יום שני, כ״א תמוז תשפ״וMonday, July 6, 2026
Follow Us
By Pnina Baim
In my house, I like to give my children a chance to unwind and eat dinner before homework.
By Sandy Eller
We want the gadgets to do the hard work for us, preferably with minimal cleanup time.
By Pnina Baim
In short, going on vacation is something that we should be doing more often.
By Sandy Eller
A quick look at margarine-less chocolate chip cookies offers a good look at what Pascal and Overtime Cook are all about.
By Pnina Baim
In the true desire to cut down on unnecessary purchases, for myself and for others, I have begun asking people directly what they want as a gift.
By Pnina Baim
In Israel, there is a growing pushback against publications that erase women.
By Sandy Eller
It's time to force myself to think about apple cider, cuddly sweatshirts and the end of daylight savings time.
By Pnina Baim
I'm not trying to minimize the holy work of raising children.
By Sandy Eller
We survived the week so well that no one in my family ever realized they were living through my planned experiment.
By Pnina Baim
If either of you already has the basic kitchen, bathroom, and dining necessities, resist the urge to dump everything you have and start all over again.
By Pnina Baim
To avoid all this waste and unnecessary anxiety, let’s break the task down step by step and tackle each one at a time.
By Sandy Eller
Blending anything thicker side is generally problematic and more often than not, I wind up dumping everything into a bowl and mixing it by hand.
By Pnina Baim
Gardening can be a healthy, wholesome activity for the whole family.
By Sandy Eller
It goes without saying that when it comes to your kids, safety is always your number one priority.
By Pnina Baim
First, sit down with your helpers and a pen and paper and break the jobs down into small parts.
By Sandy Eller
The Readers Digest lists several unconventional jewelry cleaning techniques, and while I have yet to try any of them, they do sound interesting.
By Sandy Eller
If you have ever tried to organize the different sized roller blades in your garage, you will appreciate the wisdom of the roller skates we had when we were little.
By Pnina Baim
Does standing under the chuppah signal the end of our dream of romance and beautiful sunsets?
By Sandy Eller
It may be sweater weather now, but sooner or later summer will be here, bringing abundant sunshine, swimming, barbeques and mosquitoes.
By Sandy Eller
Just a single word can sum up one of the most disturbing trends that continues to sweep our supermarkets: downsizing.
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 Pnina Baim
Everyone has a weakness. For some people it is the inability to walk past a sales rack without dropping a few hundred dollars. For others, it’s the inability to keep their house organized.
By Ann Goldberg
There will always be items that don’t freeze well – salads and some rice- or potato-based dishes – so you need to leave time to prepare or cook them closer to Yom Tov and ensure there is enough room in the refrigerator to store them.
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 Pnina Baim
The world sees the hand of God through us, and does not like it.
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 Pnina Baim
Maybe we don't have to lose that growth and unity that we have achieved, especially with the situation in Eretz Yisrael right now.
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
If you are spending the time in the kitchen, make it worth the effort. Make it taste good. Make it look nice.
By Pnina Baim
This summer, why don't we try to do better and cool off without blowing our retirement fund?
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 Pnina Baim
Do we really have that much extra money to throw away on substandard products and shoddy service? I think not.
By Pnina Baim
Yom Tov is about spending time with your family. And while for some families the big once-in-a-lifetime experience is great, for others something low key is the way to go.
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 Pnina Baim
So, my dear sisters in the trenches, remember. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And who is tougher than the Jewish women of today?
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 Pnina Baim
People like to say that dirt isn’t chometz, but as Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky says, if dirt isn’t chometz, how can you tell? Besides, are you really going to take apart the whole closet and then not wipe it down before you put everything back? If you’re not going to clean the mess now, when will you?
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 Pnina Baim
It’s easy to get excited and start hunting for the perfect shade of champagne tablecloth to match the exact color of the bridesmaid dresses, or to insist that each guest must have a wine glass, water glass and soda glass.
By Pnina Baim
It’s not that I think contractors, painters and tile guys are exclusively greedy, deceitful incompetent people – I think they are just poor businessmen or women!
By Pnina Baim
Perhaps we can teach our children to give, instead of take... to become contributing members of the community.
By Pnina Baim
I have worked as a nutritionist at a WIC office in Williamsburg for five years now, and combined with my observation of my children’s friends, I’ve come to a realization. Most people are no longer eating food, but rather food-like substances, and worse, they are feeding their children the same.
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 Pnina Baim
She wasn't talking about folding the regular loads of laundry, she was talking about huge plastic bins.
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 Pnina Baim
To some people, the sounds of rustling backpacks and starched uniforms brings feelings of sweet relief; it’s the sound of children going back to school and the household returning to a normal schedule.
By Pnina Baim
He had no doubts, he had no questions; he had the most beautiful emunah p'shuta and perhaps, as a small reward, Zaidy was able to see the revelation of G-dliness in this world.
By Pnina Baim
This past Lag B'Omer, we were blessed to make our first upsherin, where we celebrate our son’s first hair cut. It’s a wonderful milestone that mimics the three years that we refrain from plucking a tree’s first fruits and symbolizes the entry of the child into the world of Torah learning. It’s a clear sign to everyone; this boy is no longer a baby.
