Food

Food is on my mind lately. Probably because I'm half-starved. How did that happen. Probably because of cooler weather and not enough sleep and a different kitchen and different grocery stores plus I am just not naturally a food person. Plus I don't have five children hanging on me who would start complaining if they weren't provided for. (I did have five children and they were in no danger of starving.)
So I am trying to change my ways and eat more. The food is good here, if you bother to prepare it. (When it comes to feeding myself, I am extreeeemly lazy.) Ground beef is lean without being tough. Mayonnaise is a whole lot better than I am used to. It's not as thick and yellow and mayonnaisey tasting. Oranges are consistently very good. Bananas are expensive, especially when you consider that you throw away half their weight in peel. Well, maybe a third. Granny Smith apples are sour as ever--I bet they would make good fritters. Milk comes in 3% or 1% and is cheaper if you buy it in a bag instead of a carton. Zucchini are light green instead of dark green but taste about the same. Carrots are huge without being strong-tasting. Persimmons, or fuyu, are big and good and sweet, not at all like the sour ones that grow wild in Indiana. You can get Kellogg cornflakes, complete with the colorful rooster. Maybe I'll get some just to have that nice cheerful rooster around. Al hasn't complained about instant coffee.
I don't know anything about restaurants (don't need to). Don't even remember the word for restaurant, though I looked it up twice. I have seen a few Burger places, and nearby there is a Pizza Obama. There is kosher KFC and kosher Pizza Hut. I haven't tried any ice cream yet. Come summer, I'm sure I will.

Names

Rebecca -רבקה
Sharon - שרון
Jeshurun - ישרון
Caleb - כלב
Albert - אלברט
Ebenezer - אבו-העזר
Mercy - רהמה
That looks good to me. Does it look right to you?

שלם

Shalom. Which means, Peace, Hello, or Goodbye.

Experiment Two

The purpose of these experiments is to learn how to make cookies with no oven, no measuring cups or measuring teaspoons, and few of the good ingredients like vanilla, cinnamon, or chocolate chips.

This time I did even less measuring. I sort of dumped together flour, brown sugar, butter, and eggs. It made a soft dough that should have been chilled, but I had no room in my tiny refrigerator. I flattened them with my fingers and cooked them slowly in a frying pan, thinking that would make them harder. They looked weird and tasted, well, interesting. Better than yesterday's actually.

I could try toaster-oven cookies, but that would require a t-o sized cookie sheet, which I don't have. Or I could buy some pre-made dough. No, that's cheating.

Flower of the day.

Noise and Cookies

It was a noisy day today. First the neighbor's car alarm went off. The past few days it's been going off about 15 times. Today it was only once--for 15 minutes. Then another neighbor played loud music with their windows open. The music itself wasn't bad, but it sounded like a very cheap radio.
I've felt so bad lately, but it finally dawned on me what's wrong--I'm half starved. So I tried to catch up on calories by eating more peas and sweet potatoes. And then today I made cookies. I got a recipe off the internet and looked at it (didn't follow it). It came out something like this.
2 med. or lg. eggs
3-5 tablespoons, or maybe teaspoons sugar
45 grams melted butter
2 table- or some other type spoons milk
0 teaspoons vanilla, since I didn't have any
1.5 to 2 cups white flour, or maybe 5/6 of a large coffee mug
3 to 5 tablespoons chopped pecans
butter for frying
Combine all ingredients, stir with fork. If too sticky, add milk and stir again, which makes it even stickier.
Drop by forkfuls onto preheated, buttered frying pan. After the first batch they won't drop, so get them off your fork any way you can.
Not too bad, really. Not too good, either. Dipping in powdered sugar might help. Or dip them in your tea or something.
The highlight of my day was when a man walking his dog let his dog come and greet me. The dog was friendly, and didn't care what language I spoke to him.
I did put a zero in front of "teaspoons vanilla," but it looks like an "o."
Somehow, I'm craving another of those not-so-good cookies.

Christ Church Coffee Shop

This place has models of Jerusalem in old times. And it's the best place to get the best carrot cake.

The famous Allenby.

If you like jigsaw puzzles you might be able to imagine why I like this picture.

Buildings and towers

Apartments


Yeshurun Synagogue




A windmill, for whatever reason.


Tower of David


A tower


Is that a red cross flag?


St. Domitian


Another view of St. Domitian


The Dome