So now it is Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday of lights and the miracle of the oil that lasted 8 days. Potato latkes cooked in oil are an enduring Hanukkah tradition and I have been making latkes at home for more than 30 years. That’s a lot of latkes!
Here is my fool-proof gluten free (GF) potato pancake recipe. Part of the secret to crispy, light latkes is to turn them twice to ensure that they are golden brown and well cooked on both sides. They then are drained on paper towels and transferred to an oven rack or toaster oven to retain their crispness on the plate. Quantities can be doubled or tripled; and its great to prepare a larger number of latkes ahead of time so that you can enjoy your Hanukkah guests.
Ingredients
4 medium potatoes, peeled and grated
2 eggs beaten
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 T brown rice flour*
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T onion, finely chopped
vegetable oil, as needed for frying
* any gf flour can be used, or if gluten is not a concern substitute with matzah meal or all purpose flour.
Instructions
1. Place grated potatoes in a colander over a bowl to drain excess moisture from the potatoes. Use your hands to squeeze as much liquid as possible out of the potatoes.
2. Mix the potatoes with additional Ingredients.
3. Using a non-stick frying pan, heat at least three tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium heat to the point that a small amount of batter starts to form little bubbles when it is added to the pan. Then, use your hands to form latkes and place them carefully in the pan; depending on the size of the latkes and the size of the pan, you should be able to get at least four or more pancakes in the frying pan at any given time.
4. After a few minutes, the bottom side should be starting to brown. Turn them to brown the top. Then, turn a second time to insure a uniformly crisp latke. When golden brown on both sides, remove to drain on paper towels before serving.
A cook’s secret for making perfect latkes for Chanukah parties: To make ahead in larger quantities, preheat the oven to 175 degrees. Spray baking racks (found in the oven), with a generous quantity of non-stick spray. Place a long shallow baking pan at the bottom of the oven, and place drained latkes directly onto the baking racks in a single layer so that air will circulate around them to keep them crisp and warm until serving time.
Serving suggestion: You can’t go wrong with homemade applesauce (see following recipe), or in the alternative slices of apples are also nice – and a lot less work.
When I make more latkes ahead of time I keep them warm and crispy in the oven after draining on paper towels.
*****
Homemade Applesauce
The following is the recipe for the best applesauce I have ever had, with thanks to Mrs. Minna Recht of Cherry Hill New Jersey for sharing it. Once you try it, you will really see the difference between applesauce from a jar and homemade.
Ingredients
10 apples, grated*
1/4 Cup water
1 Cup of sugar
1 T ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1. Place grated apples in a pot with 1/4 C of water, and one C of sugar. Bring to a boil, turn to low heat immediately, and add spices.
2. Simmer for 20 minutes or until brown. Chill before serving.
* For best results use a mixture of 2 – 3 apple varieties.
Back in the day, we used to eat granola in the morning with milk or yogurt for breakfast, as a snack throughout the day, and in the evening to top fruit or ice cream. I am not sure why we stopped making it (and eating it), however of the blue last week my husband asked if I would make him some granola. Now we are off and running again.
As a student at the University of Michigan I burned my fair share of granola using a standard recipe that required baking the granola at high heat. So I decided that my granola recipe would be cooktop-compatible. Granola also has a reputation for being very sweet and oily. This recipe cuts back on the sugar and omits oil completely without any sacrifice in taste. Now with a greater need for gluten free (GF) recipes, I have substituted ground flax seed for the traditional wheat germ., bringing us to the recipe below.
Over the last few days we have enjoyed two batches of this recipe without even noticing the change. If you are looking for a healthy snack for yourself or your family, give it a try!
Ingredients
1 1/2 Cups thick-cut rolled oats (oatmeal)
1/3 Cup broken cashew pieces, walnuts, almonds and/or other raw nuts
1/4 Cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 Cup sesame seeds
1/4 Cup shredded coconut (optional)
1/4 Cup flax seeds (ground or whole)
1/4 tsp. salt
2 T brown sugar
1/3 Cup raisins (optional)
This recipe is easiest to prepare in a large pan with relatively high sides. The ingredients have a tendency to scatter while being stirred, and a high-sided frying pan, wok or a wide sauté pan is ideal for keeping them in the pan.
