Noshing Across the Nation

Children, Israel, Food, Torah – things I love and talk about often!

Month: August 2018

  • קוּמִי אוֹרִי, כִּי בָא אוֹרֵךְ; וּכְבוֹד יְהוָה, עָלַיִךְ זָרָח. Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.

    This week’s Haftarah brings me back to Jerusalem, of course. Jerusalem, as a city of prophets and a place for G-d’s vision to come alive, a city with blood, tears, hopes and joy all intertwined with each other in one giant ball of cosmic energy too tight and ready to burst out. It always seems…

  • Wine! Glorious (kosher) Wine!

    Not sure if I said it already, but my younger daughter is studying to become a sommelier. Apparently, there are only 249 masters of this trade in the whole world! In America, there are only 25 women. One can study for years and years and still fail the Master’s exam. So, there is a long…

  • Ottolenghi Lemon Blueberry Teacakes

    Sometimes fortune smiles at you. I mean my culinary fortune. My daughter went to an event with chef Ottolenghi and got his “Sweet” book. Apparently, the chef takes his publishing endeavors seriously. A little while after, she got another book and a letter stating that the first version had some errors in print (the list…

  • The Russian Picnic Tradition

    Apparently, Soviet cuisine is very fashionable now. Otherwise, why would there be such a great number of articles, books and posts about it. I need to write about Kachka – the book that I enjoy reading and the experience of my daughter, the Portland lover. I have been following the Russian food blogger, Peter, who reinvents the…

  • Food! Glorious (Israeli) Food!

    Just because on a day of horrible news from Israel I saw this article about food, I couldn’t leave it be. Here it is for you, my readers. Whether you are in Israel now or plan to go, read this, you’ll love it. Personally, I can totally vouch for Hachpuria, where I’ve finally eaten this…

  •  שִׂמְחוּ אֶת-יְרוּשָׁלִַם – Rejoice you with Jerusalem

    This Shabbat we will mark the start (Rosh Chodesh) of the new month of Elul, This time is supposed to bring us all to a calm and self-searching mood. This is not easy at all when each one of us is busy with life, minor and major problems, thinking about holiday meal planning and the like.…

  • Still Thinking about Pardes?!

    Just some ranting: This year’s program was a bit different. Firstly, it was bigger than the ones I attended before. It was also much more diverse. People came, of course, from the States and England as they always come, but this year there was a relatively large group of youngsters from France, one lady from…

  • Quick Meals for Shabbat

    This past Shabbat I was not in the mood for a lot of food – too hot and humid, and no desire to spend much time in the kitchen. The dishes I made (only two) took me all of less than 15 minutes to prep and about 25-30 minutes total in the oven. Since my…

  • About the Shuk – Again

    Did you know that Rosh ha-Shana is only a month away? The thought dawned on me during my Shabbat rest. As I started going through my multiple collection of recipes to see which ones I can incorporate Simanim into, I found an old article about the cute cafe we stumbled upon a couple of years…

  • Isaiah – יְשַׁעְיָהוּ – Haftarah – הפטרה

    Tradition has is that Haftarah readings were instituted during the times when public reading of the Torah was prohibited in Israel by non-Jewish authorities of the land. The sages then used this “trick” of reading the books of the prophets as to not leave the people without the word of G-d altogether. The specific portions…