Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Favorite Musical?

I have too many favorite musicals.


I guess you can say that I absolutely love the genre.  Leora blogged about seeing West Side Story with her daughter...  on Broadway.  That must have been something grand.


When I was a kid, my mother signed me up for a series of musicals in a less impressive setting, some school.  I loved them.  And we went to a "theater in the round" as a family, I think it was in Westbury, Long Island.


My mother has always loved the theater, both the stage and audience.  I inherited that gene, though the only real performing I've done has been in the classroom.  Yes, as a teacher, because teaching is theater!


But what's my favorite musical?  I guess it's best to make dozens of categories so I can list as many favorites as possible.  That includes choreography, not just songs.


Here are just a few, add what you think deserves to be on the list:
  • opening dance: West Side Story
  • dance narrative: crap game in Guys & Dolls
  • action dance: Cuba night club in Guys & Dolls
  • exotic: Bali Hai in South Pacific
  • closing: Dreamgirls
  • general choreography: Gene Kelly, Brigadoon
  • most unlikely plot: Oliver
  • didn't expect to like it as much: Bird Cage
  • hated the ending: My Fair Lady
  • just for the dancing: Dirty Dancing
  • before its time: A Hard Day's Night (think of it as a music video)
  • making music out of misery: Les Miserables
  • fun memories, seen on TV only: Peter Pan (with Mary Martin)
  • impressive on both stage and screen: Phantom of the Opera
  • etched in my mind (half a century): Porgy & Bess
  • not really a musical, but catchy tune: Cat Ballou
  • is due for a new production: Showboat
  • not really a musical: Some Like It Hot
  • great lesson: Wizard of Oz
  • my amateur stage performance (SCW): You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown


Monday, August 30, 2010

Unsweetened Foamy Ice Coffee


It was delicious and filling.  My friend and I both ordered it at one of Jerusalem's coffee places on Emek Refaim Street.  Sorry, but I can't remember the name of the place.  We both agree that it was a better choice than the fat free one. 

Water? Electricity?

Granted, that compared to the early years we were here in Shiloh, when water was trucked in and electricity by a generator...

This morning when I was doing my early morning computer stuff and my coffee was dripping from the filter, the electricity went off for a bit.  And just now, when I came home from Jerusalem, I noticed that our water pressure was weak and wimpy, meaning we're using the reserve tank...

So, please, G-d, let these minor inconveniences be this week and not next as we prepare for and then celebrate Rosh Hashannah, Yom Kippur and then Succot

Yes, that's today's extra prayer besides all those for refuah shleimah (complete recovery/healing) and easy, healthy births and babies...

Modern Fathers, Things Have Changed!

My Jblog buddy, LL, periodically promotes her daughter's baby-carrier on her blog.  The latest is a marketing appeal to fathers.  I get a real kick out of it, because when I was a young mother (and my husband a young father) not only were these sorts of baby-carriers rare, they were for the mothers.  "Real men" didn't strap babies onto their bodies in public.  They preferred an older child on their shoulders and then would knock the kid out when walking through a doorway...  "Horsing around" with kids was my father's specialty.  Diapering and cooking were my mother's.

Things have changed for sure.  Modern men even adopt babies/children or pay surrogates to carry their own biological ones.

When we had our oldest kids in Israel in the early 1970's we saw that Israeli men were much more involved with their kids of all ages than their American peers.  Fathers attended parent-teacher meetings along with or instead of their wives.  I don't remember my father ever going to one.

One thing I must say is that my husband, like his father before him, was better at getting babies and kids to fall asleep.  There's a hyper element to my personality which prevents sleep, while my husband could always doze off, which relaxes babies.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

"Hachnasat Orchim," Welcoming Guests

Considering the beautiful story on the Arutz 7 site, it's time to tell you my story for the Playback improv group. 


