There is an old Pessach song that we sing in the seder that describes how I feel in the spring: “Simcha raba, simcha raba” – Great joy, great joy “Aviv hegia’” – Spring has arrived “Pessach ba!” – Passover came! Charoset is a sticky, sweet…
Our 5-year-old Alex (aka Alexander, aka Jacob, aka Sooshi) is obsessed with names. Every day, ten times a day, he asks my husband or me if we like a certain name. Most days I find his name obsession cute, but…
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…
Shabbat dinner at my mom’s is like Thanksgiving at Martha Stewart’s. The dining table is covered completely with salatim (salads). Fresh salads and cooked salads. There’s matbucha and baba ganoush, Swiss chard and harissa salad, spicy carrot salad with cumin,…
Eema (me): “Alex, this is delicious, are you sure you don’t want to be a pastry chef when you grow up?”Alex: “What is a pastry chef?”Eema: “A pastry chef is someone who makes cakes and cookies for a living.”Alex: “What…
Two years ago, I accepted the fact that my body and dairy don’t get along, so I gave it up almost completely. I rarely miss it and if I do miss a nice buttery pastry I make this cake. Not…
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…
Recently I discovered that not only I can cook I can also draw. It’s so fun and relaxing. I wish I had more time for my new hobby. Anyway, it was very flattering and exciting to discover that other people beside my…
My illustrated recipe is now on They Draw and Cook.
Alex: what are you making mommy?Me: I’m making Moroccan anise cookies.Alex: can you make American cookies?Me: no, I’m craving mama’s cookies.Oh mama mama, I miss you. Mama is my maternal grandmother. She used to make a huge container of these Reifat…
My mother makes the best pizza. She is not even Italian. Her pizza has Middle Eastern flavors. Instead of using tomato sauce she uses fresh sliced tomatoes (the beefy kind, such as Roma). After she covers the dough with tomatoes and mozzarella, she…
It’s strange to cook for one when you used to cook for two, four, or more. This week I am home alone. Hallelujah! My husband is in New York and the boys are in school. I was content eating my…
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…
My mother – a bread worshiper – and I agreed that focaccia is the best bread for people like us whose favorite part of the bread is the crust. Focaccia is basically one big crust.
There was a single, short period when I completely lost interest in cooking. It was exactly three years ago, when my youngest sister, Inbar, passed away at the age of 27. When she left, my joy of cooking and baking left with her. Like everyone…
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.…