1. Over low heat, stir together the rolled oats, cashew pieces, and sunflower seeds. Stir for five to ten minutes, until the oats and cashew begin to brown. If in doubt, taste a sunflower seed. It should taste almost done.
2. Next, add the sesame seeds, coconut (if desired), and ground flax seeds, and stir together with the other Ingredients. (If you can’t find ground flax seeds at the store you can easily grind whole flax seeds with an immersion blender or just use whole seeds – that’s what I have been doing lately.) Stir for another five minutes, until the sesame seeds and become golden brown.
3. Add the salt and the brown sugar. Mix well to evenly distribute them among the other Ingredients.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool before adding raisins (if desired). Store in an airtight container to maintain freshness. If your family is anything like mine storage won’t be an issue!
To recap, after our relocation from Jerusalem to Zichron Yaakov we were initially living yet another temporary apartment with limited storage and a weekly box of fruits and vegetables was just too much. At the same time the quality and taste are amazing and we missed the experience of supporting local organic farming.
One day in mid-summer I thought it would be a good idea to go to the farm in person, to take a break from our seemingly endless house-hunting and to see the farm for ourselves. I mistakenly thought that it was generally open to the public – this is not so, however they were friendly even allowing us to buy a smaller amount of produce, and gifting us with the very first ear of corn of the season.
During our visit, we were invited to harvest the spinach / other vegetables that we took home with us!
Visiting Bein Hatlamim was an amazing experience, providing an opportunity to learn about the meaning of the name – it is a smallish farm located literally ‘between the furrows’ of other farms surrounding it.
We also learned a bit about the history of the location, which some time back had been a plant nursery, growing trees, among other things. Bein Hatlamim is now surrounded by verdant groves of ficus trees that started out as seedlings in pots and took root, becoming a permanent part of the landscape and providing pleasant shade at the height of summer. Looking at the trees up close it is amazing to see how many of the pots are still in evidence, decades later.
Now that we have moved into our permanent home we have settled into a routine of ordering a box every other week or so, which has proven to be a happy medium, ie the middle path. Establishing relationships with our local organic farm helps us to feel at home.
Murray G. Kling, MD (February 1, 1930 – November 3, 2019)
Today is my Dad’s 3rd Yartzeit – the anniversary of his passing in the Jewish calendar. Every faith has its own way of remembering our loved ones; in my 2nd Middle Age I am finding enormous comfort in Jewish traditions. In the days leading up to my Dad’s Yartzheit, I thought a great deal about the funeral in 2019, and my thoughts at that time. I crystalized my thoughts and feelings to share with my Shul (synagogue) here in Zichron Yaakov as follows:
Dr Murray G Kling (1 February 1930 – 3 November 2019) was a loving husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather; uncle, mentor, doctor, teacher and friend. He was a lifelong caregiver who never took a day off from hospital rounds – checked on every patient he knew who happened to be in the hospital. (I grew up thinking every doctor did that.) He was a doctor’s doctor – a gifted surgeon who had a healthy fear of surgery (and anesthesia), a life-long educator and student who learned from everyone, and who never lost his concern for others. His last mission was care of my Mom following her Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and he dedicated himself to her fullest recovery, which was miraculous.
Dad’s 3rd Yartzeit this year falls started the evening of Saturday (Shabbat) the 29th – always the night before). Today I am missing my Dad enormously – despite his professional responsibilities and extended family obligations he was there for me at key moments in my professional and personal life (selected photos below).
