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Food

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Lisa's dog

A Conversation with Food Writer Lisa Yelsey

Bella Book

JWA’s food writer, Lisa Yelsey, has been cooking and writing for JWA for almost a year! In celebration of her delicious recipes, her dog, Cassie, and teaching us how to bake and watch TV, we asked Lisa how she got her start in food writing, how to update a traditional recipe for modern palates, and what she does when a recipe isn’t turning out quite right.

Topics: Food, Food Writing
First Lady Michelle Obama with Students

Nutritious School Lunches for All

Sarah Biskowitz

Sometimes when I babysit, kids don’t like the meals I prepare for them. They scrunch their noses and whine “ewww!” at the nutritious food on their plates; but then I explain to them how carrots make their eyesight sharper, yogurt makes their bones stronger, and whole-grain pasta gives them the energy to play. Wanting to be strong and healthy, the kids listen and eat up.

SNAP Logo

Food for Thought

Eden Olsberg

As a resident of Massachusetts, I urge you to fight against any incoming bills that could harm SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the millions of Americans who cannot feed themselves or their families without it.  

Topics: Food, Social Policy
2016-2017 Rising Voices Fellow Sarah Biskowitz and her Sister Lighting Shabbat Candles

The Ham Sandwich

Sarah Biskowitz

Looking back, I now know that the comment about my sandwich choice was an extremely inappropriate thing for a coach to say to a student. It was also just rude. But most of all, it capitalized on my outsider-ness. 

2016-2017 Rising Voices Fellow Molly Pifko with her Bat Mitzvah Project Display

Honey and Hanukah: How Food Justice has shaped my Judaism

Molly Pifko

Food and food justice had always been something that my family and I were passionate about, so I decided that for my Bat Mitzvah project, I would found a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program at my temple. CSA is a system in which customers pay a deposit in exchange for weekly bags of fresh vegetables, giving farmers more financial security, and the customer a steady supply of healthy, environmentally friendly, and in-season produce. 

Episode 3: People of the Cookbook

“Every cuisine tells a story,” writes Claudia Roden in the Book of Jewish Food. “Jewish food tells the story of an uprooted, migrating people and their vanished worlds.” Claudia’s childhood world vanished when the Jewish community was forced out of Egypt in the 1950s. Her quest to collect family recipes led to a celebrated career as a cookbook author. But Claudia writes more than recipes—she traces the DNA of cuisine. In this Passover edition, Claudia Roden talks about Passover cooking, her childhood in Egypt, and what makes Jewish food Jewish.

Challah

Times of Need and Kneading: On Making Challah When Nothing Else Helps

Rabbi Tziona Szajman

I pinched off a small piece of the dough, wrapped it in aluminum foil, and cupped it in my hands. I closed my eyes and gave thanks for my blessings, my husband and my beautiful daughter, and asked God to watch over and protect them. I threw the parcel into the bottom of the hot oven and returned to the table to braid two challot for Shabbat. It was the first time I had ever made challah and the first peace I had felt all week.

Topics: Family, Food
Jean Nidetch circa 1965

Jean Nidetch, Diet Queen

Tara Metal

Every woman in my family has been on a diet for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are of family parties: everyone surrounded by lovingly prepared dishes, saying “oh god, I shouldn’t eat this” and “I’m not eating carbs right now” as they piled their plates with lasagna and bread. That was the deal: diets weren’t really adhered to, but they were talked about incessantly.

Topics: Entrepreneurs, Food
Etta King Making Challah with Spiritual Kneading

Book Review: Spiritual Kneading Through the Jewish Months

Etta King Heisler

Exclamations of pride and wonder filled the room when we filed into the kitchen and found that the dough we had carefully mixed and kneaded had successfully grown into two pillowy, pungent loaves. Pulling off an olive-sized piece of dough, I recited the blessing “Blessed are you, God, who has sanctified us with your commandments and commanded us to separate challah.” Laughing and singing, we split the dough and began forming it into loaves.

Disaster Relief After Tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, May 23, 2013

The Passover Challenge: Discovering What We Take for Granted

Olivia Link

Even though the snow has persisted through and beyond the winter season, I am glad to acknowledge that spring is finally here! But before my junior year of high school comes to a close, I still have to cross some bridges before I can sail into summertime mode. Along with my upcoming AP exam, finals, and SAT test, I will shortly face the ultimate Jewish challenge: Passover.

