Shana Tova! Tonight Rosh Hashana marks the beginning of the new Jewish year. It’s a time of renewal, connecting the events of the past to the possibilities of the future. It’s fitting then that last week I had the privilege to observe an ancient tradition in adopting a new technology for the home kitchen. Aware…
The Cooking Process
8/21/17 – Ten+ Years of Pizza Spice Palimpsest
This was a monumental day – the breathtaking total solar eclipse over North America marked the passage of time with an extraordinary syzygy of celestial bodies. Yet today also marks the passage of my personal time through seemingly expired pizza spice. Bear with me here… Pizza in Israel is like nowhere else. First of all,…
Farewell, Pardes: A Peek Inside
Yesterday Pardes announced the final closing of its doors after six years upending assumptions and expectations of kosher dining. Thankfully, its influence on progressive and seasonal kosher cooking will be felt for a long time to come. I’ve only dined at Pardes twice, but it’s affected me like no other kosher restaurant. Of course the…
Buffalo Baked Cauliflower: A Recipe Development Behind the Scenes
One of my motivations for this blog is to share some of the thought process that guides my cooking decisions. Recipes aren’t infallible, and it’s important to be able to use your judgment as a cook rather than blindly follow written instructions from a potentially unknown source. Other times you might trust the recipe but need to…
How 3 Teaspoons of Soy Lecithin Saved Purim
Or, A Tale of Butter Heartbreak and Redemption Here’s the story of my latest kitchen disaster and how I recovered from it. It turned out to be a great learning opportunity and I’m glad it happened. I think it’s important to share, because one of my primary goals for this blog is to describe the process of…