“I’m strong to the finish ’cause I eats me spinach.” With these immortal words, Popeye tears open a can of spinach, acquires superhuman strength, overcomes his nemesis Bluto and wins the undying devotion of his girlfriend Olive Oyl, that is, until the next cartoon. As a four-year-old fan of the plucky sailor, I asked my mother to buy a can of spinach but she demurred. “I don’t think you’ll like…
My jaw dropped when my sister Sheryl reported that on a trip to the cottage last fall, she and her grown sons Kyle and Michael went foraging for wild mushrooms. “Weren’t you worried about accidentally picking a poison mushroom and dying?” I asked casually. The image in The Story of Babar of the old King of the Elephants eating a toxic mushroom, turning a sickly shade of green, and perishing,…
The telephone rang shrilly. I picked it up and held the phone away from my ear. It was my mother and she wasn’t happy. Somehow, the mishloach manot (the food gift that we exchange on Purim) that my mother had lovingly presented to my family had accidentally been regifted to my Auntie Malka when we found ourselves short one package while out making our deliveries. My Auntie Malka visited my…
Have you ever taken a big bite out of a hamantasch, the traditional three-cornered pastry eaten at Purim time, thinking that it was prune-filled only to realize that it was actually mohn or poppy seed. Although poppy seed continues to be the most popular filling for hamantaschen, my personal preference is for anything but mohn. But these muffins are the exception to that rule. Lemon poppy seed muffins are an…
Lunch dates with my friend Shoshana at our favorite café is one of the many things that I miss these days. At the appointed time, we would meet, hugging one another like long lost relatives, no matter that we already spoke on the phone twice that morning and saw each other three days ago. After having resolved the crucially important issue of where we should sit, we would study the…
Rice pudding, rice and sweetened milk cooked until soft and thick, was a staple in my childhood home. Nestled in its designated white enamel pot with the red rim, cooling on the counter or sitting on the top shelf of the fridge, rice pudding was always a readily available snack. Spooned up late at night, while I talked and my father listened, or eaten in companionable silence, it provided comfort…
For the last few years I have been sending out breakfast-in-a-bag on Purim morning as mishloach manot, the food gift that we send to one another in honor of the holiday. Consisting of a freshly baked muffin or two, yogurt, orange juice and a bag of homemade granola, it can be easily assembled with a minimal amount of advance preparation and lets family and friends know that I’m thinking of…
In this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Beshalach, Pharaoh has second thoughts about the Jewish people leaving Egypt and accompanied by an elite army, he chases them into the Red Sea. As the Jews cross the Sea on dry land, the pursuing Egyptians become mired in mud and drown in the returning waves. To commemorate this miracle, we are making Pharaoh farro with mushrooms, a rich and earthy, savory dish made…
I don’t believe that the term ichthyophobia, or fear of fish accurately describes my husband Stephen’s reluctance to eat fish. He will consume fish as long as it tastes like something that bears no resemblance to the species, such as fish burgers with extra ketchup, pickles and spicy mayo please, tuna fish sandwiches heaped with lettuce and tomatoes, and gefilte fish slathered with a thick layer of chrein, the magenta-colored…
As I read the headline, “French fry fire leaves up to 50 people homeless”, I shuddered. Having witnessed one or two French fry fires growing up, (no Mom, I have no idea why there is soot covering the front of the kitchen cabinets over the stove), I swore off making deep-fried potatoes long ago. Oven fries were a completely different matter. But finding a recipe that produced crisp potatoes with…