Vancouver Pics

The Vancouver photos!

Photo time!

A whole whack of photos from my last few days in Jerusalem. There’s some street art; happy people, music, poetry, and dancing at Def Adar Jam; and a boogie.

Almost [t]here…

I’ve just returned from a week in New Hampshire, at the 2007 NHC Summer Institute (aka, ‘tute). After havdallah, I wrote in my journal, excerpts of which I’ll share here:

I’ve spent a wonderful week here in Rindge, NH at the National Havurah Committee’s Summer Institute. Friends, classes and workshops, singing and dancing, swimming and kayaking, cuddling on the beach.To get in the mindset of shabbos, I sang, I went to the beach, I whispered what I wanted to cast off as I dunked, naked, in the lake-come-mikvah.

I sang, I danced, I welcomed the Sabbath Queen with friends and hugs and smiles all around. I stayed up all night talking and singing and laughing, until we realised the sun was about to rise. I huddled under a blanket with five friends and stood on the field as the sun crept over the mountain tops, the fog rising off the field around us. Between dovening and Torah, I managed to nap, eat, sing, and play Scrabble under an old beautiful tree.

The rest of the week, I took (and skipped) classes; taught a workshop on the history of, and contemporary issues facing, Canadian Judaism; ate a lot of salad and ice cream; helped drink $100 of tasty bourbon; toasted, sang to, and danced in honour of friends’ new marriages and soon-to-be marriages; studied Talmud; talked a lot about sexual ethics in class, at meals, and in an intergenerational discussion group; was forced to get out of the lake by security at 2am; watched meteors sail across the sky; took part in traumatic dramatic readings, spoken word style, of songs found in “Rise Up Singing;” told Nachman stories; and had a great time with a friendly community of open-minded people.

All photos uploaded to flickr thus far by me and others, are here (in a nice slideshow).

Next year’s ‘tute is August 11-17th…. I hope to see you there!

Latkah wrap-up

The Numbers:
17 people, one half LJ’d
12 pounds potatoes
5 pounds sweet potatoes
5 pounds carrots
5 dips/sauces
4 bottles of wine
3 drinks spilled
2 pounds apples
2 frying pans
1.5 litres canola oil
1 sink, twice plunged

Varieties of latkahs served up:
“Regular” potato
Potato with tonnes of fresh dill (by request for nevergirl)
Sweet potato with roasted garlic
Carrot with ginger
Potato, apple, and cinnamon
Potato, sweet potato, and nutmeg

Dips [all vegan except for the one obvious exception]:
Maple balsamic
Citrus chive (caution: you still have garlic breath, 24 hours later)
Roasted garlic balsamic
Apple sauce
Sour cream

I forgot to takes photos throughout the night, so these photos must suffice, though they do not do justice to the yumminess of the latkahs cooked up.

Wednesday's Greasy Soirée!

Just a reminder that this Wednesday, January 10, is my (belated) annual latkah party. The formula is really quite simple: I cook up a whole bunch of latkahs, and you come over to help eat them.

This is a vegetarian and vegan friendly event; this is not an Atkins approved eatery. I won’t just be making your “standard” potato latkah, but most likely will make varieties including carrots, sweet potatoes, and wild rice. Yum!

It doesn’t matter if we’ve hung out recently or not, if you’re a new friend or an old. If you’re in Montreal or not. You should still come!

Chanukah, the postquel: Attack of the Killer Latkahs!
Wednesday, January 10th, 6pm on, chez moi.
I’ll supply the latkahs, you can BYOB.

Please RSVP so I know how many potatoes (and knuckles) to grate, and how long I’ll need to slave over the hot oil for.

Email me if you need my address.

Attack of the Killer Latkahs!

Howdy friends,

As some of you may have noticed, I didn’t throw my usual latkah open-house in December. (I was just too busy with the end of semester, and then I was on the west coast for Chanukah proper.)

But I still want to cook delicious, oily latkahs for you all. Which can only mean one thing:

Chanukah, the Postquel: Attack of the Killer Latkahs!
Wednesday, January 10th, 6pm on, chez moi.
I’ll supply the latkahs, you can BYOB.

For those of you who have never been to my latkahfests (west or east coast edition), I do not just make your standard latkahs. Expect a variety of latkahs involving a variety of tuber and non-tuber ingredients: sweet potatoes, carrots, apples, wild rice, etc.

Please RSVP so I know how many potatoes (and knuckles) to grate.

cheers,
Benjamin

Sangria and/or Mingling Manischewitz Mixtures

I spent Friday evening, pre-Shabbat, sitting on a terrasse, in the drizzling rain, drinking sangria with visiting friends (in town from NY for their wedding anniversary).

Shabbat dinner was lovely, with great people and great food. (I am so making rosemary challah!)

Today was spent playing tour guide to the visiting friends, drinking more pichets de sangria or terrasses.

Then, Manischewitz magic. Last night, at Shabbat dinner, as I was introduced to my new “sweet and bubbly” kosher wine, plans were hatched for a Manischewtitz party. And tonight, we executed those plans. I made Mingling Manischewitz Mixtures. So tasty, you should make some right now!

• In a blender, pour in Manischewitz wine. (If this were “Hebrew Hammer,” I’d tell you to use the “black label” stuff, but what we used was the blackberry wine.)
• Add frozen berries (blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries.)
• Blend.
• Taste.
• Realise that it is *really* sweet.
• Add Cointreau to counter the sweet.
• Blend.
• Pour into wine glasses, for that extra touch of class.
• Drink!

(Variations: add Wilde’s strawberry passionfruit juice.)
Please note: This is best done in batches, using up 1.5 bottles of Manischewitz.

Along with the drinks, we felt that drinking Mingling Manischewitz Mixtures called for a couple episodes of Sex and The City. (The one where Harry and Charlotte get back together, and then their wedding episode, because, really, who doesn’t love hora puns?) And then they wanted something else, and no one had seen the Hebrew Hammer, and the sugar from the Mingling Manischewitz Madness was racing through our bloodstreams, so we watched, and laughed, and laughed some more. Excellent.

Tomorrow? Free museum day, playing tour guide some more, and hopefully more sangria.