This year I’m hosting my very first Passover seder. Oh, and did I mention that I have a 2.5-year-old and I’m 8 months pregnant? And my husband is traveling a few days a week every week between now and Passover?

So yes, I’m a bit nervous. I’ve been working on a menu, and though my family and my husband’s family all have our standard favorites, I kind of want to jazz it up a little bit this year. So I’ve started looking at cookbooks–that’s right, real cookbooks. And some websites too, of course, because yes, I work for Kveller and love the internet. I wanted to share with you some of my favorites–and am hoping you’ll tell me your favorites too!

1. The No-Potato Passover, by Aviva Kanoff

Because the two things I tend to live on during Passover (besides the ubiquitous matzah, of course) are potatoes and eggs. And I’m really psyched to get beyond that this year! The full-color pages are filled with gorgeous recipes that I think I could actually make. Nice.

2. Passover by Design, by Susie Fishbein

This one’s written by the same woman who wrote Kosher by Design, and has a nice blend of the quick and easy recipe and the more-work but great payoff recipe. Oh, and did I mention that many of the recipes are gluten-free?

3. The New York Times Passover Cookbook, edited by Linda Amster

So I’m partial to this one because my husband’s mother got her brisket recipe from the New York Times. But it’s filled with great chefs who write excellent Passover recipes. And yes, it’s been out for a decade, but once a classic, always a classic!

If you’re looking for websites to start your Passover planning, I’ve spent a little time searching on Epicurious, as well as MyJewishLearning.com (be sure to check out The Nosher, their newest food blog), CookKosher, and Joy of Kosher.

So now that I’ve shared some of my favorites, what are yours? What cookbooks am I missing, what websites didn’t I share? And be sure to check out Passover recipes board on Pinterest.

• Posted in Recipes
• Tags: cookbooks, cooking, Passover, recipes, seder

Passover. Just the word conjures up images of matzah balls, bitter horseradish, bubbe’s brisket, and days upon days of matzah-based meals (and sometimes the, errr, stomach issues that come along with it!)

So in honor of this glorious holiday, we wanted to share with you some of our favorite Passover things. We’ve got everything from the basics of the holiday to the best Passover movies to even how to survive your seder with kids. Oh, and don’t forget our recipes page and shopping guide. Enjoy, and get ready to get ready for Passover–starting the evening of Friday, April 6.

And don’t worry–there’s a lot more Passover coming your way…

Don’t Miss:

How to Prepare a Seder

How to Survive a Seder with Kids

Greatest Passover Movies

Passover Shopping Guide

Our Favorite Passover Songs

The Best Kveller Passover Recipes

Passover Survival Tips for Vegans (by Mayim Bialik)

• Posted in Parenting, Recipes, Traditions
• Tags: matzah, Movies, Passover, recipes

When you think about Purim and food, the only thing that really comes to mind is hamantaschen. Now don’t get me wrong–I love hamantaschen. They are totally delicious, fun to make with kids, and you can fill them with almost anything (my husband likes to put a few chocolate chips and a few peanut butter chips in each cookie. Scrumptious). Read the rest of this entry →

• Posted in Parenting, Recipes
• Tags: hamantaschen, mishloach manot, purim, recipes

Growing up, I was always giddy about Valentine’s Day. Yes it was totally awesome to wrap up a shoe box in sparkly pink paper and have prepubescent boys shove little notes in that said stuff like, “I like your hair” or, “Want to share my cheese?” But my parents always went out of their way to make me feel special on Valentine’s Day and that’s what I looked forward to the most. Read the rest of this entry →

• Posted in Parenting
• Tags: baking, recipes, secular holidays, valentine's day

When I think about the Superbowl, I think of the gigantic-sized serving of matzah ball soup offered at Max & Benny’s, my favorite Jewish deli in Chicago. I guess other people might think of that big sports game where two teams of oversized men wear shiny leggings and knock each other out. Regardless, the one thing I’m pretty sure we can all agree on is that the best part about watching sports is eating snacks.

