Olive oil Anise Cookies

The Spanish anise and sesame cookies, tortas (cakes) de aceite y anís are very similar to reifat, the Moroccan anise biscuits I grew up on. The flavor is almost the same but the texture and shape are different. My ancestors…

Potatoes & Sauerkraut Stew

I started to have a blast in the kitchen when I felt comfortable improvising and cooking without recipes. Now don’t get me wrong, I love being tucked in bed with a good cookbook or discovering a great recipe online but…

Lentils cooked with Eggplant & Tomatoes

I googled the history of lentils and learned a few interesting facts about them.   Man has been eating tiny dried lentils practically since the beginning. Wow, really? I wonder how my ancestors knew they were edible. By 6000 B.C.,…

Smoky Eggplant Dip

My favorite meals are those vibrant dinners which are assembled from a bunch of dips, sides and small plates instead of ordinary main dish-side-and-salad dinner. We eat like that everyday but it never gets boring because they are colorful and…

Smoky Eggplant & tomato Mezze

My friend brought this mezze over for Shabbat dinner (Friday night). Her Kurdish-Iraqi grandmother used to make it. It’s teenager friendly. My 13 year-old son, who’s an adventurous eater but eggplant hater, loved it. You can serve with other mezzes…

Moroccan Donuts with Cardamom

Sfenj (or “Sfenj”) are Moroccan yeasted donuts which my family and I eat on Hanukkah. They’re similar to beignets but better. Better because they’re fluffy and addictive like their sisters but don’t contain butter, milk and eggs. They have mercy…