A cozy little cabin

 A long time ago, I posted about a camping trip I took with my family. (It was part of a longer post about holidays and other stuff.) Well, over Memorial Day weekend, we decided to take a different kind of camping trip. This time, we went glamping! 

We stayed at a place I found on Vrbo, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Weirdly enough, I had been looking at another place at the same time that we were also interested in (due to the location), but I accidentally reserved this place instead of the other one. It ended up being a happy accident because we all loved it. It was so cozy and rustic, but had lots of amenities, such as a kitchen, TV, bathrooms, etc. There was a fire pit outside, as well. Alexis Rose would have said the cabin was so cute and done her trademark facial expression and hand gestures.

My husband took this picture and dolled it up a bit

After we settled in, we took a walk to a nearby lake. We were the only people at the lake, so it was nice and peaceful. My husband and younger son busied themselves with skipping stones across the lake. The rest of us enjoyed taking pictures and enjoying the scenery.

When we got back to the cabin, we had a cookout over the fire pit, with hot dogs and s'mores. It was a lot of fun. It started raining a bit after we had finished our meal and then we spent the rest of the evening playing Loaded Questions. It was a long game, but we love it and usually come up with a lot of inside jokes each time we play. We stayed up pretty late, but we were able to sleep in a little bit the next morning before we had to pack up. 

On the way back home, we stopped in downtown Frederick. It's a nice town with lots of art displays and a river running down the middle. We even saw some ducks. :) It was a gorgeous day out. Only half the people walking around, including us, were wearing masks, but no one bothered anyone else either way.

We had a really nice overnight stay and we already want to do it again! 

Winter Joy Retreat--Final Thoughts

For the past two weeks, I participated in a writer's retreat from The Inky Path (hosted by Jena Schwartz and Cigdem Kobu), which I won from Nina Badzin's blog. You can find all my posts here (but this one will be included at the top). I wanted to share some of my thoughts about the experience.

I will first admit that I have a hard time writing about food. I love food, obviously, but can't describe tastes, textures, appearances, etc. in a way to bring the food to life on the page. All I know is that I enjoy eating it. I also had trouble tying it to feelings and memories. Food has always been a constant and I usually eat the same things over and over. Having said that, some of the topics threw me off a bit. I found stuff to write about, but had to get creative and think outside the box. I chose not to look at other people's posts before writing my own (per topic), as to not affect what I was going to write about. If I'm being honest here, I'd rather access memories connected to pop culture in some way (music, movies, books, etc.). I feel like there's only so much I can say about food before it gets redundant, but I applaud Jena and Cigdem's topic ideas. Overall, I did have fun writing the posts once I got into the right frame of mind.

My favorite posts that I wrote in this retreat were for Comfort, Generosity, Pleasure, Friendship, Adventure, and Laughter. I had the hardest time writing about Courage and Longing.

As I read other people's posts, it made me think of how grateful I am. A lot of people tied food to hardship and trauma. I didn't have a need or reason to do so and am thankful for that. I admire the bravery people displayed by sharing their experiences though. I also felt sub-par as a writer because I lacked the ability to write about food as beautifully as they did, as well as pull up such descriptive memories. I enjoyed getting to know people from all over the place and seeing how our food experiences sometimes connected us. I definitely wasn't the only Jewish writer in the group!

I enjoyed the opportunity to share some thoughts and memories about food on my blog, even if it wasn't the topic I would have chosen. It's diverse enough and I was able to find something to write about each day. I signed up for Inky Notes so I can get more writing prompts. Jena and Cigdem even sent me an online booklet to download for even more inspiration. Maybe you'll see some posts over here from those prompts...

Thanks for joining me on this journey. If you missed the posts the first time around, come by anytime and read them at your own leisure.

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 14: Food and Creativity

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Today is the last day of the retreat. I plan on sharing some thoughts about the experience soon.

Today's topic:
What happens when you improvise in the kitchen (and in life)? Where do you keep your creativity on a leash, and when does it get to run wild and free? Tell us about a memory where food and creativity are linked forever.

I must admit that I'm not creative when it comes to food. I'm happy to make something that comes out the way I want it to, taste and texture-wise. I can't decorate cakes or make cookies look like my kids' favorite cartoon characters. I openly admire (and envy) people who have the time, energy, and skill to be creative with their food.

Having said that, there was a time I had to improvise and it worked out really well.

On Rosh Hashanah in 2010, we were hosting people for lunch on the first day. That morning, I realized the only thing we had for our salad was lettuce. We observe Yom Tov similar to Shabbat, so I couldn't go to the store and purchase vegetables. I was panicking for a bit, but then I went into the pantry and noticed that we had cans of baby corn and water chestnuts, as well as some snack cups of Mandarin oranges. I had a salad dressing recipe from this really good Asian slaw, so I put that together for this new Asian style salad. I also found a can of La Choy chow mein noodles and added that into the mix.

The salad turned out really good, and it has since become my go-to salad for Shabbat and holidays. It's so easy to make and everyone likes it. My in-laws request it every time they come in for Shabbat and can't seem to get enough of it.

This is about as creative as I get when it comes to food. Even though my husband helps with it a lot, he still credits me for everything.

Winter Joy Retreat--Day 13: Food and Pleasure

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Today's topic:
Tell us about a moment in the past when food meant pleasure. Food that looked, smelled and tasted so seductive that you can’t forget about it to this day. Where does this memory take you? What feelings does it bring back?

I always love to eat, especially food that I don't always get to experience. The pleasure for me comes from how delicious something tastes and how enjoyable it is for me to eat, no matter what else is going on in my life. I can't choose just one, nor can I articulate what memories they bring back, so I'm writing this in a similar style to my comfort foods post.

First of all, there's peppermint. I love the taste of peppermint and always associate it with this time of year. I could eat peppermint year round, but only certain items come out during or close to December.

*Candy Cane Joe-Joe's from Trader Joe's. If I get to the store before they sell out, I stock up on them. They're different from a mint Oreo. The little flecks of peppermint inside the cream filling just burst with flavor from each and every bite. During our first Christmas Eve in our new home out here (not that we celebrate, but we still have the next day off from work), we had some friends over and we just sat around eating Candy Cane Joe-Joe's and drinking hot cocoa. Then we played Jewish Apples to Apples and had so much fun laughing from it.

