Cucumbers, radishes, kale, lettuce waiting to be pressed
Why press a salad? According to macrobiotics, a pressed salad makes the vegetables easier to digest. It is a way of preparing the vegetables without any cooking.
At first I thought I would need to buy a salad presser to press a salad, but then after an email from Klara convincing me to try putting a heavy bowl on top of the salad I came up with this homemade version of pressing:
My method of pressing: plate, vegetables, bowl and heavy jug of water on top
How to Press a Salad
Gather up some vegetables. Here are a few suggestions:
kale, chopped or torn into pieces
cucumber, sliced (my understanding is peel if it is not organic, you can leave peel on if organic)
radishes, sliced (they will be less sharp after pressing)
lettuce, torn in pieces
sweet onion, chopped
parsley, basil or another fresh herb
Put your vegetables on a plate. Sprinkle with sea salt (or whatever salt you have). You can put on some apple cider or rice vinegar, too, according to some recipes (I just use salt). Put whatever heavy objects you need on top of the vegetables for an hour or two or three. The vegetables should soften and release some water, too. You can rinse off the salt and drain any excess water.
Lemon juice might be tasty as an addition, too. Enjoy.
The definition of a pressed salad, from Changing Seasons Macrobiotic Cookbook, by Aveline Kushi and Wendy Esko:
“Very thinly sliced or shredded fresh vegetables, combined with a pickling agent such as sea salt, umeboshi, grain vinegar, or shoyu, and placed in a special pickle press. In the pickling process, many of the enzymes and vitamins are retained while the vegetables become easier to digest.”
An assortment of reds I present to you today: Gray Catbird on seedling boxes with red carnation blur
Many gray catbirds have been spotted in our neighborhood, and this one posed for me on my neighbor’s lawn.
A friendly clown from the 2009 Salute to Israel Day Parade
I figured I better show you this clown before I forget all about the photo. I enjoyed seeing him up close, talking to the kids. In the background is the Salute to Israel Parade down Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Vampire from the Brave Little Tailor, show at Middlesex County College Theater Camp
The main vampire, a seventh grader, was excellent in the show The Brave Little Tailor, a presentation by the Middlesex County College Theater Camp in Edison, New Jersey. My daughter was a castle kid, and she did a great job of jumping into her friend’s arms when the vampire threatened everyone on stage.
For more photos with a little red or a lot of red, visit Mary the Teach’s blog:
My son created this video “Elements in Motion” two weeks ago with the members of his object animation video class at the Zimmerli Art Museum summer program for kids. He did the water section with a few other kids (that’s his voice saying “wheeeeee…”). His friend was part of the air group. Some girls we know did the fire section at the end, but my 12-year-old son is still at the stage where girls are ignored.
Robin’s Summer Stock Sunday is a photo meme, but I am again taking liberties with that definition and including this video, as creativity is in important part of our summer. My daughter is in theater camp for three weeks; I hope to do a post about the play (Brave Little Tailor) she was in on Friday soon.
I got on the computer tonight, and I found a note from one of my favorite European bloggers, Jientje, who granted me this:
The rules to this award are :
1)Show the award in your blog.
2)Link back to the blog that tagged you.
3)Pass on the award to 8 blogs that you love. (Since this award has been around for a while feel free to pass it to as many or as few as you want.)
4)Inform the bloggers that they have been awarded.
5)Take your time, there’s no pressure, but try to check out the other awarded blogs.
Rudbeckia or Black-Eyed Susans against the crisp blue New Jersey sky
One has to bend down to get a snapshot of rudbeckia against the sky. They are tall for flowers, but not quite as tall as a tree. I have many growing in front of my home.
A rose-like climbing flower against a cloudy fluffy sky
I took this shot in late June; I don’t know if it’s a rose or some other rose look alike flower that climbs on a fence at my daughter’s friend’s home.
Baskin Robbins Fairytopia Birthday Ice Cream Cake, viewed from behind
My daughter turned seven. The fairy birthday party went well; thirteen fairies arrived, made fairy wreaths, received fairy wands and diplomas, went on a lost fairy hunt, played fairy freeze dance, put on three fairy skits about magic wishes, and enjoyed pizza and Fairytopia ice cream cake.
The theme for this week’s Thursday’s Challenge is CELEBRATION (National Holiday, Independence Day, Commemoration, Party, Fireworks,…).
Oak Leaf Hydrangea Turns Pink; Heuchera on the Side
Life has been busy. Birthday party on Sunday morning went well, and we (husband, middle son and I) went to see a movie about the 12th century scholar Rashi on Monday night (Rashi: A Light After the Dark Ages). I am trying hard to keep up with my work, so less time (and energy) to blog right now. Do I have anything interesting to report? Yesterday my car didn’t start in the Middlesex County College parking lot (it was lot 11 – they have lots of parking lots there) with three kids in the car. Triple A (AAA) fixed it – it needed a new battery – but while we awaiting AAA’s arrival, the girls (my daughter and her friend) found a little artificial stream to play in. They claimed to have seen two beavers, one a baby beaver. I was glad I didn’t have my camera, because I needed to focus on the matters at hand (getting the car fixed!).
