This Mother’s Day, give Mom something really special: some of your home cooking. I’m not talking about a 5 course meal, although that is certainly fine. I’m thinking about 1 very special “something”
that will bring smiles and tears of happiness to her eyes.

Here are 3 delicious ideas, recipes included. Naturally, you’ll have to select your “project” based on Mom’s locale and whether you can cook “in person” or need to send your gift:
1) Apple Cake: I have baked this recipe about 5 times in the last few months. It is always outstanding and my family and I love it. Ships easily.
2) Challah French Toast and Cottage Cheese Pancakes are both outstanding brunch dishes. Just add coffee, orange juice and fresh fruit and you have terrific meal!
3) Tomato and Onion Tart is a savory dish that can be served for brunch or lunch. Pair it with a salad, glass of white white and you’re done!

This Mother’s Day, I will be in Pennsylvania at my son’s college graduation–a terrific Mother’s Day. But the weekend after, we will be celebrating Mother’s Day with my mom and Mother-in-law. I will definitely be cooking for that!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Do you know who is the visionary that brought exotic fruits to your supermarket shelves? Honestly, I had never thought about it, until today. Freida Caplan, who is 88 years old, started her business, Frieda’s Specialty Product,  50 years ago. The first female business owner at the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market, she made her mark for her interest in unusual fruits and veggies. Freida is most known for bringing Kiwifruit to the US but spaghetti squash and Asian pears are also tied to her legacy. I thank Frieda for her out-of-the box thinking as well as confidence that these products would appeal to us. Indeed they do!

I used to be a brisket purist and saute a couple of pounds of onions and brown the meat while making a big mess of my kitchen. Now, here’s what I do and the result is just as good as the messy and laborious method:
-line a 9X13 pyrex dish with tin foil. Use enough foil so that it can be tented above the dish. A 6 inch tent will do. Place the brisket on the bottom of the pan, on top of the foil.
-shmear a generous amount of ketchup all over the brisket
-add 2 cut up onions and 2 cloves of garlic (or more of each–you really can’t add too much onion or garlic) on top of the brisket
-add water to the bottom of the dish so that it covers about 1/2 way up the depth of the brisket. You can add some left over coffee for extra flavor. I have heard of some people adding coca cola to their brisket.
-tent the foil above–you are essentially steam baking the brisket
-bake in 350 oven for 2-3 hours. Check every hour to be sure there is enough liquid. The liquid will be your gravy so you need enough.
-When done, remove from the oven and cool. Cut in thin slices against the grain and put into a clean baking dish (one that you can serve from would be nice) along with all of the juices. Refridgerate or freeze. The day you are going to serve it, bake for another couple of hours at 350. Be sure to taste the sauce to see if you need salt, pepper or other spices that you like.

Yum.

Jane Moritz

Challah Connection

When it comes to making the Passover Seder Plate, most of us take a task oriented approach: Roasted Egg? Check, Horseradish? Check. Shank bone? Check. You get what I mean: it’s one of the seder tables’ most important items but making it is all about following the list of ingredients rather then how each looks or taste. Actually, the seder plate does have an opportunity for culinary creativity: CHAROSET*.

You don’t have to be Jewish to love Purim.

That goes for everyone of course, but most certainly college kids. Purim is about celebrating and partying and who does that better then college kids? (not that I am altogether thrilled with their abilities in this area)

As a mom of 3, 2 of whom are in college, I can attest to their love of having fun and here’s my point: hamentashen, challah, babka and black and white cookies are part of the fun!

Let’s just take my older son Sam (#2 Harry is an art student and seems to have far more limited time for partying-ok by me). Sam is a senior at a small liberal arts college where there are not too many Jewish kids. He was also the President of his fraternity. These 2 distinctions are what has taught me what I know–that everyone–Catholic, Buddist, Protestant, Atheist–loves our favorite “Jewish” baked goods. Over the last 4 years, I have sent enough challah and babka to fill all of the frat houses on campus and I am pleased to say that over the years I have received so many thank you emails and seen many posts on Sam’s facebook page like–”need challah”, or “where’s the hamentashen bro” “get your ma to send some brisket.” Of course I am kvelling. Fedex and I have singlehandedly introduced these yummies to people who had never had them and now they are clamoring for more.

As the good mom that I try to be, with admittedly easier access to the goods then most of you, yesterday I packed up good sized Purim gifts for both my boys. They’ll be getting all the favorites–challah, babka, hamentashen and Purim blowers. And of course there is plenty to share with their friends. Can’t wait to see the posts and tweets!

So if you want to wow your child and his or her friends, come to challahconnection.com and shop away. Purim is on March 8, but there is still time to order for on time delivery. You can put together your own Purim Gift or choose one of these shown here (my personal favorites). Happy Purim!!

