Hi, I'm Dana Shrager. Welcome to Dana's Table!
Here you'll find recipes and inspiration for Jewish Holidays
and Everyday Healthy-ish Eats.
Dana's Table Includes:
The Best Jewish Holiday Celebrations
- Recipes for beloved classics and new twists
- Snaze up your table with easy decor and table settings
- Find celebratory ideas to make your holidays more meaningful and fun
Everyday Healthy-ish Recipes for Home Cooks
- Seasonal, real ingredients
- Recipes inspired by the farmers market and my urban vegetable garden
- Dishes I really make for my family & friends
About Dana
I'm an award-winning recipe developer, avid cookbook collector, and food blogger since 2011. I come from a long line of accomplished home cooks, and now I've been cooking up healthy-ish family meals and festive Jewish holidays for my kids and husband for over 25 years. I've developed 400 recipes which I share on my website and in my Facebook groups. I love how food brings people together, and I'm happy you've found my website.
My Cooking Influences
My favorite times growing up were hanging out in the kitchen with my mom, sister, grandma, and aunts. I loved the camaraderie when we all cooked together. These women are/were amazing cooks. Trust me when I tell you that each had their famous dishes that were requested by a wide circle of family and friends. They passed their recipes on to me as cursory notes on recipe cards. I have deciphered and tested their legendary recipes which are now preserved on my blog.
Since then I have honed my skills by taking cooking classes in many different cuisines. Also, I frequent the ethnic restaurants that are plentiful around Los Angeles, where I live. So my cooking is influenced by Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, French, Middle Eastern, and California cuisines.
How This Blog Started
Over 10 years ago, I subscribed to our nursery school's CSA (community-supported agriculture) produce box delivery. Each week I would get a box overflowing with farm fresh vegetables from McGrath Family Farm. I was overwhelmed by so much produce and wasn't sure what to do with it all. Since I didn't want it to go to waste, I got busy learning how to cook with new vegetables. Quickly, I was converted from a "bread and chocolate" kind-of-gal to someone who puts vegetables in all my cooking. I learned that really fresh vegetables grown with care have exceptional flavor. I researched recipes but rarely followed them. I tweaked and combined. I developed many new recipes and decided to share them on a blog which I called Foodie Goes Healthy.
The Los Angeles Food World
- I started shopping at the local farmers markets getting to know many local farmers in the process. From them I've learned simple recipes that highlight their vegetables.
- I joined Food Bloggers Los Angeles, later becoming an officer and teaching two cooking classes to fellow bloggers.
- I am an award-winning recipe developer. I competed in Melissa's Produce's Holiday Recipe Contest for three years against other professional recipe writers and won 5 awards in the appetizer and dessert categories.
- I was a presenter at the blogger conference Camp Blogaway, where I led a discussion about food writing.
- During the pandemic I started a Facebook group called Jewish Holiday Cooking, which has taken me full circle back to the recipes of my childhood. I also share my tips for making the holidays beautiful, meaningful, and fun. In 2022 I changed the name of my recipe blog to Dana's Table to encompass all of my cooking passions.
Let's Connect
For me the best part about food is the way it connects people. I hope you'll pull up a chair at my virtual table and join the conversation by commenting on the recipes and chatting in my Facebook groups.
Facebook Jewish Holiday Cooking group, Facebook Jewish Cooking group, Instagram, Pinterest.
