Yummy Late Lunch at HaGov!

On Wednesday, after studying in Matan, I met a friend for lunch.  We wanted to eat at HaGov, the kosher sports bar & grill, since it's now open for the lunch crowd from 2pm every day, Sunday-Thursday.  Since we had time before its opening, we went to the "Designer Outlet" in Talpiyot first.  I got some great bargains there.  I'm glad that I'm now a size that makes it possible to easily find clothes that fit.

Then we drove downtown to HaGov.  We took a table overlooking Yoel Solomon Street and ordered.  I had the Chicken Salad.  They gave it to me, according to my request, just with salad and not with the chips and fried onions.  I make that sort of request in all sorts of restaurants in Israel and abroad.  I don't eat the carbohydrates, and I do like a lot of salad.  It came with slices of toast and a few spreads, as you can see.  I didn't touch the toast, but I added the spreads to my salad.  I also had my first chametz after Passover, beer.  Everything was delicious!

My friend had vegetable soup and edamame, green soy beans.  She also enjoyed her meal.

It's a good thing that HaGov has expanded its hours.  Many people I know had wanted to eat there but don't usually go out at night.

Wedding Pictures, From London to Shiloh

As I cooked for Shabbat, I was entertained by the grand pagent of Prince William and commoner Kate Middleton's wedding.  It sure was more comfortable than those people who had camped out for days.  And I even took pictures:

Shabbat Shalom

Real "Reality TV," or Lillie Langtry's Revenge

No, I wasn't invited either.  As I understand, that puts me in good company.

Prince William is  luckier than his royal predecessors.  He has been allowed to marry a commoner, Catherine Kate Middleton.  If that had been the case for close to the throne royals over a hundred years ago, maybe Lillie Langtry would have had a chance to be queen.

I'm no expert in royal history, nor will I be glued to the TV screen during their wedding.  I'll probably see the highlights online after Shabbat aka Saturday night.  My knowledge of Lillie Langtry is from the fantastic TV series I saw decades ago.

For me this is just another Friday to cook and clean and so some laundry.

I hope the young couple, Will and Kate get that "happily ever after" that his parents missed.  The media and royal reality TV fans may even find it boring....

Am I Wasting Water?

Almost half a year ago, I started a "campaign" to save a sickly, barren apple tree in my "garden."  Since then, besides the rain, G-d provides, I give it the waiting for hot water otherwise wasted when I shower.  Yes, I shower with a bucket to catch water.  This is how the tree looked about four plus months ago.  Actually as winter progressed it looked even worse.  The few leaves you'll see here fell off.

I keep checking up on it, besides the watering.  Here we are in late Nissan, spring in Israel, after quite a bit of late winter rains.  There are now new leaves.  I wonder if I'll get any fruit. 

Do you think feeding it coffee grinds (with a drop of sugar) will help?

Coffee Lovers, Here We Go Again

Anyone who's a friend of mine on facebook knows what coffee I've be drinking...

I haven't been adding too many fb friends recently, so unless you tell me exactly who you are and why you want to be my friend, I'll probably ignore the request.  Sorry

Well, back to the topic, coffee.  I love coffee.  I do, really.  And I know that most things, including coffee, are fine in moderation, so I rarely have coffee after my morning cup cups, two very, very large mugs.

I've been on a quest of sorts to get the perfect coffeemaker, and I think that I'm going back to the old-fashioned kind.  Not as old-fashioned as I've been brewing of late.  I've been boiling my coffee with some sugar in a pot.  Then it sits a few minutes before I pour it into the mug and add water.  I'd like something a bit more advanced, a nice stainless steel percolator.  Now I'll just have to find one on my upcoming (I don't even have tickets yet) trip to the states.

The Great Debate! People Do Argue in Sha'ar Binyamin

No, not politics.  If you don't know Hebrew you won't get this.

And the people pictured are just there for illustrative purposes.  They weren't arguing.

