Tu Bishvat or SuperBowl.

Tu Bishvat or SuperBowl.

Thе story happened to me many years ago. I would rather to write this story on Russian and for those who prefer on English, please use Google Translation Service

Каждый раз перед Superbowl эта история вспоминается мне. Сама история произошла более чем 10 лет тому назад. Каждый раз перед Superbowl я думаю, что важнее еврейские традиции или американская культура? Может быть и то и другое важно...

Еще до приезда евреев из Советского Союза, американское еврейство было УБЕЖДЕНО, что в Советском Союзе никто не помнит ни о каких обычаях, да и евреи мы только по паспорту. По приезде в Америку каждая еврейская община НАСТОЙЧИВО заботилась о том, чтобы многие из нас познакомились с древними обычаями. Часто американские евреи даже не подозревали и не подозревают, что о многом мы уже знаем, и многие обычаи мы соблюдаем. Если честно, то многие американские евреи не знают того, что знаем мы.

Много лет тому назад я познакомилась с американским евреем. Знакомство было достаточно интересным как и сам мужчина. Будучи воспитанной в Советском Союзе, где мы привыкли поздравлять друг друга с праздниками, я подняла трубку телефона, чтобы поздравить его с Tu Bishvat. "Happy Holiday!" - я произнесла. Помолчав несколько секунд он воскликнул: "Superbowl!" Именно в тот год праздник Ti Bishvat совпал с Superbowl. Я удивленно спросила его "Is it a Jewish Holiday?" Он понял, что сделал ошибку. С этого момента я четко поняла, что американские евреи преданно учат нас быть евреями, а сами полностью погружены в американскую культуру.

Как ни говори для многих из них американская культура ближе, чем вековые традиции своего народа. А для меня это стало еще одним американским уроком.

Great-hearted...

Sometimes it's not easy to be Jewish, not always we're proud who we are because none of us is perfect. But there are moments when we are proud to be Jewish. Definetely lately we have plenty of such "great-hearted" moments. I expect, that everybody have already watched this segment on CNN. Anyway, I'm posting video about extraordinary in all means Israeli hospital in Haiti. Please feel free to watch it.

Happy New Year!

My Happy New Year wish for you
Is for your best year yet,
A year where life is peaceful,
And what you want, you get.
A year in which you cherish
The past year’s memories,
And live your life each new day,
Full of bright expectancies.
I wish for you a holiday
With happiness galore;
And when it’s done, I wish you
Happy New Year, and many more.

By Joanna Fuchs




Last month I was very busy reengineering website for a very interesting company UDSUS, Inc.
I hope, you would like my work. Please, visit the site and let me know what you think.

Rose's Tips for Cake Baking

Rose's Tips for Cake Baking It's quite interesting and useful. Let's have fun with cakes!

My home grown tomatoes

Hava Nagila on Ukrainian

Passover Seder

Happy New Year!

Stop taking ourselves so seriously!

Let's have more laughter and fewer tears,

less exclusion and more acceptance,

less pretense and more authenticity,

less anger and more hope,

less argument and more collaboration,

less anxiety and more fun,

less hatred and more peace,

less judgment and more compassion,

less blame and more responsibility,

less whining and more accountability,

less deceit and more truth,

less fear and more love,

less effort and more ease,

less stress and more peace.

Hanukkah slideshow

New York's Times Hanukkah slideshow

A bagel is a round bread

The Jewish bagel’s probably birthplace is Poland. The first known reference to the bagel among Jews in Poland, Ms. Balinska writes, precedes the battle of Vienna by seven decades. It is found, she says, in regulations issued in Yiddish in 1610 by the Jewish Council of Krakow outlining how much Jewish households were permitted to spend in celebrating the circumcision of a baby boy – “to avoid making gentile neighbors envious, and also to make sure poorer Jews weren’t living above their means.” The origin of the word “bagel” is ultimately unclear, but many experts agree, she says, that it comes from the Yiddish beigen, to bend.

Read more about bagels and bagel's recipes

The world's greatest baking tips

All baking has huge costs you can't escape: fuel to heat the oven, all the time you dedicate, and ingredients that aren't so affordable any more. So I delved into my address book and spoke to some of the great talents out there to see what they advise, and the response was huge; especially from those baker / writers in the US who for years have encouraged people to tackle challenging recipes rather than hide from any complexity and just passively consume. So here are their top baking tips from around the world just for you.

United States
1. From the US I turned to Shirley O Corriher, the scientist turned kitchen sleuth I most admire, and her new book Bakewise is honestly the only one I've waited patiently for. For Corriher, getting cakes and cookies to last that bit longer helps when you have to stretch the budget, and she told me how science helps. "Just substitute an equal measure of vegetable oil for a third of the butter in your cake or muffin recipe and this helps to keep them moist. The reason: oil greases the flour proteins better than butter and prevents gluten forming, so leaving more water in the batter." Brilliant, and it saves money on butter too.

2. It's cool to be accurate. Though baking appears all bish-bash-bosh, the key to achieving those extraordinary loaves is all in the detail. Jim Lahey, the king of New York bakers at the Sullivan Street Bakery, says: "Measure precisely. This will avoid unnecessary mistakes and bad food. Don't open your oven door while you're goods are cooking. If you have leftover ends of bread, try to convert them into another dish. In these new lean times it's better that we waste nothing."

3. Rose Levy Beranbaum at realbakingwithrose.com, the top baking author in the US with The Cake Bible and blog advice pioneer suggested making life easier for others is the kindest thing to offer. "When you give home baked cakes include the baking tin and recipe. Ideally, cakes should be long-keeping ones, especially ones with a liqueur or lemon syrup. Cool the cake completely. Wash and dry the pan in which it was baked and coat the interior lightly with sunflower oil or non-stick spray. Return the cake to the pan, wrap it tightly with clear plastic film then finally cover it with beautiful gift paper."

4. The über chic Dorie Greenspan, author of Baking: From My Home to Yours goes for boldness at Christmas. "Bake big, it saves both time and money. My best go-to sweet is what we call a Bundt cake, a kind butter cake. It's quick to make and beautiful as the shape of the pan does all the decorating for you; and if it's cut in thin slices – what most people want – you can stretch a Bundt to serve 16 or more."

5. Before you launch into baking breads or cakes after googling for a recipe, it's essential to check if it's from a good reliable source. This doesn't mean they have to be famous, but check for site reviews, comments and helpful pictures. Sarah Phillips at baking911.com, home to some of the best baking know-how on the net says, "Be really careful with some of the recipes online from unnamed sources simply because most of them do not work. Rely on experts, it will save you money."

6. Like exquisite couture, the most impressive baking usually has good taste and simplicity at its heart. David Lebovitz, the savvy American in Paris who writes about chocolate, ice-cream and life's other essentials, reminded me of that one important piece of advice. "Keep it simple. Not only will you use fewer ingredients, but it'll be less work. A great spice cake with a scoop of ice cream is just as appealing as a multi-layered extravaganza. To jazz it up, add a drizzle of caramel sauce." Just keep it simple.

