Hmmmmm. Knish advice?

Last night I tried my hand at making a recipe for knishes. Ultimately, the recipe wasn't satisfactory -- but I think perhaps I wasn't making it right, or something.

The dough ended up far too thick -- my bad, for not rolling it wider. The dough circles themselves were too small, I think -- they should've been 3" across, and the biggest cookie cutter I could find was only about 2". So folding up the edges didn't work quite as well as I would've hoped. Moreover, I couldn't get anywhere near as much of the filling in as the recipe suggested -- a pound of ground beef, with onions and garlic, only got about half used on fifteen knishes.

Sadly, the meat filling itself -- ground beef, onions, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper -- actually ending up tasting bland. Not enough spicing, I guess. And the dough when cooked was quite flour-y and more heavy than I would've preferred -- I'll have to cut down the amount of flour in the recipe next time, I guess. (Not quite 1 and 2/3 cups seems like a bit too much for 2 eggs, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, anyways.)

Can anyone recommend a decent place to get knishes around Boston, so I can see what they're actually meant to taste like? *grin*

Crossposted from Kitchenklutz.

[Recipe] Sloppy Joes.

In wandering the grocery store recently in search of recipe ingredients, I came across the aisle with all the packets of premade spice mixes. You know -- instant beef stroganoff, chili mix, and (naturally) sloppy joe mix. I remembered how much I'd like the sloppy joes my mom made when I was a kid -- I haven't had any in years, I think -- and decided then and there to try and research a recipe for them.

It turns out there are more than just a few out there. But none of this "buy a spice packet" stuff for me. And nothing that starts out with the ingredient "2 cups ketchup". *shudder* No, I was determined to make it pretty much from scratch as much as I could. All things considered, it turned out pretty well, and surprisingly tasty.

( Sloppy Joes (with Picture) )

Tasty, messy, and sweet with just a touch of heat. Great comfort food, and easy to prepare.

Crossposted from Kitchenklutz.

The wonders of Penzey's Spices.

For a while now, starcat_jewel has been urging me to track down the local Penzey's Spices. Today, I decided to make the pilgrimage to the closest one -- down at 1293 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington, MA.

Penzey's itself is a top-notch place -- cheerful and helpful staff, excellently organized stock, and of course TONS of spices of all flavors everywhere to be seen. I picked up a double handful and then some of varied spices (3" Ceylon cinnamon sticks, minced lemon peel, minced orange peel, two flavors of Hungarian paprika (sweet and half-sharp, to be used in a 2:1 ratio at the lowest), cardamom pods, whole cumin seed, whole Ceylon cloves, whole nutmeg nuts and ground nutmeg, ground caraway seed (realized after I got home that I already had some; oh well), Balti curry seasoning, powdered star anise, whole celery seed, Oriental mustard powder, and gumbo filé powder).

All that, plus a $25 wooden peppercorn grinder (my glass one was left in the wrong place on the oven and, um, sort of half-melted) ran to just under $85. Considering how long spices tend to last me, and given the size of the jars (plus you can buy more in plastic bags to refill jars you already have), I'd say that they offer some fantastic prices. That's particularly true when one looks at what even the discount supermarkets charge for spices.

Moreover, I've got to say, I really like Arlington. It's got a lovely small-town feel to it, despite being less than ten miles from the center of Boston.

From I-95 down Route 2 to 1293 Massachusetts Ave. in Arlington.

Important note on getting there from 95, though -- once you get off route 2 east onto exit 55, turn left at the bottom of the off-ramp (Pleasant Street), then right at the T-junction about three-quarters of a mile up the street. I misunderstood the Google Maps directions, turned right at the bottom of the ramp ("towards Waltham") and ended up halfway to Belmont before I went "Hey, there's no sign of Massachusetts Avenue yet..." *grin*