Vareniki from Aunt Glasha, Пр-т Отрадный, 22 (2026)

09/02/2022

Sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. You know why there is no ice cream in my home? Because if it's there, I'll eat it all. Chips and crackers? Their days are numbered in hours, or maybe minutes.

So my pathway to moderation is just to not buy the things that I shouldn't be eating all the time. Or I will. Eat them all the time.

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Healthy Lentil Soup Recipe
(Here's the point where I blame my parents, you know, the ones who never fed us enough growing up; of course, when I mention this to them, you can practically see the indignation steaming out of their ears.)

Sally Vargas
Ingredients for Homemade Tortilla Chips
Back to danger. There are three staples that you can always find at our house: corn tortillas, oil, and salt. This is all you need to make the most wonderful, fresh, crunchy, perfectly golden, homemade tortilla chips.

How to Make Tortilla Chips: Cooking Methods
In fact, if you are cooking light, you don't even need oil. So there's no excuse not to make them, only every ounce of willpower we possess.

There are three basic ways that we make homemade tortilla chips around here.

The classic way, fried in a little oil.
Bake them in the oven.
Bake them in the microwave.
Fried in oil tastes the best (of course), but if we are in the mood for cutting back on calories, we'll bake them.

09/02/2022

What Is London Broil?
"London Broil" used to be a way of describing a method for cooking lean beef cuts such as flank or top round, which originally was to pan-fry it quickly on medium-high to high heat, cook it only to medium rare, and then slice it thinly on the diagonal.

The term London Broil has since evolved to a method of marinating, and then either grilling or broiling the steak. Furthermore, butchers now sell a cut of beef that is called a London Broil which is typically a couple inches thick and is top round.

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Sweet Potato Fries
How to Cook London Broil
My mother has a method for pan-frying her steak which she calls London Broil, which does not involve marinating. The steaks we use are usually an inch thick. Her secret?

Butter.

I know. I don't usually recommend searing anything with butter. If you're not careful, the butter will burn. But if you rub softened butter into well-seasoned steaks, and sear the steaks on a cast iron pan heated on medium high heat, just until you get a good sear and no longer, the flavor really is amazing.

Do you have a favorite way to prepare London Broil? Tell us about it in the comments.

08/02/2022

Of all pumpkin treats, pumpkin bread is my favorite. Specifically, my heart belongs to this vegan pumpkin loaf. After baking a batch I have to give the loaves away so I don’t go crazy sneaking off with slices throughout the day. It’s one of those recipes you make to confirm to yourself that fall has arrived.

How To Roast Pumpkin Seeds
This recipe started out as Piper Davis’ pumpkin bread from her excellent cookbook, The Grand Central Baking Book. Eventually, I veganized it by replacing the eggs with ground flaxseed, plus a few other tweaks. It’s been my go-to recipe for years. It’s a bit sweeter and cakier than other pumpkin breads, and it reminds me of the slices they sell at Starbucks—except moister. I love it with a cup of coffee.

10 Tips for a Beginner Vegan Baker
READ MORE:

The Best Pumpkin to Use in Pumpkin Bread
I use canned pumpkin purée. Yes, you can use homemade pumpkin purée, but to be frank, canned pumpkin is unfailingly better and it’s way less work. This recipe uses one whole small can of pumpkin so you don’t have to fret over how to use up a lingering few tablespoons.

Do not use canned pumpkin pie mix, which has spices and sugar already added to it.

Sara Bir
How to Replace Eggs in Vegan Baking
Eggs play an important role in giving quick breads structure. To make this vegan quick bread, you have two simple plant-based options that help bind the batter and lend the same cakiness that eggs would.

Flaxseed: Ground flaxseed makes a gel when you mix them with water. This gel acts as an egg replacer to add structure to cookies, cakes, and quick breads. They’re a trusty ingredient in vegan baking. You can find flaxseed in the natural food aisle of most grocery stores. They have a short shelf life, so it’s best to keep them in the freezer.

If you’re looking for tips on making flaxseed egg replacer read our post: How to Make a Flax Egg.
Aquafaba: You likely have a can of beans in your pantry, which means you have an existing alternative to a flax egg! Aquafaba is a fancy name for the liquid in a can of chickpeas. Yes, the stuff we usually tell you to drain and rinse off—turns out that goopy bean juice is a fantastic egg replacer.

To use aquafaba as an egg replacer in this recipe, just add 1/2 cup of the liquid from a can of beans and omit both the water and the ground flaxseed. Liquid from chickpeas works best, but I’ve also used the liquid from canned kidney beans and white beans and had success. Aquafaba stores for up to a week in the fridge, but you can also freeze it in ice cube trays for easy portioning. Pop the frozen cubes out of the tray and store in a zip-top bag.

