Warm tide pools - these made me want to swim so badly!
Also in the collection: Moshing Zebras, Sultry Zebra. If you want to see them you'll have to come visit.
N.B. These beautiful flowers :)
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Sunset and Zebras
Also in the collection: Moshing Zebras, Sultry Zebra. If you want to see them you'll have to come visit.
N.B. These beautiful flowers :)
Saturday, February 25, 2012
So that's why...
A couple of things that I've noticed recently:
1) They round everything to the nearest 10 cents (well agorot) here (so you never have smaller change than 10 or 50 agorot. I can't believe I didn't notice this earlier - like 4 months ago. Conversation between Zach and I last week:
Yes I'm so observant -everyone knows that.
2) The dial to set the temperature on our oven is slightly misleading. When you turn it to the number you want, it actually only turns the real dial about 1/3 of that amount (sometimes - other times it seems to work). This explains why it was taking me 45 min to bake 1 sheet of cookies and 3 hours to make bread......
Note - this observation is the inspiration for the post which makes it also the only one for which the title makes any sense. Don't worry about it.
3) There was a stash of framed Zebra pictures in one of the closets in our flat that we had never opened (!) I am currently finding a place for them - you can never have too much zebra.
4) There was also a toilet seat and tank in the same closet. I guess our landlords like to be prepared - you know, in case we destroy the toilet tank or something is that even possible???
5) When I realize that I am locked into something for much longer than I was anticipating (what is: "living in a strange and foreign land"?) I :
a) say -nope! not happening; b) realize that's a stupid reaction and so decide to deny what's happening instead; c) denial >acceptance > panic d) decide that panicking is unproductive (and realize that panicking is spelled with a "ck" but panic is spelled with only a "c"??) e) think - ok, this is awesome! what a great adventure! now I really can learn a new language and fully experience another culture! f) panic again while memorizing "do you have drip coffee?...do you have filter coffee....do you have ANY GOOD COFFEE????? " in Hebrew.
How you are supposed to handle this sort of thing without coffee is completely beyond me.
6) Allow me to paraphrase... "even with coffee this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26. I took it out of context, but whatever - I think Matthew would understand.
7) My beautiful roses lasted forever! The magic flower powder really worked this time. Also, my husband is amazing (ok I lied, I didn't notice this recently, I noticed this a long time ago :) )
Shabbat Shalom!
1) They round everything to the nearest 10 cents (well agorot) here (so you never have smaller change than 10 or 50 agorot. I can't believe I didn't notice this earlier - like 4 months ago. Conversation between Zach and I last week:
me: "whoa! did you know that they round everything here and that is why the smallest change we ever have is a 10? "
Zach: "............."
Yes I'm so observant -everyone knows that.
2) The dial to set the temperature on our oven is slightly misleading. When you turn it to the number you want, it actually only turns the real dial about 1/3 of that amount (sometimes - other times it seems to work). This explains why it was taking me 45 min to bake 1 sheet of cookies and 3 hours to make bread......
Note - this observation is the inspiration for the post which makes it also the only one for which the title makes any sense. Don't worry about it.
3) There was a stash of framed Zebra pictures in one of the closets in our flat that we had never opened (!) I am currently finding a place for them - you can never have too much zebra.
4) There was also a toilet seat and tank in the same closet. I guess our landlords like to be prepared - you know, in case we destroy the toilet tank or something is that even possible???
5) When I realize that I am locked into something for much longer than I was anticipating (what is: "living in a strange and foreign land"?) I :
a) say -nope! not happening; b) realize that's a stupid reaction and so decide to deny what's happening instead; c) denial >acceptance > panic d) decide that panicking is unproductive (and realize that panicking is spelled with a "ck" but panic is spelled with only a "c"??) e) think - ok, this is awesome! what a great adventure! now I really can learn a new language and fully experience another culture! f) panic again while memorizing "do you have drip coffee?...do you have filter coffee....do you have ANY GOOD COFFEE????? " in Hebrew.
How you are supposed to handle this sort of thing without coffee is completely beyond me.
6) Allow me to paraphrase... "even with coffee this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26. I took it out of context, but whatever - I think Matthew would understand.
