Family Sukkah Project

Bli Ayin Harah, we're now in our fourth year :)

This year we did orange flower hand prints to add to the mosaic.

And to see the previous years,  go

here for 2012

here for 2011

and here's the first one, in 2010

Rosh Hashana roses

This is a recipe in progress...

For the time being, all I did was thinly slice apples with my mandolin and cook them in a bit of water, cinnamon, and sugar. Unfortunately cooking them muted the red peel of the apples, so I'm going to have to rethink that. Also, working with wet apple slices was kind of hit and miss.

I cut thin strips of ready-made puff pastry dough I defrosted (French pastry dough will work too) and then layered the slices of apple along the dough, with the peel on top, sticking over the dough. You want to make sure to overlap the slices.

You'll also want to make sure the dough is really cold. I kept it in the freezer while a assembled each rose.

Once they've been rolled, I put them on a cookie sheet covered in baking parchment, sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top and baked it for about 10 minutes.

I think my next try, I'll bake it in a pie tin and put a simple syrup of honey, cinnamon and walnuts between the pieces...

Meatball-stuffed garlic monkey bread

It's a bit of a to-do because you have to make the dough, season the chopped meat, make the meatballs, wrap them in dough and make the marinara sauce.

Of course if you don't particularly care about buying processed foods and ready-made foods straight out of the freezer, I've seen the quick and easy version of this on Pinterest with: Buy some kind of frozen Pillsbury dough, buy frozen cocktail meatballs at Costco, and pop open a jar of your favorite sauce.

The dough I made for this is the onion rolls recipe from The Secret of Challah. Obviously the filling are meatballs instead of onions.

Dough:

7 cups sifted flour (1 kilo)

2 tablespoons dry yeast

2 teaspoons salt

3 teaspoons sugar

2 cups warm water

2 eggs

2 tablespoons oil

Mix together the dry ingredients. Then add the wet and knead for about 5 minutes, until all the ingredients are incorporated. Then cover the bowl and let it rise for about an hour or until it's doubled in size.

Meatballs:

1/2 kilo (about 1 pound) of chopped meat (chicken, turkey, and lamb will do as well)

Spices - I used garlic powder, black pepper, and oregano

Mix and make into golfball-sized meatballs.

Garlic bread mix:

About 4 generous tablespoons of minced garlic

1/3 cup oil

oregano

Take a piece of dough (a little bigger than a golfball size) and flatten it like you're making pizza. Wrap it around the meatball and pinch the ends closed. Place in a 9x13 baking dish.

Once the bottom is loosely filled (you want the dough to barely be touching), spoon some of the garlic mixture on top. Then add the next layer of dough balls. Pour the remaining garlic mixture over the top.

Sprinkle with coarse salt.

Bake at 350 degrees F (about 180 degrees C) for about 45 minutes. Serve with sauce.

Some humor

I'm part of a Facebook project called Fifty-two Frames which is a year-long photography project. Each week is a different theme and you have to take the submitted photo within that week.

This past week's theme was anthropomorphism/personification. For those not familiar with the terms (and are too lazy to Google it), anthropomorphism is basically seeing humanity in objects or animals. If you click on the link for the Fifty-two Frames FB group, you'll be able to see the whole album and get a pretty good idea of what I mean.

My submission was a bit of a spoof on the home birth/water birth photos that tend to be popular these days. This is the photo I submitted:

And here are the rest of the photos in the 'home birth' series:

Politics at prayer

So this whole Women of the Wall (WOW), Women for the Wall (W4W) bruhaha... the vitriol going back and forth is an embarrassing chillul Hashem in my opinion.

I don't completely agree with WOW, but I agree with W4W even less. Their 'my way is the only way' is arrogant to say the least.

One of the things that annoys me about W4W is they seem to be ignoring what they claim to be the main goal of their mission statement. (I underlined it for emphasis)

If their ultimate goal is to make a woman's experience to be as meaningful as possible and they will do 'whatever possible' to achieve experiencing this profound connection to God, then why does it seem the only thing they manage to do is try to prevent women from that experience?

