Vacation 2013

Now on to so much happier things…..  We took our vacation last month and it was filled with so many twist and turns but they all turned out to be such a blessing.

We were going on a cruise to the Bahamas.  We drove to Florida on a Sunday.  It was a very nice drive.  We checked into the hotel in Jacksonville and stayed the night.  I was not happy with the Hyatt Regency.  The lobby gave the impression that it was a top-notch hotel but the room was just like any Comfort Inn.  But it was just for the night and we had a really good time.

Now here is where the blessing came in.  We boarded the ship ready to take off when my husband gets a call from his Sargent telling him he can not travel outside the US.  Well, we quickly got off the ship and tried to figure out what to do.  It came to me that I’ve wanted to visit/meet my new facebook friend in Baltimore.  This would be a 17 hour drive but my husband said “let’s do it” so off we went.

 

 

My husband wanted to do some music with his friends as well, so we drove to New Jersey to meet up with some of them and then on to Philadelphia.  We had such a great time.

 

 

 

We drove back to DC to visit some family and friends and attend Shul.  Which was amazing by the way.  There is nothing on earth like living in a community.  I felt as if I was home and I really did not do very much.  Coming back to our Post was very sad and dealing with all the hate we find here is even worst.  Living around people who only pretend to do the will of G-d is very hard.  I’ve often wondered how Christians can say things like “I’m going to take of my religion” as if G-d is something you can set on the table and pick up when you are ready to be “good”.  Very confusing, to say the least.

There are so many pictures I would love to share with you.  For now, this will have to do.

Do you mop on your hands and knees?

Recently I realized that not many women still get down on the floor and mop….

Not that I do it often but I still do, why?  I feel it gets the floors cleaner than a regular mop does.

My friend came over last Friday as I was scrubbing the kitchen floor and asked me why I was doing that when I had a mop?  I told her it cleans better.  I mopped my floor and then showed her how much dirt was left on the floor she was amazed.  I do this once a month to really keep things clean.

After thinking about her question, I wondered if anyone else did this…

 

 

Cholent

I often feel like I am working overtime on Fridays.  This past week I did some prep cooking on Thursday and completed cooking and cleaning on Friday.  Yet, with all my efforts I was still very tried by the time the sunset.  Never-the-less, Shabbos was wonderful.

I’ve seen video’s on The Joy Of Kosher were Jamie Geller and her husband make a wonderful stew called Cholent.  It is filled with meat.  It looked so good I wanted to try it.  So this Shabbos we enjoyed my version of this stew.  I did it a bit different from her because I don’t eat meat.  🙂

Here is what I put in mine:

Three small potatoes

half of onion

Veggie meat (kosher)

pepper

red beans (handful)

barley (handful)

Vegetarian style seasoning (to your liking)

Smoked Paprika (to cover the seasoning)

It was so good.  I will make this almost every Shabbos.  My husband and son devoured it.

I also made Challah (no big surprise there)  hahaha

I made a few other things but my Eggplant really was the big finisher for the meal.

All in all we had a wonderful Shabbos and look forward to the next one.  I’ve already started on my menu for next Shabbos and I’ll be shopping on Wednesday and prepping my veggies on that day.  I plan to have all my work done by Friday so all I have to do is cook the food and make the Challah and clean.  It should be another wonderful Shabbos.  My your week be filled with joy, love, and peace.

Relaxing

There are many ways to relax your mind, body, and soul.  One of the more inexpensive ways is to create a place in your home that you can go to and enjoy.  This week I did just that.  With my husband being away, I needed something to occupy my time.  I choice not to go to summer school this time and allow myself a chance to enjoy my summer with papers, studying, or any exams.

My back yard was empty (except for the grass, bugs, trees and a few other things, like spiders)  I needed to create a space that was pleasing to me.  So here is what I did….

 

 

 

What are some ways you find to relax yourself?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Newport Collection.  It did not cost a lot but it seems to hold up nice.  The grill is Kings Ford.  I like the old fashion way with charcoal.

 

The one thing I can’t share with you all is the wonderful sounds that nature is giving me today.  We are blessed to have red and blue Robbins here.

 

My new Kosher Kitchen!

My decision to change my kitchen was not a hard one.  I’ve longed to have a kitchen that was beyond clean. 🙂

On Sunday, 14 April 2013 I set in motion to make my kitchen kosher.  I watched over 50 videos on youtube on how to do this and why.  Let me say this, if you are going to do a change in your life, know the reason for such change and then research to implement that change properly.

