Gender Reveal Cupcakes

So one big trend right now is the “Gender Reveal” party… and since we’re nerdy like that, we decided that we are going to do a “Gender Reveal” for our families tomorrow night.  See… Ken is graduating from Medical School on Saturday (that’s right, I’ll be married to a DOCTAH!) and so our whole families are coming in tomorrow.  We have dinner reservations at a Thai restaurant tomorrow night and then afterward, we are going to do the “Gender Reveal.”  Basically, my friend Kathleen and I followed a Martha Stewart Recipe to make cupcakes and frosting… we made frosting in two different colors–yellow to frost the top of the cupcakes–and either PINK or BLUE for the inside.  We used a special tip on a pastry bag to squirt some of the PINK or BLUE icing inside the cupcake, so that when people bite into the cupcake they will see the color and know instantly whether the baby is a boy or a girl!  Kathleen also had some King Cake Babies lying around so we put them on top of the cupcakes to decorate them. 

This is the cupcake recipe we used, and This is the Buttercream recipe we used.

Here are the cupcakes with their beautiful little babies on top:

I, for one, think they turned out pretty well!

You’ll just have to wait to find out though whether they were filled with PINK or BLUE frosting!

And… just for kicks, here’s a Baby Bump picture from yesterday, at 17 weeks and 1 day… just 3 more weeks until we’re half baked!

Big Announcement!

I apologize for the amount of time that has passed since my last post.  I know I say this as an excuse every time, but things have been really crazy around here lately.  Ken had surgery, we had parents in town, I’ve had a lot of doctors appointments lately, we had to find a new place to live for next year, we’ve been packing up all the stuff in our house, etc. etc.  For those of you who have not heard yet, my big announcement is that I’m pregnant!  That’s right… we’re having a baby!  Today I am 14 weeks and 1 day pregnant, which puts my due date at October 23rd.  Pretty exciting!

So that’s me with my little baby bump.  It’s not that noticeable just yet, but it’s there, and it’s more noticeable in some outfits than it is in others.  Each week, I get email updates that tell me what the baby is doing this week, how it’s developing, what organs it’s working on or what new tricks it can do.  It also compares the baby to a fruit each week… we went a whole bunch but this week and next week we seem to be on a citrus kick.

So that’s all for now… I’m not going to promise lots of recipe posts in the near future since things are going to continue to be pretty busy for the next couple of months.  Ken left for New York yesterday and he’ll be there until Friday.  Then he takes the train to Baltimore and will be there until Monday.  Then he and Dan (his old roommate), are taking the train from Baltimore to New Orleans and they get here late on Tuesday night.  Dan’s never been to New Orleans, so they’ll do some touristy things while he’s in town, and they’re going to hit up jazz fest on Thursday.  Then on Saturday, Dan goes home, and Ken leaves to go up to Connecticut for a few days.  He’ll visit with his friend Liz, he’ll visit with his parents, he’ll see the teachers and staff at his high school that he would have wanted to see at his 10-year High School Reunion this summer, and he’ll spend a day with his grandmother.  Ken gets back on Wednesday the 9th, and then that weekend we have a wedding to go to of some of Ken’s classmates!  The following weekend is graduation, and we’ll have all of our family in town–my parents, Ken’s parents, Ken’s older brother with his wife, Ken’s younger brother and Ken’s grandmother.  The following weekend is Memorial Day, and we’ll be going to Orlando for the weekend to hang out with my cousins and to go to Disneyworld and/or Universal Studios, then we get back and the following weekend is when we are moving into our new place!  A week and a half later, Ken starts orientation for his Internship, and on June 20th he’ll be on the wards for his first day as an Internal Medicine Intern!  After that, things may calm down a little bit, at least for me… and then in October, little Baby Levin will be here and who knows what will happen to this blog at that point!  It may turn into a baby blog more than a kosher cooking blog.  Only time will tell.  Until then, have a lovely Wednesday afternoon!

Day 10: Something I Made + a Whirlwind Weekend: Match Day, St. Patty’s Day, Super Sunday, Leslie’s Birthday

Day 10: Something I made.  Well given that this blog is a food and cooking blog, there are already lots of photos all over the blog of things I’ve made, but since this calls for a new photo to be posted, I will post some new photos.  I’ve decorated my office cubicle with some fun prints that I made back in the day when I used to work at a day-care center with mostly 2-year olds.  Every day we would do some artwork, which the kids always enjoyed, and I would always participate so that I could demonstrate the techniques we were working on.  Then I would take home my beautiful masterpieces and hang them on the wall.  Now those beautiful masterpieces are decorating the boring, gray and drab walls of my cubicle and I am going to share them with each and every one of you.