With Dad at my Foreign Service Swearing- In (November 1987)Also at my wedding (August 1989)Dad’s 75th Birthday (2004) ( Pictured left to right: me, my son Aaron, Dad, Jessie, Nancy, Lauren and Rachel)Dad surrounded by children, grandchildren (August 2006)
In the Jewish tradition, the different Parshas of the Five Books of Moses (known as the Chumash – the contraction of the Ḥamishah Ḥumshei Torah) are all named for the first word or major theme in the chapter. Yesterday (Shabbat) we read the story of Noah, which ends with the summary of genealogy of Abraham’s father Terach. Then in the evening we started the next chapter in the story of the Jewish people, known as Lech Lecha – Go forth!
One very interesting thing about the construction and structure of the Chumash is the prevalence of cliff-hangers. Noah’s story starts at the conclusion of the previous Parsha, Bereishit – the story of creation (Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and their progeny). And the story of the pilgrimage of Abraham and Sarah – the OG Jewish Patriarch and Matriarch – begins at the end of Parsha Noah.
So there is frequently a connection or a relationship between the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next.
For many years I have closely associated both of these chapters (Parshas in the Jewish vernacular) with my Dad. So experiencing my Dad’s 3rd Yartzeit in connection with both Noah and Lech Lecha was particularly meaningful for me.
In Lech Lecha, we begin the story of the first Jewish Patriarch and Matriarch, Avraham and Sarah, which is also the beginning of the story of the Jewish people. G-d speaks to (then) Avram at the age of 75 and delivers two seemingly contradictory messages:
Avram is told to leave his country, his kin and specifically his father’s house (literally, Beit Aviecha);
Avram will become a great people, with great wealth, vast fame, and blessed by G-d.
1And the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.
5And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had acquired, and the souls they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan.
In Lech Lecha, we hear G-d instructing Abraham and Sarah to leave their land, their extended family, and their father’s house to reach the land where they were destined to found Judaism. Through study of Lech Lecha, we can see that in order to become who we are meant to be in G-d’s eyes, we need to move out of our own comfort zones, i.e. literally leaving home, and take on what may seem like daunting or impossible challenges in our lives.
This all seems to come as a bolt out of the blue, however if we go back to the end of Parsha Noah, we come to see that Abraham’s father Terah also received the same message, and had in fact started the journey:
31 And Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter in law, the wife of Abram his son, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan, and they came as far as Haran and settled there.
So what do we make of the two stories taken together?
The lesson that I take from all of this is the recognition that even in our own journey and destiny it is not all about us.
Whatever our own talents and accomplishments we stand on the shoulders of giants, including our own parents. While we consider Abraham and Sarah the first Jewish Patriarch and Matriarch, in actuality it was Terah who first pulled up stakes and started the journey.
Before my father’s passing, I associated these two Parshas with him because of my literal continuation of his work relating to care of cancer patients, and my own interest in anti-cancer peptides from the microbiome with effectiveness against Gastrointestinal and Genitourinary solid tumors. (I may share my story of surprising synchronicity later.)
Over the last three years I have thought more about how my sister Nancy – who does the heavy-lifting in support of our mother – has continued Dad’s efforts.
Mom and Dad at my wedding (August 1989)
Dad’s care of our Mom after her traumatic brain injury (TBI) was incredible, with miraculous results. He literally dedicated his life to ensuring her recovery in a way that was all-encompassing, inspiring and compelling. Now my sister (and me to a minor extent) is doing what he would have wanted, literally, to ensure her continuing health and safety. We have often talked of how she is carrying forward his mission to support Mom – the relationship that meant more to him than anything else in the world. This has required both of us to leave our comfort zones and take on daunting challenges.
There is no guarantee of success of course, however like Abraham and Sarah we carry on the journey. And of course we are who we are because of both Mom and Dad.
We may not reach the promised land, and we are not obligated to succeed, just to keep trying to move forward.
A big part of my journey through Second Middle Age is acceptance of things as they are, and not as I wish them to be. This does not mean that I have given up on big dreams – in fact acceptance and release of what I cannot control allows me to breathe and creates space for new good things.
There are many ways to release conflict and move on. One that I find particularly helpful is called Radical Acceptance, and is part of something called Dialectical Behavior Therapy or DBT.
