All the recipes I've given you up to now you can make cheaper and healthier from scratch at home compared to either buying them pre-made or getting them at a restaurant. (Some of them you can't get at a restaurant.) The real payoff, however, is when you get to baking bread.
Bread is one of the most forgiving things you can bake, just as soup is one of the most forgiving things you can make for yourself without baking. I've made all kinds of mistakes making bread, and the only one that really ruined things was using flour that was way too old. The bread turned out like concrete.
It wasn't this easy in the past but now we have domesticated yeast packaged in exactly the right amount to make a single batch of bread. We also have ovens with internal thermostats that heat to exactly the right temperature and stay at that temperature, whether they use gas or electricity.
Baking your own bread uses an average of three to five ingredients, instead of a dozen or twenty that you see listed on the plastic wrappers in the store. It avoids all those chemicals. You can use unbleached flour and avoid the bleaching agent that Subway is just now eliminating from its rolls. (That chemical is still in the buns used by McDonald's and Burger King.)
Baking your own bread can save you between $1 and $3 per loaf. For me, that's up to $150 a year and I'm single, no kids. The savings depend on how many loaves you use a week. Make your kids do it when they get home from school and you'll have fresh bread for dinner, almost fresh bread for breakfast and lunch the next day, and eventually you can make French toast from the stale bread, which is how French toast originated anyway.
Even if you buy a breadmaker -- and your kids will love messing with that! -- you will make back its price in the first 52 weeks.
If you don't want to spend the money on a bread-maker, I can tell you from experience that making bread by hand is a zen-like experience and also a great upper-body workout.
There are bread recipes all over the internet. Next week I'll give you my favorite, which my nieces like better than cookies.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Friday, February 7, 2014
Fact Checking the Torah -- Due Process
We are working on witness
qualifications and we just finished getting rid of the use of confessions by
the accused as evidence in a case where judicial execution applies. When you can use judicial execution is Numbers
35:30 and Deuteronomy 17:6, plus you were supposed to study Leviticus 19:17.
Numbers: Everybody who strikes a person in front of
witnesses, they may declare him a murderer but one witness shall not answer to
put anybody to death.
Deuteronomy: At the word of two witnesses or three
witnesses the dead person shall die, he shall not die at the word of one
witness.
A witness is a non-bonded circumcised Jew, except in
business cases when women can give testimony.
Witnesses can’t be relatives to the accused or to each other.
Who else is qualified as a witness? Mishnah documents that a
valid witness is somebody who not only saw the event but tried to stop it and
told the person trying to commit the crime that it was against Torah. This is called hatraah and it is
described in Sedra “Damages”, tractate Sanhedrin 10:4. I believe it goes back to Leviticus 19:17
which says not to hold back from “admonishing” your brother; tell him when he
is about to commit a crime. But I don’t
have any support for that derivation from any of my study resources.
Why is hatraah necessary? It involves a number of principles.
American law says “ignorance is no excuse.” That’s because America has literacy programs,
and publishes its laws and keeps them in publicly accessible places, nowadays
including the Internet. Judaism has literacy programs, too, but it admits that
it’s not enough to read the law once because human memory is such a tricky
thing.
So at the moment the crime is being committed, the witness
has to step in, stop it, and tell the attempted criminal they’re violating the
law. If the criminal then verbally says
“I don’t care” and finishes committing the crime, he can be taken to court.
The requirement for witnesses who step in and stop crimes is
called community policing nowadays. If
somebody is brazen enough to attempt a crime in public, then the community is
responsible for stepping in, first to prevent it, and second to take the
criminal before a court. You can’t turn
a blind eye to what’s going on in front of you, and then suddenly show up in
court and say “I saw the whole thing.”
You have to get involved.
Now you have a question, I know you do, and that’s the next lesson.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Bit at a time Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 1:6 and dagesh
Genesis 1:6
ו וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי רָקִיעַ בְּתוֹךְ הַמָּיִם
וִיהִי מַבְדִּיל בֵּין מַיִם לָמָיִם:
Transliteration: Va-yomer elohim y’hi raqia b”tokh ha-maim v’yhi mavdil
ben maim la-maim.
Translation: Gd said Let there
be a raqia in the midst of the water and let it divide water from water.
Letters in this lesson:
Vocabulary in this lesson:
רָקִיעַ
|
raqia
|
בְּתוֹךְ
|
in the midst of, among
|
מַבְדִּיל
|
divide
|
Now I want you to notice the use of dagesh
in this verse.
It’s in the yod of vayomer
which you have seen before.
It’s in the bet of b’tokh. Notice that the preceding letter is an ayin
with a patach under it.
It’s in the mem of ha-maim
and there’s a heh with a patach under it right before that.
