L'Shana Tova, everyone! :)

Happy Rosh Hashanah! Literally "head of the year," ראש השנה‎, today begins the Days of Awe, when Jews all over the world reflect on the past year, focus on repentance, and finally end their time of reflection with Yom Kippur, the holiest of all Jewish holidays. "L'Shana Tova," שנה טובה, is the way to greet others during this first day of Tishrei, to wish someone a good new year. So to everyone reading, happy new year! We have a few more coming up before the calendar change, but I find no harm in ringing in a few new ones. ;)

As with most Jewish holidays, the day is centered around rest and feasts, and Rosh Hashanah is no exception. Some traditional foods for this holiday, as the beginning of the harvest and in celebration of the sweet, include brisket, tzimmes, honey bread, apple crumble, and my favorite, challah. While many foods served at Jewish celebrations are decidedly vegetarian, others are not... but there are simple ways to make any dish vegetarian!

Take tzimmes, for example, a sweet dish comprised of fruit, meat, and vegetables, cooked slowly over low heat and flavored with honey and, on occasion, cinnamon. While its original recipes are delicious, I'm sure, tzimmes is not required to have meat, as exemplified by the recipe below, where any meat is simply omitted!

Vegetarian Tzimmes

Ingredients

* 1 pound carrots, scrubbed and sliced 1 inch thick
* 6 medium yams, peeled and coarsely chopped
* 3/4 cup pitted prunes and dried unsulphured apricots
* 1 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
* 1/2 cup honey
* 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place the carrots and yams in a large pot and add water to cover. Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes or until tender but still firm.

3. Remove from the heat and drain.

4. Place the vegetables in a covered casserole dish. Add the prunes or apricots and mix gently.

5. Combine the orange juice, honey, and cinnamon. Pour over the vegetables and fruit.

6. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover, stir gently, and continue to bake, uncovered, for another 10 minutes.

This recipe is also under our "Holidays" section.

Was this a frustrating recipe, what with all the chopping, peeling, combining, cooking, and so forth? No worries, there's an appropriate word for that: "Tzimmes!" It's quickly become a "Yinglish" expression that means to make a big fuss, perhaps because of all the slicing, mixing and stirring that go into the preparation of the dish. So next time you're fussing over someone, you can simply say you're "making a tzimmes." ;)

Another hearty L'Shana Tova to everyone, and I hope you have a wonderful new year!