Being way past deadline (as usual) for this week’s column, I was frustrated as not only was I late, I couldn’t come up with a topic to write about. Total writer’s block. And as hard as it is to come up with ideas for my column, it’s even harder to correlate them to the recipe, as you have probably noticed in the past, or you will certainly notice this week. So last night, while sitting at my computer, which by the way is from the Dark Ages, or so my kids tell me, I was close to calling my editor and admitting defeat, when while eating the fifth snack in the span of 20 minutes, I started to choke. Seems the almond I swallowed had different plans than the norm. Being home alone, I panicked a bit, but all ended well. I was a little shaken, but I had an idea for this week’s column.N more

It’s late, 2:30 am. This article is going to get to the editor late, and my Braves lost their lead and their do-or-die playoff game late in the game. I hate being late, but when I’m late, I hustle. When I worked in the city, I became so adept at making the train, no matter how late I was, that I was able to leave my house, drive a mile, find a parking spot (no easy feat!), run toward the train and across the tracks while the train was already there. All in four minutes. Of course I couldn’t catch my breath for half the train ride and I had to listen to the conductor admonish me not to run across the tracks while the gates were down (yes, I know he was right). more

With the close of summer and the close of the yom tov season, came the end of baseball’s regular season, and the greatest closer closed his last game. I’m a diehard Atlanta Braves fan, yet last week, when Mariano Rivera played his final game at Yankee Stadium and I watched clips of it after yom tov, I actually cried. Not because he had one the most iconic careers in major league history, winning more awards and holding more records than I could ever fit into this article, but because it was the close of a career of an amazing human being. more

With a growing number of Shomer Shabbat patients arriving at Rockville Centre’s Mercy Medical Center, a member of Catholic Health Services of Long Island, the need for hospital-based bikur cholim assistance has been increasing. more

This week, we got our sukkahs out of hiding, bought our lulavim and etrogim and those new Yom Tov fall/winter outfits (clothes that we won’t be able to wear yet, although we’ll certainly spot one or two women suffering through the heat in their suede or fur trimmed suits, all in the name of fashion … come on, you’ve been there once or twice). And then there is the planning for not one, but two, three-day Yomim Tovim. And we will eat, till it’s time to eat again — all six meals, all three days, both Yomim Tovim. more

On Central Avenue, in the kosher supermarkets, in shul, or on the LIRR, you hear the same conversation. “What?! Rosh Hashanah is next week!?” And then the dreaded “three day yom tov — oy!” I wonder why, every year, everyone is so surprised that’s it’s already yom tov time. Truth is, it has been three months since the start of June. Kids were packed off to camp, parents went on vacation and we partook in lots of family and friends BBQs, lounged in our backyards, and enjoyed the lazy days of summer (some of us more than others, but it’s ok, I’m not jealous … well, yes I am, but this isn’t about me). more

As the Jewish world focuses on teshuva and spiritually preparing for the New Year, it is also gearing up for three sets of three-day yomim tovim (holidays), with Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot falling on Thursdays and Fridays followed by Shabbat. Careful planning for this confluence of feast days by Gourmet Glatt, a kosher supermarket in Cedarhurst, may make holiday food shopping and preparation a bit easier. more

What in the world did we do before cell phones? Wait, I think I actually recall. We would make plans and have to stick to them! If we made up to meet our friends, we had to be there on time. Of course there were instances when we would be standing there for over half an hour without a friend in sight. Did I have the wrong location? Should I walk a block or two to a pay phone and call her house to see if she left? What if I walked to the pay phone and then I missed her? more

As usual, when the third week in August rolls in, I think back to the days when my kids returned from camp. After the initial nausea of opening the trunk wore off, we’d decide what special trip the family would take. more

It must be August, because everyone is off on their last hurrah vacation trips before the kids come home from camp and the Yomim Tovim start. This past Shabbat, my husband Jerry regaled us with his travel plans that took place in 1975 during the summer after his sophomore year at YU. more