Passover Grocery List

Now don't think you have to run out and purchase everything on this list right away. When I post a recipe, you may or may not have something on hand. When it comes to quiche, soup or salad recipes, you can definitely make substitutions with what you happen to have. Remember, cooking is not an exact science (like baking!), so if you dislike cilantro -like me- skip it! If you like it hot- add a jalepeno pepper. Oh, and by the way, even though the list of vegetables looks particularly long, believe me, you will go through them very fast.

Every breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack recipe will include the items on this list. Here we go!

For Snacking
Apples (for crisp, sweet ones, try a Fuji)
Pears
Bananas
Baby Carrots
Peaches
Grapes

For breakfast smoothies
Low or nonfat vanilla or plain yogurt
Fresh or frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)
Pumpkin puree (check the label to make sure it’s only pumpkin)
Honey
orange juice
Crushed ice

Protein
Lean Chicken breasts
Lean ground beef (90% lean or more)
Salmon
White fish fillet, like turbot
Eggs (lots and lots)

For flavoring
Limes
Lemons
Oranges
Fresh thyme
Fresh flat leaf parsley
Fresh mint
Fresh basil
Extra virgin olive oil
Garlic
Ginger
Chicken broth (a lot for soups)
Sun dried tomatoes
Pure maple syrup
Kosher for Passover Dijon mustard
Kosher for Passover white wine (cooking wine is fine)
Kosher for Passover balsamic vinegar
Kosher for Passover red wine vinegar


For salads, soups and side dishes
Golden beets (with their greens attached)
Mushrooms
Spinach
Broccoli
Asparagus
Zucchini
Carrots
Red peppers
Parsnips
Celery
Swiss chard
Scallions
Tomatoes
Yellow onions
Red onions
Sweet potatoes
Russet potatoes
Spring mix or romaine hearts
Quinoa

Dairy products
Low fat sour cream
Unsalted butter
Skim milk
Grated parmesan cheese
Grated swiss cheese
Crumbled goat cheese

Dried Fruit and Nuts (for snacking, salads, sides)
Raisins (golden)
Cranberries
Cherries
Dates
Figs
Pecans
Walnuts
Hazelnuts
Cashews

Passover products
Matzoh meal
Matzoh

I didn't include dry spices on my grocery list, but here's what is in my pantry that I'm bound to use:

Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
thyme
garlic powder
red pepper flakes
chili powder
curry
cinnamon
nutmeg
cumin
oregano
basil
paprika
cayenne pepper

Let's get this party started.

Here we go! Welcome to Test Drive Kitchen: Passover 2008 Edition. For the next ten days, I will be sharing tips on healthy, delicious, and affordable meals to enjoy during Passover. Why am I doing this? Simply put, this is my all time favorite holiday. It has always meant time spent with my extended family -and believe me, they are a fun bunch. We've had some hiliarious moments over the years during this holiday, and I will share a few with you this week. Also, growing up in a very non-Jewish area of New Jersey, I was often the only kid in the cafeteria with matzoh for lunch. Needless to say, being different wasn't always so easy. I can't help but think back to that time and marvel at my parents. I give them a lot of credit for infusing my sister and I with a strong committment to our Jewish identities.

Passover Basics: The Dos & Don'ts

(the following information was found on www.rabbinicalassembly.org - the Rabbinical Assembly website.)

Let's get this out of the way and start with what we can't have:

Say goodbye (for the week) to leavened bread, cakes, biscuits, crackers, cereal, coffees containing cereal derivatives, wheat, barley, oats, spelt, rye, and all liquids containing ingredients or flavors made from grain alcohol. Pasta is considered leavened, so that's a no-no, too.

Now, as a Jewish person from Eastern European descent (aka Ashkenazi), I will add a few other items to this list. They are: rice, corn, millet, and legumes (although string beans are okay.) This also means no items with corn sweetners, corn oil or soy oil. If you are a Jewish person of Spanish descent (aka Sephardic), you are free to enjoy these products during Passover.

So, what does that leave us with? Well, EVERYTHING!! Fresh fruits and vegetables, poultry, meat, fish, dairy products. Basically, Passover is a great opportunity to kick processed foods out of your life and embrace whole foods. Now do you see why I love this holiday?

