Month: November 2010

Well, it’s been almost a month but I can’t let any more time go by without showing these pics of Dia de los Muertos that Leslie and I went to again at Bare Hands Gallery in B’ham (which unfortunately is closing at the end of the year).

Dia de los Muertos is the holiday celebrated in Mexico and some other Hispanic countries to celebrate loved ones who have passed away.  It’s been going on for over 3000 years and is sometimes here called simply ‘Day of the Dead’.

The Aztecs and other civilizations there viewed death as a “continuation of life…To them life was a dream…” so altars are made for family and friends with their favorite things – food, flowers, objects that represented their time here on earth:

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!  We had everyone here at our home, the boys were delighted (and a delight) and the company and food were very nice.  Well, except that I didn’t follow the directions completely on a new recipe for one particular side item and it came out awful (it’s my fault for fiddling around!  One of those times when you have to tell yourself how boring perfection can be, right!?).  Everything else was yummy.  I got all my pies made for the neighborhood church that feeds the hungry, and made enough pralines that we were able to share with most of our neighbors.  I hope you had a great holiday too!  What a wonderful time of the year!

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Av does business with The Gingerbread Lady in B’ham and guess what he brought home last week:

A Chanukah gingerbread house!  Love it!

She also makes custom gingerbread houses so if you’re having a big dinner party and want to have one made to look like your own home, she does those too.  Nice!

I tried to make a gingerbread house about five years ago – was going to make our synagogue out of gingerbread – I started with a template, cut out the windows:

…but when I took one of the pieces out of the oven, it had a crack going up one side (which got even bigger as the piece cooled).  There are a zillion guides for how to cook and cool gingerbread so that doesn’t happen, but I only found out about it after doing this experiment.  Ah.  But it doesn’t make me love it any less.

On Flickr there’s this pic of two Chanukah houses and another of a house with little menorah candles as fencing.

The Grove Park Inn in Asheville has the annual National Gingerbread House Competition, and the entries are all up from now through January 2nd.  These are pics from previous years.

Not sure how I found this one, but someone made a S’mores Nativity for their front yard holiday decorations.  S’mores?  Ooookay….

Last month, my Sisterhood was asked to provide eight dozen rugelach for the opening at the Montevallo Parnell Memorial Library of the ‘Darkness Into Life: Alabama Holocaust Survivors Through Photography and Art‘ exhibit (it’s open through December 4th).

It’s a traveling exhibit so it’s been several places and is booked for a while now, but it’s available to be borrowed by schools, community centers, and museums across the US for the future.  And if you’re wanting to bring the exhibit to your institution inside the state of Alabama, it’s free.  Nice.

So anyway, of course I said I would bake those rugelach!  It’s a nice exhibit, and I know several of the Survivors (many of them go to my synagogue) – two of them are sisters whom I just love, and if you’re interested, you can read their story here.  One of the sisters, Ilse, is a fantastic cook and baker, and I’m making her matzo kleis tomorrow as part of our Thanksgiving supper.  I’m in the middle of making around 20 pies right now for a church that feeds the hungry Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow.  Pumpkin, pecan, fudge, buttermilk coconut pies, and maybe even some pralines if I really get going tonight.  Doesn’t it all sound so good?  Smells good.

Well, back to the rugelach.  Rugelach are one of the most popular Jewish cookies.  One of the great things about these little cookies is the way you can ‘personalize’ them.  A traditional filling is walnuts and apricot preserves, but I live in Alabama, so I’m using local products: pecans and muscadine jelly.  Of course, white and brown sugar always make things taste good too.  And golden raisins are nice…

Recipe – this makes four dozen rugelach:


Dough:
2-1/2 cups flour – all-purpose, White Lily is great
1-1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks butter (16 tbsp), cut into pieces
8 oz cream cheese, also cut up a bit, to make mixing easier
2 tbsp sour cream

Filling:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup pecans, chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup muscadine jelly (or whatever you like best)
1/2 cup golden raisins

Egg Wash:
1 egg, beaten
quick splash of milk

Directions:

1.  In the Kitchenaid (you could do this in the Cuisinart also), mix together the dry dough ingredients and then add the butter, cream cheese, and sour cream.  Don’t over mix, but get it all well-incorporated.  

2. On a well-floured board, make it into a round shape (the dough will be really sticky)

3. Cut into four equal portions

4. Press each portion into a disk shape, wrap in Saran, and refrigerate for at least one hour

5. Preheat the oven to 375*.  Roll out one portion at a time onto a well-floured board.  Now, rolling things out is one of my least favorite things to do.  If you roll out the dough and it’s cracking (won’t roll smoothly), it’s too cold.  Knead it in your hands just a bit to warm it up enough to make it roll out nicely into an approximately 8″ circle.  The circle doesn’t have to be perfect but just allows things to be a little more uniform and easy to figure out.  Don’t let the dough get warm, but allow it to get to that perfect temperature that’s easy to work with).

Pic 5 &  6. Cut the dough into twelve triangular-shaped pieces (cut it as you would a pizza to get 12 slices).  Apply 1/4 of the jelly all over the top, then 1/4 of the filling.  

