so this one time, in Israel...day 2

When the alarm went off at 7am, I thought for sure I was still at home and about to get up for work. Who wakes up this early on vacation? The correct answer would be that I do, when I'm on a trip where we set out to accomplish roughly 13938571 things in the span of 30 hours (there are 30 hours in a day, right?).

After breakfast, we drove to the site of our next "walk".

"See those fences surrounding us? Can you read the signs?" asked Iftach, once it was too late to turn back.

Danger! Mines!

The number of hours we had known him had increased to about 30 at this point, so clearly we knew we were in good hands. Either that, or we had all resigned ourselves to the fact that we might not make it home. Or we were still partially asleep, jet lag finally catching up, and were rendered temporarily illiterate. Take your pick.

Once we had been assured that we would most likely not blow up, we set off on our "walk", which amazingly felt like a walk for the first 10 minutes or so, if you don't count the stream we had to cross. It really would have been quite easy, we were told, had we been there before the rain flooded the stream, taking down all branches that may have been some assistance to us.

After crossing the stream, we stopped in a clearing.

To play an ice breaker game.

In the middle of a land mine field.

This was the second time out of 394857132 we were told to hold hands, but this time it was for a human knot exercise. My team was...special. We somehow managed to form two linked circles, meaning there was no possible way to win. After what felt like an hour, we gave up, but not before our fearless leaders Sarah and Ariana (and of course Iftach) had gotten plenty of "butts in faces!" pictures. Lucky for us, they caught another team cheating first, so we were spared the sheer horror of performing a dance in front of everyone else.

Photo from Whitney, one of the awesome photographers on the trip. I was probably still tangled.

And then, we "walked" some more.

Three streams, a bat cave, and a stairway to heaven the parking lot later, we were back on the bus, headed for OMGSHWARMAFALAFELOMNOMNOM. We were just a little excited.

In transit, we learned the only two words in the Hebrew language that will matter the entire rest of the trip: sababah (it's all good / cool) and balagan (mess / hot mess). 

Our day out and about ended early due to Shabbat (wait, what day is it?), so we were back on the kibbutz mid-afternoon to give us an opportunity to shower (!!) and/or sleep (!!!!!!) and/or prepare for Shabbat services even though we (in the Victorian sense) had been to fewer than five Shabbat services in the history of ever. It was definitely a fun learning experience though, and now I can say I helped lead a Shabbat service in Israel! I feel so special.

After evening programming, we were perfect little angels and went to bed right away, obviously. Isn't that what you would do if you were told you were allowed to sleep in until 10:30 the next morning?

...stay tuned for day 3!

so this one time, in Israel...day 1

"Everyone make sure you're in comfortable clothes and good shoes, we're going to go for a nice walk straight away!" Said our tour guide Iftach, who we had met about 5 minutes earlier and were trusting with our lives.

Two hours later, we were scaling down a mountain.

Welcome to Israel! Where the rare use of the word "hike" should instill a certain level of fear.

Two weeks later, I learned that the route we took down the mountain is typically one which people take up the mountain, and it was, in fact, a lot harder to descend than ascend.

Lesson 1: Don't tell the Taglit kids what they're getting into, otherwise they may chicken out. If the bus drops them off at the top of the mountain and drives away before they realize what's happened, there's really no other option.

Once we made it safely down Mt. Arbel, we were told to gather in a circle and hold hands with our new best friends who we had just met 24 hours earlier, 12 of which were spent sleeping on the flight over. This was probably the least awkward of all the ice breakers. It also proved quite a challenge. Who knew a bunch of 20-somethings would have so much trouble forming a circle? Little did we know, we would have plenty of opportunities to hold hands in circles over the course of the trip.

"Now, turn 90 degrees to your right, and put your hands on the shoulders of the person in front of you."

Are we going to dance in a conga line? 

"Begin moving your thumbs in a circular motion..."

Are we really massaging the shoulders of complete strangers? *giggle giggle* this is so awkward and hilarious!

"Now tap the person's shoulder in front of you, and say to them "You are a good person."

