Boots, Cars, and Goats (oh my), and more catchups

I got myself some cowboy boots :-) Been wanting them for a year or so now and finally found a pair that I liked that wasn't ridiculously expensive.


I found them at this new boutique that our neighbor from across the street opened up. I am so happy I could give her the business! Vegas friends, it's called Tootsies Vegas and it's in Boca Park. Very cute selection and affordable!


Yes that's an entire papaya sliced in that tupperware. Well it's half a papaya - the other half was in my belly.



I've been subbing at Merryhill Elementary School and have had fun wearing more than gym clothes during the day. No real baby bump this morning:


And then after lunch it made its appearance!


At first I wasn't sure about subbing because they had me to some off duty type things. I had lunch and recess duties and aftercare. It was not what I expected. The last two times I had a 3rd grade class and I LOVED it. I never saw myself being okay with teaching elementary school but I think I could totally do it! The whole - you teach every subject intimidates me, but you break it up into periods throughout the day, and the kids are in such a routine. Granted, the is a pirate school with 16 kids in the class, but still. I really loved it! Good to know my options for the future if I ever decide to go back to the classroom full time.

Last week Charlie's car (which I've been driving and my mom is driving mine), broke down. I was driving to my friends' house and about 2 minutes away I noticed smoke coming out the front left! It was totally overheating. We drove to get something - ummmmm some fluid. Oh - maybe radiator fluid? Well I called the autoshop and they said to see if it was leaking. Well, it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't....and then it was! An entire bottle under the car. So AAA towed my car to the shop and they fixed it that day.



Well the next day Jaren was over and we both left at around the same time. She was driving behind me and told me my break light was out. Great! So back to the shop, since I thought they missed me. Hopefully the rule of threes won't apply to the car this time!

Last Friday was Noah Shabbat at the synagogue. For my non Jewish friends: In Judaism, you have a weekly Torah Portion. Every Shabbat, no matter where you are in the world or what the observance level is (reform to orthodox), the same part of the 5 books of Moses (Torah) are read. The name of the portion is the first significant word or words in the portion. My Bat Mitzvah portion was Noah. On the 10 year anniversary of my bat mitzvah I read torah at my synagogue in Raleigh, and our wedding date was Noah. Well, my synagogue does a Noah Shabbat for the little ones. They have arts and crafts, and then a petting zoo!!!!

 I went to the adult service, and then to the petting zoo after. Well guess what? There was a baby goat named Abigail! I almost brought her home.








I love how the baggy shirt hides my "blump" (bloat more than bump). Which is really what it is - bloat. Not that I'm complaining that I'm not "big", but come on, I want to not look bloated and look pregnant already.

Maya agrees with me:


The next day was one of my student's bar mitzvahs, which was baseball themed. I really loved how out of the box they were. They kept it simple and true to their theme, in a non tacky way. I was so for it. The centerpieces for the kiddush lunch after service were so cute and easy to make - totally stealing this idea one day:


His favorite team is the cardinals so I bought the embroidery file and made him a kippah:


It was really hard to do because of the shape of the kippah, and the bottom outline is off, but whatever, I'm still proud.

Our place cards for that evening - how cute!


I've been sleeping with so many pillows. Even though I don't really have a belly it's been a bit uncomfortable sleeping on my stomach because of the pressure. There's still a 20 week old baby in there even if you can't tell by my tummy, and he wants to be comfy! The other night I made my mom take a picture of me because I was drowning in pillows and still not super comfortable:


Yup - two body pillows, a sham, and two squishy pillows. I am NOT complaining though. I am only waking up an average of once per night and I am still incredibly comfortable, just not on my tummy. I know it's going to get a bajilian times worse very soon. Then I'll complain, don't worry.

Salted Honey Butter Bars

I saw a recipe on pinterest for salted caramel butter bars. I initially wondered - could I make salted honey ones for Rosh Hashanah? The answer? YES! Yes I can. And they are addicting.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the baking process because I wasn't sure how they would turn out. But here we go anyway.

Dough:

-4 sticks of softened butter

-1 cup sugar

-1.5 cups powdered sugar

-1 tbs vanilla

-4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 325

1. Cream your butter and sugars on low and then medium speed.

2. Add vanilla, and then gradually add the flour, and mix until combined.

3. Spoon half the dough into a baking dish and press it down. Bake for 15 minutes (325). 

While your dough base is baking, refrigerate the rest of the dough, and make your salted honey-caramel.

Salted Honey-Caramel

Okay - this was the issue. My friend Stacy (my pastry chef guru) told me I couldn't' just use honey, caramel is much denser. So I decided to try to thicken up honey. It worked!