Arutz 7 wrote about the results of a car accident just north of Jerusalem Friday afternoon.  It held up traffic so seriously that many people didn't make it to their destinations before Shabbat.  They had to abandon their cars and hike a few miles to the nearest Jewish community, which was Adam.  Some, who were probably on their way to Psagot and Kochav Yaakov (much further) walked all the way there.  In Adam, residents quickly mobilized to arrange beds and Shabbat meals for their unexpected guests, and the security forces contacted the security forces in all the communities people didn't arrive in to let everyone know that their family and/or guests were perfectly safe and fine.


The story I told for playback was from our very first months in Shiloh.  It happened during Succot, either Shabbat or a Holiday Eve when we were eating the festive meal in our succah.  My in-laws were visiting.  They came to meet their new infant grandson and see our new home.  We had just moved to Shiloh about a month earlier.  To put it mildly, they weren't very impressed by the rough, unfinished (even primitive) living conditions.  Electricity was from an unreliable generator, water was trucked in, streets were recently bull-dozed and still unpaved.


There were no nearby Jewish communities, and the Arab villages were extremely small and even less modernized than Shiloh.  None of this bothered us.


In the middle of the meal, people approached the succah.  It was a neighbor with some strangers, yes, real strangers.  The strangers were Swiss tourist hikers who wanted to see Shiloh.  They had taken an Arab bus which let them off in some village and then judged from their maps and compass that Shiloh must be where there was a bit of light.  They trudged through to dry wilderness and up the mountain until they arrived at my neighbors' succah.  They had trouble communicating in their school English, learned in Switzerland and Israel, so the neighbors decided that we would certainly understand each other much better.  In they came to the succah, and we invited them to eat and camp out.


My in-laws found it horrifying, but for us it was just another lesson on life in a yishuv.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Upgrading This Computer

Our long-time computer maven, Bram, died a few months, or is it already about a year, ago.  He took excellent care of this old computer, cleaning it of viruses, adding memory, hardware and software, frequently the freebies.  He kept more exact and professional records than most doctors.

My husband and I do our best not to abuse the computer, but today's internet demands much more memory than this computer has, even with all the extra memory we added.  So, the time came to find a new maven.  So, instead of a Brit speaking the queen's English, we now hear French-accented Hebrew.

And soon he'll be here to copy all sorts of files and then paste them onto a new memory hard-disk.  We have to trust and get used to his way of doing things and the programs he recommends.  There will be a new tower, black and silver instead of the pale one I've become so comfortable with.

If it were so easy to replace our brains with new memory capability.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Enjoying The Comments

Shiloh Musings posts get more and much more heated comments than this blog.  I don't write to get people angry, but I do like it when the people reacting to the post react to each others' words.  That's where I write politics and sometimes other stuff which could be here or could not.  On occasion I even cross-post.

OK, back to the kitchen. It's Friday.

"Playback" Improv Theater

I guess that "Playback" is from someplace abroad, especially since it has an English name.  I've gone to two performances/events. 

The first was performed by men to a mixed audience here in Shiloh.  It was part of the celebrations of the reestablishment of Shiloh as a Jewish town.   We were requested to tell an anecdote from the annals of Shiloh history from our personal stories and then the troupe performed/interpreted it as an improvisation of sorts.  Some were more successful than others.

This past week a women's troupe performing for women only (and a couple of young daughters of the actresses) appeared in Shiloh.  Some neighbors were in the group.  I had been tempted to join when it was first announced that a group from the area was to be trained, but it was much too complicated for me to commit to anything when my elderly father was living with us.

I expected it to be just like the other performance but by women.  It wasn't.  They concentrated more on feelings rather than stories.  I wasn't prepared for that.  I contributed a story from our first year in Shiloh.  They weren't prepared for that.

What was interesting was that they redid it until we were all satisfied, sort of.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Coffee "To Go"

Yesterday, I needed to get out early to beat rush hour traffic and make the first class in Matan's Elul Learning Program.  That necessitated leaving the house early and not drinking my usual two giant mugs of coffee.

