"Why did Lena make a Christmas cake if she's Jewish?" "Why is Lena posting a Christmas cake on January 18th?" "Why hasn't Lena posted anything in five months?" Good questions, reader! First off, I made this cake for a friend to bring to a Christmas party. I spent Christmas Day driving to New Jersey with [...]
while stuck in the sweltering reality of durham's 98 degree heat, i've found myself entertaining reveries of winter days spent in minnesota - what i would give to be taking a long walk through freshly fallen snow, or climbing up the first few icy rungs of a grain silo's ladder! i've built a little fantasy farm with gingerbread [...]
do honeycombs make your skin crawl? does the sight of caviar make you nauseous? do you feel extreme discomfort after looking at close-ups of pores or hair follicles? if you answered yes to any of these questions, you probably have trypophobia! the term is unofficial, but many (myself included) claim to be afflicted with the fear. trypophobia [...]
my fervor for all things christmas is amplified by being a jew. it's an obsession. it's my forbidden fruit. the holiday holds a sort of red & green, pine needle & peppermint-scented allure. when hanukkah rolls around, i have to force myself to stifle reveries of stuffed stockings and santa claus back into a dark corner of my mind, [...]
many describe childhood as tasting like strawberry poptarts, animal crackers, and crustless pb&js. to me, it tastes like ovaltine powder scooped straight from the jar. i skipped the milk and relied on saliva to keep me from choking, allowing the powder to moisten into a thick, fudgy paste in the back of my throat. ovaltine is [...]
makes one six-inch cake, eight servings My mom bought a huge bag of assorted Lindor truffles. Some are filled with white chocolate, some contain a rich peanut butter mousse, and some (my personal favorite) are wrapped in shiny black foil, with an extra dark chocolate shell enrobing a smooth dark chocolate center. This cake encapsulates the truffle's bittersweet richness, and [...]
Have you ever had a chocolate covered orange? Back when my family hung up stockings (thank you so much to my parents for not depriving my brother and me of the joy of waking up to a stocking even though we're J E W I S H), I'd always find a big, round, shiny foil-wrapped [...]
Tehila and I like diners. Characterized by rows of booths and floor-mounted stools, personable wait staff, and a wide variety of comfort food, just thinking about diners triggers a certain, incomparable sentiment in both Tehila and me. Because of the template we used, the structure does look quite house-like, but the prominent D-I-N-E-R cutouts elucidate [...]
Last year, one of my friends made me a little picture book entitled 'The Jew Who Loved Christmas." The book illustrates my inner conflict over staying faithful to my religion [Judaism] versus celebrating a holiday that I really love [Christmas]. My situation worsens when my pet cat and dog bully me for being so indecisive, and the book [...]
LENA'S LUNCHBOX 