Or this could be titled:
Stealing ideas from your blogger friends
First, Haveil Havalim #169 is up, in two parts, on a new (new to me, anyway) site: Part I and Part II. Jill’s blog is called Writes Like She Talks.
This brings me to the title of this post: Why blog?
And the subtitle: I stole this from Mother in Israel. (good topic, mom)
I do not talk like I write. I have always felt stifled in my talk, and therefore one of my goals with blogging is to say what I need to say in print. And hopefully in “real life” I can feel more comfortable expressing my ideas verbally.
Initially, I was hoping to connect with others locally, in the Highland Park area. What I have found is that many of those who read blogs are bloggers themselves. It has been a joy to connect with others around the world, in Israel, in France, in Seattle, in Virginia, in Chicago, in England, in (wherever it is you presently live). As Baila described me on her blog, she used the expression: “jack-of-all-trades”. The unfortunate conclusion to that expression is “master of none”, but I do try! So as many topics as I have introduced on this blog, I am sure there are more that I will explore in the future. And I LOVE comments. Please share your thoughts!
When Ilana-Davita linked to the latest HH, she included a lovely rose. It inspired me to post the little marigold on top of this post, that I found early this morning peeking under from under a geranium plant. This one probably was a self-seeder from last year’s marigolds. Unfortunately, the camera focused on the geranium leaves instead of the marigold, but I don’t have the patience (or time) to take the photo again. You get the idea. And thank you, Ilana-Davita, for letting me steal another good presentation notion.
NOTE: This blog will be going on vacation soon. Hopefully, I’ll write a little post about being away that should appear early Thursday morning.
And I’m stealing Mom in Israel’s conclusion, too:
Okay, that’s enough about me and my blog. Tell me about yours.
Can you buy produce from local farmers easily? What do farmers grow in your area?
Every Friday in the summer (June to November) we have a farmers’ market in Highland Park. It is fun to go and see fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers. This Friday I bought some mixed lettuce greens and two cucumbers. I ate one of the cucumbers as soon as I got home.
Regarding the recent tomatoes and salmonella fiasco, Yardsnacker theorizes that workers not washing hands is too blame. His theory makes a lot of sense to me. I trust the local farmers much more than what is in our supermarkets. However, I do not think that everyone growing their own tomatoes is the solution. Many people live in apartments. Growing any vegetables takes time, energy and knowledge. Tomatoes require lots of sun. That said, if you do want to try vegetable gardening, tomatoes are among the easiest to grow. I always put plenty of compost in my soil before planting my tomatoes. Composting is free, if you know how to make compost out of your vegetable scraps and garden waste.
Do you like garlic? mustard? Here’s an easy, no cooking necessary salad for those of us that like strong flavors.
Ingredients:
- 1 savoy cabbage or napa cabbage
- olive oil to coat
- brown mustard to coat
- 2 or 3 crushed garlic cloves
- salt, pepper to taste
- juice of 1/2 fresh orange or lemon
- for color: bits of shredded purple cabbage and/or carrot (optional)
Chop the cabbage into bite size pieces (that’s the most complicated part of this recipe). Add the shredded carrots and/or purple cabbage. Put in a large bowl. Coat the cabbage with olive oil. Then coat it with mustard. Crush in your garlic cloves, and mix. Sprinkle with salt and/or pepper to taste. Squeeze on lemon or orange juice, and mix well.
Tip on shredded carrots: you can use your food processor, or you can peel off little piece of carrot with your carrot peeler.
Yesterday was Parshat Naso, a great parsha with laws of the suspected adulteress, laws of the nazir, the Kohen’s blessing and gifts of the tribes. Maybe next year I’ll write a post on this parsha, but some bloggers came up with some good divrei Torah (words of Torah) that I would like to present.
First, read Jack’s Haveil Havelim #168 Go Celtics Edition.
On Parshat Naso:
If I knew you were coming, I would have baked a cake.
My mother used to say that little expression. I think she would have enjoyed this cake. I took Batya’s basic cake recipe and converted it into an orange cake.
Before I share the recipe, we had an amusing afternoon with this cake. I made the cake at about 5 pm. My daughter (who is five years old) did the stirring, so she felt like she made the cake. It came out of the oven at about 5:45 pm. I put it on that pretty cake platter in the photo, dropped three home-grown strawberries in the center and took a few photos. Then daughter and I headed out for about half an hour to the library. The cake was left as displayed in the kitchen to cool.
Upon our return, it looked like a mouse had visited our cake! Or perhaps a little hand. There was one medium-sized gouge toward the top of the cake, and two little gouges in other spots. Sure enough, I had left my two boys at home at our usual supper time, so one hungry eleven-year-old had helped himself to a bit of cake. I requested that next time he use a knife and cut a piece. My daughter and I helped ourselves each to a slice of cake. I then went upstairs to take care of a few things. Upon my return downstairs, when I was planning to make supper, I was a bit shocked to discover the cake was now half its original size. Sure enough, Eldest son had helped himself to a few slices.
The moral of the story: don’t be surprised if half your cake disappears if you leave it alone with two hungry, growing boys in the house.
Finally, the recipe:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 orange
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 3/4 cup water
- A pinch of salt
Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add eggs and oil. Add grated orange peel. Add water. Squeeze in the juice of the orange. Add vanilla. Mix well. Pour into a greased baking pan (I used a shaped bundt pan). Bake for about 45 minutes at 350°. Use a toothpick to see if it’s ready. Let cool before serving.
Update: I just added this to The Recipe Box.
Welcome to the modern world. If you can play with a painting in Photoshop, why not? I applied the palette knife filter to my gouache painting (that painting did have a bit of watercolor in the background, too, by the way). I then un-applied the filter to the spot that had my signature.
Goache on paper, 2008
If you needed to decorate your house for just two days with some kind of flower theme, how would you do it? If you wanted to involve your children in the project, how could you make it fun?
Here’s some quick ideas:
- Buy some beautiful (but expensive) flowers at the florist.
- Go to the supermarket and buy some OK flowers.
- Do tissue paper flowers (do you use pipe cleaners and twist around the middle and trim the tissue paper?).
- Draw pictures of flowers and plants and hang those up.
- Go pillaging through your garden and find something or another that might possibly last for two days.
Ideas welcome.
The holiday of Shavuot is coming, and it is customary to decorate one’s house with flowers. The origin of the custom may be a tradition of vegetation sprouting up around the mountain of Sinai when the Torah was given, or it may be connected to the agricultural roots of this holiday, which is also called Hag HaKatzir, the holiday of the harvest. Whether you celebrate this holiday or not, I am sure you can come up with at least one idea of how we could floralize our house.
Can anyone tell me how one can be in three places at once? This past Sunday there was a wonderful art show in Highland Park, which I missed because I was here and then at the tail end of the Cong. Etz Ahaim picnic.
Bill Bonner, an talented, artistic photographer and one of the exhibitors in the show sent me these photos that he took of the reception last Sunday:
Other artists in the show included my friend Jill Caporlingua, who has written posts on this blog and sometimes comments, my neighbor Mort Farrah, and my friend Rick Black. Sharon Sayegh, a painter I admire, also exhibited.
For more Highland Park artists, see http://www.highlandparkartists.org
