Have you ever want­ed to learn how to cook, and enter­tain like your lov­ing grand­moth­er, and still have fun? Have you ever won­dered just how many top­pings you can put on a latke, or what the true ben­e­fits are to eat­ing mat­zo for eight days straight? Roz Marks and Andrea Marks Carneiro have filled their uncon­ven­tion­al cook­book, Jew­ish Cook­ing Boot Camp: The Mod­ern Girl’s Guide to Cook­ing like your Jew­ish Grand­moth­er with deli­cious tra­di­tion­al ​“Jew­ish” recipes. Among the over 50 recipes cov­er­ing the major Jew­ish hol­i­days, from Rosh Hashanah to Passover, the book includes the always nec­es­sary ​“take-along foods” and ​“com­fort foods” as well. Recipes range from ​“Aunt Judy’s Sweet Noo­dle Pud­ding” to the fun and sweet ​“Hon­eyed Chick­en Wings.” At the begin­ning of each sec­tion are infor­ma­tive and help­ful facts, triv­ia, and even wine pair­ings for each recipe. Through­out the book are delight­ful ​“real world tra­di­tions” sec­tions, enabling the read­er to explore Jew­ish tra­di­tions from many diverse women and their fam­i­lies. This book is for those who not only want to cook a great meal, but learn a lit­tle about Jew­ish tra­di­tion in a fun, relaxed, and infor­ma­tive way. 

Review­ers’ note: Please be aware that the recipes in this book do not fol­low the laws of Kashrut. Index.

Recipe: Andi’s Sprite-Roast­ed Lemon-Pep­per Chicken 

In Flori­da, the grill is king. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, from May through August, so is the rain. This recipe orig­i­nat­ed on the grill as a clas­sic beer-can chick­en. One fine day, how­ev­er, a thun­der­storm forced us all inside and in a moment of des­per­a­tion Andrea threw the chick­en in the oven. Guess what? It was even bet­ter. Besides, even though brisket is always deli­cious, some­times you need some­thing a lit­tle dif­fer­ent to mix it up. And some­times you also have a few fam­i­ly mem­bers who are a lit­tle picky. 

Serves: 4 – 6 | Prepa­ra­tion Time: 25 min­utes | Cook­ing Time: 2 – 3 hours 

1 small chicken

3 cloves garlic 

Olive oil

McCormick Sea­son All 

Gar­lic powder 

Lemon pep­per

Salt

Pep­per

1 can of liq­uid (beer, Sprite, etc.) 

1/2 cup low-sodi­um chick­en broth 

IP: Most recipes will tell you that you need a 16-ounce can of beer. Not true. You can use any size. 

Pre­heat the oven to 425° F. Spray a small roast­ing pan with a cook­ing spray and set it aside. Clean the chick­en and pat it dry. 

TIP: Take the tops off of all your spices before start­ing to sea­son; it will make your life a lot eas­i­er when your hands are cov­ered in olive oil.Chop the gar­lic into small pieces and set it aside. Cov­er the chick­en with the olive oil, mak­ing sure to get under the skin. Sea­son the chick­en with as much or as lit­tle sea­son­ing as you want (the more the bet­ter), using a good amount of the lemon pep­per and mak­ing sure to get it under the skin (you can use a pas­try or bast­ing brush to make it eas­i­er). Place the gar­lic under the chick­en skin. Pour about one-third of the liq­uid inside the can into the sink. Place the can inside the roast­ing pan and set the chick­en on top, using the legs to form a tri­pod so it is stand­ing up straight. Pour the chick­en broth into the bot­tom of the pan and place the chick­en in the oven.

Roast the chick­en at 425° for 30 min­utes. Then turn the oven down to 375° and con­tin­ue roast­ing for about 1 hour or until the juices run clear.During the last 30 min­utes, use a baster to pull up the liq­uid in the bot­tom of the pan and baste the chick­en about every 10 minutes.Remove the pan from the oven, remove the can from the chick­en cav­i­ty and carve.