The group will be protesting at their third Rosh Chodesh davening at the Kotel in a few days. I have yet to read anything about W4W talking to the various Kotel 'authorities' to advocate say, enlarging the women's section. Or finally moving that unsightly ramp up to Har haBayit. Or any number of things.. BEYOND trying to get WOW banned from the Kotel proper.

Spiritual baking

This was something I had written 5 years ago. Not sure what was stressing me out so badly around then though...

"This might sound silly to some of you, but I actually had a rather meaningful, therapeutic Challah baking session today. 

Since getting the book The Secret of Challah I've really been trying to put more meaning into each step of the process of Challah making. 

The sifting of the flour, adding the ingredients (although I don't take it as far as some I've read about who sing and dance as they go, reciting Tehillim and such), the mixing... I use this time to.. well, as Lt. Lenina Huxley said, "enhance my calm". 

And after this week, I really needed it. 

Apparently more than I thought because as I looked down into this huge bowl of dough I totally lost it. For about 5 minutes I stood there bawling my eyes out as I released the stress of the past few weeks. When I finally calmed down enough, I said the Bracha for Hafrashat Challah, pulled off a piece and began punching the dough down. 

I divided the dough into 6 parts, each one to be divided into strands for braiding. The first one, as I rolled the strands, was dedicated to just thanking HaKadosh Baruch Hu for everything. 

The second was dedicated to asking Hashem to help people I know realize their dream of becoming parents either for the first time or again. Two strands were dedicated to two specific couples I know and the other two were dedicated to the anonymous members of the various boards and forums. 

The third and fourth were dedicated to those who needed healing - physical, mental, emotional. 

The fifth was dedicated to my children. 

And the final one was for my husband and myself. 

I wonder if it will taste different this week..."

This week instead of making six loaves, I made 4, and a batch of garlic knot monkey bread.

#FirstWorldProblems...

Going back

In December, a couple with four children moved to Ariel from Australia. The children were 9, 7, 4, and 3 (or thereabouts) and they moved just a few houses down from us. The 4-year old was placed in my 4-year old's pre-school class and we all became very fast, very good friends. We would often see one another at drop-off and more often than not, we'd meet at pick-up and lately, since the weather got nicer, we'd hang out at the nearby playground to let the kids let off steam.

The two 4-year olds, the 3-year old and another 3-year old Anglo have become near inseparable.

Which is why, when they told us of their decision to return to Australia, I was heartbroken. And I know my 4-year old is going to miss his best mates terribly.

I came up with this idea for a going away present for them: a t-shirt with the Ariel logo on it (readily available since kids need it for assembly) and then I had the Anglo kids who were closest friends with the Australian kids put their hand prints on the t-shirt in paint. Then I wrote their names in permanent marker. The plan is, once they get settled back in Australia, they'll frame it and hang it.

To the Chelom Family,

while you were only here for a little while, your leaving puts a big hole in our lives and in our hearts.

We hope you'll return one day soon, and until then, we wish you the best in Mazal, Simcha, and Bri'ut.

(And you'd better get a Skype account!)

Chinuch vs. Shalom Bayit

This past Shabbat we had my daughter, son-in-law (SIL) and grandson over. When it came time to prepare the chanukoyot for lighting on Friday, my unmarried daughter and I saw that my SIL had prepared his incorrectly, so my daughter switched things around. When it came time to light, my SIL switched it back the way he had it and lit and then proceeded to tell up for the next 15 minutes that HIS way is correct, our's is wrong and that he had 4 different rabbis tell him his way is the way to do it.

Apparently he did the same thing last year when they spent Shabbat Chanukah with us and slept (and lit chanukiyah) by friends' of ours. And he did the same thing when he was over at my ex-husband's house.

My married daughter, I assume in an effort to keep the peace in her house, simply says that there are different ways to do it. And despite MULTIPLE people (and different people on different occasions) telling my SIL HE is doing it incorrectly, he insists he's doing it the right way and everyone else is wrong.