First up, we have a piece I call “Stars.”  It was made using star-shaped sponges, and paint. Next up, we have a piece I like to call “Orange Bursts.”  It was made using oranges that were cut in half, and then painted with orange paint and pressed on to the paper to make the beautiful Orange Bursts that you see.

Finally, we have a piece I call “Mardi Gras” which I can attribute to nothing other than Pure, Unadulterated Fingerpainting, using Mardi Gras Colors.  If I remember correctly, this was painted before I knew we were moving to New Orleans, so I think I must have had some sort of insight when I made this.

And now for some stories about our Whirlwind of a Weekend that we just had!  Amazingly, it’s still going on for another few hours, despite the fact that it’s Monday.

Thursday afternoon my parents flew to New Orleans from San Francisco.  They arrived in the late afternoon, went to get settled into their hotel and then came over for dinner.  Ken and I lost a bet to them a few months ago (I don’t want to talk about it, but it involved the Saints losing to the 49ers during the NFL Playoffs), and for losing that bet, we had to make them dinner.  So we made Shepherd’s Pie with ground lamb and sweet potatoes (you’ve all seen the recipe on this blog already), along with a salad of arugula, fennel and Belgian endive with a red wine vinaigrette, and for dessert we had coconut and pistachio sorbet that I bought from Breaux Mart.

Saturday morning we went to our friends’ house for breakfast (she made some of the most delicious waffles I have ever tasted) before walking across the street to Mardi Gras World for the Match Day Celebration.  Ken got his first choice for Internship Programs, which means that we will be staying here in New Orleans for another year before moving to Baltimore in June, 2013 for his Ophthalmology Residency.  Many of our friends also got their first or second choices for residency programs so all around I would say people were very happy.  Dr. Kahn, who made a speech before the ceremony began, mentioned that this year’s class was the most successful in terms of the number matched as well as in terms of the competitive specialties matched into.  I must say there were quite a few Orthopedic Surgeons, Otolaryngolists (ENTs), and Dermatologists.  For some reason, Family Medicine was more competitive than in most  years, but there are still quite a few people going into primary care specialties. 

After the Match Day Ceremony, a lunch was served and then we went off to enjoy the beautiful weather and the company of our family and friends.  Friday evening we went to dinner at Domenica, an Italian John Besh restaurant, which I’m sure I’ve mentioned on here before.  It’s one of our favorites, though it does have a tendency to be very loud inside. 

Saturday morning I had my Bat Mitzvah at one of the two synagogues we belong to in Metairie.  My god-mother, Leslie, with her husband, son and daughter-in-law (the ones who got married at the Chinese Restaurant in New York last summer) came to New Orleans specifically for my Bat Mitzvah (and also to enjoy some sight-seeing and other fun activities), and it was very nice to see them.  In the evening they joined our families for dinner at Lillette, a lovely French restaurant right aroun the corner from where we live.  The food was delicious, but the restaurant was quite noisy, and it seemed to get noisier as the night went on because there was one particularly loud group of young people who were hanging out at the Bar much of the evening. 

On Sunday, we  had breakfast with Ken’s parents, then I had brunch with my parents, and then we spent the afternoon at Super Sunday.  Super Sunday is a big celebration that the Mardi Gras Indians put on every year.  I don’t know the historical or cultural significance of the day, but it was unlike anything I had ever seen before.  It was a lot of fun to see the amazingly elaborate costumes and the dancing and music.  Additionally, every now and then, two tribes would have a little face-off of sorts and it was fascinating to watch how they interacted.  It was definitely an experience very unique to New Orleans. 

Yesterday evening, we went to dinner with Leslie and her family again, and then we went to the French Quarter for some drinks, some Piano Bar fun, and some coffee and beignets.  One of the piano players even sang “Happy Birthday” to Leslie because today happens to be her birthday. 

We’ll be joining them again this evening for dinner at Jacques Imo’s.  After tonight’s celebration I think we may be partied out for a few days… which is a good thing since this weekend we have the Retreat for our synagogue out in Utica, Mississippi and we will need to be nice and rested before driving up there.

Day 9: Faceless Self Portrait & Baked Ziti

For my faceless self portrait, I chose to take a photo of my hand, resting on my keyboard.  Why?  You can decide… what do you make of my artistic choices (if you can call them “artistic”)? 

