Waiting for Nasrallah … with Jokes

In case you missed it, those of us living in Israel are waiting for a long-promised supposed “major” attack from Tehran, Hezbollah and its terror proxies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Spoiler alert: Hezbollah actually has been assaulting civilian populations with drones and missiles since October 2023, including its deadly assault on Druze children playing soccer on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

And the Hezbollah attacked have kept coming, preventing the approximately 80,000 internally displaced Israeli citizens from returning to their homes in the north. Hezbollah has also caused incalculable environmental harm with massive destruction of forests and important nature reserves including the Nahal Hermon-Banias Nature Reserve and the Horse Tal National Park.

Today I decided to take a break from serious reflection and to share some of that famous, wry Jewish (as opposed to Jewish Rye) humor. Since my earlier post on shameless UN and BBC lies / hypocrisy there has been so much more of the same to share – I just don’t see the point.

So just to lighten up the mood, here are some screen shots from X (formerly Twitter) following an August 5th message from Hezbollah leader Nasrallah that I am pretty sure was meant to be threatening:

You can tell when Hezbollah is trying to be really, really scary when the post is in Hebrew. As a brief digression, this is similar to a message posted in Palestine Square, Tehran, shown below, following the selection of the murderous terrorist Yawya Sinwar to succeed the murderous terrorist Ismail Haneyah – one of the actual founders of Hamas.

The Hebrew inscription below is a bit ponderous and clunky, as they tend to be, written by a non-Hebrew speaker –or possibly Google Translate. The meaning is something along the lines of:

“You (presumably Israel?) received a military blow on October 7th and a political blow on August 7th the next blow is soon.”

This makes very little sense. If anything Israel should welcome the acknowledgment of zero difference between military and political wings of Hamas – they are all murderous terrorists with the stated goal of the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of the Jewish people.

Returning the Nasrallah post, it had the unintended effect of making every Israeli into a comedian, and the joke of course is on Nasrallah.

Here are a few of my favorite responses:

Not to mention:

Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur posted this helpful summary:

image.png

Also seen online: “Me, every time I think about writing a novel” , “… waiting for the tow truck” etc.., – you get the idea. This is the Israeli experience in a nutshell. While the threat from Tehran, Hezbollah, et al remains very real, a little humor helps to relieve the pressure. And where there are Jews there always will be jokes.

Let me know if I have left out any good ones!

And stay safe out there.

No-Cook (Vegan) Chocolate Mousse

No-cook Chocolate Mousse

How do you mend a broken heart? Some people recommend chocolate.

All of Israel mourns the loss of twelve innocent Druze children killed by an Iranian missile while playing soccer on a playground on a sunny Saturday afternoon, with some forty more in serious to critical condition. Hezbollah has been targeting civilians in the north of Israel for the last nine months so something like this was both inevitable and shocking at once.

Last week I promised that I would share one of my favorite, easy chocolate desserts – one that does not heat up your kitchen with cooking or baking – so perfect for these dog days of summer. And perhaps we all need a little sweetness in our lives to counter the bitterness in our souls after more than nine months of war, with attacks coming from all sides, and particularly after the sadness of Saturday’s attack on a playground full of happy families with no idea of how the day would end.

So I am writing with a heavy heart to share perhaps the easiest and healthiest chocolate mousse recipe ever, one that has been in my ragged recipe binder for so long I don’t remember how it got there. Unbelievably, the link at the bottom of the printed page of the original recipe still works! If you are curious you can find it here shared by a woman who goes by the name Cobalt online. Thank you Cobalt! Over the years I have changed the recipe and offer this version now as a balm for the broken-hearted.

This is a great summer dessert – apart from melting the chocolate chips there is no cooking or baking. It is vegan, gluten free and dairy free (parve) – it checks a lot of boxes and it requires just a handful of ingredients that you already likely have on hand. If Silken Tofu is new to you, you can find it in most markets. (I like to keep it on hand for vegan sour cream.)

One caveat: because there are so few ingredients, the quality of the chocolate and vanilla is critical to the success of the recipe.

Once you melt the chocolate chips, the rest of the recipe comes together in a few minutes with the aid of a hand blender.

