• Break up a sheet of matzo into a bowl
• Pour just enough boiling water over the matzo pieces to soften it, lightly press matzo down with a fork (there should not be much excess water)
• In a separate bowl, beat the egg
• Once matzo is softened, pour in the beaten egg with the matzo and mix
• Heat a pan with oil or butter, and pour in the mixture
• Fry until golden brown (flipping is optional, but note that matzo brei rarely will look as good as it tastes)
• Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with honey

White Rice

• Put 1 cup of rice and 1 1/2 cups of water into a pot. Add the salt and olive oil, and stir gently. Bring to boil, uncovered.
• When the water has evaporated enough that you can pretty much see the rice, turn the heat down to 2 and cover.
• Let cook for about 15 minutes or until soft and tender.

Beans

• Empty the can of beans into a small pot. Fill the empty can halfway with water, and pour the water into the pot. Add the sofrito, salt, pepper, olive oil, tomato sauce, olives, and potatoes. Stir gently, bring to a soft boil, and then lower to a simmer.
• Let cook for about 10 minutes, or until beans are soft.

Picadillo

• Cut the half potato into cubes.
• Put the ground beef in a pan. Season with the Adobo, salt, sofrito, oregano, tomato sauce, and lemon juice, while stirring. Add the potatoes!
• Cook until browned! Be careful not to dry it out. It should only take about 7-8 minutes.

Once everything is cooked, put them in a bowl! I like to mix all the ingredients to get a good bite every bite.

• Cook whole box of macaroni al dente.
• Drain and set aside in a bowl.
• Heat butter, evaporated milk, cream of mushroom soup, salt and pepper in a saucepan until smooth and even.
• Then, pour over cooked macaroni and stir until all pasta is evenly coated.
• Pour mixture into a skillet or baking dish and top with a good amount of grated parmesan or gouda cheese.
• Cook in the over for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
• Then, using the broiler, cook for an extra two minutes to brown the top.
• Let stand for 5 minutes. Then, enjoy!

• In a large pot, boil water and cook noodles according to box directions. When cooked, drain well and allow to cool in non-metal bowl, stirring every so often.

  If using rice noodles, rinse a bit with cold water. 
• Meanwhile, combine all other ingredients - except carrots - with 3/4 cup of tap water in a blender and blend to smooth. Taste and adjust as desired (see note). 
• Pour sauce over cooled noodles - it will look way too runny and saucy for the volume of noodles but rest assured it'll absorb! Gently mix in carrots. 
• Cover and keep in fridge for at least an hour, stirring and tasting every so often. When serving, shower each serving with chopped scallions, peanuts & sesame seeds.

• Melt butter, then cool.
• Mix all ingredients, except coconut milk and butter. Blend well. (Mix dry and wet ingredients a little at a time).
• Add coconut milk and butter.
• Top with sesame seeds.
• Bake in greased pan (preferably 9x13 inch) at 350 degrees for one hour.

• Preheat oven to 300ish degrees. Cooking hotter and faster will make crispier cookies.
• In a bowl, mix flour, sugar and salt together.
• Add chunks of butter and mix with your fingers until it all comes together in a ball.
• Dump on a flat surface and slap, roll, or pound it out to about 3/8" thick. Thicker will be crumblier, thinner will be crisper.
• Cut into whatever size or shape you wish - I vary sizes because it's funny - and place on a cookie sheet. They won't expand much so can be placed fairly close together.
• Bake for around 30 minutes. They'll only take a little color on top but when the underside of one is golden brown, you're done.
• Take off cookie sheet to cool, on the counter or rack or whatever. Store in a tin if you have one.

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Sift flour and baking powder, set aside.
• In a mixer, blend oil and 1 1/3 cups sugar.
• Add eggs, one at a time, and mix thoroughly.
• Beat in vanilla and lemon juice. Blend in flour mixture and nuts.
• On a heavily floured board, using extra flour as needed, knead and roll dough until well blended and no longer sticks to the board. It should not be too hard or too soft.
• Divide dough into 6 parts and roll each into a long roll. Arrange rolls onto two cookie sheets, three to a sheet.
• Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture over top and bake for 30 minutes.
• Remove pans and cut dough into 1/2 inch strips, diagonally.
• Return to oven and bake for additional 8-10 minutes.
• Cool and enjoy.

• Make the schmaltz. Cover the chicken fat in water (just enough) and simmer low, stirring often, until the skin is brown and crispy, a little less than an hour. Reserve the skin (called gribenes) for the end of the recipe.
• Heat a couple of tablespoons of the schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) in a skillet and brown the chicken livers (don't overcook them! They should still be pink in the middle!). Remove the livers to a bowl that can collect any juices. Discard the liquid in the pan.
• Heat a couple more tablespoons of schmaltz and add the onions and season with salt and pepper. Cook them on low until caramelized, 30-45 minutes.
• While you let the onions cool, hard boil the eggs and then chop them.
• Place the livers and their juices in a food processor for a smoother texture, or chop by hand if you prefer a coarser texture.
• Add the onions and the eggs to the liver (I save a little egg yoke to crumble on top).
• Top with some gribenes, a little crumbled egg yoke, and if I have it, I throw some parsley on there too. The presentation of this dish needs all the help it can get. Serve with matzoh crackers (my mom always served it with Carrs Table Water crackers which is especially delicious).

