However, I have to say, I LOVE FRIDAYS. The weekend is fast approaching and I can’t wait for a lie-in (the Perfect Princess treat). Friday is fabulous, because it is all about getting ready for the weekend, which means getting myself ready of course.

Self-maintenance is part of my job description and like it or not, the older I get, the list of what needs doing seems to be getting longer. I don’t know about you, but am I the only person who’s become obsessed with eyebrow plucking (I have discovered that my left eyebrow hairs seem to grow at twice the rate of my right), hair tinting (I am keeping the colourist in business), and my nail technician has been known to make emergency call-outs, even in the middle of the night.

Therefore, today it is time to meet the trainer in the gym after the school run. Then when I have finished killing myself, I am still running in order to pick up my freshly baked challahs, where I catch up on all the local gossip. There are some benefits to queuing.  Then I nip over the road for an important meeting with my hairdresser, finishing off the morning with a dash to the deli and my Friday treat, a soy cappuccino and a low fat lemon poppy muffin, well there is a reason why I go to the gym. 

The afternoon will be spent dashing around my kitchen with the phone crooked under my ear, multitasking, as I get everything Princess Prepared for DE FAMILY FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER. As I finish loading my avocadoes (recipe below) and popping my Princess Perfect Potato Kugel in the oven, I catch up on all the news with my Princess Pals, who are also dashing around their kitchens doing very much the same.

To finish off Friday afternoon, when all the work is done, it is time to take a well deserved break and sit down in the kitchen, with all those delicious cooking smells permeating throughout the house. I take half an hour out to read The Jewish Chronicle (this is Britain’s main Jewish newspaper). Sometimes I turn the page and I think to myself that person looks familiar, "oh yes its ME", and I am reading my own food column.

So now it is time to go, the clock is ticking, I am sure you understand, as you are probably up to your eyes in it.  However, don’t think you have got rid of me that quickly as guess what?  Next month from November 6^th until 16^th I will be visiting your shores on my Jewish Princess book tour! If you would like to come and meet me I will be in Florida, Atlanta, and New York just drop me an email for further details to info@thejewishprincess.com.

For all those that can’t make it, but would still like to keep in touch, why not become a member for free, of my VIP Very Important Princess Club for all news, views and recipes join online.  I am also now starring in my own YouTube cooking editorials, so check out The Jewish Princess on YouTube.

So now to all my fellow Princes and Princesses, it is time to wish you Shabbat Shalom. My Princess Parting words of wisdom, wherever you go and whatever you do, don’t forget to stay, PPP  Positive Productive and Princesslike in everything you do x.

Filled Avocados

serves 8

2 hard-cooked eggs, grated

1 red bell pepper, finely diced

1?2 English cucumber, finely diced

salt and black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar

2 teaspoons garlic purée

8 small avocados

Put the eggs, bell pepper, and cucumber into a bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Mix together the olive oil, red-wine vinegar, and garlic purée.

Pour this over the egg mixture and fold together.

Cut each avocado in half and discard the pit. Place the avocado halves on individual serving dishes.

Spoon the filling into the hollows in the avocado halves. They’re supposed to be packed, so don’t worry if the dressing spills out.

Be careful when you remove the avocado pit using a sharp knife you don’t want to end up in bandages!

The post A Week in the Life of The Jewish Princess – Friday appeared first on Jewcy.

So if I haven’t received "THE PHONE CALL" I am up first thing Thursday morning unpacking my meat order, as once again I have invited a large gathering for Friday night-well my motto is, if you are going to roast one chicken you may as well roast three and just think of all the Friday night dinner invitations that will be coming my way. The trick to making an easy, stress free Friday night is to be Princess Prepared.

So today, the butcher has already delivered and I am peering into the box to see if I have been lucky this week, how do I judge this? If the box contains a carton of golden eggs-chicken eggs are now banned by the EU my Grandma always said we should never have gone into the common market, if she only knew, she would turn in her grave. Now if the butcher manages to get his hands on these delicacies, for me to get my hands on them, I have to be high up on his pecking order (please excuse the pun). YES, I have just found a carton containing SIX (I hold them aloft) not enough for everybody (thank goodness not everybody likes golden eggs) so the kids will be under strict instructions again to FHB (family hold back).

So for the rest of the morning I will be in a mad frenzy preparing as much as I can, because in my book Friday is a day for Princess Preparing ME, and I won’t give up my standing hair appointment for anything. Therefore, my chicken soup shissel at the ready (inherited from my Grandma), I will raid the freezer to find "one I made earlier" doubling up when making desserts is a g-d send. Lockshen will be pre-cooked and zip locked, the same applies for my matzo balls and even the vegetables and be trimmed, sliced and diced ready for action (Ok I admit it I bought them like that). Plus I will marinate my Chicken Marmalade (recipe below) and of course the table will be laid with the best of everything.

Now I shall look forward to tomorrow night when my family sits down to dinner and once again "ooh" and "ahh" over the chicken soup, is it a good yuch? Is the colour as good as last week? Will it cure my mother’s cold? Then of course there is a fight over who will get the extra matzo ball, and hopefully they will not fight about anything else. I will sit at the end of the table and survey my Princess realm remaining PPP Postive Productive and Princesslike in everything I do.

Chicken Marmalade

serves 6

1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces

1 onion, chopped

salt and black pepper to taste

for the marinade

2 tablespoons thick-cut marmalade

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons white-wine vinegar

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder

sprinkle of dried parsley

1 ¾ cups water

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Wash the chicken thoroughly and place it in a baking dish, along with the chopped onion.

Mix together all marinade ingredients, with salt and pepper to taste, and pour over the chicken.

Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, basting occasionally with the marinade. The chicken is done when the juices run clear.

The chicken turns a gorgeous golden color–rather like me after a spray tan!

The post A Week in the Life of The Jewish Princess – Thursday appeared first on Jewcy.

I feel exhausted just talking about it, because I have to admit it, I was a technophobe. I was the one clinging on to my antique mobile phone, because I was too scared to tackle a Blackberry, I was the one who found predictive texting as difficult as the thought of learning a new language and downloading photos, well, put it this way, I struggled with the leads never mind the downloading and cropping, that’s a whole new story. However, sometimes you realise that even though switching on the computer may fill you with fear, you have to face the fear and do it anyway.

I must say, that when you actually get down to it (another week, another course) you realise that you can in fact adapt to new technology and it wasn’t as difficult as it looked, (yes I eventually discovered the computer’s ‘on’ button.) Then realising you can do it, is incredibly liberating. Once you gain the ‘know how’, the possibilities are endless, and at last you are let into a secret world that your kids discovered years ago and can even master hacking into their Facebook! (A must for every Jewish mother)

So today, I am really enjoying the fruits of my technological training, as I have organised the Perfect Princess day out via the internet. A fabulous lunch with a free bottle of wine thrown in, courtesy of booking through Top Table. Discounted matinee theatre tickets for London’s latest hit show ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’, isn’t it brilliant how you can now see the theatre’s seating plan? I will never again be plonked behind a pillar again. After the performance I can’t wait for my afternoon tea at the Ritz, (scones cream and jam is my favourite,) sometimes it is great to spend a day being a tourist in your own town. This online reservation was made six months ago, as there is always a huge waiting list (probably all those tourists) and to work off all those extra calories, a little late night shopping, I received an online invitation to the opening of a brand new store in Bond Street (they didn’t have to twist my arm).

Of course the children are sorted, as my online grocery order has been DDD dispatched, delivered and dealt with. All instructions have been BBMed to their Blackberries "MUM IS NOT AROUND TONIGHT, DINNER IS IN THE OVEN." and even the oven is programmed to switch on, (I was very proud when I learnt this one!) Recipe for vegetable lasagne below. The tickets for the show have been downloaded and printed off, plus my sat nav is programmed in my Princess Prius and my Princess Pals have been pinged, "Do you fancy breakfasting in St Johns Wood at Richoux?" G-d forbid we miss a meal, well they do serve the best scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, and the have all pinged back an unreserved "YES".

So as I sit here sky plussing (I think you call it TiVo) tonight’s much loved television programmes, I am addicted to English soaps, Eastenders being my favourite. I think, what would I do without all my girly gadgets? Yes, this Princess has definitely learnt some new tricks. It must my powers of PPP Postive Productive and Princesslike in everything I do.

Vegetable Lasagna

serves 8

for the lasagna

3 onions, diced

2 eggplants, chopped

2?3 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic purée

salt and black pepper to taste

11?2 tablespoons butter

8 ounces spinach leaves, washed

1 cup mascarpone cheese

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1?4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

10 ounces fresh lasagna sheets

for the topping

2 tablespoons butter

1?3 cup mascarpone cheese

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Fry the onions and eggplants in the olive oil with the garlic purée until soft. Season well.

Add the butter and the spinach and cook until the spinach wilts; this takes less than a minute.

Remove from the heat and stir in the mascarpone, Cheddar, and nutmeg. Check the seasoning of the sauce.

Grease a baking dish (approximately 11 inches square).

Cook the fresh pasta in a big pan of boiling water with a dash of olive oil and some salt until al dente, about 2 minutes. Drain the lasagna sheets and lay them on a dish towel.

Spoon a thin layer of sauce over the bottom of the baking dish, then create a layer of pasta. Continue the layering until you have used all the sauce and lasagna, finishing with a layer of lasagna.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

To make the topping, stir the butter and mascarpone cheese together in a saucepan until melted. Season to taste.

Pour this on top of the lasagna and sprinkle the Cheddar cheese evenly over the top.

Bake until golden, 20-25 minutes.

A lazy lasagna.

The post A Week in the Life of The Jewish Princess – Wednesday appeared first on Jewcy.

Today I have been up early (before 9) and have been Princess Preparing a fabulous breakfast for my fellow committee members who are arriving at any minute. Catering for committee meetings has become quite competitive as (G-d forbid) there isn’t a choice of cakes, fruit, and the compulsory tasteless low-fat yogurt to make us all feel less guilty. I always add some honey nuts and seeds to the yogurt, yet all they seem to tuck into are the cakes.

So now my best English bone china is out-as my Grandmother used to say, "buy top quality and it will last a lifetime." Which is quite a shame really, as this set is positively antique, but in Princess Perfect condition, dating back from when I got married (as I said: positively antique) so I sadly have no excuse to buy a new set.

I would say to you that the coffee is perking, but in fact I have invested in a Nespresso. Just one note of caution if you buy the cheaper model (yes I did): you must remember to not leave it alone to do something else (the dangers of multitasking,) otherwise you will be express cleaning your espresso which will be all over your kitchen. Not everyone likes coffee (sad people, I am addicted but try and restrict myself to one cup a day,) and therefore I have to be Princess Prepared for all requirements. I have a Princess tea chest filled with calming, revitalising, boosting, detoxing, age defying leaves, some even from Fortnum and Mason but for these, FHB (family hold back) as they are JUST for the guests (it’s amazing how we all turn into our mothers) and I have even picked some fresh mint from the garden because there is always one-isn’t there?

Over the years I have always done charity work. My parents always taught me that giving is better than receiving, except when it comes to jewellery (well in my opinion). Growing up I have sung for old age pensioners (they paid to make me stop), taken part in sponsored walks (I chatted), in sponsored silences (I failed), and in sponsored swims (I drowned). Now I am Princess Proud to be a member of The Kiss for a Child committee, raising funds on behalf of World Jewish Relief for their children’s orphanages in Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. This committee started as a small group of Princesses and has ended up as a small group of Princesses. However this lot know how to get things done (well, they are Princesses). We have held ladies’ lunches, dinners and karaoke evenings, but landed on the Princess Perfect idea to raise money (over a million dollars over the years). So what is it? Well, I am sure like us, you are all hooked on Dancing with the Stars, in the UK we call it Strictly Come Dancing. So we came up with a brainwave of turning this into a charity event-sort of "Dancing with the Jews." This event has now become the talking point of the London charity scene, an evening filled with laughter, tears, drama, angst and amazing outfits. And that’s just the committee members.

So as you guys say, "Have a good day!" and remember to stay PPP Positive Productive and Princessslike in everything you do.

The post A Week in the Life of The Jewish Princess – Tuesday appeared first on Jewcy.

I am sure that when you think of London, you think: red double-decker buses, black cabs, smog (there goes the weather thing). Just like when I think of New York, I think of yellow cabs, pretzel stands, and amazing SHOPS (there goes my reputation) and Broadway of course.  However, all of our historical sites can be found in central London: Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Harrods and even though I do occasionally visit-Harrods somewhat more than the others, where I live is unfortunately not filled with historical sites, unless I count my high street cobbler, who has been there forever (cobbling is a dying trade) and is a relic himself, smoking fifty a day (very un-PC Princessly correct) sniffing shoe glue, but still there to fix any pair of Jimmy Choos etc. which happens to be most useful. And there is only the occasional black cab that has lost his way and is scuttling back to the West End.

So now I must introduce myself, "How do you do?" I am The Jewish Princess. Bet you didn’t think we had any over this side of the Princess Pond, but I am happy to reassure you that we are alive, well, and shopping. In fact, until I decided to come out of the closet (it was quite full) and star in The Jewish Princess Cookbook and The Jewish Princess Feasts & Festivals (just published in the USA by Sterling,) Princesses over here, were not so ready to wave the banner. However, now when I am recognized in my local deli, as fans peer into my shopping basket to see what I am making for dinner (sometimes I have to hide the ready made sauces) or in Brent Cross (my local shopping mall) where I am occasionally stopped, they proclaim that after reading all about me, that they believe they are in fact a Jewish Princess. Sometimes these Princesses are not even Jewish!

You see I had never thought of "Jewish Princess" as a negative phrase and felt that Princesses were getting a hard time. Therefore it was about time to re-brand, after all what is wrong with wanting to look after your family, friends but to also look after yourself?

So I hope that over the next few days you can make time between hair and nail appointments to join me and find out about my family tribulations, what I eat, what I cook, where I go and who I meet. YES, a week in the life of THE JEWISH PRINCESS.  Why not follow me even in your high heels and see if you can find a little bit of a JP in you?

See you tomorrow and remember to stay PPP: Postive, Productive and Princesslike in everything you do!

Cinnamon Cake

serves 10

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 ½ cups sugar

2 extra-large eggs

2 2/3 cups self-rising flour

1 ¼ cups whole milk

1 ounce ground cinnamon (a small pot)

For the Topping

1 ½ cups walnut pieces

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

4 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Beat together the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, milk, and cinnamon.

Spread the batter evenly in a 9 ½ -inch round cake pan with a removable bottom.

To make the topping, combine the walnuts, sugar, and butter in a food processor. Blitz until the mixture resembles crumbs, but be careful not to overdo it.

Sprinkle the topping over the cake batter. Bake for 1-1 ¼ hours.

Be sinful: Have a slice of cinnamon cake with butter.

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