When you feel like you are always packing the children’s lunch boxes with the same old boring foods, it is time to branch out with new ideas and ingredients. I am sure that school lunches can be more creative and exciting than when my kids went to school. In those days, it was peanut butter and jelly day after day. To make the job easier, plan ahead. Make sure the things you…

How can you not love a holiday that tells you to dress up in costume, make loud noises with a grogger, forget your troubles, enjoy delicious food and drink lots of wine? Of course, it is Purim — often called the Feast of Esther — and is one of the happiest of all Jewish holidays, marking the liberation of the Jews from the king’s cruel adviser, Haman, through the heroism…

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…

Rocky Road Clusters. Photos by Daniel Kacvinski This year, I gathered together all of the Passover dessert recipes I have made, dating back to our first seder in 1950 — more than 125. This was in anticipation of compiling them into my new project, a Passover dessert cookbook. I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorites in advance of the book’s publication, with a focus on some…

  Hoop Cheese Blintzes. Photo by Dan Kacvinski Shavuot celebrates the receiving of the Ten Commandments and the arrival of the spring harvest. But, for food lovers, it is noted for the array of dairy foods that are served — delicious combinations of cheese, sour cream, milk and eggs. Also in abundance are “stuffed” foods, such as blintzes with cheese fillings. For this holiday, I have experimented with dairy ingredients…