Quick and Delicious Sauteed Greens (pareve)

INGREDIENTS:

Mustard greens

Rainbow chard

Green leafy radiccio

Other green leafy vegetables of your choosing

2-3 cloves garlic

Ginger

Olive oil

Salt (to taste)

Most of us don't eat enough dark, green, leafy vegetables which are an excellent source of fiber and iron. Additionally, these greens provide our diets with "bitterness" that creates an important balance in our digestive processes from our generally "sweet-oriented" eating habits. This is a very simple way to make these vegetables tasty so that everyone at the dinnertable will enjoy them.

Heat a large pan or wok over a medium flame, and add a tablespoon of olive oil. The leaves will release water once heated so there is no need to overdo it with the olive oil, since you want the leaves lightly dressed in oil, not swimming. Smash the garlic, remove the skins and add to the oil, stirring occasionally so as to brown but not burn the garlic. Take a small piece of ginger, peel or cut the skins away, and slice thinly. I enjoy the zing that ginger adds to this dish, but if you are a fan you don't need to include it. Add the ginger to the garlic and stir.

I used a nice mix of mustard greens, radiccio, and rainbow chard for this recipe. Kale, collard greens, chinese cabbage, swiss chard, and beet greens are all wonderful options to include. Mix and match as you like! Be sure to wash your leaves well and shake to remove excess water. Laying leaves one on top of the other, cut horizontally across the leaves to make medium sized strips. Add immediately to the hot pan, sprinkle with salt, and stir. In just about 2 minutes your leaves are ready to eat. You will see them turn a dark green color and relase water. Be sure not to overcook as the stalks should still have some crunch to them.

Serve hot or at room temperature, and enjoy!

Homemade Lemonade (pareve)

INGREDIENTS:

about 12 lemons, about 2 cups lemon juice

1 cup white sugar (or less, depending on your taste)

10 cups spring water

large bunch of mint (optional)

Having a good lemonade on hand reminds me of Mississippi, where lemonade is one of the staples you offer a guest who comes to visit before going out to the porch to talk about things. This recipe is so easy to make, you wont want to buy another store-bought lemonade that's chalk full of preservatives.

If you want a lemonade to serve that is already sweetened, go ahead and follow this next step. If you prefer and unsweetened lemonade, then skip this step. The benefit of having a pre-sweetened lemonade is that the sugar can be difficult to absorb in a cold drink, and often does not absorb evenly; ever get to the bottom of your drink and in your last gulp you discover that's where all the sugar you poured into your drink is! To have an even distribution of sugar in the lemonade, we are going to make a simple syrup that we will add to the juice of our fresh squeezed lemons. Take your cup of sugar and the spring water and combine is a small pot. Place the pot over high heat and bring to a boil, stirring often. Let boil for a few minutes before removing from the heat and allowing to cool to room temperature. This will be our simple syrup.

While the syrup is cooling to room temperature, take your lemons and roll them on a cutting board with the palm of your hands. Putting pressure on the lemons as you roll them helps bring the juices out and will make juicing easier. Cut each lemon is half and remove the juice. If you have a juicer, or lemon squeezer, that's great. If not, you can do what I do which is to squeeze the lemons into sieve and collect the juices in a bowl underneath. This way, I pick out the seeds after each lemon and add the pulp into the bowl. 12 lemons should produce about 2 cups of lemon juice.

Add the lemon juice to your pitcher and then add the cooled syrup to the lemon juice. If you like mint in your lemonade, you can add your washed mint to the pitcher at this time. Stir well and refrigerate until cool. Serve and enjoy!

Stuart's Oven Roasted Tomatoes (pareve)

INGREDIENTS:

20 roma or plum tomatoes

olive oil, to drizzle over roasted tomatoes

This is one of my brother's favorite recipes as it is easy to make and adds the wow factor to pretty much anything you make... sandwiches, pasta sauce, etc. The tomatoes, once roasted, are soft and still juicy enough to make a fabulous sandwich spread. So delicious, in fact, that you wont need any other condiment to make your sandwich delicious.

Preheat your oven to 125 F. Place whole tomatoes on baking sheet and place in oven. Leave about 8 hours, or overnight. About half-way through the roasting time, I flip my tomatoes and pull the dried skins off.

Remove your tomatoes from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature. Your tomatoes will not be dried to look like sun-dried tomatoes that you buy in the pack. They will still retain some of their shape. Once cool, store tomatoes in a tupperware or glass jar large enough to hold them all and drizzle with olive oil. Will last for several days in the refrigerator.