This process was not easy and it was not simple.  It is not a matter of just cleaning your home or removing some of the food you have.  Let me share my experience with you on what it took for me to have a kosher kitchen.

Day 1

On 14 April I got up and shared a dream I had with my husband about having a kosher kitchen.  He said to me, that’s funny, I was thinking the same thing about a week ago but did not know how to approach you about it.  I said to him, Let’s Do It!

Now let me be clear, when I said “let’s” he meant me.  🙂

I took all the food out of the cabinets and the refrigerator to check the labels for Kosher symbols.  You will find this website helpful for those symbols.  Click Here.   ( a little advice, I found that it is best to do some research on each one of those)

I had to get rid of most of the food in my house.  Now this can be costly to some.  I don’t recommend that you throw out your food it was something I decided to do.  I read that some people will cook all the food they have that is not kosher and then began the process.  I think that is best.  It is not what I wanted to do.

This was full

The Freezer empty. Most of the vegetables I brought did not have a kosher symbol on them so I had to get rid of them.

My cabinets are always full but now…..

The refrigerator is almost empty. I have my juicing veggies in the drawers.

Day 2 and 3

I now had to focus on the pots and pans and all the dishes.  The Torah forbids the cooking and consumption of any milk with any meat.  You can find this twice in the book of Exodus and once in Deuteronomy.  It states “Do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk.”  for this reason it is prohibited to mix dairy and meat.  Therefore I needed to remove anything that I used meat and dairy together   My husband and I are vegetarians but after he joined the Army he began eating some meats on occasions.  Things like turkey and maybe chicken.  Never pork!  That is strictly forbidden in the Torah.  (we have NEVER eaten or touched pork).

I found that some of my dishes were questionable.  “If in doubt, throw it out”  I sold all the dishes I had and all my pots and pans.  I also sold some of my mixing bowls.  This is what I was left with:

As you can see not much to cook with at all.  Now we have to buy all new dishes, pots and pans, and utensils.  For me it is all worth it in the end.

Day 4-6

So on day 4 I began selling things that I could sale.  Things I could not I throw out.  Now I had to wash down the counters, the drawers, and the sink.  This was not as easy as it sounds.

On Day 5 I was so tired but I knew what I was doing for our good and would bring us closer to Hashem.  We cleaned all the baseboard in the house cleaned the bathrooms and mopped all the floors.

Here we are at day 6.  All the work is complete and we have a kosher kitchen!  I feel really good and happy that we can now serve good clean food in our home.  Next step: learning Hebrew, reading  and more reading and studying.  I’m so happy to be on this path

Stay tuned as I will share my journey……

Shabbat Challah

There are thousands of recipes for making Challah.  Challah is a braided bread.  I recently started watching a wonderful cooking show on the internet called Jamie Geller’s  Joy of Kosher.com.  You should check it out.  She is amazing!

I wanted to make her recipe for Challah this Shabbat (my husband does not like the one I make) hahahahaha

I watched the YouTube video of this process, you can find that here.

Now, you can go to her site to get the original but here is my take on what she did.

It takes about 4 hours total to make this Challah from start to finish so make sure you start early enough in the day so that you are not going over your time.  It is best to make it on Thursday, but I like my loaf to be fresh so I am daring. :).

This is going to make about 4 challahs so you can adjust it according to your family size and guest.  I made it just as she did only because she gave some really great ideas of what to do with the dough.  

Ingredients:  

start with 4 tablespoons of yeast to this add 3 tablespoons of sugar and 2 cups of luke warm water.  Give this a stir and cover it with a hand towel and set aside.

Next you will need a very large bowl ( I did not know this and used one that was too small).  In this very large bowl you will add 4 tablespoons of kosher salt, 6 pounds of flour ( if you can only find a 5 pound bag, get two).  There are 3.4 cups of flour to a pound so do the math :).  I think it was about 20 cups or so.

