The most important way I express my faith for this celebration is in meals. The meals on the two nights of Rosh Hashanah are a cook's opportunity to be traditional as well as to create new symbolic dishes with a modern twist.

I incorporate as many symbolic foods as possible into the dinner starters. Honey, for example, represents a sweet year ahead. Black-eyed peas represent increasing one's merits. Pomegranates, bursting with seeds, count for being full of good deeds for the coming year. Beets and leeks are for overcoming adversity. The special round challah bread signifies the cyclical ending and beginning of years. A ceremonial cooked fish head represents an ideal of always being at the head and not the tail, being a leader and not a follower. For each new tasting we recite a different blessing to be bestowed upon us in the new year.

First we make a blessing on wine we have chosen to showcase. Next we tear yeast-scented challah bread into moist strands and drizzle honey on top. Following challah, we dip apples from the new fall crop in honey. I serve Kufte de Prassa (recipe below)--leek and ground beef patties, fluffy and lightly crisp--so that we may vanquish our enemies. Moist Medjool dates, also just fresh from harvest, are a good omen for peace. We eat spinach to symbolize removal of threats. Fresh fish represents a wish that we may multiply like fish in the sea. To evoke thoughts of autumn, pumpkin filled turnovers called Borekas represent a petition for evil decrees against us to be torn up and for us to be guarded and protected in the new year.

This meal shows my deeply felt love for family, faith, and tradition. Family and friends being together should be a memorable occasion. Good food, made with your hands, is a way to embrace all those whom you love.