Most of the Moroccan Jews I know, including my mother and siblings, would never ever make any Shabbat or holiday dishes on a weekday, and vice versa. My mother, for example, would never make matbucha, a spicy tomato jam, or…
Harissa with a twist – or as Z calls it “Mexican Harissa.” It’s my mother’s recipe but I decided to experiment so I added two chipotle peppers (I bought a bag at the supermarket in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico but you can find them at any Latino…
I can’t write a post about matbucha, Moroccan cooked tomato, garlic and pepper salad, without writing about Yeruham. The cooked salad and my hometown in the Negev, the desert of Israel, go together. The aroma of tomatoes simmered with garlic…
Yesterday was a fucking, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. It’s started with a blood test (I hate blood tests, they make me insanely paranoid). It continued with a call to Cigna, our health insurance. I don’t know what is worse, the part that…
Living in different parts of the world, you quickly realize that access to authentic Asian cuisine varies greatly. When we were in New York and Los Angeles, finding excellent Asian food was never a problem. But in Tel Aviv and…
I never liked strawberry jam until I made my own strawberry jam and fell in love with it.
I’m handing the stage to my dear mother-in-law, who introduced me to this beautiful grain fourteen years ago. Thank you, Estee! I appreciate your help. I love every word you wrote. An on-going, exasperating controversy about Quinoa is how to say it. Most…
No time for BS. Just a quick, sweet recipe I found in a beautiful cookbook called Vegetarian Everyday, written by the sweet Scandinavian couple, who’s behind the blog Green Kitchen Stories. This exactly the kind of recipe I love – a “peace of mind” recipe, delicious and healthy. It’s…
We eat salads on a daily basis (most Israelis do). Most days it’s a simple green salad, then some days more complex salads. There are many types of leafy greens and endless variations of leafy green salads. Leo and Alex’s…
A friend of mine from New York recently emailed me this recipe. She wrote: “Thought of you the other night. We made a delish dairy-free, sugar-free banana ‘ice cream’ with a bit of chopped salty almonds and maple syrup on…
I know that Honey Nut Cheerios is easier but do you really want your kids or yourself to start the day with unnatural, full of sugar breakfast? With these light, nutritious breakfasts, you’ll definitely have a good, healthy day. They require very little effort and some willingness.
YAW is my husband’s accidental invention. He made it one morning while I was pregnant with Leo, ten years ago, and, since then, this apple Tzatziki has become a morning ritual in our house. It’s basically a bowl of plain…
My cousin Diane is married to Avi, a Jerusalemite who’s well known in our family as the meat expert. He is a great cook. Last month, we were in Israel for a month, and when we stayed with them for…
It’s much easier to stick a tray of chicken and potatoes into the oven or throw a bunch of vegetables and beans into pot than to prepare a bunch of mezzes. But a table covered with small and colorful plates…
Here is the most demanded salad among the children in my family, Saba Zion’s Salad. “Saba” means grandfather in Hebrew. My father is a humble cook but can make shoe laces delicious with his seasoning skills. He made us and his…
I can’t bring myself to cook with fire. It’s boiling outside and inside (we don’t have AC, most of the time the weather here in SoCal is perfect). Our meals these days are mainly raw salads with lots of crunchy…
I always forget how much I love hummus and how easy it is to make until I make it. Here in Los Angeles, unlike in Israel, there are not a lot of hummusiyot, restaurants that sell only hummus. In Tel…
Kale is very nutritious but I won’t use the word superfood because I’m allergic to it. As much as it is healthy I wouldn’t have eaten it if I didn’t like it’s earthy flavor. Me and the millions of aphids…
Rice bowl is basically a salad on a bed of rice. You can make your rice bowl very basic or extravagant. I like them simple, but for my husband, the more things, the merrier. I can live on rice bowls.…
El-machamer is the Jewish Moroccan (Sephardic) version of Tortilla Española. My mother usually makes it often during Passover. The sweet potato and spinach are my addition.