borscht

After the borscht is finished, the kittens, now three months old, jump into our hosts' laps, placing their pink noses on the table.

"Yes, I'm cooking borscht. With OUR OWN beetroot.'' It's the same when I make pumpkin or courgette soup, otherwise known in the family as 'gloop.' There is little we grow that I cannot transform, with enthusiasm, into gloop.

Although borscht is commonly served hot, chilled borscht is not simply the same soup served cold.

During the twentieth century, Jewish immigrants and their descendants created the so-called "Borscht Belt"--an agglomeration of cottages, hotels, and entertainment venues that catered to a Jewish clientele--in the Catskill Mountains of New York.

Lansky's efforts are described anecdotally as his quest takes him all over the world from Boston, the Bronx and the Borscht Belt to the Baltics and beyond, wherever large communities of Jews once resided.

The jokes, once generally limited to one per work, are juxtaposed with others in the latest paintings; as if the transcript of a Borscht Belt stand-up routine, the combinations render their blend of the literate and the lowbrow ever more alienating.

The recipes comprising The American Cancer Society's Healthy Eating Cookbook range from Mozzarella-Vegetable Canapes; Moscow Borscht; Yogurt Tomato Salad; Fruited Chicken Breasts; and Fillet of Sole with Dill Sauce; to Stuffed Shells with Beef and Tomato Sauce; Sesame Kebobs; Caribbean Chili; Sweet Potatoes with Apples; English Muffin Loaves; and Blueberry Peach Crisp.

Katzen's first six offerings include a richly seasoned Cashew Carrot Ginger, a festive and flavorful Cuban Black Bean, Prima Minestrone, Moroccan Red Lentil, and two Eastern European classics, Hungarian Mushroom and Russian Cabbage Borscht. Each 12-ounce portion is made with natural, fresh ingredients with organic sourcing wherever possible.

The line includes Cashew Carrot Ginger, Cuban Black Bean, Italian Prima Minestrone, Protein-Rich Moroccan Red Lentil, and Eastern European classics Hungarian Mushroom and Russian Cabbage Borscht. The recipes use natural, fresh ingredients with organic sourcing wherever possible.

Among them: matzo ball and soup mix, low-calorie borscht, sugar-free coconut macaroons, and gefilte fish.

The Brooklyn-born son of Russian immigrants was one of the so-called Borscht Belt comics who in trademark acerbic delivery, cigar in hand, would gripe about the trials of everyday life.

Of Bobby Kennedy's wiretaps, he said: "Little brother is watching." He had the Borscht belt sexism and made it modern-day: "There are no women in the beat generation," he said, "just girls who have broken with their parents for the evening." Asked by Eddie Fisher on TV to say something funny, Sahl replied: "John Foster Dulles." His trademark sweater and loafers were considered shocking, and NBC forced him to wear a suit and tie on the "Wolgate Comedy Hour" before later relenting.

Even in more-northern climes, though, chilled soups have become classics, such as Eastern Europe's deeply flavored beet soups, borscht and chlodnik, and the sorrel soup, shchav.

Remember that silly little computer that beat the borscht out of Garry Kasparov in a chess match a few months ago?