Archive for the ‘food’ Category
While most of the time has been spent laying flat, reading, and watching TV, there has been a few activities over the past few weeks…
And yes, you can also call this post: Aaron is clearing out his camera from old pictures!
(As always, click on the pictures for larger versions)
- We’ve been wanting to get a fence put into the front yard - it makes the outside of the house enclosed, so if we are BBQing, doing yard work, or just reading and enjoying outside, Molly can now be with us. So we hired some folks (clearly, I couldn’t do it myself, with or without the back condition) to put in our cliche white picket fence - very white indeed until it starts raining again!
- Joelle finally found planters she likes, and put them out on the front porch:
- Molly bought me a book on Macaroni and Cheese for Father’s Day, so of course, I immediately wanted Joelle and my mother to make me one of the dishes - asparagus macaroni gratin. Fantastic, albeit a little heavy, was the universal agreement. Perhaps better as a side dish so you don’t try to eat too much of it.
- Got a Get Well Soon cookie from some really nice friends - overnighted from New Jersey, OU-certified and everything:
- My mother bought Molly a necklace thing from the Edmonds Art Fair (she went with my sister). I am not one to know these things, but everyone commented on how pretty she was with it on - on her end, at least she didn’t mind it the one time she wore it!
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scanning is easier than typing - so here’s a nice surprise we got in the mail today (slightly redacted for privacy):
I was going to put together some posts on the issues with the Rubashkin Kosher Meat processing plant (and why we’re boycotting), but my friend John has put together a couple great posts already - might as well just link to them:
- http://johnschochet.blogspot.com/2008/05/unkosher-behavior-by-rubashkin.html
- http://johnschochet.blogspot.com/2008/05/update-on-rubashkin.html
Thankfully, Trader Joe’s has flipped to Empire Kosher only, at least the one by me, which isn’t tied into this.
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Greg, Joelle, Shay (woof!), Molly (woof!) and I spent some quality time at the dog park on Saturday - and then we got hungry for dinner. We spent a bit of time researching where to eat that would allow dogs to sit with us (since we had the dogs with us, and it was so hot out, we didn’t want to leave them in the car). We ended up back at Norm’s, the only place we know of that allows dogs both inside and out. Luckily, we were able to get an outdoor spot, so both us and the pooches were happy with the choice.
Rather than always going back there, I spent some time looking up additional places around Seattle that are dog-friendly. Found a couple of a articles with good links
- http://www.chowhound.com/topics/520235 - recommends Norm’s, the Islander, Tutta Bella, and Volunteer Park Cafe (so far, more likely coming). (Note: Broksonic, who replied, is me - I use that name on some sites. I think it was the brand of a TV I had a while ago, or something like that - I’ve been using it forever)
- http://community.livejournal.com/seattle/5202948.html - recommends White Horse Trading Company, Norm’s, Wayword Coffeehouse, C+P Coffee, Lava Lounge, Tin Hat, Stumbling Monk, Summit Public House, Edmonds The Dining Dog Cafe & Bakery. But then digresses into arguments over dogs and food, also links to DogFriendly’s and Citysearches list, but I called a few of the places on there - I wouldn’t trust those lists.
Good to have options!
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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.
At 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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I had this at a men’s cooking class with Kavana recently, need to remember to make these myself after Pesach (Passover):
- Red Lentil Soup: http://www.herbivoracious.com/2008/04/recipe-syrian-y.html
- Labneh (Spiced Yogurt Cheese): http://www.herbivoracious.com/2008/04/recipe-syrian-s.html
- Ricotta Pancakes: http://www.herbivoracious.com/2008/04/recipe-atayef-.html
Thanks Michael… They were fantastic.
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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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While Purim is the next major Jewish holiday (tonight in fact), it seems to be never too early to start thinking about Passover (Pesach) and the rules surrounding it. In the past, I’ve always had a series of blog postings on the holiday, so might as well start now.