For those who follow the Passover tradition where all grains are cut from the daily diet for eight days, then you certainly know that blissful feeling during break-fast when you take a big bite into that challah and think “wow, I will never take bread for granted again.”

Topics: Food, Passover
Bagel, Lox, and Cream Cheese

Food, Fat, and Feminism: Navigating the Contradictions of Judaism and Food

Sarah Yahm

We’re all familiar with the stereotype of the zaftig Jewish bubbe, stuffing her offspring with chicken soup and brisket, shouting, “Eat! Eat! You’re skin and bones.” We love to talk about these mythical kitchens of our childhoods—tables overflowing with kugels and babkas, tsimmus and kneidlach. But for many Jewish women, there was another, more painful, side to this abundance. Our bubbes didn’t just say, “Eat! Eat!” they also said “Why are you eating so much? You’re getting fat!” I don’t think this contradiction is unique to Judaism, but I do think there’s a distinctive cultural spin to this schizophrenic relationship to food. And considering the prevalence of eating disorders, if there are cultural roots, we need to weed them out.

Pomegranate and Vanilla-Honey Parfait

Katherine Romanow

Food is never simply food on a Jewish table. Rather, it’s symbolic and carries meaning that goes beyond the sum of its parts.

Honey Cake

Honey Cake: Succulent Slice of Rosh Hashanah Heaven

Deborah Fineblum Raub

There’s a spot in the morning Shacharis service that reminds us that honey can’t be added to any offering.

Be Hungry, Etta Eats the World

Be Hungry

Gabrielle Orcha

There is an advertisement that I pass when biking to work.

Itta Roth

Kosher, Gourmet, and Underground

Gabrielle Orcha

Itta Werdiger Roth, a professional chef, founded The Hester, an underground, word-of-mouth music café/speakeasy/supper club in Brooklyn that fuses local food, music, and Jewish conversat

Meat

Overturn the World

Susan Reimer-Torn

On July 2, 1965 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) began its work for women's equality, enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which among other things prohibited employment discrimination within labor unions. This week, we take a glimpse even farther back, to the turn of the century, to the roots of women organizing for fair prices.

"Women Resume Riots Against Meat Shops" New York Times, May 17, 1902

The Real Housewives of the Lower East Side

Judith Rosenbaum

One hundred and ten years ago today, something surprising happened. Jewish immigrant housewives in New York City—concerned and angry about a sharp rise in the price of kosher meat from 12 cents to 18 cents per pound—launched a kosher meat boycott that lasted nearly a month, spread to several other boroughs of New York, sparked violent riots and arrests, and attracted much media attention before ending with the successful lowering of meat prices.

Passover recipe roundup

Kate Bigam

Tonight marks the fourth night of Passover, and you’re probably running low on leftovers from the first two nights’ seders (if you had any to begin with). Fear not!

Lesléa Newman

How To Make Matzo Brei

Lesléa Newman

It has to be Sunday morning,
not just any Sunday morning
the Sunday morning of Passover

Topics: Food, Passover, Poetry
Marge Piercy

Matzoh

Marge Piercy

Matzoh

Topics: Food, Passover, Poetry
Artichoke Pesto with Matzah

Eating Jewish: Artichoke pesto with matzah

Katherine Romanow

Reading through my copy of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food by Gil Marks, I learned that artichokes are a common feature on the Passover tables of Italians and other Sephardim, since they usually first appear in early spring. I immediately knew that I wanted make this culinary tradition part of my own Passover celebrations. Yet, I have to admit that artichokes are one ingredient that intimidate me with their spiny outer leaves and inner choke that can be gag-inducing if not removed properly. Until I overcome my fear of artichokes (and for convenience's sake), I used using jarred or canned artichoke hearts.

Topics: Food, Passover
Coconut Matzah Brei

Eating Jewish: Coconut Matzah Brei

Katherine Romanow

I’m going to let you in on a little secret of mine: I actually like those tinned coconut macaroons that come out for Passover each year.

Topics: Food, Passover
Fava Bean Soup (Bessara)

Eating Jewish: Fava bean soup (Bessara)

Katherine Romanow

I pride myself on constantly using and experimenting with a variety of ingredients when I cook. However, fava beans were one of those things that hadn’t made it into my culinary repertoire.

Topics: Food, Passover
Wine-stewed Prunes with Mascarpone Cheese

Eating Jewish: Not your bubbe’s compote

Katherine Romanow

You're probably thinking that prunes don’t belong in the same sentence as dessert, let alone anywhere near the sweet finish of a meal.

Topics: Food, Recipes, Passover

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