Last Licks with Levana Kirschenbaum

The cheese Babka I made at my demo this past Monday night. That got many raves. As always I love baking with all natural ingredients (spelt flour, evaporated cane juice, vanilla extract). The general consensus was: Boy, you will never get a babka like this in any store!.

Nobo Teaneck. We love it there. We often go double-dating there, my husband and I and a non-Kosher-observant couple, very dear friends who go to the most luxurious restaurants in town. They tell us they are always delighted to eat there. We never order, we just let chef Josh Massin do his magic.

On the corny side, but still delightful. I went to Florida for a week, and knocked around with family and friends. My gift to my friend, whose house I stayed at, was cook her shabbos while she had to go to work that Friday. A small intimate but very appreciative group.

I assume you mean commercial junk. Here you just must believe me: I eat almost no junk. I hope we dont count homemade treats as junk. I made a batch of sea salt caramel chocolate truffles 2 weeks ago, and my husband and I steal one every day.

Spotify. I am hooked! I find some French and Arabic Songs, quite a few of which I haven't heard in almost half a century. I take these treats to my mother, like this afternoon, and she presses my tiny screen to her hard-of hearing ears. It is extraordinary to see that the lyrics come right back to her. And they have miles of my opera idols, Cecila Bartoli and Pavarotti.

That was about an hour ago. It gave me every bit as much pleasure as it did the recipient, my delightful three year old granddaughter: A gorgeous mottled black and cream hooded sweater jacket with lemon color trimmings and buttons. I kept her all spyched while her twin brother and her father (my son Yakov) were away in Israel for 2 weeks, for the boy's upsher, and told her almost everyday about my progress knitting this very special treat for her. I got very dogged about finishing it today, in time for her father's return, and I did in the nick of time. She acted all excited to be alone with mommy and go places, but a few minutes a day it would hit her really hard and she would cry Abba Abba, Levi Levi. They both just came back, and it was incredibly poignant to see them hugging each other, and dancing around the room, she in her brand new sweater jacket, which she modeled beautifully, adn he in his brand new knitted kippah which he is not taking to just yet....

Just had sushi with my daughter this afternoon, and it was wonderful. Some really racy rolls. It was certainly not a fancy restaurant, just a sushi take out place in Crown Heights, called the Sushi Spot, but it was delicious and plentiful. I asked for a mountain of wasabi and ginger, and they took me almost literally.

I was reading Monica Bhide's blog. She recently edited a fabulous ebook, which she just sent me, called "In Conversation with Exceptional Women". Most inspiring.

Onion soup with Manchego. Outrageous. It's in my first cookbook, you might call it a perennial.

Julia Child "The Menu Cookbook". I was just invited to this online 100 day centenary bash in her honor, and I am exploring which favorite recipes I would like to adapt from her repertoire.