I am happy to report this Monday morning that Purim was a success. I gave out all my Purim Platicos to rave reviews and we had a fun dinner, seuda, with the boys and Noni. I feel a little guilty contributing to everyone’s dieting woes so lets all exercise a little more this week. So now its on to Passover, menu planning and preparing. I hope to post around 25 Passover recipes, starting tomorrow. Shevua Tov, have a great week, Linda
Purim was a Success
Hi Linda,
WOW about 25 Passover recipes!!!!!! Looking forward to seeing and preparing them.
Thanks. We appreciate your beautiful website.
Norma
Glad to read that you had a lovely Purim celebration. Also, to echo Norma’s sentiments, I too am really looking forward to all those Passover recipes. Thank you so much!
On another cultinary search of mine, I came across a Sephardic synogogue in Greece, and discovered two cookbooks that I thought you and all the readers on this blog and site might be interested in checking out. I’ve copied and pasted the titles and descriptions of the books, below. Now if only I could afford to buy them (I’m greedy, I know – I want ALL the Greek, Jewish, Sephardic, Italian, Middle Eastern cookbooks I see!). If anyone has either or both of these books, it would be wonderful if you could share your opinions on these wonderful sounding cookbooks.
Salonika, a family cookbook. By Esin Eden and Nicholas Stavroulakis:
Prior to 1924 Salonika was the mother city of the Donme, the followers of
R. Shabbetai Zvi. After his conversion to Islam many of the Jews of Salonika as well as Marranos converted as well. This community of Shabbataians developed a theology and theory of the messianic redemption that was/is quite autonomous. This book of recipes is an important record of the cullinary arts of one Donme family and based on three recipe books written in Osmanli Turkish. The recipes are an interesting combination of traditional Sephardic cooking as well as important Turkish adaptations. Apart from the recipes the book has a family memoire with photographs of the daily life of this family prior to moving to Istanbul in 1924. price: 26,50 Euro
Cookbook of the Jews of Greece by Nicholas Stavroulakis
This book was compiled and published when the author was director of the Jewish Museum of Greece. Since its publication in 1984 it still remains somewhat of a classic. The book contains recipes of all of the Jewish communities of Greece: Sephardic and Romaniote. They are organised according to Jewish holidays as well as recipes that were in daily use in the course of the year. Each section has a rich account of customs, traditions and folklore. The book is heavily illustrated with drawings based on costumes and architecture.
Oh I want a copy of that book! Thanks for all your hard work. Good luck on your commerce adventures as well. Regards Linda
It’s my pleasure and a labour of love – you’re most welcome, Linda. It’s my small way of thanking you reciprocally for all the wonderful things you’ve shared with all of us on your blog.
Here’s some more information about the synagogue and their shop, if you are interested in buying either (or both) of the books, as well as other wonderful things their shop has on offer. If money were not an issue with us, I’d be supporting this synagogue most abundantly – for personal reasons of course, but also because it’s so important to keep all synagogues thriving.
You can also just do a Google search for the Etz Hayyim Synagogue itself, and it’ll bring you to the entire site, but for now, you can e-mail them at:
Etz Hayyim Synagogue
Parados Kondylaki,
730 11, Hania, Crete, Hellas (GR)
Tel. & Fax +30 28210 862 86
e-mail: info@etz-hayyim-hania.org
Nicholas Stavroulakis, Project Director
PO Box 251, 731 10, Hania, Crete, Hellas (GR)
Tel. & Fax +30 28210 703 97
e-mail: info@etz-hayyim-hania.org