-1 stick of butter

-1 cup of honey (I spray my measuring cup with pam or vegetable oil before pouring honey)

-2 tbs brown sugar

-1 tsp vanilla

-1 tbs cream

-1 tsp sea salt

1. Melt your butter, honey, and sugar over medium low heat, and constantly whisk for 20 minutes (yes it's work but it's worth it).

2. Add vanilla, cream and salt, and whisk for another few minutes. You want it to be thickened up quite a bit.

Okay, now here's what you do. I don't know what step we're on because I broke it up. So I'll start with one again.

1. Spread your honey-caramel over the baked dough base with a spatula.

2. Crumble the rest of the dough on top of the honey. It needs to be pretty chilled for this, so if it isn't cold enough yet, just put it back in the fridge and wait - your dough/honey base is fine waiting on the counter.

3. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Let cool and then refrigerate. It should come out looking like this:

You should taste it to make sure it's okay. And then try to only taste one. Can you believe I managed to only taste one before snapping a picture? So so so so yummy!

Hebrew School Started :-) (with student aide tips and some Jewish 101)

Yayyyy! My teaching fix is gonna be bi-weekly this year. A few weeks ago, Sadie (my good friend and the Rabbi/Educator at my synagogue) asked if I could teach on Sundays and not just Tuesdays. I have the 7th grade class, many of which I had last year in my advanced Hebrew. GREAT kids!

The day started with my 35 minute commute (yes there's a synagogue a minute away from the house I grew up in, and yes we drove 35 minutes to this one, and still do. Charlie was able to FaceTime so I held my phone in my left hand and put both hands on the wheel. I had my headphones on so it was really more talking on the phone and not looking at the screen, but it was funny so I snapped a picture:


I had prepared about a million mini challah doughs for an activity, with the help of a few student aides that are seniors in high school. I literally had a bruise on my hand from doing this on Sunday, DESPITE using a bread machine to do the final kneading of the dough. Have I posted that recipe? Stacy gave it to me a while ago and it's AMAZING. Best challah ever. I'll have to post that. Anyway, one of the activities I did with my students was teach them how to braid and shape challah into the round shape we use for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year). Usually it's a long braid but we have a round one to remind us of the ongoing cycle of the year. Here are the students working the dough.













In the last picture, you'll see two of my student aides (second to left and second to right). My third is my mom's best friend's son, but he was at a Jewish music thing over that weekend. I couldn't have asked for better "madrichim" (counselors or aides in Hebrew). It's usually a pretty big issue in religious schools because teachers don't really know how to handle or direct/instruct them, and they end up sitting in the classroom with nothing to do and wandering the halls/flirting with each other. Which is really the teachers fault, not theirs, (for the most part). If I was 16 and wasn't given instructions, I would go do that too! This is a really big pet peeve of mine from back when I was teaching in Raleigh, and then the pet peeve grew when I ran the synagogue's school in Summerlin.

So a few tips for teachers that need help managing their student aides and making the most of them:
 I am a stickler for making sure they are involved and know about the lesson in advance (yes this takes planning and you can't plan your lesson that day, lol). I am SO beyond blessed that the three I have are naturally ambitious and helpful, but you can make it work with anybody! I make sure to tell them each week that I trust their judgement in discipline and reinforcement, and I am constantly directing them throughout the lesson. I also am not scared to redirect them if I see them lose focus. I think a lot of teachers are scared to do this. It definitely takes a bit of planning ahead, which is sometimes a forgotten skill in Sunday schools, but it's so worth it! I email them the lesson in advance and take their opinions. It really makes an amazing team and I couldn't be more excited for this year with the ones I have!

Okay, back to the day now, off my pedestal. Just an issue I am passionate about.

Niah, one of my amazing Madrichim (okay I'm done I swear) leads a Shofar choir each year. Jewish lesson 101 for those interested: The shofar is the ram's horn we blow on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (day of atonement). It symbolizes the ram that Abraham sacrificed instead of Isaac, and it's sound/calling reminds us to awaken our souls.

Anyway, it's the upper elementary and middle school students, and they do it in front of the congregation during the high holidays. It's a lot harder to make a sound than it looks, kind of like a trumpet (I've been told). Here is Niah leading their first rehearsal:


That's Rabbi Akselrad to the left of her (the Rabbi that Bat Mitzvah'd me and married me and Charlie).

Here are the kiddos:


Speaking of Rabbi A, I had a meeting with him to go over the confirmation curriculum (one of the classes I teach on Tuesdays), and look what I saw displayed in his office:


He collects bobble heads so I had this made for him after our wedding as a gift to thank him! Hehehe.

