logo design

Gallery Slide Show

What is a Balaboosta?
Balaboosta (n.)(bah-lah-b00-sta) A Yiddish term meaning the perfect housewife, homemaker, wonderful mother, cook, and gracious hostess. She does it all and does it well.
I make simple food with easy recipes and I like to try new things. My family and friends love my cooking and always ask me to share, with them, what I know about food, flavor, and technique.

I'm not a professional chef and I've had no formal culinary training. What I know and do in the kitchen comes from three women...Nana, Grandma Della, and Rose, my mom. Each one of them knew more about putting a meal on the table than any fancy chef in a white hat. They were the ultimate Balaboostas.

What I offer you is a lifetime of experience in the kitchen with my compliments and theirs. I hope they'd be proud. I will bring you my recipes as I make them with photos of the actual food I'm preparing. I'm no professional photographer either but I promise, my food will speak for itself in every picture.

The food on my table isn't stacked in a trendy tower.
Instead, my food is stacked with flavor and full of my passion for cooking. So please come in, make yourself comfortable, and enjoy.

To see amazing detail in any photo just click on it!
Don't forget to SIGN MY GUEST BOOK at the bottom of this page and/or LEAVE A COMMENT (be sure to leave your email address if you'd like a response)

Disclaimer: While most of my recipes are "Jewish Style", I do sometimes cook with pork. This might have been a great disappointment to some but my grandmothers knew that I live in modern world. I light Shabbos candles religiously but I have to admit...I do not keep a Kosher home.

Click here to RETURN TO MY MOST RECENT RECIPES
Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

Yogurt Noodle Kugel - Noodle Pudding


What is a kugel (koo-gel or ki-gel)? Kugel can be a side dish when it is savory, or, it can be a sweet dessert. In lay terms, a kugel is a pudding or casserole. It is a traditional Jewish food whether it is savory with onions and salt or sweet with sugar and raisins. Kugel is made with eggs and either noodles or potatoes. Generally a potato kugel is savory. Noodle kugel goes both ways.

The word itself, in Yiddish, means 'ball', but to me "Kugel" means delicious!

I give credit for the origins of this recipe to my Aunt Clara, a Balaboosta to the nth degree. She always had something wonderful cooking in the oven when I came to visit. It was either her liver in potato balls or her noodle kugel, which I couldn't get enough of.

I modified her recipe slightly to make it more 'figure friendly'. If you aren't worried about fat, sugar, and calories then just use full fat ingredients and white sugar in place of the Splenda.

My Yogurt Kugel is the perfect sweet compliment to any brunch or dinner buffet. Your guests will probably have eaten kugel, in some form, before. But they will never have tasted anything quite so good as this one and will be asking you for the recipe.

Ingredients...

  • 8 Slightly beaten Eggs
  • 1 Small (1/2 pint) Sour Cream (or low fat)
  • 1 Small Pineapple Cottage Cheese (if you cannot find this in your grocery store, simply use 1 cup of your favorite cottage cheese and two heaping tablespoons of crushed pineapple with the juice drained and squeezed out of it)
  • 1 Small 4 ounce Cream Cheese (or low fat)
  • 2 Fruit flavored yogurts - (apple is a good choice)
  • 1 Pound (lb) wide Egg Noodles
  • 1/2 Cup Sugar (or Splenda)
  • 1 stick sweet butter or 1/2 cup Margarine
  • Cinnamon
  • Optional - 1 Cup Raisins (I use white or blonde raisins)

Here's how you do it...
  1. Cook the egg noodles according to the package instructions for al dente. Drain.
  2. Melt the Cream Cheese and Margarine together and allow to cool slightly.
  3. In the same pot you used to boil the noodles (why wash 2 things)...Blend together the Sour Cream, Pineapple Cottage Cheese, Sugar (or Splenda) eggs, yogurts, melted and slightly cooled cream cheese and margarine, and the raisins (if you're using raisins).
  4. Toss with the cooked and drained noodles.
  5. Spread into a buttered or sprayed 15 X 9 x 2" baking dish.
  6. Sprinkle with Cinnamon.
  7. Bake for 1 hour at 350F until golden.
Delicious warm or cold.

No comments: