With the recent celebration of my niece’s wedding, we welcomed the family home for a fun-filled weekend. Shabbat passed in a blur of delicious food and the joy of watching cousins and siblings reunite. On Sunday morning the pace picked up as more family members flew in to attend the nuptials taking place that evening. Serving brunch to a revolving door of guests can be challenging but this French toast…
Finding the exact winning formula for breaking my fast after the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av, the long summer fasts in which we commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem and the First and Second Temples, has been a source of a lot of culinary trial and error. Striking the right balance can mean the difference between a sound night’s sleep post-fast or wondering if it would have been smarter to…
This past Saturday, May 06, Charles, the heir to the throne for the last seven decades, was crowned king of England. King Charles is the oldest ever British monarch to be crowned. This coronation was notable because the rites and rituals mostly unchanged in a thousand years also melded with the new. During one of the most ancient and moving parts of the investiture, the King was anointed with oil…
On the last days of Passover we were blessed with unusually warm, bright, sunny weather. When I peered at the thermostat through the rivulets of sweat dripping into my eyes (because what sane person turns on the air conditioning in anticipation of record-breaking heat in Toronto at this time of the year?!), it was a tropical 83 F. It felt like the holiday of Shavuot had arrived six weeks early.…
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…
Last Thursday morning we woke at 5:00 a.m. ready to head to the airport and were greeted with the disheartening news that our early flight to a family wedding had been cancelled. After missing all kinds of celebrations for the last two and a half years, I refused to accept that reversal lying down. We raced to Pearson in the predawn hours, whispering quiet prayers for success. With the assistance…
Inspiration for new recipes can occur in the most unexpected places. Like the dentist’s office. And no, my revelation did not come from the six-year-old well-thumbed magazines in the waiting room. I look forward to visiting the dentist not only because the sparkle in my smile is restored painlessly but because I also get to schmooze with my multi-talented dental hygienist, Rachel, about our latest kitchen exploits. On my last…
In anticipation of the recent celebration of my niece’s wedding, we welcomed out-of-town family members for a weekend visit. Accommodating guests with arrival times that were at the mercy of whimsical airline schedules was a cinch with this recipe for loaded baked frittata, by Genevieve Ko, published in the New York Times. A frittata is an egg dish that can be served for breakfast, lunch, or supper. It tastes as…
With eyes peeled on my 2 ½ year old grandson as he tore down the driveway on his scooter, I basked in the sunshine, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather and savored the intoxicating, yeasty scent of freshly baked challahs perfuming the air. I smiled at my neighbor, the calm, organized mother of a large brood, who was taking a well-deserved break before tending to the next batch of braided, golden…
Decisions…decisions. I studied the overhead menu and carefully inspected the cornucopia of freshly baked muffins, scones, artisan rolls and breads. Last fall on a visit to Minneapolis, on a bright, crisp Friday morning I lined up in Breadsmith, one of the kosher certified locations of the iconic midwestern bakery. Faced with the pleasantly challenging task of choosing from a selection that included, but was not limited to, rosemary garlic ciabatta,…