7. Sometimes you can spend to save, especially if you have room in your cupboards to store ingredients. Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito from Baked NYC in Brooklyn, authors of Baked: New Frontiers in Baking and the handsomest purveyors of sweet love in New York told me, "Buy a good quality chocolate in bulk form, rather than expensive 100g bars, and just break it up yourself. Also, avoid recipes that need expensive ingredients and make more use of caramel: an easy combo of sugar, water and cream."

8. "My advice would be much more about charity at in this difficult time," says Jeffrey Hamelman, who's book Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes really is the bible for serious breadheads worldwide. "Rather than bake less this Christmas season, bake just a little more than you think you need. Surely a neighbour or local food charity would be delighted with the unexpected gift."

9. Bread can be a beautiful gift too. I asked Peter Reinhart, the best-selling bread expert and author of Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavour. "Sweet fruit breads like German stollen or the Greek Christosomos make wonderful, relatively inexpensive gifts. And, most importantly, they are always appreciated as a gift from the heart, and symbolize the nativity of Christ and the gifts of the Magi." Certainly, it shows more thought than a plastic something.

England
10. For Yotam Ottolenghi, a little creativity with flavours can make the most of the most unlikely ingredients. "Take plum pudding, you can crumble it into a simple biscotti mixture instead of using dried fruit and it gives a very rich, gently spiced accent to the biscuit. Same with leftover fruit mince, fold it though vanilla or yoghurt ice-cream and the combination works really well."

11. "I'll be making lots of mini cheese scones for the freezer, so handy at Christmas", said Gerhard Jenne, the baker patron from Konditor and Cook. "Then if you have people calling by you can rustle up snacks with a little smoked salmon, or if you make herb ones you can serve them with small cups of hot soup. Even if you don't make your own soup it's nice to add you own little touch."

12. For John Rolfe, the founder of Jamie Oliver's Flour Station bakery and now baking bread at the home of the best sourdough pizza in London, Franco Manca the secret is to soft moist crumb is simple. "Put some cooked mashed potato in your bread dough, it's the quickest way to add moistness and softness to the crumb and it's literally as cheap as chips. Or if you have leftover chestnut puree that works really well too. Surprisingly, it wont turn you bread heavy and you can still get a great crisp crust."

Scotland
13. Flour holds the spirit of the bread you bake, but it's odd how we then expect miracles from the cheapest we can find. Robert Winters at the Tapa Bakery in Glasgow, the home of great sourdough in Scotland, says the best tip starts with the flour you use. "Don't worry about saving money of the flour you buy, because even at it's most expensive its still good value. Find a stoneground flour, preferably wholemeal wheat or rye, and add that to your dough. You'll gain so much flavour that way."

14. For the respected Scots food historian Catherine Brown, now is the time to stir up a few forgotten traditions and reawaken the practice of simple hard biscuits like oatcakes. "If they're made well and given a good firing, oatcakes taste perfect on their own. I go a bit mad and make maybe a 100 at a time - cut into big triangles - as this makes best use of the oven. This way you've got them all winter, and you can have them with soup or crowdie."

Ireland
15. Keep a look out during the year for interesting decorative boxes to pack gifts into, and then squirrel them away in a cupboard. Rachel Allen, the new star of Market Kitchen and author of Bake told me that a little planning is all that's needed to turn a simple recipe into a beautiful gift. "Keep a look out when you travel, then make a recipe that suits the style of the container. I picked up some beautiful decorative tins from a shop in Paris, and I'm going to make some delicate butter biscuits to go inside them. This is the just the kind of present I'd love to receive at Christmas."

France
16. When it comes to good bread, don't think quick; instead encourage a slow undisturbed rise for the dough - forget about airing cupboards and hot water bottles. Arguably the finest artisan baker in the world, Eric Kayser told me that there really is one piece of advice any aspiring baker must to repeat to themselves over and over. "Time and rest are all that the dough needs to rise and become good bread. Keep the yeast to a minimum and do other things while the flavour and texture mature."

17. "As we say in French: en cuisine on ne jette rien (in the kitchen, we don't throw anything away)," says Pascale Weeks, author of Cadeaux Gourmands, and the blogger at scally.typepad.com who suggests making the best use of your freezer. "When I make pastry, I always line tartlets cases with the leftovers, which I then freeze. When I'm alone for lunch I can then bake a small quiche for myself. When I use yolks for petits pots de crème au chocolat for example, I freeze the whites. I can use them after to make financiers, petits moelleux aux chocolat or amaretti."

18. Most cookie dough can be chilled in logs and kept in the fridge, which means that you can simply slice and bake what you need. Clotilde Dusoulier from chocolateandzucchini.com says that tradition doesn't have to be sacrificed to make life a little easier this way. "When I was little, we would make cut-out Christmas cookies, but when I'm pressed for time I use the same recipe and use the slice-and-bake method. I roll the edges in unrefined cane sugar for a festive effect, and nobody's ever complained."

19. For Fanny Zanotti in the Côte d'Azur, the talent behind the beautiful idea-packed foodbeam.com the stark realties of baking needn't stop you if you're careful. "Baking can turn into an expensive hobby, especially if you're anything like me: super-conscious about the ingredients' quality. To keep costs on the lower side, my best advice is to stay seasonal. Autumn and winter can seem a little sparse when it comes to harvests but … consider it a challenge and make your best to tingle your imagination." Think apples, pears, quinces, and dress them up with jams and a little brandy.

20. Getting more done with less seems daunting, but sometimes a little planning helps. "One ingredient, one oven, two recipes", says baking blogger Sandra Avital.

"Try making a couple of different kinds of cookies: one using only egg yolks, the second using only whites then bake both the same day, in the same hour, even at the same time to make the best use of the oven." This cuts fuel costs and probably saves time too.

Australia and New Zealand
21. Donna Hay advises every harassed cooks to go-easy after the Christmas dinner, lighter on the stomach and more likely to leave everyone with a sweet memory. "My version of a bread and butter pudding has a festive spin but it's easier to cook than Christmas cake or pudding, uses less ingredients and takes less time to put together, saving you effort, money and time." says Donna. "Just use good-quality brioche soaked in brandy-spiked custard, sprinkle it with brandy-soaked muscatels and top it with demerara sugar to form a crunchy crust. It's a winner in my house!"

22. The great daddy of artisan baking in Australia is John Downes, the guy who started the sourdough movement down-under during the 70s. His Natural Tucker Bread Book (1983) was the prescient handbook for hardcore bakers and is still relevant today. John tells me "if you've been saying all year, 'gee, I'd love to try making a sourdough but I don't have the time' then Christmas is perfect," says John, "because you're in the house, warm but not too hot, around to nurture it through those delicate first steps.

23. For Dean Brettschnieder, the NZ artisan baker and author of The Global Baker, the best advice is more of an idea for life rather than a baking tip. "This year I'm in Shanghai for Christmas. What I'm going to do is make a batch of butter shortbread flavoured with dried cranberries and orange zest, and plan to wrap these as beautifully as I can and give them to the people in my life here who might otherwise have been incidental but, if I'm really honest, have helped me enormously through the last year."