Over on The Nosher, Shannon Sarna has been posting some recipes for game day snacks that sound–and look–incredible. If you’re planning on whipping up anything for the big game, we highly recommend you check these out:

Chicken Wings Two Ways: Featuring both traditional and sweet-and-spicy Asian wings.

“Marry Me” Brisket Sliders: So good, if you serve to your intended, they will definitely fall in love.

Kosher Stuffed Potato Skins: Ditching the regular bacon topping for some veggie chili.

Happy cooking, and yay for sports!

• Posted in Parenting
• Tags: football, recipes, sports, superbowl

Well, it’s that time of year again: the birthday of the trees. My 2.5-year-old loves celebrating birthdays, so I think we’ll have to do something special for all those trees. As usual, I look to the internet for my inspiration–and oh man, am I inspired! So inspired that I can’t decide where to start… but I’m determined that one of these (or more, maybe) will land on my Shabbat dinner table tonight. Nothing like starting the celebration early, right? (Tu Bishvat officially begins on Tuesday night, Feb 7.)

First of all, here at Kveller we have some delicious new ways to celebrate trees. Like these date-orange muffins from Ronnie Fein:

Or this chocolate and fruit fondue from Leah Schapira at CookKosher.com–easy and kid-friendly.

There’s also lemon-almond-semolina cake, persimmon and pistachio cupcakes, and lemon-lavender cake. In case you needed more sweets, that is. For a walk on the savory side, try these fig and goat cheese sandwiches with caramelized onions. Dee-lish.

Oh, and did I mention that sangria is VERY Tu Bishvat-friendly? There’s a lot of fruit in that wine.

Our friend Tori Avey over at The Shiksa in the Kitchen made these Seven Species muffins, using all of the “seven species” mentioned in the Torah: barley, wheat, grapes, figs, pomegranates, dates, and olives. I’m kind of impressed that she got all of those into one muffin–and knowing her, it’s got to be scrumptious!

Joy of Kosher reminds us that you actually can make Tu Bishvat recipes not just from fruit, but from trees themselves when you use ingredients like cinnamon. I’m a little bit excited about this cinnamon chocolate cake:

And just in case you needed more Tu Bishvat deliciousness, over at The Jew and the Carrot they’re using almonds to celebrate the birthday of the trees, with a pomegranate and sour cherry mandelbrot (like a biscotti) and a quinoa pilaf. Enjoy!

• Posted in Activities, Recipes, Traditions
• Tags: birthday of trees, recipes, seven species, Tu Bishvat

Deb Perelman runs the website Smitten Kitchen, a food blog with recipes and pictures that will literally make you drool like a little baby. In her own words, she is “the kind of person you might innocently ask what the difference is between summer and winter squash and she’ll go on for about twenty minutes before coming up for air to a cleared room and you soundly snoring.” We spoke with her about failure, toddlers in the “no” phase, and the future publication of her first cookbook.

I confess that I’d probably miss marshmallows to make my salted brown butter crispy treats for parties the most. Kosher ones are so hard to find! Read the rest of this entry →

• Posted in Parenting
• Tags: cooking, deb perelman, featured, Jewish interviews, recipes

I think age 4 was the last time I enjoyed the whole DIY thing.

I’m not crafty. I’m so not crafty that when I bought some cute Hanukkah stamps for my daughter and we used them together to make a card for her great-grandma, I was pretty darned proud of myself. Luckily for me (and any of you like me out there) there are solutions for this. The internet is filled with amazing recipes, crafts, and decor to make your Hanukkah the best ever. Here are some of my favorites…

Decor:

Over at Matzo Ball Soup, Tali Buchler made these gorgeous Star of David decorations. Might be better to do with slightly older children, but it’s a great way to reuse aluminum containers. (And if you’ve missed Tali’s amazing projects on Kveller, check them out here.)

I was very impressed with this Hanukkah tablescape at Frog Prince Paperie–and for you non-DIY-ers out there, you can just order the printables on their site, follow some instructions, and you too have a gorgeous Hanukkah display!

