AbleVaybel

Raita and Tzatziki

2007-07-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not a huge yogurt fan, but strained yogurt is outstanding, especially in the hot weather. It's so great not to have to put the stuff in a coffee filter to get the water out of it, but I'm willing to do that because it makes such a huge difference in the taste. By all means, if you can get kosher strained yogurt, pay the difference and buy it.

I make both raita and tzatziki - two yogurt dips/sauces from India and Greece respectively - which are great when you don't feel like cooking or eating anything. This yogurt has about 15g of protein in 7 oz (200 g), so it's a good source of easily digested protein.

[b]Easy Raita [/b]
(Indian Yogurt Sauce)

3 tblsp fresh mint (use dried if you have to)
1 tsp fresh ginger (" ")
1/2 c. fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves (substitute parsley if you hate cilantro)
1 clove garlic
salt
pepper
(garam masala - Indian spice mixture, if you like and have it)

Grind these in a food processor or blender until paste-like

Whir in:
1 peeled and seeded cucumber, chopped. Drain on paper towels if it's really wet

Make sure there is some substance left to the cucumber

Blend with:

2 - 3 cups Greek strained yogurt

Serve cold with rice or any grain - quinoa is a great choice here. Or just enjoy as is.

[b]Tzatziki[/b]
(Greek Yogurt and Cucumber Sauce)
(Makes about 3 1/2 cups.) This sauce is great with grilled zucchini or any grain dish. If you don't worry about mixing meat and milk, as most Greeks don't, it's a classic with lamb and any other grilled meat. I've also had this combined with avocado and it's quite yummy. Add more yogurt and it becomes a dip.

2 medium cucumbers, seeded and diced.

Peel cucumbers, then cut in half lengthwise and take a small spoon and scrape out seeds. Discard seeds. (If you use the small seedless or European cucumbers with few seeds, you can skip this step.) Dice cucumbers, then put in a colander, sprinkle on 1 T salt, and let stand for 30 minutes to draw out water. Drain well and wipe dry with paper towel.

Juice of one lemon (about 3 T - warm lemon in micro first to get more juice)
1 garlic clove, chopped
about 1 T kosher salt for salting cucumbers
1 T finely chopped fresh dill
1 T finely chopped mint leaves (if you'd like)
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

In food processor with steel blade, add cucumbers, garlic, lemon juice, dill, and a few grinds of black pepper. Process until well blended. This is different from the raita, where you want more cucumber niblets left in the sauce.

Stir in:

3 cups Greek Yogurt (or regular plain yogurt, strained)

Taste before adding any extra salt, then salt if needed. Place in refrigerator for at least two hours before serving so flavors can blend. (This resting time is very important.)

Some people like to add:

A dash of extra virgin olive oil

and/or

A dash of Ouzo - greek liquor - I have a bottle of "Bnei Brak" stuff that could be used but I HATE licorice/anise so I'm not going there myself.

This will keep for almost a week in the refrigerator, but you will need to drain off any liquid and stir each time you use it.

Blintzkrieg!

2007-05-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

Yep, even "Mad Dog" MD loved blintzes.

Not one, but two kinds of blintz shells, one more typical for crepes, the other some blinchiki variant. Both good but they are two different tastes. We don't put fruit in our blintzes usually, preferring to pass fruit sauces on the side.

The Shells:

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 1/2 cups of milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

Beat the eggs and milk together. Then gradually sift in the flour,
salt and sugar. The mixture must be thin and so if it happens that it
comes out thick, add a bit more milk.

Melt margarine in a large frying pan and when hot, put about 3
tablespoons of the batter into the pan, tilting the frying pan to make
the blintz thin. Cook each crepe-pancake until it just begins to brown
and slide out of pan on to a waiting plate. Put the cooked side up to
receive the filling.

Sour Cream Batter

1 egg

1/4 milk

3/4 cup sour cream

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup sifted flour

butter for frying

Beat egg, milk & sour cream together with salt. Stir in the flour, mixing until smooth - no lumps. Next, heat some butter in a 7" skillet. Pour about 2 tblsp in to pan, tilting the pan to spread the batter evenly. Fry until brown and turn to brown other side. (makes about 16)

Pre-heat oven to 450.

Filling:

This should be prepared before the shell so that it may be added when
the shell is ready.

2 packages of cream cheese of your liking

2 egg yolks mixed well - or just say to heck with it and go with two whole eggs

3 teaspoons of melted butter

6 teaspoons of vanilla flavored sugar

1 pinch salt

Mix filling ingredients together until they are smooth.

Place a heaping tablespoon of the filling on the edge of the
crepe-pancake. Fold over from the two sides to protect the filling
from leaking out and roll up like a jelly roll. Roll over to seal blintz; it should look like a flat
cigar.

At this point the blintzes may be fried to be served now, bake 450 in buttered baking dish for 10 min, or frozen for
later consumption. l

Smell Cookies

2007-05-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

Tom's favorites!

Smell Cookies

2 1/2 c. flour
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp soda
1 c butter
1 slightly beaten egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 325 f.

Cream flour and sugar. Add egg, extracts and beat. Mix soda with flour and add to butter mixture. Incorporate the last part with hands.

Roll into 1" balls and place on ungreased baking sheet or parchment. Leave at least 1" between as cookies spread. Bake 15 - 18 minutes but do not let get brown. Cool on rack. Cookies remain chewy.

Carrot Cilantro Couscous Salad with Tahini Dressing

2007-05-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

Moroccan Carrot Cilantro Couscous Salad with Tahini Dressing
1 cup prepared whole wheat couscous or 1 cup quinoa
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup drained canned garbanzo beans
Generous handful of chopped cilantro
Shredded romaine or spinach
(Slivered toasted almonds, optional)

Stir together couscous, carrots, beans and cilantro. Then heap on top of romaine lettuce or spinach leaves.

Tahini Dressing
1 tbsp. tahini
1 tbsp. water
Juice of 1/2 lemon
A dash of coriander or cumin
1 clove chopped garlic

Stir it all together. Pour over salad.

Cheesecake!

2007-04-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

The Joy of Cheesecake has this amazing Passover cheesecake, which, frankly is too good for just one time a year. Shavuos is coming up next month, aka the blintz and cheesecake holiday, so there's a good time to try this out. You could definitely do this with Splenda if you are splendarific, which I am not.

It's got some good protein going on!
Try it with the matzoh meal crust (which is a restaurant standard these days for cheesecakes). Graham cracker will work too, not during Pesach, obviously, but it's higher in sugar:

Matzoh Meal crust: 1 c Matzoh Meal, 4 T Butter, Melted, 3 T Sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Blend ingredients well in a bowl. Press mixture onto the bottom and partly up the sides of a greased 8" springform pan. Smooth crumbs to an even thickness. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool before filling.

Filling: 1 c cottage cheese (or ricotta if you don't want to sieve and drain), 1/2 lb cream cheese, 2/3 c sugar, 3 large eggs, separated, 1 t grated lemon rind, 1 T potato starch, 1 c sour cream

Oven should be cooled to 325 degrees.

Press the cottage cheese through a sieve. Drain. Beat together the cottage cheese, cream cheese, sugar and egg yolks. Stir in the lemon rind, potato starch and sour cream until just mixed. Beat the egg whites (in a separate bowl) until the form stiff peaks, then fold the whites into the cheese mixture.

Pour the mixture into the prepared crust and bake for 1 hour or until set. Allow to cool in the oven, with the door propped open, for 1 hour. Chill.

Exotic Fruit Salad - Easy

2007-04-21T18:40:00.001-07:00

I was experimenting with a chopped fruit salad that would be sweet and tasty, but high in fiber. This is what I came up with:

12 oz mango slices or chunks - FROZEN (important!)
3 granny smith apples, cored and sliced, but unpeeled
1 can crushed pineapple in own juice, drained
1 lemon
1/2 cup chopped toasted almonds or pecans
cinnamon
(1/4 cup sweet wine, if desired)
(1 tbsp honey, if desired)

Core and slice the apples. Juice the lemon and toss the apple slices with the juice. Chop the apples coarsely in a food processor or a mezzaluna. Put back in the bowl with the lemon juice and toss. Chop the frozen mangoes in the food processor or with a mezzaluna. If they are not frozen, they will turn to mush! Mix with the apples and juice and toss. Add cinnamon to taste - about 1/2 - 1 tsp. Mix well. Add wine if desired. Mix again. Last, add honey and pineapple and nuts. Let stand at room temperature to meld and then refrigerate. Will keep a week in the fridge.

If you like, you can make this with fresh mint for a different taste. It is also good with coconut, which I like, but DH isn't keen about. I could also think to substitute coriander for cinnamon and chop cilantro and serve the salad as a type of chutney.

Two More Pesach Recipes

2007-04-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

From various sources:

Brownies

"Finally...the brownie recipe, as adapted from the St. Louis Post Dispatch 3/28/1988
Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan.(foil works fine)

4 eggs, well beaten (egg beaters are ok)
2 cups granulated sugar
½ Cup cocoa powder
1 Cup canola oil ( I am going to try 1/2 apple sauce & 1/2 oil this year)
½ tsp. Salt
1 cup matzo cake meal (sift if you are not as lazy as I am)
1 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)
2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels

1. Beat eggs with sugar, cocoa, oil and salt.
2. Gradually add the matzo cake meal.
3. Stir in pecans* and chocolate morsels, and pour into the baking pan.
4. Bake 30-40 minutes. You want a toothpick to come out a little sticky.
(*my kids don’t like the nuts, so after I have poured the batter into the pan, I add the nuts to ½ the pan & gently stir a bit)
NOTE: recipe can be halved and baked in a 9 x 9 inch pan."

"Kugelettes"

"Potato Kugelettes

1 1/2 cups Idaho potatoes (I use Russets), grated and drained
3/8 cup onions, grated
3 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
freshly ground pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons rendered chicken fat (NO substitutions), plus fat to grease the muffin tins
matzo meal, for dusting muffin tin

1. Preheat oven to 375~

2. Combine all ingredients

3. Grease a 24 cup mini-muffin tin with chicken fat and dust with matzo meal. Place 1 T of filling per muffin cup and bake for 25 min. until golden.

Yield 24 kugelettes

This recipe is from Patty Unterman, a San Francisco restaurant reviewer and restaurant owner (Hayes St. Grill.)"

Passover Menu 5767

2007-04-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

We've bagged the brisket this year and are going with the following menu:

Asian inspired gefüllte fish - cilantro, spring onions, toasted sesame seeds. 1lb of fish - total - yielded 12 large patties. I reduced the stock by 3/4s and let it jell.

Avgolemono - Greek egg/lemon chicken soup - You can find a good starting point in Jewish Holiday Cooking by Joan Nathan, although mine is more Turkish than Greek (shhh!)

Braised beef roast with carrots and pearl potatoes and home preserved peaches

Heart of palm and marinated artichoke salad

Apio made with 2 kinds of celery and artichokes - another starting point for this is Taste of Tradition

3 kinds of macaroons - almond/cocoa; chocolate coconut, white macaroons with pecans. The cocoa one is based on Mama Leah's Jewish Kitchen, but made KLP by making my own confectioners sugar with ultrafine sugar and potato starch.

Nut torte with coffee filling - weather permitting

3 kinds of charoses - Iraqi with coconut, figs, dates, apples, raisins; mango/apple (my version of Janos Wilder's from Joan Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America; and a Georgia version of standard Ashkenazi apple/pecan. And April is national pecan month in the US.

2007-03-31T22:09:00.000-07:00

I've been baking, and baking! I have made three kinds of macaroons -
one with almonds/cocoa, one with chocolate and coconut and another
very simple, but delicious, kind with cream cheese and coconut. The
last ones I was able to make (even though it has been very wet) as they
have no eggs. Lemon bars are done and suitably tart.

The cooked haroses is finished - modified charoses of joy. I made it
this yearwith dates, figs, raisins, coconut, almonds, wine, homemade
peach brandy, and apples. There are two more kinds to be made - Janos Wilder's one with mango and pecans and the other more standard Ashkenazi with apples and hazelnuts.

The gefillte fish came out very well, I think. I abandoned tradition
totally and made an Asian inspired variation - I used toasted sesame seeds, cilantro and chopped green scallions and freshly ground
Szechuan pepper in the mix of salmon, whitefish and walleye (along
with egg and matzoh to bind). I then poached them in homemade stock
and then reduced the stock and added more herbs to put the poached gefillte balls in.T said it tasted very good - enough to make even
a non-gefillte fish fan hungry! Horseradish we bought on Essex St. on
the Lower East Side when we were there. Soup is also on the list for
tomorrow - I'll probably make the soup and then put the chicken into a
Greek egg/lemon sauce. Then we'd have another dinner off the list.

Chopped liver is still to be made, and I want to get one of the minas made for the second or third day. I plan to make the spinach and cheese kind.
Also tomorrow I'll make a chopped heart of palm and artichoke heart salad and a sweet-sour artichoke dish. I've also got plans for your nut torte, but that may fall by the wayside if the rain doesn't abate. On the other hand they say it will snow again on Tuesday. Can you believe we are only 4 people for dinner?!? My old classmate from Cal is coming up from Madison where he's in law school. DH would be up for it
being just the two of us, I think. We are also inviting a former colleague of T's. Three guys and me. I hope they are good eaters.

Actually, most of the sweets - and half of the charoses - will be
given away. But I am genetically incapable of cooking for just a small number of people. Know thatproblem?

Pesach Notes

2007-03-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

Assorted recipes for Passover:

Skordalia

One of our family's faves at Pesach is Skordalia, the Greek potato-garlic spread. It's not intuitive for the holiday - and I know some people have a family custom of not eating garlic at Passover - but we aren't allowed to visit our "mythpocha" in Los Angeles without bringing at least two quarts!

This is more or less how I make it - I've done it with and without the almonds and both variants are good. You can substitute potato starch or matzoh meal, too:

Skordalia

1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed
Kosher salt, as needed,
8 -10 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup whole blanched almonds
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup water
Juice of 1-2 lemons, freshly squeezed
Freshly ground black pepper

Cook potatoes until very tender, about 30 minutes. Drain the potatoes and let cool slightly. Rub the skins off the potatoes and discard them. Coarsely chop the potatoes and puree them.

Sprinkle the garlic with a generous pinch of the salt and smash it into a fine paste with the side of a knife.

In a food processor, combine the garlic, almonds, and oil and puree into a paste. Mix the oil mixture into the potatoes until incorporated; then mix in the 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon salt, water, lemon juice, and season with pepper, to taste. Keep refrigerated until needed and let come to room temperature before serving. Great on matzoh or with brisket.

Passover Pumpkin Soup

This is a strange but nice recipe I first tried at a friend's in San Francisco. This is my version. Be sure to use a green-skinned so-called "Japanese" pumpkin or buttercup squash, as you can use the skin and flesh. You could use a regular squash, but then you have to steam and remove the skin.

1 Japanese pumpkin or 1 large buttercup squash
3-5 cloves garlic
2-3 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp fresh grated galanga root (optional)
1 tsp turmeric (optional, but suggested)
1 tsp Madras curry powder (optional)
2 cups sliced white or wild mushrooms
Enough water, soy milk, vegetable stock or milk (if you are having a milchig meal) to thin to desired consistency
Salt/Pepper as desired

Quarter the pumpkin or squash and remove seeds and stringy fibers. Steam for 45 min or until tender. Sautee the garlic, spices and mushrooms until just brown. Put all ingredients into a bowl and mash together, or blend in a food processor or blender, until smooth. Add liquid to desired thinness. Adjust seasonings and either chill until needed or reheat. Best if allowed to stand for a day in the fridge to allow flavors to blend.

These are not my favorite almond-chocolate macaroon recipes, but will have to do until I can dig the book out:

CHOCOLATE -ALMOND MACAROONS

Ingredients:

¾ cup whole or slivered blanched almonds
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces
3 egg whites
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup sugar
½ tsp. vanilla
Whole natural or blanched almonds

Directions:

Grind almonds stop-and-go fashion in electric blender. Grate chocolate in blender similarly. Beat egg whites with salt until barely stiff. Gradually beat in sugar; continue beating until very stiff. Fold in ground almonds, chocolate and vanilla. Drop by mounded teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheet. Top each with an almond. Bake at 300 degrees, 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly browned but still moist in center. Gently transfer to wire rack to cool.

Makes about 32 macaroons.
(Per serving for 32 servings: Calories 47, Carb 6 g, Protein 1 g)

CHOCOLATE ALMOND MACAROONS

Adapted from "Mama Leah's Jewish Kitchen" by Leah Loeb Fisher. These are fluffy and chewy.

Yield: 30 to 40 macaroons

8 egg whites, at room temperature
2/3 cup cocoa
2/3 cup confectioners sugar (To be kosher for Passover, you will need to make own, by grinding sugar extrafine.)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (KLP) or 1/4 teaspoon vanilla & 1/4 tsp almond (I used graed bitter almond)
1 1/3 cups (8 oz.) coarsely chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Gradually sift in and beat the cocoa, confectioners sugar, salt, into the eggs. Carefully add vanilla. Gently cut in the ground almonds. Drop the mixture by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the paper covered baking sheet, leaving a 2-inch space between each macaroon. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until macaroons are very lightly browned. Let cool on baking sheet until macaroons are firm. Make sure you make these on a dry day or one with the humidity less than 50% or these will never dry out and stay sticky.