Canada
24. The best way to give your creativity the support it needs is to get organised. Rather than restricting your style, it will give you the freedom to express yourself. Elizabeth Baird, author of The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book and food editor of the magazine reminded me that, however obvious it sounds, we all forget sometimes. "It's those simple things. Plan ahead so you have all the ingredients fresh and ready to bake. Read the recipe first so you don't forget an all-important ingredient. Then enjoy the whole process - the great aromas, the first taste and the fun of sharing something you've made."

25. I first tasted the sourdough breads of artisan baker Cliff Leir, made with the rare Red Fife wheat, at the Slow Food Terra Madre in 2006, and remember being struck with their extraordinary flavour. I spoke with him as he was setting up Fol Epi, his new bakery on Vancouver Island's Dockside Green, and asked what his tip was for getting some of that flavour at home. "Try making your bread dough the day with just a tiny amount of yeast and let it ferment slowly overnight. Actually, as the nights are cold you can just put the dough in a covered bowl on the back porch rather than using the fridge. It's really sweet that way as you work with the elements."

26. "The economy may be harsh and cold on either side of the pond", says Marcy Goldman, editor of betterbaking.com "but home baking helps us feel warm and reassured. It's no wonder we bake as we do at holiday times and with a Scrooge-like market, all the more reason. The first thing I do is sleuth out butter on sale and squirrel away many blocks of unsalted (sweet) butter as I can. Butter is the basenote, as it were, in baking and having lots on hand is inspiring - but its best to find at a great price. I also refresh my spices. It's funny how people dive into baking for the holidays, without thinking twice about using ages-old cinnamon or cloves. Fresh spices and fresh baking powder is the key."

Norway
27. Gunn Borrowman, my favourite Norwegian making utterly perfect cakes up in the Cairngorms at Inshriach Nursery, gave this advice, "Add a small amount of ground almonds to your cakes if you want them to stay moist. I sometimes replace all of the flour in cake recipes with ground almonds, and customers are so surprised you can get something gluten free and so good. "

Sweden
28. Johan Sörberg, the award-winning artisan baker at Riddarbageriet in Stockholm told me that very simple rye breads, not much more that rye flour, salt and water mixed to a firm dough and rolled ultra thinly, are almost a Christmas tradition in Sweden. "You can't get easier than that," says Johan, "and flavoured with anise, black pepper or caraway, cut into "gingerbread" men, and baked till crisp they can be hung from the tree, and then eaten with the meal with soft cheese."

29. From baking maestro Jan Hedh, the skill behind Peter's Yard in Edinburgh, and the authority on Swedish baking: don't overlook the breadth of flavour your can get from a little yeast and good flour. "If you're stuck for time, stirring a pinch of yeast into an equal quantity of flour and water and leave it somewhere cool for a week; then use it in place of the same quantities of flour and water in the recipe. This will act as a powerful flavour enhancer and ferment. It's not sourdough, but it's the next best thing."

Denmark
30. Camilla Plum is to Denmark what Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is to Britain, one of the few celebrities willing to stand up to the supermarkets and challenge consumers without worrying about being loveable. The key difference is that Camilla is an exceptional baker as well. Her advice is wise. "If you don't buy any kind of ready-made food, just for a week, but actually cook yourself … you'll save a lot of money. And this you can use for real butter, lots of currants and raisins, lovely fresh vanilla pods and cardamom.

Printed from Guardian

Ivanka Trump's Giur. Do you believe it?

Ivanka Trump has begun the process to convert to Judaism.
The daughter of real estate tycoon Donald Trump began the conversion process at Kehilath Jeshurun, an Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s East Side, Ynet reported Oct. 31.
Trump, 27, is engaged to Jewish businessman Jared Kushner. A former model, she is the vice president of real estate development and acquisitions for her father’s Trump Organization.
The couple will wed next year.
Source JTA

Jews and Obama: hopes for CHANGE

Despite the tense rift between Republican and Democratic Jews over the course of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, exit polls on Tuesday showed that Barack Obama received about 77 percent of the Jewish vote Read (English)

«Предварительные результаты голосования потрясают, — говорит Айра Форман, исполнительный директор Национального еврейского демократического совета. — Но нам нужно увидеть окончательные цифры». Read (Russian)

Are we ready for a better HEALTH CARE system? Is he going to do? REMEMBER: CLINTONS BROKE THE PROMISE, and now...

Are we ready for new and better jobs, which will create stability in our life? Is he going to do? REMEMBER: WE NEED JOBS!

kasha is never better than when made this way

Kasha, toasted hulled buckwheat, is not what you would call versatile. But kasha varnishkes — kasha, noodles (typically bow ties), loads of slow-cooked onions and fat — is an amazing dish, one I used to beg my grandmother and mother to make for me, one that shows kasha in a light that does not shine on it elsewhere, at least in my repertory. Read, make and enjoy it

Is the Great Jew back in Fashion?..

How can he help us in difficult financial times? Why do some people look for the answers in his books?

Publisher Karl-Dietz said it sold 1,500 copies of "Das Kapital" this year - up from the 200 it usually sells annually. Written in 1867, sales of the tome rarely hit double digits but have been on the rise since 2005.

Read and think English and Russian

Caviar, caviar, and again caviar....

I would like to post information for those who REALLY enjoy a black caviar.

for Russian-speaking readers: BBC News

For English-speaking readers: Yahoo

Holocaust and Your vote....

“America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight.” - movie "The American President"

Here's the article for Russian-speaking visitors

Here's an info on English

Bergson, FDR and the Holocaust

Kosher Wars

ONE SUNNY DAY in late August, Andy Kastner made the short drive from his apartment in Riverdale, in the Bronx, to Yonkers First Live Poultry Market, a narrow cinder-block shop that sells live chickens, pigeons, quail and rabbits stacked in ancient-looking metal cages. At Yonkers First, workers usually slaughter and butcher the animals for customers, but Kastner was there because he wanted to kill his own chickens.

Read more

Cleaning Up After the Holidays.

Here are some good hints & cleaning tips, which might be helpful for you:

• Alternative Cleaners and Recipes


• Natural Cleaning Recipes


• Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things
  

We need a CHANGE!!!

Cook for Rosh Hashanah

Here are some excellent sites full of recipes and ideas for anyone who wants to celebrate Holidays in STYLE:

• NY Times


• All recipes


• Montreal Gazette


• SF Gate

Plus honey-cake recipes I tried:

• Walnut Dry Fruits Honey Cake


• Applesauce Honey Cake

"Heartwarming" Sarah Palin...

“America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight.” - movie "The American President"

Yes, America is not easy. Every four years we vote for next American President, and every four years we have to CHOOSE someone, who will understand us. Listening to Sarah Palin, I ask myself, if she UNDERSTANDS us, citizens of USA... Please, think before you will cast the vote!

Some readings on Russian and English.
Politico.com
Lenta.ru

Cold season is coming

Let's talk about immune boosters...

