My fascination with Israeli food started the first time I tasted a falafel laced with tahini at a little sidewalk cafe in Westwood, near UCLA. Inspired by this simple Israeli dish, I began developing a list of Middle Eastern recipes that grew with each trip to Israel. When visiting the marketplace in Jerusalem, I love watching the pita bakers working at cavernous wood-fired ovens. Rounds of dough are flattened by…

Sukkot is known as the Jewish Thanksgiving. It offers thanks for a bountiful autumn harvest of fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains. Many Jewish families begin building their outdoor sukkahthe day after Yom Kippur and will serve the first meal inside it on the evening of Oct. 8. The sukkah resembles the small huts that field workers lived in during the harvest season in ancient times. It can be decorated with Jewish…

Smoked salmon and cream cheese panini. Photos by Morgan Lieberman  Spending a lovely summer back home in the Los Angeles area, Morgan Lieberman was doing what she enjoys most: using her camera to shoot photos. From time to time during those warm days, she found her way into my kitchen — and my heart — shooting photos of food for the Journal and its monthly magazine, TRIBE. When she returned…

I have always enjoyed researching and developing new dishes to serve during Passover, but have you ever heard of Mock Gefilte Fish? Because everyone loves chicken, I am constantly looking for new and different chicken dishes to prepare, and I find that each recipe has a story all its own. Mock Gefilte Fish, made with ground chicken, really tastes like gefilte fish. An ancient and popular dish substituting ground chicken…

Thanksgiving is a holiday when American-Jewish families can enjoy the best of both heritages — hearty American food and an occasion to give thanks for their blessings. Food has always been the center of the holiday celebration, and I like to plan an old-fashioned farmhouse menu for the holiday. Everyone has a favorite turkey recipe, usually handed down from their parents — roasted, smoked or brined with lots of stuffing…

(Above) Tuna Salad Sandwich Photos by Morgan Lieberman. Food preparation and styling by Judy Zeidler If you have children in school, you know that making a lunch that pleases both you and your kids is not an easy assignment. Think of it as the school-lunch challenge. To help, get them involved with planning a meal, because they’re more likely to eat it if they were part of packing it. My daughter-in-law, Amy Zeidler, remembers when…