in online EIGHT NIGHTS J11 Digest Selected news and feature stories from the Detroit Jewish News. www.detroitjevvishnews.corn/news ) Back In Time Look for Alexis P. Rubin's "This Month in Jewish History" for December. wwvv.detroitjevvishnews.com What's Eating Harry Kirsbaum? vvvvw.detroitjevvishnews.com/opinion .k. k' -., m - • 1 , . , kk,' M. Overly Sensitive New Age Guy Jewish.com columnist Brian Blum explores the movie-going experience and how it's not much different in Israel than here in America. Friends Or Foes In the ever-present battle of good versus evil waged in the international arena, the only thing that counts is the either/or. Either you are a friend, or you are a foe. There is no in-between. So says Micah Halpern on www.jewish.corn. • n advertisers • onhne www.detroitjewishnews.com/advertisers Ira Kaufman Chapel... www.irakaufman.com GIF'T'S DetailsArt.com ... www.detailsart.com from page 75 FOR THE FOOD FANATIC traces the use of legumes as a Middle Eastern diet staple, for example, to Abraham's first-born grandson Esau, who sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a pot of his legendary lentil stew. For the 250 recipes in the book --- featuring the unique flavors, fresh and healthy ingredients and simple tech- niques that characterize Middle Eastern cuisine. Levy, lead food columnist of the Jerusalem PosA also provides a pantry guide for Americans and suggests suitable substitutes for hard-to-find ingredients. Cooking 1 • 2 • 3: 500 Fabulous Three-Ingredient Recipes (Stewart, Tabori & Chang; $37.50), by Rozanne Gold, fea- tures simple dishes — each made with only three ingredients — designed to make everyday cooking simple. With 500 recipes, many of them kosher, this vol- ume contains the best recipes . from her 1.2.3 cookbook series, including the 250 most popular recipes, revised and updated, and 250 new recipes and recipe ideas. Gold, Bon Appeas "Entertaining Made Easy" Even if there's no time to cook, cookbook lovers will appreciate browsing these new selections released just in time for Chanukah. The New York Times Jewish Cookbook (St. Martin's Press; $35) offers more than 825 recipes from the paper's food pages, selected by Linda Amster, who also edited the The New York Times Passover Cookbook. Food critic and cookbook author Mimi Sheraton offers an introduction on Jewish food, as well as commentary preceding each of the book's 11 chap- ters; and Joan Nathan offers an essay on the foods of Israel today. The book incorpo- rates traditional recipes, as well as more contemporary variations on classic foods, from well-known chefs and food writers, spanning dish- es from America to Europe, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. All recipes are kosher. The Jewish Kitchen: Recipes and. Stories From Around the World (Interlink Publishing Group; $29.95), written by award-winning food writer Clarissa Hyman, concentrates on Jewish cooking of the Diaspora. Filled with beautiful, full-color photographs by Peter Cassidy, the book focuses on the sto- ries and recipes of nine Jewish families in very different parts of the world — Cuban Jews, Greek Jews, Venetian Jews and Australian Jews among them — giving readers a sam- plinwf how Jews have adapted the laws of 51142 itrep-iniivadieurt kashrut to the foods, cli- rri.Op.g mate and cultures of many lands. In addition to explaining the major Jewish holidays and fes- A tivals and food associat- . ed with them, Hyman also offers interesting digressions like the history of the bagel. Feast From the Mideast: OK 250 Sun-Drenched Dishes from the Lands of the Bible (HarperCollins; $23.95), by Faye Levy, moves beyond the familiar falafels and shish kabob with recipes ,MW04*, like "Chicken in Persian .4; k A0 p t4.4 ,,, t1, Pomegranate Walnut Sauce" and "Garlic Fried Eggs with Mint and Sumac." As the a* LINDA AMSTER author guides readers MI -Vv.i 104 C'PAT . ‹114 through the history of Middle Eastern cuisine, she BO . 12/19 2003 76 For online advertising , call 248-354-6060 1 columnist, `M..6•0:53,4 also provides easy-to-follow directions and organizes her recipes by category, all enabling the in-a-hurry cook to pre- pare a four- course dinner for six and still make it through the express lane at the super- market. The New Great American Writers Cookbook .(University Press of Mississippi; $25), edited by Dean Faulkner Wells, is an updated version of the 1981 origi- nal, offering 150 recipes that range from "Peanut Butter Sandwiches" to "French Silk Pie" from writers of every imaginable stripe, ethnici- ty, region and culture in America — not all guaranteed to provide delectable dishes but a collectors item for food-doting lovers of American literature. Jewish writers' contributions include Edward Cohen's "Expatriate-Style Basil Spaghetti," Eli Evans' "Eli's Kosher Grits," Amy Bloom's "Fool- Proof Matzah Ball Soup" and Bernard Malamud's "Hamburger."