יום שלישי, י״ד אב תשפ״וTuesday, July 28, 2026
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Sandy Eller is a freelance writer who writes for numerous websites, newspapers, magazines and private clients. She can be contacted at sandyeller1@gmail.com.
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By Sandy Eller
The idea of breathing new life into something you already own, using leftover bits and pieces as springboards for future projects, is probably a tendency to which I am genetically inclined
By Sandy Eller
“I knew it was a great idea, a win-win situation for everyone,” said Burstein.
By Sandy Eller
While we all go to restaurants for a good meal, it is dessert, that final taste that lingers in your mouth, that is the crown jewel of any dining experience and Six Thirteen’s offerings did not disappoint.
By Sandy Eller
"When Frank does something he does it well and you don't have to worry about dotting the i's or crossing the t's."
By Sandy Eller
Scan those sale circulars either online or when they show up at your doorstep, check out the sale items and plan your menus accordingly.
By Sandy Eller
“We are strong chassidic women and we take the name, we embrace it, and we own it.”
By Sandy Eller
“My father added that after all the pogroms, after the Holocaust, a member of the family had finally returned to the shul, proving once again that the indomitable spirit of the Jewish people can never be vanquished.”
By Sandy Eller
In recent months I have found there are certain things not worth buying and with the help of everyone’s best friend, Google, recipes for some of them are literally at the tip of your fingers.
By Sandy Eller
The chicken and waffle nuggets were fabulous and were like chicken in a dessert form.
By Sandy Eller
The Open Kitchen is so appealing you practically want to eat the pages as you turn them.
By Sandy Eller
Glob on the sunscreen, break out the darkest chocolate you can find and let the sun shine in!
By Sandy Eller
Both mains were clearly prepared with an expert hand and could only be described as heavenly.
By Sandy Eller
If you are spending the time in the kitchen, make it worth the effort. Make it taste good. Make it look nice.
By Sandy Eller
For those of us who have no choice but to drive, we need to find ways to make that overpriced tank of gas last as long as possible.
By Sandy Eller
No dairy cookbook would be complete without an array of sinfully decadent treats and there are plenty of those here as well, including three cheesecakes, one of which weighs in at a very slimming 180 calories or less.
By Sandy Eller
The rule of thumb in education these days: provide the kids who don't shine academically with a venue to shine in other ways.
By Sandy Eller
Accustomed as we all are to eating steak whenever we dine in an upscale restaurant, we were pleasantly surprised when our main dish showed up and it turned out to be not beef, but fish.
By Sandy Eller
These days there seems to be an app for just about everything, making your smart phone more indispensable than ever.
By Sandy Eller
As much as I am all for economical meals, Pesach is definitely the time of year when I find myself making more roasts.
By Sandy Eller
Deciding on your order is no small task at The Purple Pear. The menu is a whopping eight pages long and as if that wasn’t long enough, there is an additional three-page sushi menu.
By Sandy Eller
Well, in the good news department, if you have kids, your dreams are about to come true. As veteran cookbook author Tamar Ansh so capably illustrates in her 96-page, kid-friendly volume titled Let My Children Cook!, your progeny can be a valuable asset when Pesach rolls around when time is at a minimum and the cooking demands are sky high.
By Sandy Eller
What do you do with fruit that has turned just a little soft and squishy and that no one in your household wants to eat?
By Sandy Eller
The name La Brochette is a nod to Cohen’s Middle Eastern roots, alluding to a shish kabob skewer, but the restaurant is first and foremost a French steakhouse, albeit one with a dazzling sushi menu.
By Sandy Eller
While there are those who prefer holding a printed recipe in their hands, Estee has found that a cooking website has many advantages. Aside from the obvious cost factor and the ability to fix the rare mistakes, websites have a far greater ability to offer feedback.
By Sandy Eller
I take all my challah ingredients, throw them in the breadmaker, turn on the machine and walk out of my kitchen. Ninety minutes later, I have a gorgeous batch of challah dough with no work and practically no mess to clean up.
By Sandy Eller
Whether you are a repeat customer or a first time visitor, from the moment you enter Orchidea you are treated like family. Only better.
By Sandy Eller
Talk to people who own hybrid cars and they will happily gloat about how infrequently they fill up their tank or how many miles they get to the gallon. Chat with owners of electric cars and they will wax enthusiastically about how often they go to the gas station. Just so you know: they don’t. Ever.
By Sandy Eller
Welcome to Food Talk, a new feature that will highlight food bloggers, those enterprising souls who always seem to come up with something new, creative and most importantly, delicious. If you are anything like me, many of the recipes you make are the ones that magically show up in your inbox one morning and if you get lucky, these new dishes fast become family favorites.
