August is a dream month for anyone who enjoys freshly picked local produce. In Toronto, where winter begins early and ends late, the selection of locally grown produce is limited during the colder months. However, with the arrival of summer, open-air markets and corner supermarkets abound with produce grown by nearby farmers, including both green and yellow zucchini, juicy, ripe tomatoes and slender, purple eggplant. This recipe for a tian,…
I lingered proudly over my son’s picture of his babies – plump, healthy and green. I’m referring to his tomato babies. My father was a virtuoso vegetable gardener. Every August, our backyard vegetable patch produced a bumper crop of juicy, red, sun-ripened tomatoes. I did not inherit his green thumb but I’m thrilled that his talent has been passed down to the next generation. However, growing your own tomatoes is…
Having a son-in-law who grew up in Mexico has added an element of piquancy to our family. Although he is descended from grandparents who hailed from the same neck of the Transylvanian woods as my grandparents, nevertheless, his food preferences are Mexican. Chilaquiles always trump brisket. Elote (eh-LOH-teh), also known as Mexican street corn, is savory, sweet, crunchy, and creamy in every bite. Made with corn on the cob that…
Summer is just around the corner and we’re all looking forward to spending more time outdoors. This recipe for roasted sesame green beans, adapted from Cook’s Illustrated magazine, is the perfect side dish for anyone who is looking to minimize time spent in the kitchen. With just a few minutes of prep work that can be done in advance, these honey-sweet, garlicy beans require only fifteen minutes of oven time.…
Traditionally, after the Passover dishes are packed away and the countertop covers scoured and stored for the next year, I happily relinquish my apron and my son cooks up a large pot of creamy, cheesy macaroni that family members eagerly anticipate. This year, wiser counsel prevailed and the over-forty crowd contentedly spooned up heaping bowls of crunchy Raisin Bran, while my teenage grandsons inhaled a large pizza. The times they…
One potato, two potato, three potato, four, five potato, six potato, seven potato, more. This popular children’s counting rhyme really resonates with me at Passover time. Eaten frequently during the eight days of Passover, potatoes get a bad rap. But this recipe for garlic and shallot-topped smashed potatoes by Miriam (Pascal) Cohen in her inimitable cookbook, Real Life Kosher Cooking: family-friendly recipes for every day and special occasions, is here…
Supply chain issues have affected the price and availability of some Passover products including kosher for Passover ketchup. After three trips to two different supermarkets, I finally scored a bottle of Lieber’s ketchup for $5.99 (gasp!!!). When I asked a sympathetic grocery manager about the limited supply, he said that there had been great difficulty sourcing this indispensable condiment. As a result, this year there is only one brand of…
One late Friday afternoon, visiting with my daughter and her family, I looked on in speechless wonder as my eight year-old granddaughter and her friend hovered in front of the pan of freshly roasted green beans and picked them off, munching on them happily, as if they were candy. As each member of the clan passed through the kitchen, they made strategic detours in front of the baking sheet and…
I scanned the kosher Chinese food menu that appeared in my inbox. Sweet and sour flavor combinations with just-cooked stir fried vegetables added to the mix were all very tempting but when I saw the listed price for Asian fried rice, I pressed delete. Chinese fried rice is the ultimate comfort food. A bowl of steaming white rice cooked to just the right consistency, filled with bits of meat and…
“Do you still have your waffle maker”, I asked my sister. “I’m not sure”, she replied thoughtfully. Since Japanese organizing consultant Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing hit book store shelves in 2014, decluttering has reached amateur sport levels in North American homes. Decluttering with the KonMari method means only keeping objects in your home that “spark joy.” Objects that…