Noteworthy Days

May 27, 2010.  Hebrew Comprehensive Exam.  Passage of study: 1 Kings 22-2 Kings 4.  Passed.

June 3, 2010.  Historical Geography Comprehensive Exam.  Passed.

June 15, 2010.  Turned in Historical Geography Seminar Project (Plan for a 15 Day Tour in Israel.)  Minus the explanatory paper.

June 17, 2010.  Turned in explanatory paper.  

June 20, 2010.  Received graded project back.  Passed.  

Also, first Top Chef party.

June 25, 2010.  Turned in preliminary draft of Medicinal Use of Plants in Ancient Israel paper.

June 28, 2010.  Turned in final copy of plant paper.

Also, second Top Chef party.

Also, in a surprising twist, informal presentation of Degree Certificates and Final Transcripts.

(Yes, pending a final signature from the Chairman of the Board, I am a Master of Historical Geography...or something like that.)

July 8, 2010.  Fly out of Israel.  

(Planning to travel around a bit this summer - hoping to see people.  If you want to be one of the people I see, let me know and we'll try to work something out.)

The thing about Israel...

...is that you can live here for years and still see new things daily.  I certainly haven't come near to exhausting the supply in the two years I've lived here.  For example, the other day I saw a bus-truck.  Yes.  Here it is in all it's glory:

This is actually the second time I've seen this bus-truck, and I still can't quite imagine what it could be used for.

Oh Israel.  Never a dull moment.

Granola: Food Post #2

I started making granola my first summer as a camp cook.  My mom had always made it at home, and it seemed like a good idea at the time to add some variety to the breakfast options.  As it turns out, it was something of a screaming success, and so I continued to make it at camp for the next 4 summers.

Then I came to Israel.  It turns out that Americans are kind of unique in their tendency to eat sweet crunchy cereals for breakfast.  A typical Israeli breakfast will include things like cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, yogurt, cheese, bread, and maybe some pickled fish.  Now, I've come to rather appreciate the Israeli breakfast and even eat it by choice, but sometimes the taste-buds crave something a little more familiar.

Of course American cereals (or imitations) are fairly easy to obtain here, but the price is rather prohibitive.  Option #2: Make my own.   So I have, and do.  And since the number of house guests through this apartment has been astronomical, I've been asked to share the recipe dozens of times.  So here it is, in all it's glory, for anyone who might care.

Granola
Mix together:
6 c. Oatmeal (or around 1 kilo) - Any kind of oat seems to work okay.
1 c. Coconut flakes (I find that even people who don't like coconut often like it in the granola.)
1-2 c. nuts (any kind, chopped or whole.  I like almonds and pecans mixed.)
Add in as desired:
Quinoa
Sesame Seeds
Wheat Germ

In a sauce pan put:
1 c. oil or fat (I usually use butter or a mixture of butter and olive oil, but any kind of oil would work)
1/4 c. corn syrup or honey
1 1/2 c. brown sugar (Less can be used to make it less sweet.  White sugar could be used and there is probably a way to substitute all honey or some such thing.)
1/4 c. water

Bring mixture to a boil, boil for 1 minute.  Remove from the stove and add:
1 tsp. vanilla (or other flavors as desired - almond extract, ground cinnamon, etc.)

Pour the sugar mixture over the oat mixture.  Stir until the oat mixture is evenly coated.  Divide the cereal between 2 greased sheet pans.

Now, you basically want to dry out the cereal.  You can do this a number of different ways and acheive similar results.  You can leave it in the oven for a long time on a low temperature or for a short time on a high temperature.  I generally cook it somewhere around 250-300F (or 150C) for, oh, an hour or so.  Ideally it should be lightly browned when you take it out of the oven and quite crispy when cooled.  If it's not crispy enough, you can always put it in longer.  Take care not to burn it, though!  Some people find it helpful to take it out about half-way through the cooking time and sort of flip the granola so that the bottom dries evenly, but I rarely find this necessary.

There you have it!  And if you want to make it for 200 people, just start with 6 gallons of oatmeal and go from there.

Shabbat Challah: Food Post #1

I don't consider this a food blog of any sort, but as I do enjoy baking and cooking, I suppose a post on food every now and then is not out of order.  Specifically, I have about two recipes that I make repeatedly, and therefore, I have about two recipes that are requested repeatedly.  Since it was just Shabbat, I'll start with the traditional bread for Erev Shabbat (Friday after sunset): Challah.

