November 2010

Jelly Doughnuts Recipe for Hanukkah

by MomGrind

Sufganiyot are delicate, airy little rounds of sweet dough, deep fried, filled with jelly and dusted with powdered sugar. They are traditionally served in Hanukkah because they’re fried in oil, and Hanukkah is a celebration of the “Miracle of the Oil.”

Sufganiot (pronounced soof-guh-nie-yowt, with an emphasis on the last syllable) are quite different than American jelly donuts, in taste and in texture. They are similar to berliners, if you’re familiar with those. You basically make a sweet yeast dough, shape it into rounds, deep fry, fill with jelly, then dust with powdered sugar.

Sufganiyot are sinfully delicious and (needless to say) not exactly a health food. It’s a good thing we only make them once a year.

Jelly Donuts (Sufganiyot) Bread Machine Recipe

Recipe makes 20 sufganiyot

Ingredients
1 cup whole milk – warm it for 30 seconds in the microwave
1/3 cup warm (not hot) water
1 large egg, beaten
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
4 1/2 cups bread flour (find it next to the other flours at your supermarket)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 envelope rapid rise yeast. Make sure it’s fresh!
Strawberry jam (use smooth jam or jelly, not chunky preserves)
2 quarts Canola oil for deep frying

Directions
1. In a bread machine pan add the milk, water, egg, butter, flour, sugar, salt and yeast in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Set machine to the dough cycle.

2. When cycle is complete, remove dough from machine and place it on a lightly floured surface. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 10 minutes.

3. Using a sharp knife, divide dough into 20 portions, each weighing 2 ounces. It’s best to weigh portions using a kitchen scale, but if you don’t have one, you’ll need to eyeball it. Roll dough into a log, divide by half, then divide each half into five portions, and finally divide each of these portions in two.

4. Roll each piece of dough in the palms of your hands until you form a smooth ball. Place on a greased baking sheet. Cover with a clean towel and place in a warm, draft-free place, away from the window (a 100-degree F oven is great). Let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

5. Heat oil in an electric deep fryer to 365 degrees Fahrenheit. Fry one layer of doughnuts at a time, 1.5 minutes on each side, turning with a slotted spoon.

6. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Allow sufganiyot to cool for a couple of minutes, until easier to handle. Fit a pastry bag with a thin, elongated tip – I use tip #230 from this cupcake decorating kit. Fit the tip into the side of each doughnut and pipe 1 teaspoon of jam into doughnut. Alternatively, you could use a sharp paring knife to make a small slit at the side of each sufganiya. Use a small teaspoon such as a baby spoon to insert the jelly into the donut.

8. Generously dust with powdered sugar and serve.

More Hanukkah Recipes:

Baked Donuts
Baked Latkes
Potato Latkes

How Lucky We Are

by MomGrind

happy thanksgiving“I don’t want them to pull my tooth out!” complained my daughter, and rightfully so, from her point of view.

Me? All I could think was, but you are so lucky.

Standing there at the dentist’s office, my perspective was completely different than my child’s. He was showing me her X-rays on a computer screen, the X-rays that have enabled him to diagnose an issue that people in other parts of the world and in the past would not have even known about. And we discussed possible braces in 2012, to make those teeth not just healthy but also beautiful.

Looking around that dental office, immaculate, modern, and kid-friendly with TV screens on the ceiling, I thought to myself, WOW. We are so, so lucky. Allowing nature to take its course when it comes to our teeth is a disaster for most of us. Unless blessed with amazing genes, the entire system – mouth, teeth, gums, is so fragile, so vulnerable to issues and to disease. My late grandfather had lost all his teeth before he turned sixty. And he was not alone. Throughout history, and today too in many parts of the world, people suffer so much because of things that we take for granted, and teeth are just an example of course.

How lucky we are to be armed with all this amazing knowledge about how we need to take care of our bodies, with the tools to implement that knowledge, and – in many cases though admittedly not all – with the financial means to pay for these treatments.

I examined my daughter’s worried face, and I wondered if I could make her see that the minor discomfort we endure as we take care of our bodies is so worth it, is a blessing rather than a curse. Going to routine preventative exams, teeth cleanings, minor treatments and surgeries, even going through the trouble of eating the right foods (when we would rather eat junk), exercising (when we would rather watch TV), and the daily maintenance of flossing and tooth brushing and washing. None of these can be taken for granted in other parts of the world.

And as we undergo the medical treatments necessary to keep us healthy, doctors use anesthesia to make sure we don’t suffer unnecessary pain; they scrub their hands and sterilize everything to protect us from infection; and if something does go wrong, we can often fix it with antibiotics and with other medicines.

As I comforted my crying daughter, I tried to explain all of this to her, even though I suspect she’s too young to understand. At age 11, she has every right to be upset about the possibility of her tooth being pulled out! But later, when she’s older, I hope she’ll realize how lucky she is. I hope she’ll be grateful – yes, even for those minor discomforts that keep her, that keep us, so healthy and strong.

