A Leap Of Faith

The prompt for this week's 100 word (not including the prompt) challenge is, appropriately, in honour of the leap day in this leap year. The piece must be connected to the theme:

A leap of faith.

After you've read mine (and I invite you to leave a comment), pop over to Julia's Place to find the other entries.

A Leap Of Faith.

She hadn't noticed the date when she'd invited him to lunch. They were on mid-semester break, exams graded, and with a few days to chill.

She'd only realised that morning. She needn't be a social historian to know the significance, the implications. He, on the other hand, was a geeky bachelor from Sciences. He'd be oblivious.

Ten years of exchanging, 'Morning!' in the university carpark. The odd conversation at various annual events. There may've been one dance at a Christmas party once, or was that a dream?

But he would be here in her flat on February 29th. It would require a leap of faith.

Teenage Cooking: Voodoo Sausages

I saw these on facebook and I just had to try it. So after I'd bullied Big Chief Recipeshed to make this week's theme cooking for kids I set out to design a recipe especially for teenagers.  

Voodoo Sausages

1. Give each teenager a sausage and ask them to imagine that the sausage is their worst enemy. You may employ some group discussion in order to share and empathise, etc...

2. Hand out sticks of dried spaghetti. Explain the concept of voodoo and voodoo dolls in particular.

3. Stick the enemies through with spaghetti pins.

4. Put the voodoo sausages into a cauldron pot of boiling water and watch them boil to death until the pasta is cooked.

5. Serve and eat. Good topics for conversation over dinner would be; the satisfaction of revenge or cannibalism by proxy.

6. Sit back and wait for bad news. This could take several days or even weeks.

Disclaimer 1. My kitchen really is meat free. I used Tivall vegetarian sausages.

Disclaimer 2. For a real children's treat read about my vegetable nugget pancakes.

Disclaimer 3. For a really funny recipe read The Whisky Lovers' Christmas Fruit Cake.

New Stars Over Bethlehem?

On Saturday night I was doing the washing up and happened to glance out of the window to see a sliver of new moon like a smile (or a cereal bowl) in the night sky. Aha, Silent Sunday! I thought and rushed to get my camera. However, on posting the picture, there was more to it than I had originally realized.

Here is the photo from the night of 25.2.12, looking west over Jerusalem. Just above the moon to the left is a planet. When I first saw it I purposely tried to incude it in the shot as I thought it was a bright star. But in fact, alerted by the one of the comments under my post, it is a planet.

I did some googling (as one does) and found out that on that night the sun, the moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus would all be aligned and visible to the naked eye. Some reports say that Mars was also present earlier in the evening but soon slipped below the horizon. And the show was due to continue on Sunday night 26.2.12.

So last night I took some more photos and I definitely got both Jupiter and Venus (below the moon) in these shots. Also interesting to see (if you can) is that the moon was partially eclipsed on two sides - the top and the right. One of the eclipses was the earth and the other... Mercury maybe? Anyone with a bit of knowledge on this subject is invited to leave a comment to enlighten us. Thank you.

Before I leave you with these pictures I want to mention that (the little town of) Bethlehem is about 10 minutes drive to the south of where I live. Some accounts speculate that what the Magi (the three wise men/Kings) actually saw in the sky may have been Jupiter. They came from the east and so they were looking west. Jupiter to the left of the moon would look like it was pointing south of Jerusalem (earlier in the evening than when I took this photo). Reader, I didn't follow the star.

#ArtIHeart 1 - Paris Reunion

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Art I Heart

  



Share the art you love from your walls, a birthday card, what your child drew at school, that you saw in The National Gallery in London...

1. Choose one piece of art that has a short personal story behind it. It could be something on your wall, something you've seen in a gallery and love, homedrawn, on a postcard, on a birthday card, something by Degas or something by your DS.

2. Take a photograph, scan or download a picture of your picture and post it along with the short story about why you are drawn to it, have it on your wall, bought it, or hate it. Don't forget to link back to the linky so your readers can see the other entries.

3. Link up (it's open till next Thursday, 4pm GMT), leave a comment, et voila!

Here's mine:

La Place Du Tertres, Paris, by Georges B.
(This is a print I found on ebay as my attempts to photograph my own copy were unsuccessful.)

