by Sam Tackeff | Nov 27, 2013 | Holidays
For the past month, I’d been under the impression that Thanksgiving coincided with the first night of Hanukkah. I’d been getting so excited for the culinary possibilities – Turkey double down with sweet potato latke buns? Leftover mashed potato latkes? (Serious Eats had an excellent roundup yesterday of chef’s suggestions for the holiday mashup) – that I forgot to actually check the calendar.
This afternoon I realized that Thanksgiving coincides with the first *day* of Hanukkah, and we Jews like starting our holidays early, the night before. By the time I came to this conclusion, our little Whole Foods was out of Hanukkah candles, so we headed to a supermarket to pick some up (plus a bonus purchase of some frozen convenience latkes). And then we got home and I had misplaced my menorah, so I had to use canning jars. Hipster Hanukkah?
Dinner tonight was a Thanksgiving pre-meal: turkey gravy, smashed potatoes, and creamed spinach. And we toasted with some Martinelli’s sparkling cider. I may spike my refill, but this stuff on it’s own is still as exciting as when I was a kid. There’s Crescent Ridge eggnog in the fridge, basketball on tv, and candles burning brightly. It’ll be eight days of celebration, and we’re off to a good start!
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 22, 2013 | Holidays
The summer’s end is always bitter sweet, but this one ended pretty much as well as I’d have liked – starting with getting locked out of our house (okay, that part wasn’t so great), walking a mile to pick up the set of spare keys in some really glorious weather, stumbling across a free Jazz festival and sitting on the grass listening to some great music for an hour, and spending a last hurrah warm summer evening eating dinner with family outside under the stars.
Heading over to Joe and Susan’s house tonight – Joe is technically my dad’s first cousin, and while I did grow up calling him Uncle Joey, that had to stop after watching years of Full House – I tried to explain to Devon what the Jewish holiday of Sukkot is like. While we’ve hit many of the major holidays several times, somehow we hadn’t made it to a Sukkot dinner, and I was excited to share the tradition. “Well, it’s sort of a Jewish harvest holiday where we’ll be tailgating on the porch under a hut.” I can see the great rabbi’s rolling over in their graves at that. Devon looked at me skeptically. “And there will be chili!” I proclaimed!
Aside from the celebration of fall, and the harvest, Sukkot is a week long commemoration of the Israelites in pilgrimage and exile. The Sukkah is an outdoor hut that is built to remind us of the fragile nature of exile dwellings, the joy that can be had with simplicity, and we eat outside (and some sleep outside) in the hut each night of the seven days. There is great symbolism represented in the lulav (a frond of the date palm, willow and myrtle branches) and the etrog (a yellow citron), which are sort of shaken about after waiting for three stars to appear in the sky. It’s tradition to have friends and family gathered each night of Sukkot in the sukkah, and because we don’t actually have one at home, I was happy to head out to Hingham for this shindig – Sukkot is one of my favorite holidays!
Being a Saturday, it was also the end of the sabbath, and the beginning of the new week, so in addition to Sukkot blessings, we also performed the Havdalah ritual – ending the sabbath with blessings over the wine, the lighting of a traditional many-wicked candle, the smelling of spices, and finally extinguishing the candle in the wine.
Tonight marked a nice transition into fall, and I’m looking forward to the adventures and excitement that this season holds. Happy Sukkot, and happy Fall everyone!
by Sam Tackeff | Jul 26, 2013 | Holidays, Ice Cream, Photography, Travel
I’ve been thinking about what to post all week, and finally decided to pull together some photos from the fourth of July weekend. “Thinking about” is not “doing”, and lately I’ve tried to re-commit to “doing” in all aspects of my life.
This week my focus has been on photography. It was one of my summer to-do’s, and just the act of writing out that I wanted to improve launched me into doing something about it. I upgraded to the new Lightroom (I was working on version 3, and it was slow loading), and invested in two Creative Live courses (50% off sale!) Food Photography with Andrew Scrivani, and Food Photography with Penny De Los Santos. I watched the majority of these courses when they were free (Creative Live airs all of their courses free while live), and the amount I learned in less than a few days of class time was priceless. A few years ago I also had the incredible privilege of taking a real live in person class with Penny, and it was thrilling. I wish I had been even a tiny bit more knowledgable about manual shooting at the time – I would have gotten so much more out of it on top of the massive amount that I learned.
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A few weekends ago, Devon and I drove up to Byfield to spend the weekend with our friend Alison for the 4th of July. It was just the three of us – her family was in North Conway, mine was at a very crowded house in Maine, and we decided that we’d make a go at a bit of a quieter 4th. On Wednesday we drove up late, after getting in my mile run at 8:45 at night, the earliest that I found it bearable in the heat wave. We arrived to air conditioning, and promptly passed out. We spent the next two days eating, sitting, talking, laughing, and trying not to pass out from the heat. We went to Newburyport to the record store, and to Jabberwocky, and T.J.Maxx. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the weekend.
