Leora

Red Carnation

Update: I added one more photo of red carnations.

Broken Glass and a Vandal is Arrested

I will be visiting the Judaica Gallery today because I need to make a purchase for my daughter – at least those of us that are local can support the businesses that were targeted. Rutgers Hillel and Chabad in New Brunswick also were targeted with smashed glass, as well as the restaurant Maoz. The Highland Park businesses were Jerusalem Pizza, Park Place, Judaica Gallery, Trio Gifts and Jack’s Hardware. Maybe I should go buy some light bulbs at Jack’s.

A big thank you to the Highland Park police for their quick and decisive action regarding this crime.

Update: A Letter from Mayor Steve Nolan (it ends with: “As a community, we are much stronger than a pane of glass could ever be.” – bravo)

Update: An excerpt from a letter from Rutgers Hillel director Andrew Getrauer:

Wednesday morning at 2 AM a Jewish Rutgers student, very
involved in Hillel, was at the kosher Dunkin’ Donuts in Highland Park,
when a man approached him and started a conversation about Jewish
issues. He identified himself as Jewish. This deteriorated into a rant
where the man also declared himself a neo-Nazi and told the student he
should be in a camp and killed like his ancestors, and that he would
start a ‘second Kristalnacht.’ At this point the Dunkin Donuts staff
threw the man out of the store.

Wednesday morning Highland Park woke up to find 5 Jewish-owned
stores with windows broken; 2 Judaica stores, 2 kosher restaurants, and
a hardware store owned by an Orthodox man. A Jewish-owned falafel
restaurant in New Brunswick was also targeted. Hillel staff contacted
the student who had encountered the man at Dunkin Donuts and made sure
he was in touch with police. Hillel staff contacted the ADL and New
Brunswick police to help connect the dots between the various incidents.
There was wide spread anxiety throughout the local community, expressed
thru constant phone calls, emails, Facebook and twitter messages. To
give you a sense of the feeling at the time, people were calling it
“Kristalnacht in New Jersey.”

More details were reported in the Star Ledger, New Jersey Jewish News and other press.

Visit to Princeton University

We went on a visit to Princeton University yesterday because my son is applying to colleges, and as he had the day off due to parent-teacher conferences, he decided he would like to visit Princeton. We arranged to meet my niece for lunch at the Center for Jewish Life. Having had a late-for-the-conference experience due to parking issues a few weeks ago, I now consider myself a Princeton parking expert, and we drove straight to Palmer Square Garage on Chambers Street. In the dripping wet we figured out where Clio Hall is, the place where the tour begins. The photos on top and bottom were taken in the sunny summer month of August – it did not look that bright in New Jersey yesterday, lots of rain. We did the tour (one other mother-son team joined us), and then we had the pleasure of my niece’s company at a kosher lunch at CJL. She seems to be enjoying Princeton, and I was pleased to hear she is taking French as one of her courses. She is the sister of the blogger in Norway.

So, now that I’ve left you with some of the details of my day, here’s some questions for you:

• If you’ve had a child leave home, how did it feel to have the first one leave?
• If you could apply to college now (all expenses paid), where would you go and what would you study?
• Have you been to Princeton?

Corn Bread and KCC

I made this corn bread for Thanksgiving. I wanted a recipe with no dairy, and many of the conventional corn bread recipes had dairy in them. I decided at the last minute (OK, the last hour) that I had enough time to make the corn bread. So I opened a Moosewood cookbook (I think it was New Recipes from the Moosewood Restaurant – the first one not by Mollie Katzen) and converted the recipe. You will have to wait for the actual recipe – I needed to re-test it, because in my rush I didn’t measure and record ingredients. This corn bread without dairy came out moist and tasty – my previous attempts were rather dry. And here is the corn bread recipe.

Conversation from yesterday:

Me: I’m going to make the corn bread again in a week or two.
Middle Son: Why?
Me: So I can post it on my blog.
Middle Son: Why can’t you post it now?
Me: Because I need to measure the amounts.
Middle Son: Can’t you just post it and let them figure out the amounts?

Fortunately, Middle Son is not in charge of posting recipe amounts to this blog.

If you would like some recipes now, I suggest you visit Batya’s newest Kosher Cooking Carnival.