Oh listen to how cute this is - during class, my students asked if they could make a hashtag! I about died from the cuteness. I was so excited that THEY were excited about something! So, we are now officially using the hashtag #jewsofseventhgrade and they've already posted pictures of them doing activities, and even a video of the boys braiding the challah! I very much encourage use of technology during class (during APPROPRIATE times) and am more than happy to let them take videos of them having fun learning and being Jewish. Call me crazy, but I think it can be a great learning tool.

Oh, we did the same thing on Tuesday for confirmation and the rest of the high school grades with the challah, but we had time to bake it for them. Since I made the dough on Friday and Saturday, the yeast had really activated by Tuesday, and when they ripped the bread open, it smelled like beer!! I explained to them that beer had yeast, and I was NOT trying to get them drunk. Ha!!!! Good to know. Luckily, it still tasted amazing, just had that initial smell. So don't let your yeast dough sit in the fridge for more than a day!!!! My bad.

Look how pretty though:


Ah! I am on such a high from teaching again. Best "job" for me, ever. I hope to do it for the rest of my life :-)

Sufganiyot - fried jelly donuts recipe

I have a confession to make - this may come as a surprise.

I used to hate baking.

I know. I KNOW!

I always said I was a cook because you could really use your instincts, read a recipe, and then go along as you do it to make it your own. I know a lot of people, like my very dear friend Jaren, who is an excellent cook, have different approaches and follow recipes. I just can't do it.

Well, I would always say I hated baking because I didn't like following the instructions. But I slowly transitioned, and learned to love it. Now yeast is an every day ingredient for me, and I can make OMG cookies in any variation with my eyes closed.

So with this newfound love of baking, I decided to take on several things at once I never would have all in one "recipe" - fried jelly donuts!
Yeast!
Deep frying!
Stuffing with Jelly!

Challege Accepted.

I made these during Chanukah - food fried in oil is a tradition because the Maccabees found enough oil for one night, and it miraculously lasted for 8.

I looked at recipes and decided to go off of this one from food.com.

I adjusted a bit by adding some whole wheat flour (not that I was trying to healthify something so unhealthy, I'm not delusional, I was just low on a/p flour).

I also used butter instead of margarine. In a lot of Jewish recipes, you will see the use of margarine or oil - this is because it makes the recipe "parve" aka, not meat or dairy. Therefore, you can eat them with most meals and it would still be kosher. Since I am 0% kosher, I used butter.

Also, I don't buy yeast packets, I just buy a jar and measure it.

1 package of yeast is usually a 1/4 ounce, which is 2 and a quarter teaspoons of yeast. Viola!

So with adjustments here are the ingredients:
4.5 teaspoons of dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (I use a meat thermometer to make sure it's around 100 degrees)
3/4 cup sugar (when I adjusted I used 1 cup and it was better)
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
6 tbs softened or melted (but not hot) butter (unsalted)
2 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups a/p flour (when I adjusted I used all ap flour and it was better)
lots of vegetable oil to deep fry
fruit jelly
powdered sugar for sprinkling on top

Directions:
1. Sprinkle your yeast into the water, and let sit for about 5 minutes.
2. In order, add sugar, eggs, and butter, and mix.
3. Mix your flours and salt in a separate dish, and add in to your dough.
4. Knead your dough using your dough hook for about 5 minutes. Let sit about an hour.
5. Roll out your dough, and use anything with a circular edge (cookie scoop, small cup, etc) to form circles of it. Place them on lined cookie sheets, cover with a towel, and let rise for another 30 minutes.
I used pam to make sure it didn't stick.



(I used a cookie scoop because I wanted to make small donuts for a bunch of people, but really any size will do).

Here is where I messed up the first batch, and fixed it on the second batch.
What you SHOULD do it this:
6. Bake your donuts at 350 for about 20 minutes.
7. Take them out of your oven, and THEN deep fry them for about 1-2 minutes on each side.
8. Once you take all the donuts out to cool on your lined cookie sheets, either use a food injector (this is how you do it in israel!!) or slice a small crevice with a knife. Fill with good quality jelly.

Let me talk for a second about a good quality jelly. You can buy an amazing fried donut, and if it's artificial, yucky, lazy cheap style jelly, and not good quality preserves, it will just not be authentic. It will be good, but not great. Get some good preserves, and it makes a huge difference.

9. Once they are all stuffed, I use one of those fine metal strainers that you can use for sifting to tap powdered sugar all over the donuts.



These were pretty good, but the next batch I made I used a bit more sugar and all ap flour - much better!