*Peppermint Bark: The combination of white and milk chocolate, along with pieces of candy cane, just melt in my mouth. My husband calls it "crack." It takes me back to this time when my mom was working with a really nice woman who used to give her homemade peppermint bark to bring to my sister and myself. Then we all went to her house one time and made it together. It was a lot of fun. I just wish I remembered how she did it. The kind pictured here is from Costco and it's excellent!

*Dutch Baby: The first time I went to *Walker Brothers' Pancake House was when I was a freshman in high school. I got the smaller version of a German pancake, called the Dutch Baby. It was puffy on top and flat on the bottom. It came with some lemons and a small bowl of powdered sugar. The lemons and powdered sugar combined on the pancake in such a way to make it even more flavorful and robust. It immediately became my pancake of choice any time I went to Walker Brothers after that. I remember going there after a performance of a high school play I was in later that year. My cousins from my mom's side (a different set than the ones we celebrated Thanksgiving with) were there too. They had some boys a few years younger than me and one of them started singing "Dutch, Dutch, Baby" to the tune of "Ice, Ice, Baby." Someone thankfully posted a recipe online. I may have to try it out sometime!

*Onion straws: When my best friend was living in Texas, I went down to visit her over spring break during my freshman year of college. She had to work on the night I arrived, but her mom and aunt took me to *Cheddar's. It was there that I tried onion straws for the first time. They were incredible. Thinly sliced onions dipped in a breading and fried. I couldn't get enough of them! Before the trip was over, I went back there, this time with my best friend. Later on, some franchises of Cheddar's opened up in Illinois. Only some of them served onion straws though. Thankfully, the one closest to my home, which was still a good 45 minutes away, served them. Eventually, I introduced this amazing appetizer to my husband, who enjoyed them as much as I did.

*Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza: From the light, buttery crust to the thick and gooey cheese, the taste of *Lou's pizza never fails to remind me of Chicago. It's definitely something I miss a lot and the Kosher restaurant out here doesn't even come close to making a comparable deep dish pizza.

*Conversation stopping pie: After I got married, I took private classes from a local Chabad Rebbetzin about going to the mikvah and family purity. She was so nice and we got along really well. Sometimes she would have my husband and me over for Shabbat dinner. The first time we were there, she brought out this delicious dessert. It was pareve ice cream, almond butter, and chocolate chips all frozen together in a graham cracker pie crust. She gave me the recipe and it was so easy to replicate. I used peanut butter instead of almond butter and it tasted like a frozen Reese's peanut butter cup! Anyone who has ever had this pie has loved it and I've even made it for people who were having a rough day or celebrating a special occasion.

*S'mores pie: I've mentioned this pie a few times already because it's just THAT good. I use crushed graham crackers and mix them into a dough and then split it up. I then add marshmallow fluff to the bottom crust and top it with semi-sweet chocolate, mini-marshmallows, and the remainder of the dough. The final touch is chocolate chips on top. This pie is best when eaten hot because of how the marshmallows and chocolate melt together. Who needs a campfire? Here is the recipe, if you want to try it for yourself.

*Cheesecake from the *Cheesecake Factory: The first time I went to the Cheesecake Factory was in 2001 with a guy I became friends with after we had dated for a short time the previous year. The food was impressive. I was so full that I took a slice of cheesecake home to try later. (I ordered the vanilla bean cheesecake.) When I got home that evening, I was ready to try it. From the first forkful, I realized that I had never had such amazing cheesecake before. It was light and soft. The blend of vanilla and cheese worked so well together. I was simply blown away! Since then, I've tried other flavors upon my many visits to the restaurant. (Side note: Their oat bread is a real treat, as well.) Tiramisu is another flavor I loved. A few years ago, my friend gave me a cheesecake recipe to try for Shavuot and it comes really close to how great the Cheesecake Factory makes theirs.

When it comes to food and pleasure, it's hard to choose just one item to talk about. This is only a small sample of the many foods from which I derive pleasure.

*At the time I did not keep Kosher.

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 12: Food and Friendship

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

I am finally caught up again!

Today's topic:
For today’s writing time, delve into a memory of food that is forever infused with the goodness and salvation of a deep friendship.

This topic was very easy for me. Even when I saw the word "friendship" on the list, I knew I'd write about this.

A few years ago, my best friend came to visit me for a long weekend. She had been making pies for quite some time and decided to teach me how to do it. We went to the store together to get all the necessary ingredients. That Sunday night, we set about making apple pies together. It was quite a process. We first had to peel and cut all the apples. Since we were each making a pie, we had to double the recipe. Then she showed me how to make the dough. I had purchased a pastry cutter at Bed, Bath, and Beyond just for this occasion. There was more involved than just mixing ingredients together. We had to use a balance of dough and cold water, along with making sure everything was blended with the pastry cutter. She had quite a rhythm down when she was mixing her own dough. Then she helped me with mine when I wasn't getting the results that she had. I remember that she was chewing peach gum while we were mixing the dough (and while I don't like the smell of peach, I let it slide this time).

When we finally got our dough into the pie pan, it was then time to add the apples and some other ingredients. Then came the hard part...putting the other half of the dough on top. My best friend knew what she was doing and her pie looked gorgeous even before it went into the oven. Mine looked okay, but not a masterpiece by any means!

My best friend's pie is on the left

Afterward, we put the pies in the oven to bake and worked on getting the kids to bed while we were waiting.

The end product was worth the wait! Hers definitely looked prettier than mine, but they tasted the same, so that's what matters.

We had a lot of fun baking together and plan to do it again when she visits soon. It was a fun bonding experience. The pie tasted delicious and got me started on enjoying apple pie. I never really liked it when I was growing up.

Delicious!

Around Thanksgiving time, I decided to try it out again, although mine didn't turn out as lovely as it did the previous time. Still, my brother-in-law said it tasted like it came from a bakery, so there's that!

The pie I made on my own

With my best friend on another one of her visits
(Two years after the pie baking experience)

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 11: Food and Tradition

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Due to Hanukkah and a busy week, I'm still behind, so please bear with me. Thanks!

Friday's topic:
What family traditions have fallen away or transformed into something new over the years? What foods evoke the rituals of your past? Tell us.

