Challah

Challah bread:
 
½ c warm water
1 tsp sugar
2-1/4 tsp yeast
Dissolve sugar in the warm water then sprinkle the yeast on top.  Let stand for 10 minutes.
 
Add;
½ c warm water
½ c oil
2 eggs
3-1/2-4 c flour
¼ c sugar
2 tsp salt
Combine with oil, warm water, sugar, salt, eggs and half the flour.  Beat well. Stir in remaining flour.  Dough should be sticky.  Cover dough and let rest for 10 minutes.  Turn out onto a floured board and knead for 10 minutes, adding flour as needed. 
Round up in a greased bowl.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.  Punch down, cover and let rise again until double, about 45 minutes. 
Divide dough into 3 equal parts ( if you want to make 2 smaller challahs, first divide dough in half, then divide into three equal parts.)  Shape into strands.  Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and braid loosely.  Fasten ends securely.  Cover with damp cloth and let rise until double.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, cover with foil and bake 5-10 minutes more (for large challah).  If doing two smaller ones cook for about 20 minutes, then cover with foil and bake 5 minutes more.
 
Super simple version:
Take your bread machine pan and dissolve yeast just like it says at the top.  Then I add the other ingredients in the order listed into the pan.  Set your cycle to the “dough “ cycle.  When done take out your dough and divide into strands, braid, cover with a towel (I didn’t use a damp one) and let rise for 45 minutes.  Then bake according to directions.  Leftover challah bread makes yummy French toast the following morning! Enjoy!
 

Thanks to Kris for her recipe!!!

Still Alice

We will be meeting at Amy Stewart's home in April and the book that Cindy Putnam chose is Still Alice by: Lisa Genova. (DISCLAIMER: The f-bomb is dropped in this book. The word is not overly used and occurs maybe 5 times, if that. So be warned that it is in there.)

This book is about Alzheimer's disease and for me this book is going to be a hard topic to delve into. I am sure that it will offer an insight into a world that I know I fear due to the high likelihood that I will have to deal with it. That said, I hope that this book encourages a great discussion, which is always what we have.

The following video gives a better introduction to the book from the author herself.

Did you know?

Did you know that the Douglas County library has downloadable books in both text and audio formats? Oh yes! The program is called OverDrive.

I have used it and it works well. you can even place a hold and you will then receive an email when it is ready. The file will expire so you don't even have to have it take up space on your hard drive.

Just another option to access books.

St. Patty's Bookclub

Thanks to Julie for hosting and to Kris for suggesting such a compelling book. To all those that were unable to come we missed you but we hope that you were/are able to enjoy the book.

Kris, I'd love to post your challah recipe for everyone. (PLEASE)

So much was discussed and I hope that I can correctly represent the comments and feelings from book club tonight. We discussed the parallel between this story and our religious backgrounds; the similarities and differences.

We also discussed judging and being judged. How we have all been on both sides of that and how it is never good.

We learned so much about orthodox Judaism and that in itself was worth the read.

Thanks ladies for another great night.

P.S. We discussed what davening meant and we assumed correctly but if you still would like to know more click here.

Katniss Everdeen

Did ya ever imagine that Katniss would have an accent? Well Suzanne Collins does?

By the way the movie release date is out March 23, 2012- save the date!

Orthodox Judaism

While reading The Ladies Auxiliary it occurred to me that although I know a good bit about Orthodox Judaism the vocabulary escapes me. ( I know that this is true for those outside of my faith as well.) Judaism has it's own words and phrases to describe EVERYTHING.

I thought that it might be helpful to read up on Orthodox Judaism. I even found information on the Memphis community that Tova Mirvis uses as her setting for this book.

As I read the book I kept running to the internet to look for definitions or images to better understand the things that are being described. Everything from places to feasts could be new or not fully understood so I am going to attempt to place some information here in an effort to allow us to be able to discuss this book with more understanding.

Definitions & Images: (Just click the word as I have hyperlinked them to sites explaining them.)

MIKVAH

Modern Mikvah

Ancient Mikvah

JEWISH FEASTS

Purim (it's like Jewish Mardi Gras, who knew)

Sukkot (the tent is called a Sukkah)

(image taken from http://coejlblog.blog.com/tag/jewish-life/)

SHEITEL

HERE is an interesting blog post about the topic of married women covering their hair from a Jewish woman.

If I have missed anything PLEASE leave a comment so that we can all learn and be more aware of this interesting sector of our society.

Finally, in case you don't watch the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies there was one that you may want to check out after reading this. Loving Leah may give you an even better perspective of what it means to be a modern Orthodox Jew.