oomis

I prefer Pesach at home. I like my shul, my own place, and the newness of my home on Pesach. My married kids come to me (this year for the last days), and I don’t think I would feel the same sense of “yom tov” if I were in a hotel for this specific holiday. Pesach is in a category all by itself.

Because the Soviets needed to be ANTAGONIZED before hurting the Jews?????????????

Puhleeze! And Avi Weiss may not be your cup of tea(or mine, either, in some ways) necessarily, but what did YOU do to help free SJ? At least I went to every rally there was and made my voice heard along with all the other Jews who were there to show solidarity. Even if it did NOT help (and I do not buy that), it helped the people who were present, because it made them walk the walk as well as talk the talk. And that can never be bad for us, because it helps us to grow as human beings, to fight for something other than our own personal needs.

Volvie – well, OK then…. I think that’s why Chamberlain thought it was such a good idea to appease Hitler, because THAT would stop him from hurting Jews. Stop worrying so much about what antagonizes the goyishe velt, and think about all the lives that were SAVED because we put pressure ont he Soviets. Behind the scenes negotiation always has to happen, but that negotiation happens because of the public pressure. Rallies are a good way to icnrease the pressure and men and women are BOTH chayavim in pikuach nefesh, whether physical or spiritual.

I could not possibly disagree more with those who are opposed to females participating in a rally. Soviet Jewry, most of whom were not frum Yidden, saw an end to their oppression because of our male and female attendance. If you base your worthiness of a given rally on the “frumness” of the cause, then there will be many neshamos whom you might neglect to help in your holding fast to yuor position. there is nothing untzniusdig for ANY Jew to fulfill the mitzvah of “lo sa-amohd al dom reiyacha.” It is untzniusdig for people to BEHAVE immodestly, and that can happen, indoors, outdoors, in Yeshivah, at shul, in the park,and yes, even at a Tehillim rally, if the person engaging in immodesty is there for the wrong reasons and acting improperly.

I can, and gladly will, but not before my kitchen is kashered and I take out all my Pesach cookbooks. Sometime next week, B”EH, I will look through my Pesach books and post for you.

I am taking the high road and not responding further about this. I forgot for the moment the hashkafa of some of the CR readers.

I agree with Cantoresq about the colored shirts. They are much shtottier than most plain white shirts, especially when coupled with a nice suit and tie.

I have a Shabbos robe that looks like a fancy dress, and that is for Friday night.

Oh brother, here we go again… And what exactly is wrong with showing support for Eretz Yisroel? Never mind, I already know. “It seems to me I’ve heard this one before…It’s from an old, familiar score.”

As soon as I get my pesach cookbooks out, I will look for something bli neder. Do you eat gebrokts? That will make a difference in what I post. We do eat stuff made with matzah meal, but I also have a very good non-gebrokts chocolate cake (more like a brownie).

Going to a rally is not the same thing as parading herself around. BTW, are any of the guys who agree with Volvie, at least THEMSELVES going to these rallies for good causes? Volvie, how often do women attend any typical siyum (indoors or not)?

So what’s the inyan here? It really is still slow (though slightly better than before Shabbos). Speaking of Shabbos, hope everyone is ok and not affected too badly by the bad weather. Some of the people in my neighborhood lost power. But B”H so far so good.

You’re welcome – but please bear in mind that I have NOT made these recipes myself. They sure do look yummy,though.

I cannot vouch for how good these are, but they come from a gourmet pesach cooking link.

Carrot Muffins:

5 jars of carrot baby food (or 1 1/4 cup mashed cooked carrots)

4 eggs

2 cups of sugar

1/2 cup oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoons orange juice

2 cups matza cake meal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together. Bake approximately 30 minutes. These come out dense but the kids eat them out of the pan.

Truffle Bars:

12 eggs, separated

2 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1 pound ground almonds

2 tablespoons vanilla

1 cup (2 sticks) margarine

2 teaspoons coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons boiling water

Marble Cheesecake

Crust:

2 cups crushed ladyfingers

2 tablespoons margarine, melted

Filling:

3 – 8 ounce packages cream cheese

3/4 cup sugar

5 eggs

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted

Topping:

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted

1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix together the crushed ladyfingers and melted margarine and press into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Refrigerate. Beat together cream cheese, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy. Pour half of batter on top of curst. Add melted chocolate to remaining batter and mix well. Pour over filling in pan and run knife through to marbleize. Bake for 60 minutes. Mix together frosting ingredients and pour on top of cake. Bake an additional 5 minutes. Cool and refrigerate or freeze.

Chocolate Mousse Cake:

8 ounces semisweet chocolate

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine

8 eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

These are fudgy and gooey in the middle and always a big hit. You can never have enough. They are best served with vanilla ice cream.