When I was a kid, and all through my teen and college years (and probably beyond), we had Thanksgiving dinner with my mom's first cousin and her family. Usually, my maternal grandma and her brother would be there, as well. We'd have it at our house every year. The only time we didn't was when my mom's cousin hosted the year my mom had back surgery. When we were little, my cousins, sister, and I would sit at the kid's table. Eventually we got to join the adults at their table. My third cousins on my mom's side are somewhat close in age. I'm a year younger than one of them and several years older than the other. We all got along really well, and still do!

Every year, there would be turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and most other traditional Thanksgiving foods. I don't remember what desserts would be available since I didn't like pumpkin pie at the time. Maybe my mom got me cherry pie or a cake? I'm surprised that dessert is such a blur for me!

I remember one year my sister took a video of everyone together. Our beagle, Buddy, was part of the festivities, as well. He even sat in my chair and licked my finished plate while my mom's cousin looked on with shock and disgust. (I think there was a different year when he grabbed a turkey leg off the table and my dad chased him around the house, and then the same thing happened on The Simpsons while we were watching together after dinner.) In any case, it was funny to watch!

On Christmas, we would go to my mom's cousin's house for a similar feast. While we didn't celebrate, they did.

This tradition changed when we moved away. I'm sure my family still celebrates one or the other with my mom's cousin, but not always both. Our first Thanksgiving out east was spent at my mother-in-law's apartment in Manhattan. We went to see the Macy's parade (as much as we could see of it) and then relaxed back at the apartment. There was a pool on the top level, so we even got to swim for a while. I had made pumpkin soup and brought it with for all of us to enjoy. My mother-in-law made a small turkey and some side dishes. And then there was pumpkin pie. Since it was the only dessert available, I decided to try it. Lo and behold....I enjoyed it! The following year, we hosted Thanksgiving dinner in our house for the first time. My in-laws and my husband's uncle came over for the meal.

The second time we hosted Thanksgiving dinner was in our new home in Maryland. My in-laws came down from New York and it was just the six of us (including my two sons). Then they spent Shabbos weekend with us. From there on, we've hosted Thanksgiving here every year. The only break in tradition was when my in-laws couldn't make it out here one year because one of them was sick. We hosted some friends who lived nearby and didn't have family visiting either. That was in 2012, I believe. The following year, it was Thanksgivukkah, which was the one and only time Thanksgiving and Hanukkah collided. It was also the first time my brother-in-law and his family joined us for dinner. Since then, they've been coming over for Thanksgiving every year.

I have a feeling that Thanksgiving traditions will ebb and flow, but I enjoy that we host it and I have a great relationship with my in-laws. I also have the fond memories of childhood Thanksgivings to look back upon, so that I can re-create the feeling for my kids.

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 10: Food and Time

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Due to Hanukkah and a busy week, I'm still behind, so please bear with me. Thanks!

Thursday's topic:
What is your relationship with food from the perspective of your relationship with time? Are you someone who eats slowly or fast? Tell us about a moment when you took time to savor every bite, whether it was a slice of orange you were eating or an exquisite dish served at a dinner party.

I tend to eat fast all the time. I've been known to make myself choke because of how fast I eat. I think this came from adulthood as part of work life and parenthood. With work, you only get a certain amount of time to eat. When things are hectic, I feel the need to speed it up a bit or cut meals short. I usually eat on my own and read at the same time, so I'm only on my clock. When I go out to eat with a friend, I am less rushed, as I usually plan for an hour instead of my usual 30 minutes.

When my kids were babies, there were times we'd go out to eat and they'd only last so long at a restaurant before having a meltdown. Or we'd be at home and I'd need to feed them or hold them and couldn't really focus on having a leisurely meal. Even now, the nights are short. After putting together dinner, I need to focus on getting the kids ready for bed. We sit around the table for a bit, but it usually feels rushed.

The one time a week I slow down to eat is on Shabbat. The nights (especially in the winter) are stretched out before us. There's nowhere we have to be and the kids aren't on a bedtime schedule. If we host people for lunch or go to someone else's home, it's also longer and more drawn out, each part of the meal having its time to be enjoyed.

Time is more of an issue in relation to food when the days are shorter before Shabbat starts and we have to rush to make sure all the food is ready before we have to cease cooking. This also holds true for certain religious holidays...especially since there are two nights and two days (sometimes three if Shabbat is right before or after the holidays) to prepare food for. It gets really hectic in the final hours before the holidays start and I find myself ready to pull my hair out. My husband is the one doing most of the cooking, and yet I'm the one who feels overwhelmed. Go figure! One year, our meat oven broke right before Pesach. My husband had to Kasher the dairy oven so we could use that for meat instead. So hectic! However, when Shabbat or the holiday starts and the candles are lit, I can breathe a sigh of relief and just enjoy the food that has been put before me.

As far as savoring...the first time my husband tried making this Italian meatball recipe, it was so incredible that I wanted to make the taste last for as long as I could. I even swore because it was that amazing. (I don't usually swear about food!) Don't worry...the kids weren't around when I did it. My husband still loves that his meatballs made me swear.

The meatballs that made me swear out loud!

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 9: Food and Courage

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Due to Hanukkah and a busy week, I'm still behind, so please bear with me. Thanks!

Wednesday's topic:
What early messages did you imbibe about bodies? Where have you been courageous that you may take for granted? What is the story that would not even occur to you to tell? Tell us about a time when food and courage came together, like old friends so glad to see each other.

I can't really say I have any food issues, other than being a picky eater and having some weird hang-ups about how some things should be eaten. I've always loved to eat though. I never had an eating disorder or anything along those lines. Yes, it was encouraged to be thin, but my body is what it is and as long as I'm taking care of myself, I'm not too concerned.

When I think of courage and food coming together, I think of my move to New Jersey in 2007. It was a big move, halfway across the country after living in Illinois almost my entire life. I didn't really know anyone there, nor had I established any friendships. At the time, it was my husband, our 18 month-old son, our cat, and myself. (Guess who drove the cat in their car the entire trip? You're looking at her!) It was definitely hard to say goodbye to everyone and everything in Illinois, but we managed to pack up our home into two sedans and a moving truck (which we had some issues with after reaching our destination) and that was that.

