photography

Stained Glass at Etz Ahaim

stained glass window
Stained Glass Window at Congregation Etz Ahaim, Highland Park, New Jersey

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.

Tomato Sauce Alternative

Parsley tops green mugwort noodles and beet sweet potato sauce
Parsley tops green mugwort noodles and beet sweet potato sauce

Beet Sweet Potato Sauce

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

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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.

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Mash until you get a lovely orange and pink sauce.

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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.

Today’s Flowers: Gaillardia, Rudbeckia, Lambs Ears & more

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Love this new blanket flower, Gaillardia, that I planted in my garden this spring. Such brilliant red and yellow colors in one flower.

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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.

lambsear
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.

For more flowers, visit:
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Weekly Review with Rudbeckia

First Rudbeckia (black-eyed susan) of the summer in bloom, June 2009
First Rudbeckia (black-eyed susan) of the summer in bloom, June 2009

On my blog

Summer Stock: July Birthday
Today’s Flowers: Red Lily
Ruby Tuesday Strawberries
Watery Wednesday Wet
Thursday Challenge: Sweet Orange

SourDough and Hummus
Daughter Age One, Mixed Media

Upcoming in Central New Jersey

Come pick weeds in the Meadows in Highland Park.

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

  • Techeles in our times: “From the halachic standpoint the mitzva of Techeles is the dominant topic of the parasha.”

    For more on Tekhelet, see http://www.tekhelet.com/
    (the director is a friend of my husband)

  • Larry: Tales of HP (funny)
  • Ilana-Davita: Recipes: Summer Favorites
  • 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.

Thursday Challenge: Sweet Orange

orange

My daughter isn’t feel 100% tonight (I’m hoping she just needs a good night sleep), so I gave her a dose of nature’s medicine, an orange.

The theme for Thursday’s Challenge this week is SWEET (Candies, Cookies, Cakes, Pies, Honey, Nice-Sounding, Beloved, Charming,…).

Watery Wednesday Wet

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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.

For more wet posts, visit Watery Wednesday:
waterywed

Ruby Tuesday: Strawberries

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Yes, I have strawberries growing in my garden.

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Many strawberries are growing my garden, but we had more of these delicious, luscious fruits last week. Many are now mush.

For more photos with a little red or a lot of red:
rubyslippers

Today’s Flowers: Red Lily

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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.

For more flowers, visit:
logo_rose_todays_flowers

Summer Stock: July Birthday

My Daughter's Pink Strawberry Frosted with Colored Sprinkles Doughnut
My Daughter's Pink Strawberry Frosted with Colored Sprinkles Doughnut
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.

Haveil Havalim and JPIX

flags_US_israelImabima has hosted Haveil Havalim, the News and Politics Edition: Jewish blogosphere posts about President Obama’s speech, the shooting at the Holocaust museum and more.

JPIX, the Jewish photo bloggers carnival, will appear on this blog on June 28. Submit your photo post by June 25 using this link.

Thanks to these bloggers who have submitted:

Update: Thank you for your recently submitted pics:

Still plenty of time to send in your pics.

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