All posts by Avivah

Make your own 15 bean soup mix

Intentional Spending, recipes

I like to periodically cruise around online looking for new meal ideas, and I came across a recipe for 15 bean soup. In the US it’s a popular premixed dry bean combination but I don’t have the ready made bean mix available here.

What I do have is a variety of different beans in my pantry, so I took out whatever I had and put together my own mixture. I made a big batch so I’ll have it ready when I want to make it again – it doesn’t take any longer to make a big batch than a small one.

Doesn’t it look nice?

I set aside some to make for dinner tonight, then jarred the rest for future meals.

After making dinner tonight, I saw that half a jar is plenty for our family at this time (there are 6 of us at home right now), so the jars above will be enough for fourteen meals.

Here’s my personal combination – you can adjust according to whatever beans you have:

Avivah’s 13 Bean Soup Mixture

Mix equal amounts of each of the following:

  • black beans
  • navy beans
  • red beans
  • red kidney beans
  • chickpeas
  • black eyed peas
  • cranberry beans
  • red lentils
  • brown lentils, large
  • brown lentils, small
  • green split peas
  • yellow split peas
  • mung beans
  • Other suggestions are broad beans (large and small), pinto beans and lima beans. (I had adzuki but that would have been too many red beans in the mixture.)

Mix equal amounts of bean in a bowl, then mix by hand. Pour the mixture into jars and stick them on the shelves to make dinner easy one night in your future. 🙂

Here’s how I used the dry bean mix to make a soup for dinner:

I usually presoak beans overnight but this afternoon didn’t have time for that, so I let the beans cook for an hour before adding everything else. Then I added chopped onions, carrots and potatoes, a cup of rich chicken gravy, some dehydrated mushrooms (I shared about sun drying them here), a couple of bay leaves and a little salt. The pot continued to cook on low until everything was soft.

How much did this cost? I bought the beans in bulk so they averaged 6 shekels a kilo and it was 3 shekels for the half a kilo used for this recipe. I used a kilo of potatoes – 4 shekels, 2 onions – 2 shekels, 1 kg carrots – 4 shekels. The gravy was left from the roast chicken I made on Shabbos – I always drain off the pan drippings and set it aside to enhance the flavor of a dish. I got the mushrooms for free last year. So it cost under 15 shekels for a generous pot of thick soup that filled up all six of us, for less than 2.5 shekels a person (70 cents per person).

It was a very quick and simple dinner with hardly any prep time other than the vegetables. Even the vegetables don’t take long since I invested in one of my favorite kitchen tools ever, a heavy duty manual vegetable chopper. It makes vegetable prep so quick and professional looking. Oh, how do I enjoy that chopper – I think I tell a family member probably every other day, “Have I mentioned lately how glad I am to have this?”

With food prices going up around the world, I’m going to be sharing more frugal tips, strategies and recipes to help you make your food budget stretch further. If you have a frugal recipe or suggestion, please share in the comments – it helps all of us! Also, if you have a question about something specific, the comments is the place to ask. 🙂

Avivah

Late night preparations for a healthy school birthday party!

Homemaking

My ten year old son’s birthday was the week after the school year ended, so we opted to delay his class party until after the fall holidays. After his teacher and I coordinated the date, she sent me a note about what refreshments to send. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was quite different than last year!

  • rolls
  • cheese – sliced or cottage
  • salad or sliced vegetables
  • hard boiled eggs
  • birthday cake
  • 1 bottle of drink
  • papergoods – plates, cups, napkins, silverware

I don’t know what prompted this change, but I’m really glad to see they’ve shifted to a very different menu than what I was asked to provide last year. I’m going to let the teacher know how much I appreciate this.

It’s the night before his party and I’ve been getting ready the last couple of hours. I honestly was ready to go to sleep at 9:30 and thought I’d wake up early to bake, but realistically it would be hard for me to wake up at 4 am to start baking, and I would be likely to wake other people up with the noise. So here I am getting it done now with gritty eyes and a body that is yearning for bed. 🙂

It’s more work to prepare for this kind of party – especially since until a few hours ago I thought we were going to push it off for a week – but I’m really glad to provide something more nourishing for the class to eat.

I don’t want to send regular rolls for everyone else and to send my son with some substitute that would look very different from what everyone else was having at his party. However, I’m not an experienced gluten-free bread baker, and didn’t have time to play around trying out different recipes. It feels like a bit of pressure to make a gluten free roll that all the kids who are used to regular white bread will be willing to eat.

