HEALTH, TRAVEL, SPORTS, FOOD
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Time To Be Sweet
Cooking for the Holy Days can be joyous and adventuresome.
ANNABEL COHEN
Special to the Jewish News
t this time of year people talk about the
High Holy Days. They speak of start-
ing projects, reunions, activities and
trips not by the calendar - September
this or October that - but in relation to Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
It seems everybody's hectic collective fall agen-
da is now officially "on hold" until after the holi-
days, specifically Yom Kippur.
From now until then, there are new fall clothes
for the services to be purchased. Geshmakt (deli-
cious) meals to be planned and prepared in stages.
Students and distant relatives are in the midst of
planning their journeys home. Airport, cooking
and religious itineraries are in some stage of being
coordinated.
There's good reason for all this hubbub. These
special days - beginning with Rosh Hashanah,
followed by the days of awe and culminat-
ing with Yom Kippur - bring Jews togeth-
er like no other time in the year.
Rabbi and author Harold Kushner
in his book, To Life! A Celebration of
Jewish Being and Thinking, reasons
that perhaps the reason these holi-
days command such attention is
that the season makes us apprehen-
sive about the year ahead. "... we
find comfort in the presence of so
many others around us sharing the
same hopes and fears." Conse-
quently, the meals we eat during the
holidays mirror these
hopes and fears.
Glazed
We eat foods that
Apple and
are sweetened - sweet-
Honey Chick-
ness translates into
en with Grapes,
opt:mism for a zeesen
unconstructed
y it (sweet year). Chal- Kugel and seven
vegetable chicken
lahs are round like
golden crowns signify- soup.
ing, among other things, life's continuity and the
head of the year. Seeds and nuts have numerical
importance and imply good fortune for the year to
come. Any multiple of the number seven similarly
signifies good luck, so seven fruits, vegetables, and
so forth, are often present at holiday meals.
Ubiquitous, of course, are apples, the new crop,
and sweet honey, the meaning of which everyone
knows. The "good luck" food list seems limitless.
Salty, sour or black foods are conspicuously
absent from the holiday table; they're simply not
freilach (joyous) enough for this celebration. More
than that, they're contraband for their bitter
insinuations.
It is in the spirit of Rosh Hashanah that the
Photos by Christopher Ivey
following recipes have been created. They embody
what is timely for this season of hope and renewal
without straying too much from tradition.
May you be inscribed for a good, geshmakt
and sweet 5760.
SEVEN VEGETABLE CHICKEN SOUP
This soup is simple and elegant. Add matzoh
balls or wide noodles and no one will feel cheated
out of the traditional feeling regular chicken soup
lends to Rosh Hashanah. Don't feel strapped into
using only the vegetables listed in this recipe.
Almost any combination of vegetables or cooked
beans will make this soup super. Use your favorite
chicken soup recipe or the one below. If you're
really strapped for time, use canned broth (figure
about 1 1/2 cups per person).
6.quarts water
1 3-4 pound cut-up chicken
1 large whole onion, unpeeled
2 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
3 stalks celery with leaves, cut into fl-
inch lengths
6 carrots, peeled cut in half
1 T salt
1/4 t pepper
6 t snipped dill
I large carrot, peeled and
diced
1 cup chayote squash or
zucchini, diced
3 cups fresh spinach leaves,
loosely pocked
1 cup fresh diced tomatoes
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup chopped scallions, white
and green parts
3 T fresh chopped parsley for
garnish
HOLY DAYS COOKING on page 116