cherry, blueberry, or pineapple pie filling evenly over cheesecake.
Praline cheesecakes: Use firmly packed brown sugar instead of granulated sugar. Use 1 teaspoon vanilla instead of lemon juice. When cool, garnish with toasted pecan halves.
Mini Cheesecakes
Prepare filling for Easy Cheesecake as directed. Omit crust. Line muffin pans with 24 paper cupcake liners. Place a vanilla wafer in each liner. Top with cheesecake mixture. Bake in preheated 350°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until set. When cooled, top each cheesecake with a large strawberry or a spoonful of thick jam. One mini contains 154 calories, 18.9 g carbohydrate and 6.8 g fat.
Hot Cheesecake
Source: “The New Food Processor Bible” (Whitecap)
This longtime favorite comes from my longtime friend, Roz Brown of Montreal. It makes a fabulous main dish for a buffet or brunch for Shavuot or anytime. Serve it with sour cream and fresh fruit salad or berries.
Topping
1 cup corn flakes (or 1/4 cup crumbs)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Base
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Filling
2 cups dry cottage cheese (fat-free or regular, see Note below)
2 eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
dash salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup milk
Use the steel blade to process all ingredients.
For topping: Process corn flakes with cinnamon and brown sugar until fine. Transfer to a small bowl.
For base: Process butter or margarine with sugar and egg for about 1 minute, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Add flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Process just until dough begins to form a ball around the blades, about 10 seconds. Pat into sprayed 8-inch square glass baking dish or 9-inch pie plate.
For filling: Process cheese for 15 seconds. Add eggs, sugar and salt. Process 15 seconds longer. Dissolve cornstarch in milk and pour in through feed tube while machine is running. Process 10 seconds longer, until well mixed. Pour over base and sprinkle with reserved topping.
Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 1 hour. Serve hot.
Yield: 8 servings. Keeps 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator. Reheats and/or freezes well. Recipe may be doubled and baked in sprayed 9 x 13-inch glass baking dish. Baking time will be about the same.
258 calories per serving, 38.0 g carbohydrate, 0.8 g fiber, 9 g protein, 8.2 g fat (4.4. g saturated fat), 98 mg cholesterol, 275 mg sodium, 123 mg potassium, 2 mg iron, 85 mg calcium, 143 mg phosphorus
Note:
Dry/pressed cottage cheese: If you aren’t able to find dry or pressed cottage cheese in your supermarket, substitute small curd cottage cheese (low-fat or fat-free). Place in a colander and press out excess liquid. You’ll probably have to add extra cottage cheese to make up for the drained liquid and processing time will be slightly longer.
Norene Gilletz is the author of kosher cookbooks in Canada. She divides her time between work as a food writer, culinary consultant, spokes person, cooking instructor, lecturer, and editor. Norene lives in Toronto, and her motto is “Food that’s good for you should taste good!” Visit her website at http://www.gourmania.com or email her at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
At a Russian Military Academy
The commanding officer at the Russian military academy (i.e., the equivalent of a four-star general in the U.S.) gave a lecture on Potential Problems and Military Strategy. At the end of the lecture, he asked if there were any questions. One officer stood up and asked, “Will there be a third world war? And will Russia take part in it?”
The general answered both questions in the affirmative.
Another officer asked, “Who will be the enemy?”
The general replied, “All indications point to China.”
Everyone in the audience was shocked. A third officer remarked, “General, we are a nation of only 150 million people, compared to the 1.5 billion Chinese. Can we win at all, or even survive?”
The general answered, “Just think of this for a moment. In modern warfare, it is not the quantity of soldiers that matters, but the quality of an army’s capabilities. For example, fairly recently in the Middle East, we have had a few wars in which 5 million Jews fought against 150 million Arabs. Israel was always victorious.”
After a small pause, yet another officer from the back of the auditorium asked, “Do we have enough Jews?”
Family recipes to spoil mom
Mother’s Day is Sunday.. although according to my beautiful mother, Ruth, of blessed memory, every day was and is Mother’s Day…she would proudly say she was a mom 365 days of the year. Somehow, however, I remember trying to make the day a little special for her. Sometimes her birthday, May 14, would fall on the same day and then that would be a grand celebration.
So, for all those, young and old, who want to make mom something special to eat on Mother’s Day or any day.. here are a few suggestions.
Pancakes
1 cup flour
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk (can use reduced fat)
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons melted butter
Sift flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Put egg, milk, and sour cream in blender. Mix and then add sifted ingredients and mix again adding melted butter. Blend until smooth. Spray a fry pan with vegetable spray. Drop a spoonful for small pancakes or a larger spoonful for a larger pancake. Serve with syrup (can be sugar-free) or jam.