By Sandy Eller
Is anyone else alarmed by the way extended warranties are sold on just about anything and everything? It means one of two things – either someone has found a great way of getting consumers to part with more of their hard earned dollars or manufacturers have no faith in their own products. Neither of those options is particularly heartwarming.
By Sandy Eller
With a menu as enticing as Reserve Cut's we left the difficult dilemma of what to eat to our personable and efficient waiter, Csaba.
By Sandy Eller
There is nothing like cracking open a fresh new cookbook, the pages still pristine and crisp and wondering what surprises are about to jump off the pages and leap onto your serving platters as they wait to be carried to your table and devoured.
By Sandy Eller
This is messy food, the kind of meal where you ditch the silverware and use your hands and with an array of fabulous sauces on the menu, I have no doubt that Gotham Burger goes through a lot of napkins. From the moment we started, till the very last crumb had either been eaten or packed up to take home, I loved every minute of our meal, chosen for us by Roth, at our request.
By Sandy Eller
One of the reasons for the popularity of Jack's Gourmet Sausages, which are available at local stores coast to coast as well as in Costco warehouse locations, is the fact that they actually taste like their non-kosher counterparts.
By Sandy Eller
This year, given that the biggest shopping day of the year actually falls out on the second day of Chaunkah, it depends on timing.
By Sandy Eller
How to begin describing one of the best meals I have ever eaten? I suppose logic, and the “Sound of Music” song, would dictate that I start at the beginning.
By Sandy Eller
He is a trial lawyer, a radio personality, a motivational speaker, an author of two newsletters and the founder of an organization dedicated to offering both Torah studies and professional networking opportunities to young Jewish men, but Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Bregman views himself as just "a nice guy with a good heart."
By Sandy Eller
It's hard to believe that it is the beginning of October and the Yomim Tovim are already behind us. But having had everything fall out early this year provides a golden opportunity to enjoy the gorgeous fall weather and all that the crisp air has to offer.
By Sandy Eller
There is nothing like three sets of three-day yomim tovim to strike terror in the hearts of meal planners everywhere as they struggle to plan a staggering quantity of delicious, varied and attractive meals for potentially large numbers of people.
By Sandy Eller
Given that this is a consumer column, you can rest assured that I spend countless hours coming up with creative and innovative money saving ideas, but for a change, I am going to try something different and share some of my pet peeves, those moments when you can't believe how much you are paying and how little you are getting in return, when you find yourself shaking your head in disbelief and wondering aloud, "Are they serious?"
By Sandy Eller
While there is no doubt that a bat mitzvah is an opportunity to celebrate a milestone date in a pre-teen girl's life, much of the emphasis is on the bat, the guest of honor herself. While many soon to be twelve year old girls focus on their clothing, hair, invitations, menu and color scheme, it is refreshing to see how many spend an equal amount of time addressing the mitzvah aspect of this event, by integrating a special project, designed to benefit others, into the festivities.
By Sandy Eller
They may call them the dog days of summer, but for me August is the best part of the steamy season. The nights are just a tad cooler, those home grown tomatoes and cucumbers are finally ready to be enjoyed, and while there is that secret thrill of getting those school bus passes in the mail (for us parents, at least), there is still plenty of time to enjoy summer and all of its glorious opportunities.
By Sandy Eller
For many children, going to school involves spending their mornings and afternoons traveling to their destination amid classmates and chatter on a large yellow bus. But for a growing number of children all around the world, the process of getting an education may involve no commuting at all.
By Sandy Eller
In the "How did we ever live without it?" department, there is no doubt that GPS joins the ranks of cell phones, velcro and zip lock bags as a relatively new invention that has become an indispensable part of our lives. First invented for use by the military, the Global Positioning System became av
By Sandy Eller
Growing up in the 1970's, I remember hearing the whispered words from friends and neighbors in shul. “She has a brother,” the words would be said with a knowing look. “He doesn't live with the family, he is in a...,” another furtive glance to make sure no one was listening. “A home.”
By Sandy Eller
It's hard to believe that June is finally here, but one look through the day's mail is enough to convince me that the school year is almost over and summer will be here before I blink. What makes me say that? The plethora of large cream envelopes, addressed in calligraphic letters, bearing stamps with pictures of creamy white roses.
By Sandy Eller
If you have high school aged kids, chances are that very soon you are going to start seeing the warning signs. The pale, nervous faces. The eyes, ringed by dark circles due to lack of sleep. The irritability, tinged with impending hysteria. That's right, finals are coming and your normally moody, unpredictable and volatile teenager is about to become moodier, more unpredictable and volatile beyond belief.
