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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review

Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts

By Marialisa Calta


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | You've got to love the Fourth of July. There are, of course, all those historical and patriotic reasons, but there's also the fact that it's our most down-home holiday. Few people think of going out to a fancy restaurant for July 4. What's way more likely to be on the calendar is a picnic at the lake, a concert in the park, municipal fireworks, backyard sparklers and a neighborhood game of volleyball or Frisbee.


To give your Fourth of July spread a holiday air and distinguish it from just any old summer weekend gathering, you may want to go for a dessert with the red-white-and-blue theme. Red-and-sky-blue popsicles, vanilla ice cream with strawberry or blueberry sauce (or both!) and ice-cold watermelon will fit the theme. But if you feel like going that extra mile, make this Star-Spangled Cobbler and get everyone's attention.


STAR-SPANGLED COBBLER

For the crust:


  • 1 cup all-purpose flour

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

  • 1/3 cup butter or shortening

  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

  • 1 or 2 tablespoons ice water


For the filling:


3 pints strawberries

1 pint blackberries or blueberries

juice from one lemon

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes


Make the pastry: In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces, and distribute over the flour mixture. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the water over the pastry, and pulse until the dough clumps together. If it does not, add more water, a teaspoon at a time. Once the dough clumps together, form it into a ball and wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap, and refrigerate while you assemble the other ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly butter a 10-by-6-inch or 11-by-7-inch baking dish.

To assemble the cobbler, rinse the berries separately, and drain them. Hull the strawberries, and halve them. Stem the blackberries or blueberries if needed. Arrange the berries in a flag pattern in the baking pan, with the blackberries or blueberries grouped in the upper left corner and the strawberries in the rest of the pan. Sprinkle with lemon juice. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg, and sprinkle over the berries. Distribute the butter pieces over all.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry to 1/8-inch thickness. With a star-shaped cookie cutter, cut out six stars along one edge of the dough. With a knife, slice the remaining dough into six or eight 1/2-inch strips long enough to fit your pan. Arrange the stars over the blackberries or blueberries, and arrange the stripes over the strawberries.

Bake for 35 minutes, until the crust is golden and the berries are bubbly and tender. Allow to cool, and serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 8 to 12 servings


RED, WHITE AND BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

  • 1 cup sugar

  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil, such as canola oil

  • 2 large eggs

  • 1 cup half-and-half

  • 4 teaspoons baking powder

  • 1 teaspoon salt

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour

  • 1 cup dried cranberries or dried cherries

  • 1-1/2 cups large blueberries

  • 1/3 cup brown sugar, for sprinkling


Preheat oven to 400 F. Butter 18 standard muffin cups or line with paper baking cups. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugar and oil, and beat until well blended. Add the eggs, alternating with the half-and-half, beating after each addition. Then add the baking powder and salt, and beat well. Mix the flour in well. Using a spoon, stir in the dried fruit and then gently fold in the blueberries.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling the cups two-thirds of the way. Sprinkle tops with brown sugar. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly tapped.

Yield: 18 standard muffins

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Marialisa Calta is the author of "Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the American Family" (Perigee, 2005).

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© 2009, Marialisa Calta. Distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Assn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services