On the 7th day of Pesach, I went to shul and found that for those who don't say Yizkor, the congregation provided this wonderful prayer. They had it on laminated cards so people could take it with them as they went out. The prayer was especially appropriate since my parents celebrated Seder with us and we are so privileged to have them staying with us. I remember well Alen's mom telling me after her father died how blessed she had been to have both her parents until she was 55 years old, and the sentiments of this prayer express my feelings.
תפילה לשלום המשפחה (במקום יזכור)
אבי שבשמים בשעת הזכרת נשמות אלה שהלכו לעולמם
נושא אני את עיני אליך, אלוהי, בהודיה מלב שלם,
על שחסדך הגדול הורי היקרים חיים פה עימי.
ברכם בבריאות טובה ותן להם כח רב לחיות אתנו עוד שנים רבות וטובות,
חזקם ואמצם לחיים של רווחה,
ברכם ברפואת הנפש ורפואת הגוף.
ברכם שיזכו להנות ולהתברך מצאציהם,
שתהא פרנסתם מצויה ושתהיה הברכה בביתם.
חזק אותי, שאוכל לעזרם בכל כוחי ובכל מאודי,
ולואי ואזכה לקיים מצוות כיבוד הורים בכל דקדוקיה והידוריה.
יהי רצון שאבין את האחריות הגדולה כלפיהם המוטלת עלי.
ברכני שאראה חובתי כלפיהם כזכות ולא כנטל,
מאהבה ולא מכורח, בשמחה ובנחת ולא מקוצר רוח.
ויהי רצון שאזכה להיות מקור שמחה להורי ומשפחתי,
שמחם וברכם בבריאות טובה ובחיים של אורה ואהבה.
ותהיה בי יראתך ואהבתך לעבדך בלבב שלם ונזכה כולנו,
יחד, לחיים טובים וארוכים.
My Father in Heaven, at this hour of remembering those who have passed away, I raise my eyes to You my G-d, in complete thanks from my heart, that in Your great kindness my parents are still alive here with me.
Please bless them with good health and give them full strength to live with us many more good years. Strengthen them and give them courage for a life of fullness, bless them with health and healing of spirit and body.
Please bless them that they may enjoy and be blessed by their offspring. May they have financial well-being and may their home be filled with blessing.
Strengthen me that I may help them with all my strength and all my might. May I merit to fulfill the mitzvah of honoring parents in all its details and beauty. May it be Your will that I understand the great responsibility toward them that is upon me. Bless me that I will see my obligation toward them as a privilege and not as a burden, done out of love and not out of coercion, with joy and nachas and not with a short temper.
May it be Your will that I may merit to be a source of joy to my parents and my family, please grant them joy and blessings of good health and a life of light and love. And may there be in me fear and love of You to serve you with a full heart, and may we all merit together long and happy life.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Another Pesach dessert
So this is a combination of something I read in the paper but did not cut out and my mother's traditional almond pudding. I made it up basically. It came out VERY orangy and I would recommend cutting it down to one orange - I used 2 which is what was in the newspaper. The newspaper also had walnuts, which I don't like.
Take the orange (or oranges) - boil for 20 minutes with the peel on. Cut in quarters and remove seeds. Put it in the food processor and puree.
Separate 4 eggs. Mix the yolks with 1/2 cup sugar (or maybe a bit more, I did not use a measuring cup). Add 200 grams (that's about one cup) ground almonds - you could probably cut back on these also, but it was a good consistency.
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold into the egg yolk, orange, almond mixture. Put in a greased pan. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 F - I say bake it well, everyone told me to take it out of the oven sooner than I thought it was ready. My mom thought it would get too dry. I thought it was not dry enough.
Alen liked it a lot and did not think it was too orangy. My mom and I liked it but thought it could do with less orange. Gabi thought it was ok and Sasha would have none of it. Let me know if you make it!
Take the orange (or oranges) - boil for 20 minutes with the peel on. Cut in quarters and remove seeds. Put it in the food processor and puree.
