How to make a perfect brisket

Tonight is Rosh Hashanah, so of course I'm cooking. I keep seeing a bunch of brisket baking questions in my Facebook feed, so for anyone searching for how to make a perfect brisket, here's how.

Of course, there's no one way to make a perfect brisket so I should qualify this as my personal favorite way to make a perfect brisket. The recipe I use I think is the one often called Southern Brisket or Jewish Brisket, but to be honest this recipe didn't come from my family, so I really don't know how traditional, or non-traditional, Jewish, or southern, it is. The recipe actually comes from my brother's friend's grandma, who I think was Jewish, and also southern, but I'm not entirely positive.

Anyway, southern, Jewish, or not, this is a recipe for how to cook a perfect brisket every time.

Beef Brisket

Ingredients:
1 beef brisket, 6-8 pounds - get the best quality one you possibly can. I get mine from a specialty butcher.
1 jar Heinz chili sauce, 12 oz
1 packet Lipton onion soup mix
1 can of Coca Cola, 12 oz

Serves 8 to 10 people

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Put the brisket in a strong cooking dish, approx. 13 x 9 inches. A disposable aluminum one will not work. Don't risk it and learn the hard way like I did, just trust me you need a real baking dish. I use a stoneware Le Creuset Baking Dish and love it, but any sturdy pan will work.
3. The brisket should be placed in the pan fat side up. Score the fat all over with a sharp knife.
4. In a bowl, whisk together the chili sauce, onion soup mix and can of coke. Pour over the brisket.

5. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil, and put it the 325 degree oven.
6. Leave the brisket alone. THIS IS IMPORTANT. Do not turn, poke, prod or even open the aluminum foil. Again, I repeat, leave the brisket alone. I know this can be difficult, but trust me, you can't open it even once or you risk having all the heat escape and letting your lovely brisket dry out. I repeat one more time, leave the brisket alone. Cook for 3 to 4 hours; general rule is 30 minutes per pound.
7. Take the brisket out of the oven, cut off and discard the top layer of fat.
8.Slice the meat diagonally against the grain. Then, put the entire sliced brisket back in the pan with all the sauce, an make sure there is plenty of sauce covering the brisket slices. Let it rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes, then serve. If it isn't quite done, you can re-cover the pan, and put it back in the oven to cook a little while longer, then remove and let rest at room temperature before serving.

That's it! Serve the brisket sliced with plenty of sauce covering each piece, and if you choose, you can serve additional sauce on the side as well.

Brisket is just as good - many argue better - the next day, so be happy if you have leftovers, of if you like to cook ahead, make the brisket the night before and just reheat in a 200 degree oven before serving.

For all those celebrating, L'Shana Tovah!

Springerle - Valentine's Day Cookies with WOW

Do you want to be the THAT mom at the class Valentine's Day party?

Of course you do.

Then bring these cookies:

I'm actually not that mom. But my mom is, so she made these cookies for us.

If you also want to make them, here's how:

• Purchase a heart shaped cookie mold here.
• Follow the recipe for Perfection Springerle Cookies here. (Or the gluten-free recipe here.)
• Enjoy for months to come! Seriously - these cookies stay good for 2-3 months.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My kids are celebrating by coloring leprechauns and taking an after-school trip to the local ice cream parlor.

At first I said, "Why would we get ice cream for St Patrick's Day? That's not exactly Irish."

They replied, as if I had never celebrated St. Patrick's Day before in my whole entire life (uh, kids - you do know I lived in Boston for six years, right? In my twenties?), "we'll get green ice cream."

OK, then. St. Patrick's Day ice cream it is.

I'm also insisting on making an Irish dinner, and I will once again be using the inspired holiday recipes from If You Can Make That You Can Make This - Colcannon Cakes and Irish Soda Bread. Mmmm.

Valentine's Day - Celebrate with Fun Cards, Cute Handprint Crafts and Rose Scented Cupcakes!

Valentine's Day will be here in just a few days, which makes this the perfect time for making cards, doing handprint crafts with kids, and eating yummy cupcakes.

I just found a terrific design/kids/all-around-awesome blog Small For Big, which has several options for Valentine's Day cards you can make yourself:

• DIY Toddler Valenine's Cards with ways to take any doodle and make it worthy of mailing to the grandparents
• Monster Valentines you can dowload for free. All you have to do is cut, fold and send.
• And if monsters aren't your thing, there is also the too adorable Poppy Paper Doll, with enough amazing outfits to make Fashion Week proud.

And as always, if you are here from doing an Internet search for Handprint Crafts for Valentines Day, here are the best ones I've seen on my online wanderings:

• Kaboose shows how to make a Valentine Handprint Wall Hanging which is so cute it melts my cold anti-valentine heart. The hearts are made from painting the sides of the child's hands, and then having them press down on the paper with their little fists.

Photo from Kaboose.com

• Crafts-for-all-seasons has a whole tab of Valentine's Day Crafts, including some very sweet Handprint Valentines.  This craft creates the heart with the thumb and second finger of both hands, resulting in a very nice-and-a-little-bit-offbeat-too design.



Photo from Crafts-for-all-Seasons.com

• The Crafty Crow, which is always filled with incredible creations, has a round-up of 10 Valentine Crafts! My favorite is the Heart-in-hand pillow from A Little Great.  You clearly need to be a little great yourself to make this, but the directions are so good, it makes even a not-so-crafty mom like myself think I could pull it off.  And it really would be so, so nice to enjoy all-year-round.

Photo from ALittleGreat.com

And last, if handprint crafts aren't your thing, but baking is, one of my favorite blogs If You Can Make That You Can Make This has an amazing recipe for Rose Scented Cupcakes. We made them with the addition of India Tree Sparkling Sugar, and they were truly a beautiful treat. (Especially when you pair with Rose Pink Champagne for those of us in the over-21 category.)



Photo from Amazon.com


Do you have big plans for Valentine's Day?
However you celebrate, Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Chinese New Year! Happy Year of the Rabbit!



Photo by Choo Yut Shing via Flicker

 I've always loved Chinese New Year, even if I am just an on-the-surface observer. I like the extra-good food that comes out at Dim Sum, the dragon parades in the streets, and the happiness mixed with mayhem in the air. I also really like the shiny red envelopes and other decorations, though again, I am the first to admit I don't know much about the meaning and traditions behind them.

One of the great things about having kids is celebrating holidays with them. Because the same energy that makes kids the least good of companions on house-bound snow days makes them the best folks in the world to enjoy any and all holidays.

So when Chinese (or Lunar) New Year comes tomorrow, my kids and me are all about celebrating, even if I don't really know the first thing about how it is properly celebrated. (We had our New Year back in September.)

This is how these Jersey Jews are celebrating the Year of the Rabbit:

Making Pomelo Sea Breezes and Spicy Beef Lettuce Wraps using recipes from one of my favorite sites, If You Can Make That, You Can Make This 

Reading Cat and Rat: The Legend of the Chinese Zodiac by Ed Young

Going to one of the great events in Chinatown that run through the weekend.

Giving the kids these fabulous red envelopes with a little money inside to ensure this will be a prosperous year for them:

And last, my big brother LESster has picked this auspicious date to vacate his bachelor digs, leaving after a decade of living just steps from the heart of Chinatown. Good luck in the new year in your new place. Manhattan's loss is Brooklyn's gain.

Family one last time in the old neighborhood.

Happy 4708 everyone, however you celebrate!