Of course, I could always buy some in Jerusalem, especially since I'd have lots of time to walk past lots of coffee shops on Emek Refaim Street, but buying coffee is expensive, and I don't have spare change for such luxuries.  So I decided to try something new.

A couple of days before, I made extra coffee, good delicious coffee and when it cooled off I poured it in a cup with a spout so it could easily be poured in a plastic water bottle.  First I added some sugar and then  I filled the bottle about 3/4 and put it in the freezer, just like I do with water to go bottles.  Then yesterday morning I took it out and added milk, like I add water to my water bottles. 

I took two bottles, one water-filled and one coffee-filled to Matan and drank them during the lectures.

So, this morning I've made extra coffee so I can prepare more frozen coffee bottles.  I may add a bit of milk to freeze along with the coffee, and I may take two coffee bottles for the very long three class mornings to help stay alert.

Considering how expensive it is to buy coffee, this is a very convenient and economical way to enjoy a nice refreshing ice coffee to go.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Bar Mitzvah at The Kotel

Admittedly, I haven't been to any recent Bar Mitzvah at the kotel.  I think that the last one was long enough ago, so the Bar Mitzvah boy is now a senior in high school, and it was before I bought a digital camera. 

There weren't any of these umbrellas the last time I checked.  By the time we finished, before 10am, it didn't shade us. That's why my cousin and I wore hats.




My female relatives couldn't get over how pushy people were.  We had to guard our chair and spot at the mechitza with our lives. 

I'm just so happy that they came to Israel for the Bar Mitzvah.

Taking The Grandkids to The Pool


I hope my grandchildren had a good time.  Our pool is very convenient, just a short walk from my house.  I bought them ice cream and chased away the bees.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Trader Joe's?

For years I've been hearing about Trader Joe's, but I haven't gotten to shop there on any of my trips to the states, no longer just to New York.  My late Aunt Boche used to explain that she got kosher food for me from the special Trader Joe's kosher list.  Maybe that's one of the secrets of its success...

Do you shop there?  Why? Why not?

How Many Eggs?

The standard for counting eggs is counting yolks. 

Here's one of my typical daily breakfasts. So, how many eggs do I eat every morning?  There are four egg yolks on the plate with the onion and squash.

The yolks are neatly paired off.  That's the hint.  Yes, these eggs are twins.  For a couple of weeks, twin egg yolks came out of each egg from our local organic egg business.

Yes, I'm an egg-eater.  I consider eggs one of the healthiest food G-d created for us.  It's a complete protein and doesn't need processing, other than cooking.  The fat isn't a problem, because I don't eat yellow cheese, which is totally processed with all sorts of artificial ingredients and additives.  Read the labels.  Eggs, especially organic like the ones I buy, are much healthier than hard, yellow cheese and most dairy products.

Monday, August 23, 2010

f2f With A JBlogger

Recently Irina has been in Israel. 

My husband and I took her out to dinner, to HaGov-The Lion's Den, of course.  It's our favorite meat restaurant.  OK, it's a kosher sports bar & grill, but it's also a great place for dinner.  It wasn't the first time Irina and I have f2f'ed.  We met in New York a few years ago, too.  It was wonderful seeing her.  The meal was delicious. 
My favorite dessert--keep it away!


Hamburger with all the trimmings

Low Carb Special


Buffalo Wings

They preferred the chocolate.

I Asked For The Fruit!


A few weeks ago we were at a big, special birthday party.  I ate a very low carbohydrate meal, like a good girl.  Then they brought out the dessert.  As you can see, I requested the fruit.  Yes, there was fruit on my piece of cake, a half a fresh fig and some grapes.

Sometimes it's better to compromise than obsess; that's as long as it's done infrequently.  Also, if the cake (or other off-diet treat) doesn't taste truly good, stop eating it.  Quite often they look better than they taste, but not trying and thinking about it is worse, because then there's a chance of gorging and losing control.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Saving Money on Weddings, Jewish Style

This may not quite be what you expect.  Jewish Law has just the solution to those (Jewish at least, but something based on the same idea can be done for others) who want smaller, more affordable weddings.