I remember that we left in the middle of the night and it was snowing. In April. It was hard to see the road in front of me in the dark. Like flying through hyperspace! When the sun finally came up and we got into Indiana, we stopped for a hot breakfast. Pancakes! They gave me some energy for the next leg of the trip. Then we met up with my husband's aunt and uncle in Cleveland for lunch. I can't even remember what I ate though. Maybe a salad? Afterward, we drove on more until we reached Pennsylvania. We went to this Mexican restaurant in a little village out there. At the time, I was still eating non-Kosher chicken, so I got fajitas. Then, after getting lost several times, we found our hotel and caught up on sleep. The hotel had a breakfast buffet, which was pretty elaborate. Cereals, hot food, etc.

The rest of the drive to New Jersey wasn't too long, and we got there early in the afternoon. After we dropped off some stuff and checked out the house, we drove into the downtown area by our Northern NJ home. There was a Kosher dairy restaurant with a pareve bakery where we ended up for lunch. I had a grilled cheese, as I needed the comfort food! Afterward, we purchased a cake for the home where we'd be having our first Shabbat dinner in our new community. It had been raining out that day and was gloomy and overcast. I felt like it was an omen for what was ahead.

The house was a piece of work. Think of The Money Pit and you'll have a good idea of what it was like. We were renting it temporarily until we could find a house we'd want to settle down in. We did some unpacking in the afternoon and then my mother-in-law came out to see us and took us to a Kosher meat restaurant in a different downtown area. I had a hamburger there. It was good, but also tasted of the trepidation that came with living in a new place with a new set of social rules.

That Saturday, our house (since it was not yet furnished) was being used for a Bar Mitzvah kiddush lunch. This was something arranged before we were moving there and the parents were thankful that we didn't throw off their plans. They even gave us an air mattress for our first few nights there. They also let us have a lot of the leftovers from the luncheon. (Mostly deli meat, from what I remember.) If anything, it was a good way to meet a lot of the community at once! At one point, I was talking with a close friend of the Bar Mitzvah boy's mother. She was visiting from Texas and was very kind and easy to chat with. She made me feel somewhat better about embarking on this new chapter in my life.

Living in a new town and getting adjusted was not as easy as I had hoped. I made some friends, but I also felt like the rest of the community was doing their best to make us feel like outsiders. The president of our Shul was a perpetrator in this effort. It's a long story for another time, but it involves the money pit owned by the Shul. Also, I had a hard time finding a job. It took me 10 months to finally secure some work for myself. Thankfully, I liked the job a lot. We also rented a different house by then, with a nice and reasonable landlord this time. And some friends from the community moved next door to us. I even had my second child that spring. However, we still weren't happy in our community and looked at other Shuls and communities nearby in hopes of finding a better fit. (One of the hosts we stayed with made these delicious peanut butter balls and gave me the recipe. I made those and froze a bunch and they worked as a comfort food in some ways.) We didn't have much luck with this endeavor.

Then my husband's job took us to the DC area that November for a conference he had to attend. My sons and I walked all over the Capitol and I loved it so much that I felt we needed to move there. We visited a community the following February and were sold just on how friendly and welcoming everyone was. I also got a chocolate chip biscotti recipe that I made from time to time after that visit. We came back again that Spring to confirm our decision and then bought a house a few weeks later. While we were still in NJ, getting ready to say goodbye to everyone there, we were invited to a Bat Mitzvah party for the daughter of the family who hosted the Bar Mitzvah luncheon when we first moved in. The same friend from Texas was at this party, so I felt like I had come full circle seeing her again on my way out of the community. She and I hung out together the whole time at the party and she was still as sweet as I remembered. I remember eating steak at this party, as well as some fancy desserts.

I probably got off on a tangent, but I wanted to share about some of the food and experiences that went along with a time in my life where I had to display courage. Courage of facing the unknown. Courage to admit that I wasn't happy where I was living. Courage to make another huge move to another new community....the one that I now call home.

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 8: Food and Longing

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Due to Hanukkah and a busy week (so far), I'm still behind, so please bear with me. Thanks!

Tuesday's Topic:
What are you longing for right now? What are you hungry for in your life? When you look back, can you identify a time when your food choices were really not about filling your body or keeping it going but about what you longed for deep inside? Tell us about a time when food was about longing.

This topic made me think a lot about the kinds of longing I do. And it brought me to an interesting place that still is food related.

Confession: I am a recipe hoarder. I have tons of recipe books in my kitchen cabinet, including one that has a collection of recipes from when I was growing up, as well as some my grandma passed down to me. It got so huge that I had to get another binder just for the desserts section! There is also a pile of recipe magazines in the cabinet. I used to have a Family Circle subscription just for the recipes. Then I fell behind on clipping them and just gave up on those. However, I have a folder in my Gmail account just for recipes I've collected online and have yet to print.

What does this have to do with longing, you ask? Well, with all the recipes I have either in print or online, I have yet to cook a majority of them. I usually go for the same (and safe) ones that I know will come out how I want. I miss cooking. My husband is a really good cook, so he does a majority of the cooking. And life gets so hectic that I don't have the time or patience to cook more than the simplest and foolproof of recipes in my collection. I look at these recipes for delicious food items and say to myself "I would love to make that." Then I see how complicated it sounds and bury it in my collection, in hopes to come back to it later. I will admit that I'm not as an amazing of a cook as my husband, but I do enjoy producing something that people will enjoy and even compliment me on. It makes me feel really good to hear that someone liked my challah, or my blueberry cake, or my pumpkin pie. I used to make this s'mores pie that was out of this world and basked in the praise of everyone who loved it. It wasn't personally my recipe, but I think it's more the cook's doing than the recipe itself. Lately, I've been outsourcing some of my simple, but tried-and-true cooking tasks to my older son, who wants to be on Master Chef Junior one of these days. I used to make these really good peanut butter balls, but they take a lot of work and my sons can't eat them anyway, due to allergies. So I've tabled the desire to make them again.

