Since then I\’ve been relegated to eating blintzes at delis, where they\’ve been decent but far from sensational. However, with Shavuot approaching, a craving for Bertha\’s blintzes drove me to replicate the nirvana of that first experience.
Of all the family-oriented holidays on the Jewish calendar, Sukkot, which entails setting up a temporary house, is probably the most homey of all.
Make ahead recipes for Yom Kippur.
The first time Tina Wasserman prepared gefilte fish for Passover, it smelled up her whole house. The fish was past its prime, but it wasn\’t spoiled, so \”it didn\’t make my family sick,\” she said. But still, the experience was so horrifying that she didn\’t attempt to prepare gefilte fish again for many years. Since then, Wasserman, who is Reform Judaism Magazine\’s food columnist, has learned a thing or two about gefilte fish.
While some food writers automatically push the same old latke and brisket menu at Chanukah, Susie Fishbein offers a lighter touch by mixing in Mediterranean fare. And although she tweaks culinary tradition, she honors it. Fishbein believes in presenting beautiful food in unique ways.
Following are pointers on livening up your Chanukah table from \”Kosher by Design\” by Susie Fishbein (Mesorah, 2003).
\”My sister-in-law stuffs Thanksgiving turkeys with a matzah ball mixture,\” says Faye Levy, food columnist and author of 14 cookbooks. \”Instead of making patties and poaching them, she cooks this tasty mixture inside the turkey.\”
This never struck Levy as odd, because her mother used to make noodle pudding on Thanksgiving.
\”Her Thanksgiving dinners were almost like Shabbat meals,\” she says.
One of Levy\’s all-time favorite dishes is Thanksgiving potato kugel with asparagus. \”I first tried it at the home of a friend from Colorado,\” she says, explaining that it was his grandmother\’s recipe.
\”In his family, that dish was the essence of Thanksgiving.\”
I grew up in a family that never seemed to do anything right. Our approach to Yom Kippur, for example, was mixed: My father and I observed it; my mother and brother did not. Returning from synagogue at the end of the day, Dad and I were starving, so we grabbed a couple of slices of challah and spread chopped liver on top. Without ceremony, we leaned over a kitchen counter inhaling this snack.
Although the experience was a bonding one, by high school I realized that something was wrong with this picture, that something made me feel uncomfortable. Standing on linoleum, I\’d pivot on one of my high heels and contemplate what routine other families followed when they came home from synagogue. How and when did they resume eating?
With the no-carb craze sweeping the nation, Atkins Diet adherents make sure to avoid pasta and potatoes, but when the High Holidays roll around, even purists are tempted by succulent Jewish breads.
It wouldn\’t be the second night of Rosh Hashanah if our friends didn\’t come for dinner, contributing a cornucopia of dishes, especially divine desserts. There are enough pastries covering the buffet to keep judges at the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest busy for a week.
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