According to Jewish Law the first week after the wedding is the time for additional celebrations where the Seven Wedding Blessings are recited.

Guests can be invited to those smaller, less expensive per guest events.  This week, we're invited to two, instead of the actual weddings.

It's Sunday, Havel Havelim from the East

Ruti Mizrachi posts/hosts a great Havel Havelim for your enjoyment, because she can, of course.  Highly recommended.  There are lots of blogs from a great variety of jbloggers.  Visit and enjoy!

JPIX Perfect!

The latest JPIX, the Jewish Bloggers Picture Carnival is posted on I Wish I Were a Photographer.  Well, honestly, from the pictures I've seen of hers, she sure is! 


As as a blog carnival host she's also a success! 

How about trying a Kosher Cooking Carnival!  It's a monthly jblog carnival dedicated to all aspects of kosher food and kosher cooking.  Contact me about hosting, and click here to send in your links.  Thanks

Visit the latest JPIX, blog about it and pass around the link.  And of course send your posts in to the next one.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Unexpected Guests

OK, not exactly.  A few weeks ago my daughter announced that they'd be here this Shabbat, but I took for granted that they'd be leaving after Shabbat.  That's the usual routine, but after Shabbat, granddaughter #2 announced that she wanted to stay over.  OK, both granddaughters had spent almost two weeks at their other grandmother's house.  So, all of a sudden plans changed.

My daughter (and son-in-law) had a meeting in Ofra with the couple running the nursery school the young man will attend next year, so they decided to leave the kids for us to watch, go to the meeting, then come back and they'd all sleep over.  Tomorrow they'd leave one or two kids and then do whatever's planned.

Fine with me!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Judaica, Not The Museum

Yesterday and the day before  I was in the newly reopened Israel Museum.  The greatly expanded Judaic exhibit is mind-boggling, but these pictures aren't from there.

They're from a store which sells things from Morocco in Binyamina.  Soon after returning home from AZ and NY I paid a shiva call to a neighbor who grew up in Binyamina.

I got from Shiloh to there with his family but didn't have a ride out.  Binyamina is up north.  I got a ride in a minibus going to Jerusalem.  They were making a fun trip out of it and went to this store.



Some people did a lot of shopping there.  I just took pictures.


Thursday, August 19, 2010

Trying to Rehydrate

Terrible heat wave in the Holy Land.  Staying home isn't an option, because we don't have air-conditioning.  Yesterday and today I escaped.  On both days I ended up spending time in the Israel Museum.  It has been totally renovated, expanded, modernized and made more comfortable.  Pictures to follow sometime next week.

Yesterday I went, because I was in Jerusalem and had nothing else to do.  Also it seemed a good idea to scout it out.

Good thing, because I was able to give it a hearty recommendation as substitute locale (instead of the zoo) for a family event.  Today was a big day in my family.  For the first time relatives came to Israel to do a Bar Mitzvah.

We met at the kotel for prayers, then divided up between Yad Vashem, hanging out in the hotel and the Israel Museum.  That's where the kids, their parents and me with two of my grandchildren went.  After that we, (including my husband and kids,) all met up at a restaurant for a nice meal.

It was a truly great day! 

Now I'm wiped out and not just from the heat.  In the museum I spent all the time carrying a heavy backpack and some of the time carrying my almost three year old grandson.  I'm no spring chicken! 

Sandal Searching for Owner


The Israeli, Jewish "Lost and Found" is the antithesis of:
"Losers Weepers
Finders Keepers"

In Hebrew it's called "Returning Lost Objects."  According to Jewish Law, we have an obligation to find the owner and return the object.  The responsibility is on the finder.  That's why someone unknown made the effort to hang this sandal on a pole, to catch the eye.  Our local email list always has "found" announcements, usually before someone even realizes they've lost something.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Better Than Ice Cream!