Separate 4 eggs. Mix the yolks with 1/2 cup sugar (or maybe a bit more, I did not use a measuring cup). Add 200 grams (that's about one cup) ground almonds - you could probably cut back on these also, but it was a good consistency.
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold into the egg yolk, orange, almond mixture. Put in a greased pan. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 F - I say bake it well, everyone told me to take it out of the oven sooner than I thought it was ready. My mom thought it would get too dry. I thought it was not dry enough.
Alen liked it a lot and did not think it was too orangy. My mom and I liked it but thought it could do with less orange. Gabi thought it was ok and Sasha would have none of it. Let me know if you make it!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
simple pesach dessert
I made this today because we needed something sweet and we had the ingredients. It's from a passover recipe book. It comes out kind of like a lemon meringue pie but not. I could have done without the bananas but other folks liked them. It's called a fruit meringue pudding.
Separate 3 eggs. Peel and grate 5 apples. Grate the zest of one lemon and juice the lemon. Beat the egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until light colored. Add the lemon stuff and the apples. Add 1/2 cup matzo meal. Mix it well. Put in a greased pan and bake 40 minutes at 350 F.
Meanwhile, beat the egg whites till stiff and beat in 1/4 cup sugar by tablespoonfuls. Slice 2 bananas. When the oven mixture is done, take it out and arrange the banana slices on top. Then put the egg whites on top of that. Bake again at 300 F for about 15 minutes until browned on top. I think it would be best served hot but we served it a few hours later and folks ate it up.
Separate 3 eggs. Peel and grate 5 apples. Grate the zest of one lemon and juice the lemon. Beat the egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until light colored. Add the lemon stuff and the apples. Add 1/2 cup matzo meal. Mix it well. Put in a greased pan and bake 40 minutes at 350 F.
Meanwhile, beat the egg whites till stiff and beat in 1/4 cup sugar by tablespoonfuls. Slice 2 bananas. When the oven mixture is done, take it out and arrange the banana slices on top. Then put the egg whites on top of that. Bake again at 300 F for about 15 minutes until browned on top. I think it would be best served hot but we served it a few hours later and folks ate it up.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Last minute Pesach recipes by popular demand!
Matzo balls: (Family recipe from my mother’s grandmother, Netta Jacobs, not like you are used to, everyone loves them)
2 matzos
3 oz margarine (melted), chicken fat or olive oil, or skip it, plus other oil/marg/fat for frying
2 eggs
2 small or one large onion, chopped small
parsley – about 1/8 cup
salt and pepper
nutmeg
matzo meal
Brown onions in oil or fat. I salt the onions, it helps them cook, then I don’t add other salt.
Soak matzot in water until soft. Squeeze very dry (easiest to do in a colander), fluff with fork
Add brown onions, margarine, beaten eggs and spices.
Add matzo meal to bind – the trick to keep them light is to add the minimum.
Roll on a plate of matzo meal into small balls – to keep them light, handle them as little as possible.
Make a pot of boiling salted water and cook 20 minutes in this – then add them to the soup.
They will be tastier if you cook them 30 minutes in soup, but you will lose some of your soup since they soak it up.
The challenge with these matzo balls is that the lighter you make them, the more likely they are to fall apart. Every time they come out a little different but they are always very tasty!
Anchovy Eggs – another recipe from Mom’s family – we love these and eat them instead of eggs in salt water these days (we used to eat both!) People who don’t like anchovies like these eggs, but the person who makes them should like anchovies.
Hard boil 12 eggs. Cut them in half horizontally and put yolks in a bowl. Cut the bottoms off each half egg to make the “hats” for the eggs – kids love to put the hats on.
Soak a can or 1.5 cans of anchovies in water 10 minutes to reduce the salt. Drain and chop small.
Mix the egg yolks with the anchovies, 1-2 Tbsp cider vinegar, ½ grated onion (small side of the grater, include the juice). I also add lemon juice – 1-2 Tbsps, and one teaspoon mayonnaise. Put the filling back in each egg, then put the hat on top.
