Fire Food & Drink – A Memory from 2013

This post is a reprise of a delicious memory from many years ago, when my husband and I were celebrating the 36th anniversary of our meeting, and Fire Food & Drink in Shaker Heights, Ohio, my favorite restaurant, was still open. You might think of this entry as a tribute: To a man, a marriage, and a memory. 

I met my husband-to-be on a snowy, romantic February 18th many, many years ago. And it may sound corny, but it was, in fact, love at first sight. Or at least first weekend. So when I heard that Doug Katz was making a “Meatless Monday vegan dinner” the same week as our “meet-iversary,” my sweet husband cleared his schedule and I made a reservation right away!

You may or may not know that I am not a vegan. I’m not even a vegetarian. But I love real food, and I love creative cooking, so that’s why I wanted to spend an evening at Fire food & drink. It was going to be a special night. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Sweet New Year Soup

Tonight, as the sun slips below the horizon, we will begin our celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. Traditional Rosh Hashanah foods tend toward the sweet and the circular: sweet for a sweet new year, and circular to represent the seasons that run one into the next, year after year, around and around. Instead of the usual braid, we even twist our challah (egg bread) into a round this time of year.  Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Vegetable Borscht

I wanted to share this vegetable borscht now(!) so that, hopefully, you’ll have time to make it the week (freeze), day (refrigerate), or at least the morning before you plan to serve it. Which means that, at the very least, you’ll want to make this recipe first thing in the morning to give its flavors time to blend. Besides its deliciousness, another one of the great things about this recipe is the fact that it meets the requirements of a great many different kinds of nutritional approaches. There’s nothing like making many people happy, all at the same time. And that’s not something that should be taken for granted, either! Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Chickpea (Nahit) Celebration!

Last Saturday our friends welcomed a beautiful baby boy into the world and everyone, (especially the two big sisters of this sweet, lucky little boy) is ecstatic. In my family, it is traditional to serve chickpeas to celebrate the birth of a newborn child. The dish is called nahit. 

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YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Early Tomato Salad

This is not the time of year to turn on the oven or stove. But that’s not going to stop me. The tomatoes are starting to ripen, and it’s time to celebrate. You don’t need more than a knife and a cutting board for this recipe. It’s simple, and it’s oh-so-much-more than the sum of its ingredients. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Tabouleh Like You’ve Never Seen It!

I’m still collecting recipes for July 4th! This particular tabouleh is a Mediterranean masterpiece! If you’ve never tried sumac and za’atar, you are in for a treat — packed with phytonutrients and flavor, they make for a major mouth rush! If you don’t have any and you’re not inclined to go find some, then just substitute a teaspoon of thyme and don’t give it another second’s thought. Continue reading