DBT was created by Dr. Marsha Linehan as an outgrowth of Cognitive Behavior Therapy inspired by Zen practices, and originally developed for Individuals suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder or BPD.
Over time, DBT has proven to be very helpful for a range of issues and I found it to be an effective tool for my son (diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder) at a time when the world looked bleak and he had few prospects for ongoing growth and development. While Aaron was not able to participate in DBT group therapy, however he really benefitted from one-to-one DBT with the support of an excellent social worker, John Dunn. One of the core elements of DBT is Distress Tolerance, which includes the concept of Radical Acceptance.
Sometimes no matter how hard you try, you can’t make the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
Radical Acceptance aims at removing the judgment from things in our lives that are not working, to make it easier to accept painful realities that may cause embarrassment or shame.
Many times we judge ourselves harshly for situations where we would show sympathy / empathy to others. If we can accept those things that are making us unhappy and that we can’t change (at least in the present), this can lead to greater peace and tranquility in our everyday lives.
Removal of judgment, while challenging, is essential to make space for adaptation and to alleviate suffering.
While Radical Acceptance is best known for its benefits for adolescents and adults with BPD and other serious mental health diagnoses, it can be helpful to anyone suffering from circumstances or events beyond their control.
This practice of Radical Acceptance is particularly effective in dealing with the collateral damage of the breakdown in relationships that are out of an individual’s control.
Rejecting objective reality – a form of Magical Thinking – was in retrospect most likely a coping strategy that served some purpose for a limited period of time. But denial of reality does not change that reality.
When someone does not accept the truth of a situation, it causes the event or situation to hurt them over and over again, instead of just once or sometimes for years after it is no longer happening. If something happens and you resist the truth of this thing, then not only are you having to deal with the hurt of the situation when it happens, you have to deal with it over and over again every time reality asserts itself.
For now the causes, the ‘rights and wrongs’ of the situation are immaterial. The most important thing is to accept the reality as it is, and not as I wish it to be, and to find peace in living in reality. Accepting the truth of my situation: my own personal daughter does not want me at her wedding; she does not want her mother (and father) in her life in any meaningful way.
And so to Radical Acceptance. John Dunn once wisely told Aaron and me that it is something that you practice in five minute increments, every day, until it feels normal. So I am working on it.
It does not feel normal at this stage; it does feel better.
Here in Israel, we have just completed the annual Jewish fall holiday schedule. Now we get to focus on all of the day-to-day challenges that we said we would tackle “after the holidays.”
And yet we are still left with the positive feelings of the holidays, this shiny Jewish new year with its promise of fresh starts and manifold blessings. One of the most wonderful gifts of Judaism is the literal sanctification of the every-day.
Jewish dietary practices, for example, recognize the holiness of life and the need to give thanks for our daily bread. Like so many other areas of Judaism, Kashrut can be seen as a long list of arcane strictures or as an opportunity to sanctify our everyday experiences. I choose the latter.
Beyond the rules, there is a beauty to Jewish practice that is intangible, amazing, and almost impossible to share. This is the wonder of the irrational. And sometimes when we are lucky or just caught off guard, a bit of the irrational can creep into our well-ordered lives.
This past Shabbat I had one of those irrational, wondrous experiences.
Last week we lost my late father’s remaining brother and the last of the generation. It has been a challenging time in the world and at home; COVID has made travel difficult and separated families. Like so many others, we have suffered the loss of people who are incredibly important to us, and yet far away geographically. The last time I saw my Uncle – everyone’s favorite uncle and a fixture in my life growing up – was at my father’s funeral in November 2019, pre-pandemic.
Even at times of great loss, we are blessed by the rhythm of Jewish holiday observance. The morning that I learned of my Uncle’s passing I was able to take comfort in Sukkot services and the undeniable joy of the holiday. The next day was also Erev Shabbat (Friday night), and we lit the candles as usual. We use 4-hour candles, fulfilling the requirement that candles burn for at least 3 hours.
4-Hour Candles for Erev Shabbat (Friday night)
On any given week, one candle may not burn down, leaving a layer of wax at the bottom. Last week I had just cleaned out the candle holders (glass inserts that protect the candles from drafts), and did not manage to do it two weeks running, so there was about an inch or so of wax at the bottom of the left hand side.
In the rush of preparation for Erev Shabbat, I just put the new candle on top, without really thinking about it, like I had done countless times in the past. This time something very different happened.
Overnight I felt the strong presence of my late Uncle, buried in Michigan the day before. I awoke early on Shabbat morning, and walked into the kitchen, only to see that the left hand side candle was still burning bright.
Assuming that it was something like 6:30 am Saturday morning at that point, this 4-hour candle had already burned for 12 hours. I wish I had had the presence of mind to look at my watch – it might have been later – but I was transfixed by the still-burning candle.
Fascinated and still feeling the strong presence of my late Uncle, I watched as the candle continued to burn for what seemed an eternity, finally igniting the wick from the previous week for an amazing blaze of light before burning out.
I don’t take photos on Shabbat so I am writing not to capture the image in words, if not visually. Understanding that no description can fully convey what I saw and felt, I can only add that my experience was both wondrous and comforting.
Whatever your faith / practice, I hope that you have the faith and fortune to experience the wonder of the unexplainable.
Throughout the Jewish fall holiday cycle we have a tradition of round Challah shapes to symbolize wholeness and return (Tshuvah). As we approach the climax of joy for the Jewish fall holiday cycle with the onset of Shmini Atzeret (8th day of Assembly) and Simchat Torah (rejoicing in the Torah), I am writing briefly to share simple round shapes that look great without stress.
I have three basic round Challah shapes based on the basic ‘snail’ made from a single coil. This is the easiest to master and looks great all by itself.
Here are single and two-strand snail shapes
The second is a twisted snail, made with two strands, and the third is a three-strand braid, also coiled into the snail shape.
Here is a two-strand snail.
The three-strand snail starts with a simple braid:
The three-strand braid makes a beautiful snail.
Here you can see the difference between the two and three-strand snail shapes.
Whatever shape you choose is the right one – there is no wrong answer.
My last parenting post centered on our adventures in supporting an adult son with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) which have brought us from Washington DC to Israel where he has been able to live away from home in a supportive community for the first time. You can read more about our experiences here, here and here.
Today I am returning to the other side of the coin, the needs of our parents – or other older relatives – who may no longer be able to live independently and who need our support to maintain their quality of life and basic dignity. This is where we are in 2022, experiencing what I call “Parenting 360” in our 2nd Middle Age.
I have to start this out by mentioning how blessed I am to have an amazing “big sister” living nearby to my Mom in Metro Detroit, who faces every challenge with tenacity, and who serves as our Mom’s legal and medical representative. There are four Kling daughters, two living locally and the two youngest overseas. We are all very different; fortunately we are on the same page where it comes to our Mom.
Most of the time I feel like there is very little I can do to help my sister from 6,000 miles away. It is dispiriting when things seem to be going badly and I can’t be there more than a few times a year (and not at all for the first two years of COVID). Then there is the occasional situation that arises that reminds me that all of our efforts matter, as happened recently with regard to my Mom’s medications.
You may have heard over the years about how important it is to routinely review all medications and supplements to ensure that none are contraindicated and/or avoid drug-drug interactions or other possible adverse effects. This is generally important, and particularly critical for older people who may be taking a plethora of drugs and supplements daily, and for whom drugs may have different effects than in younger populations.
To make matters worse, very few clinical trials include elderly people, for the obvious reason that their health is generally more fragile and all medical research carries some level of risk. Essentially we mostly don’t really know what we don’t know about how commonly prescribed drugs effect elderly patients.
This may be the most important thing that I ever write: if you have a family member taking one or more regular medications, supplements and or vitamins, check them on a regular basis for potential adverse reactions and/or contraindications.
Even the right medications can suddenly go wrong. Some time back, my husband and I witnessed this with regard to his mother (z”l), who suffered a severe adverse reaction to a medication that had been helping her for quite some time. In that case the facility where she was living was excellent, and the doctor almost immediately came to understand what had happened and took corrective measures. Still it took several weeks for her to recover.
In the case of my Mom, there was no overnight crisis that made it obvious that something was obviously wrong with her medications. Her deteriorating physical and mental condition came about over a period of months; we were all assured that it was to be expected and would only get worse over time. More specifically, the Assisted Living doctor (not a gerontologist) asserted that our Mom’s dramatically worsening tremors, dizzy spells and falls, memory problems, increasing detachment, reduced speech, lack of mobility and general inability to be comfortable in her own body were part of an expected progression. This led my older sister, quite rationally, to believe that our mother was dying and so my youngest sister and I – both living overseas – rushed back to spend time with her.
The physician at her Assisted Living facility also assured me – by phone and directly to my face – that she was carefully checking Mom’s medications every two weeks and that she was sure Mom’s medications were appropriate for her condition. She was apparently unaware of the potentially serious and debilitating side effects of the drugs she was prescribing for our Mom.
Still with little to lose and a great deal of anxiety about our Mom’s continuing negative trajectory, I decided to dig deeper into her medications. I had seen first hand how even appropriately prescribed medications could result in adverse reactions.
This was not an easy process – just to get the list of neurological medications took much more time than it should have, and required “in your face” communications with the Assisted Living Facility that were not really welcome. I really just needed to know for sure what was going on with the medications and prevailed in the end to receive initially just the neurological – behavioral health – medication list, and later the full list of prescriptions and supplements.
In the process, I learned that our Mom – who has never had any significant diagnosed mental health problems – was taking a boat-load of neurological meds.
On reviewing the publicly available – credible – information from the drug manufacturers themselves and from reliable sources like the Mayo Clinic, etc., it was obvious to me that her worsening symptoms correlated eerily with the well-known side effects for the drugs. And she was taking one drug every day that was contra-indicated for her, given her medical history of serious heart disease. It never should have been prescribed for her in the first place!
Based on this review it was clear that our Mom’s doc was unable to tell the difference between adverse events caused by medications and the progression of pre-existing conditions. We could not know for sure unless and until we changed her medications. And that is what we did.
Through a series of increasingly insistent emails and late-night (for me) teleconferences and one in-person meeting, over time we were able to eliminate two of the neurological medications from her schedule completely. It took several weeks more to start to see the impact on our Mom.
The results have been shockingly positive:
– Our Mom was always a big reader, so it had been painful to see her stuck in front of a television for much of her day. Now she is once again plowing through her New York Times bestsellers.
– She is no longer (uncharacteristically) passive and once again is able to advocate effectively for her own interests with the Assisted Living staff.
– She has gone from being almost 100% wheel chair dependent to being able to walk with the support of her walker.
– Her tremor is almost unnoticeable and she no longer feels unstable or dizzy most of the time.
– She is much more verbal and socially engaged at meals and activities.
– Talking on the phone with her had become so difficult that it was hard for me to pick up the phone and try – as important as I knew that it was – now she even calls me back if she misses my call.
Exceeding our wildest dreams, our mother now is so much more like our pre-COVID Mom again and I am so grateful to have her in better spirits as well as in improved health. It feels like we found a time machine back to 2019.
The general take-away is that while we are well aware versed in advocating for the best interests of our kids, sometimes it can be much harder to play that same role for parents. And yet there is no alternative, where medications are concerned and more broadly.
Reviewing medications on a regular basis is incredibly important.
If you don’t feel comfortable doing the necessary research yourself, ask a pharmacist, psychiatric nurse or physician. But get it done.
After nearly 3 years and 5 apartments, we have navigated the unknown waters of the local real estate market and found our home here in Zichron Yaakov, Israeli wine country. On Thursday we completed the process (don’t ask) and received the keys. So now the fun really begins.
