Welcome

Dear students,

This e-book I present to you today is a way to say THANKS from the bottom of my heart for being in the cooking class I offer every quarter, and I am including some of the recipes I use when I have dinners at home. It is also a way to encourage you to keep on trying the recipes with your own families, and showing me how much you liked these cooking classes or sharing meals with me in my hone. I know that, from March 2019 until today, September 2021, I have not been able to invite you in person to my home. Nevertheless, we were able to keep doing the cooking classes, on ZOOM and this past spring quarter 2021, in person at Allison Lounge.

Most of the recipes I learned are from my mom (her soul rest in peace) and I include some personal modification passed on the love for cooking and most of the recipes. Other recipes I have learned from friends or watching relatives and friends cooking. Nevertheless, each one has two main important ingredients: a pinch of a personal ingredient (which it is not included in a “regular recipe”, and a pinch of a “Rifka’s secret ingredient”: LOVE . My mom taught me that everything I will do has to have this Secret ingredient, and I must cook the meal with happiness.

One thing I need to mention is that when I prepare a dish, I follow the Jewish Law regulations, all my ingredients have Kosher certification. Of course it is up to you to decide what ingredients you want to use. However, one you always need to use, which will be the “Secret ingredient” I mentioned in the above paragraph.

Rifka Cooking — Rifka cooks and Winston, the South Area mascot, approves!

Although sometimes I arrive home a little exhausted from a workday, nevertheless, when I wash my hands, put gloves, my apron and start to prepare a meal for my dearest guests, all the tiredness disappear, and my heart dances with joy.

I feel that I am connecting myself with precious traditions of my heritage, and all the love my mom gave when she taught me or I saw her cooking, nourished me with this love for cooking, so that I, in turn, may nourish others.

Before I go to the recipes, I want to say thanks a lot to Matthew Taylor, Cecile-Anne Sison and Grace Mihae Baik. To Matt, for introducing me to WordPress and giving me ideas on how to organize the e-book, and each step I need to learn, including the themes I can use. To Cecile, for working with me and giving me the idea to create a template for all the recipes to follow, as well as she created a schedule with more regular meetings to help me to organize the recipes, build a post about an event, and talk more about how we want to organize the site, etc. To Grace for the illustrations she created for each dish, they really tie all of the recipes together. And special thanks to my editing angel. To each one of them my heartfelt appreciation.

As you read the recipes, you will find out that each one of the recipes are organized in groups, including a brief introduction about the dish, the ingredients and tools you will need to prepare the dish, and its method of preparation. At the end of each recipe, you will find the history or anecdote related to the dish. It enlivens the experience both of preparing food, and sharing it, to understand at least a little of the historical, cultural, and even linguistic context of its origin. All of the suggested ingredients are Kosher, so all of the meals can be made Kosher or Halal or regular, as you wish.

Now, let´s start to cook! If you want to share your dishes with everyone, feel free to email me pictures of your attempts, and I will publish them here, in the cookbook! Thanks in advance 🙂