Ingredients

250 grams / 9 ounces high quality chocolate chips (1 bag locally here in Israel)

1 T vanilla

4 T Maple Syrup

300 / 10.6 ounces grams silken tofu (1 box pretty universally)

Instructions

  1. Melt chocolate chips on low power in the microwave – I use 3 or 4 power and check after 2 minutes, stirring the chips to mix the melted part with the still intact chips, before melting them for another minute and checking again. Also as mentioned above, if you don’t have a microwave, you can melt the chocolate chips over low heat on the stove-top (keep an eye on it, stirring with a wooden spoon).
  2. Once the chips are melted, stir in Vanilla and Maple Syrup.
  3. Blend in the tofu – I find a hand-blender really handy for this, though you can also use a whisk or blender.
  4. Refrigerate 1 -2 hours until the Chocolate Mousse is thoroughly chilled.

    My husband Matt loves this with granola.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2)

My last post explored the history and meaning behind:” Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. To my mind, there is no better phrase that captures the Israeli zeitgeist since October 7th: the importance of facing up to the broken hopes and dreams of the past, harsh realities of the present and the rocky path forward. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf also captures the need for radical acceptance of the fallibility and even the corruption of UN leadership – the fish rots from the head – and hypocrisy and bias of leading global media.

In a nutshell “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf ” means who is afraid of staring our illusions full in the face, recognizing them, and naming them – no matter the cost, up to and including life itself.

Fundamentally I am a preternaturally happy and optimistic person – unlike Virginia Woolf, and appreciate your hanging with me for what is a necessary downer. (Stick with me on this and I promise to share an amazingly delicious high-protein summer cool chocolate treat for my next post.)

There also are just too, too many bad actors to include everything in one go. Today I am focusing only on the UN head himself – Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the destructive role he has played, together with the well-documented bias of global media, where the BBC provides a wonderful example of the worst of the worst.

It may be challenging for some to recognize that the core mission of the UN has been subverted – turned on its head – by design. In one example – something that I just saw online today –relates to Israel’s long delayed counter attack against the Houthis that literally have been attacking Israel for nine months. Predictably UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has issued a statement expressing his “deep concern” about Israeli airstrikes against Yemen, failing to include critical context that this Israeli counter-attack follows nine full months of unprovoked Houthi attacks on Israel, 220+ drone and missile attacks, and the most recent attack in Tel Aviv that killed one civilian in his home and injured 10 more.

Now we also know – from their own statements and actions – that Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi and even terror proxies in Syria and Iraq have been funded, trained and supplied by governments in the self-described New Axis Powers: Russia, Iran, China and North Korea, together with supporting players Qatar – foreign policy vassal of Iran – and Turkey, where Iran is first among equals. It goes without saying that Guterres has never expressed concern about Iran’s transfer of offensive drones, missiles, etc., to the Houthis, Hezbollah, or Tehran’s terror proxies in Iraq and Syria. Instead he has falsely accused and targeted Israel for inclusion in a black list of states that targets children – not Hamas that has literally slaughtered and seized innocent children on October 7th, but Israel. Of course the UN has said nothing and done nothing to address the very dangerous role played by New Axis Powers. One hard reality – the one we need to face is that unless and until the New Axis Powers are forced to stop funding, supplying and training their terror proxies there can be no hope of peace.

And, believe it or not, instead of confronting Iran’s domestic widespread human rights abuses and its role as the single greatest funder of global terror, Guterres actually led a tribute to the late Iranian President Raisi following his death in a helicopter accident in May 2024, :

Screenshot source: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/un-pays-tribute-to-late-iranian-president/3235705

You literally can’t make this stuff up.

Turning from UN leadership to global media, we also need to recognize and call-out willingness of the BBC, Washington Post and New York Times, among others, to accept without question bald faced lies of Hamas and to blame Israel at nearly every turn regardless of the truth.

The BBC in particular has become the poster child for pro-Hamas coverage – an easy target for Israeli satire, but very damaging for the 400 million people around the globe who rely on the BBC for news of the world. Here are two particularly salient examples of BBC follies, seen through the lens of Israel’s long running satirical program Eretz Nehederet:

Satirical Eretz Nehederet video skewering BBC’s actual coverage of the faked bombing of a hospital in Gaza, Nov. 2023.
Eretz Nehederet dramatizing BBC sincophanic Interview with Hamas head Yahya Sinwar, Nov. 2023.

In a case of life imitating art, the BBC in real life once again had to apologize for baseless accusations against Israel just after the airing of the Eretz Nehedert skit. Again. you can’t make this stuff up.

(There are so many great satirical online sketches that have come out of the tragedy and horrors of October 7th. Let me know if you are interested in seeing more.)

The foregoing just scratches the surface, I realize. The important thing is to be clear-eyed about what is going on in the world around us, for example not to believe fairy tales about how the UN calls out evil and protects the global community, or that the global media has no bias. This is an important theme that I will return to in the future.

October 7th and its aftermath has proven the importance of living in reality, to recognize the world as it is and not as we wish it to be. Only then can we build a better, more peaceful future.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a reference to acclaimed Victorian novelist and writer Virginia Woolf (January 25, 1882–March 28, 1941). For most people this may bring to mind the ground-breaking Edward Albee play first staged in 1962 and later brought to the big screen by Mike Nichols in 1966. Actually it goes back even farther, as it is a play on words relating to an old song: “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” from Walt Disney’s 1933 cartoon The Three Little Pigs.

Virginia Woolf explored themes of illusion and reality, as well as social and political issues affecting women, self and identity, communication and alienation. Her with major works include novels and essays: Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and A Room of One’s Own, and much more. For much of her life Virginia Woolf’s writing helped her to vanquish serious early episodes of anxiety and depression. Unfortunately in the early years of World War Two (WWII) she again became very depressed and unable to write.

The future seemed hopeless – in fact the UK was in a precarious position as the target of the German blitz from September thru May 1941. She saw with clear eyes the inability of the UK to counter the might of the Nazi war machine, together with their Axis allies at that time: Russia, Italy and Japan. (The US did not enter WWII until it was directly attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor on December 6, 1941.) Germany’s threatened invasion of Great Britain appeared imminent and Woolf felt that this signaled the end of civilization. On March 8, 1941 Virginia Woolf found herself unable go on in the world as it was. She weighted her pockets with stones and walked to her death in the sea.

So that is the back-story as relates to Virginia Woolf, who also famously wrote in Orlando that:

Over the intervening decades, “Who’s afraid of Virginia Wolf?”, has taken taken on added meaning, representing the need for each one of us question our own perceptions of reality and our place in the world, to face up to reality as it is, and not as we wish it to be.

This has been on my mind since October 7th.

In case you missed it: the barbaric October 7, 2024 assault by Hamas targeted the most dovish communities in Israel – and at the nearby Nova Peace Rave – carried out on one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar, killed more than 1200 innocents, raped hundreds and seized more than 240 hostages including babies, children, parents and grandparents. October 7th was the most deadly attack since the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, with atrocities calculated to cause the greatest possible physical, emotional and even environmental harm.

Picture taken at hostage square in Tel Aviv of a poster that states in Hebrew: Our heart is left in Gaza.
Posters of hostages, including baby Kfir Bibas – photo taken at Hostage Square, Tel Aviv.

Rather than try to capture the total horrors of October 7th, I am linking here to a detailed mapping of the October 7th Massacre

October 7th has been called the 9/11 of Israel. It actually has greater similarities to India’s 26/11 Mumbai attacks which also included infiltration and sustained attacks that killed more than 60 people. October 7th though was accompanied by immediate and ongoing global spiraling of antisemitism – synchronized and apparently planned – along with surges of misinformation and fake news concomitant with ongoing attacks. Military attacks over the last 9 months have continued from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, as well as by terror proxy Hezbollah to the north in Lebanon, the Houthis to the east in Yeman, and Iraqi and Syrian terror militias from the north-east, and even direct attack by Iran. As of this writing, fully one third of the country is under attack in the north by Hezbollah.

If you know anyone in Israel, you may already know that nearly 100,000 Israelis have been unable to return to their homes – either because their communities were burned to the ground, or because of ongoing attack that makes it unsafe in the south (Hamas/PIJ) and the north (Hezbollah).

At bottom October 7th is one of those seismic events that requires us to question all of our assumptions and beliefs, our hopes and illusions.

Who is afraid of living life without illusions?

What are the illusions that you personally may be living with – consciously or otherwise?

Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?

To be continued….

Fresh Granola Landing Now

Just Landing: Fresh Granola

Sometimes the best thing to happen all day is a fresh batch of Granola.

Gluten Free Granola

In case you missed it, here is the Gluten Free (GF) Granola Recipe.

