Rachel Fauber, at The Blogs

Apply for a Blog

Jan 14, 2025, 3:40 AM

Cooking the Chronicle – Jan 3

Well, we have officially encountered the first recipe that my three year old daughter had no interest in cooking with me. When we opened up The Chronicle together and I read her the recipe title (“Savory spinach side,” Jan 3) she made it very clear...

Jan 3, 2025, 8:25 PM

Cooking the Chronicle – Dec 27

Basket weaving puff pastry proved too complicated for the three-year-old, but she can lay on an impressive egg wash.

This week’s recipe (“Brie en croute,” Dec 27) might have been my biggest fail thus far, although how much of a fail is it really when all of your ingredients are delicious. I have made my own version or baked brie and baked gouda in...

Dec 26, 2024, 10:20 PM

Cooking the Chronicle – Dec 20

A soft, smooth dough that easily formed into balls, and provided a Play-Doh loving toddler lots of entertainment. (courtesy)

The minute the chaggim are over in Israel, bakeries slowly start rolling out the sufganiyot. It’s one of things I miss most about living in Jerusalem. We would spend all of Cheshvan and Kislev popping around the shuk and our neighborhood bakeries, sampling the classics...

Dec 17, 2024, 6:36 PM

Cooking the Chronicle – Dec 6

Alas, rebranding the delicious tomato basil soup as "ketchup soup" for our toddler didn't convince her to try it.

Soup season! I opened up last week’s Chronicle to search for the recipe as beautiful flurries of snow glided across my windows. Jessica Grann’s recipes as of late have been using great seasonal ingredients, but have also been spot on with the changing season vibes....

Dec 5, 2024, 4:38 AM

Cooking the Chronicle – Nov 29

I’m going to have to keep this one short, because on top of juggling newborns, my toddler has come down with what the neighborhood families are calling the “Squirrel Hill plague.” Everyone’s children are sick, and it’s struck our house. (Don’t panic, we pulled out...

Nov 27, 2024, 10:22 PM

Cooking the Chronicle – Nov 22

For those following along at home, I am thrilled to share that our family welcomed twin boys last week on Thursday, November 21st, the same day the Chronicle arrived in our mailbox with this week’s recipe (“Apple Pie Crumble,” Nov 22). Despite having our hands...

Nov 20, 2024, 8:19 AM

Cooking the Chronicle – Nov. 15

For the first time this week, our three year old understood what we were doing when I said "Cooking the Chronicle!" She raced to the kitchen to discover all the ingredients, ready to dump and mix.

Sometime the most simple recipes have the best results. This week’s recipe in the Chronicle (“Maple brown sugar oatmeal bars,” Nov 8) was a total hit with every member of our family, from my daughter to my parents. This recipe has so many wins. Minimal...

Nov 15, 2024, 5:22 AM

Cooking the Chronicle – Nov 8

Mock crap dip is magical!

“I always enjoy the challenge of making something blatantly not kosher into something that is.” I agree, Jessica Grann, I agree! It’s really fun to take non-kosher recipes and make them kosher. And during the three years my husband and I lived in Israel, it...

Nov 8, 2024, 5:16 PM

Cooking the Chronicle – Nov 1

May we all have this much fun baking focaccia!

Not every baking project can go smoothly, right? This week’s recipe was all about focaccia, but really, the baking adventure turned into being all about managing broken oven right before the bread was supposed to go in, emergency phone calls to friends who may be...

Nov 1, 2024, 12:42 AM

Cooking the Chronicle – Oct. 25

Gah! My first Cooking the Chronicle snafu—I simply could not find beautiful daikon or watermelon radishes this week. I used regular ones, of course, and it turned out delicious, but just look at the photo included in Jessica Grann’s recipe. Adding pops of white and...

Load more

About Me

Rachel Fauber is a home cook who looks forward to the recipes in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle each week. She has lived in Squirrel Hill since 2021, moving here with her husband and daughter after living in both Jerusalem and Washington, DC. When she's not tinkering in the kitchen or drinking lots of coffee with friends, Rachel leads marketing and communications for the global nonprofit, Ashoka.