Again, I spoke.

It was a busy weekend, beginning with the end of a busy week and the Lay-Led service.  On Saturday I had a lot of errands and a theater company board meeting.  Many of the errands involved delivering treats to friends and baked goods to BiCi Co.  I wanted to get rid of some packaged items, so made fancy cupcakes for the holiday:

Clearly my decorating skills need a LOT of practice.

I also tried baking a recipe from a video I watched.  I think the biggest problem is that there isn't enough leavening.  The baker said she did a version off-camera with the "emptins", or liquid yeast, and it didn't do much.  Same as I found when I baked, making a quarter of the recipt:

   

Before baking on the left, after (the bottom) on the right.  No raisins, just seeds, as the raisins I have are fairly large and I didn't want to chop them.  It was fairly solid, not completely a brick, but tasty.

And of course I baked challah for the service.  Everybody seems to like the snack and this week several took an extra piece for later.  I tried a fancy braid as I did last month, but the dough was not cooperative so I reverted to a very simple three-strand braid, which resulted in a very long loaf:

   

On the left, before baking, with the sample roll.  The roll was done and eaten by the time the loaf came out.  I didn't glaze the loaf this time due to lack of milk and not wanting to deal with a partial egg.

I finished the weekend watching the Super Bowl, with just a few snacks.  Having friends and colleagues supporting both teams, I declared myself for Team Guacamole then forgot to pick up an avocado or any packaged stuff so didn't have the iconic snack.  But I did have another iconic snack, this from Chicago:

I also had a sausage for my main course, during the second half.

A friend offered to lead the services this month and next, as long as I do the drash or d'var Torah - the sermon.  This week it's a tough one because while Yitro is short, it is full of elements including two of the key items in Jewish belief.  Because it was a busy work week, and even my evenings were busy with things, I didn't have the time I wanted to take to think about what to say and I felt my drash was unfinished when I gave it.  There was some revising on the fly, and this is the result:

Yitro is a fairly short parasha but it is full of events.  Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, brings Moses’ wife and children to him, and they have a reunion, including a big dinner with Aaron and other leaders.  Jethro talks to Moses about creating the court system for settling disputes, distributing the responsibility to others to help judge while keeping the communications from and to G-d for himself.

There are the two main elements of this parasha that people usually focus on: the story of how the people gather at Mt. Sinai, how they prepare for the event, and how they are given the first instructions and the promise to be the chosen people.  For many people, standing at Sinai is the key part of this parasha.  We refer to it frequently in our services and our traditions.  “We were all at Sinai” is something you hear regularly in worship and blessings at events.

The other key point is the giving of the ten rules.  G-d says to Moses, in 19:5, “Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My convent, you shall be My treasured possession among all the people.”  This is the essential bargain that G-d makes with the Israelites: Follow the rules I give to you, and I will make of you “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”  (19:6)  Instead of being slaves and on the lowest rung, as they were a few weeks ago, the Israelites will be the most revered category of persons.

But can all the people really be priests, or is it just Aaron and his Clan?  Or, as suggested in the opening scenes when he speaks of taking G-d’s words to the people and their prayers and questions to G-d, it is just Moses?

When Jethro asked Moses what he is doing, sitting there with people coming to him all day and night, Moses said (18:15-16) “It is because the people come to me to inquire of G-d.  When they have a dispute it comes before me, and I decide between one party and another, and I make known the laws and teachings of G-d.”  While Jethro helps Moses find a way to distribute responsibility for the middle one, by creating a series of courts and sharing the responsibility to make decisions and resolve disputes, for the other two, however, there is no distribution by Moses.  He continues to be the only one who speaks to G-d and who informs the Israelites about G-d’s laws and teachings.

I posit that this changes at Mt. Sinai.  All of the people prepare, not just the priests, and all gather at the foot of the mountain.  The people see the power and majesty of G-d in “the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking.” (20:15)    They are afraid, though, and ask Moses if he will “speak to us, and we will obey; but let not G-d speak to us, lest we die.”  Moses reassures him but the people hang back while he does to explain things to G-d.  The people are afraid of direct communication, and it is as though the noise of the horns and thunder prevent them from hearing G-d.  They continue to need an intermediary – Moses – to communicate.