:: Stephanie’s Village Pancake House, in Rowley, for some down home comfort. I’m not quite what happened with the focus or the white balance in this photo. I’m evolving, but still trying to get a hang of my camera.
:: The Farm: after breakfast we headed over to Tendercrop Farm, to pick up some staples for dinner – hot dogs, potatoes, corn, green beans, tomato – and say hello to some farm friends. 
:: And then there was ice cream. As a teenager, Alison worked at Bensons, hulling buckets of strawberries every day for their famous native strawberry ice cream. We picked up a half gallon of strawberry, another of mint chip, and would have called it a day, but after stuffing ourselves to the gill at breakfast, we couldn’t help eating just a little bit more. I think it’s how it ends up going on vacation. I went with a New England classic – Grapenut ice cream. It’s what you think it is – cream infused with the classic cereal, and then studded with it. (The New England version of Momofuku’s cereal milk soft serve…)
:: Dinner. I wish I had a picture of dinner – but we ate it in the dark, on the porch, with the mosquitos, until the mosquitos drove us inside to sit around the table off the kitchen. After dinner we watched hours of Boston’s Finest, and followed it up with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
:: Breakfast. Alison is a delightful hostess. Freshly baked beer bread muffins… and cornbread. Clearly I need to be on top of my breakfast game.
:: And sunset. I could deal with this view every day of my life.
Here’s to setting intentions, and doing more “doing” than “thinking”. What are you going to be doing the rest of this summer?
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 27, 2012 | Baking, Blogging, Books, Holidays
Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the most sacred day of the Jewish year, the day of atonement. It follows at the tail end of Rosh Hashana, the week long celebration of the Jewish new year, and typically is the day that you reflect upon all of your sins and bad deeds. While I’m not particularly religious anymore (despite the fact that my mother has served on the board of our synagogue and is currently on the education committee), I do consider myself quite spiritual, take great comfort in many of the tenets of the faith, and particularly relish the holidays.
Most Jews fast on Yom Kippur, abstaining from food and drink, and aside from a cup of coffee, I did as well. One of the things that I wanted to do on this day was spend some time thinking about what it means to live without. For the past several weeks I’ve been choosing to abstain from foods, certain bad habits, and negative thought patterns. It has been a challenge. One of the great things that has come out of it is a desire to share with you all some of the changes I’ve been making, and I’ve been really moved by all the support that I’ve received. I’m not taking any of this for granted, I feel particularly lucky.
On the topic of living without, I spent a good part of the day reading Shauna James Ahern’s ‘Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back & How You Can Too‘. Shauna writes a beautiful blog, about food, family, and her life – choosing to make living without gluten a practice in living fully and well.
In her pages she is candid about her experiences with Celiac disease, and living gluten free, but it’s about so much more than a life without – it’s about discovery, learning to eat well, learning to love food, learning to live fully. Learning to say yes.
The book skips through her life, from her childhood in California with quirky parents eating TV dinners and Clark Bars, traveling the world, teaching high school English on Vashon Island, a stint in New York in her early 30’s, living in England with an absurdly wealthy family for 6 months, to finding herself back in Seattle where she ends up falling in love with the man she would later marry. (And have an adorable daughter with. But that comes after the book!)
The pages are filled with food memories, friendship, first tastes, and recipes. I spent the afternoon smiling, tearing up, and (very) hungry.
This book came out in 2007, and I’m ashamed to say that I hadn’t read it until now. I don’t know Shauna personally, but she knows several of the friends that I made over the years at Omnivore Books, and my heart lifted to see so many of them mentioned in her wonderful book.
* * *
After regretfully reaching the last page, I put the book down and headed into the fresh air to walk around the neighborhood before heading to our family feast to break the fast. I wandered into this guy.
By the time I got back from my walk, Devon had returned home and we drove over to my aunt and uncle’s house together. The sun had sufficiently set, and so I made a beeline to the appetizer table, where I immediately proceeded to gorge myself on carrots, cucumbers, and fresh pistachios that my mom had brought back from her trip to Istanbul. (I abstained from the lovely cheese selection, hummus, and chopped liver, but I thought it was a nice spread.)
Because my aunt works magic, the table had been set: bagels, lox, multiple types of kugel (noodle pudding), herring with blueberries, cranberry sauce, fruit compote, mini challah, and bread. For our family, Yom Kippur ends up being a cross between traditional Jewish foods and Thanksgiving.
