If you peek into the kitchens of most observant Jews you will see a
double sink. Don’t ask me how over 2,000 years Jews took “don’t cook
a calf in its mother’s milk” and created a set of rules that
necessitates at least two sets of dishes, crockpots, and strainers, but
there you have it. Meat and dairy products are kept strictly apart
under Jewish dietary law. To ensure that never the twain shall meet,
usually one side of the sink will be dedicated to dairy dishes and the
other to utensils used for meat. And that’s where you can learn a lot
about how a family likes to eat.
One of my closest friends uses both sides for dairy. She likes meat, but she doesn’t like to cook it. My grandparents only had one sink. Let’s just say that once my grandmother proudly waved a single spoon in front of my newly married mother’s face shouting proudly “See! I do have dairy dishes!” Being ever so balanced, my sink usually has a few dishes stacked in both sides.
For the holidays I'm serving chocolate mini-candy bars at home and giving them as gifts. They're a lot of fun to make. They taste great and look so cool.
Back in Rhode Island, there was never much to look forward to after Christmas. The holiday decorations came down, it was depressingly dark by 4:30 pm, and that once-fluffy-perfect-for-sledding-snow had turned into treacherous black ice. But there was always panettone.
Christmas is not complete without gingerbread, be it houses, cookies, cake, or any dessert flavored with those warm spices of ground ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The dense spicy cake traces its roots to 11th
century Europe. There are so many versions from eastern Europe all the
way to Scandinavia, but I'm focusing on the cookie. In Germany there is
Lebkuchen and Pfeffernüsse. In Hungary, gingerbread cookies are called
Puszedli. They look just like Lebkuchen, but are smaller. Polish
Pierniki are also quite special cookies. The town of Toruń is famous
for their heart-shaped cookies, filled with jam and covered in
chocolate. These cookies all share similar ingredients and flavors.
My kids beg for chocolate covered pretzels every holiday season. We have been making versions of these for years and years. Sometimes it's just the long rods with sprinkles, or the thick "pretzel shaped" ones.