The stars in the sky all lined up when I found a recipe for which I amazingly had almost all the unusual (for me) ingredients. White rice flour, millet flour, potato starch, and tapioca flour. I didn’t have xanthum gum and a google search told me I could substitute potato starch. I just took the rolls out of the oven and tasted one when it was still warm. The flavor was good, though a little crumbly. I baked them in a silicone muffin pan and after waiting another ten minutes, they came out in one piece, so I think – hope? – they’ll will firm up when they cool down.

For the cake, my son told me he wanted cake with frosting and sprinkles on top. It’s late and I’m tired, and just didn’t have the energy to make frosting. I made him two pans of gluten free brownies and baked the colorful sprinkles directly on it. I hope he’ll be happy with it when he sees them in the morning.

I’ve chopped up the salad, boiled the eggs, packed up cheese and paper goods. I have no drink in the house to send – other than bottled water – and the boys have to be ready so early for their bus that it’s unrealistic to go out to the store before they need to leave. I’ll send the water so there will be something. At this point all that’s left is to wait for the baked goods to finish cooling down and wrap them up. Then it’s into bed for me!

Avivah

Getting ready for the fall season, plans for the week

food preservation, Gardening, Homemaking

Last week we were busy getting our yard ready for the rain, which turned into a race against the weather!

I’m so glad we enlarged our goat pen before the holidays, because there was so much to do to get things in the yard waterproofed before the first rain of the year (for about seven consecutive months a year we don’t get rain here in Israel). First and most important was the goat pen: the boys built a roof frame, then lined it with what they were told was a waterproof tarp.

We were rushing to get the hay covered as the rain began. It quickly turned into a downpour, and we were relieved to have finished the goat pen roof in time…until it became clear that the waterproof tarps we used weren’t waterproof after all, when we saw the water was dripping through onto our unhappy goats.

Talk about finding alternative solutions quickly! I suggested grabbing the large blue foam mats that we used under the pool and stapling them up; they did that in the pouring rain and then we all ran for cover.

They took the entire roof off to redo it on a sunny day, but it began raining before it was put back on. They once again ran to get it over the goats, but the pen had gotten soaked and the next day I and one of the boys had to completely clean everything out.

Until now, I’ve been cleaning out the dirty hay by shoveling it into a thirty liter barrel, then carrying to the chicken run and dumping it in. I do a load every two or three days. The chickens love picking out any insect larvae and with their constant scratching and pecking, break down the hay and in essence, compost it. My plan has been to eventually pull all that composted hay out of their coop to use on the garden beds.

With the sudden huge pile of wet hay, it was too much work to take it all to the chicken coop, so I changed direction and after shoveling it all onto the garden beds, suggested to my son he let the chickens out into the yard to work the hay. They’ve been loving free-ranging again, and we’re enjoying our ‘chicken tv’ again, as we sit in the yard watching their antics.

Speaking of the chickens, we need to cover more of their coop area with a waterproof material as well. Since part of their coop is rain-proof, we put our focus on getting the rabbits and goats waterproofed. Then after the downpour I noticed some of them were wet; I suppose they didn’t want to limit themselves to staying in the dry area. So this week my son will extend that for them.

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Today my plans include making a huge pot of compote, then canning it all up so we can enjoy it in the winter.

I’ve done all my winter clothes shopping for the boys, but I still need to organize it all. We’re at the stage of the days being hot but the mornings being cold enough for winter wear. So in the next couple of days I hope to finish getting all the clothes sorted.

Also in the next couple of days I need to figure out how to transport a buck to our home for breeding. I’ve been pushing this off until the pen was enlarged and then rainproofed; now I need to get this done or risk missing the breeding season. (Goats need to be bred to continue to produce milk.) I think we’ll keep him here for a few weeks, and will see how that affects what has been a smooth running daily routine with our three females. Male goats have a reputation for not being fun to have around and their presence supposedly makes the milk taste more ‘goaty’.

When I ordered two bales of hay, it was with the thought it would get me through until the next hay season. Then we got a third goat (it was going to be for my daughter and then ended up a better fit for us), and now with the male goat…we’re going to be needing much more hay than I initially planned for! In a non-shmita year, I would order a bale at a time, but now even though I have a lot left, I need to order more this week while the hay farmer still has non-shmita bales (from the year before last) available.