For the record, the proper way to set up and light a chanukiyah is facing you, start at the extreme right for day one. On day two, you prepare the two candles from extreme right to the left, but light from the left to the right. And you carry that pattern through the 8 days. My SIL does the exact opposite - starts preparing from the extreme left and goes to the right (I didn't see which direction he lights from).

So... where do I go from here? Their son is going to learn the right way and then get 'corrected' by his father... and we're talking fulfilling a Halachic obligation here. It's like putting Tefillin on wrong or hanging a mezzuzah wrong... if the execution isn't right, it's like you've never done it.

Our bomb shelter

Chewy granola bars

Here's a delicious somewhat healthy snack...

Chewy granola bars

1/2 cup butter or margarine (oil also works quite well)

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

2 T. honey

1/2 tsp PURE vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup oats

1 1/4 cup crisp rice cereal

1 cup chopped nuts*

1 cup chocolate chips or raisins*

In a mixing bowl, cream margarine and sugars.

Add honey, vanilla, and egg. Mix well.

Combine flour,cinnamon, baking powder and salt.

Gradually add the dry mixture to the creamed mixture.

Stir in oats, cereal, nuts, an chocolate chips. 

Press into a greased 9x13" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Yield: 2 dozen bars

 * I use 2/3 cups chocolate chips, 2/3 cups chopped craisins and 2/3 cups almond slivers. Feel free to use whatever you want.

Family Sukkah Project, 2012

That smudge of green, third from the left is my grandson's 'hand print'.

Wonder what next year will bring?

Five Generations

We got back from our 3 week long US vacation. It was the first time my husband, older son and I were back State-side in 5 years. My younger son, obviously, had never been.

About 2 months before our trip, a cousin of mine sent me a link to a photo a professional portrait photographer had done of 4 generations of women (the youngest photo was of the three year old daughter). It was an amazing idea and I immediately set out to do the same for our FIVE generations.

I took the photos of my grandson, daughter, and myself here at home and then when I was in NY took the photos of my mother and grandmother. Then using Photoshop I layered the photos one into the other, did a bit of additional photo editing on the background and here is the final product:

Introducing...

The grandson! Yosef Aryeh, heretofore known as YA.

So much going on!

Baruch Hashem there's a lot of good stuff about to happen in the Pesky household.

My oldest daughter is pretty much due any day now with her first, so I'm about to become a grandma for the first time(I'm not old enough for this!).

My husband, younger daughter, a couple friends and I started a start-up a few months ago and we're about a week away from going live for beta testing. If anyone would be interested in participating in the beta testing, well, if you're on Facebook and like food, let me know!

And we're going to be heading to the U.S. for a few weeks for the first time in 5 years. On the one hand I''m looking forward to it; on the other hand it'll be exhausting. I've been loading up my Pinterest with food ideas.

I made two no-sew wraps and well, made it into a sew project when I added front panel pockets to them. One will go to the #grandfetus and the other will be a gift to a good friend who is also due any day now with her first.

In September I'll be making mei-tais for them... most likely make the colors a bit more gender-specific. And I've been commissioned to make a mei-tai for someone. I may have been commissioned to make a wrap too... I told her she can just go to a fabric store and buy 6 meters of a certain type of fabric and ask them at the store to cut it so she can have 2 6 meter long wraps.

Well, there are dishes that need to get done and then I want to get started on tuna-veggie croquettes for dinner. I'll post the recipe later.

Being chicken

Happily enough, the Ariel Anglo community is experiencing a baby boom with 2 babies born within a week and at least another 3 due over the summer (and then of course I'm awaiting the arrival of my first grandchild).

One of the things the community provides are meals for the new parents and siblings (and whatever visitors they may have). The community also helps with meals on less happy occasions such as hospital stays (my family and I have been the recipient of several meals and invitations out during my many hospital stays over the past 2 years) and we also provide meals for a family in mourning. It's all voluntary and of course you do what you can afford.

