Snow expected in my old neck of the woods

On Fridays, while getting ready for Shabbat, I sometimes listen to WCBS-AM Radio. This was an all-news station I used to listen to in New York. Today, it was all about the snow headed your way. For a moment, I felt nostalgic. Aww, I miss the snow, I thought.

And then came the traffic reports, school closings and train delays. I recalled navigating the LIE and Cross Island Expressway in the snow, on a Friday where Shabbat starts so early. I remembered worrying about freezing pipes and leaking basements.

And I thought, I'm okay with no snow.*



I don't think you're getting this much snow!

*Today's weather in Modi'in:

22 °C / 71.6 °F
Humidity: 11. %
Light W Wind
Chance of rain: 0 %
High Clouds


Shabbat Shalom!

This is something worth eating meat for at 10 a.m: Stuffed Zucchini

I got this recipe from the Jerusalem Post. It's easy, but it does have several steps. It is a complete meal, though; you don't have to make any side dishes to go with it.

As I have very strict standards, I always taste my food to make sure it is up to the level of perfection my family has come to expect from me. Which is how I found myself eating a meat dish at 10 a.m. this morning. You'll all be happy to know this dish passed my test.

Here's the recipe:

12 medium zucchini

(filling):

500 gram chicken
1 large grated onion
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/3 cup chopped parsley
3/4 cup rice
1 pinch lemon salt
1 tsp hawaiij (middle eastern spice; Pereg makes it, you can get it in Gourmet Glatt)
salt and pepper

(sauce):

3 tbs oil
1 large chopped onion
3 cloves garlic
1 cup diced apricots
6 fresh ripe tomatoes, grated coarsely
lemon, juice and zest
1 heaping tbs sugar
1 tsp hawaiij
salt and pepper
2-3 ups clear chicken soup or stock

Scoop out the zucchini, saving the guts. Mix all the ingredients for the filling and lightly fill the zuchinis; set aside.

Saute the onion and garlic, then add the rest of the ingredients until the chicken soup. Bring to a boil. Spread the zuccini pulp over the sauce and then place the stuffed zucchinis in the sauce. Place the covers near the zucchinis, not on them. Pour in the chicken soup and cook until they look like they are done. Voila!

Writer's block

I don't know why I can't seem to put pen to paper, or keys to screen lately. I have some posts saved but all are superficial (a recipe, and some stuff about Ozzy the Wonder Dog). There's lots of stuff going on here and I feel a kind of nervous energy that overtakes me everytime I sit down to write.

I met a blog friend who is fast becoming a real-life friend last week. It was fun to compare notes with Ruti Mizrachi. She is a very inspiring woman with so much faith, and a fascinating story to tell. I was going to write a long post about our meeting, but I can't seem to get up the energy, and well, she beat me to it over here. She basically said everything I had wanted to say, so you can click on over there if you're interested in what happens when great blogger minds get together (so what if we couldn't figure out how to get the computer fired up at the internet cafe).

In any case, I plan on keeping up the posting even if it's short, dumb stuff. Bear with me while I work through this. Hopefully it's a short phase.

In the meantime Haveil Havalim is up at Jack's place and JPix is up at Mom's.

Have a great week!

Where did the word "meme" come from anyway?

I got tagged by Leo, which was awfully sweet. What is it about memes and blogs? You don't see them for months, even years and then all of a sudden they're all over the place. I just did one a few posts ago. I don't think I'm going to do any more memes after this one. I'd rather you get to know me slowly, by reading my thoughts. It's more natural, and more fun for me that way.

But here goes this one:

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

1) Adoring three little girls ages 1, 2 and 5.
2) Working at HASC in Woodmere, NY.
3) Freaking out alot of the time.
4) Lots of gardening.
5) Starting to become very active in the sisterhood of our synagogue.

5 Things on my to-do list today:

1) Get a good night's sleep.
2) Print out pictures stored in my camera and computer; back them up as well.
3) Make some doctor's appointments.
4) Call NBN to have them help me organize a way for olim to get grandfathered in as therapists under the new licensing laws for speech therapists, OTs, and PTs here in Israel.
5) Learn how to identify and edit run-on sentences.