After my first year in Israel, I decided that I needed to find a good recipe for Challah because, lets be honest, there aren't too many Jewish Bakeries in Montana.  If I wanted good Challah, I would have to make it myself.  So I did an internet search which netted me various and sundry results.  The one I finally decided to try can be found here.  It turned out so well that I made it every Friday at camp.  

This is a small sample of the amount of bread baked at camp.

At this point I should probably offer a disclaimer: I am not Jewish, my camp is not Jewish, and I mostly like the bread for its taste.  Still, although I don't come even close to keeping Shabbat, I do enjoy some of the tradition associated with it: the candles, the blessings, the community.  I suppose the specifics vary from family to family, but some elements remain the same.  Here, we will make a fairly simple meal, invite over a few friends (since none of us really have family in the area), say a brief liturgy over the candles, bread, and wine, and then spend the evening enjoying each other's company.

Anyway, here is the Challah recipe I use (from the website but cut in half because 3 loaves is plenty).

Mix together:
7 c. flour (I use white, but probably could use about half wheat)
1 c. sugar (less can be put in if you, but probably not more)
1 Tbsp. salt
2 Tbsp. yeast (active, dry)

Make a well in the flour and pour in:
2 c. warm water (less than 115F)
1/3 c. oil (I often use olive oil, though the bread doesn't seem to rise as well)
1 egg

Mix together wet and dry ingredients.  (If you want, you can add the yeast to the water first to let it soften.  I don't generally see much of a difference.)  Kneed the dough until smooth and stretchy.  Cover it and let it rise until roughly doubled in size.  Ideally, this should take about an hour but may vary, depending on ambient temperature.

Once the dough has risen, allow it to deflate and begin dividing it to shape it into loaves.  I generally make three braided loaves from it which requires nine roughly equal portions of dough.  Roll each portion of dough into a "snake," probably about a foot long.  Take three dough snakes and pinch them together at one end.  Braid.  Seal off the other end.  (If you don't know how to braid...uh...find someone who does.)

Place the braided loaves on a greased sheet pan...or 2 sheet pans...or, if you want, in a loaf pan.  Let rise again, until about doubled.

Meanwhile, beat one egg.  When the loaves have risen, gently brush the egg onto the loaves, covering them.  Then sprinkle the loaves with sesame seeds.

Put in a preheated oven (roughly 375F or 190C) and bake for 20-30 minutes or until a dark golden brown.

While the bread is baking, prepare the glaze.
Glaze:
3/4 c. boiling water
1/2 c. sugar

I usually roughly estimate water and sugar amounts and throw them in the microwave until the syrup boils.  Have this ready just as the bread comes out of the oven.

Take the bread out of the oven and immediately pour the glaze over the top of the loaves, trying to hit every spot.  Drain off the excess glaze and remove the loaves to a wire cooling rack.  (If you leave them in the excess syrup too long they will get soggy.)  You're done!

Here are some friends helping me make Challah for
this last Shabbat.

Before you eat the bread, say this blessing:

Ba-ruch at-ta Adonai Elohenu me-lek ha-o-lam ha-mo-tzee le-chem min ha-a-retz.

Blessed is the Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who causes bread to come forth from the earth.

Shabbat Shalom!

Let there be Light

As mentioned in the previous post, this week is Jerusalem's Festival of Lights.  In and around the Old City this week, when twilight deepens, things start lighting up.

Acrobats in the "History of Light" show

Scenes from a projection on the northern wall of the city.  Love the snowboarder.

Probably one of my favorite places was Damascus Gate.  It was just so...diverse.  Good spacial awareness in whoever designed the program.  I have to say, though, that one of my favorite parts of the show at the gate was a couple kids fighting with strobe-light-sabers.  

Practicing for the next Star Wars Movie - set in Jerusalem.

After Damascus Gate we stopped at Zedikiah's Tunnels/Solomon's Quaries, which were lit up to imitate being underwater.

Blub, blub, blub...

The next stop was the Cardo.  Once the center of commerse in the Roman city of Aelia Capitolina, for a short week it is again inhabited by shops, shops full of artist selling their creative light fixtures.

This man demonstrates his glass-blowing skill.

A couple nights before we stopped at the city of David where they projected a brief history of Jerusalem on the stepped-stone-structure.

This is the destruction of Jerusalem, probably by the Babylonians.

Walking towards the Old City from my house gives a good glimpse of the lights and festivities at Jaffa Gate.

I believe the Festival is on for another couple days, so if you happen to be in the city, check it out.

Jerusalem Light Festival

Tonight the Jerusalem Light Festival was (apparently) kicked off by a classical music concert in the Sultans Pool.  I sat in my school's library listening to the strains of Grieg, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky floating in the open window.

