Honey Cake for a Sweet New Year!

The Jewish New Year starts on Shabbat this year. Generally, I make a shabbat dinner most Friday nights. This Friday's sabbath dinner will be filled with much of the same fan fare but with a little bit extra.

I made a few honey cakes; one for us, one for Levi's preschool teachers, one for our favorite neighbors and some little loaves for some very special people (3 of Eli and Isaac's past teachers).

Rosh hashanah is the beginning of the High Holy Days. From the beginning of Rosh hashanah to the eve of Yom Kippur Jewish people embark upon the serious task of examining their lives and repent for any wrong doings from the previous year. Jews are encouraged to make amends with anyone they have wronged and to make plans for improving during the coming year. This is a time for making peace in the community and striving to be a better person.

For me, it is a time to reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly. There is plenty of all three.

I had never embarked on making a honey cake in the past. I was surfing a few cooking websites this particular one grabbed me. I found this one on the Epicurious website and it isn't called Majestic and moist New Years honey cake for nottin! Not only is the cake laced with loads of honey and sugar, but it has strong coffee, fresh orange juice and lots of wonderful spices. Whether you are Jewish or not, this cake will prove to be a huge crowd pleaser.

Homemade Granola Bars

My friend Karen thought it would be a good idea to have a group of mom's over to her house for brunch the day after school started. She figured it was best for us all to bitch and moan in one room rather than play telephone with one another. Actually, it was a good idea. It gave us perspective and we were all able to laugh at the mundane.

I was really on the fence as to whether or not I was going to be able to make it, however when I decided that I would pop by, it was 10:30 p.m. the night before. Which meant that I had to make something at the crack of dawn the next morning and it had to be quick and easy.

I had tried a few granola bars in the past, but they were basically...cake. I really want to try and get more healthy choices thrown into our daily snack binge and I felt this would be a good place to start.

I used the Ina Garten recipe as my base, yet switched it up a little. I added some ground flax seeds and used oil instead of the butter. I didn't have any dates, but I did have some dried figs which I kept kind of chunky. I love dried figs and these were a winner. I also substituted dried cherries (cuz I love them) for the cranberries.

I plan on making these again, yet, more with the kids in mind. I want to try various combos using chocolate chunks, white chocolate, whole almonds, peanuts (just cuz they like them), toffee pieces, other dried fruits and dried banana chips. I probably wont use all of these ingredients together, but I will find a combo that they like and then keep experimenting with those.

They were really good. I received a few emails and calls regarding these and I have a feeling we are going to be seeing our neighborhood kids eating lots and lots of homemade granola bars.

Lots of left over egg whites!

I have wasted way too many left over egg whites in the past few months and I wasn't about to do it again.

After my ice cream bonanza last week, I found myself left with 6 egg whites. I have been wanting to make meringues and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home To Yours seemed to have a few good recipes. I ended up choosing the Cocoa Almond Meringues. As you all know, I love chocolate, so this was the obvious choice. Plus, it was something super easy and I could whip them up before starting dinner. These are really the lazy mans cookie. After baking at a certain temperature, you pop the oven down 100 or so degrees and they sit in there for 1 hour. The perfect end of the day task for someone as obsessed with baking as myself.

Everyone loved them except Isaac. He is somewhat hard to please. He sometimes prefers a bag of Doritos to a cookie. Too bad, I don't keep that crap in the house, because if I did, it would be all he would eat.