New Gadget

I forgot to add that on my Uwajimaya shopping trip one of the things on my list was to check out some Japanese mandolines. My salad book said in an Asian store they only cost about $15. So I made a beeline for the wonderful kitchen appliance section (where I could have spent hours browsing). I found only one mandoline and it was $40, not $15, so I didn't throw it in the cart. BUT then I saw a julienne peeler for only $6! I'd never seen one before, and I thought it was a great idea for my salads. So I plunked it into the cart and I can't wait to try it out.

On another note, I thought it would be a fun project for Amirah to grow various varieties of sprouts for our salads. You can sprout just about anything. I have a couple of books waiting for us at the library, so hopefully next week we can start a little indoor sprout garden. It's 1:30, and I still have no idea what all I'm cooking for shabbos, so I'd better get kicking. I have a vague notion of brisket, homemade french fries (Amirah's request), and all those yummy veggies I got at Uwajimaya. And sushi for lunch. We'll see what it ends up as!

As I was typing this I suddenly remembered that the blueberry cobbler was still in the oven, the timer had gone off, I had turned off the timer, and I had NOT taken the cobbler out! I raced over, and even though I'm sure it was in there for an extra 30 minutes (!) it was only a nice light brown color. I guess Hashem watches over blueberry cobblers too...

Fun Groceries

Every time I go to Uwajimaya (the local Asian grocery store) I always wonder why I don't do all of my produce shopping there. They have great prices, and the produce looks like it's still living. I found lots of the special greens I was hoping for that are used in the salad book I recommended in the previous post. Among my usual veggies, I also got daikon radish, bean sprouts, chinese eggplant, gi choy (a little thicker than bok choy), radicchio, red basil, shallots, and snow pea tips. The real surprise was the snow pea tips. I'd never noticed those before! I can't wait to make that salad. They look delicious. A pretty good-sized bag was only $0.80. I also got a GREAT deal on tofu. They sold bulk boxes - twelve 12-ounce cakes for $8.28 ($0.69/box). It also is the kind that doesn't need refrigeration. I got a box of firm and a box of soft. And if we move, we can take it with us! I like to use it for the tofu sour cream, tofu frosting, and stir fries. Yum.

Great Salad Ideas

I got this salad book, Raising the Salad Bar, from the library, upon the recommendation of a friend. The salad ideas in here are TERRIFIC, and it includes quite a few bean salads too. I'm really going to enjoy trying out a bunch of new ingredient combinations. Now that's really my last post for the night. Really. Good night!

Cutting My Own Hair

I cut my own hair tonight! It was very, very easy, even for someone like me who has no talent in this area. I used the directions here and they worked perfectly. Amirah and Raizel thought it was hilarious to see half of my hair in the bathroom sink. And the part that made me laugh — despite having several gray hairs on the sides of my head, not a single gray hair was in the sink! Weird. :) I'm so excited that I can do my own annual haircut from now on!

Recent Pictures of the Kids

Here are some recent pictures of the kids – Raizel at the duck pond in Beaverton, Eli covered in mud (his favorite state), Amirah on her birthday outing at Oaks Park, and Avi at the duck pond. We sure like our outings!

Coffee

The coffee we've been roasting and grinding has been S-U-P-E-R-B. The roaster is really cute, and not really that loud. Here's a little video. It looks like popcorn:



Letting the roaster warm up for 2 minutes, then roasting them for 8 minutes gives a nice, dark roast. The resulting coffee is smooth, smooth, smooth. One batch is enough for about 14 cups of coffee. Definitely the best coffee I have ever had. And it's fun to watch those little coffee beans jumping around.

Here is a before and after picture:


















This is definitely the best frugal experiment to date!

A Sweet Shabbat

We had such a very nice shabbat, just the five of us. The only sad moment came when I was making kiddush on Friday night and I looked down at Amirah and her eyes were pink and full of tears. "I miss papa," she said. All through the kiddush she was quite teary-eyed. The whole rest of the time she was just fine. I had to suppress a smile; her tears were so completely sweet and her love for her papa so evident.

I got in 3–4 hours of reading today. The kids played games with each other (Funny Bunny, Carcassonne, Pictureka) and Amirah discovered the joys of Othello (the game, that is!). I even took a 90-minute nap on the couch while Avi was napping. I was downstairs in case any of them needed me. Towards the end of the nap, I heard Amirah walk up to me and say, "Mama? Oh, come on Eli and Raizel, she's still resting. We'll go play a little longer." How could I not get up after that and read all kinds of stories? We read torah stories, began to read the story of Gilgamesh (our next subject in history), read more Car Science (I still think that book is fascinating), a book on garden pests and diseases that Amirah had brought home from the library, and read a few chapters in The Golden Bull (the story of two children in the ancient city of Ur). They played outside together, and rode their bikes in the garage. It was truly lovely. They were all being very sweet and putting their best foot forward. We had almost no squabbles. I think Hashem is being very kind to me with DH away for a few days. It's all been very easy, B"H.

Tomorrow we'll have a learning day. Monday and Tuesday too, though Tuesday afternoon has doctor appointments for the kids. Wednesday we're doing a day trip with MB and family to mountains or beach or fruit picking or river or ? Thursday is another learning day and I teach. It should be a nice week and good to have everyone together after last week's separate activities.

Also... a few days ago we got an order of grass-fed beef – rib steaks, ground beef, and brisket. It is absolutely fantastic, with a very different flavor. I don't even know how to describe it. It's definitely not bland. In some ways it's kind of like the grape juice we make - it dances on your tongue. The flavor is much more complex and alive. Just delicious. I'm so excited, and so sad that we'll most likely leave behind access to meat like this when we move. Oh, well!

Overheard Comment

I just heard a couple of mothers chatting at baseball, and one of them said to her son, "Go have fun!" She turned to the other mother and said, "That's the whole point of life, isn't it?" The whole point? Seems like a rather awful existence, actually. What meaning is there in "fun"? Other than itself? I'm not saying we shouldn't have fun, but I definitely don't think it's the POINT of life. I think that's a very self-centered viewpoint. Bli neder, I'll blog more about what I believe the point IS, but a traditional Jew would definitely not say it's to have fun. Neither would any traditionally religious person, I expect. Shabbat shalom - AGAIN!

Random Thought

I've just been musing on and off today whether we could stock our pantry and refrigerator with almost no pre-packaged items. Some things, like flour, we buy in such large bags I don't think it's practical to purchase them un-bagged. And shortening and oil would be tricky I think, unless there is a bulk oil dispenser somewhere (?). So many things we could just make ourselves, or do without. Of course, then there's dairy products. And soy sauce. And rice vinegar. Though other vinegars we could make ourselves without much trouble, especially apple cider vinegar... But we could nix ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, salsas (which we already do ourselves), many other things, I'm sure... I'll have to go through the pantry. I'd love to buy everything possible in bulk or just make it ourselves as needed. I'll be giving this some more thought. But it may get put on hold if we move to Pittsburgh NEXT MONTH!

Lovely Shabbat

I thought today would be a little hectic getting ready for shabbat without dear husband here to help, but it was surprisingly tranquil. We're all set. The meal seemed to just appear somehow, the house is nice and clean. All that's left is washing up and setting the table. After a week of Jewish camp for the girls and baseball for an hour a day for Eli, I'm really looking forward to just gathering in all my chickies, snuggling into bed after dinner, and reading stories. And a sweet day tomorrow with just us.

Dean's interview in Pittsburgh went very well, B"H, and he is really enjoying the community's hospitality. He could definitely see us living there. And if he can, I can. We'll see what hashem has in mind for us. We should hear back in another week or two, hopefully sooner rather than later. The wait is hard!

So, we will be missing him, but I think shabbat will prove to be a lovely time for this family, as usual, even sans papa. We sure do look forward to his homecoming on Monday night, though!

Shabbat shalom to everyone!

The Menu

DH is in Pittsburgh for an interview (and IY"H I should be hearing from him any second), so I'm making a simpler-than-usual dinner. Here 'tis:

challah
chicken noodle soup
hummus
roasted lemon carrots and zucchini
garlic lemon baby bok choi
cabbage salad
baked chicken
chocolate cake

And deli sandwiches and salads for lunch.

TVP - Kosher!

The TVP at USA Emergency Supply is certified kosher by O-U! Yay. Going to order some right now...

Another Great Frugal Experiment

A few nights ago I was remarking to DH that I was losing a desire to have my morning coffee. I don't drink coffee for the caffeine, since I have zero response to caffeine. I do drink it for the taste - I love coffee. For the last six months or so I had been buying the really cheap stuff in the big cans since it's about 40% cheaper than the "good stuff." But I just didn't enjoy it at all anymore.

Well, one thing led to another, and in a few minutes we were online ordering a home coffee bean roaster! DH figured that in 6 months it will have paid for itself, because green coffee beans cost about, well, 60% less than their roasted counterparts. So, not only would our coffee be BETTER than the best store coffee, but it would also be CHEAPER than the worst store coffee.

We ordered from a store in Eugene, OR that sells green beans and this lovely little machine that you see on the left. It roasts enough at once to make 14–16 cups of coffee.

The $97 price tag included 1 pound each of 5 different kinds of coffee beans. We made our first batch tonight, and decided to err on the side of light roasting so we could slowly approach just the right roast. Well, it was a bit light tonight, but the taste was smooooooooth. I was so happy. None of those harsher overtones at all. It was so velvetly delicious. We did a 6-minute roast, and next time will try a 7- or 8-minute roast. You can go up to 9 minutes, I think.

I am always so tickled when I discover a new way of doing something that not only tastes or works so much better, but is also so much less expensive! My next frugal food experiment is to order a sampler packet of variously flavored textured vegetable protein from here. That is, as soon as I can determine what agency has certified the products as kosher... Haven't heard back from an e-mail. The cost would only be $0.45/pound - cheaper than the beans I buy! It can be used to stretch meat or replace it. Fun stuff...

Yay

AW did it again in her blog here. Parents today definitely underestimate their importance in their children's lives, and overestimate the importance of their "wants." I saw it so clearly when I was a classroom teacher, and I see it so clearly now that I am home with my own children.

Donated Miles, Anyone?

A friend and her husband are FINALLY bringing their children home from Ethiopia, and are very excited. It was a long wait for them. Because they live in Israel, but are American citizens, they need to bring the children from Ethiopia to the US for immigration purposes, then fly them from the US to Israel. It is unimaginably expensive to do all of this with two adults and two school-aged children. If anyone has excess Delta airline miles to donate, I would love to hook you up with this family to make the burden of the very expensive plane tickets a little easier. Thank you!

We Love This Book!

We have so much enjoyed reading this book. I had no idea I would ever say that about car books, which Eli loves, of course. I read them because he loves them, but not because I'm really wanting to learn more about cars. But this book is different! It explains with perfect clarity how a car actually works. Even I understood it! :) The science is solid and is not dumbed down for its audience. I'm really looking forward to reading and discussing more.

The Menu

It's a real (untraditional, as usual) shabbos feast!

challah
Caribbean butternut vichyssoise (I made that name up, could you tell?)
jerk chicken
jerk salmon
jerk zucchini
Caribbean cabbage salad
refried beans
coconut rice
chips, guacamole, and our new pareve sour cream
apple rhubarb crisp

For lunch, more of the same...

I'm getting hungry...

Loss

A wonderful local dancer has tragically passed away at the age of 54. The story is here. I taught his daughter, Anahelena, music in preschool and kindergarten. Keith was a vibrant, strong, enthusiastic person who knew people from all stratas of Portland society and beyond. This is a huge loss to the Portland arts community, and for those he leaves behind.

Tostadas!

Tonight's dinner was so incredibly delicious - and cheap - that I just had to blog it. :)

Here's what we put on our tostadas:

•The pinto beans that I cooked overnight in the crockpot a couple of weeks ago. Just a bunch of pre-soaked beans, an onion, and some garlic. Then I pureed it with cumin when it was done.

•Grated cheese

•Salsa, from this delicious recipe: 2 cups diced tomatoes, 1/2 cup diced onion, 1/2 cup diced green pepper, 1/2 cup diced red pepper, 1 chopped jalapeno, 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp pepper, 2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp vinegar, small can of tomato sauce mixed with an equal amount of water.

•Pareve (non-dairy) sour cream, from this delicious recipe: 1 package firm tofu, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1/4 cup oil. Puree everything! Incredibly good, and much cheaper than the sour cream substitutes at the grocery store and no weird ingredients.

•Cabbage salad, a perennial favorite. Sliced cabbage, cilantro, lime juice, salt, oil.

•Guacamole, just mashed up the avocados, added some of the salsa, and a pinch of salt.

This was so incredibly delicious. And all but one of us ate it enthusiastically. And that one had already basically eaten beforehand.

We think that half of the family should be on dairy-free or dairy-reduced diets, so we're eliminating a lot of the dairy we eat (and we love dairy!!). Thanks to our "soy cow" (our soy milk machine) we can do a lot of substitutions very cheaply and easily.

And beans are very kind to the budget. Last night it was homemade felafel and the semi-annual walla walla onion ring fry. :) It was so good. I usually make a yogurt sauce (yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, tahini, salt, cumin), but we're not doing much yogurt and I didn't have tahini. So I made a sauce with soy milk sludge (the bottom of the jar usually gets a little thick), peanut butter, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and cumin. That was pretty good too! We're going to try having a non-dairy bean dish for two dinners every week.

And other exciting news... through our kollel (like a post-graduate school for rabbis, and they provide community education) we now have access to local (low-mileage), grass-fed beef! We're so excited. The prices are almost normal, instead of kosher exorbitant. I generally stick to local, in-season produce, but our meat was coming from the other side of the planet. Having this new alternative is terrific. We're ordering brisket, rib steaks, and ground beef. That'll balance out the beans budget!

