I know my last post was a bit on the heavy side, so I have decided to go easy on you today. This one is all uplifting, so sit back and relax.  First of all, I have some fun news: despite (and who knows, maybe partly because of) the serious nature of what I wrote on Wednesday, people clearly are drawn to all the words in the title Brown Butter Brownies with Dark Chocolate Chunks, because they have gone wild for it on Pinterest! In just five days, almost 350 people have pinned the recipe! As someone who is just starting to learn about Pinterest, I find this kind of amazing. I don’t yet get exactly how the whole thing works, but am thrilled that people see the picture of these brownies and want to remember them. If you’re reading this now, and are one of those people, thank you! Every picture on Tasty Oasis is easily “pinnable,” so if you want to have a visual collection of recipes, pin away! It has boosted the traffic to this blog tremendously in such a short period of time, and even more people have subscribed to get emails about new posts. (Have you? It takes just a minute, and you’ll be notified every time something new comes out. You can click right here to do it now.)

A couple of weeks ago I posted a recipe for Noodle Pudding with Cinnamon and Raisins , also called kugel, which is a traditional side dish served at the Jewish holidays this time of year. Only slightly sweet, it’s a lightened version of an old family favorite, and one that I make year after year. But as luck would have it, later that same day I happened to see an article on Food52 called How to Make Kugel Without a Recipe, by Sarah Jampel. She has a great write-up about all the different ways you can take your kugel, and you should definitely check it out. But in one line she off-handedly mentioned pureed pumpkin, and all of a sudden my wheels started turning.  Why had I never considered this before? It’s fall, and pumpkin recipes are everywhere! And then I thought about my other fall love: apples. So I had to rush to the store immediately for more noodles and got started on recipe testing. … 

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As a kid,  there was always good food in my house:  healthy, nourishing,  and comforting.  But I was never aware of how it came to be.  I have vivid memories of grocery shopping with my mom (two overflowing carts to feed our household of six,)  but very few of her actually cooking  because I didn’t participate in it.  She tells me that she spent hours sitting on the kitchen floor pouring over “Gourmet” magazines, looking for recipes when my brothers and I were young,  but it doesn’t even sound familiar.  I know in theory that she cooked a Shabbat dinner most Friday nights until I was nine,  but I can’t tell you what we had at them. For a family that wasn’t very religious, I somehow only remember the special occasion foods she made like brisket and latkes with homemade applesauce at Hanukkah,  harroset (an apple, walnut and red wine mix served during the Seder) at Passover, and one of my very favorites: kugel on Rosh Hashana.

For us, kugel meant a slightly sweetened noodle casserole served as a side dish at the holidays. But as I grew older I learned that kugel means different things to different people. Both noodle “pudding”  and a savory potato version (that’s basically a casserole approach to latkes, potato pancakes, hash browns, or whatever you want to call them,) come from Eastern Europe and are a traditional part of Ashkenazi Jewish cooking . There’s even a carrot kugel, which we called carrot pudding that looks nothing like pudding at all (at least not in the Bill Cosby Jell-O sort of way,) but more like a bundt cake. It’s hard to believe it’s in the same category because it doesn’t even slightly resemble the kugel I share with you today. (But stick around, because I’ve got a pretty great recipe for that carrot one and hopefully I’ll get to it soon!)  If you want to know even more about kugel, there’s a detailed write up about it here.

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year, and part of how we celebrate is to eat foods that reflect the wish for sweet beginnings and good things to come in the year ahead. Apples dipped in honey start the night, and honey cake often ends it. But the main meal can incorporate that theme too. Which is why this slightly sweetened noodle pudding is the perfect side dish to serve at the holiday table with brisket or a roasted chicken, or even Spice-Crusted Roasted Salmon. Made with broad egg noodles, it’s a bit creamy, with the warmth of cinnamon and a juicy pop from the golden raisins sprinkled throughout. The top gets nicely browned, so not only is it delicious, it’s pretty to look at…. 

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