Yesterday at work, one of the Rami Levi people who was taking her break by this display of children's shorts on sale said:

"Your sign is wrong.  It's written:

מכנסיים קצרות michnesaiyim kitzarot short (feminine plural adjective) pants

It should say:

מכנסיים קצרים michnesaiyim kitzarrim short (masculine plural adjective) pants"

Well, you'd think with my awful sounding Hebrew I'd immediately concede that she must be right, but one thing I've learned over the years is that we who've had to learn Hebrew quite often are far superior in grammar.  The level of spoken and written Hebrew has really deteriorated in the forty-plus years I've had to function in the language.

I had no idea who had written the sign, but memories of a relevant lesson still remained rather accessible in my mind.  One of the reasons many of us anglos take so long to feel fluent in Hebrew is that we're perfectionists in our grammar and terrified of making stupid mistakes.  Unlike English, Hebrew adjectives (and verbs) are supposed to match the gender of the nouns they modify/describe/activate.  Frequently my speech slows down while I mentally review all the relevant grammar lessons before finishing a sentence.  Native Hebrew speakers take that as a lack of knowledge, sometimes insulting me by using totally awful English in the mistaken belief that my Hebrew is too weak to converse in.  The truth is that in some ways my Hebrew is better than theirs.

I defended the grammar in the sign by repeating a lesson I vaguely remembered that all the special "two" endings, -ים -ai'yim like shnayayim 2 years, שנתיים na'alayim, shoes נעליים are feminine.  The woman gave me a strange look, as if a "monkey" had given a university lecture.

So, nu, any experts out there?

Who's Rich? The One Satisfied With What He Has

It's very easy to complain, see the bad side of things.  The shiur, lesson/class my friend Chaya gave yesterday, the last day of Passover, was on that theme.  We read the Baal Shem Tov story about the poor couple who could taste soup and fish in their plain beans, as if it was the Biblical Mahn that the Jewish People ate when wandering in the desert for forty years.

THE HOLY SABBATH BEANS

And then there was the time that the Baal Shem Tov called his closest disciples, "Friends, I'm going to show you something that you've never seen before. Just be sure to stay close to me next Sabbath."

The disciples were so excited that they could hardly wait for the next Sabbath to arrive.

Shabbos finally came and they stayed close to the Baal Shem Tov during the prayers, as instructed. When the prayers were coming to a close, they noticed that the Baal Shem Tov was staring at the furthermost corner of the Synagogue. Intrigued, they looked over, but didn't see anything unusual. Just a very poor, simple looking Jewish man praying. But, upon closer inspection, they realized he was praying with great intensity and joy.

The prayers ended and the Baal Shem Tov motioned his disciples to follow him as he left the synagogue. They went outside into the cool night air and began walking down a nondescript dirt road, their path illuminated by the moonlight. After a few minutes they stopped at a house. It was not so much a house as it was a hovel. They realized that this must be the home of the poor Jew they had seen at the Synagogue.

The Baal Shem Tov motioned his disciples to come closer. They stood in silence at the front door, and heard the following conversation that took place between the poor Jew and his wife.

"Good Shabbos, my dear wife," he greeted her joyfully, his face breaking into a wide smile.

"And a good Shabbos to you, my scholarly husband," she replied with a soft laugh.

Soon they could hear the husband singing Shalom Aleichem (Peace to you), and Ashet Chayil to his wife. When he was finished singing, he turned to his wife and asked her to bring in wine for Kiddush. But the couple was so poor that there was no money for wine. So instead, she placed two small Challos on the Sabbath table and said, "My dear, we don't have wine so please make Kiddush over the Challah."

"Okay then, we'll make Kiddush over the Challah. I'm sure it will taste as delicious as the most special, fragrant wine.

After Kiddush in Jewish households on Friday night, it is customary for there to be four courses served. So the husband proceeded to ask his wife to begin the meal. "My dear, please serve the fish course."

His wife stood up and crossed to the other side of their one room house, and returned bearing a platter of cooked beans. She placed a spoonful of beans on each of their plates and said, "May it be G-d's Will that these beans taste like a delicious fish."

As they ate the beans, their faces shone with delight.

After singing a few Shabbos melodies, the husband said, "Thank G-d we have everything we need to celebrate the holy Sabbath. So let's have the soup course."

They both took another spoonful of beans. "Umm, what a wonderful Sabbath soup," they remarked to each other.

Then they had a third spoonful of beans for the meat dish and a fourth spoonful as dessert.