I will admit, there are some real challenges. Breakfast is notoriously tough. During the rest of the year, oatmeal is part of my morning ritual. This week, I'll be sharing recipes that focus on fruit, yogurt or eggs. Another task to tackle is packing lunches for your kids. It's definitely a time to get creative.

I bet you wondering why I haven't mentioned matzoh yet. I will confess something to you. I like matzoh. I think it's very tasty. However, matzoh does not like me. Around the third day of Passover, my body starts fighting it (I won't go into details, but a few of you know what I'm talking about.) With that being the case, my hubby and I have only purchased one box of egg matzoh to get us through the holiday. Because I'm not a baker, I probably will not buy matzoh flour. If you're here to find out 1, 003 ways to make a meal with matzoh, you're out of luck.

What you will find here are meals made with real, unprocessed ingredients. You may discover a new vegetable or two along the way.

To all my new friends checking out this blog during Passover: Thank you for stopping by! I hope you take a few helpful tips and maybe a few recipes away from here. Please feel free to email me or leave a comment if you have any questions or just want to say hello.

To my blogger friends: Even if you don't observe Passover, I really appreciate you taking the time to read about something new! Please feel free to ask me any questions about the holiday or why we're doing this.

1) crumb: noun, a small fragment especially of something baked (as bread)

Wow, it's been a very busy weekend here. Hubby and I are hosting my cousin, his wife and their three wonderful and totally adorable boys (one 8 year old and a set of 6 year old twins!) while they tour Washington, DC for the first time. They've been here since Friday night and I've been cooking up some of my favorite dishes for them to try. Feeding seven people for five days is a great way to use up my remaining bread products - which is one of my goals as Passover steadily approaches. After they leave tomorrow, I will do a major clean up of my pantry (I'm talking industrial strength elbow grease) and make sure I wipe up every last non-Passover friendly crumb. It will be a Herculean task, I'm afraid, because I haven't been keeping it very tidy lately.


Speaking of crumbs, I've baked for my guests and sadly I don't have a picture of my efforts to show you.However, Eating Well magazine's Zucchini Bread and Cooking Light's Oatmeal, Pecan & Chocolate Chip Cookies were so tasty, that my hubby rated them high enough to share.

(Funny story: last week I made a salmon asparagus risotto that my hubby deemed good, but not "blog worthy." Yes, he enjoys the good life, doesn't he?)

Zucchini Bread from Eating Well magazine

1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup pecan halves
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
3/4 cup apple butter
1/3 cup canola oil
3 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 small zucchini)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans cooking spray. Spread oats and pecans on separate parts of a baking sheet and bake until lightly toasted, 5 to 10 minutes; let cool. Chop the pecans. Stir together all but 2 tablespoons of the toasted oats, the pecans, white and whole-wheat flours, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk together brown sugar, eggs, egg whites, apple butter and oil in another bowl; stir in zucchini. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until well combined. Divide the batter between the prepared loaf pans, smoothing the tops. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the reserved oats on top of each loaf. Bake until the tops feel firm when lightly pressed and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Let the loaves cool in the pans for 5 minutes; turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

• This is the first time I've seen apple butter as a substitute for oil. Usually, recipes call for applesauce in it's place. I just happened to have three jars of apple butter handy (dropped off on my doorstep by ambitious realtors!)
• Hubby and I enjoyed one loaf early last week and froze the second loaf for our visitors. I just double wrapped it in foil and put it into a large freezer bag. When I needed it, I warmed it up in the microwave for 1 minute. It was as tasty as the first loaf.
• When I reached for the brown sugar, I found it to be brick-like. I recently heard of a novel way to soften it. Apparently, putting a slice of bread in the bag with the sugar does the trick. Has anyone else tried this successfully?

Oatmeal, Pecan & Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Cooking Light

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 5 1/2 ounces)

1 cup regular oats

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate minichips

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt), stirring with a whisk; set aside. Place sugars and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg; beat until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Stir in pecans and minichips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until edges of cookies are lightly browned. Cool on pans 2 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

• To quote my younger self (straight from Jersey): Oh. My. God. These cookies are totally awesome.
• The dough can easily be rolled into a log, wrapped in plastic, and saved for a later date. I'm stealing a page from the Small Batch baking playbook by only making a small amount of cookies at one time.