Roll up the rugelach by starting with the wide edge and roll toward the tip.  It will make a nice little crescent shape.  Put each of these onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.  To help keep these from ‘unraveling’ on the sheet, press the tip of the dough ever so slightly in, and make sure that the bottom of the tip (the tippy-tip!) is flat on the baking sheet.  

This is important: if you feel as though the dough is no longer a nice cool temperature, put the baking sheet in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.  This will minimize the cookie spreading when it’s cooked.  If you’ve worked quickly, this step can be bypassed easily.

Whisk the egg and milk to make the egg wash, and brush over each rugelach.  

Bake for 15-22 minutes (check at 15, mine were usually perfect at 18).  

Do you like chocolate?  Consider dipping them in chocolate.  Or drizzle with chocolate…  You can also make a chocolate filling by taking 8 oz chocolate chips (make them into little bits by whirring them in the Cuisinart) and add 1/4 cup white sugar and use that instead of anything else.  That’s Av’s favorite.  

These turned out so great, and Ilse, who was at the exhibit opening, said they disappeared in no time!  I hope if you get a chance, you enjoy them too:

I’ve got to get back to those pies – I hope you and your family have the best Thanksgiving ever!

xoxo,
Ginger

Probably many, many of us reading this gave money to Make it Right, the charity that was founded in 2007 by Brad Pitt to help rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward.  Would you like to see what they’ve done?

It’s wonderful.

This is along and in the area of Tennessee Street:

Next to one of the homes was this memorial:

It’s about a military family.  A woman, I’m guessing a grandmother, with a three year old, who both died.  At the bottom it reads in part:

This is how the sign looked a year ago.

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This article from August states that thus far, $31 million has been raised by Make It Right to build homes and more.

Part of that article reads:

Pitt’s an architecture aficionado, and Make It Right has mixed insightful designs by local architects with adventurous work by rising stars and big names from around the world. The firm GRAFT cloaked a long box on high columns in angled origami folds. The inwardly sloping roof of a cubic red house by Adjaye Associates forms an upper-level porch as it collects rainwater in a cistern. A zigzag roof shelters a house by the firm Morphosis Architects Inc. that can float.

The roofs of Make It Right houses form upward-angled sheds and inverted Vs not just for the sake of invention but to harvest breezes and shade outdoor space. The houses ambitiously incorporate other green tactics: geothermal wells, high levels of insulation and rain gardens that slow the flow of rain into the city’s storm-water system. That system is often overwhelmed by rain torrents even with billions spent on the problem.

Some of the houses have been awkwardly stripped down from grander compositions, but Make It Right delivers a lot of house for $150,000 or less in construction costs. (Some of the designs cost more. Pitt’s charity and other sources bridge the funding gap.)

Homeowners’ stories are here.

I’ve been wanting to show this for a while now.

It’s the St. Roch shrine in New Orleans that we visited.

Believed to have been born in France around 1295, St. Roch was credited with curing the plague in victims by showing them the symbol of the cross (he was also said to have been born with a cross symbol on his chest).

At one point, he became sick with the plague and went into the forest to die alone. A dog found him and brought him nourishment each day. He survived, and is often depicted in art with a dog:

Years later, after he passed away, miracles were reported to have been performed when believers asked for his intercession. He is a patron of invalids, the saint of dogs and dog-lovers, and is invoked by those who need physical healing.

In 1868, his intercession was called for by members of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in New Orleans during the Yellow Fever epidemic. All the congregants were spared of the disease. In thanks, this chapel / shrine and cemetery were built in his honor.

Since then, people have left items testifying to their belief and healing with St. Roch’s help.

There are items from what we today consider primitive orthopaedic aids to modern-day radiation therapy items:

I’m not Catholic, but standing in this small shrine was one of the most inspiring, electric (yet completely peaceful) experiences I’ve ever had.  I hope that all those who have asked, and continue to ask, for St. Roch’s intercession receive their healing.  

On our way to New Orleans, we had supper at Leatha’s Bar-B-Que Inn in Hattiesburg (wonderful as always).  Since we didn’t leave home until later in the afternoon, we decided to go ahead and spend the night in town, so we made reservations at the Hilton Garden Inn:

The next day we got up and visited Dr. Charles Smith’s home/environment and the sculptured home of Craig Black, and along the River Road we stopped for these pics of the San Francisco plantation:

There are pics of the interior by another guest here on Flickr.  Beautiful.

Once we got back to New Orleans, we went to the Scandinavian Festival at the Norwegian Seaman’s Church on Prytania.  Ah, to be honest this was not my favorite food festival but both boys found friends to play with, and…well…how many churches do you know that have their own swimming pool?

Av went to a convention and the boys and I played around – we stayed at the Loew’s Hotel.

We’ve stayed in some great hotels (Ritz Carlton several times, the Hermitage, the Alluvian, Le Pav, etc.) but only rarely do you see a room service menu for pets.  A can of Iams is a paltry $6 but if you really want to be treated, there’s always the “Barking Beef Entree (Ground Sirloin with Eggs and Brown Rice)” for $18.  And kitty can have “Seared Gulf Fish” for $17: