Purim, the Jewish holiday of costumes, festive food, hamantaschen and the Book of Esther, falls this year on March 20. We have begun preparing our annual oatmeal containers that we decorate, fill with edible treats and hand out to a few friends. My daughter created the scene above; I scanned it into the computer, and we plan to print it in a variety of sizes to paste unto the containers.
If you are celebrating, have you done anything to get ready? Any thoughts on the upcoming holiday? Questions?
I wrote about slideshows on my tech biz blog . I included a Jewish woodworker, a dance studio that presented a New Jersey version of Beauty and the Beast, and some NASA space photos. My favorite is the graduate slideshow that I put together, in honor of a new graduate level program for Rutgers Jewish Studies.
Books I’ve Read, Books I’m Reading
Gertruda’s Oath, Ram Oren Wild Fermentation, Sandor Katz Fear No Evil, Natan Sharansky
I highly recommend all three of these books. What are you reading?
I’ve been experimenting with pickling and fermenting vegetables. I tried a macrobiotic recipe that just called for sea salt, water and kombu (seaweed) with vegetables, but I didn’t care for the result. Then I found a video that shows Sandor Katz teaching how he makes fermented cabbage. I tried it. We will eat the results on Friday night or Shabbat (I don’t care to wait a whole month). Sandor Katz wrote a book called Wild Fermentation. I ordered the book, and maybe after I read it, I will be able to explain why fermenting vegetables is good for you.
Notes: you do most of the work one day, and then a week or a month later you enjoy the results. That works well for those who like to plan ahead. Also, you will note both these videos talk about mold growing in the fermenting process (and Steve’s shows him throwing it away). Hmm, guess one has to get used to such things! My vegetables didn’t produce as much liquid as Sandor’s. But his recipe with cabbage, carrots, garlic and onion already tasted much yummier than the cucumbers in seaweed I tried last week. I hope to update you next week with photos of my finished product.
A drawing by my daughter: what does this ballet dancer and Ancient Egypt have in common? Perhaps someone who knows ancient Egyptian history can help. Or maybe you are familiar with some midrashim related to parshat Shmot? (I’m not, but I gather that’s how my daughter got the idea).
Put banana, raspberries and oat milk in the blender or food processor and blend. You can double or triple the recipe if you have friends visiting.
When you have finished most of your smoothie, don’t panic. Add some grape juice and seltzer, and enjoy a new version of this treat.
You can also use blackberries and/or blueberries, but then you can’t really use the photographs for Ruby Tuesday:
I was inspired by the Green Smoothie of Reluctant Vegetarian, but when I suggested the addition of kale to the smoothie, my daughter balked.
Here’s my daughter getting ready to dance tap on stage last Saturday night. This is my entry for Straight Out of the Camera, hosted by Jan on Murrieta 365.
A review of Two Lives by Vikram Seth – “From 1908 India, to 1908 Germany, and the years that follow in a Germany ruled by Hitler, we follow the journey of Shanti and Helga, to England, and also the journey of the author, Vikram Seth, into the lives of this childless couple.”
I am very proud at how much my daughter has progressed in dance. She opened her group’s ballet performance with this move. She and her group of eight-year-old performed three nights, the youngest group to do so. Luckily, the dance teacher decorated the back walls with red, so I could use this for Ruby Tuesday.