It is for G-d to change this.  In the last few lines of this parasha, G-d seems to take worship from the hands of Moses and the priests, and hand it to the individuals.  G-d tells Moses to instruct the people how to worship, and specifically says in 20:21 that “in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you.”  This makes it clear that the Israelites can pray anywhere.  They are instructed how to make an altar, and that the altar can be different types.  This means that each of us can enter into a direct relationship with G-d, by making our own offerings.  We no longer have a single source of messages from G-d, or one person who can take our prayers to G-d.  Just as Moses distributed the responsibility to adjudicate disputes to others, here G-d distributed the ability to communicate to the community, to each individual standing there.

In the centuries since, we have come to recognize that we don’t need to meet in a single large group for worship, we can meet in smaller groups.  We can each have our own relationship with G-d.  We have a space for our own prayers, directly to G-d, in our services, and instead of thunder and the bleating of horns we recognize “the still small voice within”.

Just as we believe we each stood at Mt. Sinai to hear the words of G-d, so do we believe that we each may continue to hear those words for ourselves.  We don’t need priests to interpret or intervene: as the men of the tribes began to interpret the laws and settle disputes for themselves, so do we individuals have the power to enact our own contract, our own covenant, to follow the terms offered by G-d.

Caramel Cupcakes

When I saw the post asking people in my congregation to donate baked goods to be used as prizes for a bingo event held last night, I thought about making a King Cake.  Then I realized the difficulty to explain to a northern (and really, Yankee) Jewish congregation about such things and remembered the reaction when I'd suggested having a chili cookoff (which some believe is impossible to make kosher, which would be a huge surprise to my old community in Dallas), and decided to make other things.

Because there are always people who want something gluten-free, I offered to make chocolate cookies.  They did not come out as pretty as the recipe promised, but seemed edible.  They probably did not flatten out as much as the recipe said they would because I was a little short of confectioner's sugar and made up for it with cocoa, then used regular-sized chips instead of mini-chips.

Since I am allergic to chocolate I could not test them, and I was glad for an unexpectedly warm day that allowed me to open the windows while they baked.  I ended up with twenty-six so wrapped up two packages of a baker's dozen each.

The cookies used only egg whites so I looked for a recipe to use up the yolks.  I thought of making more cookies, maybe to donate to BiCi Co's Earn-a-Bike crew.  I had planned to use one of my Pampered Chef packets to make a quick Apple Cider cake with cider drizzle, because I have apple cider to use up, or a Caramel Latte loaf.  I thought if I made the Caramel Latte mix into cupcakes, I could add caramel frosting and use some to fill the cookies into pairs.

Then I found a recipe for Golden Cake in one of  my old (1930) cookbooks, and plans changed!

As you can see, the recipe uses only egg yolks - and exactly the number left over from the cookies!

I also had cream left from making biscuits last weekend, and it would be just enough for the cake and frosting.  So I made this, substituting vanilla and imitation black walnut extracts for the orange, because I thought those would work better with the caramel.  I baked the recipe as eight cupcakes, luckily using large decorative papers because it rises nicely.  One cupcake quickly disappeared as quality control.

While the cupcakes baked, I made the caramel frosting, from a 1957 recipe.  I don't have a Mixmaster, I have a Kitchenaid, but I love how this little booklet offered so many ways to use the machine:

The tedious parts were basically no-work, just the occasional stirring as the caramel came to the boil, and waiting for it to cool.  To speed that I poured most of the caramel into the bowl of my Kitchenaid.  I used the whisk attachment.  I worried about the amount of confectioner's sugar (see above - I thought I had more than the new package, but I didn't, and it was just under four cups) so I put a small slick of the caramel on top of the cupcakes, under the frosting.  And quality control got a taste, too.