I found several reputable articles on Internet.
Here they are:

1. Project Foodie
2. Care2
3. Dr.David Williams
4. Vegetarian Times

More problems and more decisions...

Decisions have never been easy, especially if we are talking about relocations... One small city and ONE BIG problem: not enough Jews. I think, for some ones this solution will work. Make sure, there is no an IDEAL solution for any problem.

Honey in Kiev...

Holidays are coming...

The posting about honey in Kiev (Honey in Lavra) brought a lot of memories... because I'm from Kasrilevke (60 miles from Kiev) No matter how many years we live in America and how americanized in a good sense we are, according to Sholem Aleichem, we're still from one of the most famous Jewish places in the world.

Picture from Yiddishe Lady

Я родилась и выросла в Житомире(Касриловка) и конечно мне было приятно увидеть небольшое сообщение о Киеве. Я думаю, что многим будет приятно прочитать об этом...

More fiber in Jewish diet

You may be wonder how to bring more fiber into daily menu... It's easy, if you like CHICKPEAS. Enjoy easy recipe from NY Times (watch video for the clear directions)

Chickpea Salad With Ginger
Time: 10 minutes with precooked chickpeas


1 tablespoon cumin seeds or ground cumin, 3 cups cooked or canned chickpeas (rinse canned ones), 2 bell peppers, red, yellow or orange; cored, seeded and diced, 1 red onion, diced, 1 1-inch piece ginger, peeled and minced, or more to taste, 1 tablespoon sugar, optional, 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped fresh cilantro leaves.

1. In a dry pan, toast cumin seeds over medium-low heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Grind to a powder using a spice mill, coffee grinder or mortar and pestle. If using ground cumin, lightly toast.

2. In a large bowl, toss all ingredients but cilantro. (You can prepare dish up to this point in advance; let sit for up to 2 hours.)

3. Taste and add more salt, pepper or lemon juice if you like, garnish with cilantro, and serve.

Yield: 4 servings.

"Чемодан – аэропорт – Касриловка!"

Are we coming back?..(This posting for Russian-speaking Jews)

Сегодня аналитики на www.zahav.ru опубликовали статью, которая будет интересна многим. Несколько лет тому назад многие бы просто отмахнулись от этой темы. Сегодня - это для некоторых актуально.

К этому могу добавить еще одну довольно резкую статью

Для меня интересен один вопрос: "Почему эта ситуация сложилась именно в Израиле?"

Do you want a woman-boss?..

Recently some numbers came out of Pew Research center Let's believe these numbers will bring some GOOD changes for the world. Make sure, not every woman can be a good leader. Be aware of the bad ones (from personal experience)!

Едим дома....

Все хотят домашней еды, все хотят быстро, вкусно и без лишних хлопот... Если ее знаменитый муж обожает ее стряпню, может быть и мы найдем интересные рецепты.

Я готова выслушать Ваше мнение...

Yiddish accent... and shiksa

Source

Holidays are Coming...

I Wish Your Wish...The wishes of various people are printed on textile ribbons, which relate to the church Nosso Senhor do Bonfim in São Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The ribbons are worn around the wrist where they are tied with three knots. A wish is made as each knot is tied. According to the tradition, the wishes come true when the ribbons tear apart and fall off the wrist. Visitors are welcome to take a ribbon and leave a wish behind. Wishes are collected and used to print new ribbons for the wall.

I have a wish! I just need someone to wear a ribbon with my wish printed on it!

Do you have a wish?...

I have already found people with a wish to help "I wish my family will never be hurt again"

The Best Opinion I found so far: "Why men like John Edwards cheat"

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach - Sunday, 10 August, 2008
From Jerusalem Post

The outrage over John Edward's admitted affair with a filmmaker transcends what we have seen with most recent sex scandals. This partly results from his repeated denials of the affair. Much more important, of course, is the fact that it took place while his wife was battling cancer. The two of them had already dealt with the tragedy of losing a teenage son, and the public is furious that Edwards caused his wife, who agreed to campaign for him even after being diagnosed with incurable bone cancer, more pain.
Why, people want to know, do men who have it all like John Edwards throw away their blessings? Why, when they have wives who will do everything for them, is it still never enough? The answer is that men who cheat do not do so because they don't love their wives but because they hate themselves. It's not that their wives are uncaring but because their perforated sense-of-self is immune to affection. Were their wives to shower them with all the love in the world, it would simply seep through the broken shards of their shattered egos.
When asked about the affair last year by the media, Edwards denied it, saying, "It's completely untrue, ridiculous. I've been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years and, as anybody who's been around us knows, she's an extraordinary human being, warm, loving, beautiful, sexy and as good a person as I have ever known. So the story's just false."
The form of his denial should have been a red flag. Men do not refrain from cheating because they have special wives, but because they have a commitment to moral behavior and righteous action.

Men today feel like failures. Immersed as they are in a hyper-competitive culture that makes them feel like they are valuable only through external achievement, they nurse a lifelong feeling of anonymity and insignificance. That gnawing insecurity becomes the very engine of their success. Thus, they reason to themselves: If I become a rich trial lawyer and get invited into high society, I'll be important. Oh wait. That happened and I still feel like a failure. Time to become a senator. Okay, I did that, and I still don't feel fulfilled. Let's go for the gold, president. But all that attention and power will never make these men feel like they matter because it's being pumped straight into a black hole. There is no bottom to their low self-esteem.
ONCE YOU make a man's ego dependent not on the love he gets from his family but on the adoration he gets from crowds, he transfers the locus of his self-esteem away from his intimate circle to a fickle public. His need for public validation becomes an addiction. The wife cannot make him feel good about himself because, he reasons to himself, if he is a great big nothing, the woman dumb enough to marry him, however virtuous and accomplished, is an even bigger loser than he is. The wife is unwittingly punished for her devotion.
And that's where you see great men becoming susceptible to affairs. It is specifically the woman to whom they are not married, the one that has not been devalued through a merger with a failure, that can make him feel consequential.
Edwards practically admitted as much in the statement he released admitting to the affair: "In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up - feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself."
The egocentrism and narcissism to which he confesses are always the hallmark of the broken American male who mistakenly believes that ephemeral attention is an adequate substitute for intimate love. Fractured males always beat themselves up, whether they succeed or fail. The irony, of course, is that he was always special. He always had a wife and children who loved him. But like so many successful men, it still wasn't enough to make him feel unique. No, it took the adoration of the crowds and the compliments of complete strangers, to make him feel unique.
Why not his family? Because men who feel like nothing see their families as impoverished extensions of their own nothingness. They requite external validation to become a somebody.
AMERICA WITNESSED the same tragic error with Bill Clinton. The most powerful man in the world needed the ego boost of feeling desirable to a 20-something intern. External accoutrements, however grand, are always a poor substitute for authentic self-regard. Elliot Spitzer followed suit by throwing his career away with a high-class call girl. A woman who is so desirable that a night with her can set you back a thousand dollars can make a guy feel like a million bucks.
Far from judging Edwards, my heart goes out to him. His is an American tragedy. Every day hundreds of millions of Americans go to work believing that what they do in the office will be more central to determining success than what they do at home, that impressing the boss is more important than keeping your wife off Prozac and your kids off the streets. But are you a success in life if the people who mean the most to you think the least of you?
When Edwards announced in a press conference that he would continue seeking the nomination of the Democratic party for president despite his wife's metastasizing cancer, Elizabeth Edwards, who is universally admired by Americans, announced that she supported the decision because she did not want her children to believe that they had to give up their lives when faced with difficult battles.
True enough.
But perhaps an even more important lesson to the convey to our children is that what will truly make them special in life is not becoming president but being committed and loving family members who always put each other first.

