Simple Blood Orange Bars
Our 5-year-old Alex (aka Alexander, aka Jacob, aka Sooshi) is obsessed with names. Every day, ten times a day, he asks my husband or me if we like a certain name. Most days I find his name obsession cute, but…
Yogurt, Apple and Walnut Bowl
YAW is my husband’s accidental invention. He made it one morning while I was pregnant with Leo, ten years ago, and, since then, this apple Tzatziki has become a morning ritual in our house. It’s basically a bowl of plain…
One-pan Middle Eastern breakfast
My cousin Diane is married to Avi, a Jerusalemite who’s well known in our family as the meat expert. He is a great cook. Last month, we were in Israel for a month, and when we stayed with them for…
Moroccan Warm Olive Salad
Shabbat dinner at my mom’s is like Thanksgiving at Martha Stewart’s. The dining table is covered completely with salatim (salads). Fresh salads and cooked salads. There’s matbucha and baba ganoush, Swiss chard and harissa salad, spicy carrot salad with cumin,…
Simple Almond Lemon Cake
Eema (me): “Alex, this is delicious, are you sure you don’t want to be a pastry chef when you grow up?”Alex: “What is a pastry chef?”Eema: “A pastry chef is someone who makes cakes and cookies for a living.”Alex: “What…
Simple Dairy-Free Asian Pear Cake
Two years ago, I accepted the fact that my body and dairy don’t get along, so I gave it up almost completely. I rarely miss it and if I do miss a nice buttery pastry I make this cake. Not…
Collard Greens With Paprika Oil
It’s much easier to stick a tray of chicken and potatoes into the oven or throw a bunch of vegetables and beans into pot than to prepare a bunch of mezzes. But a table covered with small and colorful plates…
Lunchbox salad Kids Love
Here is the most demanded salad among the children in my family, Saba Zion’s Salad. “Saba” means grandfather in Hebrew. My father is a humble cook but can make shoe laces delicious with his seasoning skills. He made us and his…
Toast with avocado
Recently I discovered that not only I can cook I can also draw. It’s so fun and relaxing. I wish I had more time for my new hobby. Anyway, it was very flattering and exciting to discover that other people beside my…
Mango tango illustration!
My illustrated recipe is now on They Draw and Cook.
Moroccan Sesame & Anise Cookies
Alex: Mommy, what are you making?Me: I’m making Moroccan anise cookies.Alex: Can you make American cookies?Me: No, I’m craving mama’s cookies.Oh mama mama, I miss you so much! Mama is my maternal grandmother. Mama always had a huge container of these…
Middle Eastern Pizza
My mother makes the best pizza. She is not even Italian. Her pizza has Middle Eastern flavors. Instead of using tomato sauce she uses fresh sliced tomatoes (the beefy kind, such as Roma). After she covers the dough with tomatoes and mozzarella, she…
Bruschetta
It’s strange to cook for one when you used to cook for two, four, or more. This week I am home alone. Hallelujah! My husband is in New York and the boys are in school. I was content eating my…
Fennel, Radish and Nectarine Salad
I can’t bring myself to cook with fire. It’s boiling outside and inside (we don’t have AC, most of the time the weather here in SoCal is perfect). Our meals these days are mainly raw salads with lots of crunchy…
Authentic Hummus
I always forget how much I love hummus and how easy it is to make until I make it. Here in Los Angeles, unlike in Israel, there are not a lot of hummusiyot, restaurants that sell only hummus. In Tel…
Focaccia
My mother – a bread worshiper – and I agreed that focaccia is the best bread for people like us whose favorite part of the bread is the crust. Focaccia is basically one big crust.
Simple Wheat Bread
There was a single period in my life when I completely lost interest in cooking and baking. It was right after my youngest sister, Inbar, passed away at age 27. When she died, my love of baking left with her.…
Easy & Quick Kale Shakshuka
Kale is very nutritious but I won’t use the word superfood because I’m allergic to it. As much as it is healthy I wouldn’t have eaten it if I didn’t like it’s earthy flavor. Me and the millions of aphids…
Simple Rice Bowl with Spinach, Jalapeño & Radish
Rice bowl is basically a salad on a bed of rice. You can make your rice bowl very basic or extravagant. I like them simple, but for my husband, the more things, the merrier. I can live on rice bowls.…
Potato Frittata With Sweet Potato
El-machamer is the Jewish Moroccan (Sephardic) version of Tortilla Española. My mother usually makes it often during Passover. The sweet potato and spinach are my addition.