This was the end result:

I had a bakery package for four cupcakes, so I made six and selected the ones I thought looked best.  They have a huge pile of frosting on top, over a very light cake, with that slick of caramel, and just barely fit.  Hopefully people were attracted and took them as an early prize.  I have the other two cupcakes in my freezer, to doorbell-ditch for a friend, or take to my mother for her birthday.

Resolutions, and all that New Year's stuff

I'm always a bit ambivalent about making resolutions, since it seems so trite.  Plus, doing them in public - which some say you should do to ensure success, because of accountability - triggers the dilemma of whether to do small, easy ones that you know you'll accomplish, or big ones that make you look ambitious and impressive, or reverse ones so you'll psych yourself out.

So, here's mine:

• I will knit one item for charity every month.  Maybe (OK, likely) more, but at least one.
• I will try to finish the two shawls for me that have been OTN for over a year each.
• I will try to write on this blog at least once a month.  I know I've said this one before, and not achieved it, but I'm no quitter so I'll make this resolution again until I succeed!

One convenient element is that if I track how I am doing on this blog, I'll have achieved the third item and quite likely the other two.

I do have other plans.  I'm going to be traveling, and I can blog about that.  I should have blogged about some of last year's trips, but I always seem to be having too much fun experiencing the trip and don't make time after to blog.  I'll try to change that, but no promises.

I'm involved in two book groups, and talked one into reading the same book in January that the other one had picked, so I only have to read it once!  It's Hidden Figures and should be fascinating on so many levels.  Some of us are going to see the film but promised to read and talk about the book for the book clubs.  I'm going to try to find something in the book that is not in the film, or is different, and raise that as a discussion item.

Rebecca and I have talked (very quickly) about cooking out of old cookbooks and blogging about it. Rebecca said she wants to do a meal each month from Christine Terhune Herrick's Liberal Living Upon Narrow Means from 1890 and I thought it would be fun to do as well.  I have many older cookbooks, and as some of you know, have cooked full meals from a collection of sources, but I haven't done a meal from a single source just to cook a meal.  This will be fun!  Watch both of us blog about our experiences.  I'm not making it a resolution because since we're on a friendly challenge, it is already a commitment.

Now, if you want to make "serious" resolutions, go ahead.  Based upon a couple of pictures circulating on Facebook, I've decided to add a few.

One is to review this list monthly, and decide if anything has changed:

A second is to try to do this:

And a third is to try keeping a diary.  I'm not a diarist or a journaling person or whatever, possibly because I think that I live an excessively boring life to the point that I don't want to read about it, so I see no reason to write about it.  But I can write down things that happen, and maybe one of them will end up as that week's drop in the jar.

Before this gets only aspirational, I'll close with this, my contribution to this morning's monthly First Sunday brunch: "Champagne" (because I used a dry sparking wine, and true Champagne comes only from the Champagne region of France - and did you know the industry was saved by a woman?) cupcakes:

Luckily, the group isn't one that goes on ascetic diets on January 1st.  The cupcakes are sprayed with edible silver color or gold mist for some added festivity.  The tag warns that they are full of all the kinds of things people give up at New Year's: gluten, alcohol, butter, sugar.  That didn't stop people from eating them!

I hope you have a good 2017.  I am going into it with a positive attitude - there are many reasons to be worried about the year, but I believe that each of us has the power to make things change.  Whether we band together, or work individually, creating good in the world and working towards changes that need to happen may be the best resolution of all.

I went to Dallas - crocheted flowers, Mutant Leeches, and Cupcakes!

OK, until the last few days we haven't had much snow around here, but it seemed as good an excuse as any to explain why I haven't updated the blog all month.  Best-laid plans, and all that, as Robert Burns (whose birthday was celebrated last Sunday) would say.

In the meantime, I finished the hat I was knitting at the turn of the year:

Sadly, it is too big for me.  I do have quite a bit of yarn left, hopefully enough to make the mittens and a new hat.  A friend tried it on and said it fits her so she wants it, but I don't know if she will buy it or just wants it gifted.  The hat might go into my Etsy shop.

