Early Birthday Celebration, Bruce 4 '21

 

Bruce and I decided to celebrate his birthday a day early with a challenging round of golf at the  World Tour Golf Course in North Myrtle Beach.

The design of each of the 18 holes on this course has been inspired by a famous hole on one of the North American or British Open courses allowing us to experience the thrill of playing 18 holes inspired by some of the world’s most famous layouts; Pine Valley, Augusta National, St. Andrews without traveling beyond the Grand Strand.

Practice Makes Perfect with Challah Bread: 4 '21

I have been trying for weeks to learn how to make a good-tasting loaf of Challah bread. While I'm getting pretty good at braiding the dough, I haven't been too happy with the taste of any of the recipes I have used. What I am looking for is a soft honey egg bread, but most of the recipes I've tried come out too hard and dry.

So this week I decided to make Challah bread/rolls from the kick ass baker recipe (https://kickassbaker.com/challah-rolls/).

It came out very close to what I was hoping for ( The only change I might recommend is to sprinkle a little salt on top of the bread when you bake it.. I used the recipe exactly as it is posted, but after the first rest when the dough was starting to rise I divided the first proof dough into two unequal parts ( one part had 1/3 of the dough and the seccond part had 2/3 of the dough). After the two balls of dough had proofed a second time, I braided a three strand loaf from of the larger ball of dough, and then further divided the smaller ball into six balls which I knotted into rolls.

Both the rolls and the loaf were baked in a 350 oven for 30 minutes. Both looked beautiful and they smell and taste really good.

Egg Honey Challah Bread: 4 ' 21

 

We love egg challah, but most of the recipes I see on the internet make two or more loaves. That's entirely too much bread for a two-person household to eat while it is still fresh. But then I found this recipe for challah rolls which makes 10 rolls. ( https://merryboosters.com/challah-rolls-recipe/). The printed recipe isn't as easy to follow as the video (e.g The video shows how to make the knots), but seeing both sets of directions makes this recipe almost fool-proof. I say almost because it doesn't tell you how much space you need between the rolls. I originally put all ten on one baking sheet, then realized that they were probably too close so I moved half of them to a second sheet before baking. When I did that, the jostling caused my perfect knots to collapse a bit so my rolls are not as knotted as they were before I moved them. They still look lovely and smell and taste amazing. And I think they would also work well as hamburger buns My husband says I screwed up .. he now wants me to make a batch every Friday before Shabbat starts. ( see photo above )

Note

I used King Arthur all-purpose flour for this recipe, next week I will try it using King Arthur bread flour or KA artisan flour and let y'all know how it works out

Pawleys Island Beach Walk: 4 '21

 

 Pawleys' Island beach was so busy yesterday at 1 pm that we couldn't find parking anywhere on the island. Even the handicap slots were filled. So we got there at 9am this morning. Lots still had open parking slots, we were able to find handicapped parking so Bruce was happy.

The beach was empty enough and the shore solid enough that we could safely take a long stroll to the North end.

Once there, Bruce promptly set about making new friends,

and practicing writing in Hebrew.

(That ought to confuse a few beach goers.)

Bruce was horrified when he got home and realized that a random pre-existing scratch in the sand had added an extra vowel to his "shalom".

But I was totally impressed.

His handwriting in Hebrew is more legible

than when he is writing in English.

Easter Dinner Celebration: 4 '21

 

We dressed up and had a formal Easter Sunday dinner in our dining room this evening.

The most difficult part of the whole event was trying to time the event. We had to wait until after sundown (sundown 4/4) marks the official end of the 2021 Passover Holiday),

to remove the Red Sea,

and the Twelve tribes of Israel from our dining room table so we could use the table for our Easter dinner.

And a Happy Easter to all! 4 '21

 As I mentioned in our  3/27/21 post, the dates for celebrating Passover and Easter overlap this year.  Rather than having it look like Moses and the 12 tribes were shepherding and a flock of rabbits through the Red Sea, we decided to separate the two holidays by decorating the inside of the house for Passover and placed our Easter ornaments in the front yard.

                                        Easter bunnies figured prominently.

They started at the front door

And continued hopping all the way out to the street 

( and everywhere in between).

 Plastic Easter eggs in baskets of brightly colored pansies

added  color and gaiety to the area

(Which was much needed  after last week's frost

 damaged a lot of our spring blooms.)

Seder Dinner: 4 '21

 One of the most important activities of the Jewish Passover is the Seder Dinner.