In the late 1960s four little girls went to primary school together in England. Then they went to the same secondary school. At 14 one of them emigrated with her parents to America. In her 20s another emigrated to Israel (me!) and ten years later, one moved with her own family to the south coast of England. They sort of kept in touch by heresay, gossip and occasional visits. Then came email, then came Friends Reunited and they reconnected.

It was 2002 and an idea was born to celebrate our 40th birthdays with a trip to Paris - 4 friends, 4 days, turning 40. In fact I was already 41 when we finally made the trip but it was wonderful. We fitted together like long lost friends (funnily enough). We needed to learn about each other's lives now (then) but there was no getting-to-know-you involved. We knew each other's childhoods, families, even the wallpaper in our teenage bedrooms. Surreal in a way but so easy to talk and talk and talk and talk. We also walked and walked and walked. And ate these (see number 5).

I had recently bought my first home and moved in. I'd wiped out my savings and was on a tight budget. I desperately wanted a souvenir of this trip and I really wanted a painting. The artists' market in Monmartre had beautiful scenes of Paris - starting at about 250 Euro. I resigned myself to not buying art.

Stopping to buy postcards I found this large-size (A3) postcard of a painting of La Place Du Tertre, Monmartre. It cost half a Euro. When I got home I found an old frame bought in John Lewis years before and mounted my postcard. I had my piece of art from Paris for 50 cents and I love it. Here it is in situ above my kitchen sink:

#LifeCircle 7 - The Discomfort Zone

Kate asked the LifeCirclers to step out of their comfort zones this week. Last week I wrote about my list philosophy and the advantages of positive procrastination. The reason last week's list got almost finished was that I was running to do any task other than phone the plumber. Here's a brief history of the situation:

Nine months ago the 20 year old tap on my bathroom sink was leaking at the base where it's fixed to the sink. I called the building insurance people and was told, obviously, that taps weren't covered but they'd send their plumber to make sure there was nothing wrong with the pipes in the wall which are covered by my insurance.

A nice man came and confirmed that the tap was leaking, it wasn't covered by insurance and he could fix it through his private business. He fixed it, along with a couple of other things, and I paid him 850nis (about 140 pounds - sounds incredible but services here are very expensive if you're anything more or less qualified than a teacher with an MA and 25 years experience).

Nine months later the new tap is leaking. Step one was to file months of papers, bills and receipts in order to find the receipt from the plumber. I put this off for a couple of weeks but eventually did it and couldn't find the important receipt anywhere. I probably threw it out. Who would think that a new tap would need fixing after nine months?

So now I didn't have a leg to stand on vis a vis guarantee. I didn't have a number for the plumber, nor did I even remember his name. I don't have another 600nis or so to pay for a new tap and the leak isn't exactly gushing out water. Thus I did what I do best and ignored it, meanwhile doing everything else on my long list of tasks except deal with the tap - positive procrastination at it's best. My life hasn't been so efficiently in order for months. A result of sorts but a leaking tap will only get worse....

After acting out the worst case scenario whereby I explain the situation to the plumber, he laughs at me in a nasty and condescending way and tells me to get lost (slightly humiliating but I've been through worse things), eventually I faced my demons and picked up the phone to the insurance company. They had the original visit on their computer and could give me the name and phone number of the plumber. Plumber remembered me and happened to be in the area so he dropped in to assess the problem. There was a wobbly "I knew it!" moment when he explained that the tap company (for the tap he bought me) was responsible for the guarantee. But as he had bought the tap he said he would go back to the shop (his regular supplier) and see to it all. That was all last Thursday. Today I called him to see what the situation was. He still hasn't done anything about it but it's on his list. It's no longer my problem so I'm not stressed about it anymore. The whole thing last Thursday took maybe one hour after weeks of worrying about it. Why? Why? Why?

Art I Heart

And tomorrow I'm stepping out of my comfort zone again by launching a new linky on my blog. Art I Heart - read about it here and do come back tomorrow, thanks :). Now that wasn't too difficult either.