Now that President’s Week school break and the Oscars is over, it’s time to face reality: Purim is next week, Wednesday to be exact. We know so many of you love sending Purim gifts and shalach manot to friends and family, but it’s time to wake up and smell the sweet smell of fresh baked hamentashen: Purim is a little more then a week away. What does this mean?

It’s time to go to challahconnection.com and shop for the finest Purim gifts available anywhere. Our hamentashen (the triangle shaped cookie that we eat on Purim) is fresh-baked-delicious and comes in five flavors: raspberry, apricot, poppyseed, prune and chocolate. While our Purim gifts are outstanding, so is our customer service. As so many of you know, we go way out of our way to make sure that your gifts arrive in perfect condition and on time (It’s a sad state of the world that our customers are happily shocked when we call or email to tell them that we changed their shipping method to save them money or that the shipping method they chose is not going to deliver the package on their specified date. We are constantly amazed that so many companies DON’T do this–shame on them!!).

Salespitch over–Please get your Purim shopping done–while we still have stock of everything on our website!!

With 23 happy years of marriage under my belt and 21.5 of them as a mother of 3 beautiful sons, one of my goals is to shine my love on them everyday, as many times a day as possible. Naturally, given my humanness, I am not always successful and my own needs sometimes get in the way. But I do try. So, when Valentine’s Day comes around I usually invoke the old Passover idea: What makes this day different then any other? Honestly, not that much. But now that 2 of my sons are away at school, Valentine’s Day for me is largely an occasion to send them some love and we all know that the mailable version of love is FOOD. So, if you are like me and you need to send some love to those who are away, the 2 gifts shown here; the SweetHeart Valentine Tin (above) and the outrageously yummy Brownie Gift Box (left) are 2  of my favorite delicious choices. While we do have a Valentine’s Gift department that has more Valentine-specific items, just go to challahconnection.com–our entire site is filled with “Mailable Love.”

Love and kisses,

jane

P.S. To see all of our delicious food gifts, click here!

This holiday season is going to be a remarkable and beautiful one. Simply by the fall of the calendar, people of many faiths will be sharing their holiday traditions—together.

As a Jew, I often feel isolated and left out when so many people around me are celebrating Christmas. Conversely, I know that my Christian friends often feel the same when we are frying up the latkes and lighting the menorah. This year, it will all be different.

This year, Hanukkah spans an 8 day period during which Christmas falls. Even better, Christmas Eve is on Saturday night—party night–and naturally, Christmas day follows on Sunday.

So, what makes this holiday season 2011 different from other holiday seasons?

We will all be celebrating together, on the same day, which is beautiful and remarkable because we will:
-Connect
-Share
-Love
-Build

For those of you who celebrate both holidays—and I know there are many—this year promises to have less stress and more joy. No need to have 2 celebrations, but rather one, joyous, peaceful one.

What to Bring to a Holiday Celebration
Going to a party where both Hanukkah and Christmas are being celebrated? This is a perfect opportunity to share Hanukkah traditions while also acknowledging Christmas traditions. Potato Latkes, Blue and White Cookies, a Hanukkah gift Basket–all lovely choices for sharing.

I wish you the warmest of holidays seasons. Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas!

Jane Moritz
Owner, Challah Connection

Here at Challah Connection, we are always developing new kosher gifts for you to share with friends and family. To that end, we travel to many national food shows and gourmet food shops in Manhattan, Brooklyn and our local CT neighborhood–wherever we know fabulous foods exist that can be paired into fabulous kosher gift baskets.

In time for your holiday gift giving, I am pleased to announce terrific new kosher gifts for Hanukkah and Christmas as well as some gorgeous new Judaica (menorahs and dreidels) that we have sourced for Hanukkah. All of these new gifts make terrific Hanukkah gifts and Holiday gift baskets.

One of my favorite new kosher gifts, NYC Food Tour Tower, is a collection of NYC iconic foods such as Dr. Brown’s soda, black and white cookies and more, assembled in sturdy “keeper” boxes that display a dramatic photo montage of NYC and Brooklyn’s top spots.

Another great new gift is our Happy Chanukah Chocolate Gift Box, so happy-looking and delicious.Our new Blissful Brownie Gift Box is great for large volume corporate gift giving or as a gift to Aunt Sue. As for Jewish and Judaica gifts, we have some gorgeous new menorahs, dreidels and decorations from Emily Rosenfeld, Gary Rosenthal, Tamara Baskin as well as a beautiful new ornament.
Shopping for a baseball fan? There are alot of you out there. I know that I will be giving my Yankee-fan-son “Jeter’s 3000 Hit Baseball.” For my nephew, who just moved into his first post-college apartment, what could be better than “Ballparks of the MLB,” a framed piece that includes real dirt from every MLB ballpark? Pretty exciting!

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to peruse our new and “old favorite” holiday gifts. As I hope you realize, we work very hard to find the finest gifts for all of your gift-giving needs. If you have product suggestions, please let me know, we want to hear them!

Jane Moritz
Owner, Challah Connection