With a song in her heart By Gail T. Boatman

Source: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/burlington_county_times_news/with-a-song-in-her-heart/article_e73862a8-d6ab-5875-b8e1-e1784a390cb6.html

April 13, 2011


Nancy Rokos/Staff Photographer
Sandra Messinger of Willingboro is the cantor at Adath Emanu-El in Mount Laurel. "I see my job as creating an atmosphere that encourages participation and shows everyone that there is joy in prayer."

Music has been a part of Sandra Messinger's life from the time she was a child growing up in Willingboro.

It led her to studies in jazz and opera in New York and Rome, and the potential for a career onstage. But something was lacking, she said during a recent interview, "and I didn't know what it was."

Surrounded by songs and piano playing in her music-loving family, Messinger began to study music and pick out basic chords and tunes on the piano when she was barely 4.

Later, in the performing arts department of the Willingboro public schools, her talent was developed and encouraged. She danced and sang, and played the flute and piccolo, which remain her favorite instruments.

Music performance was the focus of her classes at Glassboro State College, now Rowan University. After graduation, more music studies followed at the International Academy in Rome.

Messinger was encouraged to study opera but resisted at first, choosing jazz instead. Eventually, the beauty of opera and the star status that opera singers are accorded won her over.

"It was all about me. I admit I liked the adulation. I was the center of attention, the diva," the Willingboro woman said.

But when the applause stopped, the feeling that something was not quite right began to edge its way into her consciousness.

She soon would find a new way to express herself.

"Cantor Sandra Messinger at Adath Emanu-El" Nancy Rokos/Staff Photographer
"I've been here since I was 5," Messinger said. "I received my religious training here. It's my home.""

In 1997, Richard Levine, then head rabbi at Adath Emanu-El on Elbo Lane in Mount Laurel, needed a cantor and asked Messinger if she could fill in as needed. Since the congregation originated in Willingboro and had been her spiritual home for her entire life, she agreed. Three years later, she was performing cantor duties at
the temple full time.

"I've been here since I was 5," Messinger said. "I received my
religious training here. It's my home."

Still, the prospect was daunting.

"I was terrified," she said.

Messinger saw the cantor's role as very different from being onstage playing a character in an opera. Onstage, she could hide behind the person she was portraying. A cantor can't do that.

"It was very foreign to me. In an opera, you are the character. As cantor, it's you," she said.

Over time, with experience, she grew into the position and learned to deal with her new responsibility to lead the congregation in musical prayer.

"I see my job as creating an atmosphere that encourages participation and shows everyone that there is joy in prayer," she said.

Before the regular Friday night Sabbath services, Messinger selects the music that will be sung. She then confers with the rabbi, Stacy Offner, who approves her choices. She will do the same for next week's Passover observance.

Passover, which begins at sundown Monday, is the most family centered holiday for Jews, she said.

"It's about taking time to be a family," Messinger said

The most important part of the services for Messinger is the cantor's song, which follows the rabbi's sermon and affirms its central message.

Messinger likes to arrive at the synagogue early on Fridays to attend to administrative duties in her small office near the sanctuary. Then she checks on the music for that night and warms up.

During services, she wears business attire and a kippah, the wire and beaded skullcap she pins to the back of her long, dark hair. She also dons a tallit, or prayer shawl, which fulfills an Old Testament commandment that we should wrap ourselves while in the sanctuary.

In addition to her formal role during services, the cantor directs three choirs at the reform synagogue, which has about 500 families in its congregation.

Divided by age, the three choirs - youth, teen and adult - come to the music with different perspectives.

"I try to teach the youngest children about life and the holidays. I show them the calming, healing side of prayer," Messinger said.

The life lessons go deeper with the teens; for the adults, she
has a special message: Everyone can sing.

"Some people tell me they can't sing, but I tell them they are having trouble accessing their voice," Messinger said.

The cantor continues to study her art and spends several days every week in New York, where she meets with her voice coach.

Young people with old souls prefer records to CDs By Leanne Italie

Sarah McCarthy and her boyfriend, Jack Carroll, 19, of Bowie, Md., pose for a photograph at KA-CHUNK!! Records. McCarthy's love of music led her to visit the record store. Now she works there and dates a co-worker.

Source: http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20110403/WIRE/110409950/1086/NEWS?Title=Young-people-with-old-souls-prefer-records-to-CDs

April 3, 2011

NEW YORK — In most ways, Sarah McCarthy is your average high schooler. She has a job, college plans, but also a peculiar passion for a 16-year-old: She's a vinyl junkie.

That's right, analog. And none of that hipster new stuff or a USB-ready turntable from Urban Outfitters.

To this senior from Centreville, Md., there's nothing like the raw crackle, the depth of sound, her delicate hand on diamond-tipped stylus to spin from the dusty stash of records she found in the basement of her grandfather — yes, grandfather.

“He gave me his receiver and speaker system and told me to listen to it the way it was made to be listened to,” McCarthy said. “I've turned a lot of my friends on to it. They come over a lot to listen with me.”

At a time when parents feel positively prehistoric as they explain how to use plastic ice-cube trays or speak of phones with cords and dials, this teen knows what a record is.

Not only that, she knows the difference between a 45 and an LP. She met her boyfriend in a record shop and now works there!

Sure, she has an iPod, but she also has a vinyl collection of 250 records and counting. Sure, there's a broader '70s renaissance in the air, but buying bellbottoms doesn't touch the commitment of teens unearthing old turntables and records, then convincing friends to listen, too, like a pack of crazy little anthropologists.

“Listening to old music remastered to a newer format is almost comical,” Sarah said. “They weren't meant to be digitalized. Listening to Jimi Hendrix on my iPod doesn't capture his endlessly deep guitar solos quite like a 33 LP of ‘Blues' does.”

This girl's in love with vinyl, and she's not the only member of Generation Digital with an ear for analog.

“My dad always had these old records in the garage and I never got to use them until just recently, when my uncle let me have his old record player,” said 14-year-old Nick Spates, a Los Angeles eighth grader who plays guitar and piano.

What'd he find in his dad's two milk crates?

A lot of George Clinton — “He's a genius. I swear,” declared Nick. And Funkadelic. Of the band's Eddie Hazel: “'Maggot Brain' is like my favorite song ever. The original is a 10-minute guitar solo.” There was also “Spiral” by The Crusaders. “It has a lot of horns. I love horns.” And “Carmel” by Joe Sample, Hendrix on “Voodoo Child” and a trove of Stanley Clarke.

“My friends think it's cool,” Nick said.

“Before I had the vinyls I used to Google older musicians and see what songs they made, and I'd look for them on YouTube.

“We're all musicians and old music is like our favorite stuff in the world.”

Wayyyy back when, he said, the message of the music was “definitely more to benefit society and people's knowledge and what's going on in the world.” Now, he said, “It's more about what rappers have.”

Jeremy Robinson, co-owner of the plantation-size Ditch Records & CDs in Victoria, British Columbia, has up to 20,000 records in stock — half old and half new pressings from reissue labels and indie bands.

“Our vinyl sales have probably doubled in the last couple of years,” he said.

“The bulk of that has been young people, the iPod generation. They want to collect things, own things, which is the opposite of digital culture. They want to belong to the past.”

The uptick in interest over several years includes nostalgic “nerdy superfans” looking for a way around the more sanitized sound of digital, he said, but also savvy young people with Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, Iron Maiden and a host of obscure post-punk music on their minds.

“The younger kids that come in the store know what they want,” Robinson said. “They usually want the best albums by the best classic bands.”

Matt Melvin, a 22-year-old college senior in Orlando, Fla., began taking vinyl seriously when he was 17 and still in high school.

His interest was fed by buddies in search of pressings from new artists but also his dad's collection of old staples like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Dylan.

“With vinyl, one is forced to slow down and take in an album as a whole piece of work as the artist intended,” he said.

Melvin's constantly on the hunt for exclusive, hard-to-find tracks like special B sides or limited-edition color pressings. The White Stripes, for example, released a series of singles on vinyl from their last album with acoustic and Spanish versions on B sides. A vinyl version of Radiohead's latest album can be ordered from its website.

But he's interested in older music, too.

“Going through the countless stacks of different record stores, my eyes usually get caught by old funk and jazz records that I would have otherwise had little exposure to had it not been for their eccentric and colorful cover art.”

While the recording industry dukes it out over downloads and mourns the CD, 2.5 million vinyl LPs were sold in 2009, up 33 percent from the year before. Vinyl sales are a blip among total revenue from U.S. music sales and licensing, but that's a healthy increase in its own right.

“Young people are leading the way back to analog through vinyl and turntables,” Melvin said. “I think young people are demanding a product that is more tangible, the thrill of hunting through a store for that perfect record, the simple satisfaction of turning that record over.”

Young people who listen and young people who mix.

Tina Turnbull, 28, travels the world as a DJ. Last year, she opened a weeklong DJ summer camp in Ojai, Calif., for tweens and teens, many who attend on scholarship. Coming up in the business at age 15, Turnbull carted around crates of vinyl to gigs. “Now I bring two records with me and my laptop. Technology has taken over.”

At Camp Spin-Off, she and a staff of working DJs try to bridge past and present through vinyl. “We use records. We teach them the fundamentals. Where they go from there is wherever they want.”

On the first day of camp, her charges watch a documentary tracing the birth of hip-hop, when the first DJs inspired break dancing and rap, and invented scratching and “beat-juggling” on vinyl. The movie takes them straight through to “turntablism,” the more recent explosion of using one or more turntables combined with one or more mixers to create original music.

Turnbull invites guest DJs young (Samantha Ronson will stop by in August) and older to share their expertise and memories of decades past with the 50 campers, ages 12 to 17.

“You have to learn the basics on turntables,” she said. “It kind of bums me that people who are learning how to DJ will never touch a record, but that's an opinionated thing.”

Sarah McCarthy, who like Nick plays guitar and piano, holds the same opinion. She doesn't have much use for the vinyl-to-MP3 converter her mother, Mary, gave her as a gift.

“It doesn't come from me,” mom said. “She's just kind of an old soul and always has been.”

The GOP Path to Prosperity By Paul D. Ryan

Our budget cuts $6.2 trillion in spending from the president's budget over the next 10 years and puts the nation on track to pay off our national debt.



Source: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703806304576242612172357504-lMyQjAxMTAxMDAwNTEwNDUyWj.html

APRIL 5, 2011

Congress is currently embroiled in a funding fight over how much to spend on less than one-fifth of the federal budget for the next six months. Whether we cut $33 billion or $61 billion—that is, whether we shave 2% or 4% off of this year's deficit—is important. It's a sign that the election did in fact change the debate in Washington from how much we should spend to how much spending we should cut.

But this morning the new House Republican majority will introduce a budget that moves the debate from billions in spending cuts to trillions. America is facing a defining moment. The threat posed by our monumental debt will damage our country in profound ways, unless we act.

No one person or party is responsible for the looming crisis. Yet the facts are clear: Since President Obama took office, our problems have gotten worse. Major spending increases have failed to deliver promised jobs. The safety net for the poor is coming apart at the seams. Government health and retirement programs are growing at unsustainable rates. The new health-care law is a fiscal train wreck. And a complex, inefficient tax code is holding back American families and businesses.

The president's recent budget proposal would accelerate America's descent into a debt crisis. It doubles debt held by the public by the end of his first term and triples it by 2021. It imposes $1.5 trillion in new taxes, with spending that never falls below 23% of the economy. His budget permanently enlarges the size of government. It offers no reforms to save government health and retirement programs, and no leadership.

Our budget, which we call The Path to Prosperity, is very different. For starters, it cuts $6.2 trillion in spending from the president's budget over the next 10 years, reduces the debt as a percentage of the economy, and puts the nation on a path to actually pay off our national debt. Our proposal brings federal spending to below 20% of gross domestic product (GDP), consistent with the postwar average, and reduces deficits by $4.4 trillion.

A study just released by the Heritage Center for Data Analysis projects that The Path to Prosperity will help create nearly one million new private-sector jobs next year, bring the unemployment rate down to 4% by 2015, and result in 2.5 million additional private-sector jobs in the last year of the decade. It spurs economic growth, with $1.5 trillion in additional real GDP over the decade. According to Heritage's analysis, it would result in $1.1 trillion in higher wages and an average of $1,000 in additional family income each year.

Here are its major components:

• Reducing spending: This budget proposes to bring spending on domestic government agencies to below 2008 levels, and it freezes this category of spending for five years. The savings proposals are numerous, and include reforming agricultural subsidies, shrinking the federal work force through a sensible attrition policy, and accepting Defense Secretary Robert Gates's plan to target inefficiencies at the Pentagon.

• Welfare reform: This budget will build upon the historic welfare reforms of the late 1990s by converting the federal share of Medicaid spending into a block grant that lets states create a range of options and gives Medicaid patients access to better care. It proposes similar reforms to the food-stamp program, ending the flawed incentive structure that rewards states for adding to the rolls. Finally, this budget recognizes that the best welfare program is one that ends with a job—it consolidates dozens of duplicative job-training programs into more accessible, accountable career scholarships that will better serve people looking for work.

As we strengthen and improve welfare programs for those who need them, we eliminate welfare for those who don't. Our budget targets corporate welfare, starting by ending the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that is costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. It gets rid of the permanent Wall Street bailout authority that Congress created last year. And it rolls back expensive handouts for uncompetitive sources of energy, calling instead for a free and open marketplace for energy development, innovation and exploration.

• Health and retirement security: This budget's reforms will protect health and retirement security. This starts with saving Medicare. The open-ended, blank-check nature of the Medicare subsidy threatens the solvency of this critical program and creates inexcusable levels of waste. This budget takes action where others have ducked. But because government should not force people to reorganize their lives, its reforms will not affect those in or near retirement in any way.

Starting in 2022, new Medicare beneficiaries will be enrolled in the same kind of health-care program that members of Congress enjoy. Future Medicare recipients will be able to choose a plan that works best for them from a list of guaranteed coverage options. This is not a voucher program but rather a premium-support model. A Medicare premium-support payment would be paid, by Medicare, to the plan chosen by the beneficiary, subsidizing its cost.

In addition, Medicare will provide increased assistance for lower-­income beneficiaries and those with greater health risks. Reform that empowers individuals—with more help for the poor and the sick—will guarantee that Medicare can fulfill the promise of health security for America's seniors.

We must also reform Social Security to prevent severe cuts to future benefits. This budget forces policy makers to work together to enact common-sense reforms. The goal of this proposal is to save Social Security for current retirees and strengthen it for future generations by building upon ideas offered by the president's bipartisan fiscal commission.

• Budget enforcement: This budget recognizes that it is not enough to change how much government spends. We must also change how government spends. It proposes budget-process reforms—including real, enforceable caps on spending—to make sure government spends and taxes only as much as it needs to fulfill its constitutionally prescribed roles.

• Tax reform: This budget would focus on growth by reforming the nation's outdated tax code, consolidating brackets, lowering tax rates, and assuming top individual and corporate rates of 25%. It maintains a revenue-neutral approach by clearing out a burdensome tangle of deductions and loopholes that distort economic activity and leave some corporations paying no income taxes at all.

This is America's moment to advance a plan for prosperity. Our budget offers the nation a model of government that is guided by the timeless principles of the American idea: free-market democracy, open competition, a robust private sector bound by rules of honesty and fairness, a secure safety net, and equal opportunity for all under a limited constitutional government of popular consent.

We can reform government so that people don't have to reorient their lives for less. We can grow our economy, promote opportunity, and encourage upward mobility. This budget is the new House majority's answer to history's call. It is now up to all of us to keep America exceptional.

Mr. Ryan, a Republican, represents Wisconsin's first congressional district and serves as chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Davis set for Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-Off By Erik Sokolowski

Source: http://cherryhill.sunne.ws/2011/02/27/davis-set-for-man-o-manischewitz-cook-off/

February 27, 2011

Cherry Hill’s Stuart Davis was voted in as one of the top five finalists of the Manischewitz Company’s Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-Off recently.

The cook off, scheduled for March 31, is the only national kosher cooking competition in America, and challenges contestants to prepare family-friendly recipes incorporating one of Manischewitz’s all-natural broth flavors.

Davis, a father of four and instructor at Temple Beth Shalom, was the only finalist to be voted on by the general public, he also received a little help from his friends and neighbors.

“I have been part of the community for long time,” Davis said. “Parents spread the word, and Facebook is wonderful, so we rallied the troops and got the word out. It was definitely a community effort.”

Davis’ dish, Chicken and Egg Donburi, often considered the fast food of Japan, was inspired by his time working as an ESL teacher in the country.

“I was inspired by Asian cuisine,” Davis said. “It is Japanese comfort food, with many variations, so to keep it kosher, I had to be creative.”

To make the dish Manischewitz friendly, Davis substitutes a low-sodium broth. “I used low-sodium chicken broth due to the soy sauce,” Davis said. “I didn’t want it to be over salty, and I wanted the chicken flavor to come through.”

The home cook says he has always been passionate about food, and felt that this particular dish would stand out.

“Most kosher cooks aren’t familiar with Donbori,” Davis said. “I wanted something that highlighted a different ethnic profile. In my head I wanted to submit many different recipes, but I thought this was the most delicious and would differentiate me from the rest. Most kosher folks aren’t cooking these things.”

During the voting period, Davis received help from all over the world.
“My adoptive family in Japan checked out Facebook, and they voted from Japan,” Davis said. “I also had a first cousin in Austria, friends from Israel, and Canada vote. It was amazing how the word got out.”

Davis said he was both excited and nervous about the competition, but mostly excited.
“It is exciting to be validated and see where this takes me,” Davis said. “I like the journey and the challenge, and my kids are excited and looking forward to the excursion. I teach at Temple Beth Sholom in the teen education Hebrew school so my students are excited. My wife also teaches at the Kellman Brown Academy, and all the students and teachers are all eager to know what happens. During the voting period everyone was checking the percentages online and constantly telling me what percentage of the vote I had. I really want to thank everyone for their support.”

The purpose of the competition is to encourage home chefs to experiment with kosher products while preparing delicious recipes that could become a new family favorite or that have been shared from generation to generation. The five finalists were selected from over thousands of entries nationwide and will compete live at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan for the $25,000 Grand Prize, which includes GE Profile kitchen appliances and cash.

The grand prize winner will be selected on site by a panel of prestigious foodies led by legendary chef Jacques Pepin, who for the second consecutive year will be the celebrity guest of honor. Chef Pépin is one of America’s best-known chefs, widely recognized as the host of eleven acclaimed public television cooking series and the author and publisher of 26 cookbooks.

He is also a founder of The American Institute of Wine and Food and has been the Dean of Special Programs at the French Culinary Institute (New York) since 1988.

A winner in kosher cook-off

Source: http://articles.philly.com/2011-04-05/news/29384685_1_cooking-competition-chefs-dish



April 05, 2011

By Tirdad Derakhshani

Cherry Hill's Stuart Davis beat nine other finalists Thursday to win the fifth annual Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-off with a recipe inspired by a Japanese rice-bowl dish called oyakodon ("parent and child donburi").

"The Japanese dish uses a fish stock," Davis says of his chicken and egg donburi, "this was made with a chicken stock."

Davis says he felt confident throughout his ordeal, which had him execute his recipe at the JCC in Manhattan before international culinary megastar Jacques Pepin and a panel of judges featuring representatives from Weight Watchers, Epicurious.com, and FoodNetwork.com.

"Obviously, it was intimidating," says Davis, 45, who has worked in mortgage banking for a decade. He says he became fascinated with Japanese cuisine when he taught English in Japan for four years.

Was it a dream to enter the kosher-cooking contest? "It was a fluke, my mother's friend told me I should apply," says Davis, who has three girls and a boy with his wife, Sarina, an English teacher. The couple, Davis says, split the cooking 60 [percent] to 40 [percent]," he says, "with me doing the 60."

Though he doesn't see himself opening a restaurant, Davis says he'd love to pursue a new career "developing recipes and marketing food products."

The contest had amateur chefs invent a dish using two Manischewitz products.

"I used the low-sodium chicken broth and their wasabi sauce," says Davis, who won a prize package of cash and kitchen appliances totaling $25,000.

You Don’t Have To Be Jewish...Manischewitz contest draws mixed crowd, but the top prize goes to a Hebrew school teacher with a Japanese recipe. By Amy Spiro

Source: http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/you_dont_have_be_jewish



April 5, 2011

Three of the competitors at the fifth annual Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-Off last week couldn’t turn their ovens on.

That wasn’t due to technical difficulties. But since these competitors weren’t Jewish, they had to have others start the cooking process for them, so that all the food at the event could remain kosher.

Amid much fanfare in the basement of the JCC in Manhattan on a rainy Thursday last week, the five contestants — narrowed down from a field of more than 3,000 applicants — chopped, fried, sautéed and simmered their submitted recipes in front of an eager crowd.

Each dish had to include two products — one of which was broth — made by Manischewitz, a century-old company known for matzah and wine in addition to cookies, soups and pasta. The day began with a proclamation from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office, naming the day “Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-Off Day.”

In the end, Stuart Davis of Cherry Hill, N.J., took home the top prize after cooking his “Chicken and Egg Donburi,” a Japanese dish that he started preparing when he taught English in Japan. He used a wasabi dip made by Manischewitz to round out the recipe.

Davis, the lone male and one of two Jewish participants in the competition, wasn’t selected as a finalist by the judges. Instead he was voted in by online users, from among four other semifinalists posted on the Manischewitz website.

“I had my students [at Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill] voting, and my wife had her students voting,” said Davis, of his online success. The 45-year-old father of four, who teaches Hebrew at the Conservative congregation, took home the $25,000 prize package, which includes a new dishwasher, oven and fridge from General Electric.

The panel of judges, headed by celebrity chef Jacques Pepin, awarded Davis the trophy and prize by a tiny margin; he received only a half point more than the second-place contestant.

The other finalists, who hailed from Florida, Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia, brought an eclectic mix of flavors. One contestant’s “Simple Fisherman’s Stew” featured fennel and saffron, while another’s “Golden Sweet Potato Tagine” was flavored with plums, honey and garam masala.

Luckily, the 100-member audience didn’t have to wait until the contestants were done cooking for a sample: each of the competitors’ recipes was recreated by a catering service and available for tasting.

As the contenders cooked their dishes, the hosts, judges and viewers watched their kitchen skills and techniques. “I just like to see how comfortable contestants are in the kitchen,” said Lauren Salked, an editor at Epicurious.com and one of the judges. “I want to see if it seems doable for the home cook.”

Though the contestants came from varied backgrounds, they all were eager to adapt to kosher ingredients. “It would be ignorant to limit myself to one cuisine,” said Naylet LaRochelle, as she chopped pistachios for her “Moroccan Chicken Bowl.” LaRochelle, a competitor from Miami who said she is Catholic and of Cuban heritage, was inspired to enter by her Jewish co-worker, and sees Moroccan flavors as a new trend. “It packs a lot of flavor without being too complicated.”

Suzanne Banfield, a contestant from Basking Ridge, N.J., who cooked a fisherman’s stew, said she discovered kosher food after she was diagnosed with Celiac disease, and cut gluten and dairy out of her diet. “I’ve become an obsessive label reader,” she said. “I go nuts at Passover,” when many items are gluten free.

Other competitors received inspiration from TV personalities, like Dina Burcat, a Baltimore contestant who created her “Shallot Smothered Chicken” after seeing celebrity chef Rachael Ray use shallots in a pasta dish. “I’ve cooked this for Shabbat dinner with my friends,” she said.

The diverse backgrounds of the contestants came as no surprise to Alain Bankier, co-CEO of Manischewitz. “It says that Manischewitz products are good for everybody,” said Bankier. “It’s just great food that happens to be kosher.”

E-mail: amy@jewishweek.org

Davis wins Manischewitz cook-off

Source: https://www.jewishvoicesnj.org/articles/davis-wins-manischewitz-cook-off/

April 06, 2011

Stuart Davis of Cherry Hill exults after winning the Man-OManischewitz Cook-Off. Davis and his Chicken and Egg Donburi recipe took home the $25,000 top prize last week at the event in New York.

Japanese Rice Bowl Takes Top Honors at Kosher Cook-off By Leslie Albrecht

Source: http://www.dnainfo.com/20110331/upper-west-side/japanese-rice-bowl-takes-top-honors-at-kosher-cookoff

March 31, 2011

Donburi, a traditional Japanese dish, won the Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-Off.

UPPER WEST SIDE — Kosher chefs, grab your chopsticks.

Donburi, a traditional Japanese dish, was crowned the winner Thursday of the Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-off, an annual event that showcases recipes made with ingredients from Manischewitz, the country's largest purveyor of kosher food.

More than 3,000 cooks submitted recipes for the competition, which awarded $25,000 worth of GE appliances to the grand prize winner, Stuart Davis of Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Davis, who prepared a chicken and egg donburi, also called a rice bowl, cooked his dish along with four other finalists at the Manhattan Jewish Community Center on Thursday.

The five culinary competitors had one hour to whip up their kosher creations at stoves set up in the JCC auditorium. Then a panel of celebrity judges, including French chef Jacques Pepin, rated the dishes.

Competitors had to use two Manischewitz ingredients, including the company's new Ready to Serve Broth. Dishes were limited to nine ingredients, and were scored on taste, ease of preparation, creativity and originality.

As the five cooks bent over their cutting boards Thursday afternoon to cook fresh versions of their recipes for the judges, a crowd of Manischewitz executives and contestants' families and friends sampled versions of the dishes that had been prepared by caterers.

Manischewitz CEO Paul Bensabat said he was partial to the two recipes with a Moroccan theme — a golden sweet potato tagine and a Moroccan chicken bowl — because he was born in Casablanca.

Jeanette Nelson, a mother of three with a Southern drawl from Sophia, West Virginia, made the tagine, and Naylet LaRochelle of Miami cooked the Moroccan chicken bowl.

The two other finalists were Dina Burcat of Baltimore, who cooked shallot-smothered chicken, and Suzanne Banfield of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, who made fisherman's stew.

"The beauty is that we have contestants who are male, female, East Coast, West Coast, Jewish, not Jewish," Bensabat said, adding that only two of the five finalists were Jewish.

"We want to demonstrate the incredible versatility of kosher cooking. Kosher food should not be boring. It should be a culinary pleasure."

As the crowd feasted on the final recipes, Pepin walked to each station and chatted with the contestants. A veteran of cooking on camera for several TV cooking shows, Pepin told DNAinfo he had advice on how contestants could stay calm under pressure. "Have a glass of wine," he said. "You have to relax."

When the hour of cooking ended, each finalist presented their dish to the judges.

"Just like every Jewish mother has their version of chicken soup with matzo balls, every Japanese mother has a version of this," said Davis, who lived for several years in Japan.



When he was announced as the winner a few minutes later, he beamed and encouraged the crowd to try his recipe. "Make it at home, the low sodium broth works great," Davis said.

Gov. taps Cinnaminson attorney as next county Superior Court judge By Danielle Camilli

Source: http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/burlington_county_times_news/gov-taps-cinnaminson-attorney-as-next-county-superior-court-judge/article_559e1f68-5a48-11e0-a358-00127992bc8b.html

Mar 30, 2011

TRENTON — A former deputy assistant public defender from Cinnaminson is expected to be formally nominated as the next judge on the Superior Court bench in Mount Holly.

Gov. Chris Christie filed a letter of intent to nominate Janet Zoltanski Smith, a fellow Republican, on Monday with state Secretary of the Senate Kent M. Hicks. A formal nomination is expected to follow in about a week.

The Senate Judiciary Committee would then hold a hearing on the nomination and could then recommend approval to the full Senate.

Zoltanski Smith, who was admitted to the bar in 1976, has been in private practice with husband Brad with Smith & Smith in Cinnaminson since 1992. A former township mayor, Brad Smith also is a former state senator and served as a county freeholder from 1985 to 1992.

Zoltanski Smith said Tuesday they have a general practice firm, but that she does a lot of estate work and guardianships. The mother of four also is the solicitor forthe Riverton Zoning Board. She previously was the attorney for the Cinnaminson Sewerage Authority, the Palmyra Planning Board, and has been the attorney for other local governing bodies.

The Duquesne University graduate has also previously served as associate counsel for the Burlington County Board of Social Services, according to her resume provided by Christie’s office.

In addition, Zoltanski Smith has served as an appointed municipal prosecutor and public defender, and spent 12 years with the New Jersey Public Defender’s Office, including eight years in Superior Court in Burlington County. From 1979 to 1991, she serves as a deputy assistant public defender.

“Janet Zoltanski Smith is an outstanding trial lawyer. She has tried cases in my courtroom, and I have appointed her as a guardian many times because of her honesty and diligence,” Burlington County Assignment Judge Ronald E. Bookbinder said.

The native of the Yardville section of Hamilton Township said she was honored by the nomination.

“I’m pleased the governor has supported me, and I feel privileged that he has confidence in me for this position,” she said. “I am also excited at the prospects of the new challenges this role will bring.”

Danielle Camilli can be reach at 609-267-7586 or dcamilli@phillyBurbs.com
Follow Danielle on Twitter at twitter.com/dcamilli

'Baby' goes to the movies By Tirdad Derakhshani

The 1904 Wanamaker Organ puts the pedals to the "Metropolis" Saturday.



Source: http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/118286904.html

Mar. 19, 2011

On Saturday night in Center City, the world's greatest musical instrument will accompany the greatest silent film ever made.

Hyperbole? Perhaps.

The screening, at the Grand Court in Macy's at 13th and Market Streets, will feature Fritz Lang's 1927 feature Metropolis shown on a 15-by-20-foot screen to an improvised score performed on the Wanamaker Organ by chief organist Peter Richard Conte.

"It's the first time in [the organ's] history it'll be played with a film," says Ray Biswanger, executive director of the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, which is cosponsoring the evening with the Philadelphia Film Society.

The sold-out show is part of a months-long series of events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the organ's Philly debut on June 22, 1911.

Widely recognized to be the world's largest working organ, the Wanamaker Organ boasts 28,543 pipes stretching from the second to the seventh floor of the historic department store, founded by John Wanamaker and now owned by Macy's.

(The Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ in Atlantic City is in fact the largest organ in the world with 32,000 pipes, but it is nonfunctional.)

Biswanger is in his element when discussing the organ's history. He reels off facts, figures, and numbers with facility, and not a little pride.


The Wanamaker Organ was designed by architect George Ashdown Audsley for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, he recounts. Initially outfitted with 10,000 pipes, it was bought by John Wanamaker in 1909 and shipped east to his famed department store.

"It took a 13-car freight train to fit it all," says Biswanger, whose 1,000-member group helps with the organ's ongoing restoration.

In Biswanger's telling, John Wanamaker was unhappy with the organ's grandeur.

"It was grand-sounding but it wasn't really impressive once it was installed," he says. Over the next two decades, John and later his son, Rodman, expanded the organ to triple its original size.

"John Wanamaker loved music and felt [the organ] should be a part of Philadelphia's daily life," Biswanger says. True to his pledge, Wanamaker's organ "has played every business day," Mondays through Saturdays, "since 1911" at least once, usually twice a day.


"It's kind of the voice of Philadelphia, and the Grand Court is the meeting place of the city."

Conte has been Wanamaker's chief organist since 1989. ("It's one of the best gigs in the world for an organist to have," he says.)

He says Baby, as he and other insiders call the organ, is special because it has capacity to reproduce all the sounds, tones, and colors - strings, brass, percussion - of three symphony orchestras.

"It has 469 different voices, or 'ranks,' as we call them," he says. "Most organs will have up to 100 . . . usually church organs have 50 at the most."

It's the perfect instrument, he says, for an epic film as richly textured as Metropolis. Fritz Lang's sophisticated dystopian tale is about a city of the future so advanced and beautiful one almost forgets it is held aloft by near-destitute laborers tied, like cogs in a wheel, to industrial machines hidden beneath in a giant, ugly netherworld.


Saturday's screening will feature a new cut of Lang's film with 25 minutes of recently discovered material. It means Conte will have to improvise for more than 21/2 hours.

It's uniquely challenging, Conte says. His plan of attack is to weave his musical tale around recurring motifs from Gottfried Huppertz's original film score.

He says he realizes that Saturday's event will be a battle of titans of sorts: An expressive musical monster with 28,000 tentacles going up against an expressionist masterpiece filled with some of the most awe-inspiring and terrifying science-fiction imagery in cinema.

The "organ is a giant," Conte concedes, "but it has great subtleties as well."

It can evoke "incredibly tender moments of love and incredibly spooky moments," he says. "I can, with the push of a button, go from a faint whisper to a terrifying roar."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information on the Wanamaker Organ visit www.wanamakerorgan.com.

Contact staff writer Tirdad Derakhshani at 215-854-2736 or tirdad@phillynews.com.

Income Opportunity

Hi,

Holy Cow! This is going absolutely ballistic!
PLEASE DO NOT MISS OUT on a very easy $22,800!

This Program Really WORKS And PAYS YOU 100%!

Turn $5 Into $22,800 Real Fast!
No Sponsoring Needed To Get Paid!
Revolutionary, Unique And Realistic PayPlan!
No Monthly Or Admin Fees!
Instant And Direct Payments To YOU!
Fast Filling 3 x 4 Forced Matrix And Unique Cash Gifting Combined!

Join Here Now: http://forcedgifting.com/?ref=wnpjr475

Have fun...

Regards,

William N.Phillips, Jr.

Stuart Davis aims for top prize at upcoming Manischewitz Cook-Off By Fredda Sacharow

Stuart Davis of Cherry Hill, a finalist in the Man-OManischewitz Cook-Off, displays Chicken and Egg Donburi, which will compete for honors later this month in New York. Photo by Steve Stern" title="Stuart Davis of Cherry Hill, a finalist in the Man-OManischewitz Cook-Off, displays Chicken and Egg Donburi, which will compete for honors later this month in New York.
Photo by Steve Stern

Source: http://www.jewishvoicesnj.org/news/2011-03-23/Home/Stuart_Davis_aims_for_top_prize_at_upcoming_Manisc.html

March 23, 2011

Two decades ago, Stuart Davis introduced chocolate cheesecake and rugelach to a bakery in Kobe, Japan, where he was living while teaching English as a Second Language at a Jesuit school for boys. The confections quickly won raves from palates unfamiliar with the Jewish-inflected goodies.

Now the Cherry Hill resident is hoping a dish inspired by his Asian sojourn will find favor with famed chef Jacques Pepin and fellow judges later this month, when he competes in the fifth Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-Off at the Jewish Community Center of the Upper West Side in Manhattan.

At stake are a $25,000 grand prize, including a set of GE kitchen appliances, and a year’s worth of kvelling rights.

Four of the finalists in the cutthroat competition were selected by a panel of judges; the fifth—Davis—won on the basis of an on-line vote on Manischewitz’s web site in polling that ran from Jan. 17 through Jan. 31.

He’s not sure how many votes he received, but Davis does know that ballots flooded the site from friends in Israel, Canada, Vienna and Japan, as well as from students at Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill, where he teaches, and Kellman Brown Academy, where his wife Sarina teaches.

It may take a village to raise a child, but for Davis it took a global effort to win a finalist’s slot in the live competition.

To qualify for the event, contestants were challenged to prepare kosher family-friendly recipes incorporating at least two of Manischewitz’s products, including the company’s line of broth. The dishes had to be easy to make and take no more than an hour; only original works created by the entrant were eligible.

Piece of cake—or rather, rice cake—for Davis, who says he splits the household cooking duties with Sarina and who loves trying out new and often daring concoctions on his four children. Reinterpreting the classics and experimenting with international flavors are among his favored cooking techniques.

He calls it “going beyond brisket and potatoes.”

“I grew up in a house where food was certainly important. To this day, my mother makes a seder for 50 every year,” Davis said.

Mom is attorney and Jewish communal leader Debbie Davis, who among other achievements edited a Hadassah cookbook that her son still keeps in his well-appointed gourmet kitchen.

Stuart Davis faces hefty competition in the March 31 event.

Fellow finalist Naylet LaRochelle of Miami, who previously won a “Build A Burger” cook-off and a Cozy Shack Pudding competition, is bringing her Moroccan Chicken Bowl; and Jeanette Nelson of Sophia, West Virginia, a semifinalist in the second Manischewitz contest, will be there with her Golden Sweet Potato Tagine.

Other contestants, also winners of previous competitions, will prepare such main courses as Shallot Smothered Chicken and Simple Fisherman’s Stew.

It’s the maiden voyage for Davis, who heard about the cook-off from his mother’s friend, Shirley Tannenbaum.

He’s looking to bring home the honors with his Chicken and Egg Donburi. Adapted from a rice-based Japanese dish— “Every family has its own donburi recipe,” he noted—the concoction takes a half hour from start to table and incorporates as many vegetables as the individual cook desires.

Japanese children love the one-dish meal with its velvety sauce and bite-sized pieces of chicken, Davis said.

Tweaking the traditional approach to donburi, Davis replaced the stock usually made with bonita, kelp and seaweed with Manischewitz’s low-sodium broth, adding a dollop of the company’s Wasabi sauce as an accompanying dip.

CHICKEN AND EGG DONBURI

1/4 cup creamy wasabi sauce
5 Tbs. soy sauce/broth ingredient
2 1/2 Tbs. sugar/broth ingredient
2 1/2 tsp. mirin/broth ingredient
16 oz. boneless breast of chicken
1 cup green onions cut on diagonal
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups Japanese
Sticky rice
1 cup Manischewitz® Reduced-Sodium Chicken Broth
Salt
Pepper
Water

Heat the broth ingredients in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Into a small frying pan over low heat, pour about a 1/4 cup of the heated broth. Add four ounces of chicken and 1/4 cup of the green onions. Cook the chicken pieces, turning them over for about three minutes, then beat an egg and stir in. In the meantime, have ready one portion of steamed rice in a deep bowl. When the egg has set, in about 50 seconds, slip the mixture over one serving of rice. Repeat this process for the remaining servings. The creamy wasabi sauce is used as a dipping sauce for the chicken. This recipe serves four.

The goal for Davis was to make the staple of Asian cuisine not only kosher, but also Western-friendly.

“A lot of Japanese food is popular in America—think sushi and teriyaki—but the rest is more obscure,” Davis observed. “I had made this version for my family before, and I remembered they liked it—and I liked it.

“I didn’t enter the cook-off for the money, but for the fun and to see where it will take me,” said Davis, a veteran of 10 years in the mortgage world who now teaches a course called (what else?) “Digesting Hebrew” at TBS.

The self-described foodie is also looking forward to meeting the legendary Pepin, now in his second year as celebrity guest of honor for the contest.

A graduate of Kellman Academy (now Kellman Brown) and the Columbia University/Jewish Theological Seminary Joint Program, Davis received a degree in international marketing from St. Joseph’s University. He’s hoping his extensive post-graduate travels throughout Asia, including the four-year stay in Japan, will add to his edge in the competition.

If it’s any encouragement, last year’s Grand-Prize winning dish represented a similar corner of the world: Mandarin Dumpling Soup, featuring turkey-stuffed wontons simmered in a ginger-sherry broth, brought national acclaim to its creator, Sarah Freedman- Izquierdo of Miami Beach.