Tefilat Chana, 2018, תפילת חנה 5778, Here in Shiloh

Last night was the annual Tefilat Chana תפילת חנה at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh. Thousands attended, mostly high school girls. Over the years, when Tel Shiloh was under different managements, there were other programs called Tefilat Chana תפילת חנה.  I believe that last night's basic program featuring an inspiring talk by Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi followed by female singers was the seventh.

Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh opened for the event from 5pm, and Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi gave her talk at 8pm, so there was plenty of time to walk around, buy food and noshes, jewelry, clothes and various Judaica. And there was also a special prayer program at the site of the Mishkan, Tabernacle.

To be honest, I didn't check out the prayer at the Mishkan, Tabernacle site. I looked at the crafts and jewelry and even bought myself some gorgeous earrings made and designed by Miriam Feyga Bunimovich. She's selling her jewelry and her husband's woodwork in the First Station to day and tomorrow. Hint...

There were other stands with jewelry, but most were the same you'd find anyplace. I was impressed by the practical Judaica, like the covers for Shabbat hotplates. I received one years ago and still use it on Shabbat and Jewish Holidays.

I also met with friends who were attending. The weather was perfect. What surprised me was the amount to attendees who said that it was their first time in Shiloh.

Tefilat Chana is held the week before Rosh Hashanah. Please try to attend next year.

Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah

New Watch, Yes, Again

Here it is:

I haven't had very good luck with cheapo watches recently, so I got one a drop better. At least the salesgirl insists that it's guaranteed for a year. The last two didn't last a year. So this is my third new watch in just over a year, and I truly hope it lasts a lot longer than the previous two. It cost a bit more than I had planned on paying, but the style I wanted didn't come in any color I'd wear.

It was bought in Center 1, which is near the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. I didn't have the time to go all the way into the Center of Jerusalem to shop.

Practical Low Tech Kitchen Gadget

For someone like me who eats and cooks lots of fresh fruit and vegetables this little sink hanging insert seems like a great idea.

I found it in the Naaman Outlet, Pisgat Zeev Mall, when I was there to buy a dish-drainer. Instead of having to clutter my counter with a plastic strainer for the wet produce, I can now let it drip into the sink.

Before buying it, I had to ascertain that it would be a suitable size.  That was more complicated, since my sink is a bit larger than standard. First I called my husband who was home and asked him to measure the sink. Then I checked all of the labels on the drainer to see who large it is. No dimensions listed, so I asked the young clerk who was manning the shop for a tape measure. He didn't have one. So I looked around at other items of similar sizes to find something with measurements, and I found one. Then I compared the size of the drainer with that item and visually calculated the approximate size. According to my estimate, it should fit, so I bought it. And I also explained to the young clerk what I had done and demonstrated to him. I added that he should request from his boss a tape measure or they may lose sales.

There wasn't a color that really matched my kitchen, so I chose the lilac for fun.

A Peek into The New Kitchen, The New Dish Drainer

I must confess that although my new kitchen has been functioning for a couple of weeks, I haven't finished setting it up. There are still some things, mostly Pesach/Passover dishes I haven't put away, and there are a number of items I still have to buy, such as a couple of stools for sitting at the dairy counter/table and a step-ladder or stool to help me reach some upper shelves. Remember that I'm short and most probably getting shorter.

Yesterday I finally got myself a new dish drainer for the dairy sink. My husband and one of our daughters picked out a different one for the meat sink last week, which was assembled by a son who dropped by very luckily for us. The counter area around the sinks are different, so what's good for one doesn't fit the other sink. And for the past few years, my husband washes the meat/fleishig dishes, while I was the dairy and parve ones.

A lot of people told me to buy the dish drainers and other kitchen accessories online, but I like to see and touch products first, even though I have a good concept of size and space. And for sure I'm going to have to try out the stools, to make sure I feel comfortable getting on and off.

