Schnitzle

For years now a group of our friends have being going to the Hollywood Bowl to celebrate the Fourth of July.  We arrive early, picnic, and then head over to our seats.  It has all the elements of what I consider to be the perfect night: spending an entire evening outdoors, dining and listening to […]

Sour Cherry Pie

I long for slow, lazy days.  For me that opportunity comes once a week, on Shabbat.  It is the only day when I don’t rush out of bed, I don’t rush to work, I actually don’t rush to do anything other that what I want to do.  The morning starts by going into the kitchen […]

Bialys

This is the first Father’s Day since my father, Harry Graf, passed away.  It feels strange despite the fact that in recent years he was not well enough to really enjoy the celebrations.  He never knew his father and I often wondered what it must have been like for him to grow up without one.  I never […]

Tongue

When life feels stressful we often think about simpler times.  I think about growing up in the 1950s and although, admittedly, I was very young, my impression was that life was uncomplicated, relaxed, and good.  I am sure that my parents had worries and struggles but they and my older sister protected and sheltered me, […]

Chicken Fajitas

Anytime I served my mother any kind of ethnic food, her standard response, in Yiddish, was, “we never ate this in Mogielnice.”   I was raised on a strict diet of Eastern European Jewish fare: good, solid, hearty meals.  My mother never made Pad Thai or tacos or stir fry, and just trying to conjure […]