There are some meals I adore but almost never make. Not because they're difficult. Because they're complicated. There's a difference. Lasagna has always lived in that category for me. Layering. Multiple bowls. Noodles to boil. A sink full of dishes before dinner has even begun. And so, despite loving it, I rarely made it. Lately I've been thinking about the idea of friction points. Not the things we don't value, but the tiny obstacles that quietly keep us from living the life

Wednesday at sundown marks Tisha B’Av, the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av, a day of mourning, and a date that has become synonymous with calamity in Jewish history. This date marks the destruction of First Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and the Second Temple by the Romans in 70CE, as well as the fall of Betar which brought the devastating end to the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE. Centuries later, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain was decreed on Tisha B’Av

After a long while—and many, many cookies—we have finally perfected our house chocolate chip cookie. By we, I mean me and my three boys. And by perfected, I mean we have made enough batches to learn from our mistakes. There were the cookies that came out far too flat because we had added too much butter. There was the time I turned on the KitchenAid without properly affixing the mixing bowl, and the entire thing began to spiral off the stand, sending cookie batter everywhere.