But you can regrow some vegetable scraps in water, as long as you have a little sunlight.

We saw this tip on Hidden Valley’s Facebook page and then did further research, ending up on Lifehacker.com. A reader’s comments on that site advises:

After the new plants have started, you can keep growing them in water or else transfer them to soil so they’ll pick up nutrients and become more flavorful.

Here’s how to do it from Lifehacker.com.
  

The traditional versions in Jewish households are noodle pudding (lokshen kugel), made with egg noodles and raisins; and potato kugel; but mixed vegetable kugels have become very popular in recent decades.

In our family’s tradition of excess, Nana always made a noodle kugel and a potato-carrot kugel. We always looked forward to them—especially the sweet noodle kugel—and always requested the crispiest† piece. Nana’s noodle pudding recipe is below.

KUGEL HISTORY

“Kugel” is a word from Middle High German meaning sphere, globe or ball. The Yiddish name likely originated as a reference to the first versions, baked in round pans to a puffed-up shape. (Today, kugels are often baked in square or rectangular pans.)

According to Wikipedia, the first kugels were savory casseroles made from bread and flour. Some 800 years ago, German cooks replaced the bread and flour with noodles or farfel (pellet-shaped pasta like orzo).

A slice of vegetable kugel, made with carrot, onion, potato and zucchini. Photo courtesy Good Eggs | SF.

Polish Jews added raisins, cinnamon and cottage cheese to their noodle kugels. Jews in different communities developed their own flavors. In Jerusalem, the kugel of choice is a caramelized sugar and black pepper noodle kugel. Here’s a detailed history of kugel.

 
*Rosh Hashanah literally means “head of the year.” Because of the nature of the Jewish calendar, the date differs each year.

†Bake a noodle kugel for a few extra minutes and the top noodles get crisper.

As with casseroles, there are as many types of kugel as there are cooks who conceive them. You may even have enjoyed kugel without knowing it: Baked rice pudding is a kugel (rice kugel). Carrot pudding is a kugel.

Savory kugels are most often potato kugels, but broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cheese, spinach, yellow squash and zucchini have become popular (usually with a touch of onion). Like cauliflower and mushrooms? Put them in your kugel. Here’s a link to many savory kugel recipes.

Sweet kugels are made with apples, butternut squash, cherries, corn, dried fruits, peaches, pineapple, rhubarb, sweet potatoes and more. You can use any fruit you fancy, from lychee to mango. Check out these sweet kugel recipes.

There are flourless kugel recipes for Passover.
 

RECIPE: NANA’S NOODLE KUGEL (LOKSHEN KUGEL)

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 375°F.

2. BOIL the noodles in salted water for 4 minutes; then drain. Combine the noodles with the other ingredients (except the almonds) in a large mixing bowl

3. POUR into a greased baking pan, 9″ by 13″ baking dish (substitute 9″ by 9″ square pan). Sprinkle the optional almonds over the top. Bake until the custard is set and the top is golden brown, about 30 to 45 minutes.
 
Enjoy the leftover kugel for breakfast, cold or warmed.
 
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‡Some people add a can of crushed pineapple. Nana would geschrei!
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Parma ham, also known as prosciutto, is an easy ingredient for appetizers and first courses, paired with anything from melon to salads.

This recipe from Italian chef Nicola Batavia, of Birichin in Turin, has eye appeal, crunch and, the palate-pleasing prosciutto and gin!

Serve it as a first course; or instead of the salad course after the main course, with a wedge of blue cheese.

If you don’t like cucumber, you can substitute fennel.

While the recipe is simple, the cucumber needs to be prepared a day in advance.
RECIPE: PROSCIUTTO-CUCUMBER ROULADES
Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. WASH the cucumber and cut it into strips. Put the strips in a container, cover with cold water and salt and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

2. DRAIN the cucumber and immerse in gin for 2 hours.

3. DRAIN again and pat dry with a clean kitchen towel or paper towels. Wrap small bunches of strips into slices of Parma ham.

