Archive for April, 2008

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Sabich

April 27, 2008

Now that it’s the last day of Passover, it is time to start thinking about post-Passover food (though can’t have any of it until after 9:30 pm tonight, at least in Seattle. Pizza will be awaiting!)

While we were in Israel recently, I spent about 100% of the time eating Kosher meat, as it is readily available there at restaurants, but not so much in Seattle. As I was discussing with my friend Carrie last night, “when you are in Israel, it’s all meat, all the time. Even got to have the Kosher Burger King!” (and yes, my Whopper Harif, i.e. Spicy Whopper, was fantastic!)

One of the few non-meat meals I had was a wonderful Iraqi Jewish sandwich called Sabich which is, apparently, quickly turning into a prime falafel alternative throughout the country. I had been doing some research into how to make it (as it is a bit too obscure for the Seattle dining scene). I had posted an article up on Chowhound asking for help, but hadn’t gotten around to making it, since I had run out of time before Passover.

SabichAt the same time, I had mentioned it to my friend Michael (same guy I had posted about when discussing Men’s Cooking and Syrian Jewish foods), and while he had never heard of it or tried it before, he agreed it sounded fantastic (especially as he is vegetarian). He took the opportunity on Saturday night to make some, and put together a fantastic write-up, including a great recipe (and I got a shout-out! Nice!)

As this is a fantastic dish, I am excited to follow his recipe and eat! I’ll let you know how it goes. For now, check out http://www.herbivoracious.com/2008/04/recipe-sabich-.html for more.

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These are my favorite things!

April 25, 2008

Molly again. As I’ve gotten to know Aaron and Joelle better, I’ve let them see some of my favorite things to do. I’d thought I’d share them with you as well. For all the pictures, feel free to click on them for a larger version.

  • I love to stand up and look out the window at what’s going on outside. But, I don’t like letting them take a picture of me doing it – I jump down as soon as I hear the camera.. So here’s Aaron showing you how it’s done:

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  • I really like playing with other dogs, but so far, they’ve only allowed Ronin and Shay into the house. That’s okay. I like them!

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  • We got a fun rug. It sort of looks like it’s outside, so I like to sniff around in it!

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  • Most importantly, I don’t like chewing on things I shouldn’t. But I do love shoes. I just think they should be moved around the house. So I pick them up and put them where I want them, usually on my bed or on my blanket. It’s a fun game to play with the humans: “Find your shoes!”

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Interesting Articles in the Blogosphere

April 25, 2008

As I’ve mentioned before, I do nearly all of my blog reading through Google Reader. One neat feature it has is the ability to “share” articles that one finds interesting out to the world. I’ve been doing that for a while. At first, it was just to send articles over to Joelle for reading, but recently, I have also had them posted into my Facebook profile, through the Feedheads application.

I realized I should share these through http://www.averbuch.net as well, in case any one wants to follow along on what I find interesting as I surf the blog world…

It is now up at http://averbuch.net/interesting-reading/, and will automatically be kept up to date as I add things (which I do more frequently than blogging itself).

RSS feed also available, by the way, of shared articles.

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Yummmmm! Syrian Jewish Food

April 18, 2008

I had this at a men’s cooking class with Kavana recently, need to remember to make these myself after Pesach (Passover):

Thanks Michael… They were fantastic.

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Intro to Passover Food Rules

April 18, 2008

Sent this email to some co-workers who were interested this morning, thought it might be generally interesting to more (though I’ve posted similar things in the past)

Since you were interested, (or at least I discussed with you) in the crazy food rules of the next week for me for Passover – it’s once a year, so I may have sent similar links last year.

(The holiday of Pesach, or Passover, celebrates God’s freeing the Jews from bondage in Egypt (through the leadership of Moses). A lot of this is around making sure we eat only Matzah, and not bread, as Matzoh is made with flour and water, prepared and baked very quickly so that it never has the chance to rise. Matzoh is identified on the one hand as the “bread of affliction” and “poor man’s bread,” being an extremely humble, plain sort of food that recalls the days of slavery; on the other hand, it also symbolizes freedom, as it was eaten by the Jews as they hurriedly left Egypt for good.)

Here’s a good general overview of rules of food on Passover: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/kosher1.html

If you want a major detailed version, here’s the local Seattle (Orthodox, so more observant than I, but I follow most of these rules) guide: http://seattlevaad.org/uploads/passover_directory_5768-2008.pdf

non-pdf: http://seattlevaad.org/Passover_5768.html

Key words to understand that guide – let me know if you any other words you want translated:

  • Ashkenazim/Ashkenazic – Jews from an Eastern Europe background (I am)
  • Sephardim/Sephardic – Jews from a Spanish background (think Inquisition time period) – more liberal for the holiday rules
  • Chametz – bread, or technically, anything made from one of 5 biblical grains other than matzah
  • Kitniyot – legumes, corn, etc… okay for Sephardim to eat, but not Ashkenazim
  • Matzah – think a cracker like substance. I brought some in last year for all. Likely will do again. Or you can just see me eating lunch starting Monday for the week…

And no, we are not changing the food we feed Molly, our dog, though technically, we are supposed to. That rule is stupid. She’s a dog, not a person.