Just Landing: Fresh Granola

Sometimes the best thing to happen all day is a fresh batch of Granola.

Gluten Free Granola

In case you missed it, here is the Gluten Free (GF) Granola Recipe.

Seeded Crackers (GF)

These crackers – adapted from a recipe by the good people at King Arthur Flour – may be among the best you ever taste, and you will love the scent of these as they come out of your oven. These crackers pack enormous flavor, crunch, and added nutritional benefit from all those seeds. This is the recipe that “Big Cracker” doesn’t want you to know about. (joke)

The thing about crackers is that I can never believe how expensive they are for how little you actually get. (Even the good ones seem to weigh less than the packaging they come in. And the not-so-good ones can taste like the box.) So my solution has been to start making crackers at home. I know it may sound crazy – tasting is believing!

Try it and let me know what you think.

Seeded Crackers (GF)

Ingredients

3 cups Almond flour

1 tsp ground cumin

2 Tbs Poppy seeds

2 Tbs Chia seeds

2 Tbs Flax seeds

2 Tbs Sesame seeds

1 tsp Salt

2 Eggs

2 Tbs Sunflower Oil

Other supplies you will need: 2 baking trays (flat trays work best here, ie without a raised edge), Baking paper, one big mixing cup or bowl, Pastry Cutter or Sharp knife to cut the crackers

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350.
  2. Start with the dry ingredients, mixing the almond flour, seeds and salt in a big bowl or a gigantic measuring cup like the one below.
  3. Mix in eggs and Sunflower Oil, mixing the dough to form a rough ball. This will not be a smooth dough – as long as it comes away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ball that is fine.
  4. Divide the dough into two pieces, and place the first roll out the first batch of crackers directly onto a baking tray between 2 sheets of baking paper (wax paper, parchment paper – any of these will work).
  5. Cut the crackers into diamonds, or whatever shapes you like. I have a fancy pastry cutter that is a lot of fun and it totally unnecessary – any sharp knife will be great.
  6. Bake the crackers for 10 minutes and then take them out of the oven – they tend to brown at the edges first, so it is to take the ones at the edge off the sheet and then return it to the oven for another 5 minutes. They should take about 15 – 20 minutes altogether.
  7. Enjoy with cheese, soups, or your favorite spread!
Mixed Seeded cracker dough in the big measuring cup – this one comes with a cover!
Divide the seeded cracker dough into two pieces.
Tray 1 of the cut cracker dough
Close up on the cracker dough after cutting into diamond shapes
Tray 2 of the cracker dough

A Game Changer for Non-Dairy Ice Cream

Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Birthday Cake

Over the years I have lost my ability to enjoy regular ice cream. One of the things about 2nd Middle Age is that things we take for granted change and we need to adjust our own expectations in so many ways … including avoiding too much dairy as it becomes harder to digest. This is more common than I realized in 2nd MIddle Age and may also have happened to you.

Living here in Zichron Yaakaov literally two blocks from amazing (conventional) ice cream / gelato doesn’t make that any easier. Even on a Microbiome Diet there are times when ice cream is necessary.

Recently I found a product on the market that makes ice cream FOMO (fear of missing out) a thing of the past. If it is here in a local makolet (mini-market) in my relatively small town, I sincerely hope that you can find it wherever you are reading this.

For me this is no small thing. I will of course share the actual, amazing product – along with a recipe that is working out well for me. But first the back story:

Over the last several years I have tried a lot of non-dairy / vegan ice cream recipes, and they are not all created equal. A lot of them are just meh – either they don’t firm up enough or they are great at first and then get icy in the freezer. (Even “real” ice cream does not always store well – and that has the benefit of dairy fat.) One was so disappointing that I ceremoniously tore up the recipe – mostly to make sure that I never made it again by accident. (I have a lot of recipes and sometimes get confused.)

Some of them, like Fresh Orange “Creamsicle” Ice Cream are dreamy.

Vegan Fresh Orange “Creamsicle” Ice Cream

A few others also are good enough to share even if they are not perfect, including Vegan Mint Ice Cream

Vegan Mint Chocolate Ice Cream

and Vegan Tahini Fudge Ice Cream.

