Noodle Kugel with Cottage Cheese

The timeliness of this recipe is a little off, being that Passover has long since passed over us, but who says you can't eat noodle kugel all year 'round?

I had the hardest time finding full-fat, large-curd cottage cheese, so I ended up using 2% fat/large curd cottage cheese. Being that there are two whole sticks of butter in this recipe, I think it was probably for the best.

Noodle Kugel
From: Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

1 pound wide egg noodles
8 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter, melted
2 pounds large curd, full-fat cottage cheese (two 16oz containers ... math!)
2 teaspoons vanilla
Salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and boil the noodles for about 5-7 minutes. Drain.

3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl or in an electric mixer, beat together eggs until fluffy.  Gradually add in the sugar, cottage cheese, butter, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

4. Pour the mixture into a 9x13 oven safe dish. Bake the kugel for 1.5 hours (start checking it after an hour or so), until the kugel is set. The noodles on top will get pretty crispy!

Holy Macaroons!

Holy macaroons, I've been busy in library land lately. 'Tis the season. T'was also the season for macaroons during Passover, and I brought these to Dan's Easter day Seder. They are so simple, as only Bittman's Ultimate Minimalist Macaroons could be. Ultimate. However, Bittman made them into fancy shapes, such as triangles and squares, and while I attempted this, after a while it just seemed silly. I don't really care if the macaroon looks like a triangle or a big giant blob, as long as I get to eat it. I also don't see how anyone could make them look as perfect as the photo in the NYTimes, which many of the commenters also noted.

I doubled this recipe to feed more friends, but I'll post the original recipe, with a few added notes and minus the fancy schmancy directions for making shapes that only a toddler might momentarily appreciate. I was able to get the full 6 cups of unsweetened coconut at the Garden for less than $3.00!

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
3 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
3 egg whites, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch salt

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well with a spoon, or your hands if you feel like getting sticky.

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Take a spoonful of the mixture and roll it in your hands, making a ball shape.

3. Place each macaroon about an inch apart on the baking sheet. Bake until light brown, about 15 minutes. Remove the baking sheet and cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes before eating. You can also pop one in your mouth right away, but the bottom of the macaroon will stick to the paper, so wait at least 5-7 minutes if you can.


This is my first attempt at using the Picframe app to add some visual variety to this blog. If you want to dip the macaroons in chocolate, you can use a double boiler to melt some chocolate chips. Then dip. Voila.