7) My beautiful roses lasted forever! The magic flower powder really worked this time. Also, my husband is amazing (ok I lied, I didn't notice this recently, I noticed this a long time ago :) )
Shabbat Shalom!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Home
As we were driving home from a day spent in Galilee, it finally hit me - we were driving home. This place that I have thought of as temporary, or as perhaps an extended vacation, now feels normal (well, relatively at least). I am no longer counting down the days until our next Canada home visits and feel much more content to just be.
Getting a job (of sorts) has of course added to this I think. It's funny how when I'm working I wish I could just sit around and do nothing all day...but then given that opportunity (for almost a year!) I realized that I didn't really want that after all :) Given my personality, it is extremely challenging for me to wait around and feel like my life is happening out of my control, and not knowing when or how it will start to change - or if that is just what it is supposed to be like. It is a great learning experience, and definitely important in terms of learning how to live as part of a pair, and learning how to give up control - sometimes :)
Volunteering with the Israeli Hydrological Service is going to be pretty cool I think - I'm already learning new things and getting to exercise that lump of grey mush that has been getting fairly lazy in there ;) After we got here I thought that the only volunteering I would be able to find would be teaching English or something like that. So it is really great to be able to volunteer in my field and keep learning things that will help with the job hunt back in Canada (or wherever we end up next...).
In light of my new research - some pictures from two of the major water sources in Israel....
Banias Falls and Springs:
(fun fact - Banias comes from a mispronunciation of Paneas which was the original city name devoted to the Greek god Pan)
At Tel Dan Nature Reserve -this is the ancient city of Dan (where Abraham went to rescue Lot - bronze age, and where Jeroboam ruled - iron age) and a major source for the Jordan river. This is a wading pool (but we didn't have our towels...)
Zach and a giant pistachio tree
Speaking of counting down the days.. only 16 more days until our Taylor family comes to visit!!! Can't wait to see you guys!
♥ This is my favourite food ever, cooked by my favourite person ever :) Happy Valentines everyone ♥
Getting a job (of sorts) has of course added to this I think. It's funny how when I'm working I wish I could just sit around and do nothing all day...but then given that opportunity (for almost a year!) I realized that I didn't really want that after all :) Given my personality, it is extremely challenging for me to wait around and feel like my life is happening out of my control, and not knowing when or how it will start to change - or if that is just what it is supposed to be like. It is a great learning experience, and definitely important in terms of learning how to live as part of a pair, and learning how to give up control - sometimes :)
Volunteering with the Israeli Hydrological Service is going to be pretty cool I think - I'm already learning new things and getting to exercise that lump of grey mush that has been getting fairly lazy in there ;) After we got here I thought that the only volunteering I would be able to find would be teaching English or something like that. So it is really great to be able to volunteer in my field and keep learning things that will help with the job hunt back in Canada (or wherever we end up next...).
In light of my new research - some pictures from two of the major water sources in Israel....
Banias Falls and Springs:
(fun fact - Banias comes from a mispronunciation of Paneas which was the original city name devoted to the Greek god Pan)
At Tel Dan Nature Reserve -this is the ancient city of Dan (where Abraham went to rescue Lot - bronze age, and where Jeroboam ruled - iron age) and a major source for the Jordan river. This is a wading pool (but we didn't have our towels...)
Zach and a giant pistachio tree
Speaking of counting down the days.. only 16 more days until our Taylor family comes to visit!!! Can't wait to see you guys!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Ezekiel 1:28
"Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him..."
Driving through the Jezreel Valley
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Cinnamon Rolls with Coffee Frosting mmmm
I recently got a tad bit addicted to Pinterest. Among other things it has many delicious recipes - and I found an amazing one for sticky buns - so amazing that we may have eaten an entire pan in a few days (good thing I divided the recipe into 3)
The original recipe can be found here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/ I divided it into 3 because I decided that making 7 pans of buns was just slightly more than 2 people can eat before falling into a sugar coma.
This recipe (below) makes 1 13x9 glass pan worth of buns - but you can make them in those metal disposable pans too (and bonus, you don't have to clean them after).
The final product, I want to eat one again right now.
Scald the first 3 ingredients (milk, oil, sugar) then let rest until lukewarm (not hot) about 45 min if your home is as ice cold as mine is. Scald=heat until just before boiling point
add in the yeast, let sit for a bit to proof (if it's too hot you're going to kill all the yeast)
stir in the 2 ⅔ C flour, cover and let rise in a warm place for about an hour
add the ⅓ C flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and stir together (use the handle of the wooden spoon if neccessary)
at this point you can use the dough right away or store it in the fridge for later.
