I am beyond thrilled that my cookbook, 52 Shabbats: Friday Night Dinners Inspired by a Global Jewish Kitchen is now available for pre order from your favorite local and on-line booksellers. It will be in stores this December.  For more info on the book and a video flip through go to The Collective Book Studio website. Watch for more info about the book here and my soon to be launched new author website.  ..read more

One of the nice things about being a food writer is that you get to spend time with other food writers and taste and share the recipes they create. My friend, Beth Lee (who blogs at omgyummy.com and lives in the Bay area) has a new cookbook out and it is truly The Essential Jewish Baking Cookbook. The book, published by Rockridge Press, offers up 50 traditional recipes, many inspired by Lee’s Ashkenazi grandmother. While the book has lots of delectable recipes for babkas, bagels, challah and other Eastern European and East Coast Jewish specialties (including my favorite black and white cooki ..read more

I’m ready for recipe testers! If you’d like to be among the first to try a recipe (or a few) from the upcoming 52 Shabbats: Friday Night Dinners from the Global Jewish Kitchen (website coming soon, cookbook coming next year from The Collective Book Studio), please send an  email to 52shabbatscookbook@gmail.com and let me know if you have any food restrictions or limitations, and or if you prefer one kind of cooking over another (say grilling to baking, for example). I’ll send you back a recipe and full instructions.   The book is mostly main course recipes for meat, chicken, f ..read more

Coffee lovers were whipped into a frenzy by this and I learned a lesson Lately, in addition to working on my food and recipe columns for the j, Northern California's Jewish Resource, I have had two guest posts. The first was on the blog of  food writing teacher, mentor and friend Dianne Jacob, where I wrote about the challenges of creating recipes during the early days of the COVID-19 stay in place orders, when grocery shelves were often bare and home pantries in survival mode.  It includes the lessons I learned by being an internet trend follower (including the dalgona cof ..read more

When Stay in Place began a few months ago I did a column for my j., Northern California's Jewish Resource featuring comfort food kugels, Kugels are pretty much comfort food by definition --warm, fragrant and fulling. Kugels have their roots in Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jewish tradition. They are casseroles and can be made with cheese or other dairy products, noodles, potatoes, matzoh, meat (but not with the milk) and more. My j column featured cereal milk kugel made with fruit-flavored cereal, a colorful and flavorful treat for one's actual or inner child. This recipe sparked ..read more

Matzah Crunch – adapted from Marcy Goldman, the Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking Makes 6-8 servings Everyone loves this very popular dessert. You might also know it under one of its alternative names such as Caramel Matzah Crunch or Toffee and Chocolate Matzah Crunch or the even Matzah Crack, but you might not have realized how easy this is to make. Matzah Crunch originated with Marcy Goldman, who first developed the recipe in 1994.  This version reflects one made by my late mother-in-law, who made hers with a topping of chopped walnuts or pecans. To make it more like Goldman’s, leave ..read more

Steeped Coffee individual brew bag in action Just a quick shout out to Steeped Coffee (which provided free samples) for their real coffee in single-serving brew bags (like large tea bags). I used several on a recent camping trip in the United Kingdom and found it convenient and flavorful, much better than instant. My favorites were the darker roasts, but I appreciated the decaf bags since many places we visited did not offer brewed decaf. One tip, cover the top of your cup with a plate or napkin while the bag is steeping to keep the drink hotter. A shout out, too, to Spaceships UK, the compa ..read more

A variety of harosets celebrates the diversity of the Jewish food waysIt's that time of year again -- the time of year where families and friends gather around and ask the four questions -- what can I eat, why can't I eat that, when do we eat (said during the Seder) and how did I eat so much? Seder PlateJoking aside, it's a time of special meals and special ingredients and restrictions.  The recipes featured below follow general Ashkenazi traditions of no rice, beans, corn or other kitniyot, which are traditionally eaten by some Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews (and now by some Conservative Jews ..read more