2 Vegetable Recipes for Pesach

2007-03-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

Here follow two vegetable recipes, also suitable for vegetarians or vegans. We make them for Passover.

I have learned both of them from Turkish Jews, though they are probably found in Greece as well.

The first is Apio - Sweet and Sour Celery. I make it with celeriac (celery root), but you can make it with a bunch of stalk celery too. Save the celery leaves for soup or matzoh balls. It doubles pretty easily.

Apio

1 large celery root, or two smaller ones
4 carrots
4-5 tblsp olive oil - or other veg oil
3 tblsp fresh lemon juice
Zest of one lemon (if desired)
1/2 c. water
1 tblsp soup mix or 2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tblsp sugar (I suppose you could use splenda).

Wash and slice the celery root into roughly 1/4" - 1 cm slices. Unless you enjoy cut fingers, don't peel them before you slice the root. Scrape and slice the carrots, slightly on an angle, to look nice.

Put all the ingredients except the salt or soup mix in a heavy sauce pan. Add 1/2 c (about 1 1/4 dl) water, and cover. Cook on low heat for 30 minutes or until tender.

Remove the vegetables and pour the thickened sauce over them. If the sauce is too thick, thin with water. If it is too thin, cook uncovered without the vegetables, but be carful not to let it burn.

Serve hot as a side dish or at room temperature/cold as a side or appetizer.

Garnish with dill if desired.

I have no idea what this is called in Turkish or Ladino.

Braised Turkish Leeks

6 medium-sized leeks
1 med onion, sliced
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tblsp tomato paste
1 -2 tblsp sugar
1/2 cup water or vegetable stock
Juice of 1/2 lemon - more if desired
Zest of half lemon, if desired
1/4 - 1/3 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley
1/2 tsp chopped fresh dill
Salt
Freshly ground black or white pepper
Lemon slices to garnish

Remove outer leaves from leeks and trim roots even with base. Cut off most of the green tops and save for soup. Halve lengthwise and wash well to remove ALL soil and sand. Fry onion in oil until transparent. Add tomato paste, thinned with the water or stock, half of the parsley, sugar, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer 10 minutes. Add leeks and lemon juice, spooning liquid over the leeks. Simmer covered 15-20 minutes. Remove to glass serving dish - because it looks quite pretty - garnish with parsley, dill and lemon slices, if desired. May be served warm or cold.

Oddest Jewish Cookbooks?

2007-03-09T11:15:00.000-08:00

Two come to mind: one is A Russian Jew Cooks in Peru, by the charmingly named Violeta Autumn. This book has a lot of Asheknazi recipes viewed through a South American lens. It makes no bones about being "treyfe", proudly culturally Jewish, but little else. However the author seldom strays so far from her roots that a kosher variation of a recipe can't be found.

The second is weird because of the cover and where I got it. I don't seem to have it in my library here yet, which I will try to amend. The cover is a "re-enactment" - and, boy, am I being generous with that - of a Jewish wedding with some of the fakest, glued on beards this side of a grade school play. The "bride" looks like she's worried that the "rabbi's" beard is going to drop off into the wine. And what's the deal with the three guys on the left, who all look like they picked out their beards during a black out at "Moishe's Discount Weird Beard Hut".

It was published in Warsaw in 1983 and was given to me as part of what I assume to have been a very misguided carnal bribe or declaration of some intent, in the Jewish graveyard in Warsaw. On the up-side, it has a great recipe for gefüllte fish!

Easy Chesed

2007-03-03T20:03:00.001-08:00

Women helping Women through Tamponification

From the ever fab Ms. Lucinda and the good folks at Seventh Generation:

"Women’s shelters in the U.S. go through thousands of tampons and pads monthly, and, while agencies generally assist with everyday necessities such as toilet paper, diapers, and clothing, this most basic need is often overlooked. You and I may take our monthly trips down the feminine care aisle for granted, but, for women in shelters, a box of tampons is five dollars they can’t spare. Here’s some good news: you can help us contribute to rectifying this situation by making a virtual donation . For each virtual donation, Seventh Generation will send a pack of organic cotton tampons or chlorine-free pads to a shelter in your state or province."

Nice to see that they include Canada as well here.

http://www.tampontification.com/donate.php

Hamentashen doughs

2007-03-02T07:41:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'll fess up off the bat. I do not like yeast hamentaschen doughs one little bit. They are the ubiquitous treats on the Finnish Purim table but they never cut it for me. Either they were too hard or they tasted like wannabe danish. If you like them, you should hie yourself to Moishe's Bakery in New York. Their yeast hamentashen are said to be delish. I wouldn't know from this.

Myself, I grew up with the cookie kind and am partial to apricot, lekvar (prune or "dried plums" as they are now marketed) and mohn (poppyseed) in terms of the traditional fillings and in that order. I am open to innovation including, but not limited to, wild plum (the best), mango and coconut/chocolate.

Here are two cookie-type doughs with which I've had some success. The first is milchig, the second parve. Do not refrigerate the oil dough unless you want a big mess and some hamantaschen you could use to crack nuts.

The first is my version of an old recipe that originally appeared in Women's Day, when bubbeh was a bocher (i.e. so long ago that it can't be remembered). If you roll the dough out, it will give a thinner, crispier cooky. If you make balls and smash them, you get the kind of hamentashen that my husband, he should live and be well, likes. Generally speaking, the less you can handle this dough, the better, as you won't need to add as much flour to keep it from sticking. Yes, you could make this parve with parve margarine and soy milk or Rich's non-dairy stuff, but it's not worth it, tastewise. Also, I hate recipes that tell you to "sift x, y, and z together, blah blah, then make a well and beat from there." Hey, it's my kitchen, I've been baking for longer than your average bear, I'll do it my way! In this particular recipe, method matters. Yes, it's potchkeyey. Yes, you have to hunt down the sifter or improvise with a strainer. But it makes a difference in how quickly the dough comes together and how little you have to work it, which in turn gives a more tender result. Ultimately, you'll do what you like. Such is life. Just don't come kvetching to me about it!

Butter Hamentaschen Dough

2 1/2 c. sifted unbleached flour
1 tblsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. sugar
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c. milk or milk/cream mixture
1/3 c. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. grated lemon zest (optional)

Sift flour with baking powder, salt, and sugar. Beat egg with milk and vanilla
then mix with melted butter and pour into center of dry ingredients. Stir until a soft dough is formed. Knead a few times on a lightly floured marble slab or other work surface. Roll or pat to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 3-inch circles, fill, etc. If you hate rolling, take about a tablespoon of dough, roll it between your hands into a ball and flatten with a glass. Fill with between a half teaspoon and a teaspoon of your desired filling and pinch corners into a triangle. Bake on a silicone sheet or baking parchment at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 min or until slightly golden. They should not turn brown. Makes 15 to 18.

Parve Hamentaschen

3/4 cup vegetable shortening
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
1 pinch salt
2 - 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Cream together the shortening and sugar.

Add the eggs and vanilla and continue mixing. Add the baking powder,
salt and about 1 1/2 cups of flour. Slowly add enough flour
to the dough until the dough is soft and smooth, but not greasy or
sticky - between 2 and 2 1/2 cups of flour.

Cut the dough into thirds and roll out one section, about 1/8" thick
on a well-floured slab or baking board. Use a cup or a can to cut approximately
3" circles. Bake on a silpat (silicone baking sheet) or a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Place in a preheated 350º oven for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown. Makes 32-38 cookies.

Oxtail Soup X 2

2007-02-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

Oxtails should be cheap, and used to be, but, like many meats that used to go under the name of the squeamishly obscurious "variety meats", they are now quite expensive. I won't even tell you what you have to pay for kosher ones around here, when and ifyou can find them. The good news is that you only need about a half pound for a big ol' pot of tasty soup. These are great soups for Pesach. I'm just saying... but it will be upon us before you know it.

I'm going to give two recipes for variations on this wonderful soup. Each of these should be good for 6-8 servings of soup. Both freeze well. Add the noodles later if you are going to freeze the East Meets West soup.

Traditional Oxtail Soup

1/2 lb oxtails
1 chopped onion
2 chopped carrots
2 stalks chopped celery
1 peeled turnip, chopped (optional)
garlic
parsely
olive oil
salt
pepper
2 bay leaves
thyme
1 tsp. kitchen bouquet, if you want a richer looking soup
1 big can pureed tomatoes or 1 box pomi tomatoes
water or boullion
1 cup of kosher red wine, like a sirah (if desired)

Get your butcher to cut the oxtails into 2" pieces and trim the excess fat from the tails. Heat the olive oil - some use butter, but I don't - and sauté the onions and garlic in the oil. When translucent, add the celery and carrots and parsely. Place the oxtails carefully in the oil and vegetable mixture and let brown evenly (this is what gives your soup a good color). Salt and pepper to taste and add a bit of thyme - about 1/4 tsp dry or to taste. Add water to cover and simmer for 1.5 hours. Yes, you could do this in a crock pot. Remove from the fire, strain and put the stock into the cold so that you can remove the fat more easily. If you want, you can stop at this point and come back to the soup later.

Remove the meat from the bones and return it to the stock. Bring to a simmer and add the tomatoes and wine. Adjust seasonings. If you like you can add more vegetables, barley or another grain, but it is delicious without any of these.

East Meets West Oxtail Soup

1/2 lb oxtails
1 chopped onion
2 chopped carrots
2 small pieces celery root (celeriac)
2 pieces bok choy
1 can sliced water chestnuts
1 pkg. shirataki (soy) noodles
garlic
cilantro
ginger
peanut oil
dark soy sauce
vinegar (chinkiang is best, but rice will work)
salt
pepper
5 spice powder
1/2 c. kosher sherry (if desired)
More cilantro for garnish

Sauté 1 carrot, celery root, garlic, ginger, salt in a small amount of peanut oil. Add 2" pieces of oxtail and brown on all sides. Reduce heat add a good splash of dark soy sauce, vinegar and about a tsp of 5 spice powder. Cook for about 1.5 or until meat is read to fall of of the oxtails. Strain soup, remove meat and let stock cool. Defat.

Reheat the stock, add sliced bok choy, carrot. Let simmer until vegetables are soft and add noodles. If you like, add 1/2 cup of kosher sherry to the soup. If you freeze the soup, add the soy noodles before serving and just heat the noodles in the soup.

Couscous!

2007-02-09T09:11:00.000-08:00

Couscous, little yellow grains of semolina, made from durum wheat, is a good source of protein with 100g of couscous giving just over 15g of protein and is a slow burning source of energy (a "medium" on the GI, for those who watch that kind of thing). It tastes a lot like bulghur but lighter and with a nutty taste - kind of a cross between pasta and wheat. Instant couscous takes about 10 minutes to make and is great either warm or as a salad.

Some couscous ideas:

*Couscous mixed with olives, cashews and cherry tomatoes
*Couscous with watercress, feta cheese and radish
*Mediterranean Pinenut Couscous salad with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and baby spinach
*Couscous with spinach and garbanzo beans, drizzled with yoghurt
*Roasted peppers stuffed with couscous, nuts, crasins and ground beef
*Couscous and almonds drizzled with fresh lemon juice
*Breakfast couscous made with whole milk, instead of water. Add honey or raisins, or splenda, if you like a sweet cereal.
*Couscous in soup is also excellent,

Couscous couldn't be easier to make. If you want to use it for a salad, just take a serving bowl and add the desired amount of couscous (I find that half a cup per person works well) and cover with boiling water. The aim is for all of the water to be absorbed, and for the couscous to swell, so I find it's usually better to add too much water than not enough, otherwise your couscous will not cook and will remain hard and crunchy. You can eat your couscous hot, or let it cool down and eat it in a salad, cold. One of the bonuses of couscous is the short preparation time - I make my salads in about 8 minutes in the morning, and I know I have a nutritious meal ready for lunch time.

A more traditional way is illustrated by the following recipe:

Couscous with veggies and almonds (Parve or Milchig)

1 red or orange or green bell pepper, chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced thinly
1 carrot, sliced thinly
1 onion, chopped
1/2 c slivered almonds or other nuts as desired
Chopped parsley or cilantro - if desired
Olive oil or butter - abt. 2 tblsp, but vary according to taste
Salt/pepper

Sauté the vegetables in the fat until the onions are translucent. Reduce heat.

add

1 cup of couscous

Stir with vegetables until the couscous becomes well-coated and there is a good, nutty smell from the pan.

add

1- 1 1/4 c. water, broth, wine, even OJ

Simmer until almost all of the water is absorbed on low heat, about 8 -10 minutes.

This is wonderful eaten warm, either by itself or as a side dish, and is great for a salad.

Ezpy's Cottage Cheese Pancakes

2007-02-07T14:38:00.000-08:00

This isn't my own recipe, as is obvious from the title, but I like Ezpy's recipe quite a bit. These taste like sourdough pancakes - which are an acquired taste perhaps, but make a great switch from higher carb pancakes or something fun to try over pesach.

Ezpy's Cottage Cheese Pancakes:

Ingredients:
1 cup of cottage cheese (any kind -- I use J&J's 4% small curd)
4 eggs (3 if they're really jumbo)
1/4 cup of flour (this can be almond, or matzoh, if it's pesach,but is best with wheat)
2 tbsps of butter melted (can be salted)
Cinnamon (if desired; Ezpy likes LOTS of cinnamon)
Salt to taste
Milk to thin (optional)

Scoop the cottage cheese into a blender. Add 2 eggs and blend for about 30 seconds. Scrape the sides of the blender. Add flour and 2 more eggs, blend for another 30 secs or so until pretty smooth. Add optional cinnamon and salt to taste. If batter is too thick and thinner is preferred, or to use as crepes, blend in milk to thin.

They cook just like regular pancakes on a oiled skillet. I use real maple syrup heated very hot so as to make it very thin and use less. That way I don't add too much sugar but to get the taste.

Winter Barley Recipe

2007-02-07T14:31:00.000-08:00

I made a nice barley side dish the other night, mostly because I had a third of a big can of whole Italian tomatoes with basil left over from a pot roast. This can easily be made parve by using parve "beef" or mushroom boullion.

3/4 cup of quick cook or medium barley (depending on how much time you have - I use the slow stuff)
2 carrots, thinly sliced
2 sticks celery, thinly sliced
(one onion, finely chopped, if desired)
3/4 c beef stock or soup or boullion
3/4 c. canned tomatoes - any type you like
parsely
salt
pepper
lemon, if desired
garlic, if desired
Olive oil or butter

Sautée carrots, celery, (onion, garlic) briefly in small amount of oil, if you are using the slow cook barley. Cook until soft if you are using the 10 minute barley. Add parsley and barley and lemon and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes, stock and spices and reduce heat for 45 minutes (for the slow kind) or 10 - 12 minutes for the quick barley.

Ett ord i rättan tid...

2006-11-20T10:27:00.000-08:00

The right word at the right time is a great gift. Sometimes, the most important one's are "I'm sorry." Apropos nothing in particular, from our friends at the University of Nebraska, here are some tips on when and how to apologize.

"WHEN AND HOW TO APOLOGIZE

One key to getting along well with people is knowing when to say you're sorry. Sometimes little comments or actions can hurt or offend others. Heavy workloads and stress may keep us from seeing how our actions make others feel. The little things can add up. It doesn't take long for someone to hold a grudge and for grudges to grow into conflicts. In most cases, if someone is offended by something you do or say, it's much better to apologize right away. That solves the small problem and keeps it from getting bigger.
It's hard to apologize. Many of us are ashamed or have too much pride. Sometimes we just don't know how to do it. Here are some tips that may make it easier to say you're sorry.

Take responsibility. The first step in apologizing is to admit to yourself that you have offended someone. You may know this right away, or the other person's reaction may let you know you have done something hurtful. But you must admit you have done wrong and accept responsibility for your actions.

Explain. It's important to let the person you hurt know that you didn't mean to do harm. At the same time, you must show that you take your mistake seriously. Recognize that your actions caused a problem for the other person.

Show your regret. The other person needs to see that you have suffered, too. Come right out and say you are sorry or ashamed. I felt bad the minute I told your secret. I'm ashamed of myself.

Repair the damage. To be complete, an apology must correct the injury. If you damaged someone's property, offer to fix it. If the damage isn't so obvious, ask What can I do to make it up to you? There may be nothing concrete you can do, but the offer must be sincere. I'll try to keep my mouth shut in the future. Meantime, let me buy you a cup of coffee. Another way to repair the damage is to send a note or a small gift.

Use good timing. Apologize right away for little things. For example, if you bump into someone, say you're sorry right away. Don't wait until the next day to apologize. However, if you have done something more serious, like insult a friend, your apology should be more thoughtful. A quick apology might seem phony. Take the time to sit down, look the person in the eye, and apologize honestly.

