Serves : 8

Ingredients

• 1  3/4  lb                  meduim sized Yukon Gold Potatoes, unpeeled
• 2                               large onions, halved and thinly sliced
• 1/4   cup                  water
• 2 tablespoons         extra virgin olive oil
• 8 oz                          mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 10 oz                        (1 package) of  thawed, drained, chopped spinach
• 4                               cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon          ground nutmeg
• 4 teaspoons            chopped fresh thyme 
• 1 cup                        non fat sour cream
• 1/2 cup                    low fat milk
• 2 oz                          Gruyere cheese

Cook potatoes in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until just tender, about 30 minutes. Drain and cool. cut the potatoes into 1/3 ” slices, removing any loose peel. Set aside.

Combine the onions and 1/4 cup of water in a large nonstick skillet. cover and simmer over medium heat until onions are tender, stirring occasionally and adding more water by tablespoons if mixture is dry, about 12 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high, add 2 tablespoons oil, then mushrooms, saute uncovered until onions are deep golden, about 10 minutes. Add spinach, garlic, thyme and nutmeg, stir  3 minutes. Remove from heat.

Stir in sour cream and milk. Season with salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil 11 x 7 x 2″ glass baking dish. Layer half of potato slices in prepared dish, overlapping slightly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread half of the onion mixture over. Repeat layering with remaining potatoes, then onion mixture. Top with cheese. Bake gratin until hot, about 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes and serve.

Serving suggestion : Great with grilled salmon

NOTES : This is a great buffet dish, we doubled it fro a crowd of 16 people. I admit to using full fat sour cream though, and we substituted Swiss cheese for the Gruyere, which is hard to find here on Maui.

Recipe by : Barb

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Serves : 4

Ingredients

• 2 cups                        Jasmine Rice
• 2   1/2 cups               water
• 2  tablespoons         olive oil
• 1/4 cup                      finely chopped onion
• 1/4 cup                      apple, peeled, cored and finely diced
• 2 tablespoons          red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons          orange segments, finely diced
• 3 tablespoons          fresh basil, minced
• salt and pepper to taste

Thoroughly rinse the rice in cold water, until the water runs clear, and drain. Put the rice in a saucepan with 2  1/2 cups of fresh water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. until the water has evaporated and the rice is just cooked but firm to bite and not soft (the rice should have a risotto-like texture). You can also cook the rice in a rice cooker, but it may take longer.

Heat the olive oil in a saute pan or skillet and saute the onion, apple, bell pepper and orange over a medium high heat for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat, add the cooked rice and the basil, mix thoroughly, and season with salt and pepper.

NOTES : My rice was softer than the directions implied it should be, but it was good. Wonder if the “5 minutes” in the recipe should be 25 minutes? I prepared this dish hours in advance and put it in a casserole dish to be heated later. Also, I am sure this recipe would feed more than 4 people.

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Serves : 8                                       Preparation time : 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups                        Matzo cake meal
• 2 teaspoons              cream of tartar
• 2 teaspoons              baking soda
• 1 cup                          brown sugar
• 1 cup                          shortening
• 6                                 eggs, separated
• 6 cups                        carrot, grated
• 2 teaspoons              salt

Sift together dry ingredients. Cream sugar and shortening. Beat egg yolks until pale. Alternately add yolks and dry ingredients to creamed mix. Stir in carrots and fold in beaten egg whites. Grease loaf pan and pour mixture into a pan. Cook at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

NOTES : Well, I think this is Nana’s recipe. She doesn’t say what pan to use, but as I recall it was a loaf pan. also don’t forget to beat the egg whites until stiffish. I wonder if the cream of tartar is beaten with the whites, or added with the dry ingredients? I’m sure the cream of tarter is beaten with the whites! I think it stabilizes the whites. Whatever, it probably doesn’t matter. This has always been a favorite passover dish of mine, but not too many other people seem to like it very much. And note that this ‘pudding’ is not a dessert, but a side dish.