A few weeks ago I bought a couple of mangos, real cheap.  They were pretty ripe, so I refrigerated them.  One I ate pretty quickly, but not the other. 

After I finally started the second one, I realized that it was over-ripe.  It didn't taste very good, so  I had an idea.  I wrapped it in plastic wrap and froze it.

Then the other day I felt like having something cold, so I took it out, along with a sharp knife. I began slicing off pieces and eating them.  It was filling, so I froze what I couldn't eat.  Today I took it out and finished it.  Frozen fresh mango sure beats ice cream and sorbet.  No sugar, fats etc, just mango.

About Respect

In the comments to my post "Losing It," Hadassa makes a point about respect:

"Judge Elayim Rubenstein had a great ruling for separate seating buses: on half of the buses the men sit in back and on half the women sit in back. He then added an important comment.
Paraphrase: Those who are very careful about certain commandments sometimes forget about the commandment to respect others."

At the kiddush we attended on Shabbat they had a strange custom, at least strange to my idea of normal.  On the men's side (of the mechitza, separation) there were long rows of tables for men with chairs and tables for children without chairs.  Children were reminded that they were not to sit.
On the women's side, there were round tables and no chairs at all.  Women were expected to stand, and only stand, whether old or pregnant or sick.

I was a guest, but that bothered me very much.  In Shiloh, a seated kiddush has chairs for both sexes.  And, yes, we've developed the custom (or it has evolved) to sit separately but without a mechitza

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

It's Not The Heat; It's The Humidity

What?  Here in the mountains?  No, yes, believe it or not.  I don't remember humidity here, certainly not day after day.  I hope and pray it means a nice blessedly wet winter ahead of us.

In the meantime... I wish we had an air-conditioner to cool this place off!

Don't Be Conned By Low Fat "Diet" Food

some diet advice from the diet coach

There are so many myths about proper eating.  Breast-feeding mothers are told to east dairy products to produce good milk, as if they are funnels.  Do cows drink milk?  No, they eat grass and other grains for good milk.  So, ladies, for good milk, eat salad.

Reduced fat food won't reduce the fat in your body, because most of those reduced fat foods just have more sugars.  Fat free foods won't make you fat free; you may find yourself getting fatter from the corn syrup and salts used to make the food tastier.  We need a certain amount of fats in our diets.  If we don't have it, there will be a hunger, and we'll try to satisfy it with carbohydrates.  A bit of natural fat and oils make the foods more satisfying and tastier, so you'll eat less and stay satisfied longer.

If you take regular mayonnaise and low-fat mayonnaise from the same manufacturer and compare ingredients you'll see that there's more sugar in the low-fat.  Fake, "fat free half and half" is full of corn syrup.  It's much healthier to have some natural dairy fat than all that sugar. 

Remember that our bodies can produce cholesterol.  That's why some people on very low fat diets have high cholesterol.  If you under-eat it, your body will overcompensate by overproducing it.

I'm not saying to live on fats only.  I just believe in whole eggs and whole milk.  I don't eat yellow cheese.  It's too manufactured and has a lot of fats.  I like 3% yogurt and 9% cottage cheese, and as I just wrote, I don't touch yellow cheese, which generally has 20% or more fat. The fat-reduced ones taste like plastic and have lots more salt.  Check your yogurts for salts and sugars.  I don't eat artificial sweeteners either.  I'd rather have fruits, also a bit of sugar in my morning coffee, but no cake.

Most of my food is vegetables, both cooked and raw.  I find my sauteed vegetables the most filling.

As If Last Year Had Never Happened...

Lots of people ask me if my life feels much emptier since I took my father to my mother in Arizona.  Honestly, although it was just a few weeks ago, it seems a lifetime ago, almost like the year with my father living with us had never happened.