It's not about who "won" or who "lost." It's about keeping a strong friendship."

Written material may be reprinted provided no endorsement of a commercial product is stated or implied. Please credit University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension and the Nebraska Health and Human Services System.

Snappertuna Gravlax

2006-09-15T06:02:00.000-07:00

Making gravlax netted me a fair amount of change in graduate school. I would go to Chinatown or a Chinese fish market in the Mission district of San Francisco, select a good whole fish, argue about the price, have them split it, reserving the head for a salmon chowder (YUM!) and then "grav" or cure, the whole thing and sell it to professors who wanted something special for a party or brunch. This method works with other oily fish as well, including trout, and you certainly don't need a whole fish - any skin-on fillet will do. "Snappertuna" isn't some hybrid fish, but the small village in Finland where I learned to make this recipe from Aunt Ulla.

Snappertuna Gravlax

Skin-on fish fillet, or whole fish, cut in half, backbone removed
Fresh dill - if you don't have fresh, wait til another time to make this
Fresh ground black pepper
Coarse salt - you can go all crazy and use Hawaiian salt, fleur de sel, etc., but I use Morton's kosher salt
Sugar - do not use Splenda; the sugar is a curing agent and not an appreciable source of calories/carbs
Fresh ground allspice
Crushed juniper berries
Vodka/Brandy

Be very fussy about your fish. The flesh should be bright and clean, firm to the touch and with absolutely no "fishy smell". Don't be afraid to send the first fish offered back and ask to see another.

Take the fish and wash it thoroughly. Remove any big remaining bones with a tweezer if you are bothered by them. Put some vodka on a paper towel and "clean" the fish, meat and skin sides, with the alcohol. Make a mixture of almost equal parts of sugar and salt - start with a 1/4 c of each and adjust to the size of the fish. You will want slightly more salt than sugar, but it's not critical. Chop fresh dill. Rub the fish (meat side) with the ground spices. Add the dill to the salt/sugar mix. Rub this mixture on both sides of the fish - very important. Wrap tightly in several layers of plastic wrap. Place on a deep dish and weigh the fish down with another plate and a weight in the refrigerator. Turn the fish every 12 hours or so. The fish is ready to eat after 36 -48 hours, but it is easiest to slice thinly if you put it in the freezer before you eat it. You can also sautee the slices briefly, if you like, but the "gravlax" is good just as it is, with more fresh dill and, traditionally, a mustard sauce.
The gravlax will keep at least a month in the freezer if you wrap it well.

Parvelicious

2006-08-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post some parve recipe ideas,including a recipe for skordalia, a garlicky Greek potato dip that I crave around Pesach.

Potato Skordalia - 2 cups

2 large potatoes
5-6 cloves garlic
1 c. fresh Italian parsley
1/2 c. olive oil
3 tblsp vinegar or lemon juice (to taste)
Salt and black pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes in their jackets. Peel garlic and crush finely. When potatoes are tender but not mush, peel and cut into small pieces. Place potatoes, garlic, parsely and halfor the oil and vinegar/lemon juice in a blender or food processor. Blend for 3 minutes. Adjust taste by adding more oil, salt, vinegar/juice, salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. We like this on matzoh, roast turkey, veggies. The flavor gets more intense the next day.

Tembleque
(coconut custard dessert)

Ingredients:
(serves 8 or more)

(A)
1 13.5 oz can coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
(B)
1 tsp vanilla flavor

Procedure:

Blend all ingredients included in (A) thoroughly. Cook in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring continuously, until it thickens. Add the vanilla, stir and remove from heat.

Pour in individual dessert cups or a shallow dish. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon or ground nutmeg when serving.

Cranberry Crunch

2 c bran flakes cereal
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. shredded coconut
1/3 c. non-dairy margerine
2 c whole cranberry sauce - canned or homemade
1 tsp lemon juice

Mix bran flakes, sugar, flour and coconut. Cut in margarine. Spread 1/2 mixture in pan. Mix cranberry sauce and lemon juice and spread over mixture in pan. Top with remaining mixture. Bake 20-30 min @ 350 f. Cut into squares.

Rhubarb crisp:

1 c flour
3/4 c. rolled oats
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c. melted veg shortening
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tblsp. slivered almonds (if desired)
2 tsp vanilla
1 c. sugar
2 tblsp. cornstarch
1/2 c. water
4 c. fresh or frozen cut-up rhubarb.

Mix first 6 ingredients until crumbly. Combine remaining ingredients (except almonds) in another bowl. Press half of the crumbs into a 9" pan. Add rhubarb mixture. Top with remaining crumbs and almonds. Bake 1 hr @ 350.

Peachy

2006-08-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

We had hopes to get over to Southern Michigan and get some Redhaven peaches, which are my absolute favorite peaches from childhood. In fact, my grandparents had been given a peach tree - and its fruit - from a grateful client, and I can remember going with Mamere to collect the sweet deep yellow peaches with our old Volkswagen. It was always a fight between us and the wasps - they wanted those sugary juices as much as we did!

Mamere used to can the peaches whole with spices and occasionally make peach jam. Myself, I cut and freeze the peaches and use some for peach brandy. I was fortunate this year to get hold of two crates of Georgia peaches - "Sun Prince" - a freestone variety that was new to me. Personally, I much prefer clingstone varieties for preserving whole - which is what I do with the brandy - and even for eating, as I find them sweeter and more able to hold their shape. But these were perfectly acceptable.

There are a number of ways to make peach brandy, and perhaps what I am making is better understood as "brandied peaches".
Preserving fruit in alcohol has the advantage of using less sugar than other methods - and you get some nice brandy or liqueur. Last year, I went for sweet, but this year, I followed an older family recipe which is something like this:

Brandied Peaches

Peaches
Sugar
Water
Brandy
Vanilla (optional, to be mixed with the brandy)

Measure the peaches by weight and take half their weight in sugar and put it in a large pot. Then measure the peaches by volume and take that amount of water and add it to the sugar. Make a simple sugar syrup and then allow to cool completely. Skin the peaches and place whole fruit in acidulated water. Place the cool peaches in the cold syrup and allow to cook until the peaches are just soft. Place the peaches in a large jar, leaving 2" of headroom - or several small ones - and reserve the syrup. Cover the peaches completely with brandy and place a cover on the jar(s). Let stand for 10 days. At the end of 10 days, drain off the brandy and reserve it. Cover the peaches again with the reserved sugar syrup, leaving 2" to the top of the peaches. Top off those 2" with enough brandy to completely cover the peaches. Store in a cool dark place for 6mos or as long as you can resist.

Trader Joes Arrives

2006-05-12T15:56:00.000-07:00

No more updates - TJ's is here

As a transplant to the Twin Cities from California, I’ve been waiting for this store to open as anxiously as many Minnesotans wait for the fishing opener.

Trader Joe’s: an exotic, mysterious name for those unfamiliar with the grocery chain. For the initiated, the name stirs excitement and a little pang of hunger for uncommon, delightful fare.

But what is “Trader Joe’s”? and why all the hubbub about what on the surface looks like just another grocery store—albeit one plastered with hand-drawn signs and attended by chipper, Hawaiian-shirt wearing clerks? To begin with, Trader Joe’s is to a generic grocery store what gravlax is to fishsticks . Taking the form of an innovative, unique, neighborhood grocery store with an amazing range of foods and beverages from the exotic to the everyday. There is an extensive array of domestic and imported foods and beverages including fresh baked artisan breads, Arabica bean coffees at prices starting about $5.00.per pound, international frozen entrées, 100% juices, fresh crop nuts, deli items, and vitamins and supplements, as well as the basics, like milk, eggs and paper towels. But as a Jewish shopper, I’m most impressed with the large—and ever growing—selection of kosher items, ranging from cholov yisroel feta cheese to glatt kosher chicken to dried bing cherries and fruit leather, all at excellent prices that have kept me schlepping back from both coasts with goodie-laden bags

Walking through the new store, Trader Joe’s is also a wacky store, featuring a festive mixture of the pseudo-polynesian and traditional Minnesotan. Artwork throughout the store incorporates Twin City landmarks such as the St. Louis Park water tower and the worlds first concrete grain elevator, images of the Foshay Tower—redubbed the “Joe’shay” tower. There is also a model ice fishing shack replica with a Trader Joe’s twist incorporated inside the store. An early partnership with Free Arts of Minnesota has lead to a quilt display by survivors of domestic violence.

While you may come for the assortment, you’ll likely stay for the prices which are very competitive, particularly in the meat department. The prices on chicken start at $2.29/lb for whole and cut-up Aaron’s chicken. David’s ground beef is on offer at $3.99 a pound and turkey breast costs $2.49 per pound. TJ's publishes a regular list of its kosher products and their hechshers, including a pretty detailed list of the rabbinical authorities who are responsible for supervision—free for the asking. Kosher products also have shelf labels with a special mark.

Why are the prices so low? To begin with, Trader Joe’s buys differently than other grocers by purchase from manufacturers, rather than through distributors. Typically, they take a brand name product, remove the preservatives and artificial colors and ingredients, and put it under their Trader Joe’s label to sell it a discounted price. You won’t always find the same thing from trip to trip: if you love it, but it. Also, says local manager, “Capitan”Hugh Armel, when given the option of being able to choose between making a product cheaper or kosher, Trader Joe’s is investing in kashrus.

In a separate department of the store, there is a large selection of international wines and beers. The kosher selection is not large, featuring at present three kinds of wine—a chardonnay and a cabernet from Herzog in California and an interesting French Pays d’Oc merlot from Baron Herzog.

The new grocery store is located at 4500 Excelsior Blvd, at the corner of Monterey and Excelsior, in St. Louis Park. The full-service grocery store will be open daily from 9:00 am until 9:00 pm. There is ample parking either adjacent to the store or in the ramp 1/2 block away. The local staff are helpful and always willing to help with good advice or carrying your bags.

That's the ol' rhubarb!

2006-05-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

.. in a new, sugar-reduced pie. We've just transplanted a number of established rhubarb plants from our neighbor's yard, which was being dozed for relandscaping. They are thriving in the front of our house. By planting them there we broke one of the cardinal, unwritten rules of Midwestern garden design - "rhubarb goes in back along the garage, fence, barn or outhouse". We just think of them as hostas with a beautiful stem!

But here's the recipe:

(Mostly) Sugar Free Rhubarb Pie

4 cups diced, raw rhubarb
2 cups diced peeled sweet apples, such as golden delicious
1/3 cup apple juice concentrate
1/4 cup unbleached flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1 tsp. allspice (optional) 1 tablespoon grated
orange rind

Line a pie pan with pie dough. Stir the rhubarb and diced apples
together and arrange them on top of the pie shell. Combine the
remaining ingredients and sprinkle them over the fruit. Dot with 2
tablespoons butter (optional). Cover the pie with well-pricked pie
dough or with a lattice. Bake the pie in a 450-degree oven for 10
minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for 35 minutes or
until golden brown.

Trader Joe's Update VIII

2006-05-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

The official "lei cutting" at the new Trader Joe's will take place on Monday, May 15 at 8:45 am. Things are moving along and the store should be open that week at 4500 Excelsior Avenue (corner of Montery). Plenty o' parking in the back.

Trader Joe's Update VII

2006-04-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Now the official word on the opening of Trader Joe's in Saint Louis Park, MN is "mid-May", according to both an anonymous tipster and an article in the 26 March edition of the Minneapolis Strib.

On a related - and kosher- note, TJ's publishes a regular list of its kosher products and their hechshers, including a pretty detailed list of the rabbinical authorities who are responsible for supervision. These lists are different for the Midwest/East and West.

Stay tuned for more TJ's news as it happens!

Nanotech Buzzwords and Quantum Quandries

2006-03-01T15:56:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of our friends the ramblin' wrecks from Georgia Tech:

NANOTECH BUZZWORDS

Bioinformatics This area of study combines biology with technological and computing advances. Through bioinformatics we can manage huge amounts of data and determine what’s important and what’s not. For example, sensors at the micro and nano electronics scale are being developed to screen blood samples to identify proteins that allow researchers to detect the presence of cancer in its very early stages.

Class X Ordinary room air has approximately one million dust particles per cubic foot, and is denoted as Class 1,000,000. Specialized research facilities are designed to “filter” these particles in order to avoid interference with ongoing experiments and research (see Clean Room).

Clean Room Research facility or “room” that is specially designed to reduce the number of dust particles in the air to facilitate research on the microelectronics scale. Much of the research in computer chip design and nano-electronic development requires the use of a clean room in a microelectronics processing facility to ensure accuracy in processing semiconductor materials.

Climate Systems Modeling (CSM) The assessment of past, present, and potential future climates and chemical compositions in the atmosphere using advanced computing systems. Significant changes in the Earth’s climate have the potential to impact economic and geopolitical issues. CSM allows researchers to model potential global impact due to climate change by integrating huge amounts of data via high performance computing.

Computational Grid “Grid” computing is different from distributed computing by its focus on large-scale resource sharing, innovative applications, and high-performance orientation. For example, current Internet technologies address communication and information exchange among computers, but do not provide integrated approaches to the coordinated use of resources at multiple sites for computation. An example in which a computational grid could be used would be providing data for quick and appropriate response by crisis management teams to natural or man-made disasters. Local weather and soil models can be reviewed for potential impact, population assessments for evacuation can be reviewed, and local resources such as hospitals and emergency response teams can be identified and coordinated for efficient response. (From The Anatomy of the Grid, Foster, Kesselman, Tuecke)

E-beam nanolithography Microelectronics research often involves the development of new chip technology. Starting with a wafer (most often made of silicon) and using various processes, different materials (polymers) are added in phases to create a chip that can be used in various forms toward the development technological products. E-beam nanolithography transfers photosensitive materials onto a wafer with a beam of electrons. Because this process allows extremely small features (imagine one thousandths the length of a human hair) to be defined on the wafer, it shortens the processing time and allows many more features to be included.

FLOPS (floating-point operations per second) According to IBM, FLOPS is “a method of encoding numbers within the limits of finite precision available on computers.” Using this type of encoding, extremely long numbers can be handled relatively easily. The computation of FLOPS is often required in scientific or real-time processing applications and is a common measure for any computer that runs these applications. In larger computers, operations can be measured in megaflops, gigaflops and teraflops (respectively, a million, a billion, and a trillion operations per second).

Fuel Cell A device that generates energy by converting hydrogen and oxygen into water, producing electricity and heat in the process. In principal, a fuel cell operates like a battery. Unlike a battery, a fuel cell does not run down or require recharging. It will produce energy as long as fuel (hydrogen) is supplied. Since the fuel cell relies on chemistry, not combustion, emissions from fuel cells are much smaller than the cleanest fuel combustion processes.

Information Technology (IT) IT is a term that encompasses all forms of technology used to create, store, exchange, and use information in its various forms (business data, voice conversations, still images, motion pictures, multimedia presentations, and other forms including those not yet conceived). It’s a convenient term for including both telephony and computer technology in the same word. It is the technology that is driving what has is referred to as “the information revolution.”

MEMS (Micro-electro-mechanical systems) MEMS is a technology that combines computers with tiny mechanical devices such as sensors, valves, gears, mirrors, and actuators (the activating device) in semiconductor chips. MEMS is sometimes called smart matter. It involves the integration of multiple scientific and engineering disciplines such as physics, bioinformatics, biochemistry, electrical engineering, optics and electronics. A few examples of MEMS use and research are global position system sensors to track parcels, optical switching devices that can switch light signals over different paths at nanosecond speeds, and sensor driven heat and cooling systems that improve energy savings.

Micro/nano electronics For the past forty years electronic computers and other technological devices have grown more powerful as their basic sub-unit, the transistor, has shrunk. Microelectronics technology has allowed the integration of electronic circuits on a micrometer (one-millionth of a meter) scale. Nanoelectronics is continuing the miniaturization of integrated circuits to the nanometer scale (one-billionth of a meter). This minaturization has been the principal driver of the information revolution and has significant impact on our daily lives. Some examples of technology enhanced or created through micro and nano electronics are hearing aids, cardiac pacemakers, personal computers, cellular phones, communication satellites, and the Internet.

Molecular electronics A technology in which molecules are used in place of semiconductors, creating electronic circuits so small that their size is measured in atoms, not microns. The potential impact on computing speed and memory resulting from circuits this small would herald significant advances in all fields of technology and business. For example, with molecular electronics it might be possible to store a DVD movie on something the size of a grain of rice.

Moore’s Law An observation made in 1965 by the founder of Intel, Gordon Moore. He asserted that the number of transistors per square inch on an integrated circuit has and would continue to double every year since the integrated circuit was invented. Moore’s law has three variables; price, density, and performance, which in effect states that integrated circuits will continue to provide greater power at a lower cost. Based on current technological innovations, Moore’s Law is expected to hold true until at least 2010.