Eat these eggs at the seder and on the hag days – they do not keep long.
Passover granola – My dad found this recipe on the internet and Alen now makes it every year. Great with yogurt.
3 cups matza farfel
2/3 cup sliced almonds
½ cup coconut
2/3 cup pecans broken into large pieces
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
6 tablespoons margarine (use butter, it makes it more yummy)
1/3 cup honey
2 cups chopped dried mixed fruit of your choice (raisins, craisins, apricots, dates, figs, etc.)
Preheat oven to 325.
Combine farfel, almonts, coconut, pecans and spices
Melt or microwave butter and honey together for 1 minute
Stir butter mixture into farfel mixture until it is all coated
Spread on large cookie sheet and bake 15-20 minutes. Stir half way through to brown evenly.
Cool and then add the fruit.
When totally cooled, put in airtight container. Serve for breakfasts or snack.
Haroset balls by Alen (recipe from Curacao & Surinam called Garoza balls adapted by Alen.)
Dried figs, apricots, dates, apples, craisins
Cherry jam
Honey
Cinnamon
Grated coconut
Finely chopped almonds
Combine in a bowl finely chopped fruits, about 2 cups in all. Add a tablespoon of cherry jam, a tablespoon of honey, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 handful grated coconut and 1/2 handful of chopped almonds. Mix/knead with hands till mixed consistently in large ball. Put a couple of tablespoons of cinnamon on a plate, make small balls 3/4 in. diameter, roll in cinnamon, freeze until the start of the seder. They don't freeze solid.
2 matzos
3 oz margarine (melted), chicken fat or olive oil, or skip it, plus other oil/marg/fat for frying
2 eggs
2 small or one large onion, chopped small
parsley – about 1/8 cup
salt and pepper
nutmeg
matzo meal
Brown onions in oil or fat. I salt the onions, it helps them cook, then I don’t add other salt.
Soak matzot in water until soft. Squeeze very dry (easiest to do in a colander), fluff with fork
Add brown onions, margarine, beaten eggs and spices.
Add matzo meal to bind – the trick to keep them light is to add the minimum.
Roll on a plate of matzo meal into small balls – to keep them light, handle them as little as possible.
Make a pot of boiling salted water and cook 20 minutes in this – then add them to the soup.
They will be tastier if you cook them 30 minutes in soup, but you will lose some of your soup since they soak it up.
The challenge with these matzo balls is that the lighter you make them, the more likely they are to fall apart. Every time they come out a little different but they are always very tasty!
Anchovy Eggs – another recipe from Mom’s family – we love these and eat them instead of eggs in salt water these days (we used to eat both!) People who don’t like anchovies like these eggs, but the person who makes them should like anchovies.
Hard boil 12 eggs. Cut them in half horizontally and put yolks in a bowl. Cut the bottoms off each half egg to make the “hats” for the eggs – kids love to put the hats on.
Soak a can or 1.5 cans of anchovies in water 10 minutes to reduce the salt. Drain and chop small.
Mix the egg yolks with the anchovies, 1-2 Tbsp cider vinegar, ½ grated onion (small side of the grater, include the juice). I also add lemon juice – 1-2 Tbsps, and one teaspoon mayonnaise. Put the filling back in each egg, then put the hat on top.
Eat these eggs at the seder and on the hag days – they do not keep long.
Passover granola – My dad found this recipe on the internet and Alen now makes it every year. Great with yogurt.
3 cups matza farfel
2/3 cup sliced almonds
½ cup coconut
2/3 cup pecans broken into large pieces
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
6 tablespoons margarine (use butter, it makes it more yummy)
1/3 cup honey
2 cups chopped dried mixed fruit of your choice (raisins, craisins, apricots, dates, figs, etc.)
Preheat oven to 325.