The Seder is integral to Jewish faith and identity: for if not for divine intervention and the Exodus, the Jewish people would still be slaves in Egypt. Therefore, the Seder is an occasion for praise and thanksgiving and for re-dedication to the idea of liberation.

The Seder is integral to Jewish faith and identity: as explained in the Haggadah, if not for divine intervention and the Exodus, the Jewish people would still be slaves in Egypt. Therefore, the Seder is an occasion for praise and thanksgiving and for re-dedication to the idea of liberation. Furthermore, the words and rituals of the Seder are a primary vehicle for the transmission of the Jewish Faith.

Attending a Seder and eating matza on Passover is a widespread custom in the Jewish community, even among those who are not religiously observant.  Jews generally observe one or two seders: in Israel, one seder is observed on the first night of Passover;  but in other countries, Jewish communities may schedule their Seder(s)  throughout the week, and (some Jews living outside of Israel), also hold a Seder also on the second night.  We decided to celebrate our main Seder on the last evening of Passover in our  Promise Land Tent.

The Seder table is traditionally set with the finest place settings and silverware, and family members come to the table dressed in their holiday clothes. Bruce came up with the idea of our dressing as though we were living in Biblical times.  That clever proved easier to say than to pull off at the last minute, so he wound up wearing a bathrobe ( and refused to allow a photo to be taken)... (Next year,  I'll make him a 'kittel' AKA a white tunic to wear). 

 At the head of the table is a Seder plate containing various symbolic foods that will be eaten or pointed out during the course of the Seder. Placed nearby is a plate with three matzot and dishes of saltwater for dipping.

Each participant receives a copy of the Haggadah, which is often a traditional version: an ancient text that contains the complete Seder service. ( Bruce and I each had our own copy of the Haggadah).  Men and women are equally obliged and eligible to participate in the Seder.   The collective body of Jewish religious laws requires that certain parts be said in a language the participants can understand, and the critical parts are often said in both Hebrew and the native language.  We both took turns reciting the critical parts of the Haggadah.  Bruce practiced the entire prior week so he correctly pronounces the blessing prayers in the original Hebrew, while I  read aloud the meaning of each step in the Seder celebration in English.

Without going into much detail, our Passover Seder celebration  involved:

• Lighting the Yom Tov ( holiday)  candles and reciting a prayer
• Sanctifying the Day with the first cup of wine and blessings
• Ritual handwashing 
• Dipping Parsley in salt water  followed by a  blessing before eating it
• Breaking Middle Matzah and setting it aside for later use  when crossing the dessert
• Explaining the meaning of the Passover Holiday and Seder
• Asking the Four questions
• Telling the Story of the Passover and Exodus
• Blessing then drinking a second cup of wine
• a 2nd Ritual handwashing  this time with a blessing to prepare for eating the matzah
• Blessing over the Seder Plate meal 
• Blessing over the Matzah
• Eating the Bitter Herbs from the Seder Plate
• Blessing over the maror AKA bitter herbs  ( On our plate it was white horseradish)  following by eating the maror  (We  made a small sandwich of small pieces of matzah - smeared with horseradish and sweetened with charoset)
• Eating the Passover Dinner.   

• Our dinner consisted of Grilled Lamb, with sides servings of steamed Quinoa,  roasted artichokes, and mushrooms.
• The Akifomen ( The Piece of matzah we put aside  earlier was eaten with a sprinkling of  cinnamon sugar as a dessert Matzah), and we stuck our Akifomen in a bowl of  Charoset Icecream to end the meal.

• Grace after  the  meal  with a blessed third cup of wine
• Welcoming Elijah and drinking the fourth cup of wine  with Elijah
• Reading Praises and Blessings  from the book of Psalms
• Blessing and drinking the fourth cup of wine  (Yes, we did drink all four glasses of wine... we just kept the portions really small).
• The official part of the Passover ends with a final prayer to God asking that all Jews can gather in Jerusalem and that next year all mankind can dwell in peace

We wrapped up the evening by watching the 1956 version of the ten Commandments with Yul Brenner and Charleston Heston.

Tenth Plague Death of the Firstborn Son, 4 '21

Even though I could think of several visuals for props, none of them strongly appealed to me enough to make a toy prop or an edible to put on our Egyptian countertop.  So instead, I marked the front entryway to the house with a red drape to represent the lamb's blood that the Hebrews painted over their entryways to protect their firstborn children from the angel of death.

Death of firstborn: Ex. 11:1–12:36

This is what the LORD says: "About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again."