Nanotechnology A branch of engineering that deals with the design and manufacture of extremely small electronic circuits and mechanical devices built at the molecular level of matter. Nanotechnology has the potential to develop ever-more-powerful computers and communications devices, as well as allowing significant contributions toward advances in medical science. For example, nanorobots might be programmed to selectively seek out and destroy cancer cells.

Photonics An area of study that involves the use of radiant energy (such as light), whose fundamental element is the photon (visible light particle). Devices that run on light have a number of advantages over those that use electricity. Data transmitted photonically can travel long distances in a fraction of the time without interference. For example, a single optical fiber has the capacity to carry three million telephone calls simultaneously. Some applications in photonics include energy generation and detection, fiber optics, communications, and information processing.

Quantum dot Quantum dots are tiny semi-conducting crystals. These tiny crystals (sometimes called boxes) hold a well-defined number of electrons that may be adjusted in a way that changes its properties. Because of this unique quality, quantum dots exhibit all the colors of the rainbow. This feature allows them to be used as markers in the development of molecular-scale technologies. The application of quantum dots in science, engineering, and medicine have resulted in tremendous advances in microelectronics, optoelectronics, memory systems, and medicine.

Supercomputer A computer that performs at or near the highest operational rate for computers. Supercomputers are typically used for scientific and engineering applications that must handle very large databases or do a great amount of computation (or both). Most supercomputers are really multiple computers that perform parallel processing.

Telecommunications The art and science of “communicating” over a distance. Telecommunications technology involves the transmission, reception, and the switching of signals, such as electrical or optical, by wire, fiber, or electromagnetic (through the air or wireless) means.

Tissue Engineering The development and manipulation of laboratory-grown molecules, cells, tissues, or organs to replace or support the function of defective or injured body parts. Tissue engineering crosses numerous medical and technical specialties. Cell biology, biomaterials engineering, computer-assisted design, and robotics engineering are only a few of the disciplines involved in tissue engineering.

And courtesy of Unca Cecil at the Straight Dope:

Dear Cecil:

Cecil, you're my final hope
Of finding out the true Straight Dope
For I have been reading of Schroedinger's cat
But none of my cats are at all like that.
This unusual animal (so it is said)
Is simultaneously live and dead!
What I don't understand is just why he
Can't be one or other, unquestionably.
My future now hangs in between eigenstates.
In one I'm enlightened, the other I ain't.
If you understand, Cecil, then show me the way
And rescue my psyche from quantum decay.
But if this queer thing has perplexed even you,
Then I will and won't see you in Schroedinger's zoo.
--Randy F., Chicago

Dear Randy:

Schroedinger, Erwin! Professor of physics!
Wrote daring equations! Confounded his critics!
(Not bad, eh? Don't worry. This part of the verse
Starts off pretty good, but it gets a lot worse.)
Win saw that the theory that Newton'd invented
By Einstein's discov'ries had been badly dented.
What now? wailed his colleagues. Said Erwin, "Don't panic,
No grease monkey I, but a quantum mechanic.
Consider electrons. Now, these teeny articles
Are sometimes like waves, and then sometimes like particles.
If that's not confusing, the nuclear dance
Of electrons and suchlike is governed by chance!
No sweat, though--my theory permits us to judge
Where some of 'em is and the rest of 'em was."
Not everyone bought this. It threatened to wreck
The comforting linkage of cause and effect.
E'en Einstein had doubts, and so Schroedinger tried
To tell him what quantum mechanics implied.
Said Win to Al, "Brother, suppose we've a cat,
And inside a tube we have put that cat at--
Along with a solitaire deck and some Fritos,
A bottle of Night Train, a couple mosquitoes
(Or something else rhyming) and, oh, if you got 'em,
One vial prussic acid, one decaying ottom
Or atom--whatever--but when it emits,
A trigger device blasts the vial into bits
Which snuffs our poor kitty. The odds of this crime
Are 50 to 50 per hour each time.
The cylinder's sealed. The hour's passed away. Is
Our pussy still purring--or pushing up daisies?
Now, you'd say the cat either lives or it don't
But quantum mechanics is stubborn and won't.
Statistically speaking, the cat (goes the joke),
Is half a cat breathing and half a cat croaked.
To some this may seem a ridiculous split,
But quantum mechanics must answer, "Tough @#&!
We may not know much, but one thing's fo' sho':
There's things in the cosmos that we cannot know.
Shine light on electrons--you'll cause them to swerve.
The act of observing disturbs the observed--
Which ruins your test. But then if there's no testing
To see if a particle's moving or resting
Why try to conjecture? Pure useless endeavor!
We know probability--certainty, never.'
The effect of this notion? I very much fear
'Twill make doubtful all things that were formerly clear.
Till soon the cat doctors will say in reports,
"We've just flipped a coin and we've learned he's a corpse."'
So saith Herr Erwin. Quoth Albert, "You're nuts.
God doesn't play dice with the universe, putz.
I'll prove it!" he said, and the Lord knows he tried--
In vain--until fin'ly he more or less died.
Win spoke at the funeral: "Listen, dear friends,
Sweet Al was my buddy. I must make amends.
Though he doubted my theory, I'll say of this saint:
Ten-to-one he's in heaven--but five bucks says he ain't.

Pourquoi pas en Texas?

2006-03-01T07:42:00.001-08:00

This is fun and funny site about French grammar - a singularly unfunny topic for many.
French Texas-style

"Roses of the Prophet Mohammed"

2006-02-16T19:53:00.001-08:00

... are what you'll have to ask for in Tehran if you want a Danish to go with your tea or coffee, according to both Dagens Nyheter in Stockholm and Haaretz in Israel. Following - or is that "follying"? - in the footsteps of "Freedom Fries" and - if you have a longer memory, or talkative older relatives - "Victory Cabbage". Iranians, who are apparently really big on the pastries, have renamed danish pastries, in order to protest about the caricatures published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten some months ago. Oddly enough, Danes call the pastries weinerbrød or "Viennese bread", acknowledging that the art of layering butter and dough comes from the east - from the Turks, according to most food historians.

Hats or Wigs or None of the Above

2006-02-16T09:40:00.001-08:00

Someone recently asked a friend of mine about why some Orthodox Jewish women wear wigs, why others wear hats or kercheifs, and why some don't cover their heads at all.

It's a good question and it depends on your community and your own background, as well as your position on hair covering among the Modern Orthodox (MO). This is based on my own personal experience, having belonged to more Orthodox than Chassidic shuls in the US and Europe. It is also important to realize that there has been a techtonic cultural shift in the last 20 years, when it comes to outward signs of observance. When Blu Greenberg wrote her important book about running a (modern Orthodox) Jewish household, it was not at all unusual for MO women to wear pants and not cover their hair except for Shabbat. The MO community had been colored by the radical societal changes of the 1960's and 70's and women not covering their hair outside of shul was the norm, not the exception. It's important for younger women to remember this bit of history.

As many MO communities and congregations have grown more traditional - if not to say conservative - in their practices, a number of traditions that were best preserved in other more traditional Chassidic or Misnagic/Litvishe communities were re-introduced. So it becomes kind of a generational thing, where you see many younger MO women, who have been brought up and educated in a more traditional environment, covering their hair all the time - although more likely with a hat or scarf -"tichel" - than a sheitel - and a good number of "older" women feeling comfortable with a headcovering - often a hat - just on Shabbat and other holidays. There are some women who cover their hair in any Jewish public or religious context, and some observant women who do not cover their hair ever, at all, which reflects the time in which they grew up, as well as their own personal choice.

Hey, as Jews we are monotheistic, not monolithic!

Trader Joe's Update VI

2006-02-10T15:06:00.000-08:00

More news - looks like no TJ's at 280/University in St. Paul, according to the Pioneer Press. Wellington Management has apparently signed a letter of intent with Riverside Market for "2700 on the Avenue" project. This means the area near 280 and University Avenue will get a grocery store, but it won't be Trader Joe's. Not to fear - TJ's typically expands to several stores once it breaks into a fertile market. So keep your hopes up!

Revisiting an old friend

2006-02-10T08:27:00.001-08:00

I am reminded of a poem I haven't thought of for years, by the Swedish
poet, Karin Boye and translate it here quickly for you:

Ja visst gör det ont

Ja visst gör det ont när knoppar brister.
Varför skulle annars våren tveka?
Varför skulle all vår heta längtan
bindas i det frusna bitterbleka?
Höljet var ju knoppen hela vintern.
Vad är det för nytt, som tär och spränger?
Ja visst gör det ont när knoppar brister,
ont för det som växer
och det som stänger.

Ja nog är det svårt när droppar faller.
Skälvande av ängslan tungt de hänger,
klamrar sig vid kvisten, sväller, glider -
tyngden drar dem neråt, hur de klänger.
Svårt att vara oviss, rädd och delad,
svårt att känna djupet dra och kalla,
ändå sitta kvar och bara darra -
svårt att vilja stanna
och vilja falla.

Då, när det är värst och inget hjälper,
Brister som i jubel trädets knoppar.
Då, när ingen rädsla längre håller,
faller i ett glitter kvistens droppar
glömmer att de skrämdes av det nya
glömmer att de ängslades för färden -
känner en sekund sin största trygghet,
vilar i den tillit
som skapar världen.
-- Karen Boye

Of course it's painful when the buds break open
Why else would spring hesitate?
Why should all our heated desire
Be bound up in the frozen bitter pale?
The sheath was the bud all winter.
What is this new thing that eats away and explodes?
Of course it is painful when the bud breaks,
painful for that which grows
and that which closes.

Yes, it's hard when the drops fall.
Quivering with paralyzing anxiety, hanging heavily,
clinging to the branch, swelling, sliding -
the weight draws them down, how they cling.
Difficult to be uncertain, frightened and divided,
Hard to hear the depth pull and call,
and just the same stay sitting and only tremble -
hard to want to stay
and want to fall.

Then, when it's worst and nothing helps,
the tree's buds Burst, as if in jubelation.
Then, when fear no longer holds,
fall in a glitter, the branches drops
forget that they were frightened by the new
forget that they were anxious about the journey
feel for a second their greatest security,
rest in that trust
that creates the world.

trans ablevayble (c) 2006

Offbeat Museums - Part One Update

2006-02-06T07:35:00.000-08:00

Tired of the same dull screen and dingy four walls? You never know when you will need a quick change of scenery. Call it cabin fever if you like, but there are times when a person just needs a virtual road trip. Sure, you could visit the Met or the Louvre or the British Library, but sometimes you need it funkified. Here are some preliminary suggestions for a brief visit to the museums, collections and galleries specializing in the odd, amusing and "why the heck would somebody do that?".

Harry Truman's Tropical Shirts

Museum of Family Camping

The Banana Museum

Museum of Weird Consumer Culture

The Enchanted Highway may not qualify as a museum per se, but is a great piece of outsider art.

The Testcard Gallery

Online Air Raid Siren Museum

Phones Around The World!

The Condiment Museum

Gallery of Tiny Cars Next to Real Cars

Scout Emblems from Everywhere

Gallery of Birth Control Packaging

Museum of Bad Art

Cyberspace Vacuum Cleaner Museum

The Japanese Tobacco and Salt Museum

Antique and Vintage Sewing Machines Virtual Museum

Boombox Museum

The Museum of Burnt Food

Oh, yeah! It's ON - Trader Joe's Update V

2006-02-02T12:17:00.000-08:00

You read it here first, sports fans, Trader Joes is opening in May in S. Louis Park, Minnesota. We're even on the TJ's official website now. Now we'll know we've arrived when we make it onto the drop-down menus, but this will have to do for now. Read it and wait, Madison, Wisconsin!

Hey! Hey! MLK!

2006-01-17T15:49:00.000-08:00

(An image from MLK Drive in Chicago)

Hope you all had a good civil holiday.. I was at the first MLK day celebration in Chicago, low these 20 years ago, in the State of Illinois building, where a friend was working. It was quite an experience. Hundreds of people were gathered at noon in the atrium of what then was known as "Jahn's john" for it's toilet like shape, to hear speeches by Jesse Jackson, Harold Washington and other prominent Black Chicagoans. One of the odder moments was when I heard the somewhat confusing statement, "I am not a lump-lump!" declared by then mayor, now deceased, Harold Washington. The crowd seemed to know what it meant, even if I didn't.

Other bizarre memories include an elderly black gentleman interrupting several speakers with the exhortation, "Bring it on HOME, BROTHER! Bring it ON HOME!". It was quite a revivalistic atmosphere. White faces were always in the minority, even more so as the speeches went on. By the time the event was closed with a group sing-along of "We Shall Overcome", it was quite painfully evident that I was the only obviously non-Black person in the audience. When we got to the stanza "Black and white together" - everyone just turned and stared at me. I was never so grateful for a "Bring it on HOME!" as just then.

Trader Joe's Update IV

2006-01-17T10:15:00.000-08:00

Get back Loretta! The opening date for St. Louis Park has been moved back one month, to May! *general gnashing of teeth*. I spoke with TJ's customer service at (626) 599-3817 Should you be interested in calling on your own and logging a request for having a TJ's in St. Paul! The official word is " The projected opening date of May 19th 2006 with a 1,380 SQF store (which is on the larger side). Stay tuned!

Camel Therapy?

2006-01-04T11:22:00.000-08:00

Sounds like a bad Norwegian joke, but this was on the front page of one of Sweden's leading papers (Dagens Nyheter) today:

Municipal camels will help refugees

Authorities in Löten, 120 km north of Oslo, want to help refugees with the aid of camels, Dagbladet's net edition reports.

Wenche Stenseth, the official in charge of refugee questions in the county, has requested an extra requisition of 1 million Norwegian crowns which will pay for the purchase of 10 to 20 camels [and bring them to Norway].

At present, over 100 non-European refugees are staying in Löten, the majority from Somalia and Sudan. They have a difficult time in getting jobs and adjusting. However, many of them have previous experience in camel husbandry.

If they would be able to take advantage of their camel skills then this would make their integration easier, reasoned Stenseth. The Norwegian Immigration Bureau has not commented on her request, but there is skepticism from Norwegian equivalent of the FDA:

"Camels are consdiered 'exotic animals' and therefore require special import permission," says the regional director, Eivind Liven.

Another sign o' the times

2006-01-03T10:43:00.000-08:00

Miss Tess looks quite partied out.

Practical Advice

2006-01-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

Who knew this was a science? Here are instructions on how to buy a t-shirt.

"A God For All Seasons"

2006-01-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

Cataloging books today, I found this poem written for me when I was a girl by a family friend, Milton "Milt" J. Fink. Here it is, as written:

A God For All Seasons

Oh Lord
You are my God in winter
As well as in spring, summer and fall
In childhood, but even more so in maturity.

When the sun shines within me
I am ever mindful
That it is Your sun.
When I feel the lightning of inspiration
And meaningful creativity results
I know the source of the lightning.
And when illness or disaster strikes
I know You are behind the darkest cloud
And this feeling helps me heal,
And gives me the strength to go on.
To deny You
Would make me a meaningless actor
In the theatre of the absurd.

And so
I worship Thee in Awe
I pray to You in Thanksgiving
But most of all
I sing unto Thee in joy --
I sing unto Thee in great joy.

Milton J. Fink '77

Stalking the Wild Snow Carrot

2006-01-01T17:13:00.000-08:00

So, if a snowman can have a carrot for a nose, why can't a snow carrot have a snowman for a nose?

Whole-Wheat Challah

2006-01-01T09:55:00.000-08:00

Since one of my readers complained that I never publish "health-friendly" recipes, I submit here for your consideration, a healthy challah recipe. Now, by me, challah is yellow, light and basically a twinkie, as far as the glycemic index goes. But here is a recipe which is quite light and might even be half-way good for you. I haven't tried braiding it yet, myself. Should make 4-6 loaves or 60 rolls or any permutation of either.

Whole-Wheat Challah

4 c. warm water
3 tbsp dry yeast
1/2 c. oil, corn or safflower
1/2 c. honey
4 eggs
12 - 13 c. whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. kosher salt - don't skip this as it regulates the rising of the yeast

Create a yeast sponge by mixing water, yeast and salt in a really big bowl. Add oil, honey and eggs. Blend well then mix in about 5 cups of the flour until smooth. Cover and let rise about 1 hour (maybe less) until it is very bubbly. If not, you have bad yeast and throw the whole thing out.

Add most of the rest of the flour, reserving say 1/2 a cup for the bread board and salt Turn onto bread board or other floured surface and knead for 10 min. Add remaining flour as needed to keep from sticking. Braid or shape into loaves and/or rolls. Let rise for a second time, 45 - 1 hr. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with seeds, if you like this.

Preheat oven to 350 and when oven is hot, place risen loaves on middle rack for 45 - 1 hr. Baked loaves will sound hollow when tapped. Cool on racks out of pans.

Special Winter Greetings

2005-12-29T20:53:00.000-08:00

Our 2005/2006 greeting

Dev Null Etc.

2005-12-29T20:51:00.000-08:00

In the interest of keeping all of you wordhounds up-to-date, I present the following link to your own personal guide to geek-speak.

And if you are a knitting geek, you might want to figure out your knitter's geek code .