And now… a new recipe for you all!  Thank you all for waiting so patiently… things have been a little insane around here lately.  We have a lot going on academically, personally and professionally and we haven’t been doing much cooking of new recipes lately.  We’ve sort of been sticking to our good old standbys.  Hopefully that will change in the next few weeks as things calm down a bit.  This weekend we have a big weekend ahead of us: my parents are arriving tomorrow afternoon and Ken and I will be cooking them dinner because of a bet we lost to them (Shepherd’s Pie and a Salad).  Ken’s parents arrive in the evening tomorrow.  Friday is “Match Day,” when we find out where Ken will be going for his Internship (which will start on July 1st of this year).  Saturday night all 6 of us (Ken, me, his parents and my parents) are going out to dinner at Domenica, a John Besh Restaurant located in the Roosevelt Hotel.  It’s a great restaurant with a lot of vegetarian options and a lovely (mostly Italian) wine list.  Saturday morning is my Bat Mitzvah, and following services I am sponsoring a Kiddush Luncheon.  Last night, the ladies in my Trope class all got together to help me cook the food that we will be serving (Baked Ziti and Brownies were what we made yesterday, and we’ll also be having a spinach salad with strawberries and feta, and a green salad with tomatoes, onion, and cucumber, and a fruit salad).  Saturday evening we’re going out to dinner at Lilette, and in addition to the six of us, my mom’s best friend will be here with her husband, son and daughter-in-law.  They were the ones who got married at the Chinese Restaurant in New York over the summer (remember Ken’s seersucker suit?)  Sunday morning we’ll go somewhere for breakfast with Ken’s parents, and then we’ll spend the early part of the afternoon with my parents before they leave to head back to San Francisco. 

Luckily it won’t be too long before we see everyone again, because everyone will be back in 2 months for Ken’s graduation!  At that time we’ll also have Ken’s younger brother, his older brother and his wife, and Ken’s grandmother!  We can’t wait to see everyone! 

So… now for the recipe you’ve all been waiting for……… BAKED ZITI! 

This was a recipe that was given to me by one of the ladies in my Trope class, so we’ll call it “Lisa’s Baked Ziti.”  For purposes of my Bat Mitzvah Kiddush Luncheon, we multiplied the recipe by 6 and made it in a giant bowl, but for purposes of making it at home, this recipe will work very nicely.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. of ziti
• 1 cup of ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 2 cups of tomato or marinara sauce
• 1 cup of grated mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon basil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil (or Pam Spray)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Boil water and cook ziti about 5-7 minutes–do not overcook. 

In a large bowl, mix the ricotta and egg.  Stir in the tomato sauce and 1/2 of the mozzarella, and 1/2 of the parmesan.  Add oregano, basil, salt and pepper.  Mix in the ziti, put in lightly oiled casserole, top with remaining cheeses. 

Bake 20-30 minutes until heated through, and the cheese is brown and bubbly. Enjoy!

I’ll be honest… we each snuck a little taste of the Baked Ziti once it was finished cooking, and it was quite delicious!  Hopefully it will reheat well on Saturday morning and everyone will enjoy it during the Kiddush Luncheon.

Until then, I wish you all a lovely Wednesday and I will write again soon!

Apple Crisp

So tonight, Ken had a friend coming over to watch a movie (Super Troopers in case you were curious), and he thought it would be nice to have some dessert to offer him when he came over.  Neither of us really felt like going out to get groceries, so we had to work with what we had.  Luckily we had some apples, and we pretty much always have baking ingredients in our cabinet (flour, sugars, baking soda & powder, vanilla, etc.) so we searched online (really… what did people do before the internet?) and found an Apple Crisp recipe from Simply Recipes:

Ingredients:

• 7 tart apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a mixing bowl, combine apples, lemon juice, and vanilla.  Toss to combine.

Layer sliced apples in a 9 x 12 inch baking pan.

Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and oatmeal in a bowl.  Cut in the butter.  Sprinkle sugar mixture over apples.

Bake 45 minutes or until topping looks crunchy and apples are tender.

And now for something completely different… MARDI GRAS!  Mardi Gras season is officially under way… the Krewe we are a part of (Krewe of Tucks) had its Coronation Ball a couple weeks ago, and I was one of the Maids for the Krewe.  Ken dressed up as a character from “Manos the Hands of Fate.”  The whole evening was a lot of fun.

