Thought this was beautiful cookware at the Amazon 4-Star Store.
BTW, can’t believe Amazon is now getting into bricks and mortar too!
These enameled cast iron dutch oven pots are colorful and useful.
In a way, they are too good-looking to use.
Maybe just put them on the stovetop and let them look pretty.
There is always the microwave for the real food. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Wow, the chocolate and poppy pastry rolls look pretty awesome.
Salivating to take a serious bite.
But don’t advise for that before taking a drug test.
I heard the poppy seeds may give a false positive. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Really liked this set of matching copper pots, pans, and bowls.
Lighter than cast iron and conducts heat 5x better.
They look good and if coated with a non-stick substance are very functional.
Not just as a wall hanging but on the stove. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So I never met a piece of cheesecake that I didn’t like.
This was an awesome display of the varieties of it at the Cheesecake Factory.
I remember my mom used to make a pretty darn great cheesecake (and a lot of other good food)!
I still can see the graham cracker crust with the sweet hot creamy cheese filling coming out of the oven.
Unfortunately one of the conundrum of life is that all the good tasting things are so darn fattening and bad for us.
I think though if they can make fake burgers like Beyond that taste like the real thing, then surely at some point they will figure out how to make a skinny cheesecake that tastes good.
There are still some mysteries left in this universe for us to unravel. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
My son-in-law did such an awesome job making Sushi from scratch.
He took such painstaking care on the rice, the fillings, and rolling and serving them.
Even the multitude of dips to choose from.
It was an awesome treat.
Worth the wait after Shabbat and then some.
Thank you so much for inviting us. 😉
(Source Photo: Rebecca Blumenthal)
It was great going to Magen David Synagogue today to help prepare for the big Simchat Torah Dinner tomorrow night.
First, we started with great ingredients.
Then all the prep.
The cleaning, slicing, dicing, mixing, laying it all out, and braising.
Then the cooking–stovetop, and oven.
And before you know, it comes out all done and ready for the scrumptious shul dinner to honor the Torahs.
I want to thank all the women and men that helped out today and many other times to prepare.
But especially, I want to call out Naomi Elimelech who coordinates everything and is the brains behind all the delicious and healthy food.
She and her husband, Itzik, who is also the President of the synagogue, are truly wonderful, caring, and giving people and a role model for all of us–and it’s not just the cooking!
B’tayavon everyone and Chag Sameach! 😉
(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)
So I had a beautiful conversation with an older gentleman who works in a menial job for minimum wage for most of his life.
But this person was shinning and smiling ear-to-ear.
What happened, he got offered a job to work in a lovely school as their cook.
He’s been doing this as a special treat for the students once a year, and they decided to bring him on to do this full time.
He pulled out his phone and proudly showed me a picture of himself in the classroom surrounded by all the children. He was in an orange sweater and stood out in the middle of all of them and with a smile that lit up the entire room.
He told me how the children thought of him as a celebrity chef and the teacher even organized autographs by him for the children.
His whole life, he questioned his worth, and now he felt recognized, appreciated, and loved.
I told him that I thought he was indeed quite a special person.
He said to me, you may have a talent or be special, but you have to recognize it–and he repeated aloud again at least three times emphasizing more and more on RECOGNIZE it.
Surely, after so many years, only now was he being recognized and more so, recognizing it himself.
Apparently, someone who worked in the school was also a renown food critic, and she had nothing but praises to sing of him.
Talking with him, I felt my eyes being opened.
Everyone can do good with their lives and have worth.
We have to recognize it in ourselves.
We need to just be given an opportunity to show it and share it.
It doesn’t matter what you are or earn.
It matters where your heart is.
For many, they earn gazillions, but their heart is a heart of stone.
For others, they may earn minimum wage, but their heart is a heart of gold.
It’s not the money, it’s not the power, it’s not the prestige…it’s the heart and soul of the matter. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I thought this was a very telling sign right off the highway in Washington, D.C.
“Does your child have life skills?”
And then it lists things like:
“Cooking, budgets, sewing, ironing, time managment, communication, and fun”
The classes are offered by ActualLifeSkills.com.
I took a look online at what a typical 6-week class offered on Sundays for 3-hours at a time and at a cost of $345.
It even covered things like:
“Handshakes, eye contact, and conversation starters
Voice projection and confidence
Party/guest etiquette, gifts and thank you notes”
And of course, aside from the cooking and budgeting already mentioned, there were more of the foundations such as laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping.
I would suggest adding things like computer basics, child rearing, human relations, home maintenance, car mechanics, hunting, fishing, gardening, first-aid, fitness, and even self-defense.
Since, we spend so much time teaching book skills, I have often thought why we don’t spend more time teaching these fundamental life skills.
We are raising a generation of kids that can score 1500+ on the SATs, but they don’t know sh*t about real life and couldn’t survive a week without electricity, Internet, or mom and dad taking care of them.
Back to basics.
Back to life skills.
Back to survival.
Back to being self-sufficient.
There is no reason that we can’t add these items to our broken school curriculums.
You shouldn’t have to go to special classes to learn to live life. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Yesterday, we had a beautiful little get together at our place.
In the party room with pizza and brew and lots of nosh–almost reminded me of the “Chometz Party” we had a number of years ago in our old neighborhood (great way to clean out your kitchen pantry before Passover),
Many of our wonderful friends from Magen David Sephardic Synagogue came to visit with us and celebrate one year plus in our new home in Maryland.
Truly some of the nicest and accepting people I’ve had a chance to come to know in quite some time.
I want to thank our friends for coming and especially thank my dear wife, Dossy, who did all the heavy lifting to make the event so beautiful for everyone.
One lesson was how to keep the pizza piping hot over many hours with people coming and going at different times–can anyone say melted cheese?
Another was how to schedule anything this time of year with Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Passover, Shavuot and Memorial Day holidays, Men’s Club/Sisterhood/and other community events, baby showers, weddings, vacations, and more–gee, there almost wasn’t a free Sunday on the calendar.
Overall though, we had such a nice time with everyone, and Dossy is already asking about planning the next event and she says she is cooking, so watch out world! 😉
(Source Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)
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