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When I bought barrels for animal feed from a private seller a few months ago, he offered me a couple of rusty hoes for free (just the head, no handles). Seeing they were heavy duty metal, I accepted them, figuring we could sand them down and get new handles for them. I’ve been very disappointed with how poor the quality of new garden tools are – almost every rake and shovel I’ve bought has broken after less than a year of use. Not heavy duty use, either. The first shovel that I bought seven or eight years ago is still going strong, though, even though it’s seen much more use than all of the new implements put together.

I haven’t gotten to sanding them down these rusty hoes yet (and it’s not on my list of immediate projects to do since they’re usable without sanding) but we did get new handles that fit perfectly at the hardware store. Additionally, I’ve bought a couple new shovels and two hand trowels. The trowels look like excellent quality and if I can keep track of them and not lose them (I tend to put them down and then forget where I put them…) they should last a long time.

After a year of not touching the garden because of shmitta, there has been a lot of work to do – weeding, trimming, pruning. I’ve gotten a lot of garden clean-up done in the last couple of weeks. This week I’d like to get some seeds into the ground and will see if I can get a crop before it gets cold. The vegetables I’m thinking about traditionally are planted in the spring so I don’t know if planting now is being smart by optimizing the planting season or being overly optimistic. We have a warm climate and sometimes even in January it’s warm so it theoretically could work; all I have to lose is some seeds and some time, so I’m willing to experiment.

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There’s lots more to do this week, but these are my ‘discretionary’ projects. I’m conscious of how much these activities add to my day, but I do them to the degree that it works for me, and it’s a nice feeling to be purposefully busy.

Avivah

Local supermarket no longer selling foods from Osem conglomerate

Intentional Spending

A month ago, I was at the supermarket and chatting with the checkout clerk, who commented that all the customers have been talking about how the prices have been going up.

When I returned ten days ago to the same large (chain) supermarket, I saw the following sign.

Translation: As the leading supermarket for the charedi population, we are doing all we can to bring our customers products at fair prices.

The change in prices by the Osem supplier has translated to a sharp increase in pricing that harms our clientele. As a result, it is expected that there will be a shortage of products by Osem, Materna, Nestle, Tzabar, Tivol and others.

As I continued through the store, I saw more and more signs like these, all in front of mostly empty shelves. Interesting, I mused – and somewhat concerning.

A few days later I was back at the same supermarket, and couldn’t help but overhear a very agitated customer complaining to a staff member about the foods that are in short supply. She said that it’s been six months with the prices rising and more and more products missing, and that if the management is going to stop selling items by these suppliers, they’re obligated to find other products to replace them. They can’t leave the customers without anything in that category.

It was an interesting conversation, and when they finished, I went over to the same staff member. I heard her say she’s been working there for 14 years and had some questions about what I heard and what I was seeing in the store.

She explained that prices have gone up so much by these suppliers that the management has made the decision not to carry them because their customers can’t afford it. Where they can, they replace the product with something similar made by a generic company, and are able to sell it at a price similar to what the product was previously sold for. However, since they only offer products that have a particular kosher certification, they are limited in what substitute products they can offer. This is a challenge unique to them, as the other supermarket chains can use off brands with any minimal kosher certification (or none) to replace the more expensive products.

What’s going to happen to the availability of these foods that they haven’t found a substitute for? There seem to be only three choices: the suppliers will drop their prices and the store will begin to sell them again; the suppliers will not drop their prices and the store will decide to sell them since they can’t get anything else; or the store will not carry these products and they will not be replaced by anything – in which case they will stay missing until the bigger economic picture sees an upturn.

The option of prices going down would be welcome, but unlikely. Are the products made by these brand name companies rising due to sudden price gouging? I doubt it. They need to stay in business and make their profit; they are selling it at the price they need to get to cover all their supply/production/storage/packaging/delivery expenses, all of which have gone up.

Neither of the other two options are encouraging – one means much higher prices and the other an absence of a number of products.

I don’t know which way things will go, but as I’ve been noticing these trends in rising food prices, over recent months I’ve been gradually recalibrating my shopping and cooking habits to continue to stay within my budget and make meals that everyone enjoys!