Then just this past weekend was the first parade of Mardi Gras in New Orleans (there are other parades in other parts of Louisiana but this was the first one in the city limits).  It’s called Krewe du Vieux (pronounced “Crew de Voo”) and it always has a totally inappropriate, raunchy, politically inappropriate theme.  This year’s theme was “Crimes Against Nature” and the floats were as hilarious as the name would suggest. 

This year we have people coming into town for both weekends of Mardi Gras, just like last year!  This first weekend we’ve got a friend of Ken’s coming into town who he went to high school with.  She is interviewing at Tulane Med School on Friday and she’ll be with us from Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning so she’ll get to see some of the early parades.  Then next weekend, the guy who is going to be Ken’s fellow-resident is coming with his girlfriend because they’ve never been to New Orleans and figured it would be fun to come for Mardi Gras.

So to all of you I say, HAPPY MARDI GRAS!

Wasabi-Crusted Salmon

This is one of our most favorite salmon dishes… it’s delicious and yet so simple!  It’s also nice cause it has a bit of bite to it, but you can really decide how spicy you want it to be.  It’s from Kosher by Design Lightens Up, by Susie Fishbein.  I enjoy making an Asian dinner out of it and serving it with white rice and some sort of steamed vegetable on the side.  The extra spicy sauce (you’ll learn about shortly) is really tasty mixed in with some white rice, too!

Ingredients:

• 6 salmon fillets, with skin, pin bones removed
• 1 cup wasabi-coated green peas
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup light mayonnaise, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon wasabi powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons hot sauce
• 1 teaspoon roasted or toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Rinse the salmon fillets.  Pat dry and place on a cookie sheet.  Set aside.

Place the wasabi peas into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade.  Process until most of the peas are crushed, but leave a little texture–don’t grind to a powder.  Transfer to a plate.  Add the sesame seeds and mix with a spoon. 

In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup mayonnaise with the wasabi powder.  Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on each fillet.  Dip the coated side of each fillet into the wasabi peas.  Use your palm to press the peas into the salmon to coat evenly.

Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the spicy mayonnaise: in a small bowl, mix the remaining mayonnaise, hot sauce, sesame oil, and cayenne.  Stir well.  Transfer the spicy mayonnaise to a heavy-duty ziplock bag. 

Snip the very corner of the ziplock bag and drizzle each plate with spicy mayonnaise sauce.  Place a salmon fillet in the center of the drizzle.  You may have extra sauce (which can be served on the side).

Day 8: Technology & Our Crazy California Adventure!

So I actually wrote this blog post like a month ago… right after New Years but for some reason I never ended up posting it.  Here you go!  Technology… how do you take a picture of technology?  Well obviously you could take a photo of a camera, or a computer, or an iPad, but everyone knows what those look like.  You could take a picture that has been doctored by the use of technology, with programs like Adobe Photoshop or iPhoto.  For some reason, rather than an image, there’s a particular story I think of when I think of how best to portray Technology.

A few years ago, Ken and I went to New Jersey for Passover.  We were staying with my brother-in-law, sister-in-law and our niece at their house, and Ken’s parents were also in town.  Ken’s younger brother, sadly, was in Paris.  He was having a grand old time doing a study abroad program there, but it was sad that he couldn’t be with his family for the Seders.  So in the morning while we were all cooking and getting ready for the Seder, Ken’s father’s cell phone rang.  It was Ken’s younger brother calling from Paris.  He was on the street somewhere, on his way to the Seder he had been invited to, and he was lost.  He didn’t have a phone on which he could access the internet, so he called his father on a cell phone–he made a  call from Paris to New Jersey to ask for directions.  Then, Ken’s father went on a computer, and looked up directions to a particular address in Paris, using Google Maps, and he gave the directions to Ken’s brother, who then was able to get there safely in time for the Seder to begin!  Every now and then I’ll experience a moment like that, when you realize how different our lives are now because of technology, than they were even 10 years ago.  Every day we use so much technology… and if it were suddenly all taken from us, would we know how to get by?

Without GPS devices, for example, we’d all have to switch back to using paper maps.  We couldn’t just have our GPS figure out an alternate route if there’s a lot of traffic–we’d have to get off of the highway, pull over, and look at the map to figure out another way to get to our final destination.  It really is crazy how much we rely on technology!