"Come, sweet wife, let us dance to celebrate the Holy Shabbos." So they got up, danced around their Shabbos table and laughed and laughed."

"Now, it is quite obvious that the fish wasn't fish. And the meat wasn't meat. They were eating beans. Were these people crazy, deluded? Had lack of food driven away their common sense?

It would have been easy to doubt what happened if you hadn't witnessed the aforementioned scene. But the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov were there. And, as they stood outside the little house that was illuminated with Shabbos candlelight, they began to feel a warm glow well up within themselves. An inescapable joy that made them want to sing and dance, and praise G-d.

The Baal Shem Tov whispered, "You are each experiencing Shabbos joy like the joy this holy couple have been feeling. You should know that it is not the simple food that they tasted, but the Shabbos itself."

And so it was.

Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir Cohn (Howard M. Cohn, Patent Attrorney) from a Story translated in STORIES OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV by Y.Y. Klapholtz.
as posted on shabbosmeal.blogspot.com

It's too easy to complain about all we have to do, but thank G-d we have so many riches.  Here's a poem, a f2f/fb friend linked to on my page:

Thank God For Dirty Dishes
Author Unknown

Thank God for dirty dishes;
They have a tale to tell.
While others may go hungry,
We're eating very well
With home, health, and happiness,
I shouldn't want to fuss;
By the stack of evidence,
God's been very good to us.

Lots Of Guests, But Not For A Meal

Our diningroom table was full today (last day of Passover,) and I had to keep adding chairs.   All I served were cut fruit and nuts, water, too. 

An unexpectedly large turnout for a rather impromptu shiur, Torah Class.

On Shabbat I had hosted our weekly class.  It was given by a guest, Rabbi Reuven Grodner, who along with his wife were davka staying with neighbors.  For the past few years he gives the class Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach at my house.  When it was over, his wife Chaya offered to give a shiur on the last day of the holiday.  My friends and I loved the idea.  I publicized it on our community email list and asked our shul to announce it. 

I was very nervous that nobody would show up.  Well, I didn't need to worry.  We had three times as many women as on Shabbat, and some even came from another neighborhood.  I guess lots of women felt the need to do more than cook and eat.

Chronic Sleep Deprivation, I'm Guilty, Too

Years ago, when I was doing my teachers license in David Yellin Teachers College, Jerusalem, I made a presentation to the class about the high percentage of kids suffering ADD/HD, all sorts of attention/concentration difficulties.  As a primary, born-with, biological, neurological problem, according to the experts it's only 3-5%, but as all of us in my course filled with working teachers missing a license knew, the proportion of kids in our classrooms was more like one to two thirds, 33-66%.  So, there had to be other reasons besides what G-d gave the kids.

By chance I found an article that described the ramifications of insufficient sleep, and they were identical to those of ADD/HD in terms of attention, memory, impulsivity, logic etc problems.  When I was a kid, there was nothing to do late at night.  Stores were closed, TV was off and there weren't DVD's nor VCR's in existence.  So we all, including adults, got to bed much earlier.

Nowadays, actually the past few dozen years (or decades,) you'll see parents schlepping their kids to the supermarket or mall 10pm or later.  TV shows are broadcast round the clock, and you can choose whatever, whenever you want to watch on the small screen or the computer.

The whole world, children and adults, are sleep deprived!

I found an article in the International Herald Tribune that told me that my six hours of sleep (on a good night) aren't enough.

Not surprisingly, those who had eight hours of sleep hardly had any attention lapses and no cognitive declines over the 14 days of the study. What was interesting was that those in the four- and six-hour groups had P.V.T. results that declined steadily with almost each passing day. Though the four-hour subjects performed far worse, the six-hour group also consistently fell off-task. By the sixth day, 25 percent of the six-hour group was falling asleep at the computer. And at the end of the study, they were lapsing fives times as much as they did the first day.

The six-hour subjects fared no better — steadily declining over the two weeks — on a test of working memory in which they had to remember numbers and symbols and substitute one for the other. The same was true for an addition-subtraction task that measures speed and accuracy. All told, by the end of two weeks, the six-hour sleepers were as impaired as those who, in another Dinges study, had been sleep-deprived for 24 hours straight — the cognitive equivalent of being legally drunk.

