Beth Janoff Chananie
No-rush Rosh HaShanah
Just in time for the fall Jewish holidays, Laura Frankel, executive chef of Wolfgang Puck’s kosher restaurant/catering business at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago, has compiled an attractive and useful book called “Jewish Slow Cooker Recipes” (Wiley Publishers, 2009). In the book are 120 “holiday and everyday dishes made easy.”
As a fan of my slow cooker, I was thrilled to find a treasure trove of recipes, as my husband swears everything I make in my crockpot tastes like stew — and he hates stew! The book is easy to use, with a cornucopia of basic and exotic recipes for appetizers, soups, main and side dishes, desserts and breakfast, and sauces. There are also helpful holiday menus.
New cookbooks for the High Holy Days and year round
Holiday Feature
Some of the greatest chefs in the world have contributed their favorite recipes to “Chefs’ Confidential,” a 256-page cookbook just published by Emunah, a religious Zionist organization that benefits programs in Israel.
Schocken Books has released “The Book of New Israeli Food” by Janna Gur, with gorgeous color photographs by Eilon Paz.
A different take on potatoes and oil
Potato Kugel Cups
A new 365-page hard-cover cookbook, "Quick & Kosher—Recipes from the Bride Who Knew Nothing" (Feldheim Publishers, '007), with 160 recipes and 1'0 full-color photos, would make a nice Chanukah gift — and not just for the bride who knows nothing. Jamie Geller writes that she entered marriage and kosher cooking "without knowing a spatula from a saucepan." The recipes include step-by-step instructions with a promise that they require "no more than 15 minutes to prepare." Especially noteworthy is the introductory section on "Setting Up Your Kitchen," with a comprehensive four-page list of "must-haves," including spices, equipment, pantry items, and staples for the refrigerator and vegetable bin. The book retails for $34.99.
Four cookbooks, just in time for Passover
Cookbook
More than 7,000 copies of "The Kosher Palette II — Coming Home" have been sold since it was released on March 15. The book, follows the success of the award-winning "The Kosher Palette," published in '000. Both books were published as fund-raisers for the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston. Among the sections is one on planning Pesach meals, with a useful list of Pesachdik substitutions.
Area is spinning with unique Chanukah events
I have a little dreidel; I made it out of … acrylic?
Just in time for Chanukah, the JCC-Y in Rockland will sponsor the construction on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. of what just might be the world's largest dreidel. To be made of acrylic blocks, it will vie for that title in the Guinness Book of World Records; (845) 36'-4400.
Want a little social action along with your Chanukah festivities? Bring gently used kids' books to Temple Beth Sholom in Park Ridge on Sunday, at 6:30 p.m., and decorate and fill gift bags with them. They'll go to New Jersey Food Bank's Kids Kloset for needy children in Paterson, Newark, and Hillside, as holiday gifts; free; ('01) 391-46'0.
Don't feel like frying and baking for the holidays? Visit SINAI Special Needs Institute's pre-Chanukah bake sale with latkes on Sunday, Dec. '5, at 10 a.m.; free, but sponsors and donations of baked goods are welcome; ('01) 837-1848.
And in the spirit of tzedakah, how about going to Chopstix's annual holiday party at the Moose Lodge in Teaneck on Wednesday, Dec. '8, at 6 p.m. The program is free, but donations are welcome and will benefit patients at Tomorrows Children Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center; ('01) 833-0'00.
Finally, what would the story of Chanukah be without a menorah — of chocolate? Cans of kosher food? Legos? Or ice?
Find out by joining Bris Avrohom of Fair Lawn at a Chanukah carnival as children decorate a giant chocolate menorah on Dec. '5 at noon and light it at 3 p.m.; free, but game booths have a fee; ('01) 791-7'00.
The Valley Chabad Center for Jewish Life is constructing what it hopes will be the biggest Lego menorah at the YJCC in Washington Township at 4 p.m.; $1' admission includes pizza; ('01) 476-0157. At 5, join the family Chanukah party at the Teaneck Chabad House and help build perhaps the world's largest menorah made out of cans of donated kosher food that you bring. All will be donated to the Center for Food Action; admission is a can of food; ('01) 907-0686.
Before you call it a day, join the Chabad Center of Northwest Bergen County at 5 p.m. outside Wyckoff's borough hall as it lights a menorah sculpted from ice; free; ('01) 848-0449.