A little less than a week ago I thought about writing a post called “Disagreeing Respectfully.” But then life got so busy, I can’t remember what I was going to say on the topic. Could be my subconscious need to avoid conflict.
Haveil Havalim, the blog carnival of the Jewish blogosphere, was hosted by Toby of Efrat in the Rolling Hills of Judea, The 4th of July Weekend Edition.
Did you have any car problems this week? Any other problems you want to talk about? Or you can just enjoy the oak leaf hydrangea with a bit of pink in the petals and the waving dotted heuchera (coral bells) next to the hydrangea flower.
Echinacea (cone flowers) with Rudbeckia (yellow spots) behind
My block is full of beautiful summer flowers: these echinacea are in the front of my neighbor’s house (two doors down), and the yellow “splotches” you see in the photo are the many rudbeckia (black-eyed susans) blooming in front of my home. I had echinacea growing in my backyard, but they were chewed up, either by deer or by our resident ground hog. Yesterday morning I yelled “get out of here” at the ground hog. I just bought a solar mole chaser. We might buy a love trap. My neighbor down the block caught 11 last year. What can I say, the ground hogs love living in Highland Park.
For more Summer Stock Sunday posts, visit Robin at Around the Island.
Liberty Bell in Independence Park, Jerusalem, Israel (photo: 2008)
I’ve been waiting a year to use that photo. Yes, that is the liberty bell, a copy of the one in Philadelphia. I believe the bell and parts of the park were donated by Americans and Canadians, the bell in particular by Americans in 1976. One year ago today we were in that park; on July 4th itself we were on a plane, flying back to New Jersey.
So, what does the United States of America mean to you? I am especially interested to hear if you do not live here.
As I have talked a bit about my mother’s parents (see, for example, Greetings from Mariampole), now I am going to mention my father’s parents. In brief, when my grandmother was a little girl in a shtetl (I always think of a shtetl house as one that had dirt for floors instead of wood or linoleum or marble or whatever – she lived somewhere in the Austro-Hungarian Empire) she had to hide under a bed to protect herself from a pogrom. Soon after that, she and her family came to the United States of America, to New York City. On my grandfather’s side, his family came from Poland (from Głogów or Glogov). He and his siblings were fortunate to come in the early part of the twentieth century; he had cousins, however, that were caught in Europe in World War II. Supposedly, they hid from the Nazis and survived by hiding in the sewers. I feel so fortunate to have escaped these experiences (a pogrom and hiding in a sewer). And to have a beautiful family and home, and to be able to express myself without fear. Well, maybe a little, the general “opening up in public” kind of fear, not the Stalinist lock you up in jail sort. My maternal grandmother once spent the night in jail in the Soviet Union, but that is a topic for another time. I don’t even know that much to tell about it.
Little Leora, Zaydie, Bubby and my brother, somewhere in New York
Perhaps this is taken in Far Rockaway? They did live there for a while when I was little. Any New Yorkers know?
Sky Watch Friday is a photo meme with photos of sunrises, sunsets, blue skies, gray skies, pink skies, dark skies and any other kind of sky posted by bloggers all over the planet.
We went down to the Jersey Shore on Sunday, to visit my in-laws. I took photos of sunset while my kids and their cousins played in front of the house.
I took photos of some kids down the block who were staring at me taking photos of the sky. I then took a photo of the kids, sitting on their bikes, looking at me. But I don’t want to post kids I don’t even know. Too bad, it’s a cute picture.
Because I take photos of the sky, my own children have become more aware of the sky and the changes in the sky. I think my nieces were excited to watch me take photos of the sky. But the youngest really wanted pictures of herself; she had climbed high up in a tree.
Lots of people enjoy the Jersey Shore; my in-laws live a few minutes drive from Bradley Beach, New Jersey. Seeing small planes in the sky there isn’t unusual.
My daughter’s first grade teacher retired after 24 years of working at my kids’ school. To show appreciation for her, two of the mothers organized a surprise party last week at lunch time. Many of the parents chipped in toward the party, and some of us showed up for the lunch, but I was so happy that these two parents did so much organizing. One of the presents was a scrapbook with each page devoted to one child in her class. She spent ten minutes (or more) with the children looking over the scrapbook.
Only two other teachers have been at the school longer than she has. My daughter, when asked her favorite teacher from first grade, named all her teachers, including the assistants. She enjoyed them all. Not bad for a child who struggled with school and is finally learning to read.
For more photos with a little or a lot of red, visit:
