First Evening of Sukkot: 10 '20

It is the first evening of Sukkot, and dinner has been served

We are having lamb chop, a steamed artichoke, cous-cous with fresh herbs,  and a compote of spiced apples, raisins, and dates.

After the meal, Bruce did some  COVID safe socializing by emailing friends  his wishes for their having a  "Happy Sukkot" or "Chag Sameach!

Sukkot Preparations: 10 ' 20

 We have decided to have a full on  Sukkot celebration this year.  We had considered setting up a Sukkah ( Tent) in prior years,  but  have always felt constrained  from  doing so  by a myriad of HOA rules  prohibiting leaving personal items out of doors overnight.  Setting up a Sukkot for a week long holiday, even on our 2nd story deck, would almost certainly generate a CC&R violation notice.  As this year's Covid Pandemic  caused Jews everywhere to adjust their traditions to avoid outside social contac,  we began to see photos of Jewish people setting up their tents in their living rooms.  So Game on!

Bruce brought our patio umbrella indoors and set it up over

our living room's chairs day bed, and coffee stable.

I covered the umbrella with a large 

mosquito net giving us sides.

Then  we brought in some houseplants

from the sunporch,

and hung Star of David decorations inside and ouside the tent.

 To give the setting a bit more of an out-of-door vibe, other furnishings around the room were decorated  with the foliage of the four species: citron, myrtle, palm, and  willow.

The kitties absolutely love the sukkah and are busy marking anything

 and everything  on, or in it.

Unfortunately, that means the kitties interest in the project

that  means that we have had to make some adjustments.

They are sure that our Lulav and Etrog are new cat chew toys, 

so these traditional symbols have been moved  out of the sukkah

  and onto a side table.

Our cats know that getting on the dining room table is verboden, so that  table is being used as a clean staging area.  Once the food is ready to be served on the plates, we will move the  complete place settings into the table in the sukkah to eat.

It's Thai Tonight: 9 '20

Last night we decided to make Thai food for dinner, using ingredientswe had on hand. A quick inventory  of what we had in our fridge, and the menu was set.  We were Chicken Pad Thai with a side of Thai Basil eggplant.

Both dishes required a lot of ingredients, so I soon had the  counters covered with small bowls of chopped veggies and greens,  backed by jars of exotic smelling spices.  I cooked  the eggplant dish first, and then kept it warm in a lidded container set in a warm water bath, while I stir fried the ingredients for the Pad Thai.

Bruce loves Pad Thai

And was more than happy to 

eat a large helping, but his real favorite was my  eggplant dish.

So, today we made a grocery run for  more fresh veggies (for tonight's Ratatoulle), and what did I find by the checkout counter, but the latest edition of my favorite cooking  magazine: 

Forks over Knives

And what was inside this issue?

You guessed! 

Pad Thai (with Tofu)  and

Thai eggplant.

The FOK version  of the eggplant dish looks prettier than my recipe (probably due to the way they chopped the ingredients), but the two recipes were remarkably similar.

(For the eggplant recipe I followed see:

https://www.cookwithmanali.com/thai-basil-eggplant/)

White Chicken Chili Dinner: 9 '20

 

I made white chicken chili for dinner tonight following this recipe ( except I used ground chicken instead of chicken breasts). Using my instant pot, it only took 30 minutes to make and tasted every bit as good as the batches I've slow cooked for hours in my crock pot. But for those of you without a instant-pot, the directions do tell you how to adapt the recipe to a slow cooker:

https://www.thereciperebel.com/instant-pot-white-chicken-chili/

Celebrating Rosh Hashanah Evening II: 9 '20

After spending the entire afternoon listening to prayers in Hebrew on a virtual Rosh Hashana service, Bruce was more than happu to participate a private celebration of Rosh Hashanah at home this evening. 

Today's celebration was similar to yesterday's

but with different foods.

I'd made a fresh loaf of Rosemary Challah

(which tasted wonderful with honey).

The main course was a Sephardic dish of chicken sofrito

( Roasted seasoned chicken thighs) )

Appertizers of Apples with honey, pomegranite, and gefilte fish,

and side dishes of 

rice with broccoli

and roasted varietal potatoes

( sweet, white and red potatoes)

Plus Apple pie for desert. 

If this High-Holiday lasted much longer,

we'd both be atoning for gluttony. 

Celebrating Rosh Hashanah 5780, First evening: 9 '20

This Friday evening marks the first night of the two day Jewish high-holiday of Rosh Hashanah 5780.   

We celebrated  the holiday with a review of the significance or its rituals,  followed by  traditional High holiday meal

I spent the day cooking traditional Jewish delicacies which included:

Apple Challah Bread 

and a loaf of  Braided Challah 

Quinioa stuffed tomatoes with goat cheese

Tzimmes

Which Bruce has  now decided is is favorite  root vegetable dish. 

( Link to recipe incuded at end of this post*)

and of course roasted lamb, honey, and and wine.

I informed Bruce that we should dress for the  evening

and he happily complied

Actually, thats not quite accurate,  

it's more like sorta complied

SIGH

Some people never change!) 

But, all things considered it was a beautiful and joyous evening.

*Tzimess recipe available at: 

 https://www.thespruceeats.com/roasted-simanim-tzimmes-4082889

Honda's a wash out: 9"20

 As a follow on to my post of September 9 about Bruce's Honda  getting stuck in a  puddle at the entrance to our street, our trusted mechanic tells us that all the electronics are ruined  and the vehicle is no longer safe to drive.  He advised Bruce to sell it for parts.  Needless to say Bruce is not a happy camper.  Even so one look at the waterline on the rear and sides of the vehicle, says just how deep the water was.

Even 5 days later there is still  standing water inside the car

Both the back and front seats are covered with muck from how high the water rose inside the vehicle.

Sadly, there is little we can do but  retrieve the few  personal items we had in the vehicle's trunk,  and start calling salvage yards to find one which will take the car from our mechanic's yard.

PI Beach Walk: 9 '20

 

Nice Day for a walk on Pawleys Island beach. Not too hot, and not too cold, with plenty of room for social distancing. BJ even had his own island all to himself. LOL..

Home-made Honey_Buttermilk Bread andRolls

 

I seem to have mastered rustic bread making, so today I decided to expand my repitoire to include a sandwich loaf bread. I used a "No fail" honey-buttermilk -bread/roll recipe. The rolls are made with the same dough the loaf but are smaller and bake for less time than the loaf. ( I mix the dough and baked both the rolls and the bread at the same time). The recipe lived up to its name,

and both the bread and the rolls came out perfect on the first try!

Bread recipe : https://www.restlesschipotle.com/buttermilk-bread/

and I used this recipe for for how instructions on how to cut the dough for rolls and how long to bake them.

https://wildwildwhisk.com/honey-buttermilk-rolls/

Honda's Flooded: 9' 20

 

Bruce's car got stuck in deep puddle caused by a low spot on one of the roads in our community. The water was deep enough it stalled the engine and flooded the interior of his car. He had to have it towed to a repair shop. Fingers crossed they can get the engine to turn over again once it dries out.

Moonflower, Queen of the Night: 9'20

 We had our first Moonflower bloom for us last night. It's blossom is larger than my hand and glowed so beautifully beside the dark entry path to our home. It is inspiring me to plant a moon garden next year by our entry- way.

Best new toy ever: 8 '20

 

We were awakened at 4 am by a lot of banging sounds eminating from our bathroom.  When I opened the bathroom door to investigate, Freckles dashed by me and took off down the stairs hauling a braided leather belt I had left hanging on the hook of the  bathroom door.

Forget the catnip toys and battery operated floppy fish, the stolen belt is now their new favorite toy.  Bruce and I took turns all day long playing a game of chase the belt with them.  Every time we sat down to rest, one of them picked it up, dropped  the belt at our feet and started  meowing for us to continue the game.

I don't think there's much chance of my ever getting my belt back  They carry it from room to room with them , and rest on top of it lest we get any ideas about returning it to my closet.

Garlic Sage Rustic Loaf: 8 ' 20

My latest loaf of rustic bread is garlic sage flavored.

The smell of it baking was so mouthwatering we couldn't wait for it to cool and tore off some big hunks to slather with butter while it was still hot. Paired with homemade cream of aspargus soup it made a delicious lunch.

BJ's favorite Breakfast

 This is what happens when it is BJ's turn to make us breakfast.

He makes us a full-on Country-style breakfast with 

 chicken fried steak, hashbrowns, country gravy 

and  buttermilk drop bisquits ( my contribution).

Not their favorite thing, 8 '20

Freckles and Bear are very playful kitties

 and attempt to turn almost anything into a toy. 

The one thing the boys won't play with

 is their new  battery operated 

 flopping fish toy.

They sniff at it. ( It has catnip inside),  but won't attack,

  or chase it like they do with their other cat toys.

Very disappointed.

Crash, Crash, Crash: 8 '20

This is what we woke up to again and again  and again in the middle of the night.

This time Bear really was the culprit..

Freckles was in bed with us.

Looks like I am going to have a problem keeping cut flowers  in the house.