Now, how am I going to add two more hours of sleep to my day?  My husband does it with napping, but I'm not a napper.  It's very rare for me to sleep during the day.  I guess that I'll just have to force myself to go to bed earlier whenever possible and get up later, like today, when I really don't need that extra morning time awake.

And if you've been told that your kids are in need of medication for attention/concentration disabililities, try two hours more of sleep first.  You may have to work with your entire community to make sure they're not missing out on activities, but it's worth it!

Even Simple Cell Phones Can Be Too Smart For Their Own or Owner's Good

As I type this, I keep glancing at my cell phone.  Shouldn't or should I..?  "What's the dilemma?" you may be asking yourself.

The problem is that my phone is "too smart."  It's on when it's off.  Duhh?  The alarm rings alarmingly, the way I like it on a weekday, even when I've turned it off and the screen is blank.  Not only is it real spooky, but it disturbed my sleep in the too early morning after the Passover Seder. 

I like getting up at 5am on a week day.  I turn off the alarm and get myself decent enough to spend some "quality time" on the computer, drink lots of water and very yummy coffee.  After a while, I then shower, get dressed, pray and then eat breakfast.

On Shabbat I don't have that routine (and it's forbidden not only to be on the computer but to turn off the phone alarm's loud noise,) so I set up my phone alarm to ring six mornings a week.  Now I have a very risky decision to make.  Do I cancel Monday's alarm or not?  Now, if I do, and I probably will, I'll need reminders to turn it back on.  OK, do you get the hint? Please comment here or email me after Passover to remind me to reset the alarm to go off on Monday's too.  Thanks!

Cooking in Another's Kitchen

There are people who can just enter another person's kitchen and get to work, feel, or at least give the impression of being perfectly comfortable.  I'm not one of them.  I'm very kinesthetic by nature and can be easily disoriented when not by my own set-up and possessions.  I also feel uncomfortable using someone else's equipment.

A few years ago I managed to overcome it when we made the Passover seder at our son's apartment in Jerusalem.  I had cooked almost everything at home.  He added a couple of things and I had to finish off the soup there.  I had made the soup stock, chicken, at home and froze it for easy transporting.  Because of his job at the time, he could only be with us if we came to him.

This year we spent the seder at our married daughter's (the cooked food I brought was ready to heat and serve) and then we returned on Wednesday, the first day of Chol HaMoed for our traditional Passover Savat Brei, the unique version of Matzah Brei my mother-in-law used to make.

Now, I'm the savta (granny, bubbie) and I actually did the cooking in my daughter's gorgeous, large, easy to work in kitchen!  I felt very much at home there.  But I must get her a better spatula.  Hers is for teflon pans, not suitable for the frying in a good stainless steel one needs for Savta Brei.

Passing The Job To The Next Generation

I guess it wasn't all that sudden.  A half a year ago, when my married daughter and family were with us, and her husband was describing how large and wonderful their new kitchen/diningroom/livingroom/family room was to be, he offered to host us and whomever of our single kids wanted to come for the Passover Seder.  As Torah Observant Jews, we don't travel on the Holy Days, so hosting is more than just one meal, it's a twenty-five hour plus event.

Immediately, I agreed, adding that I'd do the cooking.  And that's what we did for the first day (in Israel, there's just one seder) of Passover. 

There were plans for Chol Hamoed (interim semi-holiday) Savta Brei at my house for them and my cousin, her husband and a close mutual friend.  Then my daughter called and asked if I would mind if that, too could be in her house.  I agreed, as did my cousin, so I prepared the batter at home, rinsed vegetables for salad, made the easiest applesauce imaginable and assembled the meal in my daughter's gorgeous kitchen.  The only downside was that instead of taking pictures I was busy in the kitchen.

I have a very strong feeling that we've turned a corner in our family tradition.  For forty years (almost 41) we have been "the family hosts" for many events and Jewish Holidays.  I did this when I was even younger than my youngest child.  There were no alternative family homes to go to for most Chaggim, Holidays.  We do go to my cousin's for Yom Ha'Atzma'ut, Israeli Independence Day, and for a few years we went there for Pesach Chol HaMoed.