Note - the dough may be super soft and sticky - just go with it and use lots of flour for rolling out.
Flour a large surface and shape the dough into a rough rectangle, then roll out into a rectangle that is about 1/4inch thick or so.
Pour the melted butter over the surface and sprinkle with sugar and LOTS of cinnamon. (you can subsitute some brown sugar too for the white sugar), roll up the dough into a tight snake, starting from the long edge, don’t worry about the filling oozing out - eat it :)
pinch the seam, and then cut into rolls about 1inch thick with a sharp knife.
Pour enough melted butter to cover the bottom of the baking pan (about 2tbsp for a large glass pan), and arrange the rolls inside (they will probably look really gross at this point if they are anything like mine - mine never ever look like the blog pictures that I'm trying to follow).
Preheat the oven to 400F and let them rise for about 30min (covered - use seran to save your towels from a sugary/buttery disaster) then bake for 15-18min until light brown
Frosting:
Mix all ingredients together - adjust icing sugar and milk as neccessary to get the desired consistency. It should be thick, but pourable. When the rolls come out of the oven, cover the entire thing in icing - all over and make sure it goes down the edges too - this makes them delicious!
The original recipe can be found here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/ I divided it into 3 because I decided that making 7 pans of buns was just slightly more than 2 people can eat before falling into a sugar coma.
This recipe (below) makes 1 13x9 glass pan worth of buns - but you can make them in those metal disposable pans too (and bonus, you don't have to clean them after).
The final product, I want to eat one again right now.
| Buns Ingredients 1 ⅓ C milk ⅓ C veg. oil ⅓ C sugar 1 tsp active dry yeast 2 ⅔ C flour plus ⅓ C extra ⅓ tsp baking powder (heaping) ⅓ tsp baking soda (scant) ⅓ Tbsp salt (heaping) Filling (you can estimate here): ½ C melted butter (ish - enough to cover dough -I didn't actually measure this) ⅔ C sugar cinnamon | Frosting 300 g icing sugar ⅔ tsp maple flavour or vanilla extract ⅙ C milk 1/12 C melted butter (1/3 of ¼) 1/12 C brewed coffee eyeball the icing - this just gives an idea for ratios and the approximate amount - makes a bit more than you really need - the ridiculous volumes are due to dividing the original recipe in three, so just estimate - you can't really screw up icing. It always tastes good - the coffee makes this one especially good |
Scald the first 3 ingredients (milk, oil, sugar) then let rest until lukewarm (not hot) about 45 min if your home is as ice cold as mine is. Scald=heat until just before boiling point
add in the yeast, let sit for a bit to proof (if it's too hot you're going to kill all the yeast)
stir in the 2 ⅔ C flour, cover and let rise in a warm place for about an hour
add the ⅓ C flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and stir together (use the handle of the wooden spoon if neccessary)
at this point you can use the dough right away or store it in the fridge for later.
Note - the dough may be super soft and sticky - just go with it and use lots of flour for rolling out.
Flour a large surface and shape the dough into a rough rectangle, then roll out into a rectangle that is about 1/4inch thick or so.
Pour the melted butter over the surface and sprinkle with sugar and LOTS of cinnamon. (you can subsitute some brown sugar too for the white sugar), roll up the dough into a tight snake, starting from the long edge, don’t worry about the filling oozing out - eat it :)
pinch the seam, and then cut into rolls about 1inch thick with a sharp knife.
Pour enough melted butter to cover the bottom of the baking pan (about 2tbsp for a large glass pan), and arrange the rolls inside (they will probably look really gross at this point if they are anything like mine - mine never ever look like the blog pictures that I'm trying to follow).
Preheat the oven to 400F and let them rise for about 30min (covered - use seran to save your towels from a sugary/buttery disaster) then bake for 15-18min until light brown
Frosting:
Mix all ingredients together - adjust icing sugar and milk as neccessary to get the desired consistency. It should be thick, but pourable. When the rolls come out of the oven, cover the entire thing in icing - all over and make sure it goes down the edges too - this makes them delicious!
Re-typing out these ingredients made me realize just how much sugar I've eaten in the past 3 days. Yikes.
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