NON-BAKE WEEK SOURDOUGH STARTER INSTRUCTIONS:

• Take your starter out of the fridge. Let it rise to room temp (~3 hours).
• Feed the starter with filtered water (room temp) and all-purpose, unbleached white flour. Ratio is 1:1:1 (starter/water/flour).
• Mix gently until the flour is incorporated.
• Let it do its thing on the counter for ~3 hours. Place it in a bowl and crack the lid to prevent explosions/leaks.
• Refrigerate at least a ½ cup for the next bake plus a little extra, and give the rest to a friend, flame, or neighbor so they can bake too.
• Repeat weekly.

BAKE WEEK SOURDOUGH STARTER INSTRUCTIONS:

• 24 – 48 hours before baking, take your starter out of the fridge. Let it rise to room temp.
• Feed the starter with filtered water (room temp) and all-purpose, unbleached white flour. Ratio is 1:1:1 (starter/water/flour).
• Mix gently until the flour is incorporated.
• Let it do its thing on the counter for ~3 hours. Place it in a bowl and crack the lid to prevent explosions/leaks.
• Keep ¼ cup for the recipe below, refrigerate at least a ¼ cup for the next bake, and give the rest to a friend, flame, or neighbor so they can bake too.

~12 hours before you want to bake:

• Wash your hands.
• Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix.
• Combine sourdough starter and water in a different container. Mix gently until fully incorporated (it’s a living thing).
• Combine wet and dry ingredients. Mix well for 3 – 4 minutes. You want a sticky, wet, shaggy mass. Not runny.
• Note that the next step, the first rise (or bulk fermentation) should result in twice the volume of dough, so if your mixing bowl isn’t big enough to hold twice the amount, transfer now.
• Cover with proofing bag, seal with a rubber band, set in a stable temperature environment (tip: place inside oven with oven light on), and let it do its thing until doubled (12 – 15 hours).

~90 minutes before you want to bake:

• Wash your hands.
• Liberally flour the interior of the chosen container for the second rise.
• Sprinkle flour over your work surface, pour/scrape dough onto work surface. Sprinkle flour on the top of your dough, and onto your hands.
• Pat dough lightly to de-gas it.
• Shape dough into a round loaf (tip: the plastic scraper helps here). As bubbles form on the exterior, pinch them to release gas. You want holes in the loaf, but mostly of a uniform size and on the interior.
• Transfer the dough to the container for the second rise. Cover with proofing bag, seal, set aside for 90 minutes.
• You’ll need to preheat your oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit, so depending on how long your oven takes to reach that temperature (mine takes 15 minutes) you may want to preheat now. If you choose to bake your sourdough loaf in an oven-safe pot, insert it into the oven to let it rise in temp when you pre-heat.
• Tip: I bake the bread in a pot in order to control and contain à la a baking bell, and to give the loaf a rigid, uniform shape. It’s not necessary, but I find makes it more manageable.

Bake Time:

• Wash your hands.
• Remove the container for the second rise from the proofing bag. Place parchment paper on top of container. Place sheet pan on top of parchment paper. Invert tray, parchment paper and proofing container upside down to encourage dough to fall from container onto parchment paper.
• Score the exterior of the dough with a sharp knife or blade. You can do any pattern you want, but a single line or an X is sufficient. This controls the rise of the dough when baking.
• Optional: if using oven-safe pot: put on oven mitts, open oven and place the pot-that-is-hot on stove burner grate or cooling rack. Remove lid. Lift the parchment paper on which the dough sits, place dough and parchment paper inside pot. Restore lid to pot and cut off excess parchment paper with scissors.
• Tip: to keep the crust of the bread from becoming too hard, mist it with water using a spray bottle right before baking.
• Put the dough in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
• Remove lid from pot and vent oven for the final 5 minutes of the bake.
• If you have a food/meat thermometer, insert it into the loaf. When the internal temperature is between 200 – 205 degrees Fahrenheit your bread is baked.
• Remove pot from the oven, remove loaf from pot, set on cooling rack.
• Wait until cool. Wash your hands. Enjoy!

• Steam many clams and save the resulting clam broth. Strain broth through a cheesecloth or other fine mesh strainer to remove sand and impurities, and put aside.
• Take clams out of shells, and - if using steamers - strip the "foreskin" from neck and put aside. Chop larger clams to size - ideally, 2-4 clam pieces would fit on a regular soup spoon. I sometimes supplement the steamed with good quality frozen clams, chopped. The key is to have lots and lots of clams.
• Chop a piece of fatty pork into small cubs and sauté over medium heat until the fat is drawn out. Discard the pork pieces.
• Chop 2 large Vidalia or other sweet onions and sauté in pork fat until translucent. Do not brown!
• Peel and cube potatoes. Par boil for a few minutes (not too much since they will simmer for a few hours in the chowder.)
• Combine clams, clam broth, potatoes, onions and some ground pepper in a chowder pot and simmer for several hours over low flame. Stir occasionally.
• Five minutes before serving, add whole milk. Do not allow the chowder to boil as it will curdle the milk. If you are serving the chowder all day, keep the flame very low and stir to prevent boiling. Season to taste and serve with chowder crackers or Saltines.

• Open the oysters & put them & their juice with the butter in a pan. Cook the oysters on low slowly stirring frequently watching for the oysters’ edges to curl.

  If you’re adding onions, cook them with the oysters.
• When the oysters are ready, stir in milk & half'n'half. Simmer, but don’t let this boil as the milk will curdle. It’s a simmer, stir, stir, stir dance.
• When it’s heated through, add seasonings to taste and serve with oyster crackers. Enjoy!