PUMPKIN LEEK SOUP WITH GRILLED CHEESE CROUTONS

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My partner and I run on completely opposite schedules. I wake up at around 7:00 each morning to get ready for work and ease into my day, while he stays burritoed for a few more hours. By the time I get home from work, anywhere from 7:15 to 9:00 or later, he’s already well on his way to a gig. Once he’s home, I’m the burritoed one.

Now that we live together we see each other a bit more than we used to, but not by much. What to do? Stuff a week’s worth of dates into one Sunday. Normal!

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CHALLAH FOR BODY AND SOUL (OR YEAST MEETS WEST, FROM DAD)

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Today's post is written by none other than Rina's amazing mama bear, Ruth! Welcome to the blog, Mama Gato.

Rina always stood on the little green stool.  I stood behind her, her crazy curls tickling my nose as she stretched her tiny fingers to reach the kneading bowl. My grown up hands guided her child hands.  Palm down, fold and turn, palm down, fold and turn, again and again. If the dough was too sticky Rina would make monster fingers with the tacky mess, and I would slowly add small pinches of flour to the bowl.  “Does it feel like an earlobe, yet?”  When Rina’s crazy curls bobbed up and down I would announce, “Then it’s done!”

That was how we made challah every Friday after nursery school.  I showed Rina how to check an egg for blood spots, how to wake up the yeast with warm water and feed it with sugar and then proof it— wait patiently (or not so patiently) for it to froth in the bowl.  This, Rina understood, was what it meant to “make Shabbos.”  The Sabbath did not come on it’s own—if we wanted Friday night to become Shabbos, then we had to make it so. We had to invite the guests, shop for groceries, prepare the meal and set the table.  In this way we transformed the mundane into the holy. A key step to turning an ordinary end-of-the-week dinner into a Shabbos feast was to bake the challah.

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ANYTIME BREAKFAST POTATOES

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When Rina and I first started this blog, one of our early debates was regarding the most superior potato style. I mean, what an an impossible question, right? Think of the wonderful forms potatoes take - crispy french fries, greasy hash browns, sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows, salty chips.

While I have yet to meet a potato I don't like, I find that versatility is key and lot of these potato styles (i.e. sweet potato casserole) don't really go with everything. Enter this recipe. I was playing around in the kitchen after getting a ginormous bag of potatoes in my weekly CSA (if you're not already a part of one and are looking for fresh, local produce, I highly recommend you look into a CSA. More info here). I needed a potato style that could last me many meals over multiple days. I also had some dried sage from a past CSA, so I quickly doctored up a new kind of roasted potato - a cross between home fries, roasted potato wedges and parmesan truffle fries (ish). 

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SUMMER SALAD + BASIL VINAIGRETTE

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We love to have fun with food on this blog. Be creative, come up with that perfect dish for that special occasion, make something out-of-the-ordinary to spice up a typical Sunday evening. 

But sometimes, you just want something quick that you can throw together in a fit of ravenous rage. Something equal parts satisfying and deliciously simple. Full of flavor and texture that doesn't require a lot of space or even a lot of skill. That, my friends, is the summer salad. 

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SABICH SANDWICH

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I bet you'd never guess eggplant, mango and hard-boiled eggs go well together. But I'm here to tell you they absolutely do.

Culminating a three day virtual street-food journey through Israel, I'd like to introduce Sabich. Everyone knows about falafel and shwarma. You hardly need to hound the streets of Manahttan for one of these tasty sandwiches –they’re sold on every corner. But this extra-special sandwich, found only in Israel, has made a home for itself at the top of my favorite street eats list. In fact, I'll go as far as saying this is my favorite G | G recipe made to date. 

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MUSHY PEAS

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A lot of my stories start out with, "When I lived in Israel..." (the cleaner - most of the time - version of Alyson Hannigan's infamous "When I was in band camp...").  Usually they take place in Tel Aviv, but every once in a while a good one comes out of Jerusalem - Tel Aviv is just a much better city, in my opinion-that-is-also-a-fact.  Feel free to fight me on this one. I'll win, but I welcome a challenge.

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SUMMERTIME PASTA WITH PARSLEY, GARLIC, AND LEMON

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How many of you are watching (or have already finished) The Handmaid's Tale?  

It's excellent, but very troubling to watch. Even though I've devoured the book twice in my lifetime, the TV version shook me deeply. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a baby when it comes to dark TV shows and movies. When I saw Get Out I half-covered my eyes with my jacket  during any scene that maybe contained a jump-scare. I freaking hate jump scares. 

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AN ODE TO AROMA: SWEET POTATO + BLACK LENTIL SALAD

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When I first started my junior year on study abroad, I made the rookie mistake of actually studying. My roommate, now a best friend, and I would spend hours on our homework, memorizing Hebrew verbs and studying Israeli artists until our eyes glazed over. Silly, really, to think of all those wasted hours that could have been spent at the beach or the shuk. Once we moved out of the dorms, though, and into the city center, we learned our lesson. This is why you should never live more than a ten-minute walk from the beach.

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