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Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. There’s no limit to the baking possibilities, so grab your favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock or Wilderness fruit fillings and Bake On! www.duncanhines.com. This weekend we are hosting a small gathering of friends to celebrate Hanukkah, which starts on the night of December 20. The traditional food [...] This post originally appeared at this time last year on my local blogging community site, The Chicago Moms. It’s timely once again and my sentiments have not changed, so I am reposting for 2011. At this time of year, there is a lot of discussion in the media about what I call the Christmas culture wars. In [...] This post is sponsored by Tempur-Pedic, the brand millions of owners trust to deliver their best night’s sleep every night. Enjoy our Buy 2, get 1 free pillow offer now and give the gift of custom comfort to someone you love. Thanksgiving comes this week and with it the official start of the winter holiday season. [...] Slices of brisket in a rich gravy This past week marked the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Last year at this time, I wrote a post about enjoying Rosh Hashanah dinner with my friend and fellow blogger Vanessa AKA Chef Druck and I shared my recipe for sweet carrot tzimmes — the vegetables cut into [...] Moroccan meat ball stew When I was a junior in college, I spread the year studying abroad in Paris. I had many wonderful, unique experiences that year, from traveling all over Europe, to eating marvelous food to getting to know the ins and outs of one of the world’s greatest cities. But one of the most [...] Today’s post is part of the From Left to Write online book club. The idea of this book club is not to write a book review, per se, but rather to write a post in which the blogger connects that month’s book to an experience from his or her own life. March’s book is Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English, a novel [...] This post originally appeared earlier this week on my new blogging community, The Chicago Moms. I hope that you will swing by and check out some of great voices being featured there. At this time of year, there is a lot of discussion in the media about what I call the Christmas culture wars. In a multi-ethnic society like ours, [...] Our temple has a book fair in the fall featuring “Jewish” books for adults and kids. I use what my mother calls “cutesy quotes” around the word “Jewish” because the definition of a Jewish book in this context is fairly broad, ranging from books about Jewish religious practice and the latest Holocaust novel to anything by [...] Playing high-stakes dreidel Hanukkah is not a major Jewish holiday. It’s a nice holiday, with its traditions of lighting candles on dark nights and gathering with friends and family to eat latkes and play dreidel. And it has taken on an outsized importance in America where it consoles Jewish children (not particularly well) for missing out on the [...] Apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah As many of you know, today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year celebration. It is a joyous holiday, but it makes the beginning of a solemn period of reflection, known as the 10 Days of Repentance. This period culminates in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, during which [...] In my faith, Judaism, we have a concept called “tikkun olam,” which translates to “heal the world.” The process of tikkun olam involves observing Jewish religious commandments, but it also involves doing good deeds in one’s community, separate and apart from any religious observations. By performing these good deeds, known as mitzvot, the Jewish people can [...] When I was researching the guest post on matzo ball soup that I did for my friend Kate’s food blog Savour-Fare, I came across the book Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited by the food writer Arthur Schwartz, who is known as “the Food Maven.” Originally, I checked this book out of the library, but [...] I wasn’t kidding. My husband and I make matzo pizza every Passover. My husband’s parents used to make it for him and his brother when they were growing up. I came up with the innovation of putting the sauce on top of the cheese so the matzo doesn’t get soggy — ar at least as [...] I hosted my first Passover Seder when I was in law school – before I was even officially Jewish. (But that’s a story for another time.) I had grown up attending my grandparents’ Seders, which were long on delicious food, but short on religion, so I did not know all the customs that a more [...] |
  
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