Do you want to be?...

Recently Forbes-magazine published a VERY interesting article, which can be interesting for those who like cooking and baking and especially for those who like to be in front of the camera.

Enjoy reading

"Who doesn’t risk never gets to drink champagne" (The very IMPORTANT kitchen talk)

"Who doesn’t risk never gets to drink champagne" (The very IMPORTANT kitchen talk)

I know, not many people would want to read my posting, but I really want some of you think about it. I'm taking a risk to shpil away about an old dilemma.Recently I came across the article in JewishSF, which is both interesting and controversial.

If many years ago Jewish women used to complain about a requirement to be a "Jewish shiksa", nowadays they consider non-Jewish men over Jewish ones. Is it the end of the tribe? There is no doubt, Jewish women are quite sensitive to a social atmosphere.

It looks to me, it's always about men and their egos. It's always about THEIR respect and disrespect of an honorable idea "to be married and be a family man". For women, it's ONLY about finding a RIGHT one. Let's think about simple interpretation of the "family". The very first thought, which comes to my head, is that FAMILY is about woman and man and their respectful relationship. Don't worry, I don't forget word "LOVE", because LOVE begins with respect. Somehow, living in DEMOCRATIC society, WE are losing RESPECT to each other. It's not a bold statement; it's an idea, which stirs us to a wrong direction. And as usual, it's up to us, if we want to follow this path or change a direction.

Now we just have to find out, how RESPECT works... (I welcome any input!)

Holidays are coming

We have some time to be prepared for the Holiday season.

How to find a good honey? It's not easy, but it's possible.

Please, visit Honey Locator

Think about it...

Please read something interesting and discussed with your family and friends.
Recently some of the social websites, such as http://www.facebook.com/ or http://www.odnoklassniki.ru/, became exclusively popular among Internet users. Therefore information flows from homes, families, and friendly circles and accidentally it ends up in a wrong places. I would like to warn you about some BAD habits, which each of us can experience. Please be careful!

I would like to offer some info about social websites posted by Israeli Army
For Russian-speaking readers: Channel 7

For English-speaking readers: BBC

Moreover, For Russian-speaking readers I would like to recommend a quite interesting information from Russian consulate in USA

In Season: Blueberries

Blueberry Health Benefits: From research labs all across the country and the world, there is growing evidence that blueberries are an important part of a healthy diet.

Chana Rubin about blueberries
Serious Eats about blueberries
Cheese blintzes with blueberry sauce

Blueberry Bonanza: Part 1
Blueberry Bonanza: Part 2
Blueberry Bonanza: Part 3


Blueberry Buns (Shritzlach)

Source: This recipe is adapted from the one used by Toronto's Open Window Bakery.
Yield: Makes 8 buns

For dough:
1 package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. vegetable shortening
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla

For Filling:
2 cups (1 pint) fresh or thawed frozen blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp. corn starch dissolved in 1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp. salt
1 beaten egg plus 1 tsp. water for egg wash
Sugar for sprinkling

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let stand until mixture begins to bubble, about 5 minutes.

Sift together flour, sugar, and salt. Place in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add shortening, yeast and water, eggs and vanilla and beat until dough is smooth. Let stand while preparing filling.

Mix filling ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and let cool.

On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8" thickness. Add flour whenever dough threatens to stick. Cut dough into pieces 5" square.

Place 1 tbsp. of filling in center of square, then fold dough over on top and pinch to close. Pinch ends closed. Cover buns with a towel and let stand 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Brush buns with egg wash and sprinkle tops with sugar. Bake until browned, about 16 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I'm nominated!

Please read about me on JCarrot.org & Alla

I have already received a book and enjoy so much!

What do you think makes the ideal chocolate chip cookie?

Are you ready to bake the best chocolate cookies?

If yes, please read the article in NY Times

Here's a recipe to bake and much more :

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Jacques Torres

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour, 1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour, 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt, 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter, 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar, 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar, 2 large eggs, 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract, 1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content. Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

Note: Disks are sold at Jacques Torres Chocolate; Valrhona fèves, oval-shaped chocolate pieces, are at Whole Foods.

Do you know...

Every time I say "I live in Minneapolis", someone MUST pop up a question "Where is it?" This rhetorical question always gives me a bad time. How to explain someone who lives in a center of universe like NY, LA or SF, that Minneapolis is a city? Usually the convesation would be ended after this question.

Yes, it's a city and there is a Jewish community here. Unfortunately, it's a shrinking one, especially a Russian-speaking side. Looking for love, many people have already left a city hoping to meet a RIGHT ONE. Many people used to say: "If you want to get married, move to NY or LA. Definetely Minnesota is a wrong place."

For many years I could not find the RIGHT answer, but now I found. Today www.yahoo.com posted a very interesting and, even a challenging for many americans info, about best places to build a wealth Surprisingly for everybody, except me, Minneapolis is one of the 5 top cities to build a wealth. Yes, I can live somewhere else, but I feel like a winner, who has the BEST argument against boring people, who is TOO attached to the labels and old standards. I think, after such captivating article many people should consider to move to Minnesota. Minneapolis could be a right place to build a Jewish family.

New York is worst city to build wealth - survey
Monday June 30, 7:19 pm ET

If you'd like to build a nest egg with your paycheck, it may be time to give up New York and head for Plano, Texas. A survey by pay experts at Salary.com evaluated 69 cities with more than 250,000 people and ranked the Big Apple last. Plano came in first among American cities in which to build personal wealth.
The survey, based on census data and Salary.com analysis, focused on local salaries, the cost of living and unemployment. Secondary factors, such as diversity of the local economy, residents' education, percentage of population below poverty level and commute time were also measured.
According to the survey, the top five cities are home to some of the nation's largest companies and have recorded strong periods of growth. Following first-place Plano came Aurora, Colo., Omaha, Neb., Minneapolis, MN and Albuquerque N.M.
New York's diverse economy and highly-educated residents couldn't save it from sinking to the bottom due to its high cost of living and paychecks that just aren't "inflated" enough to make up the difference, the report stated.
Following last-ranked New York were Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Honolulu and San Francisco.

Go Green...

I think, having a couple relax-minutes during Holiday, you might be interested to read about benefits of GREEN TEA.

I know, there are a lot of speculations around this ancient product, but we should try to reexamine our knowledge again. Let's do it!

