Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Why I haven’t written in over a year, I’m not sure. Why I felt a need to take down my site and close out all electronic communications and social media—though the reasons for some may be obvious—the image of an ostrich with their head in the sand also comes to mind. I promise that when I totally understand why I took the hiatus, I will explain it to both of us! For now, I’m pressing forward. My website is back up. I will endeavour to put up more recipes and more images— but I will be taking my time developing each recipe, menu and idea in a slow way – I read the book ‘Slow Productivity‘, by Cal Newport and it has helped me pace myself. Though I will continue sharing – I can’t imagine not wanting to write up my recipes and save them somewhere and then sharing that knowledge as best I can, but it will be slow and considered.

But what does continue from this moment on is my love of the world I live in, in spite of how difficult it feels sometimes to live in it. And writing, as well as cooking, is an outlet I come back to time and again. Both offer release, creativity, and comfort, and I always come back to them. Some of the best moments of my life have included food, as have the difficult ones. Food comforts and nurtures, food celebrates and mourns with us, food entertains and is quiet when we need it to be. It is an expression of our identity—of where we come from, what we are learning, and where we are headed.

As I find myself at yet another crossroads in my life, I have once more picked up the metaphorical pen to paper and the knife to the cutting board, found my anchor in the written word and the baked loaf, and am armed with my security and sustenance to face the challenges ahead.

I hope you will join me as I share with you our next adventure, and this time it would be wonderful to hear from you! Write to me—let me know if you like something, and if you don’t, what recipes have worked for you and which haven’t.

What prompted me to finally start this morning? Yesterday, both Daniel and I were pots that boiled over. The pressure has been building for weeks, and just like that, we went from simmer to boil, and over the top of the pot we went. This is so unusual between us that it required immediate action. And knowing Daniel of old, I knew he needed a drive and I needed retail therapy—and yes, I know retail therapy is a short-term fix, as is getting in your car and finding an open road and an ocean view, but boiled pots need quick clean-ups and we needed an immediate solution.

The benefit of living on an island is that a few hours’ drive from almost anywhere in this country will land you near the sea. We drove three hours northeast to Southwold on the East Suffolk coast, and it was one of the best decisions we have ever made. The beach was pristine. Here in the UK, children are still in school, people are still going about their regular routines, so it was blessedly quiet, which is something we both needed—desperately.

And then there was the pier. I joked with Daniel that he likes a good pier—and it’s true. His childhood vacations were spent on Bournemouth Beach, and piers fill him with nostalgia. Now the pier in Southwold is nothing like the one in Bournemouth or Brighton or Southend-on-Sea. It doesn’t have many attractions or shops, but it does have loads of places to sit.

As we walked down the pier, expecting to see nothing much, in front of us the North Sea stretches out flat and frankly brown as far as the eye can see. Behind, colourful beach huts line up facing the sea, and behind that the modest town of Southwold rises up above the dunes with its Edwardian homes. It didn’t feel like much—but it did feel like what we needed at the moment: an endless vista filled with possibilities.

As we walked, I spotted on one of the structures in the centre of the pier a wall of plaques—much as you would find in a shul—names of loved ones who had passed away, the dates of birth and death. It reminded me of the memorial walls you can find in almost all shuls. I wondered: was this their church? Did people come here to commune with God? Were they throwing their loved ones’ ashes off the pier?

And then, as we walked, we noticed that every railing along the pier had more and more plaques. In some places they had run out of room and there were two or three layers of plaques—so many memories, so many people—and it wasn’t just those who had passed. There were birthdays and anniversaries, husbands and wives, children, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandads all being celebrated, memorialised. There were fishing buddies and graduating school classes—all who had chosen to memorialise themselves on this quiet pier in a town I had never heard of. Many thanked the pier for countless happy family holidays, and I was moved to tears.

This is a quiet British seaside town—not what one may think of as a vacation spot. This is not Bora Bora or the Bahamas. This is a cold, windy, tiny town without much to offer—and yet, person after person chose to memorialise themselves and their love for each other and the sea here. It reminded me that good things and good memories are made when they are shared with the people you love—not because of the spectacular place. And that I want to share my memories once again in the best way I know how. So thank you for being my audience and giving me this space to think aloud about my life.

But for now, rambling aside—let me tell you that before I put in my online supermarket order, I want to share with you my thoughts on this week’s Friday night menu. Why not Shabbat lunch? Simply, we are entertaining Friday night, and lunch will be whatever is left over.

On the menu this Friday night:

• Wine & Water Challah
• Chicken Soup & Matza Balls & Noodles
• Daniel is trialing a new roast beef recipe our friend, famed London Kosher Caterer and restaurateur, Tony Page, shared with us
• I’m working on a new recipe for chicken and potatoes
• Yotam Ottolenghi’s rice with slow roasted tomatoes
• A new recipe I’m working on for broccolini with shallots and olives
• Ratatouille—a recipe that has been in the works since my children watched the Disney movie of the same name years ago.
• Green beans with tahini and maple this is a recipe Odelle Epstein and I have been working on for years!
• Israeli Salad

For dessert: We have a few things I have been working on, and a cookie that has become mine and Daniel’s signature cookie—who knew that would happen!

• So we have R&R (Rabbi & Rebbetzin Epstein’s) Thin Cookies (thin is a descriptor of the cookie, not the weight projection for those who eat these!) recipe and professional pictures coming your way soon!
• I’m thinking of trying out a passion fruit marshmallow
• I have developed the most delicious variation of my Lemon cake – Blueberry and Lime cake see recipe variation just under the original lemon cake recipe.
• And of course, loads of fruit—especially as cherries are in season and they are AMAZING!

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