By Pnina Baim
As I mentioned in my earlier articles about our family trip to Israel, our night flight went pretty smooth, thanks to my children’s willingness to sleep throughout the flight. I, on the other hand, didn’t sleep a wink and I wasn’t feeling too great by the time we landed. But we were finally in Israel, and just being in the beautifully renovated Ben Gurion airport and hearing all the Hebrew around us was exciting enough.
By Pnina Baim
Last month, I discussed our tumuloutous family trip to Israel and the many mistakes and some smart moves we made along the way. Hopefully you can learn from our mistakes and incorporate the lessons we learned in your own family trips.
By Pnina Baim
I’m very passionate about Israel and it’s always been my desire to share that passion with my children. It was a sad day in our home when we missed out on the great deal to Israel earlier this year, but thankfully, my husband managed to snag an almost as good one a couple of months later.
By Pnina Baim
But his third birthday was rapidly approaching, and I wanted him toilet trained before our family trip to Israel a couple of months down the line. Giving up wasn’t an option.
Judith Levy is a gorgeous French-born woman with a flair for fashion and the written word (she’s an editor for French editions of Artscroll). At the start of her second marriage she found herself in a shaitel vs. tichel predicament very similar to mine.
By Pnina Baim
The thing about work is that it isn’t fun. If it were, it would be called play. Most people grumble about going to work, and look forward to their time-off – especially when it is paid. And yet, polls show that most people, given the choice, would prefer to work. It’s when we get to the office that we begin to moan and groan. What’s the point in that? If we spend the majority of our waking hours at work, we might as well enjoy it! Here are some ways we can accomplish that.
By Pnina Baim
Oh, Chanukah! Chanukah, the festival of lights and the powerful story of the unlikely military victory of the Maccabees. One lesson we’re able to glean from the Maccabees is the importance of doing just a little bit more then you think you are capable of. As we all know, the Maccabees were quite aware that taking on the mighty Greek army was a suicide campaign. Yet, they succeeded.
By Pnina Baim
My oldest daughter loves school. In fact, over the long holiday break, whenever her school was mentioned, she would say in a little sad voice, “I miss my morahs.” I repeated this story gleefully to my friends. Some of them, the ones with older kids, looked at me with a blasé face and said, “don’t […]
By Pnina Baim
I feel that I am a good authority to write on this topic, because although I love having guests, it completely stresses me out. Something happens to me when we have guests over; I feel this urge to have the table perfect, the food innovative, delicious and abundant and my children buffed and shiny. When things don’t turn out well, it’s not exactly pretty.
By Pnina Baim
There is a long laundry list of personal goals running through my head that I want to work on. I love taking advantage of a celebratory date to select one of these pressing items and promise myself that this time, I really will begin to do whatever it is that will make my life better. Yet, somehow, after the birthday or New Year passes, my fervent declarations are quickly forgotten and I lapse into my old behavior.
By Pnina Baim
For my upcoming birthday, instead of waiting for my friends or my husband to make me a “surprise” party, I decided to throw one myself. I settled on a cozy and intimate evening, celebrating my birthday with professional cake decorating and fruity cocktails with my nearest and dearest. But as with every gathering I plan, things started to get out of control.
By Pnina Baim
Summer is just about upon us, and with it comes the hustle and bustle of preparing for camp and family getaways. This is such a wonderful time, full of new experiences and memory building for the whole family. One memory the summer shouldn’t create, however, is that of the house being infested with bedbugs.
By Pnina Baim
It’s tough to catch some glam in an otherwise pretty non-glamorous life. In the 21st century, who isn’t overstressed, overwhelmed and overbooked? The roles of today’s women today has multiplied to the point where even the strongest of us has stretched her limits, leaving her without any time or energy for herself. Which woman hasn’t […]
By Pnina Baim
Ahh, that wonderful time when you return home from the hospital with a brand new bundle of joy nestled in your arms. Without getting into the pros or cons of sending yourself or your other children away, or the benefits and possibilities of family or paid help, eventually everyone will go home and you’ll be all by your lonesome, raising the family. So how to make this momentous occasion truly memorable, instead of weeks of what could be construed by some as torture?
Whether you are staying home for Pesach or going away, it is nice to have something new to enhance this special Yom Tov. With rhinestone monograms now so readily available you can turn many household items from ordinary to extraordinary.
By Pnina Baim
I think if we can be honest with ourselves, most women will admit to enjoying Pesach cleaning - and perhaps to even looking forward to it all year long.
By Pnina Baim
There’s nothing like a holiday where one is required to be happy to bring out the grouch in all of us. But we should all be excited to greet Purim. Not only because of the beautiful miracle that occurred, the lessons of emunah and the role of the Jewish woman that Megillas Esther teaches us, but also because it’s the only twenty-four hour holiday that we celebrate here in Chutz L’Aretz, and it has merely four mitzvot! How simple is that?
By Pnina Baim
Who doesn’t want to save money? The siren call of sales lures us all, and few are able to resist stocking up.
July 3, 2026 
