Starry, starry nights, eating meals in the Sukkah with its leafy roof partly open to the star-studded sky, and enjoying a variety of vegetables and fruits from the final fall harvest is always a memorable and spiritual experience. The Sukkah symbolizes the temporary shelters in which our ancestors lived during their 40 years in the

From the time I was a young child, I’ve known that Rosh Hashanah was associated with apples and honey, symbolizing sweetness for the coming New Year. My mother would make her special apple cake and always served her carrot tzimmes sweetened with honey, a big favorite in our family. In addition to the traditional wine

As the Jewish Holidays approach, my phone starts to ring and my inbox overflows with emails from people who are panicking about preparing for the upcoming holidays. The number one question on everyone’s lips is “Does it freeze?” The second question is “How far in advance can I make this?” Here are some helpful guidelines

My younger sister and I still talk about our first family trip to Miami when we were in our teens. We were traveling from Winnipeg with its frigid, frosty temperature of 40 degrees below to the sunny south. As soon as our car turned the corner, we immediately declared, “We’re hungry! When can we eat?”

Shavuot, which begins this year at sundown on June 8th, celebrates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Shavuot has been celebrated as an agricultural festival since the times of the Temple. It was said that when the Torah was given on Mount Sinai, the barren desert exploded with blooming flowers, as if the

I first heard about The Holocaust Survivor Cookbook, an unforgettable cookbook filled with memories of survival along with treasured family recipes, from my friend Dalia Carmel of New York, when I called her to say hello a few weeks ago and give her regards from a friend. Dalia explained, “Although the recipes are not thoroughly

“Food can connect us to our past. In fact, food is often our very last and only connection to our pasts, enduring long after the old language has been forgotten and other traditions have died. There’s many a Jew, for instance, who identifies as a Jew mainly through his or her love of pastrami, or

When the Syrian-Jewish community migrated from the ancient city of Aleppo in historic Syria to the United States in the early twentieth century, they carried with them their unique and beloved culinary traditions. Poopa Dweck, a first generation Syrian-Jewish American, realized that the culinary legacy of her community was not written down. Knowing that the

Marcy Goldman has a true “passion for baking” – which also happens to be the title of her latest cookbook. Goldman, a Montreal-based cookbook author, is well-known for her previous books, including “A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking. Her newest book “A Passion for Baking” (Oxmoor House) contains 220 recipes plus fabulous photos, along with

Experts agree that getting kids into the kitchen teaches them math through measurements, nutrition through food selection, and independence through increased skills – all with the added bonus of parents and children spending time together, creating special memories and bonds. Cookbook author Susie Fishbein designed 80 kid-friendly recipes for children ages 10 and older in