Hanukkah Kugel and More Comfort Food Holiday Recipes

Kugel. Photo by Corbis

Holidays are stressful enough — and if you’re cooking, double that. To make dinner pain-free (even fun) try these three yummy recipes guaranteed to impress even the most jaded of guests, courtesy of Scary Mommy’s Guide to Surviving the Holidays, an e-book by Scary Mommy blogger Jill Smokler.

The Best Kugel Recipe Ever
By Jill Smokler

If you’re a non-Jew, there are some traditional Jewish foods you might want to stay away from. Gefilte fish and chopped liver, for instance—you can live a complete and fulfilled life without ever tasting these. The same cannot be said for matzo ball soup, potato latkes, and hot-out-of-the-oven challah. Some foods transcend religion, and if you aren’t familiar with any of those, it’s time. Go, now. I’ll wait.

Kugel kind of falls in the middle. Every Jewish person I’ve made my recipe for says it’s the best they’ve ever had, but non-Jews are rather perplexed by the sweet noodle pudding that’s not a dessert but rather a side dish. This is a Hanukkah staple in our house, and it really is delicious, whether you’re Jewish or not. What you’ll need:

1 package egg noodles, cooked and drained

1 pint Greek yogurt or sour cream

1 stick melted butter

1/2 pound cottage cheese

6 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup dried cranberries

Graham cracker crumbs

Mix all ingredients together (except the graham cracker crumbs), and place in greased 9-by-13-inch pan.

Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs on.

Cook for about an hour (or until it’s bubbly and crispy on top) at 350 degrees. Serve hot, room temperature, or cold.

And now you’re an honorary Jew! Mazel tov!

Photo by iStock

Show-Stealing Molasses Cookies Recipe
By Jessica Griffin

These molasses cookies are pretty much like a party in your mouth. Seriously. Ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and brown sugar? I make them from early fall all the way through New Year’s. Oh, who am I kidding? I make them year-round and they show up at every family gathering. It’s tradition! (Cue Fiddler on the Roof music.)

But, here is the beauty of this simple cookie: they dress up the cliché holiday dessert and steal the show at summer BBQs when served with fresh peaches and vanilla ice cream. Yes, I have even gone so far as to give them as presents. Wrap them in cute parchment paper with twine and fresh rosemary—boom, you have just been included in the lucky recipient’s will.

Be warned: once you start making these cookies you are essentially agreeing to bring them to every gathering you will ever attend. What you’ll need:

3/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup blackstrap molasses 

1 egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream oil, both sugars, molasses, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl until creamy. If you use a mixer, use the paddle attachment on a stand mixer at medium speed. When adding flour mixture, turn the speed to low until well combined (or cream by hand).

Mix the baking soda, flour, spices and salt together in a small bowl and gradually add to your wet ingredients. Mix gently until well combined. At this point you may refrigerate dough if it is too soft to roll into balls.

Scoop dough into 1-inch balls and roll in granulated sugar. Place about 3 inches apart—cookies will spread.

Bake for about 10 minutes or just until tops start to have a crackled appearance. Don’t over bake!

Let them sit on cookie sheet until cooled and then hide them until ready to serve.

Photo by iStock

Punch-Your-Husband-in-the-Face-if-He-Asks-for-Stovetop-One-More-Time Stuffing Recipe
By Abby Byrd

This year, perhaps you’ve vowed to make an original holiday dish that will become family legend. And perhaps your efforts to create said dish have been trampled upon at every turn by people who keep asking why we aren’t having “the stuff in the box.” We are having homemade stuffing, you answer, because family traditions do not come in a box.

Perhaps your husband looks at you warily, and then reminds you how “savory” he finds Stove Top. Give a tight-lipped smile and tell him that your stuffing has sausage in it, and he will reluctantly retreat. Do NOT tell him about the cranberries and apples.

On dinner day, prep the following ingredients by chopping them and putting them aside, maybe in adorable little ramekins that you can photograph, if you are inclined to do that sort of thing.

1 medium onion

2–3 stalks celery

1 medium apple

1 cup fresh parsley

2 1/2 tablespoons fresh or dried sage 

1 tablespoon fresh or dried rosemary

1/2 tablespoon fresh or dried thyme

In a large skillet, sauté onion, celery, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Add a bag of precooked turkey sausage crumbles (or fresh turkey sausage, if you’re feeling generous) and cook for a few minutes to blend flavors.

While this is cooking, dump your 14-ounce bag of prepared Pepperidge Farm stuffing cubes into a bowl (or a greased baking dish if you don’t plan to stuff a bird), and get ready your carton of turkey or chicken stock and 4 tablespoons of melted butter.

Pour sausage mixture over the stuffing cubes. Mix in chopped apples, parsley, and 3/4 cup of dried cranberries.

Argue with mother or mother-in-law or both about how much stock to add to the mixture. Strive to walk the fine line between too-wet stuffing and too-dry stuffing. (You need about a cup if you’re stuffing a bird but closer to 3 cups if you’re baking the stuffing separately. Eyeball it.) Drizzle with melted butter.

Note from Jill Smokler: 

Drink at least two beers or one glass of wine before packing this mixture into a dead bird’s body cavity. If you’re preparing the stuffing separately, simply cover and bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes. Uncover for the last ten minutes or so if you want the top nice and crispy.

Eat a bag of Hershey’s bars and have another glass of wine while this fabulous dish is baking. You’ve earned it. Nobody in your house better even think about asking for Stove Top.

Excerpted from Scary Mommy’s Guide to Surviving the Holidays, by New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed Scary Mommy blogger Jill Smokler.