B’succot teishvu shivat yamim

Moadim L’Simchah!

B”H we enjoyed a beautiful first day of yom tov. Special thanks to our dear hosts. [We’re looking forward to seeing you again I”YH on Sunday and then also here in TRLEOOB (the real life equivalent of our blog) for Simchat Torah.]

Here are some interior views of our succah:

As you can see, when it comes to succah decorations, we believe that more is, well, more. Quiet good taste certainly has its place and all, but not, IMHO, in the succah.

Kol hakavod to the kids – especially ASG and AMG – for all their hard work building and decorating the succah. Well done!

Speaking of ASG, in the comments to this post, I wondered if he would perhaps post a picture of his own tefillin bag. Here, then, is the picture he gave me:

Note how he expertly blurred his name on the top of the bag.

(As a side note, I must say that these pictures look really good on my new monitor.)

All of our readers are encouraged to come visit our succah in person. (One of these days, I should really blog about that quaint Israeli expression, “אנא קחו את זה כהזמנה אישית” – “please think of this as a personal invitation”.)

מועדים לשמחה

from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

Soup it up

Hellooooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

Back in our pre-aliyah period, we would make rich and hearty dishes for those cold evening meals when we would sit huddled and shivering in the succah.

Here in Israel, however, cold weather is usually not a concern on Succot. Quite the opposite, in fact. (Although since Succot is so late this year, the weather has been much cooler than usual. When YZG – aka “Mr. S.” – and I went for a walk last night, I regretted that I hadn’t taken a sweater. And now, they’re predicting rain for the first few days of the chag…)

In any event, for those of you in colder climes, this potato soup – which is a staple of our post-fast meals - might be just the thing for your Succot menus.

Lately, I’ve been making a double recipe. For instance, for the post Yom Kippur meal, not only was the entire Shiputzim family home B”H (although ASG – aka the “Chief of Photography” – broke his fast in yeshiva and only then came home for the rest of the meal), but we also hosted five extra yeshiva guys (all of whom are honorary members of the Shiputzim family).

And so, without further ado, here’s my potato soup recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3-4 large carrots
• 3-4 medium potatoes
• 4-5 medium onions
• Olive or canola oil
• 2 heaping TBSP flour
• Water
• Thyme (two or three dashes)
• Dried dill (a teaspoon or two)
• Dried parsley (a fair amount)
• Garlic powder (a good deal)
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions:

Peel carrots and dice (or slice thin in food processor*). Set aside. Peel potatoes and dice. Cover potatoes with water and set aside. Chop onions and place in heavy pot. Sauté in a bit of oil until golden brown. Add carrots and continue to sauté for an additional 10-15 minutes. Drain potatoes and add to pot. Heat through for 1 minute. Add flour and mix through. Immediately, fill pot with water, and then add the remaining ingredients.

Bring to a boil, while stirring occasionally. Then let simmer, partially uncovered, for about 45-60 minutes. Finally, cover the pot and keep simmering for another hour or so. Add more salt and pepper as needed, and stir every so often.

Suggestion: Add milk before serving.

Enjoy and בתאבון.

* Hat tip to our Rosh Hashanah hosts, who prepared the carrots for their vegetable soup this way.

חג שמח

Mazal tov: Hanachat Tefillin edition

Helloooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

The food-related post mentioned in last night's post is almost ready to go, but meanwhile, we interrupt this blog to wish a very special מזל טוב to our very dear MAG on his הנחת תפילין this morning.

Here’s a picture of MAG’s beautiful tefillin bag, which his Savta needle-pointed for him (As always, you can click on the picture for a closer view):

Credits for the photography and for blurring MAG’s name on the bottom: The Chief of Photography

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog…

Aliyah memories: “So, how did you ever manage during the tzena?!”

Shavua tov, Our Shiputzim fans!

The great thing about having made aliyah several years before Nefesh B’Nefesh came into existence is that many newer olim tend to view us with awe.

The typical exchange goes something like this:

New oleh: {suitably impressed} Wow! You came without NBN?!

Member of the Shiputzim family: {with just the right touch of modesty} Well, yes, now that you mention it, I suppose we did…

I love having this conversation, because I get to pretend that we came in the 1950’s and spent time in the ma’abarot. Or even that we came on the First Aliyah and had to drain the swamps.

However, the truth is that – with one notable exception, which I hope to blog about in an upcoming post – we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the much maligned Israeli bureaucracy really isn’t that bad.

Here, then, are the Our Shiputzim tips for handling Israeli bureaucracy:

1. Always bring all your documents with you – the more obscure and seemingly irrelevant the better. (B”N, I hope to post more about this rule as well.)

2. Don’t plan on visiting more than one office a day.

3. Make sure to have a big, fat book with you. Hopefully, you won’t have time to finish it.

4. Never, never, never yell or pull rank. Instead, defer to the clerk (that’s pakid for the Hebraically-oriented amongst you) and show him/her that you’re in trouble and that s/he’s the only one who can help you. The same gruff pakid, who barely looked up as you sat down and certainly had no time for polite chitchat, will do everything in his/her power to help you if s/he sees that you’re really in a bind.

Feel free to add any of your own rules in the comment section.

