Reading the back of the cereal box, while absent-mindedly spooning up a bowl of Rice Krispies, was a sacred part of my morning breakfast ritual while growing up. Regretfully, my mother insisted that we wait until the cereal box was empty before we cut up the box to play the exciting (?!) game printed on the back. A valuable educational tool for honing our bilingual language skills, (French and English…
Hosting my grandchildren for dinner while their parents were away called for some extra special comfort food. Homemade chicken nuggets to the rescue. Made with ground chicken, they are crispy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside. This recipe comes together in under an hour and is baked in the oven. It doesn't get easier than that.…
When visiting my local grocery store, I enjoyed stopping at the bakery section to watch the bakers, sporting their floury white toques and jackets, skillfully braid tens of challahs before adroitly popping the doughy twists onto a conveyor belt headed for the commercial proofer. Their well choreographed dance never failed to entice me, as did their chocolate Snickers cake that we ordered for every birthday celebration. Until one day I…
I sat at the kitchen table and watched as my mother carefully cored a cabbage and dropped the pale green leaves, one at a time, into a pot of bubbling water. Cabbage rolls were one of my mother’s signature yom tov dishes. Stuffed cabbage is the ultimate slow-cooked comfort food, in which cabbage leaves are filled with a savory ground meat mixture and simmered in a sweet and sour tomato…
Returning from a beautiful day beside the lake, I glimpsed a sight that made me catch my breath with trepidation… and no, it was not the price of the farmstand corn (a dollar a cob!). I spied maple trees that had started to display their autumn colors. As summer turns into fall it’s time to enjoy the last of the locally available stone fruits, including nectarines.…
In July, farmer’s markets and supermarkets abound with locally grown dusky, sweet-tart blueberries, offered at hard to beat prices. When excitement overcomes my good judgement and I find myself staring down six containers of blueberries in my fridge, I know that it’s time to make blueberry muffins. My ideal muffin is domed, delicately crisp on top with a crust of crunchy sugar, and filled with lots of fruit. Unfortunately, the…
Travel can broaden your culinary horizons allowing you to taste flavors and combinations of food that you never would have tried at home. That includes enjoying Shabbat with your children in an exotic locale such as Jackson, New Jersey. On a recent visit, my daughter-in-law served sushi salad at one of the family meals. I watched as my grandchildren dug in, scooping up generous portions of grilled salmon, sliced Persian…
Fried chicken holds a special place in my heart. Growing up, it was the meal that I chose to celebrate my birthday and my first Shabbat dinner after returning from sleep-away camp. It was also the pièce de résistance served at my engagement party. Yup, my mother fried chicken for one hundred guests to bring joy to the heart of this once blushing bride. So, when I sampled the chicken…
“We aim to please” is the motto in my kitchen. When entertaining, I try to remember the tried-and-true favorites that family and friends enjoy, but at the same time, I like to nudge the dial a little bit and create new special memories. When my friend Menucha mentioned that she went the extra mile and drove to a bakery that wasn’t local, but baked the most scrumptious pretzel challah, the…
My father was a master gardener, growing juicy red tomatoes, crisp, green cucumbers, and super-sized zucchini, in abundance. The summer that I turned twelve years old, my father offered me a small patch in his garden to grow a crop of my own choosing. When I announced that I was going to cultivate strawberries, my father was all on board. I watered and weeded my plants faithfully, but nary a…