I wanted this recipe to appear alongside the photograph but for some reason WordPress wouldnt let me , Ah the woes of being untech savvy in 2014.

This is a wonderful and extremely easy recipe which I used to make all the time forgot about and rediscovered. The reason it is called Edith’s chicken is that I learned it from Edith Fuchs of Sydney Australia, my mothers lager shvester, her concentration camp buddy, a wonderful woman and wonderful cook who taught it to us while visiting New York almost a decade ago. It’s so amazingly easy that I wonder how I didnt think of it myself. Chicken, red peppers, paprika , garlic and potatoes? How could you possibly go wrong with those ingredients? Its a one pot supper that looks and tastes elegant enough to serve company. I’ve been making it every Shabbos for the past few weeks and don’t see myself stopping anytime soon. If this has whetted your taste buds, here’s the recipe

Ingredients

1 medium roaster, whole, excess fat and pin feathers removed

4-5 medium size potatoes, peeled and diced

2 red peppers sliced into strips

3 tomatoes , cubed

Lay vegetables on the bottom of a roaster under the chicken

Spice Rub

1 and 1/2 tablespoons best quality Hungarian paprika

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1-2 garlic cloves minced or crushed

Combine into a paste and rub on the chicken

Preheat oven to 450

When the oven is really hot (this could take 15 minutes of preheating) put in chicken and vegies. Bake covered for 50 minutes. Then remove cover and bake another 10 minutes

Eat right away. Serves four. Don’t freeze

The other day I discovered two left over hard boiled eggs and two soft avocadoes. When I looked at them together the proverbial light switch went off in my brain- avocado plus eggs equals guacamole. I learned that math from my mother. No, it isn’t Hungarian-they didnt have avocadoes in pre War Hungary. My mother discovered this recipe in Mexico where she lived after the Second World War, waiting for a visa to enter the US. It’s a keeper, easy to make and if you use light mayonaisse not even terribly fattening . Spread it inside a tortilla wrap add chunks of fresh tomato and cucumber slices and you’ve got a wonderful light meal.
My mother’s Egg Salad Guacamole
TWo hard boiled eggs
Two medium sized soft avocadoes
One tablespoon mayonaisse
One to two tablespoons finely minced raw onion
Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
Peel the hard boiled eggs and cut into chunks. Peel the avocado and cut into chunks.
Mash together or combine using the blade attachment of your food processor. Pulse slowly, otherwise you’ll end up with a smooth baby food like puree. The goal here is to preserve texture. Add the minced onion. Adjust seasonings. Serve with fresh vegies, crackers or as a sandwich spread
Refrigerate
Do not freeze
Serves four to six

The last time I was in New York I stared hard at a bottle vanilla beans.I’d never seen them in Israel and I’d heard that they were amazing and I wanted to buy the bottle but…..my sensible self kicked in.
“that bottle is glass. What if it shatters in the suitcase.
My spontaneous impulsive self fought back. I’ll take my chances or use bubble wrap it.
“But you are leaving today and bubble wrapping is such a pain,” my sensible self replied, and the bottle was left behind. But G-d smiled on me and
Two weeks after I got home I discovered loosevanilla beans on sale at Yom Tov’s gourmet market in Jerusalem.(I am told that you can find them in Mahane Yehuda also) at six shekels.Pricey for something that looks like tree bark , (a bit less than two bucks)but I was elated and I bought two.
The next question was what to do with them. Scraping out the insides of the pods adding them directly to cake batter was one option but my sensible self nixed it. It seemed too decadent and two uneconomical a use for something relatively pricey. The next idea was to them whole in a bag of sugar but my senible self pointed out an that ants crawl into my sugar bags with some regularity.Would I really want my precious vanilla beans to end up in the garbage? So I opted for the most sensible choice-making a bottle of vanilla extract.
Until I acquired those two vanilla beans, I didnt realize that vanilla extract could be make at home but thanks to the internet I learned that vanilla extract is a snap to make. It’s a two ingredient recipe. My favorite kind of cooking!
Until Yair Lapid raised liquor prices-to curb underaged drinking, he’s not my favorite politician but on this he has my support-alchohol used to be cheap in Israel. Now it’s not. I paid NIS 26 (about $7) for a miniscule tiny airplane sized bottle of unflavored Absolut vodka but never mind. I was so excited to be able to make my own vanilla.
There is really nothing to it. I split the beans with the tip of a sharp paring knife but you don’t even need to do that. It’s enough to break them into a few randomly sized pieces and scatter them hither and tither in the bottle. . For this, it’s wisest to first empty out the booze, using a funnel, add the broken pods and then funnel the booze back in on top of the broken pods.
After that store in a cool, dark place (not the fridge, but a closed cabinet is fine) and wait about six weeks. Open and voila, homemade vanilla. If you want to be fancy you can strain out the pods, but you don’t have to.
Ingredients
1/3 cup absolut or other unflavored Vodka
Two whole vanilla beans cut into small pieces
Combine and store for six weeks. Use as you would any other vanilla.

Here is what it looks like