Recipe by : Nana

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Serves :

Ingredients

• 4                           Bacon slices
• 1                            onion, large
• 1                            green bell pepper
• 1                            red bell pepper
• 1 bottle                 chili sauce – Heinz
• 2 jars                    B&M Baked beans
• 1 can                     kidney beans, drained
• 1 can                     baby Lima beans, drained
• 1/4 cup                 brown sugar, or more to taste
• 2 tablespoons      Dijon mustard, or more to taste

Fry the bacon until crisp. Drain the bacon but save enough grease in the pan to saute the onion and peppers which have been roughly chopped. Saute until just barely cooked. Add chili sauce, about 2 tablespoons of mustard and about 1/4 cup brown sugar. Stir and taste. If its too sweet, add more mustard. Or, if it needs to be sweeter, add more brown sugar. Add all the beans. Stir and taste again. Simmer for 5 minutes. Pour into a baking pan. Lay bacon on top of beans and bake at 350 degress for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, uncovered.

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Serves : 10                                  Preparation time : 1 hour

Ingredients

• 3                               Large green, red and yellow bell peppers, roasted and peeled
• 1                                Large tomato
• 1                                medium sweet onion, or Maui Onion
• 1 teaspoon               sugar
• 1 lb                            pasta – tortellini, penne or farfalle (bow ties)
• 1/4 cup                     balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup                     pesto sauce or more to taste
• 7 0z                           crumbled Feta cheese
• 3/4 cup                    Greek olives, pitted or not
• fresh basil
• salt and pepper to taste
• fresh grated Parmesan cheese

To roast the peppers :  Put directly over flame or broil whole peppers. I  usually use the outdoor grill. Char and turn until the peppers are blackened evenly. Remove to a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let steam until cool enough to handle. Slip the charred skin off the peppers, open and remove seeds and then rinse gently. The less water you use in this process, the more flavor the peppers will have.

In a bowl, mix the sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper. Trim off the rough edges of the peppers and cut into narrow strips. Put them in the bowl with the vinegar mixture. Cut a tomato in half, place cut side down on a cutting board and slice into thin strips. This also goes into the bowl. Do the same with the onion and *1 Macerate all this together.

Boil the past, salt the water while the pasta is boiling, drain, and mix with the pesto. Start with a 1/2 cup of pesto, but you might want more. Remember the past will absorb the sauce as it sits. Add a little freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Pour the past into a shallow bowl. Spoon the pepper mix all around the edges. Top the past area with the crumbled feta cheese. Throw a handful of olives over the top, add more gratings of Parmesan cheese, and garnish with fresh basil leaves. Use the entire leaf to garnish, also cut some leaves in *2 Chiffonade to garnish. Separate, or not, and put a little on the salad

*1 Macerate means to mix it up good, even using your hands to blend all the flavors, but dont mash the ingredients).

*2 (Chiffonade means “made of rags” in French). Roll a few leaves together cigar style and then cut across the roll to make strips

NOTES : David Paul, a chef who has a wonderful and trendy restaurant in Lahaina, gave cooking classes once a month at the Kaahumanu Mall in Maui. These were free demonstrations. This salad was one of his lessons. I’ve made enough changes to have it now be my own pasta salad. To make a hardy salad, use tortellini pasta, fresh or dried. Farfalle (bow ties) are my pasta of choice, but penne pasta works as well. I use whatever prepared pesto looks good to me and a pinch, just use the roasted peppers from a jar.

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Serves : 6

Ingredients

• 1                               Eggplant
• 1 teaspoon              Salt, coarse
• 6 + tablespoons     Olive oil
• 1                                green bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into julienne strips
• 1                                red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into julienne strips
• 1                                large onion, slivered
• 12 oz                         fresh cultivated mushrooms, sliced thinly
• 1/4 cup                    flour
• 8 oz                          lasagna noodles
• 3 cups                      tomato sauce
• 1  1/2 cups              Bechamel Sauce
• 1/4 cup                    freshly grated parmesan cheese for garnish
• 5 oz                          goat cheese
• 1/2 cup                   fresh basil, slivered
• 8 oz                         mozzarella cheese