Sneakers with Pink Laces

• Thank you to everyone who reads and/or comments on this blog. You are so appreciated!
• I have been enjoying working on a project for a client that is done with responsive web design. This means it will look good on your desktop, tablet or browser. This blog is responsive – if you move your browser to be small and then big again, you should see what I mean.
• I would love to post more creative works on this blog: for example, maybe I could do something interesting with those sneakers? A few months ago I started a project with roofs – I never got back to that one. Lots of starting and stopping. One could easily blame it on outside influences (work, family, laundry, the weather), but the creative process seems to be one that invites “stuckness.”
• If you are looking for a Thanksgiving recipe, you might want to check out the Stuffed Squash Workshop.
• I am thinking of stuffing my turkey tomorrow with rice, dried cranberries, celery and onion (maybe one egg to stick it together). Do you think it will work? Any suggestion?

Are you cooking this week? What is in the plans, cooking or otherwise?

Review with a View

JPiX 2011 Blog Carnival

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

• Feed the ducks? asks Michelle.
• Rebbetzin’s Butternut Squash Soup on Pragmatic Attic
• Batya blog hops: “If you fall while performing, get up gracefully making it look like it was planned as part of the dance.”
• Ilana-Davita has some root parsley recipes (it’s a Mediterranean root vegetable, sort of like the American parsnip).
• More adventures in Norway, this time to Dublin: Dublin: A Room of One’s Own (With a View)
• I will be giving a beginner Twitter workshop at the Highland Park Public Library on December 5, so tell your New Jersey friends. If you want a preview of some of the talk, read How to Set Up a Twitter Profile.

Have you seen anything with a view lately? Maybe in a movie?

Nature Notes: Washington Valley Park

On Sunday we visited Washington Valley Park in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Our friend found the hike on the website njhiking.com; I had never heard of the park before. Pictured is the lovely reservoir at the bottom of the hiking area.

We decided in advance to follow the red trail – it wasn’t always easy to see these markings for the trail on the trees.

I saw a variety of plants growing – no idea what this striped little plant is called.

I recognized these red oval berries from my childhood – I looked up the bush (red berries with thorns is what I looked for in Google Images), and I learned this is called a barberry bush.

I rather liked this plant inside moss that I found on the trail.

There were various streams on our hike that led into the reservoir. The girls (my daughter and friend) had fun hopping over the rocks.

When we got to the top of the hill on the trail, we were rewarded with views of hawks flying overhead.

You could see quite a distance from the top – the fall colors have faded, but they are still varied, though muted.

For more Nature Notes:

Mock Chopped Liver with Lentils

On Friday I made this version of a lentil paté that really does look like chopped liver, so I am calling this recipe “mock chopped liver.” I previously posted a recipe that I called vegetarian chopped liver – that one suggests eggs, and this one needs no egg, so it is suitable for vegans.

Ingredients for Mock Chopped Liver

• 3/4 cup lentils
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• salt to taste
• 1 onion
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. coriander
• optional: ginger

Cook lentils until soft (add a bit of salt while cooking). Soak walnuts for about one half hour. Sauté onions for about one half hour – the lengthy sautéing helps to caramelize the onions, bringing more flavor to the recipe (if you stop after 15 minutes, it will still taste good). Blend lentils, walnuts and onions in the food processor with spices.

The inspiration for this recipe comes from Mary’s Lentil-Walnut Spread, Lentil Walnut Pate and my friend Klara.

I added this post to Ruth’s Real Food 101.

Nature Notes: Foliage 2011

My daughter and I went for a walk to the library today, and we enjoyed looking at the brightly colored trees. She was off from school because of some teacher enhancement enrichment something-or-another day.

The oak leaves are certainly multi-colored.

I really enjoyed the colors of my neighbor’s blueberry bush.

The local high school looked pretty with the adorning red maple in front.

Hard to believe a week ago we had snow on the ground – this has been a varied fall for foliage 2011.

For more Nature Notes:

JPiX Fall 2011 Blog Carnival

Welcome to JPiX – the Jewish Photo Blogger’s Blog Carnival, Fall 2011 edition. Thanks to everyone who participated. We have a village in France, Rosh Hashana challah, Kfar Adumim, an olive oil factory, havdalah, a Jewish wedding, a lion in Jerusalem and more.

Left to right: Ilana-Davita, G6 and Wing Chun Jew (aka Jacob da Jew):
  

Batya:
  

Chosid’s Blog (Leah):
 

Real Jerusalem Streets (Sharon):
  

Cosmic X:
  

Mrs. S:
 

Leora:
  

I hope you will take the time to visit the photographers’ blogs and leave comments. The next JPiX will be in the spring. If you want to participate, please submit an entry here. If you are brave enough to volunteer to host, please contact me, and we can discuss the details.