On a completely different note, if you happen to live in the DC area and don't mind laughing until milk comes shooting out your nose, then stop by the DC Improv (www.dcimprov.com) tomorrow night - Tuesday April 15 at 8:30pm. I'm performing in the monthly DC Improv Comedy School cast show. It's the 5th anniversary show- well over 200 cast members have graced the stage. Tomorrow, I'll be one of 15 cast members. We had an all day rehearsal yesterday, and I'm honored to be part of this incredibly talented cast. Hope to see you!

Veggies at Work

Look at what Jessie at Cakespy (http://www.cakespy.com/) created for me!!! I'm a huge fan of both her blog and artwork. Her paintings of Lil' Cuppie - a very adventurous cupcake- make me giggle on a daily basis. My favorite thing about her work is the attention to details. Just look at the expression on the veggies' faces.

Thank you, Jessie, for beautifully capturing the inner workings of Test Drive Kitchen.

Ding! Round 2 with the Immersion Blender

It's been five weeks since I sprained my ankle and I'm finally back in fighting form. I'm driving again - sweet freedom! First stop? Whole Foods...yes, I know, you're shocked. Hubby and I brought home a major haul yesterday. Honestly, I may have gone a little overboard. So much that I actually wrote a list of every perishable item and taped it to the fridge. I'll let you know if this little reminder actually works.

Oh! On my way home, we drove past a Penzeys Spice store (how could I have missed that?!) and made a mental note to pay a visit this week. Hey, if you use Penzeys spices and have a favorite, please leave me a comment about it.

So, back to the hand blender. I've had a few people ask me which brand I purchased. It's a Kitchen Aid immersion blender. And I love it. This morning I was trying out smoothie recipes and put strawberries, blueberries, one banana, nonfat plain yogurt, a squeeze of honey and crushed ice into a plastic pitcher. Five minutes later, the hand blender did it's job and there was virtually no mess. Anyone who has spent an hour scrubbing out a conventional blender will tell you that the immersion blender is a great investment.

Tonight for dinner, I used it again to make Sweet Potato Soup. This recipe comes from a book called, "The Superfoods RX Diet" by Wendy Bazilian and Steven Pratt.

Ingredients
1/2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 carrot stick, peeled & sliced
1 t fresh grated ginger
1/2 t ground cumin
4 cups water
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled & diced
2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice

Garnish:
toasted pumpkin seeds & diced apple

In a stockpot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, celery, and carrots. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until the vegetables begin to slighly brown. Add the ginger, cumin, water and sweet potatoes. Stir well and cover the pot. Allow the soup to cook 45 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender. Add the lemon juice. Use the immersion blender to puree the soup. Garnish with toasted pumpkin seeds and diced apples. Add a dash of cayenne pepper if you enjoy a little heat!

• This was tasty, but if I'm being honest, it paled it comparison to the parsnip-pear soup. I think this soup might benefit by replacing the water with chicken or vegetable broth. Also, what happened to the salt and pepper? A little seasoning in the beginning would have helped.


• Don't skip the step of adding toasted pumpkin seeds and diced apples. The apples weren't part of the original recipe, but it seems like a natural pairing to me. The flavor was enhanced greatly with these two items.


• Also, the celery is a lot stronger in this soup than I expected. Next time, I will replace one celery stalk with a carrot.


• I'm getting the hang of the immersion blender! I found this to be a very easy dish to make and is almost completely hands off once you chop the vegetables. Chop & Blend. That's it.

Look what I made with my new hand blender!

Does this look good to you?






It sure tastes amazing! I've been eager to try this Pear & Parsnip soup recipe from one of my new favorite blogs, The Perfect Pantry. I'm going to send you right over to her house, because it's fun to peek into another person's pantry.

http://www.theperfectpantry.com/2007/11/garlic-pear-and.html


Even if you've never seen or tried a parsnip in your life (often described as a white spicy carrot), you've got to try this soup. The flavors are indescribably good.


By the way, it was quite comical to watch me use an immersion blender for the first time. My hand fatigued after five minutes! I had to keep stopping and starting and finally decided to leave the soup chunkier because I was so inept.


I'll just tell hubby that I prefer it chunky. Hey, look at that piece of pear. Isn't it pretty? It's supposed to be whole like that...um, garnish. Yep, it's a garnish.

