Who Can Resist a Recipe Called Shakshuka?

Not me.  When I recently saw a New York Times recipe for this Middle Eastern dish, which I’d never heard of, I was intrigued.  A few hours later I opened my daily email from The Guardian, a British newspaper, and what should be featured but a big story about Shakshuka.

Popular for breakfast in Israel, Shakshuka may have an exotic name but

Mom Money-Saving Tip 45

Make your own pie crust.  It may seem complicated at first, but it’s not.  And it will cost just pennies to prepare.  Click here for an easy recipe. 

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Mom Cooking Tip 46

If you’re out of milk and the recipe calls for some, water down 1 tablespoon sour cream or just use water.

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Teaching a Friend to Cook

It’s not often that I have an opportunity to give a cooking lesson.  Bart would rather eat a bowl of leftover plain rice than learn how to stir-fry some chicken to put over it.  But once a year or so my young friend Alayne drops in for the afternoon so I can show her how to make a few new dishes.  Then we eat the end results.

This time she wanted to know how to cook fish and bake a lemon meringue pie.  The Crunchy Baked Fish recipe she chose was easy. Click here for the recipe. (http://momscookinghelp.blogspot.com/2015/08/if-fish-didnt-have-bones.html).

Not so the Lemon Meringue Pie.  There are several ways to go wrong if you’re not concentrating.  One time I was so busy talking to a girlfriend while making this pie that I forgot to add the sugar to the beaten egg whites.  Only after I’d spooned them on top of the lemon filling and was putting the pie into the oven did I notice the meringue looked funny.  Luckily I was able to scrape the egg whites back into the bowl, beat in the sugar and return the now fluffy meringue to the top of the pie. 

Mom Money-Saving Tip 44

When a recipe calls for butter, consider substituting olive or canola oil instead. Not only are these oils cheaper but also they’re healthier. Note: this won’t work when you’re baking, unless the recipe calls for the butter to be melted.

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Question for Mom

Chocolate Cheesecake

If you open the oven door when a cake is baking, will it hurt the cake? --Emily F.

Possibly it could.  Keep the door shut until you can actually smell the cake—that means it has baked for at least 2/3 of its suggested baking time.  An open door lowers the temperature of the oven and can cause the cake to sink in the middle.  This is one reason most ovens have a light inside and a glass panel on the door.  If you want to see how a cake is coming along, switch on the light and look through the glass window. 

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Mom Cooking Tip 45

Crush nuts or make breadcrumbs out of toast by putting the nuts or toast into a self-seal bag and banging it with a rolling pin or side of a can.

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