I love hummus. I really do. I had some this morning for breakfast. I will probably have some with dinner. I seriously considered running away with my favorite hummus-seller in Machane Yehuda when I lived in Israel. But even I have never really considered the possibility of a sweet hummus. I mean, at its base hummus is mashed chickpeas. And when I think chickpeas I don’t think dessert.
Well lucky (?) for me, there are people in the world who don’t think the way I do when it comes to chickpeas. They saw hummus as a dessert-in-the-making. And they added some cocoa powder and some sugar (sugar! The humanity!) and they called it Chocolate Hummus.
Building a sukkah is easier said than done when living in an urban apartment building. When we tired of fashioning one in the kitchen next to a tall window using poles, string, and s’khakh (in this case evergreen branches) we embarked on the adventure of a communal urban sukkah outside our building’s basement. Only a handful of building residents protested, claiming that the sukkah violated the separation of church and state (don’t ask). Most, however, were interested and curious. What has transpired over the years is something we never would have imagined. Next to the bike racks and behind the trash, five diversely Jewish families transformed a concrete slab into a behavioral enactment of sustainability.
What does eating Jewishly mean to you? What is Jewish food? Does it reflect where you come from? Where your family came from? Dr. David Kraemer’s 2007 book Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages, recently published in paperback explores just those issues – and you can win a signed copy of his book!
Just leave us a comment on this post what is Jewish food for you and your name could be drawn to win a copy of his book. Last day to leave a comment is Tuesday October 14 and the winner will be contacted the next day.
Around this time of year, my kitchen is overflowing with bowls of local apples from my friend’s farms. On Rosh Hashana, Farmer Leon brought over a few honey crisps which as the name implies are crisp, delicious, and spicy sweet. I saved a few of these special gems for a break fast cake. While I was making the cake, my friend Heidi called and said she was making the cake too and her break fast version was featuring peaches and blueberries. The recipe below can be made with any type of seasonal fruit and as the name says, the cake is super easy to whip up and very delicious.
Foodie fun abounds at the Hazon Food Conference — the only place in the world where farmers and rabbis, nutritionists and chefs, vegans and omnivores, come together to explore the dynamic interplay of food, Jewish tradition and contemporary life and play together at the beautiful Pacific Ocean.
This year’s programming will likely include the following highlights and much much more:
I love to host the holidays. Nothing gives me more pleasure than planning, marketing, preparing, and entertaining for these special times, and I have established a tradition of going a little over the top for the occasion.
I also loved the books Julie and Julia as well as My Life in France. Both inspired me to swipe my mom’s old copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and happily start practicing. That was 2 or 3 years ago, and my appetite was rewet when I heard the film was coming out this summer. It inspired me to begin planning Le Marais, or an all Julia Child tribute to Rosh Hashanah.
In another important case against Monsanto and the USDA, the Center for Food Safety has again prevailed, demonstrating that GMOs pose serious risk of harm to organic farmers and consumers, and that the USDA is failing to sufficiently protect us from the contamination that can result from the planting of these crops – this time in Sugar beets! As lead counsel for CFS on this case, I’m excited to share the news with you!
A Federal Court ruled yesterday that the Bush USDA’s approval of genetically engineered (GE) “RoundUp Ready” sugar beets was unlawful. The Court ordered the USDA to conduct a rigorous assessment of the environmental and economic impacts of the crop on farmers and the environment.
“I grew up in a family that emphasized food and used it as an organizing principal for family gatherings – which is probably not unfamiliar to The Jew & The Carrot’s readers,” says anti-food-waste activist Jonathan Bloom.
As a freelance writer for the Boston Globe and the Washington Post, Bloom wrote about food and travel. (“My travel articles were about going somewhere else to eat,” he jokes.) Like many Americans, Bloom became increasingly attuned to environmental issues and, he says, “My interests in food and the environment came together for me in 2005, when I volunteered at D.C. Central Kitchen, an organization that rescues food that would otherwise go to waste, and trains homeless people to be chefs using that food.
Maybe it is cliche but they say dinner and a show makes for a great date. I’m hoping so because this weekend my boyfriend and I will be eating at Conni’s Avant Garde Resturant – which is both dinner and a show. But this is not your average local dinner theatre. They are really serious about their local food. I got the chance to talk with some of the folks working on the show about their menu and focus on local food. Below the jump is a brief interview and information on how you can get your own tickets to this fun event.
Thanks so much to Maya Bernstein for this great cross-post from Lilith Magazine. Maya is the Director of Education and Leadership Initiatives at UpStart Bay Area, where she blogs weekly on Jewish Social Entrepreneurship. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Palo Alto, CA, where she’s made a secret deal with the devil in exchange for time to support her piano, swimming, yoga, and poetry habits.
My foray into vegetarianism began in 8th grade, and, if I correctly recall, had something to do with a dead squirrel. It was a year of rebellion for me: I got kicked out of class for the first time; cut class for the first time; and even joined an illicit “pizza group,” composed of me and a bunch of guys who would call the local pizzeria from the school’s pay phone every week, and share a pie behind the school cafeteria. My proclamation that I would no longer eat meat was, according to my parents, part of a “phase,” and my mother continued to serve chicken soup and brisket every week on Shabbat.
Thanks to Rabbi Dara Frimmer, of Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles, for sharing this sermon with us. Each of the four clergy gave a mini-sermon on a place in the house (“home” is their theme this year) and Dara says “not surprisingly I chose the kitchen.” This piece, Dara says, was in part inspired by her work on the Hazon Food Conference executive committee and the work she’s been doing to create a healthier and more sustainable world for all. Enjoy, and feel free to share your own kitchen memories below.
I took an excursion this week to the Mahane Yehuda outdoor market in Jerusalem to get a taste of the space days before a major Jewish holiday. Below you will find a sampling of pictures from this trip. Perhaps for some of you it will be something of a trip down memory lane. For those who have never been there, these pictures do not do it justice.