1 cup oil

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup potato starch

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup cocoa

1 bag (2 cups) chocolate chips

Floating Islands with Caramel Sauce

6 servings

Sauce :

2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise

2 cups pareve milk

6 large egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

Meringue :

2 cups pareve milk

4 large egg whites

pinch of salt

1/4 cup sugar

Caramel :

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

For Sauce :

Scrape seeds from vanilla bean halves into heavy small saucepan, add beans. Add pareve milk and bring to simmer over medium-high heat. Remove from heat, cover, and steep 10 minutes.

Whisk yolks and sugar in heavy medium saucepan until thick, about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in warm pareve milk mixture (including vanilla beans). Stir over medium-low heat until custard thickens and leaves path on back of spoon when finger is drawn across, about 9 minutes (do not boil). Strain custard into small bowl. Cover and chill until cold, at least 3 hours and up to 2 days.

For Meringue :

Lay smooth kitchen towel on work surface. Pour pareve milk into medium (10-inch) skilled. Bring milk to simmer over medium heat.

Using electric mixer, beat egg whites in large bowl until foamy. Add salt and beat until whites hold soft peaks. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until whites are stiff and glossy. Scoop some meringue (about twice the size of an egg) onto large oval spoon. Using another large spoon and gently transferring meringue from spoon to spoon, shape meringue into smooth oval, drop oval into pareve milk. Quickly shape 2 or 3 more meringue, dropping each into pareve milk. Simmer meringues 1 minute. Using heatproof rubber spatula, turn meringues over in pareve milk. Simmer 1 minute longer (meringues will puff up while poaching). Using slotted spoon, transfer meringues to towel (meringues will deflate slightly as they cool). Repeat process, shaping and then poaching enough meringues to make total of 12. transfer meringues to waxed-paper-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate at lest 1 hours and up to 3 hours.

For Caramel :

Spoon some sauce into center of each plate. Arrange 2 meringues on each. Dip fork into caramel and wave back and forth over meringues so that caramel comes off in strands that harden like threads, and serve.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

4 tablespoons unsalted margarine room temperature, plus more for muffintins

1/3 cup granulated sugar plus more for muffin tins

3 large eggs

1/3 cup potato starch

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 ounces bittersweet, chocolate melted

Pareve whipped cream

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream the margarine and granulated sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low speed, beat in potato starch and salt until just combined. Beat in chocolate until just combined. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups.

Place muffin tin on a baking sheet, bake just until tops of the cakes no longer jiggle when the pan is lightly shaken, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, let stand 10 minutes.

To serve, turn out cakes, and place on serving plates, bottom sides up. Dust with confectioners sugar and serve with pareve whipped cream, if desired.

Coconut Cups

Macaroon cups:

2 1/4 cups desiccated or shredded coconut

1/2 cup sugar

2 egg whites

Ganache filling:

4 ounces chocolate

1/2 cup margarine (1 stick)

3 egg yolks, lightly beaten

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

Preheat oven to 280 degrees F.

Grease compartments of a non-stick mini muffin pan very well.

Bake for 30 minutes, then let cool completely before removing macaroon cups from the pan. You may need to run a sharp knife around the top edges of each cup to loosen.

For Ganache Filling, melt chocolate and margarine together in the top of a double boiler, and stir to mix. Remove from heat and let cool for 2 to 3 minutes.

Stir in egg yolks while whisking thoroughly to prevent them from cooking. Add cocoa and mix well. Pour mixture while it is still warm into coconut cups and leave at room temperature to set. Store in airtight container.

Pesach Cheese Cake

20 lady fingers

2 tablespoons margarine

2 8oz packages of cream cheese (softened)

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 cups sour cream

1 tablespoons vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

In a medium bowl use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla blend well.

pour filling into crust. Bake 30-40 minutes. Turn off oven and leave cheescake for 1 hour to set. Serve chilled

option: you can sprinkle top with 1 cup of chocolate chips before you bake the cake.

Italian Wine Cake

6 eggs, separated

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup potato starch

1/2 cup matza cake meal

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup sweet wine

juice and grated peel of 1 lemon

pinch of salt

8 ounces chocolate, melted

1 pint fresh strawberries, washed and sliced

In a large bowl, beat the eggs yolks, adding sugar in a slow stream. Continue beating until light and fluffy.

Combine the potato starch and matza cake meal and set aside. Combine the orange juice, wine, and lemon juice and peel. Add the potato starch mixture to the egg yolk mixture alternately with the orange juice mixture, blending thoroughly.