Combine farfel, almonts, coconut, pecans and spices
Melt or microwave butter and honey together for 1 minute
Stir butter mixture into farfel mixture until it is all coated
Spread on large cookie sheet and bake 15-20 minutes. Stir half way through to brown evenly.
Cool and then add the fruit.
When totally cooled, put in airtight container. Serve for breakfasts or snack.
Haroset balls by Alen (recipe from Curacao & Surinam called Garoza balls adapted by Alen.)
Dried figs, apricots, dates, apples, craisins
Cherry jam
Honey
Cinnamon
Grated coconut
Finely chopped almonds
Combine in a bowl finely chopped fruits, about 2 cups in all. Add a tablespoon of cherry jam, a tablespoon of honey, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 handful grated coconut and 1/2 handful of chopped almonds. Mix/knead with hands till mixed consistently in large ball. Put a couple of tablespoons of cinnamon on a plate, make small balls 3/4 in. diameter, roll in cinnamon, freeze until the start of the seder. They don't freeze solid.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Late night fridge cleaning thoughts
Five people in my house went to sleep and I stayed up cleaning the fridge and realized:
After 16 years, I still sometimes miss being single. I don't miss the loneliness for one minute, but there are moments when I want just to go at my own pace and be alone with my house and the chances for this seem few and far between. Pesach cleaning needs a whole team I guess, but right now I want to do it alone.
I miss being young but I don't miss being stupid.
Glass shelves in the fridge clean up really nicely.
And eating dulce de leche with a spoon from the jar is probably the best way I know of to finish off a sugar free week or two. As good as it seemed like it would be :-)
A lot to be grateful for this season, starting with the five sleeping family members. Please take some time to hug the folks you love. And if you are single and wishing you weren't, take time to enjoy the parts I miss while you wait for what's coming. Someone told me this week, "the very fact that you want something means that it exists out there - all you have to do is find it."
If you haven't noticed, the clock on this blog is wrong. I'm posting it at 11:18 pm.
Hag sameach!
After 16 years, I still sometimes miss being single. I don't miss the loneliness for one minute, but there are moments when I want just to go at my own pace and be alone with my house and the chances for this seem few and far between. Pesach cleaning needs a whole team I guess, but right now I want to do it alone.
I miss being young but I don't miss being stupid.
Glass shelves in the fridge clean up really nicely.
And eating dulce de leche with a spoon from the jar is probably the best way I know of to finish off a sugar free week or two. As good as it seemed like it would be :-)
A lot to be grateful for this season, starting with the five sleeping family members. Please take some time to hug the folks you love. And if you are single and wishing you weren't, take time to enjoy the parts I miss while you wait for what's coming. Someone told me this week, "the very fact that you want something means that it exists out there - all you have to do is find it."
If you haven't noticed, the clock on this blog is wrong. I'm posting it at 11:18 pm.
Hag sameach!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Sea Change
So we're getting ready to celebrate our 17th Passover together and our 10th Passover in Israel. Did I just write that? Can it really be true? I am as shocked as you are.
I often wonder if we will ever feel like we live here, but some of the stuff going on right now makes me feel like we do. Not big stuff, just day to day stuff. The level of involvement we have in our local community, which feels very high after 3 years. The number of people we know and the connections we have. Small things.
I went by myself to a shloshim commemoration for a colleague and friend's father. She had gone to the states for the funeral and shiva so this was a chance for her community here to greet her. There were lots of people there I did not know, but lots of people I did know. And there were some people there I know who I had not seen in years. That means I've been here for years and years could go by with my not seeing them. I sat and easily listened to talks in Hebrew and English. I thought about what it means to lose a parent far away and about what it means to live in two civilizations. Then I came home.
There's a lot going on here - there's a bad conversion bill before the Knesset (see www.irac.org for what you can do). There's the new housing being built in a place I for the life of me can't figure out why they are calling East Jerusalem - it's in Ramat Shlomo. I guess it's at the top of East Jerusalem somehow. I'm much more worried about what's going on in Sheikh Jarrah, which is in the heart of East Jerusalem. There are problems right here in our area, which I hope to write about soon.
