I’d never claimed I could cook. How’d I become a famous foodie?

Okay, let me just say two things straight out:

1. No way do I really believe that Yaakov’s great-great-great-grandmother was the one who invented kokosh cake. When I asked my chassan about the family legend, he shrugged and said he doesn’t know these things, but that Deeni — his brother’s wife — had read this on an online genealogical research database and ran with it.
2. Call it wedding jitters or cold feet or whatever, but I’m afraid I’m marrying into the wrong family. I grew up believing that the Jews are the People of the Book. My chassan’s family, or at least my new sister-in-law, believes that we’re the People of the Cookbook…

I teetered on my mother's kitchen counter to get a good angle for a photo to post to Heaven Meets Earth, the cooking website Deeni had enthusiastically created after digging up the family’s kokosh history. I aimed my camera lens at the supper table, snapped a picture, hopped down, and posted it.

“Grilled Chicken Steaks with Volcanic Sweet Potato and Green Bean Stix,” I labeled it, cropping out the corner where you could see the leftover cookies my great aunt had brought this past Shabbos. Deeni had roped me into signing up for Kalei HaBishul, her cooking group for engaged and newlywed women, and I’d gone along with it because — here’s the truth — I was terrified not to.

Because the kitchen was the heart of the home, I suppose. Deeni’s slogan. And honestly, it was pathetic that the cookies I’d brought to my future in-laws the Shabbos after our vort were the Bingo-style pre-made ones I’d popped into the oven.

Deeni called me that evening. “Loved your supper! You submitted for the healthy bake contest yet?  Hang on!” The picture text came in a few seconds later. Black bean brownies! Shiffy just submitted. De-lish.

“Okay, I’ll send a recipe—”

“You need to make it and submit the finished product, that was the premise: real recipes, real people, real products! Deadline tomorrow night, I’m coming over, you hand me your entry, I take care of the rest! Sounds good?”

“Whatever.”

I surfed Google for an hour, skimming recipes from health-conscious websites. Chocolate chip cookie bars made from canned chick peas, using raisins instead of chocolate chips. Zucchini biscotti made from oat flour. Oatmeal-banana bites. I printed a few before calling it quits.

Always a foodie, once Deenie discovered her new kokosh yichus, she grabbed the opportunity to drop her speech therapy job and follow her lifelong dream: creating a cooking website with her friend Kiki. She went all out: demos, online classes, and coaching. Yaakov’s great-great-great grandmother’s name was named Sarah Dina, and Deeni “felt an instant connection,” my chassan had told me.

That’s how Heaven Meets Earth was born. A short bio of Bubbie Sarah’s life appeared on the website; she was born in a small town in Hungary, one of seven children of the town tailor; married at age 16, gave birth to ten children, six of whom survived into adulthood, and in between invented kokosh cake. There were some other details, but that was the main gist.

“I neeeeeed the recipe!” Deeni gushed over the phone, the next evening. “Seriously, Gitty, I’m thrilled you submitted to our competition, what a hit!”