Avivah

The shul is not a playground – increasing supervision of children at synagogue

Parenting

For many, many years, my policy regarding synagogue attendance has been as follows:

The shul/synagogue is a place for prayer, not a playground. To instill this message, we don’t allow our children to accompany their father to shul until they are old enough to sit next to him and daven for the entire service. We start with short services and gradually allow them to go for the longer ones.

For years, I met my husband at the end of the Shabbos day davening with all of the kids who were too young to go to shul (ie almost all of them). They could go in to shul at the very end (obviously only if they stood quietly), then enjoy the socialization after it ended – but they absolutely could not be running around and playing during davening time. Obviously not inside the shul, but not outside either.

I had zero tolerance for my kids running around at shul, and was very clear with our children: If you’re old enough to be at shul, you’re old enough to be davening, and if you don’t want to daven, you shouldn’t be at shul. That wasn’t just talk – that was consistently reinforced by action on my part. It’s worked quite well for our children to realize that going to shul is a privilege, and that prayer is something to value.

At some point in the last year and a half, we slowly shifted away from this without realizing it. My ten year old loves going to shul, and initially sat next to my husband most of the time. But gradually he noticed other kids playing outside and began to spend more and more time playing outside, too.

I’m not usually at shul, so it was only recently when I became saw how much time wasn’t being spent inside. Though I feel very strongly that the shul isn’t a place for children to run around without supervision while their fathers are praying, that was exactly our situation! (I must add that my husband frequently checks on our son, and my older sons also keep an eye out for him. But as much as they did, he still needs more than that.)

So he’s gotten used to a certain degree of unsupervised time. It’s so tempting to let a situation that has developed continue to slide, to turn a blind eye and convince yourself that it’s really not a big deal. But a seemingly unrelated situation inspired me to take some actions on this front.

A little dog came to visit us during Sukkos. It was cute and absolutely adored my dog, following him everywhere and doing everything he did. (That means he spent a lot of time sitting right next to me or following me since our dog likes to stay close to me.) This new dog truly thought this was his home and we were his new family, as evidenced by his strong guarding behavior of our home and our dog after less than a day.

I was relieved when we found the owner after three days, but the dog kept coming back to us. I began to feel trapped and resentful of this animal that insisted on making our home his own, and the owner who was happy to let him hang out with us rather than make any effort to keep him at home.

I took a mental step back when I felt my energy getting negative, and recognized it was time for me to take matters into my own hands instead of waiting for the owner to deal with it. I determined that this dog would no longer get the gratification of interacting with my dog, and as soon as he came, I would put him on a leash outside my gate. Then the owner, who kept saying she was unwilling to tie her dog up or restrain him in any way, would be notified each time that he was waiting to be picked up.

I felt very calm and relaxed once I decided upon a plan of action, and I consistently carried through. The first day, he came in the morning and evening. I immediately picked him up and tied him up outside; then I notified his owner. The next day, he came two times again. I did the same thing. The third day he came once. Each time his owner took her sweet time getting here – she lives less than a five minute drive from me but it generally took 2 – 3 hours each time to get him. After the third day, he didn’t show up anymore.

I don’t know if the dog got the message he was no longer going to be able to interact with my dog, or his owner realized it wasn’t going to be fun for her to get called every time he came and have to pick him up, so she decided to supervise/restrain him more rather than letting him run free. But either way, it worked and it reminded me of the power of clear, decisive boundaries that are enforced with calm and kindness.

It inspired me to take similarly focused actions with my ten year old. His boundaries at shul have gotten too loosely defined and it’s time to redefine them for him. That requires me to clarify for myself what boundaries I’m comfortable with, and then to communicate and reinforce them consistently to him.

The power of clarity is that it makes it possible to summon the energy to take actions you previously felt too unfocused and consequently worn out to do anything about.

In the last few days I’ve made the decision to go to shul in order to supervise much more closely when he’s there. The second part of the plan is to preempt his shul attendance by making it more fun and engaging to be home than at shul. That’s much easier said than done! Thinking about it feels daunting in terms of the physical and emotional energy it requires. But being clear on how important this is for him is very helpful.

I’m hopeful that when he realizes that he’s not getting the gratification that he’s used to, and experiences the consistency of my response, that he will soon get used to and accept the new boundaries.

Avivah

Celebrating our youngest daughter, the value of birthday circles

Parenting

What a busy and enjoyable holiday season it’s been!

