Ceasar Salad & Dressing

This one is for Temima.

1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
4 tbsp. vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed (add more if desired)

Romaine Lettuce
Croutons
Imitation bacon bits (optional)

Mix all ingredients together. Pour over lettuce, add croutons and imitation bacon bits. This dressing is great over any kind of salad.

Chanukah 5767

Chanukah was a whirlwind of activity. Yerucham and Yishai spend the first Shabbos of Chanukah with us in Toronto.

Thursday, we headed to NYC. We lit candles with Lee, Barb and family. Then we all headed out to the ice cream store.

On Friday, we visited Temima at work.

Shabbos was spent relaxing with the grandkids.

We arrived home early Monday morning and were welcomed by a silent fish, one lonely, meowing cat, a warm house. It's cold here, but no snow as of yet.

Chocolate Bundt Cake

Happy birthday T. Although this isn't the traditional birthday cake that I make on everyone's birthday, it is an absolutely delicious cake. This is one cake that disappears every single time I make it. I'm usually just a follow-the-recipe kind of person, but I created this one by combining and adapting elements from several different cakes. It's the only recipe I've developed and written down. Hope everyone enjoys it. The only complaint I've heard is that it is too chocolately. Go figure!

Chocolate Bundt Cake

3/4 cup cocoa
3/4 cup hot water
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup shortening
1-3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs

2-1/4 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup soy milk
1 package instant chocolate pudding
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bundt pan with shortening and coat with flour or bread crumbs. Set aside.

Mix cocoa, water and vanilla together and set aside. Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and continue mixing.

Mix flour with baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to the creamed mixture alternately with the liquid cocoa mixture and the soy milk. Add instant pudding and stir just till mixed. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into prepared bundt pan.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. (check with toothpick). Don’t over cook, it should be moist. Let cool for 20 minutes or so and invert.

Chocolate Glaze
1/4 cup cocoa
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons corn syrup
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Stir cocoa, water, margarine and corn syrup together over low heat until smooth. Removed from heat and add sugar and vanilla. Stir till smooth. Spoon over warm or cool cake. If mixture is too thick, add a little (1/2 teaspoon at a time) water. Let extra glaze pool in the center of the cake.

For a special occasion, sprinkle just-poured chocolate glaze with colored sprinkles, chopped nuts, shaved chocolate or coconut flakes.

Pre-Chanukah busyness

It seems that time is moving quickly, but my knitting is moving slowly. My lace scarves are getting longer, I'm about 1/4 of the way along. I still have to finish off my wrist warmers.

Last week I worked 2 nights of Arbonne skin care shows at a shul pre-Chanukah gift bazaar. I'm not known for my "decorating", but here are some pictures. For a first time, I think things looked pretty nice.


I'm getting ready for Chanukah, I've already "surprise, surprise" purchased wicks, oil and gelt. Now I just have to polish up the menorah. We are expecting "guests" for Shabbos. Rooks is due in Thursday and Yishai is arrive i'yh on Friday. Can't wait for Shabbos/Chanukah.

Thanksgiving is in November

This has been a very busy week. Even in Canada, we benefited from the American Thanksgiving (the Canadian Thanksgiving was back in October).

Babi,

Deens, a friend from NY
and Chan spent Shabbos with us.

Over Shabbos, we tasted the esrog compote. Hmmmm. It was a bit bitter. I will have to adjust the recipe before I serve it. The menu included turkey, pumpkin pie and birthday cake.

I was going to take before and after pictures of the food, but things were too rushed right before Shabbos so this is it for the pictures. Afterwards, there wasn't much "after" to take pictures of except dirty dishes. It was really wonderful having everyone visit. Deens was even able to stay until Tuesday morning. With Chanukah only about 2 weeks away, I look forward to more visits from family.

Recently, I finished a baby hat for Chan's friend's baby, and Chan gave it to her this past weekend.


It is made with a variegated 100% merino wool sock yarn (very soft) from Fleece Artist. I adjusted a kids' pattern to fit a 3-6 month old. It came out very cute. I'm ready to start another one.

I've almost finished knitting fingerless mitts in black (yarn ends need to be sewn in).

I have started my first lace project, a scarf (or rather 2 at once) made from a wool/silk yarn. It's not mindless knitting. Every row is different, and I really have to pay attention and remember which row I'm on.

Next week is going to be very busy. I have a table for 2 nights of gift shows for my Arbonne line. I have products to wrap and price so I'll be busy Sunday. I hope everyone has a restful and uplifting Shabbos.

Can-do attitude

I always enjoy learning, especially how to do new things.This week I added canning to my repertoire of things I have tried. Sunday morning began with a marathon cooking session at a friend's house making esrog compote. I collected esrogim and have been soaking them (changing the water every night) for 2 weeks. I felt like I have 3 pets in the house...

Jake, Blue
and the estrogim (off which I neglected to take a picure).

So Sunday morning I headed out with 14 esrogim and 21 quince apples and 5 lbs of sugar.

At 2pm, I returned with 1/2 of the booty (3 jars are for a Tu B'Shvat treat for school), 2 large and several small jars of compote. The actual cooking and canning took about 2 hours. The longest part was getting the seeds out of the estrogim. Each one must have have 20+ little seeds. It took over 2-1/2 hours just to do that. Next time, I'll prepare the estrogim the night before. I'yh we'll get our first taste this weekend. I'll save a large jar for Tu B'Shvat. It was my first experience canning. It really gave me an appreciation for what our ancestors had to do to put food away for the winter

I didn't get any knitting done this week yet because of Rosh Chodesh. I didn't manage to finish one fingerless glove Sunday while waiting for the compote to cook. The other will have to wait till next week. It has gotten colder here. There was ice on the windshield this morning. I think it's time to clean out the garage and see if the cars will fit.

