Mom's magnificent noodle kugel

My mom sometimes makes this sweet kugel recipe as a main course - heaven knows it has enough calories to be a whole meal.  She got the recipe from my Great Aunt Lillian, whose photo oversees my kitchen.   I find noodle kugel is also a great breakfast, even served cold!  It's a great comfort food, reminded me of home.  It's also easy and fairly fast to make.

I've added one tweak to it over the years - the cornflakes (or rice flakes) coating the top.  I picked up this trick from Norman Mael, our synagogues premier chef.  I find it prevents the top noodles from burning, plus gives the kugel a satisfying crunch.  The only problem is if you can't serve it straight out of the oven.  The corn flakes get soft over time.  But it'll still be tasty!

Last time I served this was at our synagogue's pot luck Rosh Hashanah picnic at the Bloomsburg town boat launch.  The day reaffirmed the benefits of living in a small town - particularly THIS small town.

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year celebration.  An optional ceremony for it is a Tashlich service, which involves throwing bread into a body of water to symbolically throw away your sins.  I thought having the potluck immediately afterward, in the picnic pavilion by the boat launch, would be a grand way to celebrate the holiday. 

But I misremembered the number of picnic tables under the pavilion. 

I thought there were four. There were only two - not enough for a congregation picnic.  I discovered my error the day before, during a morning jog past the pavilion.  It was too late to move locations.  I didn't have a truck to haul the tables from the synagogue there, and they're tough to maneuver out of the basement anyway.

So Leon went to the town crew's building and told them my dilemma.  And by the next morning, those wonderful people used heavy equipment to bring two more tables to the pavilion there.  Yay, Bloomsburg!

Ingredients:
1 package of wide egg noodles, cooked al dente according to package directions.
Three eggs
1/2 C sugar
1/2 pound cottage cheese
1/2 pint sour cream (1 Cup)
1/4 pound cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla
1 small can of crushed pineapple
golden raisins to taste (I use at least a cup)
1.5 C crushed cornflakes (optional)
cinnamon to taste.

1. Butter a 9x13 inch baking pan. Cook noodles al dente, according to the package directions.

2. Beat eggs well. Add 1/4 Cup sugar,  the cottage cheese, the sour cream, the cream cheese, the vanilla and the crushed pineapple. Mix.

3. Add the egg mixture to the cooked noodles. Mix. Add the raisins. 

4. Crush the corn flakes - I use a rolling pin.  Mix with the rest of the sugar and the cinnamon until you like the taste.  In a pinch - or if you misread the label - you can also use Special K rice flakes. Spread the corn flakes on top of your kugel.

If you don't use cornflakes, just mix the sugar and cinnamon and spread that over the top of the kugel.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.