08/02/2022

I'm on a mission this summer. A mission out of necessity, resulting from the abundance of certain summer squash I planted in my parents' garden. Four plants. What was I thinking?! One zucchini plant alone could feed a family of four.

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Zucchini Muffins
Every time I stop by my parents' house my mother glares at me accusingly. Actually, she's not the glaring type. It's more like a bemused look that says, "we have a problem, and it's your fault," along with an offer to cook me up some squash (she has an excellent recipe) and a plea to give some to me to take home.

So the mission? Come up with recipes that we all like and that use a lot of summer squash. For this I have been experimenting with zucchini bread for the last two weeks. We have a couple fine zucchini bread recipes on the site, but I was hoping for something a little more savory.

I tried all sorts of combinations, experiments with cheddar, with Parm, jalapenos, etc. Mom's response to most of them, "good if you toast them and then put sugar and butter on them." Not good enough.

Finally I succumbed to the classic somewhat sweet zucchini bread, but seasoned it with rosemary and lemon, so you get a savory note. More than good enough. Really good. My conclusion is that zucchini bread works well with sugar. Here we use 1 1/4 cups for 3 cups of zucchini and 3 cups of flour. So, it's not a lot, but it's enough to make a lovely, lightly sweet bread.

08/02/2022

If there is one thing you can count on during the summer, it's zucchini, and plenty of it!

Zucchini Muffins
These cheesy little zucchini bites are a great way to put all that zucchini to use. They're like tater tots, but made with zucchini, in a mini muffin pan. They're sort of a riff off our broccoli cheddar bites, and like their broccoli cousins, are perfect for breakfast, a quick snack, or a school lunch.

A touch of rosemary with some lemon zest with cheddar cheese and Parmesan work great with the zucchini. The lemon and rosemary are just enough to make these bites interesting, but not so much as to overwhelm.

Elise Bauer
The trick to this recipe, as with so many recipes that use shredded zucchini, is to first salt the zucchini and let the excess water drain. That's the best way to avoid a mushy mess when you bake it.

You can make them ahead, freeze them, and just reheat in a toaster oven or microwave. They're rather addictive, so freezing them is my strategy to keep from eating them all in one go!

SAVE IT PRINT

06/02/2022

Oh, the humble hot dog! It’s maybe the most iconic American children’s food, and with good reason.

Hot dogs are easy to cook—actually almost all of them are precooked so you can safely eat them cold out of the package, if that’s your thing. They are easy for kids to eat either with hands or chopped up into pieces. They are also pretty darn delicious.

How to Make Baked Acorn Squash
What Hot Dogs to Buy?
My kids will eat pretty much any hot dog, but if I’m making these for my dinner as well, I want a good quality hot dog. I prefer to buy all-beef hot dogs with a natural casing on them so they have some snap to them.

Hebrew National is my go-to brand if it’s available, and Nathan’s is a close second.

Why Bake Your Hot Dogs?
To make sure the hot dogs have a little snap to them, I recommend searing them in a skillet before baking them. Sure, it takes a few minutes, but it does add some nice texture to the dog.

Then baking the hot dogs allows the cheese to melt and the bun to get crispy on top. It’s a beautiful, and simple, combo!

Topped with cheddar cheese and diced onions, the hot dogs bake up beautifully (I recommend a top-cut bun for easier positioning in the baking dish). Top with any and all toppings you wish and serve them with a steamed veggie. I used cheddar cheese and chopped white onions, and after a few minutes in a 350°F. oven, dinner is done!

What to Serve with Your Hot Dogs?
To round out the plate, I recommend serving these with a steamed vegetable of some sort. I went with peas, as it’s an easy win for my kids (they actually eat them frozen), but steamed broccoli would be great also! Just something green!

The Dad Add: Pickle Relish
I can eat a cheesy hot dog as-is with nothing else and be pretty content. But I have nothing to do while the hot dogs bake anyway, so I like to chop up a quick cheater giardiniera (a.k.a. fancy Italian relish) with common store-bought pickled veggies.

I use a mix of dill pickles, spicy pickled cauliflower, and banana peppers, which adds a zesty crunch and cuts through some of the richness of the hot dogs. I chop the mix pretty finely since it’s going on the dogs.

I recommend making a double batch and keeping it in the fridge. Giardiniera is pretty solid on any deli sandwich, also.

