The Bunny Box

I woke up this morning in the mood to bake. At first, I was just planning to make some pizza dough from a recipe my friend Talia gave me, then I decided I would take this Sunday afternoon to make a large batch of challahs made from the simple recipe in Taste of Challah by Tamar Ansh. I also thought this would be a great opportunity to use my mixer, since it's supposed to be able to handle serious dough. Long story short, it couldn't. It did well doing the initial mixing, but as I added more flour, the machine suddenly stopped. It overheated. While on "Stir." Granted, this recipe uses 16 cups of flour. Still, I had more confidence in my mixer than it deserved and I feel let down. Oh well. I had to do the rest of the kneading by hand, which wasn't so bad because I had my trusty assistant, Diana, to help out. She was an immense help after everything had risen and we needed to roll out the dough. She's quite skilled with a rolling pin, if I do say so. ...

This past week was a pretty nice one. It had the usual work and school, but it also had the Macy's one day sale, which I went to Wednesday night with my mother. I originally went to look for a new coat. Now, I happen to own a large number of sweatshirts, and I own 3 coats and a rain jacket, all of which are incorrectly sized. Well, one coat fits, but it's falling apart (though honestly, I bought it when I was in 9th grade for about $10, so I'm surprised how long it did hold up). The second coat is huge, and is actually a men's puffy coat that I bought in Israel. It's actually a really nice coat, but style-wise, it's not really my thing anymore. The third coat is my shabbos coat and it's really long and really warm and bulky. The rain coat is way too big. So, I got this new coat on sale, and I'm loving it. It fits properly, it goes down to my knees and it's feminine and waterproof. All the best qualities of a good coat. Anyway, naturally, I...

So this shabbos Yaakov and I decided to have a quiet dinner at home. Lately, I've gotten really into having fresh salmon as a friday night main course. It simplifies the meal by removing the "fish course," it's still a chashuva food (at least in our opinion), it's tasty and also it's light and doesn't leave us feeling stuffed and sick. This week I used a recipe from my favorite cookbook, "Quick and Kosher," for Dijon Ginger Salmon (or something to that effect). It's very easy to make, like all the recipes in that fabulous cookbook, and was delicious. I also made some chicken soup and then, because I was too lazy to make matzah balls, I threw in some deli ends to give it more substance. Now, this is an idea I got from a friend's mother who did it when we came over once shortly before Pesach because she didn't feel like buying the necessary ingredients to make kreplach. The only real downside to using deli ends is that it tends t...

Well, it's that time of the week again, so here goes. DISCLAIMER: If you have little to no interest in hearing the details of my shopping trip from today, don't read the next paragraph! As good fortune would have it, due to the federal holiday my second job of the day was closed so I got to take some me time. First my parents took Yaakov, Alan and myself out to lunch, then I went shopping with my mother, which is something I rarely get to do. Now, I love spending time with my mom, especially when we're shopping because occasionally she buys me things. ^_^ Today, I got a nice pair of suede boots from Nordstrom Rack (the only kind of Nordstrom I shop in). I looked at some really cute and REALLY on sale dresses at Macy's too, but they didn't work out. :( Now on to cooking details: I currently have some beef in the oven. Several months ago I was buying meat and my dad was in the store at the same time and suggested that I buy large quantities of flanken because i...

Today has been one of those days. I woke up bright and late to get ready for class and decided I was in a pretty mood, so I got a little dressed up. Then, I walk out to my car and discover, to my shock and amazement, that the driver's side window is broken. Well, it took a couple of minutes for me to process, but once I did I managed to get my jaw closed and call Yaakov and my dad. Yaakov remembered that the lawn mowers had been working when he left to walk to shul, and suggested that one of them had done it. My dad came right over so I could take his car to school and, being the wonderful daddy that he is, also took care of filing a police report and calling the building management. Well, it turns out the management had a message from the landscaping company saying that they had accidentally broken someone's window, so we assume that would be mine. So that's the good news, I guess, that someone else will pay for the repairs. The bad news is, I don't know when t...

So as some of you may know by now and many may not, my brother Shmuel (Jeff) just got engaged last week. Everything was very sudden, of course, because they were only dating for about 3 or 4 weeks, but my family decided we wanted to go to Dallas (where the girl, Mya, is from) so that we could meet Mya and her family, as well as to be there for the engagement. For starters, I can't say enough good things about this family (just ask Yaakov!), and Dallas is a beautiful community. Mya is a wonderful girl and is definitely a perfect shidduch for Shmuel. The weekend was just a blast and I'm really glad we went. I"yH, the wedding should be in Israel, hopefully sometime around mid-January, though we don't have a date pinned down just yet. Now here comes a fun story that I probably shouldn't share because I know that I'll never live it down, but here goes: My parents decided to extend their trip in Dallas, but my brother Alan and I returned to Baltimore today as pe...