• Does Green Tea Help the Heart?


• U.S. National Library of Medicine


• 7 Reasons to Drink Green Tea


• Green tea may help prevent skin cancer


• Green tea cuts fatal illness risk


• Is it really healthy for you?

Some recipes to try it! (all of them have already been tested by bakers-bloggers)

• Green tea cheesecake white chocolate brownies


• Green tea cupcakes


• Green tea ice cream


• Green tead shortbread with white chocolate

Your favorite books...

Your favorite books...

How to find a good cooking book or maybe you are looking for a good one...

This time I'm asking a help from you. Each of us has a favorite books, especially a cooking ones. I would like to compile a public list of your well-liked books and post on my blog. Please submit a comment with a name of your favorite cooking book. Your recommendations will be appreciated by all readers.

Healthy Example

"Make sure you have a different opinion and people will talk about you".

What Makes a Good Cookbook?

What Makes a Good Cookbook?
05.23.08

There was a moment of shocked silence when executive editor Doc Willoughby said he’d given away most of his cookbooks. Then all hell broke loose. “You did what?” Ruth Reichl exclaimed. Someone else asked, rather testily, why he hadn’t had a tag sale. Another colleague literally put her head in her hands, while executive food editor Kempy Minifie went straight to the heart of the matter. “How on earth did you choose?” she said.

And that, of course, led to a freewheeling, spirited (and still evolving) discussion about the definition of a good cookbook. Doc wasn’t remotely defensive, but he was adamant: “The recipes have to work,” he said. “Otherwise, I’m not interested.” There should be a Shelf of Shame, we agreed, for books with bad recipes. You might attempt, and fail, at one several times before realizing you’re not to blame—but being disappointed (or disappointing others) at mealtime is no fun.

Sloppily written recipes are one thing, but the overall tone of a cookbook is rather like architecture: You respond to it whether or not you’re aware of it. Want to be taken by the hand and shown how to do something step by step? Julia Child’s your gal. Her great enthusiasm is always corralled by very rigorous, very correct, very French technique. One has to be in the mood. Marcella Hazan’s recipe style is also informative; her reserve stands in contrast to Julia’s ebullience, but at the end of the day, her tone is charming and relaxed in a way that’s typically Italian. This isn’t to say that Marcella isn’t formidable in her own right, but she is more about sharing than teaching. A conversational tone can also take the anxiety out of cooking something that is generally thought of as difficult. Rick Moonen and Roy Finamore do that beautifully in Fish Without A Doubt, the inaugural offering in our Gourmet Cookbook Club. Economical, even terse, recipe writing has its place as well. Take The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book: Although it presupposes a certain level of knowledge (“Make a dough with 2 cups flour and 1 egg, ½ teaspoon salt and water”), it also makes you feel as though you have been invited to a fabulous dinner party—and that’s long before you reach the recipe for a friend’s Haschich Fudge, “which might provide an entertaining refreshment for a Ladies’ Bridge Club or a chapter meeting of the DAR.”

But there is more to a good cookbook than recipes. When pressed, Doc found himself conceding that there are some he treasures simply for the inspiration or sound advice they contain. What speaks to me, I realize, are cookbooks that almost subconsciously have taught me how to understand food, and what flavors and ingredients work together. My enjoyment of food descriptions stretches back to a childhood spent with the Little House on the Prairie series (those books are full of wonderful meals), and continues to this day: The prose has to make me want to eat that food. The author must convince me, for instance, why his or her recipe for panna cotta is better, or more interesting, than all the others that exist in the world. The author should evoke a sense of place, and above all, evoke how people live.
Often, the unsung star of the show is what causes you to stop and read a recipe in the first place: its title. Think of the timeless appeal of Edna Lewis’s books; all it takes is “Thin-Sliced Cucumbers Marinated in Sugar and White Vinegar,” “Skillet Scallions,” and “Blueberry Cake with Blueberry Sauce” to capture the essence of a hot summer day. New York caterers Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, authors of the 1980s blockbuster The Silver Palate Cookbook, were brilliant at giving you a sense of what a dish should taste like with a few well-chosen words—“Chicken Breasts Baked on a Bed of Wild Mushrooms,” “Creamy Pasta Sauce with Fresh Herbs,” “American Picnic Potato Salad.” These are the sort of cookbooks I like to read, prone on the sofa, on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

An imaginative cookbook might lead me to a novel, and sometimes I find myself greedily absorbed in both, practically simultaneously. The Silver Palate, for instance, always makes me think of Laurie Colwin, whose work I discovered at the same time. Another perennial favorite, Jane Grigson’s masterful Good Things, reminds me of the plain, elegant writing of Barbara Pym and even that of Eliza Acton, in Modern Cookery for Private Families—as engaging today as it was in 1845, when it was first published. “Cut the cauliflowers into small handsome tufts, boil them until three parts done, and drain them well,” Eliza writes. “…When they are quite cold, dip them separately into the batter … fry them a light brown, arrange them neatly in a dish, and serve them very hot.”

Even if you have never picked up a cauliflower before, you know you are in the hands of a friendly, capable cook, yet you don’t feel bossed around—and that might well be the most important hallmark of a good cookbook. We all want to learn something, after all, but writing that’s full of intimidation—or, worse, condescension—can drive a person out of the kitchen in no time flat. And that would be a tragedy, because everyone deserves a delicious homemade meal.

Article from Gourmet

Yiddish from Moscow

Watch, cry, smile, and enjoy!

Yiddishe mama



Gefilte fish



Sholom Aleichem



Poppuri

The intimate Yiddishe shpiel: cheap or inexpensive cooking

Food does not have to be a high-priced. I did not say anything new, I just repeated the words of Jewish rationality. All of us remember the times, when Yiddishe mama had to cook and bake on a limited budget. So, sometimes we learn from the history lessons.

Healthy Eating Need Not Be Expensive, Even in a Bad Economy. I hope, we can learn something new.

• ABC NEWS


• CBS NEWS


• FOOD NETWORK CANADA


• CNN


• TIME-magazine

Remember an old Jewish proverb: "Worries go down better with soup."

Another accepted Jewish dish

Rosemary-Lemon White Bean Dip (Паштет из белой фасоли)

I would like to reintroduce a very friendly dish we used to eat a lot. I think, Mark Bittman is one of the best ones, who masters this dish to perfection.

Rosemary-Lemon White Bean Dip

Yield 2 cups
Time 10 minutes using precooked or canned beans

Mark Bittman Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

This takes less than 10 minutes if you start with canned beans, but is best made with freshly cooked dried beans: Cook them in water to cover, with a couple of bay leaves, until very tender.

2 cups cooked white beans, like cannelini, drained but moist
1 to 3 cloves garlic, peeled
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
Grated rind of 2 lemons

1. Put the beans in the container of a food processor with 1 clove of garlic and a healthy pinch of salt. Turn the machine on, and add the 1/4 cup olive oil in a steady stream through the feed tube; process until the mixture is smooth. Taste, and add more garlic if you like; then, puree the mixture again.
2. Place the mixture in a bowl, and use a wooden spoon to beat in the rosemary, lemon zest and the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Taste, and add more salt and pepper as needed. Use immediately, or refrigerate for as long as 3 days.