— Exodus 11:4–

Before this final plague God commands Moses to tell the Israelites to mark a lamb's blood above their doors in order that the Angel of Death will pass over them (i.e., that they will not be touched by the death of the firstborn). Pharaoh orders the Israelites to leave, taking whatever they want, and asks Moses to bless him in the name of the Lord. The passage goes on to state that the passover sacrifice recalls the time when the LORD "passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt" 

Unleavened Bread for Passover '4 '21

Passover is sometimes called the Festival of Unleaven Bread, because  After the killing of the firstborn, the Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites go. But in their haste to leave Egypt, the Israelites could not let their bread rise and so they brought unleavened bread. ... To commemorate this, Jews do not eat leavened bread for eight days.

To be specific, in order for matzoh to be technically unleavened and appropriate for Passover, according to Jewish tradition, it must be started and completed within 18 minutes. This is because fermentation is believed to happen after 18 minutes of ground grain being in contact with water, and Jewish law requires only unleavened foods be eaten during the duration of Passover.

In order to keep the process within 18 minutes, it is important the recipe uses only a few simple ingredients and a large baking surface that is brought up to temperature before you begin mixing your ingredients.  

Bruce and I teamed up to make eight of these basic matzoh flatbreads in less than 15 minutes (start to finish)  using a stovetop flat griddle. We ate half of it right away, 

Homemade Matzoh

:

INGREDIENTS

•  4 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
•  1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
•  2 tablespoons mild olive oil 
•  3/4 cup plus up to 1/2 cup warm water

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 500°F (260°C). Ideally you would place a pizza stone on the bottom oven rack, but realistically a 10-by-15-inch baking sheet will work just fine.

Or you can use a electric griddle  on the high setting  so you can make more than on  bread at a time.

I am getting too old to safely be bending over a superheated oven, and our electric griddle doesn't get quite hot enough to  properly cook the flat bread so I used a large flat griddle pan atop our stove.

In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients, starting with just 3/4 cup water, until everything comes together to form a dough. If the dough seems dry, add a little more water, just a few drops at a time. Be sparing with the water and do not add so much that the dough becomes sticky. 

If you do not need the matzoh to be kosher for Passover, let the dough rest for 10 to 15 minutes. If you do need the matzoh to be kosher for Passover, proceed immediately to the next step so that you can attempt to finish everything in 18 minutes. You may want to ask for help to ensure that you complete it in time.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Flatten a piece slightly and pass it repeatedly through a pasta maker, reducing the thickness each time until you eventually reach the thinnest or minimum setting on your pasta machine. Alternately, you can simply roll the dough as thinly as possible with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces.

Trim the rolled-out dough pieces into rectangles. (How many pieces of matzoh you get depends on how thinly you rolled the dough.) Use a fork to prick holes in the surface of the dough. lf salted matzoh are desired, brush or spray the dough surface lightly with water and sprinkle with salt to taste.

Carefully place some of the rectangles onto the pizza stone or baking sheet. They should fit snugly but should not touch. Bake until the surface of the matzoh is golden brown and bubbly, 30 to 90 seconds. 

Using tongs, carefully flip the matzoh pieces and continue to bake until the other side is golden browned and lightly blistered, 15 to 30 seconds. Keep careful and constant watch to keep the matzoh from burning; the exact baking time will vary from oven to oven and will get longer with subsequent batches. You want to let the matzoh get a few dots of light brown but don’t let the matzoh turn completely brown or it will taste burnt. 

Let the matzoh cool before serving. 

I stored what we didn't eat right away in a ziplock bag and toasted  some of it the next day in our electric toaster oven.  Toasting it  gave in  lovely crispy cracker -like texture. 

Original Recipe from  https://leitesculinaria.com/84910/recipes-homemade-matzoh.html3 . 

Ninth Plague of Darkness: 4 '21

  Our representation of the Ninth Plague of Darkness was pretty dramatic

We covered the three lights hanging over Egypt (aka our breakfast bar) with plastic bags that had been covered with colored tissue paper and polyester fiberfill ( aka Pillow stuffing).  When we turned on the lights over Egypt and turned off all other lights in the room, the lights over Egypt emitted a really eerie glow that seemed to drain out most remainings in the room.  We could see well enough to walk around safely, but not to make out objects beyond an arm's length away.

Darkness for three days: Ex. 10:21– Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt." So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days.

Eighth Plague: Locust 4 '21

 

Locust proved hard to make as an edible but was easy to come by as a  diorama figure, so we put Dollar Tree toy locust and grasshoppers atop our freshly made matzah bread before we used the bread for lunch or dinner.

Locusts: Ex. 10:1–20

This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.

— Exodus 10:3–6