I donated a reflective yarn hat to the silent auction at a friend's weeklong storytelling and arts event. As you can see, it's neon yellow and has threads that reflect.  The hat can be less pointy if pulled down, and the bottom edge can roll up into double thickness if wanted.

I went to Dallas to see "The Cupcake Conspiracy" and "The Attack of the Killer Mutant Leeches" (one of the Pocket Sandwich Theater's infamous popcorn-tossing melodramas), and while there stopped by the Crochet Texas! monthly meeting and learned how to make flowers from buttons.  These are the ones from the class; the two circled ones are mine:

We got to eat cupcakes of course!  Local bakers provided them at every performance of Rover Dramawerks' "The Cupcake Conspiracy."  My friend Kim made these, and the Cherry Cheesecake ones were very yummy:

So yummy, we said, that people come from Connecticut to eat them!

Maple-Bacon Cupcakes and Laotian Laap

I know - I'm about to do the SNAP thing, so I post recipes I probably couldn't make on the program. But I've been ruminating about the situation in which I find myself today, which was part of the reason I waited until the weekend to start the SNAP challenge.

The second Friday of the month is the night my cooking club meets. There is a theme, which is supposed to be a vague suggestion of what to do, and everybody brings enough of something for people to try. January was "Comfort Food" and I made my Aunt Lee's moussaka, which is wonderful stuff. Unfortunately I left the remains at the hostess' house - I hope she liked it!

This month the theme is "The Long March." For a long time the hostess didn't post an essay about the theme, and since March is when maple syrup (and sugar, and candy) is made (hence the text colour today), I figured I would riff on that theme and make these. Then the essay was posted, and it's all about the three-day walks for cancer and the March of Bataan and Trail of Tears, and the cupcakes seemed too frivolous to me. Luckily the new issue of Food & Wine magazine arrived, with an article on Laotian food, and the Laap seemed more in keeping with the theme.

I've been thinking about how I could participate in the cooking club if I were in SNAP and limited to $3 a day. I would probably do something with rice, and lentils, and vegetables. I couldn't run to the Asian market for lemongrass and cilantro and fresh limes. I probably couldn't afford the ground meat for the recipe, which was on sale this week. Even on sale, the quantity for our group (usually 20-30 persons attend these evenings) worked out to two or three pounds of meat. I also need endives or something like that for serving.

A big pot of rice (I got a two-pound bag for one dollar) with some lentils added, and maybe a couple eggs for a kind of fried rice effect, and a bag of frozen veggies that I've thawed and stirred in, would make something that costs under two dollars and would make a lot. Not fancy, but possible. So I could still participate in the cooking club even on a very restricted budget. For a different theme I could riff on baked french toast, or buy the 99 cents loaf of italian bread (a Friday sale at one grocery) and maybe make some hummus or a similar spread to put on slices. If I had the ability to acquire sugar and flour I could do a simple cooky. We're allowed condiments and spices, but a reasonable amount. I would guess that some of my more specialty items from Penzeys and the like would not be in the cupboard of someone on SNAP, although they might be if I had them before going into the system.

That's something to consider, and which I've had to face when between employments. Having a good pantry is helpful when you don't have much food money. It's one reason I buy extra when I see things on sale: extra cans of soup or beans, extra boxes of pasta, extra bags of beans or rice. Extra condiments such as hot sauce, or vinegar. Extra bags of sugar or flour. But if I'd been thinly employed for a long time, what would be left?

Last night, a group of us from work went to Barcelona, a tapas restaurant and wine bar, for supper. Even without dessert (we were pretty full after sampling most of the tapas menu plus paella plus a few main plates) the tab was about $50 per person. Because most of the people are here from out of town working on a huge deal, someone put it on his corporate card and they will sort out the expenses. Still, in one evening the per-person amount was twice what I will have to live on for a week. And SNAP funds can't be used in restaurants, or for most prepared foods.

For today, I will make the laap.