The most "permanent" reminder is "his" room, which had been the bedroom of two of my daughters.  Last October when I was in New York getting him, one of my sons and my son-in-law totally redid the room, painting it, changing furniture etc.  It's not the room it was.  Otherwise it would be hard to remember that he had ever lived here.  My neighbors miss him.  He was a popular addition to the neighborhood.

I hadn't lived with my parents for decades.  I'm married forty years.  As an adult I had rarely seen him.  It was strange having him living with us and so dependent on me.

Now I'm back where I was a year ago.  I must find a part-time job.  I plan on helping with the grandkids once or twice a week.  And I'd like to make some sort of business out of my photography, writing and diet coaching.  There aren't enough English tutoring opportunities here in Shiloh, but I accept whatever students apply.  I don't belong in a classroom; it's too stressful.  And I plan on registering for some Matan classes.  Yes, this does sound like where I was last year this time...

Monday, August 16, 2010

Yes, I Found It!

I must have checked that shelf twenty times, if not more.  I'd been going over every possible place that missing shell could be.  Then suddenly....

Yes, I found it, just on the shelf I had expected and checked and checked again.  Now it's hanging with the dress..

Even though I did nothing today, I'm starting to fade.

Good night!

Losing It

Yesterday, I was pretty tired after getting home so late from Beit Shemesh.  As I wrote in the previous post, we spent Shabbat in Ramat Beit Shemesh for a family Bar Mitzvah.  Considering how long it took me to visit the first time, you're probably surprised to hear that I went back yesterday afternoon.  That's when the party was.

Usually, I'm very organized and have everything I need to wear ready hours before.  First I do a mental check, going over my wardrobe to find exactly what would suit the occasion, so when it comes to pulling out the clothes, I don't find everything flung all over.  So, that's what I did this time.  I knew exactly what I would wear and knew that it would be perfect.

You know what they say about best-made plans....

I trust that G-d had a good laugh.  Obviously He didn't want me in that outfit, though I don't know why.  It was "the dress" I had bought in my new favorite store, the one that needs a "shell" underneath.  Well, the shell went... I couldn't find it.  I pulled apart my closets, looked every place it could have or should have been.  Finally, I admitted defeat and decided on another dress.  That one also needs something underneath and that something teased me for a bit until it appeared.

By the time I found my clothes I was so sweaty I could barely get everything on straight.  I ran out of the house with my earrings still in my hands.  Yes, I was in a panic; it was much later than I had planned on leaving.  I knew that in theory I could still make it on time, early, but I had wanted to leave relaxed, not hysterical.

When I got down to the bus stop I realized that I had forgotten something very important, my reading glasses.  That meant that I wouldn't be able to say my daily T'hillim (psalms) nor the Mincha (afternoon) prayers.  But there was no way I could run all the way back home and then back down.

Within a few minutes I got a ride which left me at Ofra.  There I caught a bus, which was what I had wanted, because our bus line and the Ramat Beit Shemesh ones have a joint bus stop.  But, yes, things stayed interesting.  The bus broke down just before the Chizme check-point.  As the driver struggled to restart it, I noticed another bus approaching and told him.  So he went out to signal the other driver to stop and ask if he could let us all in, which he did.

As I had hoped, I didn't wait all that long for the next bus, the one to Beit Shemesh.  A few stops later, the Bar Mitzvah boy's soldier cousin got on, so I could relax instead of being afraid I'd miss the stop. 

A very pleasant surprise re: the Beit Shemesh bus is that there are no seating restrictions.  That means that it's not one of those "separate seating-women in the rear" buses.  Couples and families traveling together sit together, though it was rare for strangers of both sexes to sit together.

The party was great.  I enjoyed seeing everyone again, just a day after saying goodbye.  My married daughter and family were there, too, and took me almost home, as far as Ofra.  As soon as I got to the place to wait for a ride, a neighbor came who took me to my door.

No doubt, someday the shell will reappear, but when....

