Easy Entertaining Tips

Our entire clan came to our humble succah for a Friday, that's just before Shabbat lunch. Our succah isn't all that large. I don't think we all managed to fit inside at once, even with an extra table and all the chairs set up.

The kids decided on the menu. They'd bring bagels*, and I'd provide the trimmings, salad, cheeses, chummus, techina remember that this is Israel and the rest of the trimmings. One daughter decided to bring pancake mixture, ready to pour, and even her own frying pans, as if I don't have any. But the advantage to that was that she washed them and took them home, so I didn't find them in the sink afterwards. 

Yes, of course, I served on disposable plates etc. Emptying the local reservoir of water isn't good for the environment either. To make things easier for the food fussies, I sliced the fresh vegetables and served them in small individual bowls. Everyone was able to take only what they wanted and assemble their own salads. And we had the food "buffet" inside, since there wasn't room on the tables in the succah. My still referred to as the new kitchen has a convenient counter near the dining room table. Both were needed for the buffet. Yes, there was that much food.

Lots and cheese and spreads were leftover, along with just half a bagel. And the kids were very good in helping to clean up before going to their various homes. But one of the "toddler boys" left his calling card...

I hope the next "family event" will be soon and wonder who's hosting. We take turns.

*technically, they were rolls, not real bagels. Real bagels are pretty much impossible to find nowadays, sigh...

Trick to Polishing Silver

When I showed off my fantastically polished silver candlesticks to a friend last night, her reaction was:

"I had never noticed that you had silver candlesticks." 

That indicates that my silver candlesticks are usually so black and tarnished that she really hadn't seen them. And yes, she has been over many times, including Friday nights when the candles are lit.

Everyone knows that my housekeeping skills are horrendous, and at my age, I don't expect things to improve. So, when friends I hadn't seen in person for decades said, since they're not far from Shiloh for a few days, and they'd like to drop by, I welcomed them. They had apologized for the timing since it's pre-Passover madness season and asked what my plans were. I mentioned polishing the silver.

"I'll polish your silver. It's my favorite job." My friend replied.

I figured she was joking. She had no idea how disgustingly black and tarnished my silver was. But I set up the silver for me to polish and moved, cleaned the cabinet where my candlesticks are displayed.

I knew that if I didn't get the silver polishing done before Shabbat, it wouldn't be done before Passover. Shabbat HaGadol, the last Shabbat before Passover, is my general cut-off for non kitchen cleaning, even though this year with a whole week before the Friday night Seder, I'm making some exceptions.

My silver had been looking awfully black and tarnished for years, ever since I bought bargain priced Hepi silver cleaner, which seemed to have damaged more than shined them.

When our friends came in, she quickly rolled up her sleeves, donned the disposable gloves I offered, took the soft rag, applied a generous squeeze of Hagerty silver cleaner and began to rub off the tarnish. Suddenly I saw real shine. It had never happened like that when I tried to polish silver.

What had my friend done differently to make the silver shine?
She used a dry cloth, not the "damp cloth" recommended by the manufacturers of the various silver polishes I've bought and unsuccessfully used. Apparently, water not only dilutes the polish, but it's not good for the silver.  After polishing, she buffed it with a clean dry cloth. I was instructed that only the cups or other eating implements should be washed.

After my friends went back to their vacation tzimmer, I polished not only the rest of the candlesticks, but all the other silver I could find in the house. Even more amazing than the shine, was that I enjoyed doing it. The reason I enjoyed the polishing was that I had excellent results with very little work. Gd willing, with this new cleaning tip, my silver will shine all year long.

AC Care Tips for Dummies Like Us

I still have no doubt that we're among the very last in Israel's cold mountainous region to have gone modern and gotten an airconditioner for heating. Since we never replace anything while they still function, even poorly, it took us a pretty long time to make the splurge. This is the first full winter we've had it.

On the whole I really love heating the livingroom, plus kitchen and dining area with this airconditioner. The big bonus is that I can set up the folding clothes driers and get the clothes perfectly dry, too.

We hardly used it in the summer for cooling. One reason is that the heat doesn't bother me all that much, and the other is that we renovated the kitchen and had the fridge plugged into that socket, while the work was done.

We've tried to remember to clean the filters, though it's hard to know just how often...

A few weeks ago, I began to notice that periodically the AC would stop, and the little screen would say "HI." After it didn't go back on, within what I considered soon enough, I did an "experiment." I pulled out the plug and then after a couple of minutes, plugged it in and it worked. Then that happened on Shabbat when it's forbidden to play with the plug. So, I waited and eventually it went back on.

So, on the other day, in the midst of the cold stormy weather, when my husband reported that it had stopped and showed "HI," I told him not to worry, even though the AC had been making lots of noise, sounding like a hovering helicopter. Then he reported that only cold air was coming out. So I told him to pull the plug, and he turned it off. A bit later, we cleaned the filter. It was the filthiest I had ever found it. Actually, for the first time it really looked like it needed a cleaning. But I was afraid to turn the AC back on.

The following morning, since we had paid for extra  service, I called Tadiran and told the woman who answered about what had transpired.

"Did you clean the filter?"
"Yes, we just did."
"So, turn it on."
"Really? I had been afraid to."
"No need to be afraid. Tell me if it heats up. It may take a few minutes. And don't worry about the HI. It just means that the AC is defrosting itself."

That's it, thank Gd. Now I know two new things about our AC.

1. HI means the air-conditioner's defrosting, so allow it to continue.
2. If the motor begins making a lot of noise, turn it off and clean the filter.

I hope that helps others. I'd hate to think that we're the dumbest of all.

Keeping The Coffee Fresh

I'm very grateful for all the gifts of American coffee I've gotten over the years, especially since I no longer go to the states. I must keep them as fresh as possible after opening. I saw that the tabs just didn't do the trick, even though instructions say they should.

As you see, I added a simple clothespin to keep the bag closed.

Even though we have a clothes dryer, I rarely ever use it. I have 20 meters of clotheslines and lots of clothespins.