4. SERVE the roulades on a plate with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and optional garnish.

 
Find more Parma ham recipes at ParmaCrown.com.

Both prosciutto (Parma ham) and Serrano hams are dry-cured: salted and hung in sheds to cure in the air. Both are served in very thin slices. (Country ham, preferred in the U.S., is smoked, and a very different style from dry-cured hams.)

While prosciutto and Serrano hams can be used interchangeably, they are different. Prosciutto is considered more salty and fatty. Serrano is considered more flavorful and less fatty. But that’s just the beginning.

 
They are also made from different breeds of pigs:

A final difference:

 
CHECK OUT THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF HAM.

The photo shows Restaurant R’evolution’s Lobster With Sheep’s Milk Gnocchi.

Rather than toss the lobster heads and tails*, they plated them with a dish of lobster gnocchi.

Instead of gnocchi, we made Lobster Newburg, one of our favorite special-occasion dishes (in a cream sauce with sherry, brandy and a touch of nutmeg—and the heads and tails as decoration. Here’s the Lobster Newburg recipe).

It’s beautiful (photo #1), and the most fun we’ve seen since Chef David Burke’s Angry Lobster On A Bed Of Nails (photo #2).

But there’s much more to place between the heads and tails. Just a few ideas:

 
You can even put the head and tail on a lobster roll, or have them adorn a bowl of lobster chowder or lobster dip.

Just set the head and tail flat on the plate. And keep recycling: At the end of the meal, you can wash the heads and tails and stick them in the freezer.

[1] Now that’s a presentation (photo © Restaurant R’evolution | New Orleans).

[2] This Lobster On A Bed Of Nails uses a florist’s form (photo © Chef David Burke | Facebook).

NEW SHELL LOBSTER: THE BEST LOBSTER YOU CAN HAVE

Between June and November, lobsters in the cold, clean waters of Maine shed their old shells and grow new shells. The result is known as Maine New Shell Lobster, also called soft shell lobster. It’s the sweetest, most tender lobster meat.

The superior taste and texture is a result of the pure Gulf of Maine seawater that fills the newly formed shell. It naturally “marinates” the meat, creating a more intense lobster flavor and added moisture.

A thinner shell also means that you can crack and eat the lobster by hand—no nutcracker necessary.

New Shells are prized by locals as a seasonal delicacy. But they are the best-kept secret in seafood. Even professional chefs don’t know about them, and both hard shell lobsters and New Shells are available in Maine throughout summer and fall.

Now that you’re in the know, now that you have to ask for your New Shells by name.

But thanks to advances in packaging and handling techniques, Maine New Shell Lobster, once only available in Maine, can also be shipped to you. Check Bayley’s Lobster Pound.
 
 
MAINE LOBSTER VERSUS CANADIAN LOBSTER

We recently attended an event to taste the New Shells, and met several chefs and lobstermen. We asked if they find a difference between Maine lobsters and the Canadian lobsters caught farther north in the Atlantic.

Their consensus is that, since the waters off of Maine are fed by the Labrador current which also flows past New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the lobsters are very similar.

They opined that local differences such as diet, water temperature and water quality—which easily cause differences in oysters—are not significant.

So buy American, but if someone offers you a Canadian lobster, eat it!

 
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†We disclose that these are Maine lobsters, but not New Shell lobsters. The available photos of New Shells were too plain.

We’re dazzled by this Rainbow Pizza. Why didn’t we think of it?

But thankfully, Ali at Gimme Some Oven did. Her recipe is made with vegetables that represent the colors of the rainbow:

 
It’s a reason to have a pizza party, pronto.

Head to GimmeSomeOven.com for the recipe and many more photos.

You can use a pizza or flatbread base, or as Ali did in this photo, Stonefire naan.

Call us when it’s ready to come out of the oven. We’ll be there!

Rainbow pizza. Photo courtesy Gimme Some Oven.