Kugel, Miso, and Apple Crisp

What is any holiday without food? J. and I made some tasty dishes recently and I thought I'd share.

Savory Kugel

ingredients (serves 6):

• 8 oz egg noodle (the pack I got was 16 oz so I just took half) cooked and drained
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup sour cream (small container of sour cream was just this much)
• 1/8 cup cottage cheese (small container of cottage cheese) 
• 1 cup Gruyere cheese grated (if you don't have a grater, just cut it into small pieces. it melts well), separated into two containers. one for mixing and one for sprinkling.
• chopped chive (leave for very end otherwise it will fill your entire house)
• veggies (we used broccoli, you can use whatever vegetable you like)
• chicken (we got some grilled chicken from the hot buffet at the market while picking up groceries. saves cooking time for sure)
• 2 tbsp butter
• salt
• pepper
• bread crumbs

directions

1. preheat oven to 350F
2. mix cooked egg noodles with some melted butter and salt/pepper
3. in another bowl, mix eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, chive, chicken, broccoli, and Gruyere
4. add noodles to mixture above
5. add entire thing to greased pan, then sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup of cheese
6. sprinkle topping (bread crumb with a bit of melted butter)
7. bake for 30-40 min until edges are crispy and fork comes out clean 
8. great for dinner or a side

extra props for J. for researching and recommending this recipe. Pretty fun to make and delicious too.
source material: http://food52.com/recipes/7810-savory-noodle-kugel

mixing ingredients 

a square of the kugel with its crispy top

Miso Soup

ingredients

• 1 or 2 tbsp of miso paste (you can get white/red/whatever type you like, I used some type of reduced sodium organic kind from the supermarket)
• half a package of tofu cut up into cubes (silkier the better)
• ginger (sliced or grated)
• seaweed (papery thin kind)
• soup seasoning (I didn't have dashi mix, just used chicken stock. I guess beef stock or vegetable stock is probably fine)
• chopped scallion and/or cilantro (optional garnish, all to taste)
• salt / pepper (to taste)

directions

1. prep soup stock
2. add ginger to soup
3. add tofu and simmer
4. add seaweed until it spreads out 
5. take a soup ladle full of soup and place in a bowl, mix with a table spoon or more of miso paste
6. lower heat, lower above to soup and mix gently, do not boil over.
7. serve with chopped scallion or cilantro or both! You can add spinach or egg if you want. Miso soup is easy to make and always tasty.

Apple Crisp

ingredients

• 3 apples (I was trying to figure out granny smith or fuji tasted better... they were both fine)
• brown sugar (I didn't have this so I just used regular cane sugar) 
• lemon juice
• water
• topping: 
• cinnamon and nutmeg
• graham cracker crumbs (J. made the crumbs by crushing some graham crackers. put them in a ziplock bag and crush under a pan)
• melted butter
• more sugar

directions

1. preheat to 350F
2. cut up apples
3. mix with lemon juice (prevent browning) and sugar
4. put apples into greased pan with water, sprinkle topping on top
5. bake at 30-40min until tender
6. sprinkle more spices if required. 
7. Note: we had it for dessert with some graham cracker. and the next day we had them with pancakes! this recipe also has a nice side effect of spicing up the kitchen/room.

source material: various recipes found online. I didn't like any of them so ended up sort of mixing stuff I liked from various recipes and just baked it. here are some ideas: http://www.epicurious.com/tools/searchresults?search=apple+crisp%2C+ny+times

almost gone!