That’s Cooper, 6 months old, eying the gefilte fish.
If you insist Coop, you can definitely have my gefilte fish! Mmm.. carp! (I should note here that in addition to some excellent training – he can now heel, lie down, roll over, and shake – he is also learning good manners and isn’t being served people food. I’m totally impressed by my cousin-pup!)
The highlight of the meal was actually this turkey.
While I knew that I would have to hold back from so many of my favorites (Cheryl Ann’s mini challah rolls!), I didn’t find myself wanting. Here’s my dinner plate – turkey, pistachios, carrots, tomatoes, cucumber, and a whole bunch of pineapple. I sat myself down strategically next to the carved turkey, so when I finished this plate, I ended up having another half pound of bird. It may have been slightly excessive.
For dessert, I had more fruit, and a cup of coffee. Because of this challenge, yet a second holiday in a row where I’ve abstained from dessert. It was… a challenge. The spread included my mom’s apple cake, my favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cake, my aunt’s spectacular banana bread, and Eleanor Bloom’s famous brownies – dense, fudgy, chewy, and perfect from the freezer in the middle of the night.
Next time!
Happy Holidays to my kinfolk!
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 17, 2012 | Challenge, Holidays
Happy New Year!
No, I don’t have my months mixed up, tonight is the very first night of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. Where my Jews at?! Challah back, y’all. Alrighty, that’s out the way.
Today started out the way all good days start. With coffee. Zabar’s. I went a few weeks ago with my mom to New York, and picked up some Blue Bottle Giant Steps, freshly roasted. Once I finished that, I stole one of her (10!) pounds of Zabar’s coffee she picked up. It runs in the family.
I spent my morning devouring Gretchen Rubin’s new book, Happier at Home that Crown sent to me. It may just be my very first give-away on the blog. After two hours of reading in bed, I hopped up to make myself breakfast: warm roasted eggplant and zucchini, topped with a fried egg seasoned with salt and bourbon smoked paprika.
I then set to work on some of my “make the house a home” projects, including clearing off the coffee table in our bedroom, and hauling it into the living room. (The living room I cleared of the metric ton of cardboard two days ago.)
This was a difficult task that required lunch not too long after: leftover cold roast chicken, a chopped tomato sprinkled with salt, and a spoonful of mustard.
That’s some gorgeous light filtering in our ancient windows.
And this is my snack: banana with almond butter. This stuff never gets old.
In the evening we headed over to my aunt and uncle’s house for Rosh Hashana dinner. My aunt took over this year from my grandmother, who has been the queen of the holidays for the past fifty years, and frankly deserved a break.
My aunt is an awesome hostess, who plans perfectly down to the tiniest details: roses, name cards, and little chocolates at each sitting? How cute is that?! (Devon got my chocolates, alas.)
Admittedly, I had been worried about dinner, but I shouldn’t have been. I skipped out on the challah and the kreplach soup (think Chinese wonton soup, minus the pork), but filled my dinner plate with grilled asparagus, roasted parsnips, baby onions, carrots, red peppers, beef tenderloin and salmon! We know how to feast!
After dinner, I had a cup of decaf coffee. I did not partake in the crack-brownies (from Shirley Corriher’s BakeWise), or the luscious lemon mousse, or the sugar dusted strawberries, or this gorgeous carrot cake. Excuse me while I head to bed and weep, just a little bit.
by Sam Tackeff | Apr 13, 2009 | Holidays
Spring! Spring! Spring!
One of my favorite parts of this season, aside from all the blooming, sprouting, and renewed sense of joy that people seem to have, is the opportunity to cook spring holiday food, even when the holiday isn’t exactly mine to celebrate. (This seems to be a national trend: I was more than excited to see the Obama’s hosting the first White House Passover Seder.)
Here is a sneak look at last night’s passover friendly Easter dinner: Trader Joes rack of lamb, mashed sweet potatoes with maple syrup and cinnamon, and steamed asparagus, baked for ten extra minutes with some grated cheese on top.
This entire meal was put together and finished in twenty five minutes, and while quick cooking is not normally a priority for me, sometimes I just want to be out of the kitchen relaxing… participating in another of my favorite spring activities: watching the end of basketball season, and the beginning of the baseball season. Go Sox!
::Mashed Sweet Potatoes:: Peel a few large sweet potatoes and cut into rough inch sized cubes. Place the cubes in a microwavable bowl, add a few tablespoons of maple syrup, and a quarter cup or so of water, cover with saran or a microwave lid, and cook on high for about 12 minutes, or until soft and drain. Mash with a fork or a masher, add a tablespoon of butter, a tablespoon of cream (or half and half, or milk), and sprinkle with cinnamon.