And now… our crazy California Adventure! Friday bright and early in the morning we flew to San Francisco.  Our flight took off from New Orleans at 6 AM, which put us in San Francisco at  8:30 AM.  I always prefer early morning flights because it means that when you arrive, you still have a full day ahead of you to enjoy.  We went home, ate breakfast, and then started our adventure with a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.  That was something that had been on our “bucket list” of things to do in San Francisco for a few years now, so we decided to go for it even though the weather was not ideal.  It was very foggy and windy on the Bridge, but it was fun nonetheless.  After our walk, we went to lunch with my mom, and then Ken & my dad went beer tasting while my mom and I got beautiful manicures at Pinkies!  My finger nails look a lot like disco balls–they are purple and very sparkly!  For dinner my mother made a delicious dinner of salmon, twice baked potatoes and string beans,  then Ken and I went out to a couple of dive bars in North Beach (San Francisco’s equivalent of Little Italy). 

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to the San Francisco Zoo!  Ken had never been to the zoo, and it was a beautiful day outside–a little chilly but sunny and clear.  We particularly enjoyed seeing some of the monkeys.  Unfortunately, the day we were there was the same day that one of the Squirrel Monkeys was stolen from the zoo, but luckily he was found just a day or two later and he was returned safely to the zoo.  We both agreed that the San Francisco is the best zoo we’ve been to together (the other two being the ones in Baltimore and New Orleans).

Saturday night was New Years Eve… and we had a blast, despite one unfortunate incident.  First we went to dinner with Julia (remember, my best friend I told you about?) and Amelie at a funky little restaurant called Straw.  It’s a restaurant that features Carnival-themed food, and it was truly delicious.  For an appetizer we all shared sweet potato tots that came with a blackberry BBQ sauce, and for dessert we all shared two delicious desserts–a funnel cake that came with three different sauces, and a peanut butter fudge pie!  For New Years, the restaurant had a special deal, where for $6 you could get a bottomless glass of Champagne!

After dinner we all headed over to the New Conservatory Theater to see the musical, Xanadu.  It was very fun and whimsical, and we all had a few laughs!  After the show we all went to a house party that was being held by one of Amelie’s friends… now let me tell you a story about this house party… I don’t know if we bring bad luck to this party, or if this party is bad news and we somehow save it from disaster each year…

Last year we went to a house party hosted by this same friend of Amelie’s.  We had a blast–there were maybe 30-50 people there and everyone was having a great time.  There was great food, there were good drinks, there was great music and people were dancing and enjoying themselves… until one of the girls at the party fell off of her bed and broke her collarbone!  Ken had to play doctor, and he made the executive decision that she needed to be taken to the Emergency Room.  When we walked in, he started talking with the nurses and got this girl fast-tracked in the ER on New Years!  She was seen within 20 minutes.  So this year on our way to this same party, we all joked that we were going to avoid a similar situation… we said the night would be a success if we didn’t end up taking someone to the ER at the end of the night.  Well… in that respect it was a success.  We didn’t take anyone to the ER… but Ken did have to play doctor again for a young man who had a bit too much to drink and was not in good shape as we were on our way out the door.  Despite having to put on his doctor hat, we had a great time ringing in 2012!  We hope to avoid any medical emergencies next year so we can just enjoy our night… that is of course, if they invite us back!

Sunday we spent much of the day watching football with my parents–they were most interested in the 49ers game, but the Saints and the Patriots were playing at the same time.  We kept one eye on the Saints score, one eye on the Patriots score, and one eye (wait… that’s 3 eyes?) on the 49ers game.  That night we had a lovely dinner with my godmother, my father’s cousin and his wife and baby boy.  My mother made brisket and latkes for dinner, and we had homemade apple pie for dessert!

Monday was our last day in San Francisco–we spent the morning doing laundry and packing, then we went out to lunch at a delicious Thai restaurant in the Tenderloin.  It was described online as “Cult Thai” (we still don’t know what that means) but it was delicious, and they had about 15 vegetarian options on the menu, so it was a great place for non meat-eaters!  Monday night we flew back to New Orleans and we got home at about 2 in the morning.

Tonight we’re going to the Sugar Bowl (GO BLUE!) then tomorrow we fly to Baltimore for my swearing-in ceremony at the Maryland Court of Appeals in Annapolis on Thursday.  We’ll be in DC for the weekend seeing Ken’s younger brother and his girlfriend, some of my best friends from college, one of Ken’s best friends from when he was growing up, and hopefully a new friend who I met just a few months ago!  Expect a big update next week, and then I’ll be getting back into cooking for the rest of January.  We just got a big shipment of Kosher meat which is sitting in our freezer just waiting to be cooked, so there will be some new recipes being posted in the very near future!  Until then, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

See… the benefit of posting this blog post a month after I wrote it is that I can show you photos from my swearing-in ceremony!