Posts

Showing posts from September, 2009

Cooking Magic: The Gathering

I've been in a cooking mood lately, and this puts me in a recipe gathering mood. So that's what I've been doing in my (not actually) free time, when I should be writing papers and reading textbooks, etc. Anyway, with all this gathering and bookmarking and saving to word files, it occurred to me that the best way to organize/gather/make useful these recipes would be to compile them into a cookbook of sorts. Obviously, it wouldn't be publication, because I'm using other people's recipes and not keeping very good track of where I'm getting them from, but it would be an awesome compendium for personal use, and if I can afford it, I might be willing to make some copies for friends. Currently, I'm still in the gathering phase, obviously. But I've got 6 word documents right now (one for chicken, one for beef, one for salads, etc.), each with about 20 or so pages. I still need to hunt down more interesting looking recipes, sift through the ones I've

No news is good news, right?

I have nothing exciting to report for this week. Rosh Hashana was nice, though I was disappointed with those apple cobbler thingies. They were undercooked even after being baked longer than the recipe called for. After yom tov, when I microwaved them they were fine, though. Other than that, the food was great. The honey chicken was my favorite. :) Anyway, I've been feeling sick the past few days so I'm taking it easy this shabbos and letting my dad cook for me. Yay! Good shabbos and a gemar chasima tovah!

Another Pre-Rosh Hashana Blogging---About FOOOOD

Hey everybody! I'm back for a quickie to let you know all about my cooking adventures for the day. About a month ago, I picked up the OU's cooking magazine (they give them out free!) and I was inspired by some of the recipes. So, here's what I made: Applesauce Cake: It was the easiest thing in the world. Measure ingredients into mixer bowl. Put bowl into mixer. Turn mixer on. Watch as mixer magically combines all ingredients to perfection. Pour into bundt pan. Bake. I've been pushing off using my beautiful Kitchenaid mixer for over 2 years and I finally found a recipe which seemed worthy. So there it is. I'm so sorry I didn't use it earlier. This baby is amazing. Apple Cranberry Cobbler...in baked apples!: Another easy breezy recipe! Core apples, dash in some cinnamon, fill with cranberry sauce, top with crumbles, bake. The only complication here is that I impaled my hand while coring the apples. And by impale, I mean, sliced. It looked deep at fi

A Pre-Rosh Hashana Blogging

Well, seeing as I owe you guys a posting this week and it being the week before Rosh Hashana, I guess that will have to be my topic. So how is it that after 21 years of being an Orthodox Jew, facing Rosh Hashana year after year, it continues to be such a daunting, intimidating, invigorating and yet, ultimately forgettable experience? You probably know what I mean. Every year, you stand up there in shul and pray you're little heart out, realizing all the things you've done horribly wrong this year and just KNOWING that it is only by Hashem's good grace that you have heretofore been written and sealed for life. You feel the terror in the thought that this year, Hashem may have finally had enough. You bargain with Hashem, making promise after promise that this year you WILL be better about tefillah, you WILL watch how you speak to and about people, and you WILL do more to distance yourself from whatever awful skeleton resides in your closet. All of these promises ferventl

Wasting my time? You betcha!

So, as all two of my avid readers are aware, I've been thinking about the possibility of doing a web-comic. Now, I don't want to give anything away just yet, but I've already started work on one that I think has a lot of potential. My key feature here is something that I have NEVER seen before in almost any medium: The normal lives of normal people, who happen to be Orthodox Jews. What I mean by that is, my characters will be Orthodox Jews, the content will be kosher, but that won't be the focal point. I will try not to resort to cheesy Jew jokes ("Huuuurrrrr, I'm so cheap cuz I'm Joo-ish!") or hideous Yiddish puns. It will not be a social commentary on the religious community or on Judaism in general. In fact, it will give little-to-no attention to the Jewishness of the characters beyond what would be normal in the day to day life of a Jewish teen (based on me as a teen, of course...only more kosher.) I've already drawn up my first comic and

Weekly Life Update

Well, well. Hasn't this week been an exciting one? I think so. First week of classes...er...class. This semester is the first one in which I will be going part time. But, not just normal part time. I'm only taking one class this semester. Don't bother asking why, just suffice it to say that it's a loooong story. It feels weird. It feels like I'm still on break. I had no trouble whatsoever reading the first chapter of my book this week. I don't feel ridiculous amounts of anxiety as I compare syllabii and realize that I have 3 papers due on one day...and that day is right after yom kippur. (as has happened to me in the past) No, this semester I received a syllabus with no dates, so who knows when tests and papers will suddenly be jumped on us. Oh boy! In addition, my teacher bears a striking resemblance to Rush Limbaugh and shares many of his personality traits as well, from what I can tell. Isn't this going to be an interesting semester... Have