If you’re in the US, I wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving. May we all continue to be so amazingly lucky.

Your Life, As It Is Right Now, Forever. Do You Take This Deal?

by MomGrind

happy womanEver since I can remember, I was trying to figure out if I am happy. It’s stupid, really – this insistence on determining if I am happy in general, as opposed to experiencing moments of happiness.

The older I grew, the less I preoccupied myself with the “Happiness” question, simply because I became way too busy.

Yesterday I met with a dear friend, and thanks to him, I now have the best gauge I have ever had for answering the Happiness question. That friend is unhappy with his life and feels that he needs to make changes.

As he was trying to explain how he feels, he said something that made his misery very clear. He told me, “When I look at my life now, and I try to imagine myself living the same life forever, day after day, until I die, I shudder. I can’t handle the thought that this is it – that this is as good as it gets.”

After he had left, I started thinking about my own life. I asked myself the same question that he had taught me to ask: “If this is my life from now on, if this is my reality for the rest of my life, how do I feel about it?”

My answer? I WISH this could go on forever. I’m afraid it won’t, because of aging and illness and the kids growing and detaching and leaving. But if I could somehow make a deal with someone and freeze my current life and make it last until the day I die – I would make that deal in a heartbeat.

So at least according to this “test,” I am happy.

Do you agree that this is a good way to measure happiness? Or is it simply fear of the unknown and a desire to stick with what I know?

How do you feel about the “Happiness” question? Do you think about it often? Are you too busy? Do you think it’s a waste of time and energy, or is it an important question to ask ourselves?

Personally? I Find Fall Depressing

by MomGrind

red leaves

Winter can be magnificent and powerful. Summer is fun. And spring – my favorite season – always fills me with excitement and with a sense of renewal.

Fall? Not so much. I’m sure many of you love fall – it’s a season of bounty, of giving thanks and of slowly going back inside after a long, hot summer. But fall, to me, is a little depressing. Its colors are boring! Summer is bright yellow and blue. Spring is green and pink and red and a thousand other colors. Winter is pure and frosty and white.

But fall? Fall is brown. And gray. It feels to me like an end, not so much a beginning, and I don’t particularly like the in-between weather.

However, there’s nothing depressing about this beautiful tree, right next to our house.

tree in fall

I am such a city person that I have absolutely no idea what kind of a tree it is (if you do know, please tell me!), but it never ceases to amaze me and always catches me by surprise. One moment it’s just a boring tree, the next – in the spring – it is adorned with these beautiful, large pink flowers.

spring flowers

The same thing happens in the fall. Just a few days ago, we were standing right next to it, me busy getting stuff out of the car, my kids doing what kids do – jumping around – when my daughter suddenly told me, “Look how beautiful the tree is, mom. It’s all RED!”

And I stopped my busyness for a moment, looked at the tree, and smiled.

And then I wondered. What if I didn’t have a child? Would I have even noticed this beauty? I sure hope so. It scares me to think I wouldn’t have seen these colors. It’s so GROWNUP, isn’t it, to be so busy doing all this STUFF that we grownups do, that you don’t even take the time to look around and see the really important things. The beauty. It’s the part of being a grownup that I really dislike.

What’s your favorite season?

Sharing The Wealth: Free Yogurt Coupons

by MomGrind

voskos greek yogurtMy beloved (seriously) client, Voskos Greek Yogurt, sent me lots of free product coupons that are due to expire at the end of the year. Would love to share the wealth with my US-based readers – enter your zip code in the “Find Voskos” box on the Voksos website and if it’s available where you live, please email vered at momgrind.com and I’ll send you coupons! Depending on how many responses I get, I’m going to limit this to 10 random readers, so don’t be mad if you don’t get any.

Voskos Greek yogurt is a thick, creamy, delicious yogurt that provides lots of protein, calcium and live cultures with very few calories (especially the nonfat varieties). I mostly eat it straight out of the jar, or mix the plain nonfat with honey, fruit and nuts. If you like to experiment with different recipes, there are lost of recipes to choose from here.

Thank you Voskos. :)

Small Town America: Could You Live There?

by MomGrind

I grew up in a big city, moved away from home to live in an even bigger city, and am now living in a small (population 60,000) but very urban city, about 30 miles from San Francisco.

So I am definitely a city girl, and even though I love experiencing nature, rural areas and small towns when we travel, I don’t think I could be happy living in a small town.

So on one of our recent trips, after we had finished laughing at the name of this town:

Boonville

And were shocked at the population of this one:

Navarro

I became curious, and wanted to ask you – how do you feel about this choice? I know that many people love the feel of a small town where everyone knows each other, and so many have had amazing childhoods growing up in a farm, unlike my childhood, a latchkey child, scared out of my mind while waiting for my mom to come back home from work.

So, when I feel that I “need” everything that a city has to offer, is it just habit? Can we be happy in a setting that’s very different than how we grew up? Will you share your perspective with me? Do you live in a city, in a town, in a rural area? Are you happy about your choice?