Next you add 2 cups of sugar and next you add 4 egg yolks.  Don’t make the mistake I did and add 6.  Oppps Lets see how it comes out with 6.  😦  *now it when I turn on my oven to preheat at 375, it also gives me a nice place to set my dough to rise*

Next make a well, ( whole in the middle of the flour mixture) and add the yeast, than add 4 more cups of lukewarm water.  Now comes the fun park, right?  Kneed your dough in the bowl while adding 1 cup of oil (a little at a time)  (if you bowl is not big enough, as obviously mine was not) kneed it on the bread board.  You want to do this for 10 minuets and then let it rest.  Then come back and kneed it for another 15 minuets or so adding the rest of the oil as you do. *your dough should not be sticky*

loosely cover the dough with a towel large enough to cover the entire bowel.  Like her, I also cover mine with a trash bag. 🙂  Place this in a warm spot and let it rise for an hour.  *I also like to keep my house temp. at 75 just to be sure it is warm enough for the dough*  After an hour punch down the dough and kneed it with lightly oiled hands to release air bubbles.  *it should have become double in size*

Cover the dough again with the towel and the bag and let it rise for another hour or more.  Now your dough should be perfect…..

Lightly oil your hands and punch it down again.  Use a very sharp knife to divide the dough into 4 equal parts.  Spray 4 9-inch baking pans with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.  *this is to bake your bread*.

Now you are ready to make your ropes for your challah.  This is up to you how many ropes you want but for this post I did 6 ropes.  I also us my counter and not my bread board at this point, it gives me more space.  With oiled hands I take a piece of dough and play with it to get rid of all the air bubbles then I roll the dough into a long, thick rope, repeat this for the next rope until you have your desired amount.  Now for the braiding.  I suggest you watch her video for this part.  It is simple but hard.  Once you have the dough ready brush the challahs with one or two beaten eggs and sprinkle with anything you like on your bread.  Bake it for 10 minutes at 375 then lower your temperature to 350 if you want it crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.  Bake for 35-45 minutes or until challah tops are dark golden brown, don’t burn it.  🙂

All your challahs to cool slightly before serving.  She also noted that once your challah has been sliced you can then store what is leftover in sealable plastic bags for up to 5 days.  * it never last that long in my house* 🙂

I will post pictures soon!

Yummy! Morning Breakfast

Today I wanted to try something that I saw on Forbiddenriceblog.com.  She posted a drink that really looked good to me but I wanted to give it my own twist.  So I did.

Today I make a drink with whole oats, almond milk, strawberries and blueberries, wheat germ almonds, bananas, strawberry yogurt, small piece of lemon, I think that was all.  hahahaha

I did not use the peanut butter.

It really taste good.  I made enough to have 4 8oz glasses.  After the first two, I was very full.  I will take the rest with me to school and have it through out the day.  Give this drink a try and add your own twist to it, there is no right or wrong way to make it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dollar General

I was at the Dollar General the other day and I found some wonderful wall stickers. I could not believe they were only $1.00.  Sometimes you can find really great deals at the dollar store this one I bought from the Walmart and I think I paid like 14 dollars for it

 

Saturday

My day started out with breakfast.  It is the best meal that my day. As you may already know, I am dieting.  So the rest of my meals today will consist of juice. I don’t know how well the day will go. This will be my first full day of juicing.

Now that breakfast is done I’ll start the dishwasher to clean up, after that, I’ll work on some FRG business.

My husband should be back from rehearsal by the time I’m done and I’ll make lunch for him. One of the hardest thing about dieting is when you’re married and your spouse is not dieting. You have to cook for your spouse and that interfere with your plans.  The smell of food alone can cause all kinds feeling inside of you and you to want to eat.

My herb garden isn’t doing as well as I had hoped.

I’ve never been one that was good with plants. This is a plan I bought some months ago from the commissary

and here is that same plant today

As you can see there’s almost nothing left of the plant, it died.

Well the time now it’s 1238 and I still have a lot to do I’ll check in with you guys later enjoy your Saturday

Lysol Clean-Flip Sweeper

I am always looking for things to help me clean my floors.  Having hard wood floors has been a challenge for me keeping them looking their best.  I saw this Lysol Clean-Flip Sweeper in the Commissary for $9.99.  I felt it would do a good job on my floors, but I was so wrong.  It came with two dry cloths for sweeping and two wet cloths for mopping.

The dry cloth did well at picking up dust, but that was all it could do.  The package says it picks up dust, dirt, and hair.  When I was done the cloth had lots of dust but no hair, and I know in my bathroom there is always hair on the floor.  I went over the bathroom floor with another mop and it got up hair and dirt.

The wet mop says it cleans the floor but the cloth did not stay wet long enough to do the kitchen floor.  It did clean it well, but it took more than three cloths to do so, and this could quickly get very costly when you think about using it for the whole house.

I also did not get the citrus scent that the package claimed to have.  In fact, when I opened the package, I could not smell any citrus at all.  I don’t recommend anyone buying this.  I feel you will be as disappointed as I am.