photography

Project Black

boy wearing black
This is what happens when your child does not have any regularly scheduled activity or camp…they start to take over your blog…doodoodoodoodoo (insert scary music here).

For more Project Black posts or to participate, visit Anna Carson’s blog.

Tsefat Photos

We visited Tsefat (alternative spellings: Safed, Safad, Tsfat, Tzfat, Tzefat) about two weeks ago. It is my favorite city in Israel: spiritual, up in the clouds (it’s on a hill), artistic, architecturally interesting, walkable, colorful. Lecha Dodi, the lovely prayer welcoming the Sabbath queen that we sing every Friday night, was composed by Rabbi Shlomo Halevy Alkabetz in the 16th century in Tsefat.

sign in Tsefat
Here’s a welcoming sign to the old section on the busy main street at the top of the city’s hill.

Tsefat

path between buildings in Tsefat

synagogue
Ari Synagogue (Ashkenazi)

Abuhav Synagogue
Abuhav Synagogue on the right: lots of blue here. Blue is a recurring theme in Tsefat.

Tsefat skyline

corner in Tsefat

flowers in Tsefat

tsefat iron fence with flowers behing

another flower in Tsefat

path behind

new house in Tsefatstreet in Tsefat

My husband and middle son went for a dip in the mikvah of the Ari.

Stay tuned for a post about the simple, delicious, kosher, healthy food that we ate in a little square in Tsefat. Unfortunately, Eldest son, same son who does not like garlic, didn’t care for Tsefat because he found it smelly.

Flower, a terrorist attack, a hint

Flower of Israel
A photo of a flower I took at Latrun, site of an important 1948 battle and now home to a memorial museum and many tanks on display. Many Israeli flowers are different than the ones here in New Jersey. Maybe some day I will learn the names. (update: bougainvillea or paper flower, I think)

While we were in Jerusalem this week, there was a terrorist attack on Jaffa Road. We only found out because an Israeli-American friend called to find out if we were OK (we were having a great time). To find out more, you can read these Israeli bloggers. I know as much as anyone who watched the news! Life went on as usual for us, for Jerusalem Israelis, and for the abundant number of tourists in the city. There were so, so many tourist groups of teenagers (Birthright, USY, NCSY) and young visitors. Older visitors, too. What a pleasure to see! I’ll be happy to be the one to report the good news.

Finally, I added a hint to my mystery photo post.

Orange Cake

Orange Cake

If I knew you were coming, I would have baked a cake.

My mother used to say that little expression. I think she would have enjoyed this cake. I took Batya’s basic cake recipe and converted it into an orange cake.

Before I share the recipe, we had an amusing afternoon with this cake. I made the cake at about 5 pm. My daughter (who is five years old) did the stirring, so she felt like she made the cake. It came out of the oven at about 5:45 pm. I put it on that pretty cake platter in the photo, dropped three home-grown strawberries in the center and took a few photos. Then daughter and I headed out for about half an hour to the library. The cake was left as displayed in the kitchen to cool.

Upon our return, it looked like a mouse had visited our cake! Or perhaps a little hand. There was one medium-sized gouge toward the top of the cake, and two little gouges in other spots. Sure enough, I had left my two boys at home at our usual supper time, so one hungry eleven-year-old had helped himself to a bit of cake. I requested that next time he use a knife and cut a piece. My daughter and I helped ourselves each to a slice of cake. I then went upstairs to take care of a few things. Upon my return downstairs, when I was planning to make supper, I was a bit shocked to discover the cake was now half its original size. Sure enough, Eldest son had helped himself to a few slices.

The moral of the story: don’t be surprised if half your cake disappears if you leave it alone with two hungry, growing boys in the house.

Finally, the recipe:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 orange
  • 1/3 cup canola oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 3/4 cup water
  • A pinch of salt

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add eggs and oil. Add grated orange peel. Add water. Squeeze in the juice of the orange. Add vanilla. Mix well. Pour into a greased baking pan (I used a shaped bundt pan). Bake for about 45 minutes at 350°. Use a toothpick to see if it’s ready. Let cool before serving.

Update: I just added this to The Recipe Box.

Nuts for You

Found this article Eating Nuts Greatly Reduces Your Risk of Heart Attack and Cancer so I thought, good time to talk nuts! (more on thyme and nuts under the photo).

According to the article, nuts won’t make you fat:

Nuts contain lots of fat, and many people are still operating under the food industry induced belief that fat makes you fat, so nuts are often shunned. But research does not support this conclusion. In the Nurses’ Health Study, the frequent nut consumers were actually a little thinner on average than those who almost never consumed nuts, and daily supplements of almonds or peanuts for six months resulted in little or no increase in body weight. Nuts apparently satisfy hunger and provide a wealth of nutrients, creating a feeling of satiety and comfort. This results in an overall lessening of food consumption.

I eat raw almonds as a snack throughout the day. I leave them in my refrigerator and just grab a few when I am rushing to get my kids or to an appointment, especially when I’ve forgotten to eat a decent lunch.

One topic the article mentions is soaking nuts before eating them. I’ve never heard of this, so I did a little more research. I couldn’t find any evidence of an actual study that said one needs to soak nuts. To me, I like nuts as a fast food, so the soaking would be really annoying, if it were a requirement. Do you think all the people in the nut studies quoted in the Natural News article soaked their nuts? I found one source that said the soaking isn’t necessary. But I have no idea what her background is that she is able to make this claim.

Enough for now on trying to weed out useful information on the internet.

Almonds in thyme
Above are my raw almonds, which I decided to photograph in a bed of my thyme. I grow thyme in front of the house. It makes a great grass substitute. The thyme spreads itself all over (sometimes it needs a haircut) and produces pretty little lavender flowers for a few weeks in the summer.

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