My pumpkin pie, recipe courtesy of Quick and Kosher

Having said all this, I long to step out of my cooking comfort zone. I long to find the time, patience, and energy to cook the delicious recipes I find as an extra gift in the magazines and books I read (such as in Too Many Cooks by Dana Bate, Off the Menu by Stacey Ballis, or Stir by Jessica Fechtor). I long for the motivation to cook something new; something that people will love. I recently came across recipes for cherry thumbprint cookies and butterscotch bars. Both sound really good, but I once again haven't gotten myself to purchase the ingredients and put forth the effort. The most I can bring myself to cook is challah every once in a while (I make big batches) or something simple for Shabbat. I keep making goals for myself to cook more from scratch, and end up resorting to using mixes because it's easier and less time-consuming...and my son can make them without as much supervision.

The recipe collection in my home and e-mail account all reflect my longing to cook something new and different. To make the time for myself and get up the motivation to do so. To go to the store and buy ingredients I might not have normally purchased before. To have a new favorite dish for when I host Shabbat meals.

My best friend is coming to visit in a few weeks and wants to make a pie together again. Let's hope she can kick my butt into gear!

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 7-Food and Adventure

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Due to Hanukkah and a busy week (so far), I'm still behind, so please bear with me. Thanks!

Monday's Topic:
What experience have you had where food and adventure went hand in hand? Maybe this meant going to faraway lands, or perhaps no further than a friend’s house or a restaurant. Maybe it was less about what you ate and more about the context in which you ate. Today, write about what comes to mind when you put “food” and “adventure” in the same memory.

When I was given the "adventure" prompt, I immediately thought of my trip to Israel from Birthright in early 2002. It was my first (and so far, only) time going to Israel. It was also the last trip before my life changed in a huge (and amazing) way.

Since I was there 14 years ago, I can't really tell you how food smelled or tasted. There were so many different meals and dining experiences wrapped up into a 10 day trip. I will share a few food-related thoughts and memories though.

*Most of the hotels we stayed at would serve these little cakes for breakfast. They were very soft and flavorful. It was hard not to grab a bunch of them! I usually would pair my cake with a cup of chocolate pudding.

*On our second night there, we went to a Druze village and had a meal in one of the homes. I remember someone taking a picture of me while I was eating and then sharing it on the Birthright website. Next thing I knew, I had a message from my mom saying "You look happy, except when eating pita." It wasn't that I was not happy. It was that I was caught by the camera mid-chew. The food at the Druze village was actually good, if I could even remember what I ate. I think rice was served.

*When we got to Tel Aviv, we were on our own for lunch. I went into this fast food place with a few friends and got chicken shwarma in a pita. It was delicious, from what I remember.

*There was also a dairy restaurant in Tel Aviv called Yotvata. They had amazing gelato (my first time trying this form of ice cream). The best was their tiramisu flavor. We ate at Yotvata for dinner before boarding the plane back to the US. We didn't get to choose our gelato that time, so we only got vanilla, but it was still good.

*My friend "Will" was in Israel while I was there, so we got to have lunch together in the Old City a couple of times. The first time, I got pizza, but I was so overwhelmed by the sights and sounds (along with the beggar cats), that I can't even remember how it tasted. The second time, Will made me try falafel. It was okay, as I'm not a big fan of chickpeas unless they're in hummus. I tried it again a couple times while back home, but it still has yet to impress me. However, I have photographic proof of myself eating falafel in Israel.

*There are Kosher McDonald's and Burger King all over the place, but since I wasn't keeping Kosher at the time and could get the same food at home anyway, I didn't bother. I usually got pizza during our lunches out.

*I remember the chicken being good wherever we had dinner, whether it was at a hotel or on a Kibbutz. I also remember going to this little buffet restaurant for one of the lunches. They had mostly meat dishes and those were good too.

Sorry my descriptions of food are so vague. I could tell you about the smells I associate with Israel, such as the dead sea or Ahava lotion (which comes from dead sea salts and has a very distinct scent). I could even share some songs that I always associate with that trip. However, I hope this will give you some idea of what kind of eating I did on my adventure!

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 6: Food and Laughter

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Due to Hanukkah and a busy week (so far), I'm still behind, so please bear with me. Thanks!

Sunday's Topic:
Let’s hear about your food and laughter moments -- the tears-streaming-funny ones, the line-between-laughing-and-crying ones, the circumstances that linked your experience of a certain food to laughter forever.

There have been so many moments where I equate food with laughter. I'd like to share a few of them here.

*Pieces of E.T.: Once when I was visiting a close friend at her childhood home, we made pasta and put chopped up garlic into it. Her dad saw the garlic and asked what it was, so she said "pieces of E.T.." This is still really funny to me and I can't put chopped garlic into pasta anymore without thinking of that.

*Weird mint frosting cake: With this same friend, I once made a cake that came out all messy in the end. It tasted fine but looked dreadful. We decided to frost it anyway and used mint extract in the frosting. I can still picture and taste that cake now and this was back when we were 15.

*Messy kids: I have this one friend who is clearly not a parent yet because kids getting food all over their faces and hands grosses him out. He says that when he has kids, he'll make them eat outside and then hose them off. So I enjoy taking pictures of my kids when they are super messy and then tagging him when I post them on Facebook. I'm hoping that one of these days, they'll just cover their faces and hands in chocolate and then hug him. (At least my youngest could get away with that,)

My friend is lucky he wasn't there this time...

*Tandoori chicken: My husband used to make this really good chicken dish using a package of Indian spices. He called it Tandoori, but I don't remember exactly what it was. Just that it was delicious. In any case, there are two funny stories that go along with it.

1. We served this at a Shabbat meal where my husband was telling everyone about this incident that occurred during our first Pesach in New Jersey. It involved a man bringing a stolen shopping cart with a stolen statue to the host's home as a gift for inviting him to their meal. The hosts, in this situation, were the Rabbi and Rebbetzin of our community (at that time...they left shortly after we did.) This one couple we had over really liked the chicken, so we made it for them again when they had their baby later that year. They sent us a thank you note mentioning how the chicken reminded them of the story about the shopping cart and the statue. Then they had some new neighbors of theirs ask us to tell the story when we hosted them at a different meal.

2. My younger son was eating the chicken for dinner, but the sauce was too messy for him. So he announced to us: "I don't like the sauce, so I'm going to lick it off." 


*Name mix-ups: There have been a few funny and memorable instances involving not understanding a certain name used for a food item.