Since I had refused to allow the old dish drainers into the new kitchen, to be perfectly honest I had wanted to replace them for at least a decade. The cutlery compartment was always falling off, besides after years of use, it was grimy. In the interim I purchased a couple of those dish-dryer cloths which are popular nowadays.  They were disastrous. Even my talents couldn't prevent breakage. One of my favorite dishes flew off and shattered. Maybe they're good when you just wash a few things by hand, but there was no way I could safely pile up all the dishes, pots, pans, cutlery etc I had.

So, yesterday I went off to buy myself a new dish drainer. My original plan was to buy a hanging one, rather small to hang to the left of the sink on the wall, but my son convinced me that it wouldn't work well. So, I just looked for a small counter one. There actually is enough space on the counter for a larger dish drainer, but I plan on using the counter space for eating and food preparation.

I decided to go to the mall in Pisgat Zeev for two reasons. First of all, it is relatively close by. Second, it has two stores, which most probably would have a choice of dish drainers at reasonable prices. The stores are the Naaman Outlet where everything is discounted; I got the tray/basket for onions there. And there is a Home Center, which has a really nice selection of products, though it's not one of their larger branches.

First I went to the Naaman, and they had one dish drainer. It seemed nicely made, not too big, but it was only one level, meaning not much drying space, and cost NS100. So I then went to the Home Center, where there was an really large choice of dish drainers of all materials, sizes, styles etc. I ended up choosing one on display that I had noticed previously. The size seemed right, and it has two levels, plus a small compartment for cutlery and a section for hanging glasses. It was the most efficiently planned one on display, a real space-saver. At NS80, the price was right, too. It was the last of that model and didn't have a box. I had to pay another 30 agarot for a large bag, since bags are no longer free in most stores, and it was too large for the bags I had brought along.

I washed it well when I got home, and it's now in use. For full sinks of dishes, I do have the cloth to cover the counter...

What do you think of it?

#morningcoffeehaiku in New Kitchen

hard to choose a mug
at least the coffee's ready
cold press in the fridge
#morningcoffeehaiku

such perfect coffee
grateful for my new kitchen
Rosh Hashanah soon
#morningcoffeehaiku

strong sun defeats clouds
cold strong coffee wakes me up
Gd willing great day
#morningcoffeehaiku

love my new kitchen
enjoying the great upgrade
planning was fun, too
#morningcoffeehaiku

coffee wakes me up
sun still hidden by grey clouds
perked last night and chilled
#morningcoffeehaiku

early coffee, sigh
didn't sleep enough again
too much on my mind
#morningcoffeehaiku

another grey morn'
looks brighter with new cellphone
coffee cheers up day
#morningcoffeehaiku

morning sans smartphone
it died suddenly last night
still coffee sunshine
#morningcoffeehaiku

awfully early
didn't sleep enough last night
coffee to rescue
#morningcoffeehaiku

Jerusalem Beer Festival, Great Fun

For the second year in a row, I joined the Beer Maivin aka Doug Greener at the Jerusalem Beer Festival in Independence Park. We all had a wonderful time. I stayed until the noise aka music made it impossible to talk, and then I trekked home, train, bus and tremps.

Of course, I was at the beer festival to drink Israeli craft beer and sample lots of new ones. This year the new and interesting beers were the fruity kind. At one stand there were what I considered "dessert beers." They were sweet, one more an apple cider and the other had a strong pineapple taste. I prefered the pineapple. At a different stand I tried a cherry one, which was awful. It had a very strong taste of artificial cherry, sort of like children's syrupy medicine.

The larger Israeli craft beer companies have been making deals with foreign craft beermakers. One got together with a beermaker in  Arizona, and they came up with what they called the 7 C's. The "C's" are different types of hops. I liked the Israeli version of it.

Basically, I used this wonderful opportunity, the Jerusalem Beer Festival, to hone in on my beer preferences. I like a strong dark beer which tastes like beer and doesn't mask the hops with other flavors. And to be honest, I do better drinking beer than wine.

Make sure you join us next year.

