Food Friday–Living with adults edition

Recently my husband and I watched some videos from when the kids were little. For the next several days my husband kept musing about how adorable the kids were when they were small and how much he missed that time in their lives.

As I watched those videos while I did see how sweet the kids were, what I also remembered was how completely exhausting that time was. Watching those videos I was reminded about how difficult it was to balance the disparate needs of three kids of two genders with an eight year age span.

Not that there weren’t pleasure from their early childhoods, there were, and lots of them. But living with adults is pretty wonderful.I feel it every day, but some days more than others.

Our dryer is on the fritz.We are now waiting for parts. it has been several days without the dryer. Today I have been doing laundry in the machines in the basement. That activity has taken most of my day.

My older son has baked the challah and made meatballs and bulgher wheat for diner. He took on most of the burden of cooking for tonight.

I know that not only would he cook, but the food would be good and he would clean up after himself. Little kids are amusing but knowing that I don’t have to worry about how Shabbat dinner is being cooked while I am stuck in my building’s basement is pretty terrific.

My task was making the string beans which will be served on a bed of salad greens. I roasted them with olive oil, cider vinegar, salt black pepper and lavender.

I also made a peach pie with an almond crust.

My nephew’s birthday was last Sunday. He turned 22. I am giving him 22 recipes for his birthday.

The the nut crust and the pie were today’s recipes.

Recipe# 3
Nut crust for pie
This is easier to do in a food processor but is doable without. But first I am going to assume that you have access to a food processor.

Add to the work bowl of a food processor
1 c nuts
about 1/2 C flour
a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar
a hefty pinch of salt
spices that will taste good with your filling
process using the pulse setting

When it is well mixed add about 1/4 cut of water and process again until mixed

mush into a pie plate so that you have an even layer of crust all over the pie plate. if you work patiently you will have the mixture even and distributed up the sides of the pie plate as well

bake at 375 until it has solidified up a bit

and

Recipe # 3.5
If you don't have a food processor, put the nuts into a zip lock and close it up. Smash the nuts with something heavy, a hammer will work as will a book. when the nuts are fairly evenly smashed put the rest of the ingredients into the zip lok close the bag and mush the bag from the outside until the mixture is well mixed....then mush into the pan. The food processor is quicker...but you can still make a good crust without it.

while it bakes prepare your filling

and

Recipe #4
Peach Pie
but up a bunch of fresh peaches ( today I used four giant ones) and put them in a bowl
sprinkle sugar over the peaches.How much is up to you. You can use brown sugar or honey if you wish) I like to add spices, so I added some cardamom and some cinnamon. Sprinkle some flour over the peaches. Combine everything with your (clean0 hands and pile into the pie crust bake at 375 until done.

My son had noticed that we had some cherries in the fridge, so we decided to add them to the pie. We pitted the cherries with our thumbnails. I suppose there are fancier ways to pit cherries but this was efficient.

“Easy as Pie” isn’t just a figure of speech it is a truism.

Now I’m off the fold the last load of laundry for the day.

Shabbat Shalom!!!

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sarah in nyc

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