1. When I was about nine years old, we went to this Japanese restaurant where everyone sits on pillows on the floor. The waitress came up to me at one point and said "Morty?" I had no idea what she was talking about and thought it was some food item she wanted me to try. Then she finally showed me the teapot and I was like "oh...more tea!" My family thought that was hilarious.

2. When I was in college, one of my friends came back from the salad bar and said "What's the difference between regular Italian dressing and local Italian dressing?" It took me a moment, but then I realized that local was really lo cal, but the words were written too close together. After that, I'd always ask if she got the "local Italian dressing."

3. When my husband and I went to a wedding, one of the servers had these weird looking appetizers on a tray. When I asked what it was, he said "chicka-nut-a-choke." I had to ask him to repeat it a few times before realizing he meant "chicken artichoke." I still don't know what that appetizer even entailed as it didn't look like anything resembling chicken or artichokes. My husband and I would go around saying "chicka-nut-a-choke" a lot after that.

*Braiding challah: A while back, I had a friend over to braid challah with me. She wanted to do a complex braid, and we looked online for instructions. The instructions were telling us to make it like a person and consider the strands either arms or legs. The whole process was so confusing and we ended up just laughing the whole time we were trying to braid. Then my friend had the idea to label each strand so she could figure out which to fold over each time. It worked though!

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 5: Food and Generosity

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Due to Shabbat and a busy weekend, I fell a bit behind....

Saturday's Topic:
Tell us about food and generosity. Do you remember a time in your past when generosity and kindness came along with food -- whether you were on the giving or the receiving end?

When I first moved to my community, there was a program at the Chabad called Loaves of Love. Women from the community came together to prepare challah dough for baking at home, in honor of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, z"l, who were tragically killed in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India in 2008. Rivka used to give challah to everyone in her community, so the way of honoring her memory was to bake some for ourselves and some to give to someone else. That same night, I won a huge bowl for mixing dough. Since then, I've doubled my challah recipe so I can give some to a friend each time I make a batch. Chabad did the same program for two more years, and then it tapered off. However, I still make enough in my batch to give someone a loaf of challah each and every time. I've recently extended Loaves of Love to people at my office. It warms my soul when I can give someone challah and find out that it made their day easier in some way. A while back, a friend even sent me a thank you card when she was the recipient.

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 4-Food and Childhood

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Today's topic:
Tell us about a memory from your childhood where food was a part of the scene. Food whose smell and taste you can’t forget even if what was included was as simple as a sardine sandwich, a ripe fruit, a slice of freshly baked pie, or a glass of warm milk. Where does this memory take you? What emotions does it bring back?

When I think of food and childhood, the first thing that comes to mind is making sugar cookies with my mom and sister. I don't remember if I helped make the mixture, but I can clearly picture myself rolling out the dough and then placing cookie cutters on top. Then we'd sprinkle colored sugar crystals on top. After the shapes were cut out, we'd put the remaining dough back together and start over again. The shapes were usually holiday-themed, most likely menorahs and stars for Hanukkah. Maybe there were snowmen too? The best part was sneaking pieces of the raw dough. We didn't think about the health implications of eating raw cookie dough when I was a kid (or even when I was in college). It was so sugary and delicious. I couldn't get enough of it! Of course, the end result of the cookies coming out of the oven hot and crisp was a reward in itself.

Over time, my mom and I would bake other desserts together. I got this recipe for a chocolate chip cookie cake (like the cookie cakes you'd see at Mrs. Fields) when I was in a junior high cooking class. We enjoyed making that together sometimes. When I was in high school, I learned about a recipe to make Funfetti cake mix into cookie dough. I started making cookies that way and bringing them to speech tournaments. They were a huge hit. One of my friends on the team wanted most of them for himself, so when it came time for his birthday, I made him a Funfetti cookie cake. I put it in a pizza box and brought it to school that way. He was thrilled, and of course he had to carry it around all day because it wouldn't fit in his locker. After that, I would bake Funfetti cookie cakes for the tournaments. That was definitely my contribution to the team, as I didn't really win all that much.

My mom definitely instilled in me a love for baking. Sometimes we bake challah together when she visits. I've passed this love for baking along to my kids, especially my older son. I hope it continues for future generations.

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 3: Food and Freedom

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Today's topic:
Tell us about a time when you felt food was about freedom -- or the lack of it. Who was involved? How has that experience influenced you as a person?


I personally don't have stories about feeling oppressed and thinking of food as freedom. However, this topic brought Passover (Pesach) to mind. (Funny that I'm talking about this now, with Hanukkah right around the corner.) Every spring, we sit around our dining room table, leaning back on our big pillows from the couch, and read from the Haggadah (the seder and story of Pesach). There are certain items that need to be on the table during the seder: matzah, parsley and a bowl of salt water, a hard-boiled egg, a roasted lamb bone, charoset (apple and wine mixture), lettuce, and horseradish root. These symbolize different things in the seder. I can explain a few of them.

The parsley is for dipping in the salt water, to represent the tears of our ancestors when they were enslaved in Egypt. When we had our first Pesach in New Jersey, we learned that you could use other items aside from the parsley for dipping in salt water. As long as you can say "....boray pree ha'adamah" (prayer over foods that grow from the ground), it's eligible for the (double) dip. This brought up an argument between my husband and some of the other men who were learning with him, as he knew that pineapples grew from the ground. Since he was right, the Rabbi put a pineapple on his seder table when we were there for the second night.

Yes, you can dip this in salt water!

The charoset represents the bricks and mortar that our ancestors used during their enslavement. We put it between two pieces of matzah and include a bit of horseradish for the korech, or Hillel sandwich. The charoset balances the bitterness of the maror, symbolizing the optimism of the seder. My husband has this amazing charoset recipe. I can't even explain what he does, but it comes out great every year. He makes a batch without walnuts due to our sons' nut allergies. It's delicious either way.

The matzah represents the bread that our ancestors didn't get enough time to bake before fleeing from Egypt. It's also the reason we can't eat anything leavened on Pesach. Over the past few years, we've been using Shmurah matzah at our seders. It's even thinner than the boxed kind made by Manischewitz or Streit's. It's really crispy, aside from it's plainness. It's great for making matzah pizza. The melted cheese weighs down the matzah, but it retains its crispiness. My kids like to eat it with cream cheese spread on top, even when it's not during Pesach. 

