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The Weekly Get Together (Istekbal)

Have you ever heard of forced party?. As I get more and more busy with my business and daughter’s activities, I lament the days gone by when my mom had her Istekbal.  Growing up in Syria, I used to tease my mom about her Istekbal. She use to tell me that was a way for her and [...]

Home Cooking is The Way to Fight Childhood Obesity

There is now widspread agreement that obesity is an epidemic, especially among young people.  That is the tradegy.  Obesity at a young age is a struggle that you never outgrow it.  Of course, along with obesity comes those most deadly adult afflictions-heart disease and diabetes not to mention low self esteem that you have to [...]

Cooling off Period for New Years’ Resolution

I think we should be treated much like gun buyers, who are required to wait a period of time while our credentials are being checked before we can buy a gun.  I wonder if a two week cooling off period shouldn’t be required for those of us who want to jump right in and act [...]

The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook

Reading Erin Chase’s new cookbook, The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook , simply drives home the point that too many people in America either have lost the art of cooking, or they never had it to begin with.
One of my objective is to try to get people back into the kitchen, and Author Chase has found [...]

I am not crazy, just covering all bases

Several members of my restaurant staff are from Mexico. I learned from them a novel way of celebrating the New Year. As the New Year approached and we were busy preparing for our lunch rush, I noticed my staff exchanging bags and handfuls of lentils. I had to ask what it was all about. I [...]

Christmas in Siena

A number of years ago we spent Christmas holiday in Florence, Italy.  On Christmas Eve, we took 30 minutes drive to Siena.  Although every Italian city and village has a city plaza, or piazza, Siena’s is different, it is fan shaped, and slopes downward to the base of the fan where a beautiful Catholic church [...]

Christmas Tradition in Provence 3

In the Provence region of France, Christmas Eve dinner quite often ends with thirteen different desserts, symbolizing Jesus and the twelve apostles.  When we hear the phrase, “….and visions of sugar plums danced in their heads,” we are told by food historians that it derives from the custom, originating during Queen Victoria’s reign in the [...]