This came up even more last night; over the past few months, I have been participating in Kavana Seattle’s Living Room Learning, a weekly Jewish Text study in the living room of community members (or more likely, our Rabbi, Rachel Nussbaum’s). I have not gone every week, but have been trying to go fairly regularly - it has been a great group of people analyzing the text, but none of which are true text scholars; so it is not scary like some other groups I have seen in the past. I really enjoy it.
A few months ago, the group decided to transition away from Torah study, and focus on Mishnah (Talmud) study, as it tends to have more practical impact on our daily lives, and it is an area of study most of us had never done. To start, we’ve focused on Mishnah Peach, one of the rabbinic texts (written in the 2nd century of the Common Era) focusing on Passover customs & observance, so right up my alley of interest.
Last night, we analyzed Chapter 10, which focuses on the actual rules and order of the Seder (the Passover Meal).
However, we soon realized that this year has some different rules, due to the fact that Passover starts on Saturday evening this year, and thus, runs in Shabbat (the Sabbath) starting right before it, which complicates things, especially regarding the prohibition against having or eating Chametz (leavened bread) during the holiday and also in the day before the holiday; which conflicts with the rules to eat 3 full meals on Shabbat itself. There’s also an issue of a Fast Day (no eating/drinking/etc… that first born sons are supposed to follow the day before the holiday as a memorial for the felled Egyptians who lost their first born sons as the last plague), which also conflicts with the Shabbat meal requirement.
As none of us were quite sure how this all works in this scenario, and being curious, I just looked up a bunch of rules… I’m following up with my Rabbi to see how Conservative rules differ from the Orthodox ones, but here they are:
http://www.arzeidarom.org/hilchot.html has a bunch of good insight (Orthodox rules; not sure how it varies among other denominations), as does the Seattle Va’ad (http://www.seattlevaad.org/Motzaei_Shabbat.html, again Orthodox rules, not sure how it differs), but here are a few key notes I see…
Fast of the First Born (according to Congregation Arzei Darom):
"It is customary for the firstborn to fast Erev Pesach. However this year since Erev Pesach falls out on a Shabbat the fast for the firstborn takes place on Thursday April 17."
Meals on Shabbat/Searching/Burning Chametz (according to Seattle Va’ad):
"Bedikat Chametz (Search for Chametz) takes place on Thursday night before Shabbat in the same manner as any other year and with the recitation of the bracha. In order not to distinguish the burning of the chametz from any other year, it is destroyed on Friday morning."
"Although the Shulchan Aruch states that we perform the procedure of Biur Chametz (Burning of Chametz) of Friday, nevertheless enough chametz food can be left over for the Shabbat meals on Friday night and Shabbat morning.
For Ashkenazim concerned with the problem of having chametz on Shabbat, after the procedure of Biur Chametz was completed, egg Matzah may be substituted for bread on Friday night and Shabbat morning (See Igros Moshe I, paragraph 155). Although Ashkenazi Jews are prohibited from egg Matzah during Pesach, that does not include the morning of Erev Pesach. The eating of egg Matzah according to HaRav Moshe Feinstein, OBM, should stop at the same time it is forbidden to eat chametz. "
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Working from home today, in order to get some private time to work on my team’s annual reviews, I found myself in need of a change of location to keep my productivity up. Since I knew I had to be in Redmond at 6 pm for my friend’s bachelor dinner, I decided to head that way and beat traffic.
I stopped at the Redmond Library due to their free WiFi, and immediately noticed they had a pretty nice coffee vending machine (not quite the same look as the picture, but you get the idea). I rather enjoyed my cafe latte with medium strength and 1 sugar, thank you very much (and even more so that they had separate buttons to figure this all out).
Which brought me to a question that perplexed me - how come you see these vending coffee machines that serve liquid in a cup, but never see vending machines for pop/soda that do the same thing? They are always in cans or bottles. It is even more perplexing since there is always the drink machines (such as the picture on the right) at fast food places and other food establishments, but they aren’t acting as vending machines in those contexts. Anyone have any ideas?