Crafts:

If you haven’t already checked out the make-your-own menorah here on Kveller, here’s your chance. It’s a far cry from the one you might have made in Hebrew school with some plywood and a few bolts.

I absolutely adore the recycling that Creative Jewish Mom did to make her Hanukkah menorah out of toilet paper tubes. Amazing! But don’t light this one on fire, folks–it’s just to look at.

Joanna at Bible Belt Balabusta is truly gifted at creating edible, holiday-themed snacks, and she’s done it again with these edible dreidels. Just a few candy-based household ingredients and you too can have a lot of fun–and a sugar rush–with your kids. (She also has an impressive PVC menorah that you simply have to check out.)

Recipes:

Speaking of food, did you see our newest additions to the Hanukkah menu? This year, skip the plain old jelly doughnuts–make Hanukkah beignets! These gorgeous, fluffy puffs will make you think you’re in New Orleans, sipping coffee at Cafe du Mond.

And as it turns out–Hanukkah isn’t just about fried food (who knew?!) Cheese is actually a traditional ingredient on Hanukkah, so try out these cheese latkes, eggplant, mushroom, and tomato gratin, and baked goat cheese dessert. You’ll be asking for seconds before you know it.

My final find is a decoration, art project, and recipe all in one–this cupcake menorah over at the Shiksa in the Kitchen. It’s gorgeous and looks absolutely delicious.

But I know this list isn’t exhaustive… what else did I miss out there?

• Posted in Activities, Traditions
• Tags: crafts, decor, Decorating, Hanukkah, latkes, recipes

All the Jewish celebrity parent gossip you (n)ever wanted to know.

- Not to get ahead of ourselves, but we may possibly have beautiful future half-Jewish babies if Anne Hathaway’s new fiance, Adam Shulman, is as Jewish as his name suggests. Mazel Tov! (OK)

- A second baby is on the way for stylish Jewish mom Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard and oh my gosh, how have I never realized before that if those children use hyphenated last names, they have the most confusing, oft-misspelled double-A names in the entire world! (NY Daily News)

- In confusing headline news, Tori Spelling does a “Dancey Dance for Baby Buggy” at the Yo Gabba Gabba! LIVE! show. Here you can see her and the whole family getting down on stage in disco-like fashion. (Celebrity Baby Scoop)

- It’s Jewish celebrity Hanukkah recipe time! I was very excited to see a handful of Jewish celeb mamas in this short survey of favorite holiday recipes. Read on for Jessica Seinfeld’s gingerbread spice cake, and our Mayim Bialik’s (vegan!) pecan pie, and more! (Celebrity Baby Scoop)

• Posted in Parenting
• Tags: featured, Hanukkah, kid-dish, recipes

I’ve never been a Thanksgiving-er. Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for gratitude, family, and big meals. It’s just that Judaism affords us to have all of the above pretty much all year round. Between Passover seders, Sukkot meals, Rosh Hashanah family gatherings, and Friday night Shabbat dinners, there are ample opportunities for us Jews to get our food-and-family on. So the idea of entering the everyone’s-included Supermarket Scrum for things like squash and sweet potatoes seems comparatively unappealing.

My family’s Thanksgiving was always a relatively low-key affair, followed by all of us going to see a movie. I’m not going to miss my movie opportunity this year, accompanied by sleeping baby in car seat (crossed fingers), but apparently I am hosting Thanksgiving for the first time in my life. One word: yikes! Not only that, but I just got the memo that this thing is happening next Thursday! Are you guys all aware of this?

I love perusing Food & Wine, occasionally even making a recipe from there, but apparently a main food group of Thanksgiving is butter – and, being kosher, this doesn’t quite go with the whole turkey thing. I need pareve help: stat!

Let’s share. Anyone got any great recipes for pareve appetizers, soups, sides, desserts?

• Posted in Activities
• Tags: kosher, recipes, thanksgiving