Homemade, Handmade Challah So Simple

Above are the challah ingredients, written rather simply. I keep this note on the fridge. I used to have an index card box with recipes, but they got trashed long before the cookbooks. In all honesty, I don't remember where the recipe came from. It sort of evolved, and it's a bit different every time I make it. I don't have a functioning mixer and haven't had one for ages. I bake "by hand." And I don't have the strongest of hands. It's not all that hard, though you can use a mixer dough hook if you want. The kneading will just take less time.

A few years ago, when my friend got her "new kitchen," she did a chanukat hamitbach, kitchen dedicating/opening ceremony by inviting lots of friends to a challah-baking evening. It was led by a neighbor who showed us how challah-baking is a very spiritual time, and as we physically handle the dough we should be praying and blessing our family, our children and grandchildren.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar (I use dark brown)
2 Tablespoons or a bit more of dehydrated yeast
approximately 2 kilo flour (I used 70% whole wheat extra fine)
pinch of coarse salt
3 1/2 cups of warm water (4 cups if no eggs)
1 cup of any vegetable oil
2 eggs (optional)
1 egg for painting to make a shiny challah

Instructions:

1. Put almost all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl, but just use a cup of flour.
2. Mix
3. Add the warm water.
4. Cover with plastic.
5. When it looks all bubbly and has risen add the oil (and eggs).
6. Mix
7. Gradually add flour, mixing all the time, until you can knead it, without getting your hands all sticky.
8. Knead for about 8 minutes.
9. Coat completely in a bit more oil.
10. Cover and wait until doubled in size, anything from 20 to 40 minutes depending on the weather and quality of yeast.
11. Punch down, then cover and wait again. 
12. "Take a piece of challah" for the blessing.
13. Punch down and shape. The shaping as you can see in my photos can be very simple.
14. Paint with raw egg and let the challot rise a bit.
15. Bake. *Start in a hot oven, and then lower temperature when you can see the challah begin to brown a bit.
16. It's ready when hard on the bottom and has a hollow sound when tapping the bottom.
17. Let cool out of the oven.
18. Enjoy for Shabbat, Jewish Holidays or whenever you want a special bread.

PS They freeze well.

*There are too many factors to predict exact baking time. For temperatures I think that I started baking close to 200c and ended more like 170c. But remember that each oven is different, and it depends on whether you're doing turbo and how many trays etc. Of course Farenheit numbers are different.

Decorated New Phone Case

Yesterday I went down one of the main commercial streets in downtown Jerusalem looking for a case for my new smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi A2. But it was a waste, because they haven't gotten any nice ones in.

So far the worst thing about the phone is that it's black, and nice colorful cases for it haven't been marketed here in Israel for it. Apparently, it does come in other/nicer colors, but the store I bought it in only had black.  I need a simple case, since I carry it in my pouch/fanny-pack. All I could find was clear or black.

It occured to me that I could decorate it with stickers, and I envisioned pretty colorful flowers all over the freebie case that came with the phone.

So, this morning I went into the local toy etc store for stickers. They didn't have what I wanted, so I spoke to the owner who pointed to special stickers, davka for phones. Of course, I hadn't had a clue there were such things.

The total price was NS8, or just over $2- and a few minutes of cutting and pasting.

Granted I don't have the phone case of my dreams, but I'm happy with it, B"H. It's certainly fine for the time being.

Last Week of Pool Season

Sad. I really think that this year I must join the one in Ariel.

Hamlet in Motion, Hurry, Just 2 More Performances

Last night I had an amazingly enjoyable evening watching, or following, Hamlet in the Bloomfield Park behind the King David Hotel, Jerusalem. It was this year's production of Shakespeare in the Rough. This amateur theater group is wonderful, and the actors seemed to have as much fun as the audience. I was really impressed by the amount of young children in the audience, and they were enjoying themselves.

Hurry to see the play, as there are just two more performances. It's free, though a donation would be appreciated. 5:30 pm Bloomfield Park, today and tomorrow; follow the fun.