Variations
The puree can form the basis of a wonderful sandwich. For example, combine a thick layer of puree with grilled vegetables and a little olive oil on rolls or between thick slices of crusty bread. It can be used to thicken and flavor cooked beans. Just stir a few spoonfuls of the puree into simmering white beans (if you have pesto, add some at the same time). Thinned with the cooking water from beans or pasta, it makes a good pasta sauce.

A small mound of the puree served next to braised chicory or other bitter greens (both drizzled with olive oil) makes a fine side dish. Similarly, serve it at the center of a plate of lightly and simply cooked vegetables: carrots, green beans, turnips, asparagus, potatoes or cauliflower.

Layer the puree with grilled eggplant or zucchini and bake or broil to form a simple vegetable napoleon.
You can make this dish even more elaborate by incorporating thin-sliced toast and grated Parmesan cheese in the layers. Or roll smoked salmon or thin-sliced cooked vegetables -- again, zucchini and eggplant are good candidates -- around a bit of the puree, and serve as hors d'oeuvres.

Recipe from NY Times

The Garlic Eaters

The Garlic Eaters

Today NY Times posted a lot of info about garlic. I think, it's good to know as well as good to use for cooking and even for baking.

Enjoy some really healthy reading.

I also found a really interesting article for Russian-speaking readers. Enjoy!

Plus one more good book

Let me know if you have any questions.

It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else

Just a typical Jewish law student who returned to New York to study playwriting, Roberts forsook torts and all things dramaturgical for tarts and all things culinary. In order to better share his discoveries and enthusiasms, he eventually launched a Web site—amateurgourmet.com—replete with recipes, marketing and cooking tips, restaurant reviews and overall winsomeness.

Now he shares his experience with us how to write a book.

I wish one day my dream will come true.

A Turkish monarch...

Eggplant holds an esteemed place in many Mediterranean cuisines—caponata from Italy, ratatouille from Provence, moussaka from Greece, baba ghanouj from all over the Middle East—but I think that the Turkish kitchen has exploited its versatility to the fullest. Turks use eggplant in hot and cold dishes, cubed, sliced, layered, puréed, stuffed, wrapped around meat, and wrapped in pastry. For me, the smell of eggplant cooking in olive oil on a summer evening is one of the most evocative memories of my homeland. The absence of eggplant from any summer meal would be unthinkable.

Full Article

More info: Learning to love Eggplant"

Look and Feel YOUNGER....

Definetely, no matter of age every woman wants to be attractive. There is only ONE problem is to find a reputable source of advices.
Here're some of them.

By surpise, one of them is a president of Technology Conceps, a Web design and e-marketing company, professor of e-business for the University of Phoenix Online; and the author of more than a dozen computer books. So, Dr.Eileen Buckholtz recommends

www.smartskincare.com
www.realage.com
www.surgery.org
www.worldhealth.org
www.aafprs.org
www.neutrogena.com/antioxidant

Second is Dr. Leslie Baumann, chief of the Division of Cosmetic Dermatology and a professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine. and her famous blog

Government ENTERS the BLOGOSPHERE

"It might be more worthwhile if we stopped wringing our hands and started ringing our congressmen."

5 Federal blogs worth reading ("Federal Computer Week")

1. The Impact of IT on Businesses and Their Leaders By Andrew McAfee, associate professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School
blog.hbs.edu/faculty/amcafee

2. Department of Health and Human Services blog
secretarysblog.hhs.gov

3. Congressional Budget Office Director’s Blog
cboblog.cbo.gov

4. DipNote, the State Department’s public blog, started in September 2007 and offers a different take on U.S. foreign policy information.
blogs.state.gov

5. Navy Department CIO blog. Robert Carey, the Navy’s chief information officer, is the first federal CIO to regularly write a publicly posted blog
www.doncio.navy.mil/Blog.aspx

Remember, democracy is a government where you can say what you think even if you don't think.

Herring in America... Селедка в Америке

I don't have to say a lot of words about herring. Just read :

1. The World on a Plate

2. Какова роль селедки в мировой науке и культуре? (Натощак не читать!)

3. Как и когда празднуется День селёдки?

I have heard, that herring is a one of the popular dishes in Israeli Army...

Cheesecake, cheesecake, and more cheesecake...

Looking forward for a milky Holiday "shavuot", we need to be educated how to make a cheesecake, and mostly, learn about new good recipes.

For a good recipe, please, visit New York Times

For a good educated experience, please watch some video:

Plain cheesecake:


Chocolate cheesecake:



Let me know, if you need more info for making AMAZING and DELICIOUS cheesecake.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Mario Batali.

Pat Carter/AP

She takes soy milk in her coffee. Meet TV's new culinary odd couple: Gwyneth Paltrow and Mario Batali.

Longtime friends, the actress and the star chef recently completed filming a documentary series, "Spain . . . On the Road Again," in which they travel through Iberia (in a convertible – everyone shares the driving), eating, cooking and taking in the sights, along with food writer Mark Bittman and Spanish star Claudia Bassols. PEOPLE has your exclusive first look at the show, scheduled to air this fall on PBS (check out http://www.spainontheroadagain.com/ for more info).

Watch the video

"ONE-STORY HIGH AMERICA"

The best documentary about America

"Одноэтажная Америка" с Владимиром Познером

Following in the footsteps of Ilf and Petrov, two Soviet writers who visited America in 1935 and described their experiences in the famous book “One-Story High America”, Vladimir Pozner and Ivan Urgant, two of today’s most popular Russian TV personalities, drive cross-country and back on a seven-week trip to find out if and how the United States has changed in the last 70 years.

It's about pancakes, crepes and latkes.

News about pancakes, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Please, read it in "New York Times"

Ellie Krieger's New Way Pantry

Watch it


The host of the Food Network show Healthy Appetite shares tips from her new book, The Food You Crave, and talks about the secret of her food philosophy

Delicious Passover

The editors of the Dining section in "The New York Times" propose ideas for your Passover meal.

Please read it

The most expensive TEACAKE....

Something interesting and unusual for all us to know...

Read on English and Russian

If you want to try some of these tasteful British creatures, London is one the best tourist destination in the world. By the way, if you don't know, Marks & Spenser has a VERY deep Jewish roots.

Enjoy it!

Jewish Food Fundamentals

Jewish Food Fundamentals

Asking a Jew if he likes Jewish food
Is like telling a Christian it's fruitcake time dude.
It's just a thing, like a letter to Jude.
You have to eat it, whatever your mood.


There are the drunks who drink cheap kosher wine.
They make it stronger, so they're feeling fine.
That's just the rules and there's line after line.
I couldn't stand this sweet fruit of the vine.


