Busy in Brooklyn Heads to Chicago for a Delicious Evening

A creative, fun evening for Ida Crown Girls

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Renowned cookbook author and blogger, Chanie Apfelbaum brought her Millennial foodie passion and culinary expertise to the women of Chicago on February 12. Her more than 56K followers on Instagram followed her on a tour of the Chicago kosher scene, stopping at Emmas, Shallot’s, Jewel, The Sandwich Club. And of course, since her niche is Millennial, she was sure to stop at Romanian for a hipster photo shot and a taste of the famed salami.

In the evening, we welcomed over 225 women and girls from the community to ICJA for a fantastic (and delicious!) cooking demo with Chanie. The program was an initiative of Ida Crown Girls Club (ICGC), a new initiative at ICJA this year to provide monthly program exclusively for girls. Young Academy alumni lead creative and fun activities throughout the year, including a dance party and baking program.

The Busy in Brooklyn event, named after Chanie’s blog, included an opening program for ICJA girls and 7th and 8th grade prospective students. Chanie demonstrated board making, where she created a beautiful and easy dessert display on a wooden serving board. The girls then worked together in groups to create their own boards with fruit, desserts, and nuts. Chanie focused on each group’s creation to offer tips for improving the style of the display. Guests who joined the main cooking demo were able to enjoy treats from the boards at the end of the evening.

At Chanie’s main demonstration, she prepared a full meal in front of the audience, including two main dishes, a side dish, and dessert. As she prepared the dishes, she also offered tips like how to choose and handle ground beef and how to properly chop vegetables with a chef’s knife–a safer and more efficient option than the paring knives so ubiquitous in kosher kitchens. Attendees all got to taste a sample of each dish, deliciously prepared by Danziger, according to Chanie’s recipes.

The program was a tremendous success, and we are grateful to the sponsors who made it possible. Thank you, Anonymous (3), Lisa Glass, Dani Krule, Wendy Margolin, Suzy Nussbaum, Jennie Rothner, Miki Schreiber, Keryn Schreiber. Thank you, also to Jewel, Shallots Bistro, Danziger Caterers, Aviva Appelbaum, Rosenblum’s World of Judaica, Deja Views, Emmas, The Sandwich Club, Evita, ICGC volunteers, and Alissa Zeffren.