ChallahCrumbs

While tourism has taken a bit of a hit this summer, there is absolutely no reason for you to go without one of Israel’s favorite summer drinks: lemonana.

Cold, minty, slushy, and exactly what August requires.

This particular recipe comes from a children’s Jewish cookbook I’ve been quietly working on—which may explain why the instructions include tearing the mint leaves and stopping to smell them.

I’m not quite ready for the full reveal yet, but I’m very excited to begin sharing little pieces of it.

Swipe for the recipe.

(After a long day of entertaining your children, you may want to add a splash of arak and make it a little more adult-friendly.😊)

When there is a maybe-war, I do laundry.

I can’t entirely explain it, but last night my low-grade maybe-war anxiety had me washing, drying and folding sheets and towels from 12:30 am until 5 in the morning, as though a full, beautifully organized linen closet might somehow offset whatever was happening in the world.

And honestly, all I have to say is: prove me wrong.

I finally fell asleep at around 5:30.

At some point after 6:00, Trump called off this round of his maybe-war.

Also, obviously this laundry room is AI generated 😂. If my laundry room looked like this, world peace would be in the horizon.

One of my favorite things about summer is seasonal fruits and vegetables.

Some of my favorite summer memories are of all the kids piled into the car as we drove through Pennsylvania and Ohio, spotting a roadside stand and immediately pulling over. Sweet corn. Peaches. Berries. Honestly, whatever they were selling.

We’d buy way more than we needed and happily make a bit of a mess in the car as we snacked our way down the road.

There’s something so satisfying (and, if we’re being honest, easy) about finding an ingredient at its absolute peak and letting it be the star of the meal.

While you have to work a little harder to find really great sweet corn here in Israel, it is possible. And thinking about summer corn has me sending this your way:

Five easy ways to let corn be the star of the show.

🌽 Grill it and slather it with herb butter.

🌽 Toss it into a bright couscous salad with herbs, cucumber, and feta (or avocado if you’re keeping it dairy-free).

🌽 Fold it into crispy corn fritters.

🌽 Add it to a chopped summer salad with tomatoes, basil, and a squeeze of lemon.

🌽 Stir it into a simple vegetable soup—it adds just the right bit of sweetness.

I love recipes, but I also love ideas. Sometimes all you need is one beautiful ingredient and a few simple ways to use it.

We are a family of summer birthdays, which I love. Every few weeks, we get to stop whatever we are doing and celebrate one of our kids. This weekend, it is Channan.
He turned 20, so I decided to make 20 little no-bake cheesecakes. Not complicated at all but seriously adorable. I’ll pair it with a cold coffee bar and our Shabbat morning kiddush gets an instant upgrade.

The fun starts long before Shabbat. From Thursday afternoon, the door is open. Our kids come home, often with friends. Then their friends bring friends. The washing machine does not stop. Coffee after coffee iafter coffee s made. Our backyard furniture fills with young people talking, laughing, lingering, and making themselves at home.

Not all of our kids are home at the same time. That is this stage of life. But a celebration is really about noticing who is at the table in that particular moment and making room for whoever walks through the door next. Happy birthday, Nani. You are so so loved.

It’s been quiet here. Well… pretty much everywhere in my life for the past few months.

Sometimes life has a way of making your priorities wonderfully simple.

One of my kids needed me, so work, projects, and all the things I thought I’d be building this spring quietly waited while I focused on being a mom.

But this weekend is a birthday weekend and I’m back in the kitchen, sprinkles everywhere, endless laundry as kids start coming home for Shabbat. And I’ll forever be grateful for normal. It’s a new normal but with all the best people.

If there’s one snack that disappears faster than you can say “just one handful,” it’s muddy buddies.

This version is a Loaded Muddy Buddies with Tahini Drizzle, fully loaded with chocolate, peanut butter, pretzels, marshmallows, halva, and a drizzle of tahini for that sweet-salty bite that somehow keeps everyone coming back for more.
Perfect for Shavuot, movie nights, weekend hosting, or keeping in the fridge for whenever people start wandering through the kitchen looking for something good to snack on.
Make a big batch. Honestly, you’ll be glad you did.

Here's the recipe: https://challahcrumbs.com/loaded-muddy-buddies-with-tahini-drizzle/

Sometimes, I don't even serve this dessert. I make it and leave it in the back fridge and then the people in the know quietly make their way over with a fork in hand to dig into this no-bake chocolate peanut butter cheesecake.

Recipe is up on ChallahCrumbs:

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Ganache - Challah Crumbs A cold, creamy no-bake cheesecake with a chocolate crumb crust, peanut butter filling, and a glossy chocolate topping swirled with peanut butter and flaky salt. It tastes like a peanut butter cup grew up and moved into a springform pan.

There are cheesecakes that feel fancy and complicated, and then there are the ones that quietly become part of the table.

This one falls firmly into the second category.

Creamy cheesecake, tea biscuit crust, and a layer of dulce de leche poured over the top while the cake is cooling on the counter. Nothing dramatic. Just very, very good.

Also: I fully support eating the leftover slice straight from the fridge the next morning with coffee.

Recipe is up on ChallahCrumbs:

The Cheesecake You Make When There Are No Graham Crackers in Israel - Challah Crumbs A creamy Israeli-style caramel cheesecake made with tea biscuits, גבינה לבנה, and dulce de leche — the kind of dessert you can make entirely from a neighborhood makolet run.

We’ve partnered again with our friends at Green Bean Books for a Pesach book giveaway.

To be honest, I wasn’t even sure this one would happen.

The books were waiting for me at a hotel in the center of Jerusalem, and between the sirens and everything going on, I wasn’t sure I would make it there. But today we did — just in the nick of time, because the hotel is closing due to the war.

So now we have this beautiful stack of books ready to send to one ChallahCrumbs family.

Stories for the days leading up to Pesach, for bedtime, for snuggling on the couch, for the moments in between.

To enter:
• Make sure you’re following
• Tag two friends who would love these books

We’ll choose a winner on Tuesday evening. This giveaway is open to people in Israel (is there even mail these days 🫣).