Hamentaschen

A nice hamentaschen dough recipe. Each batch makes 36 circles.

Ingredients Step
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
½ c. butter
1 c. sugar
Cream together. Beat until fluffy.
1 t. milk
1 t. vanilla
Add. Beat well.
1 egg Add. Beat well.
2 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
pinch salt
Sift together. Stir to make a soft dough. Chill in fridge for 20 minutes.
⅓ c. filling (e.g., cherry, apricot, prune, poppy seed, mini chocolate chips, raspberry) Roll out dough on a lightly floured board to ⅛" thick. Cut out circles. Add jelly to center and then pinch or fold three corners.
Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Source: Barb

Morning Glory Oatmeal

Ingredients Step
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8" square dish.
2 c. milk
⅓ c. maple syrup
1 egg
2 T. oil
1.5 t. vanilla
Whisk together the wet ingredients.
2 c. old fashioned oats (must be old fashioned)
1 t. baking powder
¾ t. cinnamon
½ t. salt
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl (this will be the primary bowl). Pour the wet ingredients on top and stir together.
½ c. raisins
½ c. pecans
2 T. coconut flakes
1 diced apple (~1½ c.)
1-2 shredded carrots (~½ c.)
Add to the wet ingredients. Stir to mix. Then pour into the greased dish.
½ c. pecans
2 T. coconut flakes
¼ t. cinnamon
1 T. brown sugar
pinch of salt
Combine in a small bowl. Top the oatmeal with this mixture.
Bake 40-45 minutes, until the edges are golden and the center is just set.

Source: WaPo

Strata

Ingredients Step
2k cups of bread Scantly fill a lidded baking dish with cubes of stale bread (you'll add more volume, and it'll rise more when baked). Measure the volume of the bread (it's probably 4-6 cups), and cut that number in half. We'll call half the volume of bread "k".
If you're going to make the strata the night before, first dry out the bread cubes by baking them at 250 degrees for 5-10 minutes, just until they start to brown.
k cups of eggs (~4-5 eggs per cup)
k cups of milk
seasoning
Beat eggs. Add the seasoning (e.g., salt and pepper, mustard, hot sauce, paprika, nutmeg, herbs, lemon zest) and mix well. Add milk and mix well. Set the egg mixture aside.
k cups of cheese (some reserved for topping)
k cups of extras
Butter the dish. Combine the cheese and extras with your bread in the buttered dish, layering or mixing together.
reserved cheese Pour the egg and milk mixture on top of the bread base. Press down to make sure all bread cubes have been submerged. Top the strata with reserved cheese. Cover and let it rest at least 30 minutes, and potentially overnight in the fridge.
When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the strata covered (until it rises too high), uncovering it only for the last 15-30 minutes to brown the top. Bake until the eggs reach 160 degrees. (Depending on how cold your ingredients are, baking may take ~30-60 minutes.)

Source: Anna Stockwell (epicurious.com)

North African Chickpea Kale Soup

Not truly North African, of course. But it does feature some nice warm spices.

This recipe makes enough to feed 2 people for a couple meals (it's only 4 cups of stock). To feed more people, double it.

Ingredients Step
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
Brown in the bottom of a soup pot.
2 cloves garlic, diced Add the garlic to the onion. Let cook about 1 minute.
¾ t. cumin
¼ t. paprika
¼ t. ginger
⅛ t. allspice
⅛ t. cayenne
pinch saffron, lightly crushed
1 bay leaf
½ cinnamon stick
Add. Let cook about 1 minute, stirring.
1 can chickpeas, rinsed Stir into spiced onion mixture.
4 c. stock Add. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes with a lid.
4 c. kale, torn to bite-sized pieces Add & stir. Ensure the kale is submerged. Serve once the kale is cooked to your liking (maybe 5-10 minutes?).

Source: Fat Free Vegan

Lentil Pierogi

It's a good amount of work to fold dumplings. But then again... dumplings.

It is worth the extra step to fry them.

Start with the filling so it has a chance to cool completely:

Ingredients Step
¾ c. brown lentils
2 bay leaves
Boil in a large pot for 30-40 minutes. Season at the end. Drain the lentils and discard the bay leaves.
2 T. butter
1 onion, diced
Cook in skillet until soft.
3 garlic cloves, sliced
¾ t. coriander, ground
½ t. cumin, ground
Add. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
½ c. sundried tomato, rinsed if needed and chopped finely
1 T. soy sauce
Add. Stir to combine. Remove from heat, then add lentils. Season with salt and pepper. Cool completely, then use as filling in dumplings.
Boil in well-salted water containing a splash of oil. Once the filled pierogi float, set a timer for 1-2 minutes more and then remove them to drain.
1 T. butter Heat butter in skillet. Fry pierogi.
parmesan Serve with parmesan.

You'll also need a dough:

Ingredients Step
450 g. AP flour
1 t. salt
¼ c. / 60 ml EVOO
1 c. warm water
Combine the dry ingredients, combine the wet ingredients, and then mix both together. Knead 4-5 minutes, until smooth and supple. Invert a bowl on top of the dough and let rest 15 minutes.
Divide the dough into 3 pieces. Roll each to ~⅛" thick. Cut out 2.5" circles, then roll each circle even thinner. (Don't stack them; they'll stick together.)
Fill pierogi into each dough circle by tablespoonfuls. Press edges to seal. (Using water shouldn't be necessary — the dough should want to stick to itself.)
2 floured towels Transfer each filled pierogi to a floured towel covered with another floured towel. Then boil in salted water with a bit of oil until they float, plus 1-2 minutes more.

Source: Michal Korkosz in Fresh from Poland