Leora

Summer Stock: Beach Drawings

On the Lawn Chair at the Beach, colorized in Photoshop, ink pen drawing
On the Lawn Chair at the Beach, colorized in Photoshop, ink pen drawing
Lawn Chair at the Beach, ink pen on paper (before colorization)
Lawn Chair at the Beach, ink pen on paper (before colorization)

For more Summer Stock Sunday, visit Robin at Around the Island.

Weekly Review with Rudbeckia

First Rudbeckia (black-eyed susan) of the summer in bloom, June 2009
First Rudbeckia (black-eyed susan) of the summer in bloom, June 2009

On my blog

Summer Stock: July Birthday
Today’s Flowers: Red Lily
Ruby Tuesday Strawberries
Watery Wednesday Wet
Thursday Challenge: Sweet Orange

SourDough and Hummus
Daughter Age One, Mixed Media

Upcoming in Central New Jersey

Come pick weeds in the Meadows in Highland Park.

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

  • Techeles in our times: “From the halachic standpoint the mitzva of Techeles is the dominant topic of the parasha.”

    For more on Tekhelet, see http://www.tekhelet.com/
    (the director is a friend of my husband)

  • Larry: Tales of HP (funny)
  • Ilana-Davita: Recipes: Summer Favorites
  • Jew Wishes mentioned Journey from the Land of No by Roya Hakakian (review now offline, sadly), a book I highly recommend, especially if you want to learn about Iran. Roya is a good storyteller.

Thursday Challenge: Sweet Orange

orange

My daughter isn’t feel 100% tonight (I’m hoping she just needs a good night sleep), so I gave her a dose of nature’s medicine, an orange.

The theme for Thursday’s Challenge this week is SWEET (Candies, Cookies, Cakes, Pies, Honey, Nice-Sounding, Beloved, Charming,…).

Daughter Age 1 Mixed Media

young girl age one in graphite, watercolor and crayons
I did this almost 6 years ago, when my daughter was one. It’s a combination of graphite, watercolor and crayons on paper. As I haven’t had a chance to do art lately (work, work, work –> keep that web work coming!), I love the opportunity to share this portrait with you.

Watery Wednesday Wet

wet

This particular wet display was taken of a brook streaming under a bridge in Johnson Park, which is on the border of Highland Park and Piscataway, New Jersey.

For more wet posts, visit Watery Wednesday:
waterywed

SourDough and Hummus

This is not made with sourdough, but maybe next time
This is not made with sourdough, but maybe next time
This is another response to my link challenge.

What could be more delicious than sourdough bread topped with homemade hummus? To learn how to make sourdough starter, visit Mother in Israel’s post. And to find out more about hummus and what makes an authentic chickpea dip (as opposed to some wannabes), visit the Occidental Israeli’s post.

Why sourdough starter?

  • Taste
  • Health: More in this article on fermented bread. Easier to digest seems to be a top feature. Also, some people have reactions to commercial yeast (my father may have this) and find they don’t have the same reaction with the sourdough.

I’m thinking of doing this in July, as Mother in Israel says it works better in the hot humidity. See also read Mimi’s Oatmeal Sourdough Bread.

Why hummus?

Why not?

Here’s the Occidental Israeli’s comments on common hummus errors:

Another mistake I saw on TV that day, was the host opening a can of chickpeas and simply pouring them into the food processor. When making hummus, you must, MUST, wash the chickpeas numerous times, to make the “hummus” even edible. Moreover, if you want your hummus to be good, even if you use canned chickpeas, you have to boil them and remove most the skins, from most of the individual beans.

The biggest mistake, however, was the lack of tehina (sometimes called tahini). For hummus to be really good it must include tehina. Apparently there are other authentic versions that replace tehina with ful or with labaneh, but simply mashing chickpeas (with other vegetables, no less) does not result in hummus.

Ruby Tuesday: Strawberries

strawberries
Yes, I have strawberries growing in my garden.

strawberries_close
Many strawberries are growing my garden, but we had more of these delicious, luscious fruits last week. Many are now mush.

For more photos with a little red or a lot of red:
rubyslippers

Today’s Flowers: Red Lily

lily_red_wet

It’s been wet, wet, wet here in New Jersey. My garden is happy.

I am trying to detect which kind of lily this is. See Wikipedia for the varieties of lilies. I have others that seem to be day lilies; they bloom on and off throughout the summer. This one blooms once per bud, then it usually gets knocked over and that’s it for the season. My guess: it is some kind of Asiatic lily, because of the leaves. The stem looks like these Asiatic Lilies.

For more flowers, visit:
logo_rose_todays_flowers

Summer Stock: July Birthday

My Daughter's Pink Strawberry Frosted with Colored Sprinkles Doughnut
My Daughter's Pink Strawberry Frosted with Colored Sprinkles Doughnut
If your birthday is in the summer, you get to celebrate your birthday early in school. I brought an assortment of strawberry-frosted and chocolate-frosted doughnuts to my daughter’s first grade class this week to celebrate. The kids thought it hilarious that I was photographing a doughnut (don’t any of them have mommies that blog? I guess not).

So this means only a few weeks until the Fairy Birthday Party. Anyone have ideas for a fairy-themed party? Can you tell me how to make a wand with 20 or so little girls? Fairy games or stories? Fairy prizes (I couldn’t find anything fitting at Oriental Trading).

For more Summer Stock Sunday photos, visit Robin’s Around the Island.

Haveil Havalim and JPIX

flags_US_israelImabima has hosted Haveil Havalim, the News and Politics Edition: Jewish blogosphere posts about President Obama’s speech, the shooting at the Holocaust museum and more.

JPIX, the Jewish photo bloggers carnival, will appear on this blog on June 28. Submit your photo post by June 25 using this link.

Thanks to these bloggers who have submitted:

Update: Thank you for your recently submitted pics:

Still plenty of time to send in your pics.

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