By Sandy Eller
I know this is supposed to be a consumer column, but let's face it. We have all just spent the last few weeks preparing, cleaning and shopping until our credit cards begged for mercy and our family members have started wondering if Windex is our new signature scent. The last thing anyone wants to be thinking about right now is buying more stuff, making home improvements or otherwise planning ahead.
By Sandy Eller
New York’s Jewish community is still reeling after a young Williamsburg couple and their unborn child were killed early Sunday morning by a speeding car allegedly driven by a Bronx resident with a lengthy list of serious run-ins with the law.
By Sandy Eller
So there is good news and bad. Which one do you want to hear first? Me? I always want to hear the bad news first. I need to get it over with. So here goes. Purim 2013 is now something we can discuss in the past tense and that can only mean one thing. Actually two.
By Sandy Eller
What may be the final chapter in a long standing debate between a real estate developer and a Manhattan synagogue has been written, as a New York State appellate court judge ruled in favor of developer Jack Braha, owner of the building, and denied the Sixteenth Street Synagogue's interim stay of eviction, enabling Braha to oust the synagogue from its home of 67 years.
By Sandy Eller
I am not one of those people who start cleaning for Pesach the minute the menorah gets put away and, in fact, I typically indulge in denial until the last possible moment. However, after making Pesach in my so-called Pesach kitchen for the first time, I realized just how useful a Pesach kitchen could be.
By Sandy Eller
It’s not every day that a chassidic singer, a guitarist and a drummer find themselves submerged in six feet of water.
By Sandy Eller
A Brooklyn photographer alleged that he was a victim of police brutality last week after an altercation with members of Brooklyn's 70th precinct left him in handcuffs and both his cell phone and camera damaged.
By Sandy Eller
Artisan gefilte fish. For some, the phrase seems like an oxymoron. While salmon, chilean sea bass and tilapia may all be in vogue, gefilte fish, the traditional ground fish mixture that is de rigueur in Ashkenazic Jewish households at Shabbos and Yom Tov meals, is like the Henny Youngman of fish: it gets no respect.
By Sandy Eller
Goodbye humdrum. Hello, gorgeous!! With the release of CHIC Made Simple, an all new cookbook written by food stylist, columnist and recipe developer Esther Deutsch, kosher food continues to blaze new trails, offering sophisticated, appealing recipes that are, (surprise, surprise!) both delicious and deceptively easy to prepare.
By Sandy Eller
For the last two years, Lipa Schmeltzer has traded his microphones for textbooks and the concert stage for the classroom.
By Sandy Eller
I am writing this column as Hurricane Sandy is barreling through the greater New York area, after having sorted a load of clean laundry by the light of a group of yahrtzeit candles and having washed my supper dishes with the aid of a clip on barbeque lamp. My electricity went out almost four hours ago and thoughts of what I did right and what I did wrong in preparation for a one of a kind storm that ironically, bears my name are still fresh in my mind.
By Sandy Eller
Tofu. For most of us, the word conjures up images of a spongy white unpalatable mass that is best left on the shelf of our local health food emporium. But for New Jersey resident David Mintz, tofu is a magical substance that holds endless possibilities, particularly for the kosher consumer.
By Sandy Eller
It was William Shakespeare who posed the question "What's in a name?" These days, if someone calls you "Shakespeare" it probably means he or she thinks you are pretty bright, or at least can write well.
By Sandy Eller
Your mother may have taught you how to separate an egg and how to dice a mango, but I am willing to bet your mother never taught you to spatchcock a chicken. No, that is not a typographical error.
By Sandy Eller
Ah, fall. The magnificent display of changing colors as the trees stage their annual pageant, the indescribable pleasure of leaves crunching beneath your feet, the delightful crispness in the air after endless weeks of heat and humidity; it is hard not to enjoy the magic of autumn. Bummer that fall has to turns into winter.
By Sandy Eller
Netanel Hershtik wears many hats but perhaps the one he is best known for is a soft, puffy headpiece known as a mitre, traditionally worn by chazzanim.
By Sandy Eller
The New York City Board of Health was scheduled to vote this Thursday (two days after this issue went to press) on a measure requiring parents to sign a consent waiver before allowing a mohel to perform metzitzah b’peh, or oral suctioning, on their infants.
By Sandy Eller
For some of us trying to cut corners is not just something we do to save a few cents, it is practically an obsession. While we may have our little tricks designed to shave a few dollars off our grocery bill and squeeze a penny so tight that it screams for mercy, we each have our own little indulgences, the things we absolutely refuse to do just to save a few pennies. Let’s hope that none of my immediate family members read this column because I am about to share some of my personal secrets and they just might disown me.