Here's part of the 1812 Overture (roughly dubbed over because the sound on my camera is not so great).

The Easy Life

There are a few recurring themes in conversations I tend to have with people here, especially as many of us contemplate going home (or as people who have gone home come back to visit).  One of those conversations revolves around the comparison of life in Israel and life in the States.  It is generally agreed that life in the States is easier.  Not better.  Just easier.

I am constantly reminded of this fact when I go get groceries, as I did today.

In the States, getting groceries is relatively easy.  I would make a list, hop in my car (at just about any time of the day or night, any day of the week) drive a few minutes to the store, wheel the cart around gathering whatever items I was in search of, go through the checkout line with a cashier who spoke English, load everything in my car, and drive home.

Here I also start by writing out a list.  That's where the similarity ends.  The lists themselves won't even be that similar, with very different foods available.  Once it is decided that food is needed, I have to plan a time to go purchase it.  I can't go when I have class, but I also can't really go in the evening, so I need to find a day when I'm relatively free in the morning or afternoon.  Then I have to make sure that the day is not Saturday (when everything will be closed) or Friday (when everything will be busy with people buying last minute supplies and will close early) or a holiday about which I may have forgotten.

Once I have determined that the current day is a proper one on which to visit the grocery, I load up a cart and some bags and begin the trek, hoping the cart wheels are firmly affixed this time.  

Our carts and shopping bags.

Yes, that's right, I walk to the grocery store, probably about a mile away.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm not complaining.  It's just that in the States, assuming there was a grocery store that close to my house, I would still probably take the car because of the time saved and the advantage of being able to transport more goods than I can comfortably carry by myself.  

Anyway, after 15 minutes or so I arrive at our produce guy where I'll get all the good stuff: peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, potatoes, nuts, and whatever fruits are in season.  

The outside of the produce place.

Those are our staples, since produce is relatively cheap here.  After having gathered all the foods I want there I'll take them to the counter and hope that the guy there doesn't ask any questions because he doesn't speak English and I don't speak Hebrew.  

Once this endeavor is successfully completed,  I take myself and my produce across the street and down the hill to the grocery store.  

The grocery store inhabits the bottom story of this building (below street level here).

Leaving the produce in the cart by the door, I have the option of renting a shopping cart for my shopping, or of using my grocery bags to carry everything around the store.  Usually I'll use the bags, trying to move quickly before they get too heavy and I get too tired.  I'll try to avoid getting cheese because I'm not very good at communicating what I want to the lady at the cheese counter.  I'll hope (in vain) that products haven't changed or been moved around, because I won't always be able to understand the Hebrew labels.  In vain because, for example, the dairy section is always in a different order than it was the previous week and includes slightly different products.  

The frozen food isle looks fairly normal, though I rarely purchase food from it.

Once I have everything, I'll check out, again, still hoping to not need to communicate much.  Usually they'll ask me a question in Hebrew and I'll look at them blankly or say "lo" and hope that was the right answer.  

Waiting to check out.

Just in case you need pots, pans, underwear, or children's books, the store has all those things as well.  

With everything purchased I have the task of loading as much into my cart as it will fit, and then carrying the rest in bags as I trek back up the hill, down a hill, and up another hill, on my way home.  I'll hope that the eggs are secured and not squished, that nothing will fall out, and that my cart still won't loose a wheel.  Again, it often happens that these hopes are in vain.

Fifteen or twenty minutes later I'll arrive home, hot and sweaty and out of breath from lugging 50 pounds of groceries up that last hill.  Fortunately, my apartment is basically the same level as the street, so at least I don't have to lug everything up a bunch of stairs. 

I don't say all this to complain.  It's enough of a hassle that I'm glad when one of my roommates gets the groceries so I have a week off, but it's not a bad way to live.  It's just a good reminder of the relative ease of life in the States that we often take for granted.  

Recent Sights

Another smattering of thoughts and pictures from life in Israel.

The other day I found a rose on the road.  I figured it was left there for me by a secret admirer.  So I took it home.  

Some very cute kids hang out by the ruins at Jericho, among all the Opus Reticulatum.  

Apparently, sheep like standing stones as well as your average American tourist.  They don't climb on them quite as well, though.  

If I were the spider that built that web, I would be really unhappy.  

I believe in a former post I mentioned the wedding-decorated cars?  Well, that season is back.  Here's another one.  

As it turns out, there have been more people from home in Jerusalem in this one week than in the whole two years I've been here.  This is me with a friend from High School/College days.