No doubt, with time, we'll be sharing more and more of the food preparation.  The Holiday meal the day after the seder was cooked by my son and eldest daughter.

I have no "emotional need" to be the hostess.  I just want to be with family, and it's nice to see that the next generation is willing and able to take on more responsibilities.

Not The Purim Megillah

It's the Passover edition of the Gantseh Megillah; check it out.  There's wide variety of articles.  I represent the "extreme" of one end.  I'm sure you'll find something worthwhile in it.

I appreciate that they include me.

Chag Kasher v'Sameach

Favorite Passover Food?

What's your favorite Passover food, Kosher for Pesach specialty? 

It could be something you only eat on Passover, special ritual food, or something that you can eat any time of the year, but since it can be made according to the special kosher for Passover halachot, Jewish Law, you love eating it on Passover.

My favorite Passover food is Charoset.  Not just any charoset, it must be our traditional recipe.  My daughter is married to a Tunisian Jew, and they serve a very different charoset made with dates.  In Israel it's easy to buy a block of "de-pitted" dates, ready to be rolled or combined with whatever you wish.   You may also put some in a bowl, add boiling water and mix to make it the consistency of a great healthy DATE SPREAD.  Use it instead of jam in sandwiches, on crackers or matzah, or even to ice a cake.

Vegans and fruitarians (or if you're entertaining some and looking for suitable menu ideas) can (and probably do) eat some version of Charoset all year long.  Maybe they leave out the strong, sweet red wine.

My family loves Savta Brei, the very unique Matza Brei my mother-in-law and now for the past forty years I make.

Post-Seder, Catching Up on Sleep

With all the pre-Passover cleaning, cooking and working in Yafiz, I entered Pesach in the red, sleep-wise.

We had a very child-oriented seder at  my daughter's house.  The eldest grandchild took turns with some of the adults reading from the Hagaddah.  I had done most of the cooking, and there was too much food.  Some of it my daughter kept and even froze.  The rest I took home.  Son #1 did a barbeque for the lunch meal.  Of course I ate too much.

Later in the afternoon we ate geffilte fish, my recipe.  And we ate lots of vegetables.

I drank only one type of wine at the seder.  Nobody else wanted any of it.  I finished the bottle and we have more.  It's a local wine, very local.  Last summer I had offered a neighbor my grapes, totally organic for wine making.  That's what I drank at the seder.

Now, my mind is able to shut down.  I need my sleep.  Good night!

Did I Tell You What I Cooked?

For our Passover Seder and first day Passover Holiday:

I never plan menus with themes.  (I generally write down the menu as I cook.)  The only theme I manage is using what I have.  Some people may call that rather boring or complain that my "food doesn't match."  My meals have protein, salads and lots of vegetables and yes, starch (carbohydrates) for those who eat it.  That's my theme of sorts.

So, I'm not one of those searching for just the right... whatever to suit the recipe.

Some of our tomatoes had waited too long to get into the fridge, so I made a rattatui of sorts with them and the eggplant, an onion and lots of squash.  I preboil the eggplant in another pot and put the cooked eggplant in the other vegetables after draining the water.  And we only use olive oil on Passover.  This year I didn't even buy the special no kitniyot (legumes) margarine.   I sautéed it all in a good covered pot, and added some granulated garlic.  I couldn't use the oregano in the store, because it said "for kitniyot eaters only."

I baked sticks of Israeli squash with some onion and olive oil.

I also split a couple of sweet potatoes and baked them, too.  And I wrapped white potatoes in foil, and baked them, also.

I cooked up some onions, carrots, zucchini and cauliflower, sautéed then covered and cooked (cauliflower added when the other ingredients were already cooking.  Since there was too much cauliflower for the pot, I baked the rest, just poured some egg, olive oil and paprika over them.  I could have eaten the entire tray myself and hope enough is left for the family.

I made simple potted meatballs with ground turkey meat in tomato sauce.  And I cooked up lots of chicken in a giant pot, flavoring it with onions, paprika, pepper and ?

There may be something else, but I can't remember.  Not enough sleep the last few nights.

My husband is doing the soup and the ritual stuff, charoset and chrain (horseradish.)