Many times several families will split a meal; one or two will make side dishes while another makes a main dish. And it's about the main dish I want to discuss.

Making a whole roasted chicken looks nice, but isn't practical when you're dealing with more than 4 adults (and by adult, I mean anyone older than 13). So the trick is taking one chicken and having enough to put on several plates.

My favorite lately has been chicken pot pie. And since I use frozen veggies and frozen pastry dough which I thaw first, it's REALLY simple and pretty quick.

I take a whole chicken, skin on and poach it in about 3 or 4 cups of water. I have this steaming thing that expands (looks just like this but without the center pole ) which I place the chicken on, so it doesn't sit in water.

Once the chicken is cooked through, remove it from the pot and set aside to cool. Take out the steamer and then add a 700 gram bag of frozen veggies (my favorite mix are carrots, green beans, corn, potatoes, and peas), diced onion, and whatever other veggies you might want (zucchini are always good) to the pot with the concentrated chicken stock. Let it simmer. Add salt and black pepper.

Then shred the chicken and add to the pot.

Now comes the tricky part. You want to thicken the whole thing up so you need to start adding flour a bit at a time. First add bout 1/3 of a cup and give it a good stir. Let it simmer for a bit and if it's not thick enough, slowly add more flour. You don't want to add more than another 1/4 cup.

Roll out your dough and place in your pans. You can use loaf pans, or really any size pans (the recipe makes enough for 2 generously filled 10 inch by 6 inch pans). I've even made individual sized in muffin pans as appetizers and once when I sent food over to a family of 9 after the lady of the house had a baby. I don't bother placing a layer of dough on top, but any dough that's hanging over the side is folded over the top instead.

Then pop into the oven and bake until the dough is a golden brown. The advantage of all this is the filling is entirely cooked through so you don't have to worry about raw chicken and burned dough.

They freeze well, although if you plan on freezing, I would recommend to NOT cook them first and make sure you label them as such. I didn't and much to my embarrassment on a Shabbat lunch with 15 guests, I was suddenly 6 appetizers short. Thankfully I was forgiven.

Another Purim Post

This time, it's of my daughter in her costume:

Purim

So I had sinus obliteration surgery on Monday. Since there was a possibility of my being in the hospital over Purim, I'll admit, I didn't make any preparations and wasn't very 'into' the whole thing.

But thankfully the surgery was much more endoscopic than originally planned so I was discharged on Tuesday. Which meant that I had a whole lot more time for some making Purim. Oh sure, we were still going minimum, after all I had several holes drilled into my skull.. but it suddenly became something I was participating in.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found a recipe for salted caramel and chocolate popcorn and decided to put them into chocolate chip cookie cups. Then simply wrap the whole thing in plastic wraps and viola! Simple, pretty, yet relatively easy to make (to be fair, making caramel is a science).

Shame on them!

Mega b'Ir in Ariel is selling strawberries at 50NIS/kilo. That's about US$13.50/2.24 lbs. What's even more obnoxious is they're selling wonderful strawberries in the shuk for under 15NIS/kilo ($4/2.24 lbs) but they know they have a captive audience in Ariel since many people don't have cars and can't get to Petach Tikvah or Hod Hasharon to the less expensive supermarkets.

SHAME ON YOU!!!

Stumbling blocks

A few friends posted this to their Facebook and I refrained from commenting on their space, so I will in mine.

While I certainly don't agree with certain fanatics trying to erase women from the public, and I firmly believe that every man should be responsible for his own Shmirat Einayim (guarding your eyes), the above 'protest' is a perfect example of the prohibition of Lifnei Iver Lo Titen Michshol (do not put a stumbling block before a blind person).

I personally think flash mobs for a cause are silly and are usually not well done with regard to promoting the cause. And in this case, the vehicle of their protest.. well, I don't think they could have picked a worse way. I'm sure it was intentional.

What's next? Having them stand across the street from a shul during Mincha and sing?