Beat the egg whites with salt until soft peaks form. Gently fold the whites into the egg yolk mixture. Pour this batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out dry. Remove the cake from the oven immediately invert the pan and let it cool. Loosen the sides and center of the cake with a sharp knife and unmold onto a cake plate. Drizzle with melted chocolate and garnish

Let me know how you like these.

hereorthere, you are talking about apples and oranges. I totally agree with you that kids have to know how to defend themselves (and when to run away), but that has ZERO to do with playing with toy guns and knives. They should be taught self-defense from an early age, and also how to carry themselves. But being aggressive because of playing aggressive games leads to violence often with trqgic consequences. Kids are too young to differentiate between what is play and what is real. They see violent cartoons and think that Wile E. Coyote gets up and walks away after being flattened by a boulder.

This is addressed to the ladies on this blog. To paraphrase completely (and with extreme apologies to) Lerner and Loew in “My Fair Lady” –

“Why can’t a man, be more like a woman?”

Women are so grounded, sensitive,too.

Especially caring, and thoughtful of you.

Why can’t a man try doing the same?

Think before speaking,

Now THERE’S a good aim!

Men are so clumsy,

With feelings and words,

Much of the time,

They are just for the birds.

Now take a good woman,

She knows what to say,

She speaks most precisely,

In a sensitive way.

A man cannot do that,

He hems and he haws,

And why does he do that?

Well, it’s just BECAUSE!

A woman will worry

’bout the comfort of her man.

Makes sure he wears sunscreen,

So he won’t over-tan.

Why cannot men

Be thoughtful like that?

Be smart and creative,

Instead of just “flat?”

Why can’t they, you say?

They were not made to be.

If they were, they’d be women,

And THAT thought, frightens me!

So that’s why we won’t see a real man tear-up

Because he just broke his best coffee cup.

But neither will you or I likely see,

A Guy who views life just like you or like me.

I agree with Anuran. Children may make “weapons” out of almost anything, but playing with toys shaped like realistic weapons should not be encouraged. How many tragedies have happened because kids found guns in their parents’ houses and thought they were toys? You wanna burn off agression – let them play SPORTS. OUTDOORS!!!!!

re: forcing people to take mandatory CPR courses. Please. Although I personally wish everyone WOULD take such courses (both my husband and I are Red-Cross certified), you cannot mandate this. Not everyone is a) physically capable of doing CPR, especially after a certain age, when arthritis, cardiac, and pulmonary problems might be an issue, preventing them from doing it effectively and correctly or b) of a temperament to learn how to do it properly. I think it should be taught in all schools, but you cannot force people to learn how to do this. I do think EVERYONE should be properly taught how to do the Heimlich Maneuver.

Seatbelts SHOULD be mandatory for ALL people in a moving vehicle. Unbelted people become projectiles in an accident, and take the concentration of the driver off the road.. Unbelted drivers, can lose control of the wheel upon impact. End of story.

I usually use the Lubavitch Pesach cookbook for cake, as well as the Heimisch kitchen for Pesach. I do have a phenomenal pineapple kugel reipe, which I have in chometzdig form too, but I actually prefer the potato starch version. If you want it, I will look for it.

I was always taught that Moshe Rabbeinu came down with the Luchos amd halachos of the Written Torah, as well as the Oral Law in its bottom line form (meaning no discussion and machlokess as we see in the Gemarah, but straight halacha l’maiseh). So for example, the Written Torah tells men to put on Tefillin (but no further details are really given), but what Moshe Rabbeinu was told to teach over Orally, was HOW tefillin are made, what they contain, how to put them on, etc.

Jphone, my husband taught Special Ed, so regents were never a factor for his students.

My regents tests were not easier than the finals, which we ALSO had to take,a nd B”H I did very well in most of them. In fact the one regents exam in which I did somewhat poorly, was on material we never even covered in class. I also went to a school where the secular subjects were taken VERY seriously, and we were very well prepared for college. They ARE useless, a waste of three hours, and a thorough final exam would be a better indicator of what was covered in class during that school year. No other state to my knowledge feels the necessity to put their students through this, and there are plenty of extremely bright people who did not originate in New York.

Those guys don’t have ISSUES – they have SUBSCRIPTIONS!!!!!!

Jphone, you are correct about that – but I wonder why the leadership of the teacher’s union (of which my husband is a member(retiree), do not see that all they do is waste educators’ time with these tests (which could be better spent in actual and meaningful teaching), when final exams in June will suffice. IMO, there should be some form of checks and balances to make sure that those final exams are covering the curriculae, and are an accurate measure of the students’ abilities, but regents do not have to be that answer.

Ettie, I am not quite sure, but I think tomim was pulling our leg. (the bake it to desired consistency, including “burnt” kinda gave it away).

” wjo;e”

that SHOULD have read “while”

haifagirl, nice story. there are some sweet people in the world, after all. Nice you could verify it, as well.