Nov

Warning: The following post may exceed the recommended daily allowance for other people’s vacation pictures/videos. Proceed at your own risk.

Longtime readers know that unlike most Israelis, who tend to visit Eilat during Chanukah vacation, the extended Shiputzim family prefers to head in the opposite direction and spends Shabbat Chanukah up North.

This year, our specific destination was Nov, a religious agricultural moshav, located right next door to Avnei Eitan in the southern Golan Heights, and B”H, we had a wonderful time.

Which was nice for us, of course, but unfortunately, not so nice for you.

Because after all, it wouldn’t be the week after Chanukah here on Our Shiputzim without me forcing you to sit through, er, sharing our vacation pictures.

And so, without further ado, here are the threatened promised photos:

As always, please feel free to click on the pictures for a much better view.

Exterior of our tzimmer

The kitchen/eating area

The bedroom

The sleeping loft

A view of the indoor swimming pool

A flock of sheep

And as if all those pictures weren’t fascinating enough, and on the off chance that I haven’t yet managed to bore you all to tears, here’s a short video from our drive up to Nov on Friday. If you listen carefully, you can even hear the day’s weather report:

Have you ever been to Nov?

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P.S. Speaking of Shabbat Chanukah, don’t miss my tribute to my Zaidy z”l. (It’s especially noteworthy, because it’s the first time I ever posted a picture of myself here on the blog…)

P.S.S. The latest Kosher Cooking Carnival is available here. Special thanks to Batya for including my “ceasefire pie” (aka chocolate mousse pie) post.

Freshly Baked Friday: Chocolate swirl blondies edition

My absolute favorite kitchen utensils are our three cookie sheets, which came to us from each of my beloved grandmothers a”h.

The bottom two were my paternal grandmother z”l’s, and the rimmed one on top belonged to my maternal grandmother z”l.

I’m sure that nothing would’ve given either one of them more nachat than the knowledge that the Resident Ulpanistit – who happens to be the eldest great-granddaughter to both my grandmothers a”h – regularly uses their respective cookie sheets to produce yummy treats, like these bars:

Chocolate Swirl Blondies

Adapted from ???? (I tried doing a search to figure out where I got the original recipe, but to no avail. If you recognize the source of these bars, please leave a comment, and I’ll update the post accordingly.)

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp water
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

Beat oil, sugars, vanilla and eggs. Add dry ingredients and the water, and mix through. Stir in chocolate chips.

Put batter into a baking-paper-lined 11½ x 17½ rimmed cookie sheet (AKA a jelly roll pan). Bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes.

Remove from oven, and use a knife to form a marble pattern. Return to oven for an additional 21 minutes.

Remove the pan from oven. Cut into bars and let cool in pan.

Feel free to drop by for a taste, if you happen to be near TRLEOOB* on Shabbat Parshat Vayakhel.

 !בתאבון ושבת שלום ומבורך

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*TRLEOOB=the real life equivalent of our blog

A negotiated settlement

We’ve all been there.

Of course, by “we”, I mean “parents of Israeli kids”, and by “there”, I mean “the Call”.

The Call arrives, with alarming regularity, on every Erev Shabbat Irgun, but it also can – and often does – happen on random Fridays throughout the year.

Basically, it works like this:

Some twenty minutes before candle lighting, the phone rings.

“You have a telephone!” one of your darling Heblish-speaking children inevitably yells across the house at his/her sibling.

It’s the madrich/ah, calling to say that they’re having a communal seudah shlishit in the snif (literally, chapter or branch – but also refers to the physical structure where the youth group meets) and that your child needs to bring [an obscure item, which you rarely buy anyway but certainly don’t have available this close to Shabbat].

Which is why I was pleasantly surprised when this past Erev Shabbat Irgun, the Call came at noon.

As the madrich pointed out, our local makolet (neighborhood grocery store) is still open at that time.

He mentioned this interesting fact, you see, because he had wanted ACSC (=a certain Shiputzim child) to bring chummus, but I had replied that we didn’t have any extra on hand.

Back when I was a brand new olah, I would’ve meekly accepted the harsh decree and headed off to the makolet at what is always the busiest and craziest time of the week.

Now, however, a dozen-plus years after our aliyah, I know that nothing is set in stone.

After all, this is the Middle East, where bargaining is a time-honored tradition.

And so, here’s how it went:

Me: {opens pantry and notices a few cans of pickles} Can we bring pickles instead?

ACSC: {dutifully relays the message}

Madrich: {hesitates} I think someone is bringing that already. {thinks for a minute} But we do still need pitot. Is that an option?

ACSC: {dutifully relays the message}

Me: {opens freezer and notices a large bag of pitot} Yes! How many do you want?

ACSC: {dutifully relays the message}

Madrich: Ten.

ACSC: {dutifully relays the message}

Me: No problem.

ACSC: {dutifully relays the message}

How do YOU handle “the Call”?