It’s in the dalet of mavdil
and before it there’s a bet with no dagesh and a shva under
it.
It’s in the bet of ben which
has the lamed of mavdil before it.
That’s all. More data.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Outdoors -- The Gnomon
Not a garden gnome. Actually, I'm using the word "gnomon" wrong because I'm not talking about a sundial.
I'm talking about how the shadow of my house shows the seasons.
In the depths of winter, at noon, the shadow of the roof top reached almost to the back fence on the north.
There's a red cedar planter in the middle of the yard, next to a stump.
The other week, the sun only reached to the top of the planter.
Yesterday, I noticed that the sun had reached the stump.
In a few weeks the planter will be fully in the sun at noon.
Passover is in 9 weeks, by then the sun will reach the brick back porch step.
It's a real comfort given last night's ice storm.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
I'm talking about how the shadow of my house shows the seasons.
In the depths of winter, at noon, the shadow of the roof top reached almost to the back fence on the north.
There's a red cedar planter in the middle of the yard, next to a stump.
The other week, the sun only reached to the top of the planter.
Yesterday, I noticed that the sun had reached the stump.
In a few weeks the planter will be fully in the sun at noon.
Passover is in 9 weeks, by then the sun will reach the brick back porch step.
It's a real comfort given last night's ice storm.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
OB -- What's in your car now?
For those of you who didn't think about this before, some minor ideas for emergency preparedness.
Paper towels. You have to have a roll of paper towels in your car. If you're going to bother stocking a portable toilet for those 10 hour traffic jams, well, you need SOMETHING. Plus they make good napkins if you have to eat in the car. Plus you can clean your windshield with them when somebody in a truck shlops slush all over you.
Athletic shoes. If you're within 5 miles of home or the office when you get stuck, you want to be able to walk there. But you don't want to wear your dress shoes, especially if you splurged on a $500 pair of [insert famous maker's name here]. And I know for a fact that some dress shoes will put you in the hospital if you try walking 5 yards, let alone 5 miles. Make sure these are old shoes designed for use, not to look good at a sporting event.
A spare tire or donut in the trunk. I was horrified when I found out that some new cars didn't come with one of these. Make sure you know how to put one on.
That's aside from having a jug of radiator fluid, windshield washer fluid (with the alcohol in it to keep it from freezing), a couple of things of dry gas, a can of oil with opener and funnel, a snow scraper, kitty litter for traction, a heavy duty flashlight and batteries that work, flares, emergency triangles, jumper cables, a metal box of bandaids and other first-aid items, something to break a window if you get submerged, and emergency cash.
Next: Water main break.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
Paper towels. You have to have a roll of paper towels in your car. If you're going to bother stocking a portable toilet for those 10 hour traffic jams, well, you need SOMETHING. Plus they make good napkins if you have to eat in the car. Plus you can clean your windshield with them when somebody in a truck shlops slush all over you.
Athletic shoes. If you're within 5 miles of home or the office when you get stuck, you want to be able to walk there. But you don't want to wear your dress shoes, especially if you splurged on a $500 pair of [insert famous maker's name here]. And I know for a fact that some dress shoes will put you in the hospital if you try walking 5 yards, let alone 5 miles. Make sure these are old shoes designed for use, not to look good at a sporting event.
A spare tire or donut in the trunk. I was horrified when I found out that some new cars didn't come with one of these. Make sure you know how to put one on.
That's aside from having a jug of radiator fluid, windshield washer fluid (with the alcohol in it to keep it from freezing), a couple of things of dry gas, a can of oil with opener and funnel, a snow scraper, kitty litter for traction, a heavy duty flashlight and batteries that work, flares, emergency triangles, jumper cables, a metal box of bandaids and other first-aid items, something to break a window if you get submerged, and emergency cash.
Next: Water main break.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
Monday, February 3, 2014
Fair Isle Knitting -- Weaving in the yarn
In her book, Ann Feitelson simply says try not to let the "floats" get too long.
Floats are the yarns on the inside of a Fair Isle sweater that result from carrying the yarn across the inside when you are knitting with another color.
When you have a long run of the background color, there will be a float of the contrast color on the back.
If your pattern really is a traditional Fair Isle pattern, or modeled on that sort of design, you might have floats as long as 7 stitches, a whole inch. Floats can get caught on buttons, if you wear a button-down shirt or buttoned work shirt under your Fair Isle sweater.
To prevent long floats, you can weave the yarn in on the inside of the sweater. It might show through the front a little, but not enough to disturb the pattern. When you practice real motifs, you might notice this but not so much with real Shetland wool.
At any rate, watch the second part of the video and see how Ann does an X -X -O section.
https://www.philosopherswool.com/Pages/Twohandedvideo.htm
Basically, what she does is knit the first background stitch.
