HEALTH, TRAVEL, SPORTS, FOOD More Inside: Travel: Tour Of Ukraine Finds Yiddish Remnants Sports: Completing List OfMaccabi Games Medalists 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