There’s a joke that all fun secular holidays have “Jewish” equivalents.  Halloween has Purim, Christmas has Chanukah, etc.  But Chanukah, in all its fried deliciousness, does not offer an opportunity to bake the mother of architectural sweets: The Gingerbread House.  Now, the Jewish harvest holiday of Sukkot has stepped in to fill this wide gap in the Jewish culinary calendar with The Gingerbread Sukkah.

Boston resident Julia Greenstein (daughter of renowned baker, George Greenstein)  makes gingerbread sukkahs every year with her family.  These miniature “dwelling structures” are as temporary as their real-sized cousins – if only because they are irresistible to eat!  Find out how she does it, and how you can build your own cookie sukkah below.

Oh friends, I feel a rant coming on.  Animal rights organization, PETA, has gone and done it again.  And by “it” I mean advocate for animal welfare, while simultaneously being entirely offensive to women.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals recently mailed a letter to Ben & Jerry’s, suggesting that they replace the cow’s milk dairy in their ice cream products with human breast milk.  They got the idea from a Swiss restaurant owner who plans to replace 75% of the cows milk at his restaurant with milk from nursing mothers.

According to a letter sent by PETA’s Executive Vice President, Tracy Reiman: “Using cow’s milk for your ice cream is a hazard to your customer’s health…[insert some cruel facts about the conventional milk industry here]…Won’t you give cows and their babies a break and our health a boost by switching from cow’s milk to breast milk in Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.”

PETA absolutely and frighteningly misses the point.

For many of us, apples and honey are an integral part of a Rosh HaShana celebration. But finding the right ‘apples and honey’ for your table is not always as simple as it sounds. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to dress up the tradition: from beautiful and funky honey pots, to a variety of honey options that go beyond the bear.

When it comes to honey pots, you can go with something traditional and very jew-y:

OR…….

Thanks to Rabbi Debbie Prinz for this guest post.  Rabbi Prinz is currently researching Jews’ historical and contemporary connections to the chocolate industry.  Find more about her work at Jews on the Chocolate Trail.

A serious chocolate lover has to wonder why Judaism today has neither serious ritual celebrations nor customs using good chocolate, especially at Rosh Hashanah when we emphasize the sweetness we anticipate and long for in the coming New Year. On Rosh Hashanah, we greet each other with the phrase, Shanah Tovah u’Metukah! “a good and sweet year.” We taste this sweetness through the apples and honey we eat, through the raisins we add to the customary round challah, through the honey cake we bake, or through the taiglach (small donuts) we drown in honey. But, where’s the chocolate?

After all, chocolate induces a spiritual state that might open us to the meditative, contemplative and introspective mood we seek at the High Holydays. As the manager of a fancy French chocolate store in Manhattan confessed to me, she has a metaphysical response to eating an intense 99% cocoa French chocolate just before she studies from the mystical text known as the Zohar.

I like Diet Coke. Okay, let’s be fair – I really like Diet Coke.

As my main source of caffeine, it was as much a part of my image in rabbinical school as the midrash books I schlepped around. When I got pregnant, the first question some of my friends asked was, “How are you going to go without Diet Coke for 9 months?” (Answer: I found an OB who let me drink it.) I can drink a 2 litre bottle at one sitting and I can tell the difference between Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi blind. It’s well…I wouldn’t quite call it an addiction, but I’m definitely hooked.

However, when my brain is not addled with the need for a rush of Aspartame, I know that drinking Diet Coke—especially in such quantities—is a problem on all kinds of levels. In a way, Diet Coke is the ultimate symbol of our food system in crisis: water dyed with color, saturated with caffeine and an artificial sweetener, poured into plastic, and trucked thousands of miles to your home.

It’s only sustainable if what you are trying to sustain is corporate profits. And then there is the carbon footprint. As Grist wrote in response to the pleas of another environmentally tormented diet pop addict (apparently I am not alone), drinking several cans of soda a day for a year is equivalent to flying round-trip from New York to Cleveland. This summer, knowing that drinking Diet Coke does not fit in well with the rest of my sustainable, environmentally friendly food values, I tried to do teshuva (repentance); I tried to give up Diet Coke.

This morning, while rumbling along the Q train to work, I nearly spit a mouthful of hot tea onto the man standing in front of me, as I surreptitiously read his copy of The New York Times. The cause of my near projectile mishap: a full page, color advertisement for corn syrup.

The ad, which was funded by the Corn Refiners Association (natch) featured a photo of a bagel spread with a dollop of bubble-gum pink cream cheese (decidedly unappetizing), and asked, “Could it be another schmear campaign?” Below the picture it pandered:

“Lately, high fructose corn syrup has had its name dragged through the media. Truth is, it’s nutritionally the same as table sugar. Has the same number of calories too. Even registered dietitians agree that you can keep enjoying the foods and beverages you love, just do it in moderation.”

The ad directed readers to a website called Sweet Surprise – which turned out to be a vapid collection of pages that tried to disguise pseudo-scientific stats and statements like,”high fructose corn syrup enhances fruit and spice flavors” as useful information. It seems that – just like the politicians the ad evokes – corn syrup manufacturers are trying to clean up their sullied public image.

The NYPost reports:

SWEET NEWS: Zvi Spitzer yesterday shows the sugar-formula Coke at Central Market in Williamsburg.

March 19, 2007 — Why is this Coke different from all other Cokes?

It’s kosher for Passover.

And even non-Jews are thirsty for the limited batch of Coca-Cola because of a very special ingredient – it’s made with pure sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup.