Category: Salad

Kidney Bean Lobio

Every time I make lobio, or any other Georgian dishes (that’s a country, not a state), it reminds me not only of the majestic Caucasus mountains, but also of the unique culture of Georgian people. Militant, fiercely independent, yet exceptionally warm and hospitable to strangers, they are fond of traditional, hours-long feasts with an endless…

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Say CHEESE for Shavuos!

Contrary to all other Jewish holidays, when we prepare festive meals that include both fish and meat, signifying rejoicing in His benevolence that grants us abundance, traditional Shavuos table is laden with dairy dishes, from blintzes to cheesecakes, and anything milky delicious you can think of.  One of the reasons for this unique menu is…

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Pickling Time and Chunking Kale

A distressed mother barges into a Rabbi’s study: “Rabbi, my son has gone meshuge (crazy)!” “Calm down, lady, have you taken him to a specialist? What makes you think that?” “Specialist-shmeshalist! Who needs specialists? I am a mother, I know!” “But, dear lady, what does he do?” “Oy, Rabbi, he eats pigs and dances with girls!” “Listen,”…

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Tweaked Green Papaya Salad and Carol’s Naughty Corner

South Florida is a crazy patchwork of little cities, towns, and villages, each boasting tropical flavor and colorful history. However, only one bears an official title City Beautiful, the City of Coral Gables. One of the seven cities in the United States influenced by the City Beautiful North American architectural movement which promoted “beautification and…

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My Grandmother’s Recipes: Part 8, Quinoa Pomegranate Salad.

This post takes us to the last two of the four holidays: Sukkot (Sukkos) and Simchat Torah (Simhas Torah). It also concludes my story with the celebration of Simhas Torah in Moscow Synagogue. *20. Leader of All Peoples – one of the multitude of epithets Stalin constructed to refer to himself. *21. The Big Brother…

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15 Down and Counting!

All this bean counting and portion measuring did bring a fantastic result! Drum roll, please: During the last four weeks my husband has lost 15 lbs. There was no wacky diet to follow and no magic trick, other than the right selection of ingredients, extremely tight portion control, and a 30-minute walk every evening. His…

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When Two Plusses Equal a Minus

A while ago, we had a chance to visit with my cousin and his wife in New Jersey and take them to dinner at a lovely Kosher Italian restaurant. Imagine my surprise, when my cousin Leo, normally a healthy eater with a robust appetite, had only a few leaves of lettuce (no dressing), and a…

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Zucchini Caviar from Beyond the Sea

Tzar Ivan the Terrible was a cruel tyrant. Everybody knows that. And just like many things that “everybody knows” and thus nobody questions, the sobriquet “Terrible” should be taken with a grain of salt. Since we are in the middle of Pesach (Passover), I recommend Kosher for Passover Red Sea Salt. True, he did accidentally kill his son…

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Happy New Year to the Trees with More Pickled Veggies!

We are celebrating yet another New Year – the New Year of the Trees. In the old times, in ancient Israel, this day, 15th of the month Shevat, or Tu b’Shvat in Hebrew, was celebrated as the earliest day when trees started bearing fruit. Later on, during the Middle Ages, the great Kabbalist Rabbi Issac…

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Mangold Pasta – Feel Like a Roman

I like browsing through recipes online, especially Russian and Ukrainian ones where I sometimes derive comfort from finding old favorites and often learn something new. That’s how one day I came across Mangold Salad. It looked interesting, so I googled it – in English. According to Wikipedia, it was simply Swiss chard. Back to the…

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