Break Not So Fast

As a kid, I always got confused between the two Jewish High Holy Days. Eventually, a grownup simplified things for me: "Rosh Ha Shana is happy. Yom Kippur is sad."

It may be a ridiculously simplistic explanation, but at the time, it helped me keep the two holidays straight.

In other words, don't go around wishing your Jewish friends a "Happy Yom Kippur" or a "Merry Day of Atonement."

I haven't fasted on Yom Kippur since my junior year in Israel when I spent the day in Jerusalem and succumbed to peer pressure. By nightfall, I had to atone for one more thing -- being crabby to my friends all day because I was so hungry.

This year, at the last minute this year, I decided to host a very modest Break Fast. Given that it was just for me and my friend Dori and our kids and Dori was the only one among us fasting, it wasn't exactly a Break Fast. But we did serve some traditional post-Yom Kippur favorites: egg salad, tuna salad, bagels, lox and cream cheese, white fish salad and apples and honey.

Dori has an amazing ability to make even the most simple dish special. In the case of tuna salad, she has her own recipe:

Dori's Tuna Salad

Ingredients

2 cans of white tuna in water
2 lemons
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Open the cans of tuna and drain the water. Break tuna into smaller pieces. Squirt with lemon juice. Add mustard and mayo. Salt and pepper to taste.

Served on an everything bagel and topped with a slice of tomato, this tuna salad was the best I'd ever tasted. I'm sure if I had fasted, it would have been even tastier.

NOTE: After eating this meal, you will be VERY THIRSTY.