Trader Joe's Update III

2005-12-28T16:16:00.000-08:00

More news of Trader Joe's: the local St. Paul newspaper reported that Trader Joe's is thinking about moving into some new developments at 2700 University Avenue - just a bit west of the 280/94 intersection. More here.

"The store would be part of '2700 on the Avenue,' a Wellington Management project with four floors of condominiums and a grocery store in an emerging St. Paul neighborhood.

Wellington is in ongoing talks with Riverside Market, an independent Minneapolis grocery store that recently closed. But Tanya Bell, Wellington's acquisitions and development director, confirmed that Trader Joe's is part of the picture and that the company is interested in the project. [...]The University Avenue area, near the intersection of Interstate 94 and Minnesota 280, is home to a boom in high-density housing near the Minneapolis-St. Paul border. The projects are all within walking distance of 2700 W. University Ave.

Construction of more than 400 lofts and apartments are planned on the site of the historic Johnson Bros. Liquor Co. warehouses. More than 250 luxury rental apartments and town homes were built at 808 Berry Place, and more than 200 town homes and condos have been built as part of the Emerald Gardens project."

And, as you read here first, sports fans, further confirmation of Trader Joe's opening in St. Louis Park in April. We're the only one with the secret to the exact projected date...

Pandora's Musicbox

2005-12-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

Check this out: Music Genome Project. It's the perfect thing when you want to hear some new music but you don't have any hip or hipster friends to freshen your play list. This is a free service which covers a lot of territory - jazz, pop, Latin, some folk, but no world or classica - yet! Plus it gives decent paying jobs to music majors.
Enjoy!

Chanukah, Chocolate, Chinuch and Change

2005-12-19T15:53:00.000-08:00

Why do we eat chocolate gelt at Chanukah? There are several schools of thought on this question. One links this tradition back to the minting of their own coins by the Hasmoneans after their military victory over the Greek Syrians. Then there is the linguistic angle, which associates "Chanukah" - "dedication" with "chinuch" -" education". Maimonides himself made the education-gelt connection describing Chanukah gelt as "an incentive for you [children] to study Torah properly."
[Rambam, Hilchot Chanukah 3].

By the time the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E., with the exception of a 3 year period during the Bar Kochba Revolution, there were no Jewish coins until modern times. Accordingly, there were no specifically Jewish coins were available to distribute when the custom of Hanukkah gelt – giving emerged as an important part of the festival during the Middle Ages. it was traditional to give Hanukkah gelt to the local Jewish teacher. This was more than a token present - it was usually his primary means of support. Again, we have the linkage between Chanukah, chinuch and coins.

In the time of the Ba'al Shem Tov, rabbis often traveled to distant villages during Chanukah to strenghten the learning of Torah by Jews who were off the beaten path. some Jewish communities chose Chanukah as the time to celebrate the freedom to be educated Jewishly. Although these rabbis typically refused payment from these often poor Jews, they came to accept coins and food as a token of the gratefulness felt by these communities.

Some communities have the custom of giving gelt on each night of Chanukah (except for Shabbat), with a larger amount being given out on the fifth day. Why is the fifth day so special? The fifth day calls for added celebration because of the brilliance of the fifth candle. Since the fifth day can never fall on Shabbat, this candle has the ability to illuminate the darkest of realms and hopefully giving a larger amount of gelt on this days reminds Jews to use their material wealth for spiritual purposes.

But how did gelt get associated with that waxy chocolate money in the foil wrappers? As best I can tell, chocolate gelt became popular in Europe in the mid 19th century when the Jews were well established in the chocolate industry. This coincided with the custom of giving gelt primarily to children, instead of to rabbis or to the poor, the latter being a major feature of many Jewish feasts. Chocolate in gold foil resembling coins of the realm would have made it possible for parents of even very limited means to participate in giving their children gelt. And since when have children ever protested against chocolate?

The recipe below is an easy milchig chocolate treat for Chanukah - assuming you like your latkes like I do with sour cream and applesauce. You don't need a bowl, it bakes in about 1/2 hour, is not majorly heavy in fat or sugar and is rich enough for the biggest chocolate fiend. It can be made parve with some simple adaptations, but does NOT double well. Try to bake it in a metal/foil pan. It stays quite wet in a glass pan and can be hard to get right. Don't expect it to rise - it stays fudgelike. You can even make it pesachdik without a major amount of hassle, but let's stick to the holiday at hand.

Brownies

3 squares of unsweetened chocolate
1 stick of butter

Melt the two of these together in a heavy pan. When melted, allow to cool slightly then add:

1/2 brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla - essence or sugar, but not vanillin
1 tsp leftover coffee (if you have)
1/2 cup of flour
pinch of salt

Mix in the pan and when smooth pour into a greased 8 X 8 brownie pan.
Bake for 20 - 30 minutes, depending on if you want gooier
or more fudge-like brownies.

Snix Chopped Liver

2005-12-18T17:52:00.000-08:00

My husband hates chopped liver. Detests it. In any form, at any time. But, yet, he is such a sweetie that he makes it uncomplainingly for me. This is my recipe which I developed in San Francisco about 15 years ago, based on the foie haché I ate in the Marais district of Paris. Yes, you can find less fattening versions, but this particular recipe is quite miserly with the chicken fat. Try it and see what you think. Eat it at simchas in good health!

Chopped Liver/Gehakte Leber

1 lb pre-broiled kosher chicken livers (easier than explaining the laws of broiling liver here)
4 hard boiled eggs, peeled
3 + 2 tblsp schmaltz
1 large red onion, chopped
1/8 c kosher cognac (may be omitted)
1 tblsp fresh tarragon or 1 tsp dried thyme
pinch of sugar (if desired)
salt
black pepper
chopped scallions (if desired)

Melt three tablespoons of schmaltz on medium heat in a cast iron frying pan. Fry the onion in the schmaltz and when clear, add the pre-broiled livers and heat thoroughly. Raise the heat briefly, add the cognac and tarragon, stir and remove from heat. Don't overcook, or the livers will get hard and dry.

Chop the liver mixture with three of the eggs and the reserved schmalz, either by pulsing in a food processor (if you like a smoother version) or in a bowl with a mezzaluna (if you like it coarser). Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with hardboiled egg slices and scallions if desired. Chill overnight to let flavors meld - if you can hold out that long. Cover tightly with plastic film to prevent discoloration.

Nanaimo Bars

2005-12-04T07:07:00.000-08:00

What are "Nanaimo Bars"? They aren't a geographic feature of the British Columbian seaboard, but rather a fixture on Canadian cookie trays since the 1950's. These multilayer bars are rich, chocolate-intense and as sophisticated as fuzzy bunny slippers. Yes, I know you can find them in any decent patissserie north of the 42nd parallel, but they are a classic kitchen-made treat, with their origins in the city of Nanaimo, B.C. You could make them parve, but they are much better in their original milchig form. Remember that the eggs are not cooked in this recipe, so you may want to use Eggbeaters or another pasturized egg product if you are sharing this treat with folks with immune system issues.

Your Basic Nanaimo Bar

Bottom Layer
1/2 cup butter (use a good quality butter - some prefer unsalted)
1/4 cup sugar
5 tbsp. cocoa
1 egg beaten (or egg substitute)
1 3/4 -2 cups graham wafer crumbs (egg substitute may need more crumbs)
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds (some say walnuts; I grok pecans)
3/4 - 1 cup coconut (toast it if you want to gild the lily)

Melt first three ingredients in the top of a double boiler.
Add egg and stir to cook and thicken .
Remove from heat.
Stir in crumbs, coconut and nuts.
Press firmly into an ungreased 8 X 8 pan. Chill while preparing the second layer.

Second Layer
1/2 cup butter
2 tbsp. and 2 tsp. of cream
2 tbsp. vanilla custard powder or kosher vanilla pudding mix
2 cup powder sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cream butter, cream, custard powder and icing sugar together well. Beat until light.
Spread evenly over bottom layer. Chill thoroughly before topping with third layer, as the topping may melt the middle layer.

Third Layer
4 squares semi-sweet chocolate (1 oz each) or 2 squares unsweetened and 2 squares
semi-sweet chocolate
2 tbsp. butter

Melt chocolate and butter over low heat. Cool slightly - if the top layer is too cool Once cool, but still liquid, pour over second layer and chill in refrigerator. These will keep well in the refrigerator for 3-4 days and in the freezer for about a month.

If you'd like a cappuchino variation, proceed as above, add two tsps. of coffee powder (like Café Bustelo) to the middle layer.

Name Game

2005-11-30T13:05:00.000-08:00

What do the following names have in common? Upper-class twit of the year finalists? Refugees from a game of "Clue"? Members of "The 400"? Yale Alums?

Holly Clarendon
Morton Kendall
Dale LaGrange
Dayton Welsley
Gerry Kennedy
Alfred Canisteo
Burt Wilson
Marilla Springbrook
Clarence Crittendon
Hume Fillmore
Tyrone Weston
Sonora Bradford
Wallace Wheeler
Roy Stafford
Wayne Dundee
Hector Valois
Catharine Millport
Borden Lindley
Thurston Campbell
Rose Butler
Alton Wolcott

Awash in a Sea of Dentures

2005-11-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

.. was something I missheard earlier this evening, and it might well have described a recent event we attended. It also left me musing about the many differences between Jewish and non-Jewish weddings. Among my thoughts: when is the last time you ate at a poorly-lit Jewish wedding?

The reception venue was almost as lovely as the bride, with an amazing view of the city. I guess that is why I was so befuddled and couldn't remember that a proper "Rusty Nail" is composed of Drambuie and scotch. Ok, so I'm not a drinker. But, inadvertantly,
I created a new drink, which I hearby officially name "the Vanessa". It is as charming and smooth as its namesake

Vanessa

1 part B & B (Benedictine and Brandy)
1 part Scotch (preferably a slightly smokey variety)
Ice
Lemon zest to garnish

Stirred gently in a med highball glass - not a snifter.
Enjoy in good company.

Mulled Wine - Glögg

2005-11-27T00:41:00.000-08:00

Someone from Northern Minnesota was asking recently for a good recipe for the Nordic winter specialty, glögg. Similar in some ways to mulled wine or the German Gluhwein. it is a standard feature at get-togethers throughout November and December, often served with crisp gingersnaps. By omitting the vodka, and substituting grape juice for wine, it is easily made into a family-friendly drink. This is my variation of a recipe that my friend Bitte and I used to serve in Helsinki/Helsingfors.

Finlands Glögg

Heat up 2 cups of burgundy, port, or good old concord Manishewitz, 1 cup of black currant syrup (you can get this at well-stocked grocery stores, sometimes sold under the trade name "Ribena"), 1 stick of cinnamon, a strip of orange peel (in Finland, they use pomerance peel, "pomaranssi", but it's very difficult to get here), 1" of peeled, raw ginger, 10 cardamom seeds (not the pods), about a teaspoon, and about 20 whole cloves. You can also add 1/2- 1 cup vodka. Let the mixture simmer, covered, for at least two hours. I like to let it stand overnight. Strain the mixture and put into a glass bottle until ready to heat and reuse. Serve very warm with a couple of blanched almonds and raisins in each glass. Be very careful when removing the lid that you have turned off the heat, especially if you are using a gas flame. My brother has burned off his eyelashes when the vapor caught fire from the flame!

* if you can't find the blackcurrant syrup, you'll need to add 3/4 cup of water and sugar to taste. Do try and find the syrup though. It is worth the hunt.

Hot and Sour Soup

2005-11-26T23:37:00.002-08:00

East meets West to cure what ails you. When the weather gets raw, you can try this Northern Chinese specialty with leftover kosher turkey or use a smoked kosher turkey leg. Most Asian palates prefer dark meat to white meat, finding it more toothsome. Do as you like!

Meat:

1 tblsp. dark soy sauce
2 tblsp. kosher brandy (may be omitted)
1 tsp. cornstarch or potato flour
1/4 - 1/3 lb regular cooked or smoked kosher turkey, cut into 1/4" cubes or julienned. You can also use chicken breast, but
I prefer the stronger taste of turkey.

Combine the above ingredients and let marinate in a small bowl at room temperature for about 20 min.

Soup:

3 tblsp. cornstarch
8 cups chicken stock/broth
3 tblsp. vinegar - either a light or dark rice vinegar. Many use white vinegar.
3 tblsp. soy
2 tsp. white pepper
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/3 c. peeled diced potato
6 dried wood ear mushrooms, reconstituted, drained and cut into 1/4" pieces or julienned.
15 tiger lily buds, soaked, drained and sliced (may be omitted)
12 oz. firm tofu, drained and cubed
1 egg, checked and lightly beaten (important!)
1 tsp. dark sesame oil
1/8 c. slivered whites of spring/green onions (add during soup if less prominent flavor is desired)
3 tblsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Combine cornstarch and 1/4 water in a small bowl. In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, pour the stock, soy, vinegar, white pepper, cayenne, and salt. Without heating, stir in the cornstarch liquid. Bring to a boil over medium flame. Add the turkey and lower the heat to medium-low and simmer, without allowing to boil again, for about 30 minutes. Add potato, mushrooms, lily buds and tofu and continue to simmer until the potatoes are cooked through, but not mushy, about 15 - 20 min.

Slowly drizzle the beaten egg into the hot soup, WITHOUT stirring, making long strands. After the strands rise to the top, add oil and garnish with cilantro and onion. You can also use chili sesame oil if you want more heat.

Pumpkin Sauce, aka Liquid Pumpkin Pie

2005-11-21T12:41:00.000-08:00

Scandinavians are big on sauces. Sauces for meat. Sauces for potatoes and vegetables. Sauces for desserts. Some are so keen on sweet sauces that they put them in a bowl and eat them as "soups" for dessert. Blueberry and rhubarb are among my summer favorites. Thinking of Thanksgiving, I remembered an easy pumpkin sauce I made one year in Oslo. Necessity held all the maternal rights here as well - I had one small pumpkin - think medium gourd - and about 8 guests. I served it over pound cake, and it was a big hit, but you could serve it over regular or parve ice cream as well.

Pumpkin Sauce

2 cups of mashed sugar pumpkin or Hubbard squash
1/4 -1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp cardamom (optional)
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 c. evaporated milk/light cream/parve creamer

Mix well and serve over cake, ice cream or eat as is.

Staggering Genius

2005-11-20T13:48:00.000-08:00

In the Sunday New York Times Magazine, from 20 November, 2005, the feature article was about the advances made to encourage the identification and development of "gifted children", (the preferred euphemisms of my childhood), or what they called "geniuses". I always have to laugh when I hear the word "genius" - it makes me think of the old Wile E. Coyote "super-genius" cartoon. The article itself aroused about very mixed feelings in me. On one hand, I agree that this type of intellectual capacity is a potential resource which should not be wasted in the name of some artificial standard of theoretical "equality". But I worry about how much of this "genius" is based on the needs and nature of the child alone, rather than the ego of the parents. Also, with big financial awards at stake, like the "Davidson Fellowships" mentioned in the article, will identifying and labeling prodigies help them find community, or will it just ratchet up the feeling of competition, either from within the young people themselves or from their parents, family and school?

On the face of it, the fact that intellectual gifts are identified and encouraged, rather than treated as a distraction, oddity or classroom burden represents progress, at least viewed from my elementary school days. In the village where I grew up "gifted education" was largely a foreign concept from the late 60's to mid 70's. Children who were quick learners were expected not to be disruptive, i.e. ask for more time or attention from the teachers. "Enrichment" consisted by and large of more of the usual homework, which counted for nothing and was often ungraded. Busywork, in other words. Tracking in certain classes like math and reading/language was supported through mandatory standardized tests (both SRA and Stanford-Binet, at my school). Later, there did seem to be an attempt to at least pay lip service to providing "gifted education" in grade 7. Unfortunately, the experiment ended in about three weeks when one of my "gifted" classmates set a science lab on fire. No more was said about being "gifted". If you were lucky, and teachers were cooperative/convinced you were less trouble out of their class, you might be able to go to a lower class and tutor or skip the class entirely (both happened to me).

Skipping classes - letting students advance to a grade level where the work was appropriately challenging - a standby of the pre-WW II educational establishment - had largely been abandoned in favor of keeping children at an "appropriate social level." Not just abandoned, but actively discouraged. Many of the adults I was close to, including my grandmother, older cousin and close family friend, had been allowed to advance, often 2-3 grades over the course of their education.The older folks I knew did not seem to have suffered socially from having had peers who were older and more advanced than they were. On the contrary, they were socially engaged people who said that learning to get along with older classmates gave them a useful skill. By the time I entered public school, this strategy was no longer possible and the rule seemed to be "the nail that sticks out gets beaten down". This seems to have changed now, and kids are able to "test into" university in a way that wasn't "possible" a few decades ago when I left high school and went directly to college at 15. That's a whole separate story, but it was the best decision I ever made - and I do mean "I", as my parents were supportive, but not directive.

