Category Archives: Holiday

Chai Tea Spiced Apple Sauce

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I love grabbing a latke the moment it is taken from a pan, the oil dripping, the crackling sound of the fried potato, and to pour a large dollop of cold apple sauce on top. I love the hot/cold, sweet/savory combination of the two. I decided to make an applesauce this year that would be a bit more complex in flavors than my usual basic sauce. I think it complements rather than overwhelm or contrast with latkes. Apple sauce is so simple to make and since it’s apple season, it’s fun to make it with a range of different ones. The variation in texture and tartness makes a seemingly basic dish more interesting. The spices I used are the same as those in chai tea. If you’re not familiar with chai tea it’s actually a redundant name for tea and is just called “chai” in India. While the English spelling seemingly is a nice double entrendre to the word for life in Hebrew, the ch is not pronounced gutturally but as “ch-eye” and simply means tea. It’s a milky black tea infused with lots of spices and is and drunk by everyone everywhere (often on the go in little clay cups).  Continue reading →

Sukkot & Simchat Torah: Stuffed eggplants

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Just a quick post to share a stuffed eggplant recipe that is great for both Sukkot and Simchat Torah. Sukkot, an agricultural holiday (ie farm-to-table holiday) that is an opportunity to use the produce that is in abundance at the farmers markets right now makes it one of my favorite holidays. Lots of eggplants are in season at my local farmers markets and the basil was plucked straight from my plants. The filled eggplants are also symbolic of “stuffed” foods commonly eaten on Simchat Torah to represent the Torah scrolls. Scroll to the bottom for more of my Sukkot, Simchat Torah and even Shmini Atzeret recipes. Chag sameach! Continue reading →

Break-Fast Berry Tahini Smoothie

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Berry Tahini Break-Fast Smoothie

This is a quick post to share a really easy, nutritious post-fast dish. Personally, I don’t like to go to “all you can eat” break-fast meals filled with bagels, kugel (even if vegan), raw salads, desserts, etc. after a day without food and water. I need easily digestible foods that are nourishing and gentle on my body. I’m sharing a recipe for an easy berry-tahini smoothie that can easily be made within minutes of the fast ending. It is a thick smoothie/bowl that is meant to be eaten with a spoon (again-this is better for digestion). The tahini adds creaminess and fat while the tofu is good for protein. If you’re looking for more break-fast recipes, I included previous years recipes at the bottom. Wishing you an easy and meaningful fast. Continue reading →

Rosh Hashana: Beet Carpaccio

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I love this beet carpaccio recipe! I first enjoyed it at a serene Shabbat dinner at my relative’s house during a glorious pre-Covid spring in Jerusalem. The flavors of the roasted beets are enough alone but topped with a lot of delicious ingredients that delicately balance both tangy and sweet flavors makes the beets the star of a rich, dramatic dish. It’s also a “one pan” dish that is simple to make. It’s perfect as an appetizer or side dish during a Rosh Hashana meal. Also, check the links below the recipe for more of my sweet and savory Rosh Hashana recipes. Shana tova! Continue reading →

Very berry charoset

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Very Berry Charoset

I created this charoset recipe to use one of my favorite flavor combinations, along with many of the dried berries and fruits I love, such as goji berries, barberries, cherries, elderberries and raisins. But, you could really use any combination of  your favorite dried fruits. If you can make this in advance and let it soak overnight, the flavors become more pronounced and the berries plump. Continue reading →

Purim Treat: Vegan Orange, Tahini, Olive Oil Cake

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Orange, tahini, olive oil vegan cake

The best thing I bought during the pandemic was a bright yellow Le Creuset loaf pan. The pan is so versatile and I’ve used it to make bread, cakes, truffles and polenta. I love giving people loaves of cake and bread as Covid gifts. And, with Purim starting in a few days, I think that in addition to hamantaschen, loaf cakes would be a delicious addition to mishloach manot this year. Loaf cakes are a simple, unassuming and easy. I also love using tahini and will find any opportunity to use it in a recipe. I adapted this recipe to make this light, moist, not overly sweet cake. Below the recipe I also included links to my other Purim recipes. Continue reading →

Sukkot: Roasted Apples and Yams with Barberries

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Roasted apple and yam with barberries

Like everything else, this is an unusual Sukkot. But due to my COVID routine, I have had the privilege for a deeper physical and sensory connection to the holiday’s harvest themes. It includes more time to tend to edible plants on my balcony and long hikes in woods filled with mushrooms and other edibles. And while the holiday celebrates an agricultural harvest, I like to more broadly think of it as a way to celebrate all of our food sources, whether foraged or grown on a farm. Last weekend, I went on a guided foraging trip just a few miles from my house. In a mere mile long walk, we found more than a dozen edibles, including black walnuts, shiso, sorrel, burr cucumbers, American persimmon, and turkey tail mushrooms. We nibbled little bits of each plant along the way but left everything there for birds and other creatures to enjoy. Continue reading →

Roasted Carrots for Rosh Hashana

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Rosh Hashana roasted carrots

As we prepare to celebrate Rosh Hashana to mark the birth of the world, it’s hard not to be confused and/or overwhelmed at times by the surreal world we are now living in. From COVID to wildfires to flooding to addressing systemic racism, our physical reality is forever altered.

The past six months have brought to the forefront of our daily lives both the devastating consequences of human actions that are the most un-God-like, but also the incredible, resilient, responses by humans to these crises.  When we wish people a healthy, good new year, I cannot think of a time when this has ever meant more than now, for all beings.

Continue reading →

Covid/Chagim Care Packages

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Roasted stone fruit

I love hosting people for meals and giving gifts for pretty much any opportunity possible. So, like so much else, this part of my life was upended by COVID, until I was inspired by my friend Jodi to give people “COVID care” packages. It’s like giving Purim mishloach manot, but all the time. Each one is just filled with homemade, individually wrapped treats and a note.  Living in a socially distant and digitized/online world now, these care packages are a way to connect with people and offer a little surprise that might shift an otherwise very routine COVID day. And, now, with high holidays soon approaching, the COVID care packages can be repurposed for the chagim. Continue reading →

Animals, Pandemics, & Shavuot

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vegan blintzes with extra filling.

Living through a pandemic has become the ultimate opportunity to look at our food sources and the interconnectedness between what we eat and a host of global issues.

More than 70 billion land animals are raised and killed each year for food and other products around the world, including nine billion in the US alone. Animal agriculture is the main cause of an array of global crises, including climate change, pandemics, water pollution, poverty and hunger.

Zoonosis, the transmission of diseases from animals to humans is, according to the CDC, the source of 75% of all new viruses facing humans. It is happening at a rapid pace because of how animals are raised and slaughtered, primarily in industrial animal agriculture factories and live “wet” markets. From the origination of COVID-19 at an animal market in China to swine flu at an industrial farm in the US to mad cow disease in the UK, the raising and killing of wild and domesticated animals is causing pandemics. Continue reading →