The Kid Report Card
These hot dogs were a science class for my kids. The first thing they wanted to do to these beautiful hot dogs was completely deconstruct them. They both scraped the toppings off, pulled the hot dog out, and ate everything separately.

The key? They ate everything. A bite of hot dog there, a bite of bun here, and smiles all around, although they didn’t try the Dad Add. I tend to worry about my littlest one choking because she tends to try to shove WAY too much food in her mouth at once, so I took the extra step of slicing her dog up into thin slices.

Hot dogs are a pretty easy win for most kids so maybe explore different toppings with your kids such as spicy mustard, the Dad Add, or just keep it simple and count this as a surefire dinner win.

06/02/2022

This is a lazy, day-at-the-beach type of recipe – it makes the perfect meal to quickly throw together and devour after hours of lounging in the sun.

Here's what you do: Around 5pm, when everyone is trickling back to the house from the day's adventures, send someone out to fetch fresh fish fillets. Flounder or sole are both good, or substitute another mild fish.

How to Make Quick & Easy Fish Stew
Meanwhile, get the oven warming and delegate a few houseguests to prepare the breadcrumb topping. Shredded Parmesan cheese makes this particular task even easier, and avoids the question of whether your beach house comes equipped with a cheese grater.

As soon as the fish arrives, toss it in a dish with the breadcrumbs and pop it in the oven. Use the time while the fish bakes to open a bottle of w**e and throw together a salad.

By the time everyone is showered and assembled for dinner, the fish is ready, too.

Serve it straight from the dish in wedges – don't try to serve individual fillets since the thin pieces of fish tend to melt together in the oven.

Yes, it's a little messy and unkempt, but that's the way you roll during the summer. Nothing fancy -- just good cheese, fresh fish, and company to share it with. It’s summer and the livin’ is easy!

06/02/2022

During the cooler months, and sometimes during the summer, I make a huge pot of classic slow-cooked Bolognese to satisfy my craving for a thick and meaty pasta dish—and to have enough left over to freeze for later.

How to Make Quick & Easy Fish Stew
I call it my 'Patience of Job Bolognese' because it simmers for at least three hours, and up to four, but I discovered an easier way.

I tinkered with my favorite recipe to see if I could cut back on time, and I am happy to say that the results are in, and they are good!

What Is Bolognese Sauce?
As the name suggests, Bolognese sauce originated in Bologna, Italy. It is a thick meat sauce made with ground beef or a combination of ground meat such as pork, beef, and veal.

Typically, it starts with a soffritto (finely chopped carrots, celery, and onions) gently cooked in butter. Milk or cream, white w**e, and a small amount of tomato enrich the sauce.

The ingredients are added in stages, with each ingredient taking time to cook before adding the next ingredient. When they are all in the pot, the sauce simmers for three to four hours to produce a finished product that is more meat than tomatoes, with a very rich and luscious texture.

Sally Vargas
Tips for a Faster, Easier Bolognese Sauce
As much as I love the traditional sauce and even enjoy the slow cooking, sometimes at the end of a busy day I want my pasta tonight! Here are two easy things I did to make a quicker bolognese sauce:

Pulse the vegetables in a food processor instead of chopping them by hand.
Cook the sauce in a wide skillet instead of a Dutch oven.
The wider surface area of the skillet allows the vegetables to cook faster and speeds up evaporation, allowing the remaining ingredients to reduce and concentrate their flavors in less time.

I was down to about 35 minutes from start to finish, and I still had a sauce that was delicious and satisfying.

Did I lose anything in this condensed cooking time?

Truth: just a smidgen. The long-simmered sauce has a lot of depth, while the shorter version is not quite as sweet and creamy. But frankly, it wasn’t a deal breaker. Unless you taste them side by side, you can hardly tell the difference.

Bolognese in 35 minutes? I’ll take it.

Sally Vargas
What Pasta Goes Best With Bolognese?
While spaghetti is often a favorite choice (the British even call their dish ‘spag bol’), I love the long, flat ribbons of tagliatelle or fettucine. The meaty sauce is balanced perfectly with the texture of the wider noodles. You can use the sauce to make lasagna, too.

How Long Can You Keep Bolognese Sauce?
Stored in an airtight container, the sauce will keep for three to four days in the refrigerator, and up to six months in the freezer. It’s still safe to eat after that, but loses some quality.

I recommend storing it in small-ish (two-cup) containers to give you more choices when reheating. To defrost, place the frozen sauce in a pot, cover, and bring to a boil on top of the stove over low heat.

Vareniki from Aunt Glasha

09/02/2022

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