I photographed this one stained glass window at Congregation Etz Ahaim where we are members last Sunday. It was dark in the room, but I managed to capture this one panel of many that line the top of the sanctuary. This stained glass panel depicts the fourth day of creation, Yom Daled in Hebrew.
Genesis 1:16 –
And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars.
This portion of the Torah is the one my son will be reading next October, when he turns 13, and we celebrate his bar-mitzvah.
Ever want an alternative to tomato sauce for your spaghetti? Here’s an easy recipe if like me you often have a leftover cooked beet and a leftover sweet potato or yam.
Ingredients:
1 cooked beet
1/2 cooked sweet potato or yam
Put the sweet potato or yam in a bowl with the beet. Mash with a fork. If you don’t mind cleaning your food processor and prefer a creamier sauce, throw both in the food processor.
Mash until you get a lovely orange and pink sauce.
Meanwhile, cook your noodles. I used Eden mugwort soba noodles, which are a lovely shade of green, nutritious and delicious. When ready, mix immediately with your beet and yam sauce so the sauce warms up.
I topped mine with grated parmesan cheese and fresh chopped parsley. Get creative. Basil would be a great topper, too. You could also mix in a few drips of cold-pressed olive oil or some organic butter.
Serves 1-2.
Inspiration: Klara has a beet – carrot – onion sauce that she used to make as a tomato sauce alternative. See her comment on this post for the recipe. Since I often have a leftover beet and some leftover sweet potato, this recipe was a natural for me.
Love this new blanket flower, Gaillardia, that I planted in my garden this spring. Such brilliant red and yellow colors in one flower.
Soon I will have many, many of these black-eyed susans or rudbeckia growing all over my garden. Luckily, the animals (ground hog? deer?) don’t seem to eat them. They have already eaten my cone flowers, dill and marigolds. Discouraging.
Lambs ears produce these ultra-pink flowers; you either love ’em or you pick them away because they are a bit too brilliant. My snapdragons are beginning to show their colors, white alyssum are happily blooming in the front, and a few petunias reseeded themselves from last summer.
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.
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.
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.
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.