Two summers ago we visited Killington, Vermont. Out of our condo window I took these sunset photos. Ski areas are great places to visit in the summer, with reasonable prices; this Killington condo building has both an indoor and outdoor pool. However, with the current price of gas, one has to spend a fair amount just to drive up there, and then it takes about 1.5 hours to drive further north to the Ben and Jerry’s factory, a must for ice-cream lovers of the world. It’s also fairly cool at this time of year in Vermont, not ideal for outdoor swimming. We loved the corn maze with the baseball diamond theme nearby.
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Photo was taken in early summer in the Galil, in northern Israel. I believe this is a dried-out gundelia, in Hebrew a “galgal” and in Arabic called an “akoub”.
The theme for this week in Thursday Challenge is OUTDOORS (Park, Garden, Campground, Beach, Forest, Backyard,…).
As the last Kosher Cooking Carnival came out at the beginning of the Three Weeks, I think it appropriate that I dedicate this one to Tu B’Av and women dressed in white who would go into the fields to dance. In days of old, women were said to dress up in white clothes and dance in the fields:
The Mishnah Taanit (4:8) relates that Tu be-Av was a day for making shiduchim (matches), albeit without the intermediary services of the shadchen (matchmaker):
Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel used to say that there there were no days more joyous than Tu be-Av and Yom Kippur.
[On these days] the maidens of Jerusalem would go out bedecked in borrowed white clothing (in order not to embarrass those who did not own any) . . . And the maidens of Jerusalem went out and danced in the vineyards. And what did they say? “Young man, check us out and decide whom you like.” [*]
Let’s pretend your sister or third cousin once removed has just finished dancing in the field; now it’s time to eat.
If you want some nice conversation, you could talk about “umami” and Torah as the “spice of life”. But I would suggest you wait until after the meal if you want to discuss Rafi’s post on Shechita.
If you would like to discuss hechsherim and the kashrut of restaurants, Rafi posts on kashrut in Jerusalem restaurants and then updates. Larry Lennhoff says this is how kashrut certification should be done.
Lion of Zion asks: is it “assur” (forbidden) to eat at home in Brooklyn during the Nine Days?
What would make a nice summer meal?
A lovely bean salad by Tamar Fox.
A cancer-preventing fruit salad with thyme.
I made a soup from my Farmers Market produce. And I grew an edible flower.
Gazpacho time:
Juggling Frogs suggested Leah Koenig’s gazpacho posted on the Jew and the Carrot.
Gail teaches us how to make her gazpacho.
If you don’t want to spend a lot, but you like delicious food:
One way to really keep it simple is to go out for some bagels.
On the other hand if you really want to live it up and make this meal extra-special, check out the wine selections at http://www.kosherwinereview.com/. Personally, I like Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon. Anything by the Galil Mountain Winery is going to be delicious; we tasted their wine our recent trip to Israel.
Raizy presents us with recipes from the Land of the Magyars.
We could have an elegant meal with Ilana-Davita’s chicken teriyaki or Baroness Tapuzina’s chicken paprika. Ilana-Davita’s roasted peppers would make a lovely side dish.
Like pasta? Try frumskeptic’s Fettucine Alfredo.
Batya teaches us how to roast vegetables in the oven.
Check out Mother in Israel’s new griddle and chickpea patties recipe.
Kosher Whine has a delicious recipe for Swiss Chard. Bet that might work with kale, too.
Here’s a really easy fish recipe.
Our options for dessert:
And I made it this past Shabbat, without the dairy frosting, so it was pareve. And delicious!
For a dairy meal, you could make the Kosher Blog’s Strawberry shortcake with cream on top.
Or try this easy Shabbat cake.
Not enough recipes? Here’s a blog called Cooking with Yiddishe Mama.
B’Taavon. (= Bon Appetit in Hebrew)
Finally, if you want to organize your recipes, Frumhouse has some nice suggestions. Here’s the cover of her Pesach recipes binder:
Thank you to
Batya for founding and managing the Kosher Cooking Carnivals. Thank you to
Ilana-Davita for reading the top of this post and giving feedback (or should that be foodback?). Thanks to
Lion of Zion for his
great Tu Be'Ab Primer. Thanks to Whistler for being a great painter. Thanks to
Juggling Frogs for submitting suggestions.