Well, I'm not really sure about that, I barely know these people

Disregard the fact that the first person I had to tell this to was my brother. I'd rather tell that to a complete stranger! (Just kidding, Jarrad. You are a really good person)

Once we had all rather unsuccessfully told the people in front of us they were good people (seriously, how did we never figure out that 50 people leaning forward and talking at the same time would make it rather difficult to effectively talk to each other?), we were told to turn 180* and do the same thing to the person who up until that point had been behind us. After our kumbaya session, we headed to the kibbutz where we would be spending our first three nights where we learned quickly that cats in Israel are akin to squirrels in the US; they're cute to look at, but they're wild and may or may not carry diseases. Everyone, put down the cats you just picked up.

Rest time (something I learned not to take for granted) was spent bonding with my first two roommates (they moved us around at each new location) over how sore our legs were and how good it felt to lay on our beds with our legs resting against the wall. I thought about how I had lucked out with the rooming assignments, given that I had to spend the next 3 nights with the same people, like 'em or not.

After dinner we learned that it's very windy in Israel. As each person on the trip had maybe 3 friends, including their roommates who they had really just met (has it really only been 12 hours?), we were forced to play several rounds of never-have-I-ever-musical-chairs (aka "the wind blows") in order to increase the chances we would end up sitting next to someone we didn't know.

At this point, it was probably time for count off number 1 of so-many-I-lost-count. Everyone remember your numbers! ...or forget them, because remembering one number for 10 days is really, super hard.

After the evening's activities, everyone gathered on the porch of the common area of the kibbutz to socialize...with everyone back home because this was the first wifi we had been graced with since we left New York. And then we went to sleep, because we had effectively been awake for two days...

Stay tuned for day 2!

words can't even describe...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words (ew, cliché), and since I'm still trying to decide how I want to recall my trip for the masses, I'll leave you with a few pictures first to whet you appetites. (For those of you confused as all get out right now, I just got back from 3 weeks in Israel)

short rib and kale stew

I've been sick for the past four or five days. For someone who doesn't get sick very often, this was definitely not a fun week. Something's been going around lately, and I was just unlucky this time. Thankfully, the first two days of my sickness happened to coincide with the last two days of the university's holiday, so I was off anyway (insert mild eye roll here. I mean, who wants to use their extra vacation days being sick?). Until this afternoon, I hadn't been outside except to relocate from my parents house (I was dog sitting) back to my apartment.

That was Tuesday.

When I finally felt well enough to brave the world, all I could think about (aside from stopping by the house for Chester kisses, which is just a given, obviously) was making a big batch of soup. You see, as I told my dad this afternoon, I'm not used to getting sick when I live away from home. I'm accustomed to opening the freezer and finding a few quarts (at least) of soup (chicken or mushroom and barley) to meet my sicky needs. Of course, I realized this week when I opened my freezer to (gasp) no soup, that I'd actually have to make the soup in order to have soup available. Novel concept, eh?

What, you mean the soup fairy's dad's not just going to automatically know I'm low on soup and bring me a fresh batch? Get outta here! ok, there's a teeny tiny possibility my mom may or may not have offered, on several occasions, to bring me the soup in their freezer, or at least bring me ingredients to make my own. Did I mention I have the best parents ever, in the history of parents?

So anyway. I headed to the store with every intention of picking up the goods for mushroom and barley soup, but when I got to the meat section (oh yeah, it has chuck roast in it as well. Not sure why we don't call it beef and barley, but we don't), the short ribs were just calling my name.

Change of direction!

As I'm always looking for more excuses to use my schmancy slow cooker, I thought a hearty stew might be a nice change of pace. Of course, it was so good that there are only two containers of leftovers, which kind of defeats the purpose of making a large batch to freeze for later. What are you going to do?

We ate this stew on its own, but you could totally serve it on top of some rice and I bet it would be fantastic! Also, it would totally stretch the servings. Also also, rice is awesome.

Apologies for the less-than-ideal lighting, while I started the stew during broad daylight, I *did* make it in the slow cooker which meant it was not finished until dark.