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Ramat Beit Shemesh, First Glance

My husband and I spent Shabbat in Ramat Beit Shemesh at a family Bar Mitzvah.  He has relatives there who made aliyah a year ago.  I had never been there before, no real occasion to.  And when they had invited us to an open house, my father was living with us, and there was no way I could go.

So, when we were invited for a Shabbat Bar Mitzvah now that my father is with my mother in Arizona, it was a great opportunity.  I checked out travel options and was very impressed that they have bus service every five- ten minutes from Jerusalem.  Even better was the discovery that the bus route coincides with ours for a bit.  We got a tremp (ride) from Shiloh to the Shmuel HaNavi junction where's there's a stop, so that's where we took took bus.

From things I had read, I expected to see chareidi ladies in burqas and other odd sights, but basically, it reminded me of a flatter, newer and greener and prettier version of Har Nof.  There's a similar mix of chareidi and dati le'umi, mostly English speakers, like Har Nof was when recently built.

We prayed in an English speaking shul, where everything is in English, as if we were in Brooklyn or Monsey.  I liked the tinted mechitza window and had a feeling that I had seen Rafi of Life in Israel when peering down.  Being an "honorary aunt" of the Bar Mitzvah boy, I had a front seat.  So when my husband told me that he had met him, I hoped to see him, too.  After Mincha ( I was the only woman in shul) Rafi bravely broke with public protocol and said "hello" to me on the sidewalk.  Unlike in Shiloh, men and women only say "Shabbat Shalom" to the same sex even when walking as married couples.

More after my swim etc.

Friday, August 13, 2010

New York Kosher Restaurants, Three More

Sorry, but I somehow never got to blog about all the kosher restaurants I tried in New York this visit.



I got to eat in a few new ones. 

The night I landed I met up with my sister-in-law and family who hosted me, and they took me to a new dairy place, perfect for the culinary restrictions of the "nine days."
It's such a popular restaurant, we had to wait close to an hour out on the street until there was a table large enough for all of us.
I think the name is Noidu; it's on the upper west side of Manhattan.  The food was worth it, a great salad.  Everybody ordered something else and we all enjoyed our meals. 

A week later, I insisted on treating my hosts to a restaurant meal of their choice, and they chose Murray's on First Avenue and 15th Street, if I remember the address correctly. 
It was after Tisha B'Av, so we could have meat, which we did.  I had a very low carb meal, meat and lamb burgers sans roll, plus lots of grilled vegetables and salad.

My next culinary adventure was L'Bella Restaurant on Main Street in Flushing, Queens, not far from JFK Airport.  That's because it was the meal before the flight home .

My cousin and I walked up and down Main Street trying to choose between the wide variety of kosher restaurants.  I wanted a dairy place for either a good salad or fish meal, since I expected my British Airways meal to be horrendously stodgy and carb-loaded.  We chose this one and I began my meal with vegetable soup.
Then I had a nice big salad.  It really was delicious.

My cousin enjoyed his ravioli, too.

Kosher eating in New York doesn't take too much effort.

More and more restaurants offer very Israeli-style salads which is great for Israelis like myself.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Not The Shiloh I Know


Hat tip, the B&B from Shy Guy.  The rice was on sale in New York.  I took that picture.

JBlogger F2F At My Favorite Bar

Last night my husband and I had dinner with Irina at HaGov, kosher sports bar & grill in Jerusalem.  Pictures to follow.  We sat at the table by the window so Irina could enjoy the street scenes.  I enjoyed it there, too.  I wasn't interested in the games shown on the screens.  Watching sport isn't my thing.  My husband watched the game, while Irina and I were entertained by the street scenes playing before our eyes.

I ordered a very dietetic burger sans roll on a plate filled with salad.  We all declined dessert, but the "management" had other ideas and treated us to a variety of their specialities.  Please keep the halva ice cream sunday away from me.  It's too delicious to resist.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Pre-Holiday Kosher Cooking Carnival



Rosh Chodesh Elul Tov!