Earlier this year I wrote about our adventures in Israel’s Sellers Market. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased domestic demand and prices continue to rise beyond expectations, and prices of houses with any green space are increasing most of all. Our past experience in Washington DC’s overheated real estate market proved to be good training; just like in DC, the velocity of the housing market here has led to multiple offers and bidding wars. So when we finally found the right place, we moved quickly.
Our house does have a small (now empty) space for a garden in front and modest backyard wrapping around the house currently covered in synthetic grass (as one does here in semi-arid Israel), along with a long, wrap-around balcony above that should make a good home for plants in pots. The house is located half a block from Zichron’s Gan Tiyul (Strolling Garden) in the center of town and across from a protected green space called Langa Grove.
Langa Grove, Zichron Yaakov
Now the time has come to roll up our sleeves, metaphorically, and pack our boxes just one more time.
It has been taking me longer than usual to embrace the process. Our last move in mid-February to our 5th apartment since arriving in Israel in October 2018 came on the heels of our son’s transition to his new program at Kibbutz Heftziba and we were frankly exhausted.
Then there was the fact that this 5th apartment was intended as a way-station – a way to get our foot in the door here in Zichron Yaakov make house-hunting easier.
In past moves, I had followed the dictum for good moves of trying to settle in as quickly and thoroughly as possible, getting things up on the walls, and trying to feel at home wherever we landed, for however long that would be.
This time with the understanding that our focus was on using this apartment as a stop on the way to our permanent home, we never really fully unpacked. I did succeed, though, in repacking our hastily packed boxes from Jerusalem , and to rationalize, downsize and reorganize our worldly goods. That should make the next unpacking easier, I hope.
Boxes in our 5th apartment
Over the years I also have made notes on moving and am now reviewing them to do a better job this time. And we have also benefitted from amazing support of a good friend who both gave us her own moving boxes and even came up by train for a day from Yafo to help me make a start on packing family china and other fragile items.
This is my favorite fruitcake, from a recipe handed down by my Bubbe Leah (Levy) Weisenfeld (z”l). This cake was a staple in our house when I was growing up. It was many years before I learned that there is nothing Japanese about the cake at all – the name came from the fact that the cake does not require butter or eggs – a great recipe when the United States entered World War II after Pearl Harbor.
Here is the actual rationing book of my mother, Minna J. Kling née Weisenfeld (z”l).
Here is the original recipe.
Ingredients
1 box raisins
2 Cups sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon
2 Cups water
1/2 Cup walnuts
3 Cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda 3 T oil
Instructions
1. Boil raisins, sugar, cinnamon, water and nuts for 20 minutes, either on the stove or in the microwave. When done, the raisons will be plump, and the mixture will be a thick syrup. Remove mixture from heat and cool.
2. Stir in flour and baking soda, and pour into 2 lightly greased mini-loaf pans or one bundt pan. The batter will be much thicker than for a conventional cake.
3. Bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees, or until a toothpick remains clean when inserted into the deepest part of the cake, and it begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. This cake freezes well.
*****
I have also had very good results with the following variation on the cake, for those who would like to use less sugar and substitute some of whole-wheat flour for the white flour.
Ingredients
1 box raisins
2 Cups sugar
4 tsp. cinnamon
2 Cups water
1/2 walnuts
1 1/2 C whole-wheat flour
1 Cup unbleached all purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 T oil
The directions are the same as for the original recipe:
1. Boil raisins, sugar, cinnamon, water and nuts for 20 minutes, either on the stove or in the microwave. When done, the raisons will be plump, and the mixture will be a thick syrup. Remove mixture from heat and cool.
2. Stir in flour and baking soda, and pour into 2 lightly greased mini-loaf pans or one bundt pan. The batter will be much thicker than for a conventional cake.
3. Bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees, or until a toothpick remains clean when inserted into the deepest part of the cake, and it begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
