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 When my mother discovered that napping was a strictly enforced part of the curriculum, I was promptly withdrawn from the program.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…
With a quiet tap on the front door, my son sails into the house on Friday afternoons, sometimes with a grandchild or two in tow, and we settle around the kitchen table to catch up on the events of the week and share a piece of fresh, hot potato kugel. It’s a no-frills event; disposable plates and cutlery are used to serve up portions of kugel that are crispy on…
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a hermit is a person who retires from society and craves solitude. Ironically, it’s also the name of a cookie that is going to make you the most sought-after guest at every holiday party and family gathering, provided that you bring along a heaped tray of these soft, chewy, treats. Sweetened with brown sugar that imparts a caramel flavor, subtly scented with cinnamon and nutmeg,…
If you have found yourself fruitlessly searching for romaine or iceberg lettuce at your local grocer, you are not alone. Faced with a shortage due to a dry growing season in California, followed by a virus that killed off a lot of the remaining lettuce crop, lettuce is in very limited supply and prices for the leafy greens have tripled. But there is no need to eschew your daily five…