This is the fifty-seventh 57th edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival, a monthly round-up of blog posts concerning all aspects of kosher food, from cooking to eating to shopping etc.  If you'd like to host one, please let me know.  KCC is scheduled to coincide, whenever possible, with Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of each Jewish Month.  To contribute a post, please send via blog carnival.


To view previous editions, click on any of the following links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, KCC Meta Carnival, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 525354, 55 and 56.

Again, I must apologize for taking advantage of the blog carnival "instacarnival" format for this Elul Kosher Cooking Carnival.  If your post doesn't appear, it may have been submitted after the deadline and will appear next month.  I'm redoing my KCC, Havel Havelim and JPIX mailing list, so if you'd like to be included, please email me, thanks.  My old list was swallowed up by yahoo.
I trust that this will give enough time to plan menus for the upcoming Jewish Holidays.  Thanks to all of you for your support.  Please remember to publicize KCC by blogging about it and sending out the link so others can read it.  Thanks again and Chodesh Tov!


Yisrael Medad presents Outing Ottoman Jewish Cuisine posted at My Right WordMy husband didn't get first place by protexia, blog carnival placed him here!

anything kosher!

Leah Lipszyc presents Our Last Israeli Breakfast - chossid - Photoblog.com posted at chossid's photoblog.

Mirjam Weiss presents Good Mourning posted at Miriyummy, saying, "Tisha B'Av -- thoughts on why we fast and how to break the fast"

Batya presents Losing Direction posted at Shiloh Musings.
Leora Wenger presents Sweet Vegetarian Stew posted at Here in HP, saying, "The sweetness makes it appropriate for Rosh Hashana - naturally sweet and healthy, with no added sugar."
Ben-Yehudah presents Mayonnaise Halachah (& Recipes) posted at Esser Agaroth.
Ben-Yehudah presents Shabbath Leftovers - Re'eh 5770: The Yeshivah Bochur's Cookbook & Almost Grilled Chicken posted at Esser Agaroth.


desserts

Mrs. S. presents Freshly Baked Friday: Chocolate Chip Surprise Cookies Edition posted at Our Shiputzim: A Work In Progress, saying, "Thanks for doing this and for all your efforts! Shabbat Shalom!"
Hadassah Sabo Milner presents Cinnamon Buns posted at In the Pink.

economical use of left-overs

Batya presents Lots of (Too Much) Leftovers posted at me-ander.


Every day meals

Ilana-Davita presents Cool Cucumber posted at Ilana-Davita.


Jewish Shabbat and Holiday food

Mirjam Weiss presents A Fishy Story in Two Parts posted at Miriyummy, saying, "Cross cultural dinner party, and girl vs fish"


Restaurant or Cookbook Reviews

westbankmama presents Jewish Food posted at West Bank Mama.
Leora Wenger presents Lazy Bean Cafe in Teaneck posted at Here in HP.
Batya presents Kosher in Arizona and Just Like In Israel! posted at me-ander.
Mirjam Weiss presents Happy Days posted at Miriyummy, saying, "A Tu B'Av meal that proves that the way to one's heart is through the stomach!"




That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
kosher cooking carnival-kcc using our
carnival submission form.  Only posts about kosher food will be included.  Hosts are instructed to delete all sorts of other subjects.  This blog carnival is for jbloggers, not general blogs.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our
blog carnival index page.


http://blogcarnival.com/bc/tb_38178.html

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://miriyummy.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/good-mourning/trackback/

http://www.leoraw.com/blog/2010/07/sweet-vegetarian-stew/trackback/

http://miriyummy.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/a-fishy-story-in-two-parts/trackback/


http://westbankmama.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/jewish-food/trackback/

http://www.leoraw.com/blog/2010/07/lazy-bean-cafe-in-teaneck/trackback/

http://miriyummy.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/happy-days/trackback/