Fix-It Friday: Oven edition

Our Shiputzim Chief Security Officer YZG (aka “Mr. S.”) is not only known for his Solomonic wisdom and his ability to concoct fake TV shows, but also for his erudite halachic discourses.

But today, YZG has graciously agreed to share some of his vast technical knowledge.

Take it away, YZG!

Disclaimer: The following post may not interest readers who don’t live in Israel and own American gas ovens. Proceed at your own risk.

Replacing Your Gas Oven’s Ignitor

A Guest Post by YZG

The ignitors on many American gas ovens don’t last very long. For instance, we have to replace ours every 1-2 years.

Fortunately, it’s a fairly simple process, and you can save a lot of money by doing it yourself.

Here, then, is a step-by-step DIY guide to replacing the oven ignitor. (I’m assuming that you have a replacement part. If not, they’re available in the US from sites like www.repairclinic.com.)

This is what the ignitor looks like:

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The first step is to remove the shelf covering the bottom of the oven. Once you do this, you should be able to see the ignitor attached towards the back of the long bar (called a “burn bar”) in the middle of the oven, as you can also see in this picture:

Unscrew the two screws on the top which are holding it on:

There will still be two wires going through some insulation and which are attached to somewhere in the under part of the oven, as shown here:

You’ll need to unplug this from underneath. Here’s how it’s done:

Remove the drawer on the bottom of the oven so you can access the underside of the oven. You should see a metal plate, like this:

After you unscrew and remove the plate, you’ll see a plug as shown circled in red:

Click on the picture for a closer view of the plug.

Disconnect the two halves in order to unplug the ignitor. Then carefully pull the wires out, through the insulation, from above.

That’s it. You have successfully removed the old ignitor.

You’re now ready to install the new ignitor:

1. Put it in place and screw the two screws back in.
2. Push the wires through the insulation, being careful not to leave any spaces or holes in the insulation. Sometimes the ignitors will come with some extra insulation which you can add to the hole if you want.
3. Plug the ignitor into the other half of the plug.

Congratulations! The ignitor is now installed.

What’s left now is to test it and then put everything back together.

To test the oven, turn the oven on. The ignitor should slowly start glowing, and after about a minute, the flame in the oven should ignite. If the ignitor doesn’t glow, it’s either not plugged in all the way or it might be cracked. If the flame doesn’t ignite, either the ignitor isn’t positioned properly, or there is some other non-ignitor-related problem.

Once you test that everything is working, you can put the rest of the oven back together.

Thanks, YZG! Excellent job!

שבת שלום ומבורך!

The truth is in the, er, appliances??

Good morning, class.

As you’ll recall, we’re in the middle of our unit on the American oleh, and today we’re going to learn how to figure out which year an oleh arrived in Israel.

Now, as we’ve discussed many times, there are many clues which can give us a general idea:

• What is the ratio of Heblish to English in the oleh’s speech?
• Are his clothes and shoes mostly Israeli or mostly American?
• Is he willing and able to ask personal questions?
• How late does he arrive at smachot?
• Does he say “Shabbos” or “Shabbat”?
• How well has he mastered the Official Israeli Double Simcha Kiss^TM?

And so on.

The answers to these questions should help you determine whether the oleh is just off the boat or else a veteran Israeli.

But what should you do if you want to know the exact year he arrived?

No problem.

Get yourself invited to his home*, and check out his… household appliances.

Yes, you read that correctly.

You see, everyone who made aliyah in a given year has the exact. same. major appliances.

For instance, anyone who made aliyah from the US circa 1998 – as we did – probably brought most or all of the following items on their lift:

1. A Maytag washer and dryer
2. An Admiral (or Maytag or Magic Chef) self-cleaning gas stove (More on this oven coming soon...)
3. A GE Profile refrigerator
4. A Miele dishwasher

Feel free to try this [more or less] fail-safe technique* for accurately guessing an oleh’s aliyah date.

You’ll be the hit of the party as you amaze your friends and relatives with your uncanny abilities…

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* Void where prohibited. The Our Shiputzim management is neither responsible nor liable for any adverse results or undesirable outcomes. :-)

Don’t give me any lip

Like many Israeli families, we have granite countertops.

Aesthetic considerations aside, their main advantage is that they can be kashered.  (CYLOR for further details.)

Simply put, the process involves pouring copious amounts  of boiling hot water over the counters. (Again, CYLOR, but I believe that every authority agrees that one isn’t yotzai if one hasn’t made the annual corny joke about nisuach hamayim on Pesach instead of Succot…)

Which brings me to the Great Lip Debate.

Most Israeli kitchens have a lip around the edge of the counter. The idea is that the hot water is thus somewhat contained.

However, the down side is that dirt inevitably gets stuck in the crack between the lip and the counter, and one has to resort to toothpicks to remove it.

And so, we opted for a lipless sink. (Random bit of trivia: “Lipless” is a real word. Who knew?)

Although some native Israelis believe that our counters are rather odd-looking, we feel that we made the right decision.

Where do you stand on this all-important issue?