As I have gotten older, it has been fun to run across others who did the same "impossible" thing. I always felt like we belonged to a secret society, and I personally never felt competitive with these other people who went to college at an early age, some even as young as 12 or 13. Some individuals did seem to have relished their outsider "genius" or "wunderkind" position. In my experience, these were usually guys who worked in math or science. Most of these "early achievers" focused closely on their studies, keeping their heads low, intent on feeding their intellectual curiosity in a more conducive climate. Some, like me, tried to pass and fit in with the other students. Even though I didn't look much different than the other students, I easily got into situations where it was hard to hang without outright lying. Being labeled "genius" would have killed any social aspirations I had, other than that of resident freak. So I wonder how it will be with these kids? Will they be able to parlay their label into something that will work for them? What is important for them as they go to college? Do they care about having friends at college and university who will look beyond the title and get to know them as individuals? Or is the social aspect unimportant, compared with the possibility to seek new opportunities to explore - and to be mentored?

Corn Pudding

2005-11-17T16:36:00.000-08:00

Do The Math, Comrades!
High Yields = More Corn Pudding!

I love corn pudding. It's a family tradition. And though it is often made milchig, it's easy to do parve. Here is a version of my mother's corn pudding - hers uses canned creamed corn.

Corn Pudding

Ingredients

24 ounces vacuum packed corn, preferably white sweet corn - or right off the cob if you'd prefer
1/2-cup sugar
1/2 cup crumbled crackers
1 -cup milk, half and half, or soy creamer
3 eggs, beaten (you can substitute EggBeaters)
3 Tablespoons flour
8 Tablespoons melted butter or parve margarine
2 Tablespoons vanilla
Preparation Instructions
Combine all of the ingredients in the order given. Be sure to stir the mixture while you add the hot melted butter/marg.

Pour into a widish casserole and bake at 425F for 45 - 50 minutes or until golden.

You can double this, but it will take longer in the oven - more than an hour probably. Don't go for a deeper dish, but rather a wider one like a
13 x 9 pyrex pan or larger pan, as needed, than to use a deep casserole.

May I have a word?

2005-11-17T07:00:00.001-08:00

... Or several? Or just some really good etymologies? Reference books are a great passion of mine - I knew somehow that my husband was my basherter when he asked, the first time we met, if he could see my reference books. My standard favorite etymology was for many years the redoubtable Onions. Dr. Charles T. Onions devoted over 50 years of his life to the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology and it's a great place to settle - or start - an argument.

Over the course of many years, I've given away several of these volumes to would-be "wordies", as I used to come across them cheaply enough in used bookstores. With some 38,000 words, it will scratch most linguistic itches. However, I began to feel that there were shortcomings - not enough space for non-Indo-European word origins, somewhat narrow scope, etc. My mind's eye began to wander, as it were.

Then, one wet and wintry day, my husband brought home the worn, red cloth volume that was to change our life in ways Mao's little red never could. It was Klein in name only. Klein's Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary the English language; Dealing with the Origin of Words and Their Sense Development thus Illustrating the History of Civilization and Culture. is a massive volume and undertaking, worthy of its chewy title and its high price tag (should you not get it as a gift, as did my lucky spouse).

Rabbi Ernest Klein, the author, was a linguist, author and rabbi. Born in 1899 in Szatmar, Hungary, his pre-World War II life was that of learning and prestige. He earned his doctorate at the University of Vienna and was chief Rabbi of Nové Zámky, Slovakia from 1931 - 1944. He was deported to Auschwitz in 1944 and returned to find that his father, wife and children had all perished. He served as Rabbi in Satmari, but he had no desire to remain in Romania. In fact, he had little desire for anything, as he was depressed almost to the point of despair.

His sister, Elizabeth, was gravely concerned about her brother's situation. She urged him to leave the blood-soaked soil of Eastern Europe and immigrate with her and her husband. They settled first in France and ultimately in Toronto, Canada, where he lived and served as the rabbi of Congregation Beth Yitshak until his death in 1983. Elizabeth was also the impetus for him to pursue his etymology. Rabbi Klein had been frustrated for many years over the inadequacies of most etymologies and was encouraged by his sister to write his own book. In the forward to his book, he expresses his hope that in finding the common roots of words and thereby of languages, that people will focus on that which brings us together and help to create peace among nations.

First published in 1966, Klein's work is nothing short of brilliant and truly deserves the name "comprehensive". His analysis extends to common first names, biblical and mythological characters, angels, saints and demons, and place names. He also examines thousands of medical, legal and scientific terms, as well as all roots and stems used to create compound English words. It is a staggering work of scholarship, yet accessible and often affable. It sits on a shelf beside our dining room table and it is a rare meal, especially with company, that we do not resort to it to look up an answer or detail. Beside it sits Klein's last work, published posthumously in 1987, his Comprehensive etymological dictionary of the Hebrew language for readers of English. But I'll leave that for another time.

To Bird or Not to Bird

2005-11-16T09:00:00.001-08:00

.. or "Is Thanksgiving Kosher?"

Why don't your Chassidic friends celebrate Thanksgiving, I've been asked. The answer is rooted in Leviticus 18:3 "You shall not walk in their statutes, would be one reason given (sez the former Hebrew school teacher). On another plane, the answer would be, "We have our own holidays - why add a goyish one?". Anything that causes us to intermingle is not a good thing, particularly if there is a possibility of eating (heaven forfend) something trayf. Yet another aspect is that it makes us less distinctive - something by and large not held to be a good thing, although the first generations of Jewish immigrants would mostly have begged to differ!

I'm giving the religious reason that some Orthodox and most Chassidic Jews don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Their response: "We have a Jewish holiday of Thanksgiving - Sukkot. And we say a special thanksgiving blessing on every new item we wear, fruit we eat and holiday that we are permitted to celebrate. "

It needs to be noted that this opinion is one of several in the observant community. Other Orthodox scholars, including Rav Joseph Soleveitchik, permitted and encouraged Jews to celebrate Thanksgiving based on the following arguments and conditions: a) it is a secular holiday and b) does not require or include religious practices (the same concept applies to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day). Secular holidays can be celebrated as long as a) they are not celebrated with people who integrate religious worship in them; b) the celebration does not appear to others as a religious ceremony, according to Jewish law and c) all dietary and religious laws are observed. We are, as a people, historically chary of anybody thinking, heaven forbid, that we've been converted. See Rabbi Michael Broyde's site for a further discussion of this and other opinions on the holiday.

But a big part of being American means that you get to pick what holidays you personally celebrate, even if the mail doesn't get delivered that day. And as that famous Jew, John F. Kennedy put it: "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." Gratitude and appreciation are values we should express daily, not just once a year over a dead bird.

Curried Sweet Potato Latkes

2005-11-13T20:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I'm early for Chanukah. But Yetta started it! And I love to make these. They are easy, delicious and very satisfying. Many folks put cumin in their variations on this recipe, but I despise the spice, so I substitute coriander. Since I never can pick between sour cream and applesauce, I tend to make these milchig, but I've added a parve option. You could go all out and serve this with Major Grey's or a mango chutney, but it's not .

Curried Sweet Potato Latke (Pareve or Dairy)

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Frying Time: About 10 minutes per batch

1.5 - 2 lbs. sweet potatoes or yams (ruby reds are the way to go if you can get them)
1/2 cup milk or soymilk
up to 1/2 cup matzoh meal, potato flour, or flour
3 eggs (separated if you want fluffier latkes)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 -2 tsp. brown sugar (less if you use soymilk)
2 tsp. madras curry
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1/2 tsp. coriander
1/4 tsp. fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. garlic
salt and pepper to taste
peanut oil

Grate sweet potatoes coarsely or finely, depending on how you like your latkes. Remove any excess moisture by putting the mixture in a colander and pressing out the juice, or put the grated potatoes in a dish towel or cheesecloth and squeeze out moisture. Why? Too much liquid makes your latkes greasy, soggy and nasty.
Check and beat eggs and add one at a time, mixing well (see note above for separating eggs for fluffier pancakes). Add milk. Add sugar, spices and mix well. Add matzoh meal or flour and baking powder, just until integrated. The ideal batter is not too runny or too stiff. Adjust flour or milk/soymilk as appropriate. Heat about 1/4 " of oil until hot - until a bread cube turns brown quickly or it is barely smoking. Place a large spoonful carefully in the oil for each latke. Observe how much they spread and do not crowd. Cook until brown and flip. Drain on paper towels.
Makes about 16 - 20 latkes

Genealogy as Blood Sport Or Why the Best Kin are Dead Kin

2005-11-11T10:02:00.000-08:00

Well, sort of. We did get shot at. But missed. Fortunately. It all started when my mother accompanied me out east to a conference in Massachusetts. Tom couldn't come with me, given his added workload, as much as he and I would have liked to have made the trip together. Mother was an excellet travel partner and we planned to go and look for graves of long dead relatives from the Berkshires and some of the more hinterlandish parts of upstate New York. I'll talk about the New York part of the adventure another time.

The weather was cooperative, holding off on the promised snow/sleet combo. Most of the Amherst locals had never heard of Peru, MA, and the ones who had only noted glumly that it was the place that got the first and worst of the bad weather that later descended on them. Chanting our mantra "it's only a rental", we collected our courage and headed up the mountains. We had also been warned about terribly maintained, nausea-inducing roads. All I can say is that those folks have never careened their way to Point Reyes with my dad. This was a cakewalk and the roads were far superior to most public throughfares in the Golden State these days. The trees were gorgeous in ways that ranged from picture postcard to Ansel Adams. Folks were friendly, gregarious and poor.

As we were on a hunt for dead relatives, finding old graveyards was of tantamount importance. People were by and large exceptionally knowledgable about burial sites in their own town/parishes, but amazingly clueless as to what existed in the next (i.e adjoining, 2 miles up the road) village, even as far as churches and schools. But the Dodge/Hodgkins brothers, the trucking Click and Clack of Berkshire County were veritable gazetteers. Thanks to them we found quite obscure cemeteries on what could pass for goat tracks on a good day. Mother and I were amazed at how well we could follow his verbal sketches of directions. Althought we ultimately ascertained that few, if any, direct relatives reposed in Peru, we could not help but marvel at the miles and miles of huge black stone fences these forebears had lugged together. Even in what appeared to us as dense forest, we found running fences in remarkably good shape, given that they were probably built before 1830, according to the Kellogg's - local librarians and historians. Clearly, these forests were once cultivated areas, which partially explains the lack of old-growth forest in these hills.

But on to the gunfire. "Uncle Tom" Dodge advised us to visit old Norm Sanderson in the next village, as he was alleged to know quite a bit about local folks and their burial places, have some kind of genealogy book and even be a distant cousin. He did advise that Norm was "a little grumpy", but thought that a visit at suppertime would be a good idea. Said and done, we followed his instructions and found the fellow's tidy home directly across from the fire station. Lights were shining from the old-fashioned kitchen's windows and Mother agreed to go and try to talk to the old man. After knocking at the breezeway door and getting no answer, thinking that the old duffer was probably hard of hearing, she proceeded to knock on the kitchen door, where she spotted a long oxygen tube going to another room. Somehow connecting this infirmity to being hard of hearing, Mother daringly opened the door and called out to him. If you've ever cornered an old raccoon, you can imagine the angry, indignant hissing that emerged from around the corner. Suffice it to say that he ordered mother with a good deal of invective, denture rattling and ornery to remove herself from the property postehaste, we complied with alacrity and agitation, feeling very badly that we'd upset the crusty curmudgeon.

Our pity was short lived. We got about 250 yards from the property, and were in the process of asking a neighbor about the local cemeteries, when a rifle shot rang out from Sanderson's house. It sounded like an old blunderbuss and seemed to be aimed at the fire station or where our car recently was parked. The poor old coot probably wanted to scare us and our gang of maurauding Amazonian bandits d'une age certain off once and for all. As for us, we were terrified that the gent would blow himself to kingdom come, still attached to his oxygen candula cum candle. Fortunately, we spoke with his daughter the next day, and she was most apologetic about her "cranky" father - and appalled to learn that he still had a firearm in the house at all, much less firing it off at visiting would-be relations.

I recently remarked to my Tom that all of our relatives were either in the phonebook or the graveyard and I think I know where I'd prefer to look.

A Major Mechiah ... From a Real Mensch

2005-10-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

(c) Minnesota Historical Society
For over a year I have been worrying along with my mother about finding a new place for her to live.Her house - the house my brother and I grew up in, and where someone in our family has lived for over 50 years - is just too big and too expensive to maintain. We have plans - approved by the planning comission yet! - to expand onto our house and create a separated living space for her. The timing is, however, not good for us, as I am writing full-time and we don't have the income to support that kind of construction, which would be well over 250k.

So what to do? My mother does not want to live in an apartment - yet. She is used to a house, enjoys a yard and some privacy, can manage stairs now, etc. We would love to have her live close to us, but the price of housing is very expensive in our community.
In fact, one of the houses directly across the street from ours was advertised at 480k - for just a little storey-and-a-half that backs onto a commercial alley.

Fortunately, we have found a solution. We have a very good neighbor who lives in Chicago but maintains his family house - the one next-door to the 1.5 storey number. I got to thinking that this family house stands empty probably 45-50 weeks of the year, our neighbor coming up only a few times in the summer and fall to visit relatives and friends. We would often chat when he visited and Tom and I keep an eye on the place when he's not there.

So I collected my courage and called up our neighbor at his office and asked if he would consider letting my mother live in the house. I explained that she could come and stay by us whenever he wanted to visit. Thank Gd, he was very open to the proposal and when we met today he said that she could live there for at least a year for a very reasonable price - reasonable even on my mother's miniscule income.

We are so blessed with a mensch for a neighbor and a wonderful mother.

The discreet charm of living in galus

2005-10-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

One of the joys of living in an enclave of non-yidden is the interesting use of Yiddish/Hebrew. I'll never forget one of my classmates at college who was going to his Jewish friend's house for the first time and wanted to know if her parents were going to be serving any potato tchotchkes. A yukon gold in lucite perhaps?

Another classic happened last night when we went to a major grocery chain which is capping off an extensive remodel with the addition of a separate kosher meat/deli dept. and a kosher bakery. In any event, there we were strolling the semi-deserted aisles adjacent to the new construction, searching for chicken and kreplach (I am not interested in potchkehing arond with them this year). Bought a chicken, which looked normal, had an expiry date of 16 October and trundled on home. Low and behold when I opened it this afternoon it was ROTTEN. Not just chancy chicken - out and out foul fowl.

Oy. And for this we had schlepped all the way across the metro? It should be a kapporah, I thought, and then called Byerleys to see how to resolve the question. The young manager was very friendly and taken aback by the situation. She asked at what time I'd bought the chicken. When I told her that it was late last night, she sighed and said, "Oh, the moshiach doesn't work that late." My first reaction was how did she have access to the Messiah's dayplanner? Then I realized that she meant "mashgiach" - the rabbinically accredited kashrus supervisor, as it were. It was a nice laugh.

My last smile before Yom Kippur was from a friend here who had been able to go to a kapporah ritual the night before. Performed with live chickens, according to the ritual. Now and then the chickens, being alive and frightened, let loose with their chickenly fluids. This gives rise to the question about what one should put over one's head to avoid this sudden smelly shower. From my experience, as for headcovering, the look du jour is usually shmatte, and a genuine one at that. No one has enough sheitels for a "kapporah sheitel". Heaven forfend that a lady should%2

Happy 5766

2005-10-11T16:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, just a short post here. This is my current favorite recipe for lekakh. It's worth asking your rabbi for a piece just before Yom Kippur!

1/2 c oil - neutral, like canola, safflower or corn
1 c sugar
1 c dk brown sugar
1 c. honey
1 c. dark beet syrup - substitute with an additional cup of honey if you can't get it
4 eggs separated
5 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. salt
1 c. café cubano - or your strongest available
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. wine/brandy/what you like, if you like it
1 c raisins - I soak them in the wine or brandy if I'm going to use alcohol
Nuts - if it's not around Rosh Hashanah time

Blend the egg yolks, sugars, oil well. Add the spices and the raisins. Sift the dry ingredients together and add alternately with the coffee. Beat the egg whites until frothy but not dry. Fold in gently with the batter. Bake in greased and floured pans at 325 for at least 1 hour. This makes a small sheet cake and a loaf pan. You can easily cut this in half.

A good sealing and an easy fast!

Trader Joe's Update II

2005-09-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

Hot news flash from a VERY well-placed source: Trader Joe's is scheduled to open in St. Louis Park at the corner of
Monterey and Exclesior around 15 April, 2006. I am not at liberty to reveal the source, but it is a person who is in a position
to make the call. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Quote of the Day

2005-09-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

(c) Wisconsin Historical Society
From Golda Meir:

"I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome."

Harvest Chicken

2005-09-20T07:44:00.000-07:00

This is an easy chicken recipe which is perfect for Rosh Hashannah. A person could add honey to the chicken to get the full-on holiday feel, but who needs the extra calories? The beauty of this is that you do not need to thicken the sauce or prepare a starch. You could substitute kasha or even rice for the barley. Reheats wonderfully.