By the way, the next morning I could smell the fried oil from my bedroom (with the door closed), so you may want to open your windows and use some air freshener if that smell grosses you out. It reminded me of the parking garage at my college, which was over a McDonalds!

I miss blogging. Here's my December Boston trip.

Hi all,
I am not sure how I went from blogging twice a day to once a month. I guess my new years resolution (Besides to raise my body pump weight) is to start being a regular poster again - it's so therapeutic for me!

Lots has been going on and I have a few posts written already that I will share in the next few weeks, when the time is right.

Charlie and I went to Boston in December - it was his last weekend of grad school before his deployment. As it happens, my sister and Jason were visiting Boston that weekend for Mass General residency interview, and even better, my great uncle and aunt (who are like a set of grandparents to me) were visiting!!! I LOVE seeing my Boston family and wish I could do it more often.

Me and my uncle Dolfi:


(Dolfi's legal name is the Hebrew version of Benjamin, but his family still calls him Dolfi)

My sister and Jason talking with Yoav and Alina (cousins) and great aunt Ruthie


Yoav and Alina moved back to Chicago about a week after we were there, so wonderful that we were able to see them once more before they moved!

It was toward the end of Chanukah, and here is Jeff (my cousin) lighting candles:


Playing with the panorama function on the iPhone:

(to the left is my great uncle Dolfi, and next is my great Uncle Schari - you can so tell they are brothers!)

Really playing w/the panoramic view on the camera - nobody knew when to look


Love my Great Uncle Dolfi, you are like a Saba (grandpa) to me:


I LOVE this picture below because it looks like the lighter for the candles is Jason's mustache.


The next day we went to my favorite east coast restaurant, legal seafoods:


We had lobster dip and clam chowder and scallops and shrimp and crab cakes. What a lovely kosher meal for the last day of chankuah!!

Me and Jeff in front of the Chanukiah in downtown Boston. For those who don't know, most Americans call this a "Menorah". This is technically a menorah, like a square is a rectangle. A menorah is a candelabra, or in modern Hebrew, a lamp. A Chanukiah has 8 candles and one "leader" candle to light the others, and is specific to Chanukah.

Me and my sister were cold walking around, even though it was relatively warm for this time of year in Boston:



After Boston Charlie and I drove down to Baltimore where he was deploying from (or so he thought). We stopped in Philly for the night to see bff Eden, as well as Charlie's friend Rob and his new girlfriend, and My cousin Bridget (jeff's older sister) and her fiancé. It was very short but nice.

The next day we drove to Baltimore only to realize that Charlie was leaving from Norfolk, whoops! We went to a movie on our last night together (perfect date for us). The next morning, Charlie dropped me off at the airport and I hung out at the USO all day, so he could drive down to his departure. I was going to Alabama and Kentucky, which I'll save for another post.

Great to catch up a bit! Yayyyyy.

Jewish Holiday: Shavuot, aka Cheesecake Holiday

Cravings: commandments and cheesecake

Rant: Most Americans (and probably other countries) associate Chanukah as an important Jewish holiday. This ticks me off as it is not even one of the holidays in the Torah (the Pentatuach, or first five books of the bible), let alone the Old Testament! Of course Chanukah is important and has profound historical significance. Maybe "ticking me off" is a bit strong. It's a very easy answer as to why people have this association - it falls around the same time as Christmas. It was a hard decision to make about having a Christmas tree last year. Charlie asked if we could have a "Chanukah bush" and I said absolutely not. But, I allowed a Christmas tree. I know this sounds confusing, but hear me out. For Charlie, Christmas is a tradition that he loves, and he celebrates it in a secular way. I reasoned - I am devoutly Jewish (I am reform but I still incorporate it into my life), and I would rather participate in a secularized tradition from Christianity than Judaism.
(Sorry the picture is dark!)

Moving on...

Lesson: There are actually 3 pilgrim feasts - "shalosh regalim" which is when Jews at the time of the first and second temple in Jerusalem would make a pilgrimage for the holiday. Since the destruction of the 2nd temple, we do not make the pilgrimage anymore, but the importance of the holidays has remained.  The three holidays:
1. Sukkot
2. Pesach (Passover)
3. Shavuot

I very briefly blogged about Sukkot here, but realize that I did not go into detail at all. Wait for the fall and get an explanation and my take! (If you clicked on the above post, you'll see I recommended the book Mudbound - it's so good!)

