Apples & Honey

September 6, 2013

Happy New Year and L’Shana Tova!

Last night, Mike and I celebrated Rosh Hashanah at the casa de Ribnick. Neither of us have family in town, so we feel fortunate to have amazing friends who adopt us for the holidays. It makes Minnesota feel like home.

One Rosh Hashanah tradition is to eat apples dipped in honey for a sweet new year. The Ribnicks had this plus a variety of other delicious finger foods on the table for us to munch on, including some gorgeous challahs from Crossroads Deli and a homemade David Lebovitz Baba Ganoush recipe. There was also plenty of the requisite chopped liver, which isn’t my personal favorite but below is a picture of Laura enjoying some.

The main meal was epic – all the classics were present and accounted for. Gail makes a really good tomato-based brisket, and brisket always makes me happy. We inhaled masses of bite-sized knishes (mashed potato dumplings), which I’m told are made with puff pastry and boxed potatoes. There was also a great kugel (noodle casserole) from the Food for Show cookbook.

To contribute to the massive dessert buffet, I brought a Chocolate Ribbon Cake which is part devil’s food cake, part cheesecake. A big thanks to Chloe for introducing me to this recipe!

Speaking of buffets, you must see this one that Bill created by welding silverware together. It is one of the coolest things ever.

Hope the new year is a sweet one for you!

Until We Eat Again,

Two Happy Cooks

Fudge Ribbon Cake:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

Devil’s food cake mix (Betty Crocker, of course!) plus required ingredients

2 T butter, softened

1 T corn starch

1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 egg

1 t vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350′.
2. Prepare cake as package directs. Pour batter into well greased and floured bundt pan.
3. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese, butter and corn starch until fluffy.
4. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk then egg and vanilla until smooth.
5. Pour cream cheese mixture evenly over cake batter.
6. Bake 50-55 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool and remove from pan.
8. Top with glaze.

Glaze (single recipe below, but I double):

1 T butter

1 square unsweetened chocolate

1/2 t vanilla

2 T water

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1. In a small sauce pan over low heat, melt chocolate, butter and water while stirring.
2. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and sugar until smooth.

Written by twohappycooks Posted in Uncategorized