Note: Eek, I wrote this post on Saturday and then forgot to post it! Sorry.

Although we are not religious, we still like to celebrate the holidays of both our faiths. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year and begins the Ten Days of Awe which end up on Yom Kippur. As with all good holidays, the emphasis is on food.

I discovered a few years ago that in the Sephardic tradition there are foods that have special meaning on the holiday. So we no longer just have apples and honey but also beans, gourds, “head” of garlic, beets, dates, and several more. Plus, you are supposed to make puns out of the food names! What fun! John is our leader, our son came over to join in the festivities, and our daughter made a round challah (an egg bread.)

The beautiful challah our daughter made

After sampling and discussing all the symbolic foods and making quite a few puns, we ate our dinner. Our autumn soup included the holiday foods of carrots, apples, pomegranate, and butternut squash (gourd.)

Autumn soup

We also had a salad which included roasted golden beets and pine nuts (seeds.)

Hearty greens salad with roasted golden beets, pine nuts, and oranges.

During these days of stay-at-home it is nice to have a reason to celebrate and to raise our glasses in hopes for a better new year.