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This holiday season, Kristin Eriko Posner has her San Francisco home prepared for a cocktail-style Hanukkah celebration: a seasonal winter crudit茅 platter and spiced nuts sit on the table, local California sparkling wine waits to be popped open, and her mother-in-law鈥檚 heirloom menorah sits on a Japanese sakura colored .

鈥淲e eat fried foods to symbolize the oil that miraculously latest eight nights,鈥� Posner explains, including her , served on a bar with assorted toppings like apple sauce, sour cream, matcha salt and smoked salmon, as well as sufganiyot jelly doughnuts with yuzu cream.

It may look a little different from a typical Hanukkah celebration, but for Posner, it feels just right. Through food and reinvented rituals, she has found a way to blend her two rich cultural backgrounds. She鈥檚 also  to help other multiethnic households create nourishing new rituals drawn from time-honored wisdom.

鈥淚 really believe that it鈥檚 important for us to update our traditions with what is around us and resonates, as well as take what is healing or helps us celebrate at a certain time in our lives,鈥� Posner says. Like on Shabbat, Judaism鈥檚 day of rest, she will often host a Japanese tea ceremony to mark the moment blessings.

But for Posner, it wasn鈥檛 always this way. Growing up as a fourth generation Japanese American on her father鈥檚 side, by way of Hawaii, and second generation on her mother鈥檚 side, the 35-year-old says she never quite felt like she fit in.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 true for many people across time. Even though my dad鈥檚 family wasn鈥檛 on the mainland during World War II, there was still a lot of anti-Japanese and anti-Asian sentiment,鈥� she says. 鈥淪o many people try to assimilate as soon as possible.鈥�

Her childhood was spent attending Japanese language school on Sundays and visiting her family in Japan during the summer, yet her heritage still felt oddly distant. And while Posner says she felt lucky to grow up in an area outside of L.A. with a large Japanese American community, there were still moments when she felt not 鈥淛apanese enough鈥� or not 鈥淎merican enough.鈥�

Posner remembers bringing beautiful bento lunches to school and being made fun of by her classmates. So, she started packing sandwiches. 鈥淚 look at kids today, and I just think, how cool is it that sushi is cool now?鈥�

In a quest to discover her Japanese heritage, she quit her entertainment public relations job in 2008 and moved to Japan to teach English for two years. She went there thinking that she would make friends and immediately feel like a part of the culture but says she was left with the same sentiment she felt in the United States.

鈥淛ust by looking at me, people could tell that I鈥檓 not from Japan, and so I had a lot of experiences of having to really explain myself to people, which is the last thing you want to do in a place where you are hoping you belong.鈥�

Then, she started learning how to cook Japanese food from her aunt, and suddenly, Posner says, she felt like her cultural identity was there all along.

鈥淪he taught me the basics and very simple home cooking,鈥� Posner says of her aunt. 鈥淣othing that really had a recipe, just things that you can just throw together.鈥�

It brought her back to her paternal grandmother鈥檚 cooking 鈥� warm, comforting dishes that you wouldn鈥檛 find in a restaurant or written in English on the internet.  鈥淚t was empowering to be able to reclaim these recipes,鈥� she says.

But it wasn鈥檛 until she met her now husband, Bryan, and converted to Judaism, that she discovered the power of blending rituals to fit a modern, mixed world.

Cooking seemed like the missing ingredient in her heritage exploration 鈥� the universal language that anyone can use to experience culture. So when Posner moved back to San Francisco after her stint in Japan, she decided to take a PR job in food and wine.

鈥淚 found such a passion for learning about my own cultural traditions and rituals, so I really wanted to learn about his,鈥� Posner says. 鈥淚 think, all my life, I have been looking for spiritual navigation. When we started taking classes, I really fell in love with Judaism, the message and traditions.鈥�

Still, she felt pulled between two vibrant cultural worlds.

鈥淚 was really scared that I would lose my Japanese parts to take on these Jewish parts,鈥� Posner says. 鈥淚 had this conversation with our rabbi, and he asked me 鈥榃hy can鈥檛 there be room for both?鈥� It wasn鈥檛 something that I had considered, but there is plenty of room for both. It really changed my perspective.鈥�

And so Posner decided to experiment and hosted a dinner for friends.

鈥淚 made this dish called 鈥楯ew-ish,鈥� which was basically like a hot pot, but I put rice in it and used everything bagel seasoning,鈥� she explains. It was a hit. Her friends were inspired to combine dishes and ingredients from their own cultural backgrounds. 鈥淲hen I started [my business], I didn鈥檛 know exactly what it was going to be, but that kind of made me realize that food was going to be a really important part of it.鈥�

Now on her website and social media, she shares updated recipes from both her Jewish and Japanese cultural identities, but with a focus on fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients. Naturally, the holidays have created an opportunity for her to play with those flavors.

Like for Purim, a holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Hama, Posner made 鈥攖riangular, jam-filled cookies that symbolize Haman鈥檚 ears or his three-cornered hat. To pay homage to her father鈥檚 upbringing in Hawaii, she created macadamia shortbread cookies filled with guava jam.

When Passover approached, she wanted to reinvent the classic  by featuring tsukune鈥攁 Japanese chicken meatball made with ginger and leeks.

And for Rosh Hashana in September, Posner made a  braised in a homemade Japanese barbecue sauce. For dessert she shared two different options: Japanese  with whipped cream, spiced apples, and honey or roasted  with miso honey. It鈥檚 her version of Rosh Hashana鈥檚 simplest dish, apples dipped in honey, an edible prayer for a sweet new year.

This upcoming holiday, Posner looks forward to serving her mochi latkes, where she swaps out potato flour for mochi flour and serves it with an Asian pear sauce, as well as the classic apple. And of course, no Jewish celebration is complete without challah, and she always uses leftovers as a  or  salad.

While experimenting with new recipes seems like a fun, light activity, Posner says that for her, it feels like reclaiming her heritage. 鈥淚 think we all have the power to bring our rituals and traditions back into our lives,鈥� she says.

While many hold generations-long family traditions to such specific standards, Posner encourages others to stay open to what a ritual or tradition may look like for where they are in their life鈥檚 journey.

鈥淭hat was huge for me because I thought there wasn鈥檛 enough room for both [cultures], and yet, being introduced to all of these Jewish traditions actually made me more curious about my Japanese background, significantly even more than before,鈥� she says.

When balancing on the brim of two cultures, Posner takes inspiration from a colleague, Jessica Hendricks Yee, who is in a Chinese-Jewish marriage.

鈥淪he said it in a really beautiful way: 鈥楾here鈥檚 no right or wrong way to blend cultures, except for what feels right or wrong to you,鈥欌�� Posner recalls. 鈥淚t comes with its own challenges, like confronting and examining your differences. But you get to design a life based on what’s most meaningful to you and create something entirely new and special鈥攜our own nourishing rituals and traditions.鈥