I am in the midst of my annual pre-Passover purge. The nether regions of my deep freezer are surrendering mysterious snowy packages and neatly labelled single serving containers of leftovers that nobody wanted to eat in the first place. After I suddenly realized that I forgot to prepare anything for supper one night, Hubby and I made short work of the neglected pan of cabbage rolls that had been languishing…
If you feel nostalgic about the days when you sent a package of wafers and an orange as mishloach manot, the gifts of food exchanged on Purim, you’re out of luck today. When I spotted a bottle of sangria, a fruity wine beverage, in the wine store, the wheels in my head started to turn and this year’s mishloach manot began to take shape. I knew that this crunchy, sweet-salty-spicy…
Twelve 9-year-old-boys let out a deafening cheer when they learned that school was cancelled for the rest of the afternoon because of the thickly falling snow that blanketed the roads and sidewalks. My husband was born in February. Growing up, his birthday was celebrated at home with a quick lunch time gathering of his classmates and friends. Party sandwiches were passed around, washed down with tall glasses of cherry Kool-Aid.…
My father’s retirement plans included cooking his way through Irma Rombauer’s classic cookbook, the Joy of Cooking. However, his culinary journey became waylaid and began and ended with cabbage borscht. With every iteration of this hearty soup, my father would wait expectantly as we sampled a spoonful. In spite of our reassurances that his soupe du jour met Cordon Bleu standards, he continued to perfect his art, pot after pot…
Yeshiva week, the midwinter vacation enjoyed equally by students and teachers mainly in North America, took place this past week. Our children in Minneapolis shared the fun and paid us a visit in Toronto. They all commented on the balmy weather which hovered around thirty degrees Fahrenheit, a marked improvement over the icy temperatures that dipped below zero in their hometown. I cooked up a veritable feast in spite of…
Toronto has seen an unusual lack of sunshine this winter and hasn’t had a mostly sunny day in more than four weeks. Meteorologist Anthony Farnell said the city typically sees around 3.4 hours of sunshine per day in January, but so far this month there hasn’t even been 3.4 hours of sunshine in total. Research suggests that decreased exposure to sunlight lowers levels of the mood-boosting hormone serotonin causing changes…
North Americans are working longer hours than at any time since statistics have been kept. Thankfully, sheet pan recipes are a busy person’s best friend. This recipe for rosemary-garlic roasted chicken and gnocchi by recipe developer Ali Slagle, published in the New York Times, is elegant and easy to prepare using ingredients that are in your pantry. The classic combination of chicken, potatoes, rosemary, garlic and lemon never fails to…
Some of you may be shocked to learn that I was a nursery school drop-out. When my mother discovered that napping was a strictly enforced part of the curriculum, I was promptly withdrawn from the program. I could “nap at home for free”, Mom announced. However, maternelle, or nursery school in France, is not for sleepy-heads. There, every child learns this recipe for gâteau au yaourt, yogurt cake, using a…
Until very recently, miso was an ingredient that I avoided. Miso paste, similar in texture to peanut butter, is typically a cultured mixture of soybeans, a grain (like rice or barley), salt, and koji (a mold). Really? Recently I began to notice that miso, with its deep umami flavor, was being embraced by chefs everywhere and was popping up in dishes as diverse as salmon filets, corn-on-the-cob, and even as…
Standing and frying doughnuts or sufganiyot at Chanukah time is a labor of love that I have chosen to forgo. After serving doughnuts that were raw in the middle on too many occasions, I abandoned my deep fryer and joined the line that snaked out the door of my local bakery. Twenty-five different flavors of sufganiot including Oreo crumb-covered donuts, Boston cream and salted caramel versions, are sold only at…