#Listography - Happy High Five

After last week's spectacular display of mugs an and *ahem* my winning post, this week's Listography is the top five things that make me happy (apart from my winning mugs of course). If you're not feeling too chipper yourself and need some good ideas about what might perk you up you can visit the Listograpgy Linky and read loadsovem.

My Happy High Five

1. Mozart's Clarinet Concerto (2nd movement). Just click and listen while you're reading the rest of this post and you'll know why.

2. Bedtime stories. No not for me, although I do enjoy reading in bed. Stories for my 3yo. We lie in the bed together, sharing the pillow. Her warm little face pressed up against mine. We negotiate how many stories she can choose depending on the hour. Then I read with her commenting and contributing throughout. And then she starts to yawn and her input becomes less and less. A kiss and a cuddle and I turn off the light. She then spends the next two hours coming out of her room to go to the toilet, tell me something important, collect a stray teddy, have me kiss an imaginary wound...

By the way, if you want to know why bedtime stories are essential read what happens if you don't do bedtime stories.

3. Making order out of chaos. This includes writing lists, sorting out clothes cupboards, folding and putting away laundry, tidying in general and rearranging to make better use of the space. Mad I know but it really does make me happy and it actually makes me more productive, less likely to eat too much, and less stressed all round. As I write I'm wondering why it should be that this is any more strange than gardening or jogging to nowhere for the shear sweatiness of it.

4. Writing and blogging. The combination of writing and, with the click of a mouse, sending it off to be read by an infinite number of people (in theory) is simply intoxicating. And if anyone comments, well then I'm just in seventh heaven. Stats? Better than uppers on a good day. As soon as DD's in bed it's blog o'clock and I'm off!

5. Love and laughter. Sharing a good time with friends whether it be actually in the same place together or bantering on fb has to be the best feel-good medicine there is. Old friends, new friends, or friends I haven't even met yet (not so strange for a blogger), I'll always appreciate a little humour.

So there you have it. Please don't feel you have to rush off before the music finishes. Why not take the time to write a comment or six?

Pancake Crazy For Vegetarian 'Meat' Meals

Sweetcorn pancakes and broccoli pancakes

How can a vegetarian kitchen serve meat and two veg? (Disclaimer: I say vegetarian kitchen as my kitchen is vegetarian [with tins of tuna] but I am not. I have good reasons which will be in another post... one day.) Of course it can't. However there are reasons why you might want to serve something of similar weight and texture. Here are my reasons:

1. Cook meat, add potatoes or rice, a couple of cooked vegetables and a salad et voila - a dinner party! With meatless food it's somehow never as simple as that. Whatever I serve (vegetable strudel, lasagne, quiche, stuffed vegetables) and whatever I add (kugel, latkes, curried rice with everything) I'm thinking: why am I adding more starch when the main item already has pasta/rice/pastry in it? Ditto for the vegetable sides - more vegetables?

2. I'm always looking for that elusive meaty taste and texture. It's a mindset I have to get past but I'm not there yet.

3. Sometimes I want a burger with all the trimmings.

4. I like the old familiar foods even if they are meat-centric. Hence spaghetti tofunaise and vegetarian cholent.

I know the answer is to get over the traditional meat and two veg as the ideal meal but until I do I've gone a bit mad with pancakes. Make them thick and dense and full of flavour and you have something that can look like a burger, a chicken nugget, a sausage or a shnitzel. We're into nugget size at the moment as DD is 3yo and it suits her for dipping into ketchup.

Make nuggets with teaspoon size portions

Use fried onions, onion soup powder, soy sauce, tomato puree, curry powder, ground cumin or coriander, salt and pepper to experiment for a more meaty taste. Or use these ingredients to make a piquant sauce to serve with your pancakes.

Tuna pancakes (Yes I know!)

For the main pancake ingredient you can use any vegetables. Put them in the processor with eggs, flour and any of the above seasonings. Then spoon the mixture (teaspoons for nuggets, tablespoons for burgers) into hot oil and fry on both sides.

I'm linking this to Recipeshed at Chronicles of a Reluctant Housedad where the theme this week is soups and vegetarian. And I wish you all a flipping good Shrove Tuesday.