Category: Uncategorized

Festiv-e-teas

Originally posted on koolkosherkitchen:
In an old Japanese tale, a poor peasant catches a badger. He puts the badger into his bag and starts walking home, to bring food to his family. But when he comes home and opens his bag, instead of a badger, he finds a teapot! “What shall I do with it?…

The Little Island That Fought: Mangu

Originally posted on koolkosherkitchen:
This is the story of a proud little island that has been fighting invaders and enslavers for several centuries. We’ll go back to 1492, when Columbus, supposedly, discovered America. What he actually discovered was a tiny island in the Carribean called Ayiti by its native Taino people (you can read about…

Ponce de Leon, Diamond Lil, and the Secret of Eternal Youth

Originally posted on koolkosherkitchen:
There is a quaint little town on the East Coast of Florida called St Augustine. It is considered the oldest continuous European settlement in the continental United States. But that’s not what makes it famous. Tourists flock to St Augustine because they are dying to stay young forever. According to the…

The Clever Suitor and the Dietetic Hamentaschen

Originally posted on koolkosherkitchen:
You have already met the famous prankster and jester Hershele of Ostropol in some of my previous posts (https://koolkosherkitchen.wordpress.com/2016/09/28/yukh-a-one-eyed-soup, https://koolkosherkitchen.wordpress.com/2016/12/20/summer-latkes-in-december). He is not a fictional character; he actually existed and served as a Shamesh (synagogue attendant) for one of my illustrious ancestors, Rabbi Boruch of Medzhibozh who lived in the second…

Happy New Year to the Trees with More Pickled Veggies!

Originally posted on koolkosherkitchen:
This is a re-post, Beautiful People. Today is Tu b’Shvat, the New Year of the Trees in the Hebrew Calendar, and I thought this post was worth repeating. 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…

Tweaked Green Papaya Salad and Carol’s Naughty Corner

Originally posted on koolkosherkitchen:
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…

Dracula and Klyotzki Dumplings

Originally posted on koolkosherkitchen:
It looks like my Monster cookies were not scary enough for you, Beautiful People. Let me introduce you to some truly terrible real monsters who have become legendary. Count Dracula really existed. He was born in Transylvania in fifteenth century and ruled the province called Wallachia. His name was Vlad III,…

Bitten by a Chicken – Honey Chicken Bites

Originally posted on koolkosherkitchen:
Have you ever been bitten by a chicken? No? Chicken don’t bite? Are you sure? What about figuratively, rather than literally, when a whole bunch of people, almost three million of them, got bitten, that is, obsessed, by the same idea? It happened about thirty three hundred years ago, and those…

My Grandmother’s Recipes: Part 4, Gefilte Fish.

Originally posted on koolkosherkitchen:
Which teenage love story has become proverbial, portrayed on stage and on the movie screen, rendered into an opera and a ballet? Romeo and Juliet, you say? You’ve seen too much of Leonardo di Caprio, Beautiful People! Those kids have got nothing on my grandparents,? whose love story that lasted for…

My Grandmother’s Recipes: Part 1, Round Challah.

Originally posted on koolkosherkitchen:
Years ago, when my grandmother was still around, it has occurred to me that only my mother and I knew her recipes, and we knew them by heart; they were not written anywhere. I decided to write them down, organizing them by Jewish holidays. Then my memories took over, plunging me…

Magic Curried Mushrooms

Originally posted on koolkosherkitchen:
Why did people in Ancient Egypt call mushrooms “the plant of immortality”? Did they truly believe that eating mushrooms would make them immune to human frailties, deceases, and ultimately, departing this world? Not really. They never had a chance to see for themselves because the pharaohs loved mushrooms so much that…