5 snacks I love:

1) Pizza.
2) Pizza.
3) Pizza.
4) Pizza
5) Pizza.

5 Things I'd do if I were a millionaire:

1) I would try-try-try to live within my means.
2) I'd put money away for the kids.
3) Give a chunk of it to Chai Lifeline.
4) Travel.
5) Invest wisely. (These days that means keeping it all under my mattress).

5 places I have lived:

1) Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
2) Kibbutz Be'erot Yitzchak, Israel.
3) Midwood, Brooklyn.
4) Cedarhurst, Long Island, New York.
5) Modi'in, Israel.

5 jobs I have had:

1) Worked in the kitchen at Camp Moshava. (FUN!!!)
2) Call girl.
3) Camp counselor.
4) Customer service at a Jewelry place on 47th Street, NYC.
5) Speech language pathologist.

And there you have it.

I'm going to be bold and BREAK THE CHAIN. I am not tagging anyone. Just don't feel like it. You can all thank me in the comment section.

Good night.

I have alot on my mind

But I'm not going to go into all of that here. At least not yet.

I do have one thing that's been nagging at me. I'm wondering how all you technologically advanced creatures handle this.

I've always prided myself on my photo albums. Since high school, I've developed pictures and put them in albums and wrote an index on those pictures. I did this all the way up to the summer of 2007, even developing pictures from my digital camera, which I finally got in 2006.

I love these albums and take comfort in the fact that someday my children and grandchildren (G-d willing) will show them to me in an effort to keep me stimulated in some way. Hopefully, this will not be in a nursing home. I think I would very much enjoy the albums at an advanced age of, say, 105.

But the albums have stopped filling up. My pictures are now stored on Snapfish, on Facebook and I probably have about 800 shots on the memory card of the camera itself. It will cost me a bundle to develop hard copies of these pictures and take me weeks to sort them and put them away.

What are you guys doing? Does anyone have and show real pictures anymore?

Just curious.




And by the way Haveil Havalim is up at Batya's. She has included a huge amount of articles about everything going on, including the Mumbai terrorist attack. So much to read, so little time.

Skywatch Friday: Modi'in, Israel

My friends Leora and Ilana-Davita usually post beautiful pictures for Skywatch and other photo blogs. I somehow never get around to posting pictures, but last Friday I was able to photograph something in the sky that always has the power to make people stop and look. Some say that a rainbow is a sign from G-d that the world has become evil enough to be destroyed. After the great flood, G-d made a brit, a covenant with Noah that He will never again bring a flood great enough to destroy the entire world; he shows us the rainbow as a sign of this covenant instead. I saw this rainbow over my city, Modiin, last Friday, just as I was reading reports of dead bodies being found in the Chabad House in Mumbai, India. It was in a way, a comfort to see that perfect arc of color. Yes, it seemed to say, the world can be an evil place, but still, I am here, making my presence known.

According to Jewish tradition, when one sees a rainbow, the following blessing is said:

Praised are you our God, Sovereign of the world, Who remembers the covenant, who keeps the promise, and fulfills His word.

14 million people in Mumbai and they find the Chabad house

Mumbai (Marathi: मुंबई, Mumbaī, IPA:[ˈmum.bəi] (help·info)), formerly Bombay (Hindi: बॉम्बे, Bambai, IPA: [bɒm'beɪ]), is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the financial capital of India. With a population of 13,662,885, it is the most populous city proper in the world. (From Wikipedia).

A city of almost 14 million people with a handful of Jews. Somehow they managed to find the proverbial needle in the haystack.

They targeted hotels, bus stops, train stations and one house on the outskirts of the city.

They targeted Jews.

My heart goes out to the people of Mumbai, who are calling this their 9/11. I am sorry that such evil exists in our world. And of course my thoughts are with the families of those who died because they were Jews: Rabbi Gabriel and Rivka Holtzberg, Bentzion Chroman, Rabbi Leibish Teitlebaum, and Yocheved Orpaz.