Shavuot literally means "weeks" in Hebrew, and is celebrated 7 weeks after Pesach (Passover). Shavuot has agricultural, historical, and biblical significance, as do most of the Jewish holidays. The biblical significance is that we were given the Torah (first five books of the bible) at Mount Sinai.
*Note, we say we were given the Torah, not that we received it, because we are constantly receiving it throughout our lives*

You may have noticed that I called this post the Cheesecake holiday. Well, if you grew up in Israel, this is what you know! You could grow up completely secular, but you still know that on Shavuot, you have picnics and eat dairy meals including blintzes, cheese, and light and fluffy Israeli style cheesecake!

Why? You have no idea, but you do it! Wouldn't you?

Unfortunately, I don't have a recipe for Israeli Cheesecake right now. I will ask some of my Israeli friends and post one asap, because it's amazing! I found this recipe on "Haaretz" and it looks stellar. If anybody tries it let me know!

So why do we eat dairy meals? In the Torah, specifically in the book of Deuteronomy, we are given all the laws. Judaism believes there are 613 commandments (mitzvot). Included in these laws, are all the dietary and purity laws. It reasons that when the Jews were given the Torah at Sinai, they had not been following the laws of kashrut (noun for kosher) since they did not know them. Because the laws of kashrut are strict about the pots you can use for meat, and they had not slaughtered their animals in the kosher way (considered to be a humane way), they could not cook meat until they got new utensils. Thus, for their journey, they only ate dairy or parve (parve is neutral), and so we follow in their footsteps on this holiday.

We have been doing picnics in the park with our Israeli friends for the past several years on Shavuot. I posted the picture of the food the other day.

Here is my friend Yifat with her son.


I feel like Yifat was just pregnant yesterday!

The only other picture I snapped that day was this one. Once the sun was setting it was actually COOL in Vegas.


I guess I must have been too busy eating yummies to take pictures.

For anybody interested, my mom sent me a really great article that is more in depth and takes Shavuot beyond its basics. I hope you enjoy.

And....I'm back!

Craving: My computer screen and flickr pictures to update my blog!

Had a little blogging hiatus.
Last weekend Charlie had a bachelor party weekend with guys from out of town, and then he left for Alabama on Friday, so last week was spent:
a) cleaning after the bachelor party
b) getting loose ends ready for the AL trip.

Then, this weekend, my mom and I drove to LA to go to my very good friend and "big sister" Emily's baby shower. I posted about Em's creative belly pics the other day, and hope it inspired some creativity!

I will catch up in short(er) posts than one long one, but for now, this is what's been going on.

Last Thursday: I surprised Charlie after having worked SO hard and having no time to spend together with a date to Ferraros, the amazing Italian restaurant where we had our first date. I even put my extensions in for the night! We asked our waiter to snap our picture and this is what we got:


Funny flash and Charlie looks like hes about to get out of his seat. Oh well.

Friday - guys arrived. Bachelor party, aka, not enough hours to clean the house since I am ocd and there were like 6 guys here.
The good news? I had to keep myself occupied so I finished my wreath! Are you excited to see the pictures of it all hung up and pretty on my door? Here's a preview of the finished product:

Saturday and Sunday were bunco and Jaren's baby shower which I told you all about.

Later on Sunday my mom and I went to the park for a celebration of "Shavuot" which is a Jewish holiday I like to refer to as "the cheesecake holiday".

We were late because of the shower but here is a lot of mostly eaten dairy food - blintzes and bourekas and cheeses and just lots of cheesy goodness. I will post about Shavuot and the holiday's meaning soon.

Charlie's friend Paul stayed an extra day and gave Odge, my grey dog, a lovely mohawk. Look forward to a post coming soon titled "Paul Calhoun: Future test pilot? No, future dog stylist.

What did I do during the week, besides last minute stuff for the trip to Al?

Well, I decided to go deposit all this foreign money Charlie had laying around. I figured most of it would be expired because of the Euro, but you know what was accepted? Croatian money! That's right! It was worth about $6, score!


Also had some loved ones' birthdays:
May 31: My sister who is 25 (weird how my little sister is now older than I am since I am still 24.....)
May 31: Emily, my "big sister"
June 2: Katy, one of my best friends and bridesmaids
June 2: Sarah, Charlie's sister, who I can't wait to see in Alabama!

Below is me and Katy at the yard house (with some round of guy that paid for the round of drinks we ordered, so we allowed him to be in our picture).


Saturday, my mom and I drove out to Ventura County. We went to a restaurant and met about a dozen of Emily's friends for her birthday celebration and then today we went to her amazing baby shower. I will post about it all later but will leave you with this picture. Her sister in law did all the decor from scratch, including cake pop "trees" - she even baked the cake pops!!!


Okay actually I lied, I will leave you with this picture: me and Shayna!

I'm showing her a picture of the last time I saw her, over a year ago.

See you soon with all my updates :-)