1 cut-up or butterflied kosher chicken
15 or so small carrots - chopped
2 hearts of celery - chopped
1 or 2 red or yellow onions - chopped
2 bunches scallions (spring onions) - chopped
1 head garlic - peeled, cleaned and smashed
2-4 bay leaves - depends on how much you like bay
1 cup dried cranberries - you may know them as crasins - you can also use pomegranate
1 cup more or less barley - this can be omitted if you despise barley
2-3 cups apple cider or kosher apple juice
Salt/Pepper to taste

Oil a large, deep baking pan and place chopped vegetables, garlic, cranberries, garlic and bay in the bottom of the pan. Salt and pepper to taste. Add barley and then pour apple cider over all. The juice should nearly cover the vegetables. Place the chicken over the vegetablees. Salt and pepper again if you like. Place in a 375 oven for 1 - 1.5 hrs until chicken is cooked and carrots are soft and barley is done. Add more cider if the barley looks like it is drying out.

Trader Joe's Update

2005-09-19T20:27:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit late in noticing this but the Summer edition of St. Louis Park Business Line Focus pegs the opening of the much-awaited first Trader Joe's as "sometime next spring." Stay tuned!

Monty Hall's Sweet and Sour Herring

2005-09-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

Monty Hall's
Sweet and Sour Herring
Monty Hall is best known to people of my generation as the host of "Let's Make A Deal". He grew up in a Yiddish-speaking home in Winnipeg and is, apparently, quite the feinschmecker.

He tells the story that one year he and Alan Alda went to a second night seder.
Hall brought two jars of the sweet and sour herring. The first jar was passed around and it quickly disappeared. He went to get the second jar - but no luck The company looked high and low for it, but it had disappeared into thin air. Hall then walked into the kitchen and there was Alan Alda, devouring the herring, a guilty look on his face.

So, try this for Pesach, or even before.

Sweet and Sour Herring

So, try this for Pesach, or even before.
You can buy kosher pickling spices in a package or combine your own. Matjes herring take about one hour to soak. Salt herrings might take longer, so talk to the fish man about it.
4 fresh Matjes or salt herrings, filleted
1 large white onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup white wine or apple cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. pickling spices OR
3 cloves
8 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
8 juniper berries
1 Tbsp. mace leaves
A piece of cheesecloth
Soak herrings for one hour in cold water or milk [NOT IF YOU WANT A PARVE FISH!]; drain on a few layers of paper towels. Cut into bite-size pieces.
In a wide-mouth glass jar, place a layer of herring, a layer of onions; alternate until you have reached the top. Place pickling spices or individual spices in a piece of cheesecloth, making sure to secure the ends to make a sack.
Place in pan with vinegar, sugar and water to taste with packet of pickling spice. Let it cool.
Pour the liquid over the herring. Refrigerate for 2 days before eating. It will stay fresh in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.
Serves 6 to 8.

LibraryThing

2005-09-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

I've been absent for a bit focusing on writing both my dissertation and finishing a short piece for a Finnish publication. But I wanted to put a shout out for an amazing site LibraryThing. This is a mostly free online service allowing bibliophiles to catalog their libraries online. I say mostly free, but if you have or catalog less than 200 books, it is free of charge. After that, it is $10.00 for a lifetime membership and free reign to catalog as many books as you like. The cool thing is that you only need to enter part of the title, author, ISBN and their search engine will check both the Library of Congress and Amazon holdings and input the rest of the information automatically.

If you have a large, specialized collection, it is particularly useful as you can access the information from any internet accessible computer to see if you already have the volume for which you're considering plunking down serious semollians. Potentially, it's also useful for anyone looking to add to your collection (spouse, friends, etc.) and wants to know if you have book X. Another thought in these disaster-ridden times is for insurance - it's always good to have a comprehensive, off-site list, especially if you have a serious investment in your books.

Pincus the Kosher-eating Penguin

2005-08-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

And I thought we were odd with the cat who will only eat cholov yisroel milk products..

A penguin that has grown to symbolise the friendship between Jews and Germans is to be adopted by the Board of Guardians of British Jews.

Pincus the Penguin, who lives in Berlin Zoo is a popular visit for many Germans both Jewish and not who have been mesmerised by Pincus' Jewish-like eating habits.

Unlike other Penguins who are fed unkosher fish and seafood, Pincus will only eat kosher fish.

Since coming to Berlin Zoo in 1999, Pincus has been a popular draw for the crowds who watch in fascination as the penguin rejects the non-kosher fish and scrambles towards the kosher delights.

"Pincus came to us from Warsaw Zoo as part of the 1999 European Zoo Exchange and when we first started to feed him prawns and swordfish, he didn't take any interest," said Berlin Zoo director Otto Ziller. "Someone at Warsaw mentioned Pincus was special and was always picky with his food, so we had some salmon and gave it to him which he enjoyed."

Over time, it become apparent the Pincus was no ordinary penguin. "One day a Jewish couple from Florida came to the zoo and were eating a smoked salmon bagel and Pincus was hovering around them while the other penguins were in another part of the penguin area. One of the staff noticed this and after some tests, we discovered that Pincus was drawn towards the smoked salmon."

Since finding a love for Jewish food, Pincus has a diet consisting of such delights as gefilta fish (chopped and mixed fish with carrot and made into golf ball sized portions), smoked salmon and schmaltz herring.

"The Board is delighted to be associated with Pincus and the Zoo which has started to make the Jewish diet and kosher food better known in Germany," said Board president Harry Greenberg. "We have decided that as a symbol of unity, the Board wishes to be associated with Pincus and we will be featuring his name and image across the Board from our letterheads through to the annual New Year appeal."

More information on the Board can be found at: www.theboard.org.uk
email: info@theboard.org.uk

Field report - Lacis, Berkeley, CA

2005-08-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

Against my better judgement, I went into Lacis on Adeline Ave in
Berkeley, CA yesterday. I say against my better judgement because I
knew that they have an amazing collection of temptations in all manner
of textiles, although they specialize in costume and lace, including a
wonderful museum which has great examples of knitted lace. I hadn't visited the shop since getting wedding gear there nearly 10 years ago, and I was very pleased by the changes that had been made to the store.

I want to recommend their book selection to anyone who is looking for
hard-to-find titles, including out-of-prints. Now that the incredibly
knowledgable - but at times formidable - founder has gone to her
reward, the shop is much user-friendlier. The manager, Erin, is a gem
and very helpful. I also found many type of new knitting gadgets, including thimble-thingees for keeping multiple colors of yarn straight, at fair prices. They also have a beautiful selection of house-brand bone knitting needles, if you've ever wanted to try that.

I did a fair amount of damage, esp. in the millinery department. If you have a big head and are looking for hat forms, straw hats to be shaped, this is your place. but
It is definitely worth a vist. http:/www.lacis.com/ Lacis - 2982 Adeline, Berkeley. 510-843-7290.

It should be a kapporah...

2005-08-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

Lovely to be back in the SF Bay area - my native home. There is something about the smell of the place that usually makes me feel a sense of immediate calm when I hit the ground. However, that precludes skunks. And skunks we have. Fortunately, I was able to head the dog off at the pass before she went out and confronted the stinky beast (reminds me that "skunk" is "stinkdyr" - "dyr" being "animal" - in Norwegian) and I had to give her yet another bath in a mixture of Dawn, hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. But the smell is, shall we say, pungent.

This is just the capper to a day that had me tripping over a non-attatched downspout hose - it won't rain enough to need one for at least three months - trying to take out garbage for my friends who are now up in the Sierras. Then the door locked behind me. I distinctly remembered unlocking and testing the door. But my distinct memory was no help to me standing outside looking in at the dog.

Fortunately, I remembered that their neighbors down the street had an extra key. I even remembered their names. But this was little help as said neighbors were themselves in Yellowstone and housesitting friend Kary had no idea where the extra keys were. But he was decent enough to get me a phone book and a phone and within a half hour Mr. Suh was opening up the back door and facing the wrath of Genevieve the Fierce.It should only be a kapporah.

On the positive side, I found no fewer than three excellent straw hat forms, at Lacis and as the abrupt German owner had gone to her ultimate reward, I didn't have to contend with her. The hats are big enough even to fit my monster cranium and easily decorated. It's a bit late for this season, but at least I won't have to sweat through another summer with only one decent hat. I keep thinking that I should have gotten a white one and a green one... Genug for one day, though.

And the Other's Gold

2005-08-10T20:27:00.000-07:00

Entrance to "Rotten Grade School",
originally uploaded by Ablevaybel

It was so much fun to have one of my oldest friends visit Sunday with her husband and three of their four well-behaved children. I've known Bets since kindergarten, when we were both subjected to the vagaries of Mrs. "She would have been fine if you hadn't taught her to read" Balsley's arcane educational theories, such as reading the same book over and over again in a monotone every day for a week. It was over 35 years ago that we both walked up the steps of Rockton Grade School to afternoon kindergarten, learned about jimmies and the reindeer dance and the multiple rules of monkey bars, slide and the not-so-cryptically named "boys chase girls". I can distinctly remember sitting on the teeter-totter in the school yard, behind the cyclone fencing, kicking at stones in my scuffed tan Red Goose shoes, waiting for my grandfather to show up in his Rambler and wondering how I was going to stand eight more years of school without going out of my mind.

Old friends are not only like gold, as the old Scout song says, but they are good mirrors. Someone who has known you from your earliest days, through all of your attempts to figure out who you are and where in the world you're going, has known all of your family for good and bad - that is person really is a treasure. One of my grandfather's few articulated regrets of living to be 100 was that no one was alive who knew him back in the day, no one who remembered his parents, let alone his extended family. The mutual sharing of memories is powerful stuff.

Couple those memories with a keen eye and a good sense of humor and you couldn't ask for a better mirror than Betsy. But she isn't just a reflection of the past, but also someone who definitely lives in the here and now. Caring for a large family, busy (and wonderful) husband and good-sized home are a more than full-time job, yet Bets manages to keep up on domestic politics, all manner of blogs and information, current trends and opinions and is almost never too busy to take the time to share what she has learned with me. Clearly, she's not just a mirror, but a transmitter.

As I mentioned, she is also fortunate to have a great husband, Fred. Betsy knew a good thing when she saw him. I am lucky as well as he was also a classmate of ours, having come from Michigan to our high school, so we have all known each other for a good chunk of time. It is also fortunate that my own dear husband likes him well. Somehow there are far too few couples where we truly get along with both partners equally well. But Betsy and Fred fit the bill.

Their sons were remarkably patient with us, even their highly interactive five year old Will. The older two, Jon and Alex, were very attentive to our conversations, often participating, when they weren't trying to figure out an "old school" mattel (R) electronic baseball game. They were also quite patient with the food which featured several kinds of smoked fish, beet and feta salad, challah and other delicacies are probably not the daily fare of most teenagers. The challah got full points, as did the old standby, 6 Minute Chocolate Cake. I served it without the glaze, as I find it sweet enough, though Will thought it could have been sweeter.

Parve 6 Minute Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar - brown is ok
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup strong coffee or water (if you must)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cider vinegar

***Chocolate Glaze***

1/2 pound parve semisweet chocolate
3/4 cup hot water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375F.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, soda, salt, and sugar into an ungreased 8-inch square cake pan. In a 2-cup measuring cup, measure and mix together the oil, cold water or coffee, and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients into the baking pan and mix the batter with a fork or small whisk. When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir quickly. Stir just until the vinegar is evenly distributed throughout the batter. It will leave lighter colored-swirls in the batter, which is as it should be.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, test with a knife or toothpick (should come out clean) and set aside to cool.

Glaze: melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Stir the hot water and the vanilla into the melted chocolate until smooth. Spoon the glaze over the cooled cake. Refrigerate the glazed cake for at least 30 minutes before serving. Can also be served with sifted confectioners sugar.

Cheaper Kosher? Trader Joes in SLP? Roseville?

2005-08-08T20:10:00.000-07:00

Ah, Trader Joe's. Does anybody have a bead on when the much-awaited Trader Joe's will open here in Minnesota? I read back in the late winter that they are opening at Excelsior in early 2006, but since then nada. Then I read in that newspaper of record "The Skyway News" that they are looking to open in suburbs like Roseville. Does anyone have some solid skinny on this?

Seriously, one of the few things that keeps living in Minnesota from being truly optimal is the lack of a Trader Joe's. So sue me, I was born in California and it's my freakin' birth right, ok? No, jesting aside,a Trader Joe's is one of the few things I really miss here. We get to Chicago/California/Points East often enough that we seldom run out of our favorite coffee, spices, etc., but boy would it be nice to get competitively priced kosher meat on a regular basis. I've been so envious when I go back to the Bay Area and find Aaron's beef at about HALF of what we pay here - and we're barely 200 miles from the processor! Go figure! And if you want to learn more about Trader Joe's kosher products for the midwest, see here. Now if we could just get that cholov yisroel Israeli feta that they have on the West Coast, we'd be styling.

Make Mine Brine

2005-08-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

Since it's hot again, I find myself thinking of ways to seriously cut down time in the kitchen. One of the cooler ways to deal with meat is brining. This way the salt and marinade do some of the cooking work for you. I'll put up three recipes here - a Cuban inspired one for chicken, a Nordic one for salmon and my prize-winner for beef.

Chicken Café Cubano

1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 cups water
4 sliced limes
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon mustard seeds, toasted if preferred
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
3/4 cup Café Bustelo, hot
4 boneless skinless kosher chicken breasts or thighs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Combine the ingredients for brining, except coffee and cilantro, in a saucepan, heat until sugar and salt dissolve pour into a large glass or enamel bowl, stir in hot coffee and chopped cilantro, refrigerate until cool. Add chicken pieces and use a small plate or weight to keep it submerged 2-3 hours.
Heat grill to high. Remove chicken from brine, blot nearly dry with paper towels, and brush with oil on both sides. Grill 4-8 minutes, moving halfway if you want grill marks. Turn over and grill 4-6 minutes more
Great with Corn Salsa

Lightly Brined Salmon

This is an amazingly easy recipe - similar to making gravlax. It just takes time, not a great deal of skill. If you'd like to follow an old tradition from Northern Sweden, you can wipe the clean salmon pieces or filets with vodka or brännvin.

2 lbs Salmon - either pieces from the tail or mid-section or whole small salmon
4 tblsp salt
4 tblsp sugar

Filet the salmon or the pieces and divide in half. Spread the salt/sugar mixture between the filets or pieces and place in a ziplock bag in a glass pan with a weight. Let stand in the refrigerator. Small pieces will require about 24 hrs - larger pieces up to 48 hrs. After that time pour off any liquid which has been produced. You can keep the fish in the fridge up to one week and up to two months in the freezer. The salmon is excellent in salads or sandwiches. Typically served with potato salad.

Brined Steak - Gravad Filé

This is a variant of a brining recipe that I won a prize for many years ago in a national competition. Choose any cut you like - a skirt steak works well - like the French ongelet or any of the kosher "sirloins" Don't make this with a tough cut, unless you are going to slow cook it afterwards. You can vary the size of the meat as long as you keep the brining liquid enough to cover the meat by at least an inch.

1 lb. kosher beef - cut according to your choice

2 cups corn or olive oil
1 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp lemon-pepper mix
2 tsp ground black or pink pepper
1 tbsp dried tarragon
3 tbsp fresh chopped garlic
2 tbsp sugar or honey

Brine the meat in ziplock bag or in a shallow glass pan with a weight. Turn after 24 hrs - should marinate for at least 48 hours, and you can keep it in the brining liquid, turning daily, for up to 72 hrs. The meat will become quite "cooked" from the brining, and is sometimes eaten sliced very thin right out of the brine. Other ideas are to quickly grill the larger pieces or flash-fry smaller slices.

Remember All brining might have some risk involved, particularly if your utensils are not scrupulously clean and if you aren't careful to keep the brining very well chilled in the refrigerator. Brining is one of the oldest methods of preserving meat that we know of, and has been eaten healthily for years. If you are worried, be very certain to cook the brined meat thoroughly.

The Lad in the Dad

2005-08-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

My father turned 67 this past weekend, which merited a visit from my ever-loving husband and myself. Father chose to do something really novel on this birthday - he decided that he wanted to spend it with his mother. I was surprised and delighted. He's become much closer to his mother in the past year, her 91st, KAH, might I add. My dear mother - who is not his current wife - made a traditional cake (the recipe to which I will not post) and it was a lovely simcha.

So here was the big question - what to get Dear Old Dad for his birthday. This is a stumper. Can't just give him a card or a gift certificate or a tree in Israel. Nope, has to show thought and have a certain value. My brother is somehow exempt, btw. He gets by with a card. But not so for number-one daughter. The cake was a no-brainer. No one makes them better than my mother - yes, I would leg-wrestle you to prove that point if tznius didn't matter and it does. But what else to get my dad? The problem is that he buys whatever takes his fancy pretty much whenever he likes, after suitable research. I get the terrier gene from him, I declare.

