Rosh Hashanah, the start of the cooking season, is just weeks away. I’m always looking for recipes that update old favorites – keeping some of the flavors but with a new twist. Some become new family favorites; some just don’t make the cut.

Try these dishes which will appear on my holiday table this year.

But first start with hallah using the previously published recipe (Summer’s coming in, June 18, 2020). Make the hallah a little sweeter to reflect the new year and certainly make it round. Here’s a link to a four-strand hallah. Or to keep it simple, just make one long strand and coil it into a spiral.  No matter what, it’ll taste great.

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For many of us, summer time used to mean picnics in the park on concert nights or  frequent dinners on a restaurant’s patio or sidewalk. This summer most of us have changed our dining patterns and are cooking more.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to eat well and with variety just because our movements may be restricted. But it’s still summer; it’s hot; we may be lazy. We want fairly quick to prepare meals that won’t overheat us or our kitchens. And we may want new ways to serve favorite foods.

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I had high hopes. The eggplant and zucchini plants looked healthy and were putting out flowers; the tomato leaves were sturdy. The basil and thyme were overflowing their pot. My mini garden on our deck looked like it would be a success as the pretty eggplant flowers  morphed into lots of baby eggplants. The zucchini was promising with big yellow flowers and the tomatoes were the size of baseballs.

Then came the squirrel. He first went for a green tomato, one that was almost ready to turn red. He took a big bite and he left the rest  on the deck railing as if to taunt us. Guess the taste wasn’t right. Then he came for the four inch long eggplant, the largest on the plant.

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Fire up the grill. Gather some fresh summer fruit and get ready for an easy summer dinner.

You might begin with a cooling gazpacho and end the meal with a slice of watermelon or other sweet melon or a simple cake like this one from the New York Times, substituting peaches for the strawberries. Continue reading →

As the weather warms, we look for food that takes little effort and is light to counteract the heaviness of a summer day.

Soup is always a good starter. There’s gazpacho (Fit for the Fourth, 5/5/17), cucumber soup (Cool as a …,  8/1/19) , cucumber gazpacho (Summertime and the Cooking is Easy, 7/26/18) and cucumber pineapple soup (Cool Food for a Hot Day, 6/17/17), of course. But even easier is this versatile gluten and dairy free zucchini soup discovered  by Beryl Hiller on the Allrecipes website. Continue reading →