Back to the Thursday night shampoo routine, making everyone sparkly and ready for shabbos tomorrow. And our friend JF is joining us for dinner, which always gets everyone jumping up and down from excitement.

Oh, and, pssst, DH has a job interview in Pittsburgh next Friday. A little tefillah, a little prayer, here and there never hurt! :) Great job, and there's a LOT to like about Pittsburgh...

A Life for a Life

A great story...

Yoni, an Israeli Defense Force soldier stationed in Heb ron , was shot by an Arab terrorist. It happened very early in the morning, and no one else was awake to hear it. Yoni passed out and was bleeding steadily, his life heading toward a silent end.

But another soldier stationed nearby heard the shot and went to investigate. He found a fellow Israeli soldier bleeding to death. He tried the best he could to stop the bleeding and called for help. Waiting for help to arrive, he kept applying pressure to the wound--literally holding Yoni ' s life in his hands.

Yoni was taken to a hospital in Be’er Sheva where he underwent surgery. Yoni ' s parents were notified and they rushed to the hospital. Imagine the fear of the parents who were only told "your son has been injured and is in the hospital." When they arrived the doctor told them that Yoni was shot but will be alright. However, had it not been for the immediate actions of the other soldier, their son Yoni would have bled to death.

It was a miracle that the other soldier heard what no one else heard, and managed to locate Yoni as quickly as he did. The parents wanted to thank that soldier, but he had just left the hospital after hearing that the soldier he helped would survive.

While recuperating at home, Yoni and his parents called the army to find out the name of the other soldier so they could thank him personally. Unfortunately, that soldier ' s name was not recorded and although they tried to ask around they simply couldn’t track down who that other soldier was.

Yoni ' s mother knew that the important thing of course is that Yoni is well, yet she could not help feeling that as long as she couldn’t meet and thank the solider who bravely saved her son’s life--the entire frightening episode would not be fully over. Not being able to thank the soldier continued to give her an empty feeling…but then she had an idea.

The couple owned a grocery store in Kiryat Malachi (a town near Ashdod ), so they decided to put up a sign in the store, describing what happened, figuring that Israel is a small country and eventually they might found out who the mystery soldier was.

Months passed with no response. Finally, one morning about a year later, a woman customer noticed the sign hanging by the door of the store. She recalled how happy her son Yair was when he came home one Friday night and told them how he heard a shot and was able to save another soldier’s life in Heb ron . She went back and told the owner of the store. The story matched. The two women now decided to try to reach their sons on cell phones and see if they could meet at the store. Fortunately it turned out that both the young men and even the fathers were able to all meet that afternoon at the store.

The families soon gathered for an emotional "rendezvous". The soldiers recounted army experiences and finally after all this time Yoni’s mother could stand up and thank Yair for saving her son’s life or as she put it, “You saved my world”. She looked forward to feeling “completion” after all this time by thanking the soldier, but little did she know that the story was hardly complete.

After the tearful thank you, Yair’s mother quietly pulled her aside and asked to speak with her outside. The two women went out alone. And she asked Yoni’s mother: “Look at me-- don’t you remember me?”

“No, I’m sorry did we meet before?”

"Yes,” Yair’s mother replied. “You see there is a particular reason I came into your store today. I used to live here, and this time although I was just passing by, I wanted to give you my business, even though I was only buying a few things.”

“What are you talking about?” Yoni’s mother asked.

The other woman answered, “Twenty years ago I used to live around here and came all the time to buy milk and bread. One day you noticed that I looked really down and you were very nice and asked me why I seemed so down and I confided in you. I told you that I was going through a very difficult time and on top of that I was pregnant and planning on having an abortion. As soon as I said “abortion” you called your husband over and the two of you seemed to forget about your own store and business, and just sat down and patiently listened to me. I still remember clearly what you said.

“You told me that it is true that I was going through a hard time but sometimes the good things in life come through difficulty, and the best things come through the biggest difficulties. You spoke of the joy of being a mother and that the most beautiful word to hear in the Hebrew language is “Ima” (mother) when spoken by one’s child. You both spoke and spoke until I was convinced that I actually should have this baby--so you see G-d paid you back!”

”What do you mean? asked Yoni’s mother”. The answer astounded and thrilled her.

“I had a boy twenty years ago that you saved by telling me to think twice before doing the abortion.” With happy tears she declared, "My beloved Yair wouldn’t have been alive if not for you. He was the one you were looking for. He was the one who grew up to save your son Yoni’s life!"

Note: This incredible story is true. The actual names are on file.