Category Archives: Crafts

Let the Hamantaschen Begin

Posted on 03/09/2009 | 4 comments

Hamantaschen happen. And they start right about now.
If you are not a huge fan, you have not tried enough recipes. They vary.
I am extremely picky about hamantaschen, and have long championed a single type.
This has not lessened my curiosity and appreciation of the hamantasch as an art form, however. Below, I outline the major categories responsible for the infinite variety:

• Texture: soft vs. crunchy (or as I see it, cake-y vs. cookie-y).
• Fat: solid vs. liquid (butter, margarine, and the dreaded Crisco vs. oil, oil, oil).
• Leavening: yes or no (baking powder, soda or yeast vs. zero).
• Filling: traditional vs. whimsical
(the kind I like vs. the kind I put up with for the sake of wider participation).
• Taste: my mother-in-law’s vs. everyone else’s (icky vs. divine). Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Purim

Tagged baking, hamantaschen

Happy Birthday to the Trees, Goodbye to the Naps

Posted on 02/08/2009 | Comments Off

Photo: 322 acres of old-growth forest in Nashville. Friends of Warner Parks are trying to raise money to buy it, and are about 1.6 million short.

Tu B’Shevat is tomorrow: the Fifteenth of the month of Shevat.1 It is one of the harder Jewish holidays to pronounce, even for grown-ups. The Toddler blurbles something like “Shot.” Thanks to the PJ Library —long may it prosper— he’s been reading a board book about Tu B’Shevat, so he already knows it is a day to plant trees. He’s got a small acorn and a big acorn ready to go. Continue reading →

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Posted in Nature, Tu B'Shevat

Tagged Bal Tashchit, naptime, Shehechianyu, Tikkun Olam, Tu B'Shevat

Tot Shabbat Survey

Posted on 01/24/2009 | 2 comments

This entry is simply a question for YOU.
If you go to a synagogue with your kids, what programming do they offer on Shabbat morning? Please leave a comment here about the structure of the kid’s service, what you like about it, and what you don’t like about it, and any other info or advice.

Our synagogue is revamping its Saturday morning programming for little kids. We’re offering a Tot Shabbat every single Shabbat morning at 10:30. Right now, different leaders do totally different things each time.

I want a unified, structured program about 30 minutes long, and it has to contain these things: a format that loosely mimics the Shabbat liturgy in the main sanctuary (we’ll say the Shema, do the Torah procession, etc.); some songs, dancing, movement, play; and some kind of hands-on exploration of the week’s Torah portion, or Parsha. We are a Conservative shul, so we cannot use art materials or musical instruments, but we can do puppets, dress-up, stickers, and role-play.

I would love to hear about any service that WORKS: anything that keeps kids engaged.
Thanks very much!
BBB

2 Comments

Posted in Shabbat

Tagged Jewish Identity

Daycare December Dilemma

Posted on 12/30/2008 | Comments Off

The adorable and sweetly-meant tshirt above illustrates the raison d’etre of this blog: what it is like to live Jewishly when 99.08 percent of the people around you aren’t Jewish. The Toddler came home with this “holiday gift,” which his teachers at daycare imagined to be a neutral, politically-correct offering. I am delighted to have it, mind you, because it is now a sacred object: it has my child’s hand and foot-print on it forever. I can never, ever get enough hand and feet prints, and if someone else does the messy work of getting them onto paper and fabric, so much the better. But, it is most definitely not neutral or politically correct. It is not a winter gift, a Frosty gift, or a holiday gift. It is a Christmas gift, and we don’t celebrate Christmas. Continue reading →

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Posted in Hanukkah, Jewish kids in nonJewish school

Tagged Christmas, Hanukkah, Jewish Identity, school

Wrapping Up Hanukkah

Posted on 12/29/2008 | Comments Off

YULE LOG
Yes, during Hanukkah I made a Buche de Noel for the Teenager’s French class party. And really, it isn’t much different from the Jewish Jelly Roll tradition. Except, Jewish Jelly Rolls don’t pretend to be Christmas logs…
I am especially proud of the meringue mushrooms, oui?

After 8 days and nights, the Toddler never did figure out gelt was edible. He hoarded it, stacked it, skated on it, and shoved it behind books in every reachable bookcase, but he never realized what was beneath that shiny foil. (The dog did, however, and it is for times like this that I buy paper towels. Up came the foil, the chocolate, and other things one doesn’t like to see puddled on the kitchen floor.) Continue reading →

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Posted in Hanukkah, Jewish parenting

Tagged dreidels, gelt, Hanukkah, Jewish Identity

Holidays, everyday

Posted on 11/14/2008 | Comments Off

now playing, all the time

It’s not just for the High Holidays …

The toddler loves holidays. He doesn’t quite get the idea that they come and go, and don’t just hang around forever. Continue reading →

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Posted in Jewish Identity, Sukkot

Tagged jewish holidays, sukkot

Hallowe’en Hallah

Posted on 11/03/2008 | Comments Off

I’ve got it down. I know precisely when to start mixing the challah dough so that the moment the kids get home from school they can “punch.” If you’ve never made bread by hand, and have thus been denied the unaccountable pleasure of punching down dough, I urge you to unplug the bread machine and give it a go. Punching down dough is, alas, a fleeting pleasure: it takes about a second and you only get to punch once. But feeling—and hearing—the whole mass deflate is quite satisfying. And when else do we get to punch anything?
As I mentioned in the last entry, making the challah will help to assuage the Hallowe’en/Shabbat guilt ever so slightly.
Multiple fun-size Snickers bars will help even more.
I’ll let you know.

p.s. I use the hallah-with-kids recipe in Joan Nathan’s “The Children’s Jewish Holiday Kitchen.”

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Posted in Jewish kids in nonJewish school, Shabbat

Tagged Jewish Identity

Happy Shabbos or Gut Hallowe’en? A fall fix.

Posted on 10/27/2008 | Comments Off

As soon as the single Simchat Torah flag and all the Sukkot decorations were put away, out came the Hallowe’en crap. I have three ginormous plastic bins in the attic full of witch hats, pumpkin lights, teeny mummies on strings, table runners, spooky candles, and wee skull candy-holders. For starters. The black plastic cauldrons and home-made bouncey bats (toilet paper rolls, cereal box cardboard, and google eyes: classic) couldn’t fit, so they spilled over into the shed. We love Hallowe’en at my house. This year, though, there is a bit of a snag. It’s on Shabbat. Continue reading →

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Posted in Jewish kids in nonJewish school, Shabbat

Tagged Jewish Identity

Shalom, y’all

Posted on 10/22/2008 | 2 comments

A propitious day to start a blog: Simchat Torah. The fact that I’m on a computer during a festival, and the fact that we utterly forgot to go to synagogue last night to celebrate the festival ought to clue you in to the fact that I am not strictly “observant.” This morning, to try and make up for last night’s gaffe, my husband and I hauled out all our toy torahs and our one battered Simchat Torah flag and marched around the house (inside. It’s cold out there). The toddler totally bought it, but the teenager excused herself to another room. We do what we can.

We do what we can. This may be my mantra, when I remember it.

To console myself, I remember that I did bake a chocolate cake in honor of Shemini Atzeret just days ago. Not to mention the presence of the Sukkah in the back yard (and almost finished). And the homemade Yom Kippur break-fast. And the round, raisin challahs for Rosh Hashana. And the Star-of-David shaped “birthday cake to the world.” And the orchard-picked apples in Israeli honey, too. So, if I accidentally forgot about going to shul for the tenth time in a week, excuse me.

We do what we can.