Then when she starts to knit the second background stitch, she puts the point of the right hand needle through the stitch.
She runs the point behind the contrast color.
She loops the background yarn around the needle point.
Then she pulls the loop of background color through the stitch, trapping the contrast color but not pulling it through.
Then she makes a stitch from the contrast color.
Do a round of X - X - O and then on the next round, move it over one stitch as you did on the X - O row. When you were alternating stitches, you got a checkerboard pattern.
When you shift an X - X - O pattern by one stitch, you wind up with diagonal stripes.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
Floats are the yarns on the inside of a Fair Isle sweater that result from carrying the yarn across the inside when you are knitting with another color.
When you have a long run of the background color, there will be a float of the contrast color on the back.
If your pattern really is a traditional Fair Isle pattern, or modeled on that sort of design, you might have floats as long as 7 stitches, a whole inch. Floats can get caught on buttons, if you wear a button-down shirt or buttoned work shirt under your Fair Isle sweater.
To prevent long floats, you can weave the yarn in on the inside of the sweater. It might show through the front a little, but not enough to disturb the pattern. When you practice real motifs, you might notice this but not so much with real Shetland wool.
At any rate, watch the second part of the video and see how Ann does an X -X -O section.
https://www.philosopherswool.com/Pages/Twohandedvideo.htm
Basically, what she does is knit the first background stitch.
Then when she starts to knit the second background stitch, she puts the point of the right hand needle through the stitch.
She runs the point behind the contrast color.
She loops the background yarn around the needle point.
Then she pulls the loop of background color through the stitch, trapping the contrast color but not pulling it through.
Then she makes a stitch from the contrast color.
Do a round of X - X - O and then on the next round, move it over one stitch as you did on the X - O row. When you were alternating stitches, you got a checkerboard pattern.
When you shift an X - X - O pattern by one stitch, you wind up with diagonal stripes.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
Sunday, February 2, 2014
DIY -- Basic Cooking IV, Kichri
This isn't an authentic recipe from a relative in India. You can probably find one of you use your search engine.
Kichri is kind of like India-style fried rice.
Start with cold cooked rice. If you want to use brown rice, it takes at least 3 times as long to cook as white rice.
You also need one cold hard-cooked egg, diced.
Your vegetables can be okra, cauliflower, eggplant, red bell pepper, green beans, zucchini, mustard greens, anything colorful.
You can use curry powder for seasoning, but try this.
Put 1 tablespoon of oil in the frying pan and get it hot.
Sprinkle in a pinch of crushed red pepper.
Put in your rice and vegetables and egg, toss to coat with oil, and let it start frying.
Now mix garam masala:
½ tsp caraway seeds
1/8 tsp ground cardamom -- you really need this, it just makes the seasoning
This makes a terrific breakfast or lunch.
If you have a Paki/India grocery, try to get black mustard seed. Toss it in the hot oil and when the seeds turn grey and pop, then put in your rice and veg. It gives the dish a smoky flavor.
I got into India-style food when I was looking for more different ways to make vegetables. I found a cookbook in Borders and bought it and some of the recipes have become favorites.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
Kichri is kind of like India-style fried rice.
Start with cold cooked rice. If you want to use brown rice, it takes at least 3 times as long to cook as white rice.
You also need one cold hard-cooked egg, diced.
Your vegetables can be okra, cauliflower, eggplant, red bell pepper, green beans, zucchini, mustard greens, anything colorful.
You can use curry powder for seasoning, but try this.
Put 1 tablespoon of oil in the frying pan and get it hot.
Sprinkle in a pinch of crushed red pepper.
Put in your rice and vegetables and egg, toss to coat with oil, and let it start frying.
Now mix garam masala:
½ tsp caraway seeds
1/8 tsp ground cardamom -- you really need this, it just makes the seasoning
pinch ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
pinch ground cloves
pinch cayenne
pinch ginger
pinch turmeric
Mix together.
Toss the rice/veg mix in the frying pan, sprinkle with the mixed spices, toss to mix, put in a sprinkle of water, cover, and let heat through for 10 minutes. Then turn off and let sit 5 minutes so the rice won't stick.
Toss the rice/veg mix in the frying pan, sprinkle with the mixed spices, toss to mix, put in a sprinkle of water, cover, and let heat through for 10 minutes. Then turn off and let sit 5 minutes so the rice won't stick.
This makes a terrific breakfast or lunch.
If you have a Paki/India grocery, try to get black mustard seed. Toss it in the hot oil and when the seeds turn grey and pop, then put in your rice and veg. It gives the dish a smoky flavor.
I got into India-style food when I was looking for more different ways to make vegetables. I found a cookbook in Borders and bought it and some of the recipes have become favorites.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
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