Nu, what have you been cooking?

Logistitcs, logistics, Fitting it all in

I did a ton of cooking today for Passover, and I finished cleaning and..  and... yes, of course I'm tired. 

Luckily we have a custom here.  I don't know when it started.  My husband brings home felafel for the post-Bedikat Chametz, Searching/Checking for Chametz ceremony meal.  I hope I just made sense.   I'm tired, or did I say that already?  My hands are rough and cracked.  My shoulders hurt.  Boy, am I a kvetch!

Now I have to figure out how to put all the cooked food and not yet cooked food in the fridge.  I hope that everything has cooled sufficiently to do it.

Sorry for boring you.  If you have the time, visit To Kiss A Mezuzah.  Her father just passed away, but she still posted the latest Havel Havelim because it was ready, beforehand.

Now back to the kitchen...

Caption This X Two! Are You Clever? Prove it!

Picture #1

Picture #2

None of these were posed, just proof of how important it is to be well armed, with a camera, at all times.

Cleaning Interrupted by CSI

Our house is almost ready for Passover.  Cleaning isn't my cuppa tea.  That makes this season one which I dread.

According to Jewish Law we have to use different kitchen equipment, dishes etc for Passover, and we have to clean everything before the switch.  This has to be finished by Monday morning, but that wouldn't give me enough time to cook, so most was done before Shabbat, and most of the remaining work was done after Shabbat. 

I was just about to blog something here, when my husband called to say that CSI was on.  It was too late for me to start watching, so I told him I'd skip, as I've been recently. Then he said that this was the continuation of the CSI Las Vegas where the head guy was stabbed, so...  yes, you guessed, I left the computer and just wasted time watching.  It's a good episode, and of course left us in suspense again.

Dumb me, I should have stayed away.  I need my sleep.

So, Good Night!

Let's Make it a Great Shabbat, Shabbat HaGadol

If I was really wealthy, I'd go away for this Shabbat, Shabbat HaGadol, just before Passover, especially on a year like this one when the seder is on a Monday night.  OK, if I really had money, I'd have paid help, instead of working almost double my usual weekly hours at Yafiz, which pays me less than I'd get if I hired myself as cleaning help to someone else.  I'm not good at cleaning.  I'm not good at folding clothes.  Luckily at work I'm good great with the customers helping them choose what to buy.  I really enjoy that part of work.  That's what brings the money in, so they can forgive my sloppy folding.  It's one of the things I like about my job.  The store is large enough to need a number of staff at all times, and we can do what we do best.

Now, about Shabbat...
For years I've been saying that it's called the Great Shabbat, Shabbat HaGadol to remind us that Shabbat is more important, greater than housework, even pre-Pesach cleaning.  We mustn't lose perspective.  Too many of us do, including on occasion yours truly.

Yesterday morning, before going to work, I completed my Shabbat cooking.  Today, once I logout of all this internet stuff, and after I have my breakfast, it's time to finish cleaning the kitchen and then converting it into a Kosher for Passover haven.  I'll leave a shelf in the fridge for the chometzdik Shabbat food. And there will be plenty of disposable dishes, cups and utensils to use on Shabbat. And then after Shabbat we'll do the final sink kashering and covering up of basic surfaces.  Sunday will be seder and first day holiday cooking day, G-d willing.  Monday my husband will make the ritual foods, like charoset and grated horseradish.

Back to Shabbat, again, am I losing focus?

So, yes, with all the Pesach stuff/preparations on our minds, it is very easy to lose focus on Shabbat.  That's why this week's Shabbat is called Great Shabbat, Shabbat HaGadol.  We must make it great, even greater than most Shabbatot.  Isn't that why it's customary to listen to a special shiur, Torah lecture on Shabbat afternoon?

We must glorify this Shabbat, even if we're eating on disposable plates.  Serve something very tasty.  If you've bought more than one new outfit for the holiday, or more than one new item of clothing, then how about wearing it this Shabbat?

Shabbat is the holiest day of the week, and it's holier than most holidays. Yes, the laws of Shabbat override every Jewish Holiday except Yom Kippur.

Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach

Have a Peaceful and very Pleasant and Blessed Shabbat!