Even though it isn't Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend, we are benefiting by having several guests.

One score and one year ago...

Lastly, a happy birthday to Deens...

Milestone sweater

It has been a hectic week, but b'h things are settling down for a pleasant Shabbos. We were supposed to have guests for lunch, but they canceled so it's just us. I have already made challah, chicken and fish. Chocolate cake, cholent and veggies are still on the to-do list. I am going to keep this short since it's Friday, but I just wanted to post a picture of the completed orange sweater.


I don't usually wear orange, but I was captivated by the yarn in the store. It is a Fleece Artist yarn wool/silk/mohair mixture. It was knit in the round from the bottom up to neck and then down the sleeves with no seams. It was pretty boring to knit, but I finished it and that was important to me. I usually knit small projects, because in the past when I have tried to conquer larger ones, it has either taken years or I just lose interest and don't reach the finish line. So this sweater is a milestone for me. I think the ultimate factor in determining whether a large project will get finished is the choice of yarn. I have to love the color and the feel of it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Shabbos.

Getting ready for winter

I didn't make challah this week. I went to two grocery stores and neither had the flour that I use. Luckily I still had some challah left from Yom Tov in the freezer. Everything was going smoothly (I even picked up some beautiful flowers) until the last minute when I picked up a pot to move it and burned my hand. Well, I spent the next six hours with my hand on ice. Abba and the girls went to someone after dinner and got some cream. B'h it doesn't hurt anymore.



Things are getting a bit chilly here. It's been back and forth, but it was definitely coat weather today. I took Yak and the girls to the mall so he could use his birthday present from Grandma E. He picked out a hat, gloves and matching scarf to go with his coat. He also got some other clothes. Yak must have grown or else all his clothes shrunk because the pants he got before school started are 2 inches too short. Thanks Grandma E for the great present.



Tomorrow is a PD (professional development) day, so no school for the kids only the teachers have to show up. Today (Sunday) I went to school for an hour this morning to get some paperwork done. When I got home, I was happy to see everyone getting along. The girls had gotten cozy and were reading on the couch. It's a toss-up what Jake loves more... being read to or just snoozing.







As for knitting, I finished a scarf today. The yarn is a specialty yarn from Japan. The scarf is knitted lengthwise. It's a variegated yarn (mohair, wool, nylon mixture) with loops on it. In this picture, it is folded in half. I'm pleased with how it turned out, and it was easy to make. I worked a bit on the orange sweater today. I hope to have it finished this week.

Brace yourself...

... or, every mouth has a silver lining :)

Things have been pretty quiet on the on the home front. I've felt a bit achy for the past 2 days. Hopefully, it won't develop into something worse. Tomorrow, Thursday, is my late day. My last class is over at 4:45pm. The girls take the bus up to my campus, then the kids go out for pizza. We grocery shop and hopefully get home by 7:30p.m. I'm going to try and shop and then get to work earlier tomorrow so we can head home sooner.

I've been hard at work on the variegated orange (yes it is orange) sweater that I started sometime in September. It is worked in one piece from the bottom up. The sleeve are the last thing to knit to finish the sweater. Well, first of all there was a mistake in the pattern. I called the company and they gave me the "corrected" directions. Needless to say, I was almost done when I decided to try it on and, lo and behold, the sleeves were too tight! So, after deciding that I was absolutely not going to wear it as it was, I went ahead and frogged it (frogged means to unravel. It is called that because a frog makes a sound like rip-it, rip-it). Well, I readjusted the pattern and I decided that this sweater is my buddy, it goes everywhere with me. I'm knitting it constantly. Hopefully by next week I'll be able to finish it.

Eli is dealing well with her new braces. She got them last Friday and has been somewhat sore. She is very good about eating things properly and not biting into food. Tonight she took the crust off her deli sandwich and then cut it up into little pieces and ate it with a fork.

Eli has a pretty high pain tolerance (she gets most fillings without Novocaine!). So after listening to Eli's comments about her soreness, Ruch has decided that she absolutely doesn't want braces anymore. It will definitely be interesting to watch the orthodontist "wrastle" her into them. Somebody is going to need a vacation when that happens. By the way, don't Ruch's new glasses look great on her!

Greetings from north of the border

I have finally found a way to keep in touch with everyone; and let ya'll know about things that are going on at home and away. To my family and friends that are so spread out like twinkling stars in the night, hopefully this blog will serve to keep us in touch and a little closer to each other.

I picked this name for my blog for several reasons. One, I love the needle arts, especially knitting, sewing, and since moving to Toronto, quilting. I always have something "on the needles." Two, I find that keeping a positive attitude, not taking oneself too seriously and having a sense of humor (notice I still spell things American-wise), is so important.

Yak is sitting here with me as I write. He says, "Hi everybody!"

The shawl that Yak is holding up is called Clapotis and it is from the Knitty web site. I finished it over the summer and did most of the knitting in the car while we traveled to New York and back. I used a wool/silk yarn and it came out great. Eli especially loves wearing it.

Through this blog, I hope to share bits of our day-to-day life interspersed with examples of my hand-i-work. I'm not sure yet how often I'll update, but I hope to do so at least 2-3 times a week. I look forward to reading all your comments.