Norwitz Notions

So what’s wrong with cranberry sauce made with oranges, you ask? Nothing. It’s delicious. But the slightest trace of oranges makes my daughter sick for hours. So I developed a version with lemons instead. I think it works better than oranges for cutting fatty foods and providing a clean crisp taste. You will need to […]

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This is a simple recipe but difficult to get just right. You need a good blender and some finesse. I made the cashew cream to go with a vegan pumpkin pie I took to a Thanksgiving Potluck in 2007 and again in 2008, though it’s delicious on anything sweet. Recipe: 2 cups raw cashew pieces […]

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It’s fall! It’s pumpkin time! So what do you do with those seeds?  Well don’t waste them, turn them into a healthy nosh. Start with any winter squash: pumpkin, acorn, red kuri, whatever you like.  In these pictures, I used butternut squash. Cut the raw squash in half lengthwise.  Use a fork to pull out […]

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Some comfort foods come from childhood (the one that fills my soul is very soft, very slow cooked scrambled eggs over buttered whole-grain toast, something I can no longer have) and others are with you all along but hidden until you happen upon that food.  My adult-found comfort food is Ethiopian.  The sour spongy bread […]

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With all the various fermented vegetables I’ve made, somehow I never got around to making cucumber pickles.  But that changed this summer when I tasted a friend’s potluck offering and realized how much I missed them.  The vinegared pasteurized version from the store just doesn’t taste the same. My friend used slicing cucs (the kind […]

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In my ongoing quest to discover 1001 things to do with masa, I came up with this little gem.  Guaranteed to please three year olds everywhere. Start with fresh masa if you can get it.  Reconstituted masa harina if you can’t. Grab a chunk, roll it into a ball, then flatten by hand into a […]

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At the Petaluma farmer’s market in September, I found a stand with a big box of organic paste tomatoes (romas) which was on sale because they were overripe.  I picked out some good ones then thought, wait a minute, and turned to the farmer and asked to buy the whole box.  “I was hoping some […]

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Chimichurri is a popular sauce from Argentina made with fresh green herbs (usually parsley, cilantro, and/or mint), garlic, acid (red wine vinegar, lemon, etc), and olive oil.  Some recipes have other ingredients.  It’s usually served on meat but I love it on fish, tofu, beans, salad, and all sorts of things.  Since I’m not a […]

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We hosted a potluck for Sukkot this year and told everyone we would provide the challah.  The last shabbus potluck we went to had regular challah and Miriam ended up with some symptoms due to cross-contamination from the eggs (part of the ritual is breaking the bread with your hands; while we don’t do that […]

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At the end of our day-long trek into Portland, we met up with a friend and her son at Kalga Kafe, a vegetarian restaurant in the southeast part of the city.  Dinner hours are 5pm-midnight (it serves lunch weekdays) and it hosts live bands some evenings.  Since this was a Saturday night, we thought we […]

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Our first day of travel from Petaluma, CA to Vancouver, BC was our worst.  We took I-5 and, despite keeping the A/C on recirculate and me being on oxygen, I got pretty sick from the pesticide exposures driving past all the agriculture.  Miriam was in even worse shape.  Screaming, tantrums, and two episodes of extreme […]

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Unlike our misadventure of the night before, our two night stay at Champoeg State Park, just south of Portland and north of Salem, was peaceful, quiet, and medically uneventful.  We arrived with concerns.  Since it was a weekend, and we were only booking a few days in advance, there were just two campsites left.  I […]

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This dish takes a fair bit of time to make, but it’s one of my favorites for a hearty meal to serve to company.  I’ve been making it for a while but it wasn’t until recently when I made it for friends in Canada that I took pictures. I’ve adapted this recipe from: Chili and […]

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While visiting the Vancouver area last month, we stayed with friends in Burnaby, a suburb to the east of the city.  Some other friends from New Brunswick overlapped their stay with ours then went to a hotel in downtown Vancouver for a convention.  On their last night, we met up with them for dinner. Finding […]

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Michael and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary on August 21st (and 12 years of being together).  I was ill for our first wedding anniversary, and our second was a so-so dinner with Miriam after a doctor’s appointment, so we were determined to have a romantic dinner alone this year.  We were in British Columbia […]

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