Vegan Tahini Fudge Ice Cream served over granola

One of the greatest challenges for non-dairy ice cream is the texture. And that is down to the difficulty of achieving the same smoothness in a non-dairy ice cream that comes naturally from use of full fat dairy cream and whole milk in high-quality conventional ice cream. This is where my new favorite product, Flora Plant Double 31% Fat comes into play. (I just caught myself writing “my new best friend” – that’s how good it is.)

Really my only complaint is the name. Something this amazing deserves better, am I right? So for now let’s call it Flora Plant Double Cream.

Flora Plant Double Cream

When you need a non-dairy dessert and nothing but ice cream will satisfy, this is the product that will confuse your friends and confound your frenemies.

And the preparation is simplicity in itself – no soaking cashews, no other unusual ingredients, and no cooking required! My usual MO is to do some online research to find a recipe that I can alter to suit my needs. The Spruce Eats is a wonderful resource, and that is where I found a non-cook, (dairy) ice cream recipe and swapped out/adjusted the ingredients to come up with Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream.

Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsweetened Soy Milk (or any non-dairy alternative you prefer)
1/3 cup coconut sugar or plain sugar
1.5 cups Flora Plant Double Cream
2 tsp. Vanilla

Instructions
1. Stir together the Soy Milk and sugar to dissolve the sugar crystals. Please be patient as you really want to dissolve the sugar before you add everything to the ice cream maker, and this is not a cooked custard. It just takes a few minutes.
2. Add the Flora Plant Double Cream and the Vanilla
3. Pour into ice cream maker (or other container suitable for freezing)

This recipe whips up wonderfully in the ice cream maker.

If using an ice cream maker, follow standard instructions for chilling the ice cream.

If not using an ice cream maker, freeze the ice cream for 1 – 2 hours and then stir briefly before returning to the freezer. Repeat this every 1 – 2 hours until the ice cream reaches the desired consistency.

If you want to be really fancy – as my daughter likes to say – when you transfer the ice cream into the storage container you can top it with Vegan Tahini Chocolate Fudge. That is what I like to do. Then when you scoop it out, each serving includes a nice ribbon of chocolate fudge. And if you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can still serve the ice cream with the chocolate fudge of course, just don’t put it on to until after the ice cream has frozen.

Here is that recipe:

Vegan Tahini Chocolate Fudge
Ingredients
1 cup Tahini
1/2 cup date Syrup (Silan)
1/2 cup coconut sugar (can substitute brown or other sugar)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 cup water (more as needed) 
1/4 tsp sea salt

Instructions
Stir all of the ingredients together, adding the water a few tablespoons at a time to reach a spreading consistency, so that you can pour it over the ice cream without difficulty.

You should have extra Tahini Chololate Fudge left over to put in the refrigerator for later.

Enjoy!

Fresh Orange “Creamsicle” Ice Cream

While the temperatures here in Zichron Yaakov are moderating as we reach the end of August, it is still great weather for (non-dairy) ice cream.

The back story: when I was a kid in the Detroit area, the Creamsicle bar – vanilla ice cream covered in orange flavored sherbet – was second only to the famous Fudgsicle in terms of ice cream treats on a stick. I have no idea how it would taste to me now. What I do know is that this recipe brings back those memories of childhood creamsicles.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Navel oranges are recommended for their high juice content; any orange recommended for juicing should be fine.

Ingredients
Juice and Zest (just the orange part of the skin of the orange) from 4 – 5 Navel Oranges
1/2 cup coconut sugar or other sugar of your choice
14 ounces coconut cream
2 Tablespoons Vanilla
2 Tablespoons Vodka (helps to keep the ice cream from getting icy in the freezer)

From oranges to ice cream in a few easy steps!.

Instructions
1. Stir together the orange juice, sugar and coconut cream to dissolve the sugar crystals
2. Add 2 Tablespoons Vanilla and 2 Tablespoons Vodka
3. Pour into ice cream maker (or other container suitable for freezing)
4. Fold in the Orange Zest*

If using an ice cream maker, follow standard instructions for chilling the ice cream.

If not using an ice cream maker, freeze the ice cream for 1 – 2 hours and then stir briefly before returning to the freezer. Repeat this every 1 – 2 hours until the ice cream reaches the desired consistency.

Enjoy!

*If like me, you have a someone in your life who is not crazy about the texture of orange zest, you can use a little bit or omit it completely. It will still be delicious.