Sasha has a book about chocolate and it talks about how Cortes conquered the Aztecs. Gabi wants to know who was good and who was bad. When I can't answer that, she wants to know which side I am on. Help me out here if you can - should I say Cortes was bad? Is it important that I take a side here? The book says the Aztecs were very fierce and the Mayans were afraid of them. Who were the good guys anyway?
The neighbors borrowed two suitcases for their kids who are going on a school trip. I spent two hours at a birthday party where I knew the clown from Gabi's birthday last year and he greeted me like a friend. We hosted 4 kids at our house on Sunday for a host home for Gabi's school. These small things are making me feel like as we're heading into our 10th Pesach in Israel, we actually live here.
The coming year is right about when I expected congress to pass something letting us back in the US (and helping the thousands of binational couples like us who don't have the right to live together in the US). March in Washington on Sunday to make it happen (www.immigrationequality.org). I figured right around the time we felt really at home here, the laws would change. I'm feeling more at home, we're still waiting, but I'm not packing any suitcases.
P.S. One person who read this thought it meant we're moving back to the states - no, really we are not, we don't have that option and don't know what we would do if we did have the option. And P.P.S. Right after I wrote this I took Alen's car for inspection and was in and out in less than 30 minutes. I'm still waiting for where I have to pay the price for that miracle!
I often wonder if we will ever feel like we live here, but some of the stuff going on right now makes me feel like we do. Not big stuff, just day to day stuff. The level of involvement we have in our local community, which feels very high after 3 years. The number of people we know and the connections we have. Small things.
I went by myself to a shloshim commemoration for a colleague and friend's father. She had gone to the states for the funeral and shiva so this was a chance for her community here to greet her. There were lots of people there I did not know, but lots of people I did know. And there were some people there I know who I had not seen in years. That means I've been here for years and years could go by with my not seeing them. I sat and easily listened to talks in Hebrew and English. I thought about what it means to lose a parent far away and about what it means to live in two civilizations. Then I came home.
There's a lot going on here - there's a bad conversion bill before the Knesset (see www.irac.org for what you can do). There's the new housing being built in a place I for the life of me can't figure out why they are calling East Jerusalem - it's in Ramat Shlomo. I guess it's at the top of East Jerusalem somehow. I'm much more worried about what's going on in Sheikh Jarrah, which is in the heart of East Jerusalem. There are problems right here in our area, which I hope to write about soon.
Sasha has a book about chocolate and it talks about how Cortes conquered the Aztecs. Gabi wants to know who was good and who was bad. When I can't answer that, she wants to know which side I am on. Help me out here if you can - should I say Cortes was bad? Is it important that I take a side here? The book says the Aztecs were very fierce and the Mayans were afraid of them. Who were the good guys anyway?
The neighbors borrowed two suitcases for their kids who are going on a school trip. I spent two hours at a birthday party where I knew the clown from Gabi's birthday last year and he greeted me like a friend. We hosted 4 kids at our house on Sunday for a host home for Gabi's school. These small things are making me feel like as we're heading into our 10th Pesach in Israel, we actually live here.
The coming year is right about when I expected congress to pass something letting us back in the US (and helping the thousands of binational couples like us who don't have the right to live together in the US). March in Washington on Sunday to make it happen (www.immigrationequality.org). I figured right around the time we felt really at home here, the laws would change. I'm feeling more at home, we're still waiting, but I'm not packing any suitcases.
P.S. One person who read this thought it meant we're moving back to the states - no, really we are not, we don't have that option and don't know what we would do if we did have the option. And P.P.S. Right after I wrote this I took Alen's car for inspection and was in and out in less than 30 minutes. I'm still waiting for where I have to pay the price for that miracle!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Mindy's website
While I have been quietly doing nothing (well, not exactly), my wonderful friend Mindy has put up a fabulous website for her papercuts. Please take a look and spread the word!!!
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