I’m a cynical Jew with goyish tendencies. With unabashed intemperance, I hedonistically succumb to bacon wrapped shrimp, afternoon noshes on Yom Kippur, unleavened naan bread rather than (the cardboard better known as) matzo on Pesach, and perhaps a Cadbury Easter cream egg or two during Lent. I’ve got no tsimmis in my intestines and no…
In my opinion, Jews shouldn’t celebrate Christmas. And that was the sentence that launched a thousand lips. I encapsulated my feelings on Jews and Christmas in a blog post I wrote for Kveller, a Jewish parenting website for which I am a contributing editor. I wrote that “if you really look at the meanings of…
What makes this Christmas different from all other Christmases? For the first time, I have had to explain my typically unspoken understanding that this all-encompassing holiday is not ours. Whenever my 7-month-old daughter, Lila, and I take walks, I name and explain everything we see. In recent weeks, that has included the pretty Christmas lights…
As a person of Chinese and Jewish heritage, I have inherited two wonderful, though often divergent culinary traditions. My favorite moment in our kitchen is when the two traditions converge on Christmas Eve at our annual Dumplings of the World Festival. We gather with family friends to make steamed barbecue chicken buns, potstickers, samosas, empanadas…
Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, which means that it might be tougher than usual to get that reservation at your favorite Chinese restaurant. But with December 25 just a few days away, there’s no need to feel like a Grinch. Whether your usual plans have fallen through or you’re in the mood for…
The CD case to John Zorn’s first Christmas record, “A Dreamers Christmas,” comes as a sort of stocking. Reaching into the sleeve you’ll find, along with the CD, a sheet of stickers that could represent a new line of holiday-themed Giga Pets. You might be tempted to over-think this album, with its cute and somewhat…
Dear Susan Katz Miller: Most of the points you make in your recent HuffPo piece, “8 Reasons My Interfaith Family Celebrates Hanukkah and Christmas,” make so little sense, from where I sit as a Jewish mother, that I feel compelled to respond. I am aware that by doing so I am wading into the roiling…
Makes about two pounds of cookies 2 ¼ tablespoon granulated sugar 1 teaspoon table salt 2 large eggs 7 large egg yolks 1/4 cup vegetable oil 2 1/3 cups bread flour, unsifted 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 3/4 teaspoon rum flavoring 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, almonds, pecans (optional) 1/2 cup glaceed cherries (optional) 1-2 cups flour…
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