Shmurah matzah

At our seder table, we sometimes compare our enslavement in Egypt to the Holocaust. There was also no freedom for our ancestors during this horrific time, and food was hard to come by. My mother-in-law told us about her relatives who perished and how they would cherish a morsel of food whenever they could get it. At this time of strife in Israel and all the blatant Anti-Semitism going on, we compare what is happening to the Holocaust. The idea of being in such a perilous situation is jarring and unsettling to my family, my friends, and myself. We think about a time long, long ago and it's similar to a time in the not-so-distant past that we should never forget, as many survivors have now passed away. We are thankful to Hashem for bringing us to this time and place and providing a bounty of food that we can eat while celebrating our freedom and reminding ourselves "Never again!"

Pesach food used to be associated with bland taste. There weren't a whole lot of options for the seders or even during that whole week. I tended to eat a lot of matzo ball soup when I was growing up. In college, I had to improvise a bit, as the Passover "airplane food" provided by the dining center was disgusting. I'd get a plain burger or a plain piece of chicken, no bun. I wasn't keeping Kosher at the time, but I was pretty good about sticking to most of the Passover rules, even on a campus where the only synagogue was in the middle of nowhere. I'd bring matzah and the fruit slice candy (the good stuff with the sugar on top) to all my meals. My friends were interested in trying some of it, so I didn't feel too weird about that. My mom would also send me back to school with these chocolate chip cakes, which were the only dessert worth eating on Pesach at the time. The mix has been discontinued and I still miss it. I used to warm it up in the microwave so the chocolate chips melted and the cake was even softer and more delightful. A perfect breakfast treat! Side note: the Kosher for Pesach cereal is horrible and the bag inside the box is so small that it doesn't equate to the five dollars charged for it.

The first time I started liking Pesach food was when we went to my sister-in-law's family's house for the holiday. Her mom is an amazing cook and the food didn't even taste like it was intended for Pesach. Everything was just so incredible from the soup to the main dishes to the side dishes to dessert. At lunch, she had matzah macaroni and cheese and matzah lasagna. I now make those dishes for the holiday and they are in high demand from my whole family. I think the experience at my sister-in-law's parents' house inspired my husband to go outside of the box when it comes to cooking for Pesach. He's made some amazing dishes over the past years, including Pesach crepes. My sister-in-law baked these delicious blondies this past year and then gave me the recipe. It was so hard to stop eating them! And I managed to work with a Kosher for Pesach pancake mix that my kids and I both enjoyed. We used strawberry jam on top, as K for P syrup is ridiculously expensive. After all, if we're celebrating our freedom, we shouldn't be eating something bland!

My husband's Pesach crepes

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 2: Food and Love

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Today's topic:
Tell us about the food of love.
(Or your love of food, as the case may be.)

Warning: This is probably going to be a brain dump for me. :)

My relationship with my husband has been food-focused ever since we were dating. He had taught himself how to cook when he was single and would make delicious stir-fry dishes (sautes, as he called them) with chicken and fresh vegetables. The first time I cooked for him, I went with some basic stuff that I know I wouldn't mess up. Chicken baked in a sweet-and-sour sauce, rice, and this delicious napa cabbage salad. Of course, the meal wasn't without incident, as I managed to drop and break the bowl that the salad was in. Thankfully, this was after we ate the salad! He thought nothing of it and helped me clean up the glass so I wouldn't cut myself.

We've always enjoyed dining out together. I was thrilled that he liked my favorite Chinese restaurant (the one I worked at and mentioned on Day 1) and we'd always share the chicken garlic lo mein. I remember when we were first dating and he took me out for crepes before we saw this horrible musical (that we still laugh about). He's since learned how to make his own crepes, which are just as delicious. I started enjoying Mexican food because of him (even though I only ate fajitas) and we'd even sometimes get Indian food together. Thai food is definitely a favorite of ours, as well. Of course, we would go out for ice cream a lot. When we went to St. Joseph, Michigan, during the first summer we were together, we got Kilwin's ice cream (still a favorite) and took our cones with us to the beach to watch the sun set.

Kilwin's in St. Joseph

We started going to monthly Shabbat dinners together in the city and then decided to try a Shabbat dinner program in the suburbs. We'd fit as many people as possible in my condo and have a meal together while also discussing the weekly parsha (section of the Torah) in a way that was relevant to modern times. The program was short-lived, due to funding, but we still would have smaller Shabbat meals for just our friends from time to time. Most Friday nights, it was just the two of us sitting at the Shabbat table, enjoying a bottle of Joy Vin or Bartenura Moscato (at the time, it was called Moscato D'Asti and we still call it "Asti" nowadays) and a fresh loaf of challah that came from his bread machine. (It was a while before I started taking over the challah making process.) Shabbat meals have been a weekly ritual for us before we were even married. We first eased our way into doing them every week, but then realized how big a part of our lives these meals were.

We both take part in putting together Shabbat dinner. He cooks the meat and vegetable dishes. I usually handle the baked items, such as kugels and desserts. I also make the matzo balls for his soup broth. (Although I've passed along that task to my older son recently.) Sometimes it's just us and our kids around the table. Other times we host between one and three other families. Then we bring out all the special meals that we know how to make...homemade challah, brisket, cholent, deli roll, noodle kugel, pareve (non-dairy) cookies and cream ice cream pie, blueberry cake, etc. We've gone from working side by side in tiny apartment kitchens to having enough space to spread out in the kitchen we had remodeled. Sometimes he'll make dishes that I normally make and vice versa. I help him out whenever he needs me to (like the time he was stuck on the train and he sent me instructions for making a carrot dish or when he had to run to the store a third time and I got the potatoes ready for mashing while he was out).

From Thanksgiving, but this is the kind of spread we have for big Shabbat meals

Aside from this, when I first thought of food and love, I thought of my husband's birthday the year we were married. We had inside jokes about Saved by the Bell, so I decided to write "Happy Wrong Number By The Sea" on his birthday cake, since that is what was written on Zack's birthday cake when they were working at the resort. It was just a simple cake from a mix, but I might have made the frosting. I can't remember. In any case, it made him laugh, which is so vital to our relationship. Our friends didn't know what was so funny about the cake, but we did and that was what mattered.

This is not the cake I made (as it was from the show) but this gives you an idea.