And that’s about it for now.

Tune in next time when I hope to have another food-related post. (I know that you’ll want to see if it can beat the tzimmes post – the all-time Our Shiputzim record holder for greatest number of comments.)

Have a good night and a good week from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

P.S. I posted a follow-up to this post here.

“Prunes and prisms”

Helloooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

I must confess that this post’s title is somewhat misleading, because – to be perfectly honest - you won’t find any prisms here. In fact, strictly speaking, you won’t find any prunes either – unless you count the forthcoming reference to pruning. And, for that matter, I’m not really going to be blogging about pruning per se. Instead, I’m going to write about the lack thereof.*

You see, due to shmitah-related considerations, it’s been almost two years since we pruned (aha! there’s the pruning reference) our aravot tree. (Yes, I know that shmitah was only one year. But we always prune our tree immediately after Succot in order to give it a year to grow back.)

Anyway, as a result, the tree is now extremely overgrown. In other words, B”H we have a bumper crop and would be more than happy to provide any of our readers with aravot.

If you are interested, please contact us at: OurShiputzim at gmail dot com.

*(So why, then, did I use this title, you ask? Good question. Well, the thing was that although we’ve had Shakespearean references as well as allusions to assorted movies, songs, and TV shows, we’ve never had – as far as I can recall – a Dickensian title. The time, I felt, had come to remedy that, and hence the title…)

And on that note, the entire Our Shiputzim staff wishes all of our dear readers a:

גמר חתימה טובה

ושנה טובה ומתוקה

May you have an easy and meaningful fast and a good, sweet, happy, healthy, prosperous, and peaceful new year!

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a… taxi???

Helloooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

The girls and I took a taxi home from the ברית yesterday.

Later that afternoon, ENG said to me, “A taxi is really a car. Right, Imma?”

I agreed that a taxi is, indeed, a car.

She then confided that when I had told her that we were going to be taking a taxi home, she didn’t really know what that meant.

“I thought it was maybe like an airplane. Like a kind of helicopter or something like that…”

Previous examples of ENG-isms can be found here and here.

===========

And in renovation news, the carpenter put up the tiles on the baseboard of the new cabinet in the upstairs bathroom yesterday. He still has to return to add the grout (i.e. rubba for the Hebraically-oriented among you) and the two inside shelves. As you may have guessed, he told us that he’ll be back tomorrow…

Meanwhile, all the new hardware has been installed. I’ve submitted a request for suitable pictures to the Photography Department and will try and post them as soon as they become available.

===========

And on that note, good evening from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

At low Tide

Helloooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

We begin with a warm מזל טוב to little Zev’s parents, grandparents, sister, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

יהי רצון שתזכו לגדלו לתורה לחופה ולמעשים טובים

YZG and I were truly honored to be the kvatter and kvatterin at the ברית this morning. (Due to assorted logistical issues, most of the male members of the Shiputzim family were unable to attend, and even YZG had to leave before the meal.)

And now, we turn from the sublime to the mundane with a request for you, our dear readers:

Like many of our long-time readers, we use liquid Tide laundry detergent. However, as those same readers are well aware, the importer seems to have [hopefully, temporarily] stopped bringing liquid Tide into the country. So far, we haven’t really felt the crunch, but now we’re down to our very last half bottle.

Theoretically, we could use Tide powder (which I believe is still available), but our appliance repairman says that liquid detergent is better for our washing machine.

So, here’s my question for our Israeli readers:

Which brand of liquid detergent do you use and recommend?

Thanks in advance for your assistance in this regard.

<Groan-worthy pun>

We really need something to tide us over…

</Groan-worthy pun>

Heblish Revisited

Helloooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

As you may recall, I recently posted a number of entries from the Our Shiputzim Heblish-English dictionary. (Check out the comment section there for some more great examples.)

Since then, I’ve managed to collect a few more family favorites.

However, before posting these gems, I should note that – above and beyond their entertainment value – these definitions serve two important functions. Not only do they help teach our children how to speak properly, but they serve as reminders for those of us who’ve become inured to things like the infamous “City in Growing Process” sign.

In any event, without further ado, here are a few more examples from TRLEOOB (the real life equivalent of our blog):

Switch him: Hebrew source – להחליף אותו. English definition – To substitute for him. Sample usage - “My teacher wasn’t there today, and so another teacher switched him.” (Hat tip: A Living Nadneyda, whose comment on this post reminded me of this example.)

What’s the kesher: Hebrew source – מה הקשר. English definition – What does that have to do with anything? Sample usage - “Why do I have to go to sleep now? So what if it’s after midnight? What’s the kesher?” (Hat tip: MB, for reminding me of this phrase and how much I “adore” it…)

Litapel b’it: Hebrew source – לטפל במשהו. English definition – To take care of it. Sample usage - “I told my teacher about the problem, and she said that she would litapel b’it.”

At all: Hebrew source – בכלל. English definition – Literally, at all or generally, but also used for emphasis. Sample usage - “Where is it at all?”; “It’s at all not your turn!”

And on that note, the fast is over B”H, and it’s time for me to go eat.

Tzom kal to our readers who are still fasting, and have a good evening from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.