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Haggadot

April 18, 2008

All sorts of Haggadot (the book describing the Passover Seder) I’ve used or liked over the years are up at: http://averbuch.net/pesach – a friend wanted these, so I posted.

All copyright the writers, as described within each haggadah. If you are the copyright owners of any of these, and want me to remove, please let me know.

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I’m officially an old man

April 10, 2008

I took the day off work yesterday since my lower back hurt.

Yep, that makes me an old man. When did that happen?

Resting all day yesterday made it a little better, though today it’s pretty painful again. I’m back at work, but I will just take it easy… we’ll see how it goes.

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It’s Molly Again: Fun weekend!

April 6, 2008

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Hi. It’s Molly again! I like when Aaron lets me blog.

I had a really busy weekend so far, and I’ve made a bunch of friends.

First, we went over to Jeff and Erica’s for Shabbat dinner – I really liked being part of the group when we all stood around and did Kiddush. I was such a good girl praying with everyone! Their cat, Sam, was a little afraid of me, but it wasn’t my fault – I didn’t even go near that thing! I tried putting on my best face though – everyone was petting me, I played nicely, and it was the most fun I have had in a long, long time though! One thing I loved was when Jeff pulled out his laser pointer. The red light on the floor made me go crazy! I pounced on it whenever I saw it.

Saturday, we walked down one of the main streets – and I was pretty good for a while, but then we got to Queen Anne Ave, and I got really scared.

Later, we went to a big lake (I think they called it Green Lake). I had a lot of fun, but it might have been too much – Aaron and Joelle had a hard time holding on to me, since whenever I saw the ducks, I wanted to do my acrobatic moves and lunge after them. I think they are going to work with me to make those pesky birds a little less appealing!

Finally, Greg and his dog, Shay, came over for dinner and to play. (Clodagh was out of town) It was the first time another dog came into the house with me! We got along pretty well, though there was some initial playful growling. I really liked spending time with Greg – it was fun to fight for his attention with Shay! But we tired ourselves out as well… so we got a nice nap in before going for a big walk. It was good to walk with Shay – having another dog showing me not to be afraid of streets and parks definitely helped me get over some fears, but Queen Anne is still really scary – we’ll have to keep trying before I become okay with there!

All in all, it was a really fun weekend so far! I can’t wait to see what else is in store. I hear a rumor that a bunch of people are coming over for a meeting tonight – this should be fun!

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Things we’ve learned: Week 1 of Molly

April 4, 2008

A few thoughts on things we’ve learned after one week of having Molly as part of the family:

  • Dogs are hairy! She definitely has a lot of excess hair that needs grooming, but she’s not quite trusting of us enough to allow much brushing. She’s totally cool with grabbing her skin and hand-removing excess hair, though, so at least it is cleaned up a bit. I think she’ll enjoy baths more than the brush, so hopefully that will help. We’re waiting to talk to the vet first though to find out  more.
  • String cheese is your friend. We took our first obedience class this week with Paws4Training, and they suggested string cheese as a great treat for training purposes (since they can taste without actually eating the whole thing), and for those rare cases when you need to bribe her to do something (i.e. get into crate)
    • We have noticed one caveat: Once you’ve used it as a treat, Molly does not like when you grab another string cheese for yourself – she wants it to be doggy-exclusive! Joelle ran into this last night.
  • She’s scared of most things, but getting a bit better for all of these, I think day-day. It is going to be a long haul, though:
    • Men (she’s more okay with women it seems) – she’s okay with me though
    • Major roads (Queen Anne Ave, etc…)
    • Big buildings
    • going into anywhere – the pet store freaked her out
    • large dogs – she likes to sniff, but submissive urinates as soon as she’s around them, especially if they are fluffy and white
    • buses and large vehicles
    • getting into her crate – she’s okay once she’s in there during the day, but man is she hard to convince to go in – treats or not (we’re getting a daily dog walker, by the way – a local middle schooler is looking for work and is great with her dog – Molly and her get along, for everything but getting into the crate)
  • She eats all up pretty darn quickly. We’ve been researching food quality guides – here’s a good link to a good grading system (similar reviews on other sites as well): http://www.thepetpedia.com/article_view.php?articleid=6
    • Water she’s not so quick on. We need to figure out how to trick her into drinking a bit more.

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Video: Mainstream Jewish Services are so boring…

April 3, 2008

(if the video doesn’t show up for you, this is best viewed at http://averbuch.net/2008/04/03/video-mainstream-jewish-services-are-so-boring/)

Compared to Beth Shalom of Chicago’s that is (check out the video below – it is well worth watching all of it)… it’s amazing the differences between some of the excitement they get out compared to the average Conservative service (or Reform, or Orthodox), while still holding on nearly all of the traditions. It really shows the variance that groups can have in how to push forward the same basic practices and experiences – and still hold acceptance by mainstream Judaism (the Rabbi here is part of the Chicago Board of Rabbi’s)

(My brother is heading to Chicago this weekend and really wants to attend here – he’s utterly intrigued – as am I now, after seeing a few of the write-ups he’s sent me and watching this video)

(thanks to http://mazel123.blogspot.com/2007/09/video-of-chicagos-black-synagogue.html)

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