1. Slice the eggplant into 1/4 ” slices. Sprinkle them with the coarse salt, and let drain in a colander for one hour. Wipe off the salt and pat dry
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the peppers and onion, and saute over medium low heat for about 10 minutes,  until cooked through but not browned.
3. Using a slotted spoon, remove the peppers and onion from the skillet. Add another 1 tablespoon olive oil and saute the mushrooms for about 5 minutes, until cooked.
4. ** SEE NOTES **  Remove the mushroom from the skillet and add 3 more tablespoons olive oil. Dredge the eggplant with the flour, shaking off the excess and saute the slices on both sides, over a medium heat until lightly browned, adding more olive oil as needed. Transfer the cooked eggplant to paper towels.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
6. Bring 4 quarts of salted water to a boil in a large pot. Add the lasagna, and cook at a rolling boil until just tender. Drain and rinse under cold water and drain again.
7. Spread a small amount of tomato sauce on the bottom of a 13 x 9 ” dish. Arrange half the lasagna noodles over the sauce. Cover with the peppers, onion, mushroom and eggplant in layers. Mix the béchamel sauce and parmesan together, and spoon half of it on top of the vegetables. Crumble the goats cheese over the béchamel sauce, and sprinkle on half the basil. Top with more tomato sauce, and then layer the remainer  of lasagna noodles. Spread the remaining béchamel over the lasagna noodles, and sprinkle with the remaining basil. Top with remaining tomato sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella.
8. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until brown and bubbly for another 15 minutes.

NOTES : Here is my variation to this recipe. In step #4, Broil the eggplant, eliminating the flour and all that oil. Spray or brush the eggplant with olive oil lightly on both sides. Put the slices on a foil covered cookie sheet and broil on both sides. Be careful, it broils very fast. Also, you could use commercial sauces instead of preparing from scratch. This recipe is labor intense but the finished product is worth it….Also, it serves more than 6.

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Serves :   1                        Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pint                       Cherry Tomatoes halved or Roma tomatoes cubed
• 1 head                      roasted garlic
• 2 tablespoons        drained capers
• 2 tablespoons        olive oil
• 1 tablespoon          balsamic vinegar, or more to taste
• 1/2 cup                   calamata olives, pitted and chopped
• 1/2 cup                   parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup                   basil, cut into thin slivers
• salt and pepper to taste
• fresh mozzarella, as much as you like, cubed
• fresh parmesan for garnish

Cut the garlic head in half (across) and squeeze the pulp out. The cloves should ooze out easily. Combine all the rest of the ingredients with the garlic in a glass bowl and let it sit at room temperature while you boil the pasta of your choice. We like bow ties. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water to use if pasta nee Quickly drain the past and toss in the sauce. Grate fresh Parmesan on top.

Serving Suggestion : We serve this with crusts of bread and a green salad

NOTES: Be creative with this recipe. Change the cheese to smoked Gouda or whatever. You can add hot pepper flakes for more punch. All the quantities can be to your taste.

Recipe By : Linda McBride

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Serves : 2                             Preparation  Time : 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 6 oz                          Cavatappi or other spiral shaped pasta
• 1                                small butternut squash (1 pound approx)
• 5 cups                      fresh spinach leaves
• 3 cloves                   garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons            lemon juice, fresh
• 1/2 cup                    freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup                    chopped parsley or basil for garnish
• salt and pepper to taste

Fill a 4 quart kettle three quarters full with salted water and bring to the boil for cooking the pasta.

Peel and quarter and seed the butternut squash. Cut into 1/2 cubes. Coarsely shop the spinach and mince the garlic.

In a large heavy skillet heat some oil over a moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and saute the squash with salt to taste, stirring occasionally, until tender (about 7-10 minutes). If more liquid is needed to avoid the squash from sticking to the skillet, add a little white wine, broth or water.

While the squash is cooking, cook the past in boiling water until al dente. RESERVE 1/2 cup of cooking water and drain pasta in a colander

Add spinach and garlic to the skillet with the squash and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, until all liquid has evaporated. Add pasta and reserved cooking water and bring to boil. Season pasta with lemon juice and salt and pepper. Remove skillet from heat and toss pasta with Parmesan. Garnish with freshly chopped parsley and/or basil.

Suggested Wine  : White

Serving suggestion : Great as an entre, or side dish with chicken or port

NOTES : The butternut squash is labor intensive. I used a potato peeler to peel it. You may want to quarter and seed it first, but I think peeling the whole squash is easier.

Recipe by : A variation from Gourmet Magazine

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