While never a spendthrift - this is the man who says he will ride first class when it gets there a half and hour before the rest of the plane - he has, shall we say, significantly greater resources than we do, with the exception of sitzfleisch - which doesn't package so well. I enjoy getting things for him when I have the money. It's kind of the gift-giving equivalent of finishing the Saturday NYT crossword puzzle. In 15 minutes. In ink. With a three-year old next to you. Oh, and the gift should be a surprise. Did I add that? This is also the lad in the dad thing.

We came up with three fairly good gifts: a book on "Weird Wisconsin" (bags "Weird Florida" for his next big day); a laser pointer for his many family visual presentations (usually involving cars or buildings - a constant for well over 40 years now; and a pair of hand-knit socks.

Now it was this last item I wasn't sure about. Granted, the socks are very nice: fine color, good construction - I could never have resolved the toes this well without major major instruction - super merino wool and blocked to what I thought should fit him. But SOCKS? Squishy packages don't usually cut it with the lad at heart. Add to this that he lives a good deal of his life in Florida and might never wear the darn things. And that he tends to throw everything in the washer and dryer. Oy.

But was I wrong. Way wrong. The socks were the major hit. He was really delighted, tried them on right away and seemed genuinely delighted to have something that his daughter had made (at least mostly) by her own hands. He was so pleased that it gave me a twinge that I hadn't thought of knitting something for him earlier, as I've been knitting off and on for over 20 years. Not that I'm any great shakes - but I can manage simple projects like scarves and socks.

So one lesson here - you can't always take the lad out of the dad, but, fortunately, the dad often trumps the lad when it comes down to something important. In retrospect, I'm sorry that I hadn't knitted him socks before - I hadn't realized before that something that small would mean that much to him. I've learned that lesson too ...

Kol Ishah

2005-07-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

Am I world famous in Sioux Falls? Not quite that provincial, but fortunately my visage is not on any billboards - or wanted posters at the PO for that matter. Still, it is funny in the Midwest, I'll have people come up and say, "I know you from TV."Most of the time, it's pretty funny, but also strange.

Many moons ago, I used to have a semi-regular segment on the radio - although not in this country. The irony of that it was an etiquette segment - and I was giving advice in the minority language of a European country, whilst the majority of callers belonged to the much larger majority population. Again, we had a majority of male callers, if I recall correctly. Maybe it was my voice - or some rampant social anxiety among Finnish guys.

That part of being in the media is very disconcerting - that you have no control over who listens to you or their reaction. And listeners - especially those of the male persuasion -can be very odd. One particular time, I was speaking on Estonian radio about some linguistic research I was doing at the time - speaking in English - and I had two different chaps just show up at the station. Apropos nothing. Just from my voice. That was pretty creepy - like some kind of low-wattage Lorelei.

But this leads back to the kol ishah thread of this post. Had those kinds of incidents not happened to me - and it wasn't the last, unfortunately - I might have thought the whole prohibition on hearing women sing or perform (depending, as ususal, on who you ask) for men was pretty bogus. While I still think it's essentially the burden of the listener to focus on the message, not the medium or the mediator, that experience of having seemingly normal people be so entranced by a not-so-very entrancing voice made me think a bit. I mean, my voice doesn't shatter glass or make dogs howl, but it's pretty generic. Is this more of a guy thing? Do women ever stalk guys because of their voices? And why can't some guys just get a grip?

When I first started out talking on the radio in a more serious way, I had to practice making my voice lower. Not Marlene Dietrich, but huskier than my usual speaking voice. I'd forgotten just how high my voice used to be until I started realizing that my voice used to sound remarkably like my 15 y/o sister's -
almost squeaky sweet. But 20 years ago, low voices projected better on the
radio, so those with high-pitched voices had to retrain their voices or get out of the ether. To this day, I tend to modulate much lower if I am dealing with a microphone.

On the other hand, my mother was absolutely underwhelmed when she heard me on a
BBC broadcast one day. I asked her what she thought, and she was just quiet. Finally, she burst out that she was suprised that I sounded so Midwestern! This was of course the radio standard for the US, and the norm I was raised with, might I add. I guess she thought that on the BEEB I should go all RP or affect Liverpudlian. Ah, if it's not one thing, it's your mother (may she enjoy a long and healthy life!).

Hair today ... Hat Tomorrow

2005-07-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

Architect's drawing of Helsinki synagogue, 1904,
originally uploaded by Ablevaybel

Covered on Shabbes. No, really. What do you think about hair coverings? I just learned that my husband HATES snoods. With my penchant for all things 40's, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for them. Not that I wear them all that often, but they don't morally or aesthetically offend me. My pal's husband hates them as well. Both my husband and I are good with turbans on me.

I'm basically a hat girl. Love hats but have a huge watermelon of a head, which makes buying them off the rack as slightly less likely than the small bears by the lake capturing the flag. Oy, we suffer on many levels here!

Fortunately, I know a very gifted hatmaker. Unfortuantely, she lives in Tallin, as in Estonia. Fortunately, she has made a hat form to fit my outsized noggin. Unfortunately, we can't get hold of her very often, as she is now in great demand as a designer. I am hoping my DH will get me another summer hat from her before long - my birthdays, both civil and Hebrew are coming up shortly.

One of the nice things about being married - and there are many - is wearing a hat to shul. I waited for this. Really. Like years. So, we are married and off to Helsinki for our honeymoon (wait, you didn't honeymoon in Finland? doesn't everybody?). Anyway, we schlep off to shul(the one in the above picture) and I get stopped. Hubby just breezes on in while I get the third degree. Why? Cos I've forgotten my hat at home! I'm so newly wed that I'd completely forgotten it! There's also the little problem that I don't have ID on me - which I wouldn't since it's the sabbath. So we engage in a quick round of Jewish geography - in Finland-Swedish, which you think would be SOME tip-off to the elderly, suspicious, sweet old Swedish-speaking gentleman guarding the gate like some shakey geriatric terrier. Finally, I pass muster and am allowed in, only to have to wear one of those little black doily things. I watched two of them sail down from the balcony over the heads of the men, trying to see how my husband was getting on. It was embarassing, but somehow kind of an oddly "Free Willy" moment as they fluttered on down to the main action on the sanctuary floor. Most ladies there cover their heads loosely with oblong shawls or scarves in shul. Here's the funny part, though - my Turkish friend wanted to meet us that day and was able to walk right through the gate with a scarf without so much as a by your leave!

Later, when we moved to Finland to live, a frum gentleman in the kehilla wondered why I only covered my head in shul or in Jewish contexts. BTW, most of the ladies, frum or not, in that community don't cover their heads outside of the sanctuary or for blessings, in my experience. I answered that I hadn't learned to wear my crown full-time, and that's still how I feel. But I am enjoying my new thin scarf and funky snood, especially after swimming. My non-Jewish swimming mates have remarked that I now look like I belong to the community.

London Calling

2005-07-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

Like many folks, I woke up to the troubling news from London. I decided to ring up my good friend who lives in the north of England to see how she was doing. Fortunately the news was good: her family are all fine - her machutonim live close to one of the areas evacuated earlier and she got tenure in a position that allows her to work half-time for the next four years. That is brilliant given that she has a 7 month old at home. Mazel Tov, Shana!

As for news, I check a lot of different sources when I can. Different sites are good for different info, naturally enough. High on my list for standard international news are:

•The Beeb

• BBC Jewish News

•The CBC

•Finnish Radio - Internytt

•Corriere della Serra

•Haaretz

•Hufvudstadsbladet

•Dagens Nyheter

•Dagbladet

Your opinions probably differ, but this is what I like right now. I find the Italian site to be the best updated, interestingly enough. The BBC's Jewish news is consistenly interesting and deserves to be better known.

Sunrise, Sunset...

2005-07-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

UPDATE...UPDATE...UPDATE...UPDATE

The Daylight Savings Time section has been struck from the Energy Bill by Senator Craig, pending further study. Call Senator Craig's office to let him know your feelings about his action. His office number is (202) 224-2752.

For more on a Jewish take on the DST controversy, see OrthoMom's post
on how it might affect religious Jews and others. From there, you can get to the OU site and take a stand, should you feel so inclined. Selfishly, I welcome all the light we can get, especially this far north. Children should have reflectors in their pockets and wear reflective strips on their backpacks, as is common in areas where people have gone to school in the dark for years.

This just in from the CBC - my preferred source of news in the US:

Congress to add 2 months to Daylight Savings Time

It looks like Daylight Saving Time is about to be extended, and that has child safety and fire prevention advocates riled.

Congressional leaders of both parties have signed off on a proposal, being considered in Washington this week, to start Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in March and end on the last Sunday of November,saying it would save energy, ostensibly by using less electricity to light homes and offices.

If the president signs the bill, which is expected, the new law would take effect immediately, extending Daylight Saving Time by one month this fall. Currently, Daylight Saving Time begins at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and ends at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.

Since I don't have little kids waiting for the bus in the dark or need to be up at the crack of dawn to plough the back 40, this doesn't affect me too directly in any negative way. Frankly, living as far north as we do, I'll be happy for longer days as long as we can get them. This will throw all of our Shabbos calendars off though. Numen lumen all the way...

Daylight Savings Time used to be called "War Time" back in the day. Hope this isn't a throwback to those days. Crafty Benjamin Franklin is the slyboots to blame for bringing the whole idea up, although those trendsetting Belgians were the first to implement it - along with the Austrians - during WWI.

July 19, 1916

2005-07-19T16:15:00.000-07:00

Mamére & Grandpa, 1950s,
originally uploaded by Ablevayble.

was my Mamére's birthday, despite what it says on her marriage certificate. She was my mother's mother, stood about 5'2" and was at least 7 feet tall in my memory. There wasn't anything she couldn't do when I was a kid - she knew all of the family stories, could cook or make most anything, knew and loved almost anything that grew in "the timber" behind their small farm and she was the absolute and unquestioned center of my mother's extended family.

She married my grandfather at 16 - he was 32 and it was scandalous even then. It was hard to reconcile the idea of a defiant, wild flapper with the kind, patient and self-controlled woman I knew as an adult, but pictures of her cutting-up with her sisters show another side to her that I couldn't appreciate fully as a girl.

Her father was killed in a very avoidable accident when she wasn't much more than 10 and her long-suffering mother had a hard time keeping her six high-spirited children in line at the same time as keeping body and soul together. Mamére wanted to have fun and to be free. That's not difficult to see from a creased photograph of the spit-curled girl with the flirty skirt, hoydenish smile and the flashing dark eyes.

To my Grand-Mamére, it must have seemed that Mamére had driven her ducks to a pretty poor market (as the family saying goes) when she picked my grandfather as her suitor. He was a tall, handsome dandy of a fellow, quick with a story and a smile. Perhaps she was looking for someone who reminded her of her father - or just someone who would get her out of the small South Dakota drycleaners where she worked long hours. More than likely, she wanted to be grown-up, with all the rights thereto pertaining.

"If you knew all the dishes you'd ever have to wash in your life, you'd put your pocketbook on your arm and walk down the road," Mamére often said about how lucky we are not to be able to know all the future has in store. They did alright, though. Mamére and Grandpa were married for 48 years, with five children to show for it. Though there was too much work, too many worries and surely their share of sorrows, there were many, many good times. This photo, taken in the late 1950's at their house in Rockford, Illinois, was clearly from one of those good times.

Happy Birthday, Mamére!

Gam zu l'Tovah - This Also is for the Good

2005-07-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

Now, not that I'll ever be confused with Nachum Ish Gamzu (it's a good story - look it up), but at least something good comes from this heat here in the "middest of west", as a Turkish friend once called where I live. Not only does the corn love the heat, seemingly as much as I despise it, but when the mercury goes above 82/28, I truly am uninterested in eating food. Drinks, yes, most food, no.

The one healthy exception to this is salads. Tabouleh, especially made with good durum bulghur (which is a subject for a later discussion), is always good, but all kinds of salads are wonderful.

A recent favorite salad in our house - and my mother and my brothers houses - has been my adaptation of one of our rebbetzin's good salads. It's cheap and easy and fast.

Chinese Cole Slaw

1 pkg cole slaw cabbage mix
1/2 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. toasted slivered or sliced almonds (un-toasted work fine as well)

Dressing:

Equal parts of a neutral oil (corn, safflower, etc.) and rice vinegar
3 tblsp. toasted sesame seeds (both of the toasted items keep well in a glass jar)
1/2 tsp. fine sugar or sweetener
splash of soy - I prefer a dark
splash of sesame seed oil (light or dark)
white pepper and salt to taste

Mix dressing and add to salad ingredients. You can dress it right at the table or a little before if you like the dressing to soak in. Add other vegetables, if that suits your, or tofu or cheese if you are looking for more protein.

Saltade Riskor/ How to Salt Mushrooms

2005-07-18T14:46:00.000-07:00

I met a lady a few weeks ago who asked me how to salt mushrooms. This is somewhat arcane knowledge among many young people, especially Americans. I learned how to do this from older folks in Finland and in the Baltics, but I'm not sure how widespread this method of preservation. Try it at your own risk!

The basics of the method have to do with taking somewhat bitter mushrooms and soaking them, pressing them out and then blanching them, prior to layering them with kosher salt in a wide-mouthed glass or ceramic jar. If you want the details, go to bablefish or some other translator.

As for what the mushrooms are called in English, I'm not sure. You can see pictures of what a "riska" and a "ticka" look like at the following website: http://www.myra.nu/svampar.html
HOWEVER - NEVER pick mushrooms that are unknown or unfamiliar to you. Alway show your mushrooms to a mycologist to ensure what you've picked won't make you ill or - heaven forfend - something even worse!

Saltade Riskor

Beska, något bittra svamparter, såsom riskor, fordra förvälling. Smakliga riskor fås genom att behandla dem på följande sätt:

Efter rensningen från fnas och mask nedlägges de i kallt vatten. Somliga menar att det räcker med några timmar, andra anbefaller att riskorna få ligga ett dygn och vattnet bytes några gånger under den tiden. De upptages med durkslag och förvällas, dvs, får ett uppkok i nytt vatten. Därefter kramas ut vattnet eller de få avrinna och läggas i en press. Efter denna procedur har den beska risksmaken så gott som helt försvunnit.

Saltning passar riskor och fårtickan utmärkt. After rensning eller förvälling, skäres i mindre bitar och nedlägges varvtals i kruka eller glassburk med vid mynning med kosher eller “köttsalt”, helst blandat med lite socker. 1/3 del socker ger bästa resultat. En lätt press lägges över. Vid användandet sköljes svamepen och vattlägges 16 –18 timmar. Man kan också förvälla den saltade svampen på nytt och blir då snabbare färdig för använding, men den kan också ätas som rå efter grundlig vattenläggning.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may

2005-07-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

Or at least trim the rosebushes while the temperature is below 90 - finally.
I hate heat. Not dislike, hate. Loathe. I am a walking advertisement for global warming. My face drips like it's going to slide off my head and I shvitz like there's no tomorrow. Which is how I feel in the heat - apocalyptic. But today it is lovely and I am taking regular breaks from my writing to go outdoors and be productive in the garden.

This leads me to write about methods of making rosewater and oil of roses. There are many traditional methods, some requiring elements which are either unwholesome or downright deadly - vitriolic acid and white lead come to mind.

To make rosewater or essence of roses, you can use the petals in either fresh or dried form, but gather them early, in the cool of the morning, while the petals are most likely still full of moisture and fragrance. Don't pick them after a rain or they will clump and not give a satisfactory product.

To make rosewater, steep at least 450g or one pound of petals in distilled water, witch hazel or pure alcohol. With distilled water, or the alcohol, put the mixture in a cool place, tightly capped and sealed in sterilized jars or bottles, for about a month. Keep stored between uses in a cool place, or the fridge. You can strain off the rose petals through gauze or muslin if you wish, but it is imperative to use sterilized containers to avoid mold.

Rosewater has traditionally been employed medicinally as a treatment for bruises and headache. It is lovely in the bath, the laundry, and as a cosmetic. The witch hazel mixture is especially good for the skin. Rosewater can also be used as flavoring in cooking. It adds a whole new dimension to pastries, sweets, jellies, cakes and fruit pies.

To make rose oil, there are two main methods. The simpler is to use a fine carrier oil such as cold-pressed almond oil, and cover 450 g or one pound of rose petals with the oil in a glass or ceramic jar. If you don't fancy the smell of almond oil, mineral oil will also work. Seal the jar carefully with an airtight lid, and place the mixture in a warm spot in your garden, along a brick wall or on a windowsill, until the petals turn brown. To make the oil stronger, you can repeat the procedure again with fresh petals, as many times as you think necessary for a strong, full bodied fragrance. Be certain to store this in a cool, dark place.

Another method, to be found in old ladies handbooks, is to take two pounds (ca. 1 kg) of rose petals and place them on a napkin tied round the edge of a basin filled with hot water. Place a dish of very cold water on the petals. Keep the bottom water hot and change the water at the top as soon as it begins to grow warm. The Mirror of the Graces from whence this recipe is taken claims that this method of distillation produces an excellent - and unadulterated - essential oil of roses.