Short Rib and Kale Stew (serves 4-6)

6-8 short ribs (1-2 per person)

1 large can diced tomatoes (I love the fire-roasted ones!)

1 large onion, chopped

3-4 carrots, peeled and chopped

1-2 potatoes, diced (I had purple sweet potatoes on hand)

1/2 head of kale, roughly chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons cornstarch

If you're feeling frisky, brown the short ribs before placing them in the slow cooker. If you have a slow cooker with an insert that's stove-safe, definitely take the time to brown! It'll leave some extra flavor goodness in the pan. Dump all ingredients (except cornstarch) into the slow cooker, stir around a little, and cook on low for about 5 hours. The veggies should be soft at this point, and the meat should fall off the bone. To thicken the liquid, mix the cornstarch with about a quarter cup of water (you want a fully disolved opaque liquid), and stir that into the slow cooker. Set the cooker to high and let it thicken for 20-30 minutes. Serve with rice if you so choose.

rawr.

When you're going to a dinner party, and your instructions were to bring your favorite dessert and bring a drawing of a dinosaur, it's only natural to bring your favorite dessert shaped like a dinosaur, right?

Happy Hanukkah!

Will you play dreidel with Chester?

purple potato knish

Things are just so much more fun in color, aren't they?

You know what else is so much more fun? NATURAL LIGHT! See all that beautiful, non-artificial lighting? It makes my heart happy.

I found this recipe on one of my new favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen. If you haven't been there, seriously. Go. Like, now. I pretty much want to make all the things (and made maybe four recipes of hers this week already? I've lost count). I started following Deb when a good friend of mine alerted me to the fact that she would be in town for a book signing for her first cookbook (Deb, not my friend. My friend doesn't write books). We braved the crowds (seriously, the place was packed) and left with signed copies of the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook! I'm so special.

These knish were the first recipe of Deb's I made, and they turned out really well! The butter-sauteed onions lend a nice flavor to the potato filling (I mean, what doesn't taste better with butter?), and the crust holds everything together really well, without being too heavy. The best part? This recipe was easy. 

Ok, the best part may be that the main ingredient is potato. Because we all know how I feel about potatoes...

(Purple) Potato Knish (makes 10 medium or 6 large) slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Dough

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1/2 cup water

1 egg yolk plus 1 teaspoon water for finishing

Filling

1 1/2 pounds potatoes (russet is classic, I used baby purple), peeled and quartered

1 small yellow onion, minced

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon butter

salt and pepper, to taste

Prepare the dough: Stir together dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together wet ingredients, and then pour over the dry ingredients. Mix everything (I used my hands) until the dough just comes together. Knead the dough until it's a smooth ball, and set aside for at least an hour (up to 3 days in the refrigerator). 

While the dough is resting: Bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook potatoes until they are fork-tender, 15-20 minutes. You can cook the potatoes into the water whole, but they'll take longer to cook. While the potatoes are cooking, melt butter in a pan with the oil, and saute onions until soft and slightly browned, about 10 minutes. Once the potatoes and onions are cooked, mash them together in a bowl. 

Preheat your oven to 375*. Once the dough is ready, cut it into two pieces. Roll each half into squares about 1 foot. Arrange potato filling in a log about 2" round towards the end of the square, lining the potato up with the end of the dough. Roll the dough/potato twice, and trim off any extra dough leftover. Make indentations in the log depending on how large you want your knish - I made 5 knish per log, so indentations were about 1.5" to 2" apart. Twist the log apart at each indentation, and pinch one side of each piece shut once broken off. Flatten each piece a little so it's round but flat on the bottom, and the top is slightly open (see the finished product above). Arrange your knish on a baking sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper), and brush with the egg yolk/water mix to help them brown while baking. Bake 35-45 minutes, until the knish are nice and golden. 

If you want to enjoy that wonderful sense that is taste, let those knish sit for a bit before digging in! They will hold a super ton of heat from the oven, and I guarantee you will burn your mouth if you try to eat one immediately.