There are a few that are always in favor.
There's a fish hamburger you have to savor.
It's not that bad if you sign a fish waiver.
Some are the bottom fed. Some are the braver


Sometimes it's salty. Sometimes it's bitter
Sometimes it's tasteless, but never is fitter.
Sometimes you feed some to your baby sitter.
She seems to like it, though you are a quitter.


You have to go without bread for a week.
You get a cracker that gums up your cheek.
You can't eat lunch! Every Gentile will seek
To sample this matzah when it's at its peak.


Sometimes the day means you can't eat at all.
This will come late in the summer or fall.
You stuff your face just before for the pall.
When it's all over, there's more left on call.


Then there's the boiling of chicken for soup.
There's lots of fat and you scoop and you scoop.
They used to keep it and spread it like goop.
This is the schmaltz and it fed a whole troop.

Everyone seems to like bagels and lox.
Buy lots of cream cheese. That really rocks.
You want the best and it comes in a box.
This is by choice and will knock off your socks.


June 9, 2007 Stephen Blumenkranz

It's never enough... teachings!

One of my coworkers sent me a message with a HIGH VALUE teachings. Please try all of them.

1. If you peel a banana from the bottom you won't have to pick the little "stringy things" off of it. That's how all the primates do it.
2. Separate your bananas when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen much faster.
3. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. The cheese will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
4. Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
5. Add a teaspoon of water when sautéing ground beef. It w ill help to pull the grease away from the meat.
6. To make terrific scrambled eggs or omelets add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, heavy cream, or Fat Free Half and Half before beating them.
7. For a super brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Get set for a wonderful minty frosting.
8. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and add at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic
9. Leftover snickers bars from Halloween or Christmas make a delicious dessert. Simple chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.
10. Reheating Pizza Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy microwave pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
11. Easy Deviled Eggs.Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw the bag away when done for an easy clean up.
12. Expanding Frosting. When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You will also be eating less sugar and calories per serving.
13. Reheating Refrigerated Bread. To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
14. Newspaper Weeds Away Start putting wet newspapers in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Put layers around the plants, overlapping as you go. Cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic but they will not get through wet newspapers.
15. Broken Glass Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
16. No More Mosquitoes Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
17. Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.
18. Flexible Vacuum To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
19. Reducing Static Cling Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Put a pin in the leg seams of your slacks and -- ta da! -- static is gone.
20. Measuring Cups Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
20. Foggy Windshield? Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
21. Reopening Envelope If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.
22. Conditioner Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.
23. Goodbye Fruit Flies To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it with a 1/2 inch of Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
24. Get Rid of Ants Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home," can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!
25. INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took t he filter over to the sink, ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material - I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. well,...the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free -- that nice fragrance too, you know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box, this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to catch fire & potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out & wash it with hot soapy water & an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!

A Jewish 'Martha Stewart Living'. Are you excited?

Why do we need one more magazine about Jewish life?

I found the answer from Yenta: "I’m so tired of the “We’re just like the goyim, except for the Jesus part” shtick."

Now it's up to you to find out if the magazine will be next SUCCESS.

Enjoy it!

Teach yourself...

How to become a PRO....

It's quite easy if you have a right teacher. And a right teacher always refers students to a library. So, I am doing now. Please visit Baker's library.

God forgives us and we forgive each other

What do we know about Yom Kippur?

I asked myself this question many times. Twice I lost jobs just hours before Kol Nidre Service begins. Twice it was done by american non-Jewish women and twice I asked them: "Why do you do such painful procedure just hours before the Holiest Day for Jews?" Unexpectably for me, twice I received the same answer:"We don't know anything about Yom Kippur..."

It's was a lie. Knowning me, they just wanted make this more painful. Both of these companies went out of business and every year I ask God to punish every person, who does not know anything about Yom Kippur.

Forgive, but don't forget about antisemitism... Remember, it's quite hidden.

The Holy menu for the Holiest Day of the Year
Menus for Before and After Yom Kippur

Don't panic....

There are several ideas for Holiday Menu:

High-Holiday Feasts

Some healthy ideas for holiday table

Tips for Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashana menu ideas

Best dishes from Epicurious

A Slice of Heaven - A Chee-ee-sy Shpil

"Cheesecakes are easy to make at home—in fact, to my mind, they’re always better homemade, " - Dorie Greenspan A Slice of Heaven

How many styles of cheesecakes do you know? I have the answer for you -> Answer

Interesting talk Интересный разговор

A Bachelor's Kitchen

A Bachelor's Kitchen Guide

Freezer Foods: Ice Cream If you can't tell the difference between your ice cubes and your ice cream, it's time to throw BOTH out.

Frozen Foods Frozen foods that have become an integral part of the defrosting problem in your freezer compartment will probably be spoiled (or wrecked anyway) by the time you pry them out with a kitchen knife.

In the Fridge: Eggs When something starts pecking its way out of the shell, the egg is probably past its prime.

Dairy Products Milk is spoiled when it starts to look like yoghurt. Yoghurt is spoiled when it starts to look like cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is spoiled when it starts to look like regular cheese. Regular cheese is nothing but spoiled milk anyway - if you can dig down and still find something non-green, bon appetite!

Meat If opening the refrigerator door causes stray animals from a three-block radius to congregate outside your house, toss the meat.

Unmarked Items You know it is well beyond prime when you're tempted to discard the Tupperware along with the food.

General Rule of Thumb Most food cannot be kept longer than the average life span of a hamster. Keep a hamster in your refrigerator to gauge this.

On the Shelf: Canned Goods Any canned goods that have become the size or shape of a softball should be disposed of... Very carefully.

Potatoes Fresh potatoes do not have roots, branches, or dense, leafy undergrowth.

The Gag Test Anything that makes you gag is spoiled (except for leftovers from what you cooked for yourself last night).

Bread Sesame seeds and Poppy seeds are the only officially acceptable “spots” that should be seen on the surface of any loaf of bread. Fuzzy and hairy looking white or green growth areas are good indications that your bread has turned into a pharmaceutical laboratory experiment. You may wish to discard it at this time, depending on your interest in pharmaceuticals.

Cereal It is generally a good rule of thumb that cereal should be discarded when it is two years or longer beyond the expiration date, or when it will no longer fall out of the box by itself.

Flour Flour is spoiled when it wiggles, or things fly out when you open it.
Pretzels Normally eternal, pretzels may be discarded if they can no longer be picked up without falling apart. Otherwise, there's nothing to stop you from eating a pretzel that the Pharaoh put down only 4000 years ago.

Raisins Raisins should not usually be harder than your teeth.

Salt It never spoils. However, if you can't chip off reasonable amounts from the block, maybe another box is in order, as fresh salt usually pours.

Spices Most spices cannot die, they just fade away. They will be fine on your shelf, forever. Put them in your will.

Vinegar If your grandmother made it, it is probably still good.

Expiration Dates: This is not a marketing ploy to encourage you to throw away perfectly good food so that you'll spend more on groceries. Even dry foods older than you are may be ready to replace. Perhaps you'd benefit by having a calendar in your kitchen.

Bachelors,

If you really want to be successful, please visit

Bachelor's kitchen and Are you my wife

Interesting talk Интересный разговор