By Sandy Eller
Approximately fifteen to twenty million Americans are afflicted annually with the epidemic keratoconjunctivitis, an infection or irritation of the thin, clear membrane, known as the conjunctiva, that lies over the white part of the eye and lines the inside of the eyelid. More commonly known as conjunctivitis or pink eye, because of the uncharacteristic red and possibly swollen appearance the eye takes on during this condition, it is most commonly caused by either or a viral or bacterial infection.
By Sandy Eller
What began twenty years ago as a support group for parents of six learning disabled children in Queens who could not find a yeshiva capable of accommodating their educational needs, has evolved into a full scale institution that not only works with its students to master academic challenges, but provides them with a Torah education as well.
By Sandy Eller
Ah, the joys of August. Whether it is from a farmer’s market, a roadside stand, your own backyard or even the produce aisle of your local supermarket, there is no doubt that now is the time to feast on the freshest and most delectable offerings of the year. But while many of us consider late summer to be prime time for enjoying the simple goodness of nature’s bounty, for one of the most respected names in the kosher cooking world, simplicity is the name of the game all year around.
By Sandy Eller
With the countdown to the twelfth Siyum HaShas of Daf Yomi now down to the single digits, organizers of the event are working furiously to ensure that the massive event, for which all 93,000 available tickets have been sold, goes off without a hitch.
By Sandy Eller
The birth of Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv – who died in Jerusalem last week at the age of 102 – is thought by many to be a miracle.
By Sandy Eller
School supplies? I know what you’re thinking. She is, without a doubt, totally and completely insane. We just finished putting away the knapsacks, the school uniforms, the crayon stubs, errant markers and half finished bottles of Elmer’s glue that mysteriously defied the odds and survived the school year and she is thinking about school supplies??
By Sandy Eller
While for many of us summer is synonymous with vacation, relaxation and a time for a well deserved break from the rigors of the daily grind, the dog days of summer bring with them the need for an extra dose of vigilance as we head for the pool, fire up the barbeque or just spend our days enjoying the great outdoors.
By Sandy Eller
Ah, the lazy, hazy days of summer. Long afternoons sitting in a lounge chair, sipping a tall glass of iced lemonade as you enjoy the latest novel, a gentle breeze caressing your face…is there anything like it? No, there most certainly is not.
By Sandy Eller
With spring in full swing and the hazy days of summer beckoning on the horizon, our thoughts turn towards lighter meals that rely more heavily on fresh fruits and vegetables - particularly for those of us who find that despite our best efforts, we really managed to pack on the pounds over Pesach. While your local supermarket may boast an amazing array of produce, and the nearest gourmet store may feature dazzling displays of fresh fruits and vegetables, there is simply nothing that can compare to the taste of home grown. The fact that growing your own produce can save a bundle of money, makes the taste of your home grown bounty that much more delicious.
By Sandy Eller
If you are anything like me, Chol Hamoed can be just the teeniest bit stressful. Okay, maybe very, very stressful. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.
By Sandy Eller
Against all odds, the spark of Judaism continues to burn brightly in the Amazon as two members of the Brazilian city of Porto Velho underwent a bris milah performed by a renowned Argentian mohel just days after Rosh Chodesh Adar.
By Sandy Eller
Bat Melech, Israel’s most comprehensive network of social service for victims of domestic violence, has reached across the Atlantic for assistance, hoping to create a funding base in America in order to be able to help even more women in crisis.
By Sandy Eller
I hate to tell you this, but Pesach without pressure is a myth. No matter what anyone tells you (and it’s usually men who tell you that Pesach preparations can be tension free), it just doesn’t exist. To be fair, I don’t know that there is any major holiday or occasion that doesn’t involve some kind of pressure. Eliminating the stress entirely is not a realistic goal. But minimizing it is.
By Sandy Eller
“Our goal is not to provide social services,” said Sara Gorfinkel, Director of Tikkun Olam and its only full time employee. “We focus on social change, so that women don’t get to the point where they require social services. We don’t want to fund programs that deal with victims of domestic abuse. We want to prevent domestic abuse before it ever happens.”
By Sandy Eller
If the phrase mishloach manos conjures up dreaded images of piles of sugar laden treats that no one wants to eat cluttering every available horizontal surface just weeks before Pesach, chances are that this is one part of the happiest of Yomim Tovim that you are not looking forward to.
By Sandy Eller
If you are anything like me you may have noticed that slowly but surely the Internet is creeping further and further into your everyday life as you turn towards the web for countless tasks.
By Sandy Eller
What began 10 years ago as a small group of volunteers providing mental health referrals within the Jewish community has evolved into a full-fledged mental health referral, education and support organization that takes on 6,000 new patients annually in four major cities across the globe.
July 24, 2026 