Winter Joy Retreat-Day 1: Food and Comfort

I'm participating in an online writer's retreat, thanks to Nina Badzin's blog. The topic is "Edible Memories," so all the posts will be about food. I will try to post every day to keep up, but there are some I might come back to later, depending on my schedule and when inspiration strikes.

Today's topic:
Tell us about your comfort foods. Where do they take you? What houses, seasons, cities, and life changes circle around those foods that made you feel everything would be OK?

There are so many places my mind goes when I think of comfort foods. I can't seem to shut it off. I think of foods from my youth and even from now. Some have stood the test of time and others have slipped by the wayside. Keeping Kosher has caused me to give up certain things, but opening myself up more to trying new things (not all...fish is still on my "don't" list) has expanded my palate. I also don't know how to differentiate between favorite foods and comfort foods. What I'll do today is list a bunch and share some thought or memory associated with them. I can't really articulate which houses, seasons, cities, or life changes circle around these foods. I might be able to for some, but not all. I didn't include traditional Jewish foods because I associate them more with rituals and occasions than as comfort foods.

My husband's French onion soup

*French onion soup: I didn't start liking it until college, but I remember going out with my family as a kid and my parents would order it and let me have some of the melted cheese. It carried the taste from the soup, so I had an idea of what the experience would be like. Ever since I've tried it, I love eating it. Unfortunately, I've had to give up eating it at restaurants, but my husband makes it at home and it's so delicious. He melts the cheese on the soup in our dairy oven and puts a piece of homemade French bread (challah works too) inside. Heavenly! I associate French onion soup with autumn and cold, rainy days like today.

*Popcorn: I love going to the movies, but I don't always buy their overpriced popcorn. However, the smell always makes me think of the movie theater. When it wasn't so expensive, I enjoyed a bag of hot popcorn with butter drizzled on it. I'd even melt butter at home and pour it on microwave popcorn to re-create the taste. At our college movie theater, they had small bags of popcorn for a dollar. While it was rather salty, it was still good and I associate having popcorn with my DVDs on Saturday nights to sitting in the big lecture hall watching a second-run film. I also associate the smell with the Mundelein Theater where I would go for Rocky Horror every weekend. The smell of popcorn permeated the small lobby and smelling it even now brings back fun memories.

*Ice cream: I don't remember a time in my life that I didn't have ice cream. There's something just so comforting and satisfying about it. It doesn't matter if I'm eating it at an ice cream store or parlor or on my couch while watching my favorite TV shows. I love putting Magic Shell on it, but have realized how many calories that contains, so I don't do it as often as before. Magic Shell definitely brings me back to childhood though, when it didn't matter how many calories something had. I love the way the chocolate tastes after it hardens and how it blends so well with the ice cream. Chocolate chip cookie dough is one of my go-to ice cream flavors. I also like something with peanut butter and chocolate in it.

*Grilled cheese sandwiches: These are also a staple of both my youth and adulthood. I usually would get a grilled cheese sandwich whenever we went to a diner. Buffalo Restaurant (in Buffalo Grove, Illinois) made really good grilled cheese sandwiches. I know they're hard to screw up, but sometimes restaurants would make them super oily or use too much butter. Yuck! Buffalo got them just right every time. I also liked getting them from the dining hall in college. There was one that would cook them on order, so they were hot off the grill. My husband makes grilled cheese sandwiches too. They're really good. We have a tradition where we'll break the fast on Yom Kippur with a grilled cheese sandwich. I also will make toasted cheese sandwiches if I want something quick and easy. It's especially good on Zadie's Bakery challah (from Fair Lawn, NJ). One of my hang-ups is that I won't eat cheese unless it's melted. So I won't just have a cheese sandwich unless it's been in a frying pan or in the toaster oven. The way the cheese melts onto the bread is just comforting to me and I can't even explain why.

*Chinese food: I used to get Chinese food almost every week when I was growing up. When I worked at my favorite Chinese restaurant, it was several times a week. (I'd get a free meal each night I worked...lucky me!!!) As a kid, I was very picky and only liked egg drop soup (which my husband now makes), beef with gravy, and rice or pan fried noodles. After I started working at the restaurant, I'd try new things. Later on, my favorite dish was chicken garlic lo mein. I also started liking egg rolls a lot more. We don't have a good Kosher Chinese restaurant nearby (we have one, but it's not good), so the closest really good one is about 45 minutes away. This now makes Chinese food a special treat as opposed to something I can get all the time. I even find the smell of Chinese food comforting. I buy Bigelow Oolong tea as the flavor reminds me of going out for Chinese food. Aside from his egg drop soup (which is amazing), my husband also makes Mongolian beef, teriyaki chicken, and orange chicken. He's even made Pad Thai before. It's nice to have homemade Chinese food that has a restaurant taste to it. I have a lot of good memories tied in with Chinese food. Family dinners, nights out with my dad, gatherings with friends, birthday parties (especially my late maternal grandma's 80th birthday), dates, etc.

My husband's egg drop soup

*Rice: I know this is such a staple food that goes with almost anything, but rice has always been comforting to me. It could be Chinese rice (white or fried), Basmati rice, Rice-a-Roni, rice pilaf, white rice with a sauce mixed in to add flavor, etc. I could just eat rice by itself without a meal surrounding it. At the Chinese restaurant, when I had a break to eat, sometimes I'd just get a bowl full of rice and put some gravy on top, mixing it in. I think the warm and filling feel is what makes rice such a comfort food for me. When my husband makes rice, he boils it in jasmine tea, which goes well with the Chinese food he cooks.

*Chocolate chip cookies: I love the taste and smell of an amazing chocolate chip cookie. The best kind are homemade, but I'm also happy with the ones from Costco. I love to freeze homemade cookies and then eat them straight out of the freezer. I also freeze them so they'll last longer, given that if I keep them out, I won't stop eating them. (Not that the freezer stops me, but they're not in my field of vision...) I used to bake chocolate chip cookies on Oscars night, but now that we don't have cable, I don't watch them anymore. I still will just bake cookies for the fun of it. And I double the recipe. I only use the toll house recipe, even if I'm making them with non-dairy chocolate chips. That's the only recipe I truly love and associate with my childhood.


What are YOUR comfort foods?