You, yes, you, can make homemade ravioli

Truth be told, I made this recipe about two weeks ago and considered not putting it on the blog. It was delicious, fairly easy to make, but it was the phrase "1 stick of butter" which stopped me in my tracks.

After making this meal, I realized, a little bit of the sauce goes a very long way. As long as I drizzled and did not "glop" the butter sauce on the cooked ravioli, this was a dish I could stand behind. Make the dish about the ravioli and not the butter sauce, and you will enjoy it tremendously guilt-free.

Oh, and hubby thought this was the most beautiful plate of food I had ever served him. I wish I took a picture of it, but it was eaten that quickly!

Caution ahead: longest recipe title in Test Drive Kitchen history-

Butternut squash, sage, and goat cheese ravioli with hazelnut brown-butter sauce

For filling
a 2-pound butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground sage
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 garlic clove, minced
3 ounces aged goat cheese, crumbled (about 2/3)

60 won ton wrappers, thawed if frozen
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted lightly and skinned and chopped coarse

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°F. and lightly grease a baking sheet.

Make filling: Put squash halves, flesh sides down, an baking sheet and roast in middle of oven 30 minutes, or until flesh is very tender. When squash is cool enough to handle, scoop out flesh into a bowl and discard skin. Mash squash with a fork until smooth.

While squash is roasting, in a skillet cook onion and sage in butter with salt and pepper to taste over moderate heat, stirring, 5 minutes, or until onion is golden brown. Stir in garlic and cook, stirring, 1 minute.

Cool onion mixture slightly and add to squash. Add goat cheese and stir to combine well.

Bring 5 quarts salted water to a gentle boil for ravioli.

Put 1 won ton wrapper on a lightly floured surface, keeping remaining wrappers in plastic wrap, and mound 1 tablespoon filling in center. Lightly brush edges of wrapper with water and put a second wrapper over first, pressing down around filling to force out air and seal edges well. If desired, trim excess dough with a round cutter or sharp knife. Transfer ravioli to a dry kitchen towel. Make more ravioli with remaining wrappers and filling in same manner, transferring as formed to towel and turning occasionally to dry slightly.

In skillet cook butter with hazelnuts over moderate heat until butter begins to brown, about 3 minutes, and immediately remove from heat (nuts will continue to cook). Season hazelnut butter with salt and pepper and keep warm, covered.

Cook ravioli in 3 batches in gently boiling water for 6 minutes, or until they rise to surface and are tender (do not let water boil vigorously once ravioli have been added). Carefully transfer ravioli as cooked with a slotted spoon to a large shallow baking pan and add enough cooking water to reach 1/2 inch up side of pan. Keep ravioli warm, covered.

Transfer ravioli with a slotted spoon ( letting excess cooking liquid drip off) to 6 plates and top with hazelnut brown-butter sauce.

• I have a lot of suggestions for this recipe to make it go smoother. First of all, definitely use squash that has already been chopped and seeded. I find squash to be the hardest of all vegetables to chop and I will gladly spend the extra pennies for someone else to do the work!
• Instead of following their suggestion for cooking the squash, I laid all of the pre-cut pieces on a baking sheet and mixed it with 1 1/2 T of extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled it with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. I roasted it at 425F and it was tender after 40 minutes.
• The wonton wrappers are not tricky to use at all, but I strongly suggest only using 1 t of filling per wrapper and then, folding it over into a triangle. I went through several trials of amounts of fillings versus different folding (hey, I did have a fascination with origami for about six months in 5th grade!) options. It turned out that the ravioli that stayed intact were the ones with less filling and the most basic fold.
• In regards to the sauce preparation: first, put the hazelnuts in a ziploc bag and give them two or three "thwumps" with a rolling pin. Very therapeutic! Then, place them in a dry skillet (no butter or cooking spray) for about 4 minutes. Then, add the butter to start the sauce.
• I only made 20 ravioli pieces because it was just the two of us. I put the wonton wrappers away for another use and wound up using the rest of the squash filling as a "sauce" for penne pasta later on in the week.
• I added fresh sage leaves to the skillet as I was finishing the sauce. This recipe is totally worth the effort for the smell of sage and hazelnuts alone!