If you missed participating in this edition, September is coming soon!
Submit an article on anything related to kosher food.
Batya is looking for more hosts; please contact her to volunteer: shilohmuse at yahoo dot com
Here’s my entry for Ruby Tuesday, a fun photography meme hosted by Mary/The Teach.
Huh? you say. That’s not red. Ruby Tuesday is supposed to be something red.
Well, the night I took this photo and a few others, I went back to our hotel across the street, the Kings Hotel in Jerusalem, and loaded the pictures unto my laptop. And I discovered something strange:
All the other photos showed a blue fountain. But this one showed a reddish-purplish fountain. The next day, I went back and examined the fountain. Sure enough, the fountain has blue and red lights in it, and at night, the fountain turns from blue to red to blue.
Here it is during the day:
The omelette chef at the Kings Hotel joked with us at breakfast time about the “swimming pool” at the hotel. “Swimming pool?” I responded. “The Kings doesn’t have a swimming pool.” He was jokingly referring to this fountain. My daughter really did like the fountain, and she almost went swimming in it. One of the women in the neighborhood told me that the fountain is brand-new, donated in 2008 by someone from France:
Some of the neighborhood residents didn’t like the fountain, protesting that in a country that doesn’t not have a lot of water resources, this is a waste. But my husband and I reasoned that one could just recycle the water.
One final view of the fountain:
Just came back from my weekly trip to the Farmer’s Market (is it Farmers’ Market? or perhaps Farmers Market?). Above is a beautiful soup I made from some of my purchases last week.
Ingredients:
- 2 onions
- 2 tsp. olive oil
- 1 bunch of kale
- 3 yellow-orange squash
- 4 leaves of fresh basil
- 2 peeled cloves of garlic, chopped or pressed
- 3 small tomatoes, chopped
- 1 Tbsp. tomato sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
Saute the onions in olive oil until translucent. Add squash and water. Cook for ten minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Cook until squash is tender. Enjoy. If you like, sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
Update: you might want to add some lemon. I can’t remember if I did or didn’t. I definitely didn’t buy lemon at the Farmer’s Market. New Jersey isn’t that warm (yet).
At the Highland Park farmer’s market last Friday, I looked up.
And then I looked down.
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More on the Highland Park farmer’s market
I took this photo last year, of my middle son at the annual Cub Scout “Kinus” or two-day overnight at a Boy Scout camp with other Jewish campers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. I’m entering it in Thursday Challenge, where the theme this week is: “BLUE” (Water, Sky, Flowers, Birds, Eyes, The Blues, Melancholy,…). Someday, I would like to paint this in oils. Meanwhile, enjoy the photo. Click on it to see it larger.
I guess the “blues” part for me is he is now at sleep-away camp; we heard from him via letters, and he is having a great time! Without us! I miss him.
I got inspired by your comments on my last post of candles, and I did two more. More struggling. One of the hard parts about watercolor is that once you add the color, you can’t have the white of the canvas anymore. And it’s easy to work the painting too much. So I cheated on the painting above. I used Photoshop to add some white. Why do I confess? Part of blogging is to share my feelings and issues. Can anyone else get frustration? Like you are close to a goal, but then you mess up, once again. Well, not completely mess up, but not quite get it the way you want it to be, either.
On the last post, Ilana-Davita suggested the varied colors added to a less pessimistic painting. However, at the same time, it is not supposed to be a birthday party candle, so I don’t want to make it too festive. I went to the dentist yesterday (Dr. Ira Feldman in East Brunswick, a wonderful man and good dentist, too), and he has this fascinating painting on his office wall that has purple shadows. So I thought, instead of black, maybe I should make the shadows of my yahrzeit candle purple?
Feel free to tell me anything you want about my little candles. Thank you so much for looking!
A while back when I planted my nasturtium seeds, I posted a watercolor of nasturtium, because I had no pictures of one. Now my garden is full of these pretty orange or yellow edible flowers, so I spent some time Friday afternoon photographing one in particular. The shooting mode of this chosen photo is called “Aperture Priority.” Setting a lower aperture value blurs a bit the background behind the subject.
See what others aren’t saying at Wordless Wednesday.