Baked eggs in bread
6 slices whole wheat bread
6 eggs separated
6 slices cheese (can be low fat)
Cinnamon toast
6 slices of whole wheat bread
enough butter, softened, to spread on the bread
3/4 teaspoons cinnamon
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
Mix cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl. Toast the bread and spread the butter (preferably reduced fat). Sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar over the toast. Put under the broiler for about one minute.
Hey, does the great Peggy Noonan read www.heatherrobinson.net by chance?
Last week, I weighed in on Indiana’s heated Republican primary race between veteran Senator Richard Lugar and the state’s Republican Treasurer Richard Mourdock, and this week, Noonan did the same.
Noonan analyzed the race in her (as always) gorgeous prose, and with a depth of political knowledge that only a many-decades-savvy veteran speechwriter, politico and columnist could possess. While I would not claim to have highlighted my points as artfully or against such a rich backdrop of experience as Ronald Reagan’s star speechwriter, Noonan and I did zero in on several of the same themes: Lugar’s experience in contrast to that of Mourdock, and Lugar’s real record of achievement in the crucial area of national security.
Morever, we made similar points about Lugar’s effectiveness at working with others to execute sound policy that might not have always grabbed headlines but laid the foundation for a safer, more responsible future. Noonan wrote, “He’s fought many fights to keep bad policy from being imposed. (Unfortunately, there’s never a memorial to the bad bill that didn’t happen.) He’s waded into serious policy issues, such as disarmament, that get little credit but are crucial.” And I wrote, “Lugar co-authored the Nunn-Lugar program, which dismantled more than 7,500 nuclear warheads, more than 1,400 nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, 155 bombers, and 32 nuclear submarines in the former Soviet Union during the years immediately following its collapse. The program also upgraded security at 24 strategic sites. (This work was incredibly far-sighted and absolutely crucial given the possibility that enemies of Israel and the U.S. could have gotten a hold of this stuff). To the extent that the Russians have not already sold nuclear weapons and WMD to Islamic terrorists (fingers crossed), we may very well have to thank Dick Lugar for reaching across the aisle to do this absolutely vital work.”
If I do say so myself (and to the eminent Ms. Noonan), our points are well taken. For all the justified concern about over-spending, runaway bureaucracy, and Washington fat cats, there are a few politicians there who have quietly and diligently accomplished important things. In the case of Lugar, because one can’t prove a negative, it is tricky to explain that without his foresight and work on issues such as buying up nuclear weapons and WMD that were sitting around the former Soviet Union, it is likely that some of that stuff might have wound up in the hands of Islamist terrorists.
One point Noonan made that I did not, however, is that, to the extent that tea party activists have raised awareness about runaway spending and lack of foresight by Dems and Repubs alike, this close race will serve to reinforce in Lugar, if the voters of Indiana send him back to Washington, the imperative to return to conservative principles (cut over-spending that, while it might feel good and please some of the people, is borrowing unfairly against our children’s future).
Cutting out that practice should be a manageable imperative for the already sober-minded Lugar.
As I put it, I’m no Hoosier, but I’ll be rooting for him May 8. Or as Noonan put it, “They should save the old guy. He has value.”
The Jewish Dog
A man walks into shul with a dog.
The shammas comes up to him and says, ‘Pardon me, this is a House of Worship, you can’t bring your dog in here.’
‘What do you mean,’ says the man, ‘this is a Jewish dog. Look.’
And the shammas looks carefully and sees, that in the same way that a St. Bernard carries a brandy barrel round its neck, this dog has a tallis bag round its neck.
‘Rover,’ says the man, ‘kipa!’
‘Woof!’ says the dog, stands on his hind legs, opens the tallis bag, takes out a kipa and puts it on his head.
‘Rover,’ says the man, ‘tallis!.’
‘Woof!’ says the dog, stands on his hind legs, opens the tallis bag, takes out a tallis and puts it round his neck.
‘Rover,’ says the man, ‘daven!’
‘Woof!’ says the dog, stands on his hind legs, opens the tallis bag, takes out a siddur and starts to daven.
‘That’s fantastic,’ says the shammas, ‘absolutely amazing, incredible!
You should take him to Hollywood, get him on television, get him in the movies, he could make millions of dollars!!
‘You speak to him,’ says the man. ‘He wants to be a doctor.’
Two Memories
When I was a little kid, I had a verbal fight with a little girl from down the block—her name was Rooney. She slapped me across the face and said, “No Jew can talk to me like that!”
I saw her occasionally after that. She glanced at me and looked mortified.
***
Poem for Passover…
When I was a very little kid…
At passover seder
After someone ELSE asked the 4sameold questions
I quietly snuck under the dining table
It took forever but finally someone said,
“Where’s Warren?”
and
“Warren, why are you under the table?”
I whined: “Nobody’s paying attention to me anymore!”
Yes, that’s what happens when you get old…
