Jewish Food (for thought)

I just realized -- while checking out a blog posted over on Ilana-Davita's blog (yes, it's that vicious J-blogging cycle of click here, click there, click over there, and bam suddenly you're reading a blog by a Jewish guy named Sven who fancies cholent and lives in Zimbabwe) -- that I haven't spent much time blogging about Jewish food blogs. Food, the lifeblood of our (and all) people, is a big blogging topic in the J-blogosphere, it's true. However, I haven't managed to really throw much out there in the way of promotion for other bloggers (not that they need it, but I like to spread the love). So I present to you, a series of Jewish food blogs of which you should most definitely devote yourself. Sometime in the not-so-distant future I full intend on blogging about my favorite Jewish/kosher cookbooks, as well, since I've basically checked out every last one my library has over the past few months! But let us begin ...

Rebecca Joseph, a Conservative rabbi, has a really beautiful (aesthetically and otherwise) blog called The Parve Baker, which I found on I-D's blog just today. The rabbi says, " ... I understand baking as both a religious obligation and a cultural practice shaped by my upbringing, education and community. The recipes and information here reflect what I do in my own kitchen, but you don’t have to keep kosher or be Jewish to enjoy them." The great thing about this blog is that it's a fresh one; from what I can tell, the blog has only been around since February!

Heeb'n'vegan actually very recently posted about the creation of this "niche" in the J-blogosphere for the foodies. You can read the post here. HnV posts several vegan/veggie blogs in that post, as well.

Kosher Vegan Lasagna features an ark-load of recipes worth your viewing time, but as far as I can tell it hasn't been updated since last month. The old blog for KVL can be viewed here. At any rate, I can think of at least one person I know who would be stoked to see this Kosher Crockpot Herbed Chicken recipe!

Probably one of the best Jewish/kosher cooking sites I've come across is the Kosher Hostess. If you go into the recipes section, the collection is broken down by course and the site is really well organized otherwise -- I'm all about the aesthetic pleasure!

Of course there's the Kosher Blog, touting "We're Not Just Bagels Anymore." And if you're in the mood, you can take on Cooking with Yiddishe Mama.

The thing of it is, though, in the past hour that I've spent perusing all the Kosher/Jewish food blogs out there ... is I've definitely found that a lot of the blogs that *are* out there are idle or haven't been tapped in months. I know how hard it is to keep up a blog actively when you're not getting paid and there are all of life's other dramas to handle, but it's really too bad! Not that these sites don't have anything to offer from their archives, but it would be nice to see updated content!

To top off this Kosher/Jewish blog mini-spiel, I give you a few words from Rabbi Morris Allen's blog, the director of Hekhsher Tzedek*:

We need to be in a world where we can say that keeping kosher is the way in which I demonstrate not only a concern for my relationship to God and Torah but the Jewish concern for our relationship to the world in which we live. That's what I really want to get across to people.

*Hekhsher Tzedek is a shared effort between the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism to display a seal on already designated kosher foods that reflects production benchmarks consistent with Jewish ethical standards, including how companies treat their employees.