Cook of the Week: Rita Ringel
Monday, October 23, 2006
Name: Rita Ringel.
Hometown: Cincinnati, but has lived in Hamilton for 50 years.
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Work: An active community
volunteer.
How long has she been cooking: Ringel started cooking as a child with her mother.
How often she cooks: She cooks daily for her family and for Jewish holidays. In addition, Ringel prepared a wide array of cookies and other desserts for the Champagne Brunch to benefit the Emergency Money Fund.
Cooking mentors: Because Ringel has been cooking as long as she can remember, all of her culinary skills come from her mother, Sylvia Kaplan.
Cooking specialties: Brisket, cookies, chicken soup and matzo balls.
Favorite cookbook or culinary resource: Although Ringel doesn't have a favorite cookbook, she relies on the Taste of Home magazine for new recipes.
Most memorable kitchen experience: Her most vivid kitchen memory happened 25 years ago after the electrical equipment in her kitchen went haywire. Her garbage disposal wouldn't turn off and the top of her faucet broke off, shooting water everywhere. But after pulling the fuses in her kitchen — which were connected to her living room where she was having a 35-person dinner party that evening — and calling a plumber, the Passover celebration turned out "lovely, but it was quite an experience."
Favorite recipes: Mini-cheesecakes and cinnamon squares.
Mini-cheesecakes
3 8 oz. pkgs. Philadelphia cream cheese
1 cup sugar
11/2 tsp vanilla
Whip together and then add 5 eggs, one at a time.
Put papers in muffin tins, fill 2/3 full.
Bake at 300 degrees for 35 min. when using aluminum papers.
Topping:
2 cups sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Mix together while cakes are baking.
Put tsp. of topping over baked
cakes Dot with favorite jam.
(She uses strawberry or apricot). Put cakes back in oven for
5 minutes
Refrigerate at least 24 hours.
Cinnamon squares
1/2 lb. salt butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 egg white
Chopped walnuts to sprinkle on top
Cream butter and sugar. Add yolk, cinnamon, flour and vanilla.
Put crumbly mess into cookie sheet with sides. Flatten till it fills whole pan with the palm of your hand. It will be thin. Beat egg white with a fork till it is frothy. Spread over dough in pan. Sprinkle chopped nuts over all the dough. Bake at 325 degrees for
10 minutes. Cut while warm.