Our youngest daughter was born during Sukkos. This year on the day of her birthday, my second daughter (who was visiting with her family for the week) spontaneously suggested we make a special party for her sister, knowing it would mean a lot to her. I told her I thought it was a good idea but I was maxxed out with the nonstop cooking for all the holiday meals and wouldn’t have time to make something on short notice.

My daughter whipped up a three layer cake with filling and frosting, while my oldest daughter and sixteen year old son composed a grammen (rhyming poem recited aloud to a specific tune). That night after dinner, our birthday girl was surprised when my son performed the grammen, followed by birthday cake.

My older daughter also prepared a skit for that evening, but the skit participants didn’t feel they had enough time to prepare. We had chosen to make the party the night of her birthday, rather than waiting until the next night when all of our married children would be there with their families. We thought she would appreciate the quieter and more intimate setting, which she did.

However, with the change in plans with the skit, we decided to push the skit and birthday circle off to the next night, when all of our children would be there.

The next night, we began by repeating the grammen, since a number of people weren’t present the night before. Then the skit was performed, which was very funny; I was almost crying with laughter!

Finally, we had our traditional birthday circle, in which each person present shares something they appreciate about the birthday celebrant. My daughter had told me she doesn’t appreciate the joking that sometimes accompanies the circle, so I made an announcement to please not make any comments about anything someone else says and everyone respected that. She afterwards told us how meaningful and special it was for her.

About birthday circles – as nice as it is to hear people saying good things about you, it can also feel uncomfortable. I think it’s very important to learn to accept positive feedback, to recognize that you’re appreciated, to allow yourself to feel loved and valued, and to sit with the discomfort of listening to all the feedback in the presence of others, without making any comments to minimize what was said, or deflecting the praise.

For those giving the positive feedback, it’s important to practice seeing the good in others. To learn to express that in an honest and straightforward way is also an unfamiliar skill for many people; there’s a societal discomfort in straightforwardly letting people know that we like them or how they do things.

Having a yearly opportunity to honor each sibling gives everyone opportunities to practice these skills. We instituted birthday circles when our younger boys were very young, at least twelve years ago. Their early shares were very simple and sometimes silly. As time has gone on, they have evolved into being able to express meaningful and thoughtful feedback for someone else. The older siblings have commented on the quality of their younger brother’s feedback, saying that they didn’t have such well-thought out comments at that age. But they also hadn’t grown up with it for years like their younger siblings!

I don’t remember exactly when we began this custom and I don’t remember why, but I’m so glad it’s become part of our family culture. When you do something sporadically, it takes a lot of effort to remember to do it and then draft the cooperation of all participants. Since birthday circles are well-entrenched in our family routines, it takes minimal effort; everyone knows what to expect and what their part is. And of course, every person appreciates the opportunity to be the recipient of appreciation each year.

I encourage you to consider introducing a family tradition that will give family members a regular opportunity to express their appreciation for one another. It’s such a nice thing to be part of.

Avivah

How we healed our dog of poisoning naturally, and other animal experiences

Healthy Living, home remedies

One Shabbos morning, I looked over at our dog and saw a huge swelling on one side of his face. When I say huge, it easily looked like he had a large golf ball inside his cheek.

Even more worrisome than that was his behavior. He was laying on his side without moving, not even lifting his head. His breathing was shallow and irregular; something was clearly seriously wrong. I looked at him and thought, he’s going to die.

My youngest daughter was home, and asked me what I thought was wrong with him. I told her I assumed he had been poisoned by something – maybe he was bit by something. Her next question was what could we do about it.

Naturally, these situations usually come up on Shabbos, when my ability to research a question like this is non-existent.

Without any other recourse, I relied on my own knowledge and thought about what I would do if it were a person, using what I had in my home. I suggested we use vitamin C powder to counter the poison, and activated charcoal to pull the toxins out of his body. We would have to put it in a liquid for him to drink since we couldn’t make a compress or poultice because it was Shabbos.

My daughter filled a bowl with raw goat’s milk, then added a small amount of vitamin C (it’s a strong flavor and we didn’t want him to reject the mixture) and a bigger amount of charcoal. Our dog couldn’t lift his head, so she held it in front of his mouth. He very weakly started to lick it.

She gave him three bowls of this mixture and in the next ten or fifteen minutes, it was literally like watching him come back to life in front of our eyes. He lifted his head a bit, then straightened his front legs and lifted his upper chest. By the end of the third bowl, he was acting like his normal self.

I hadn’t verbalized how bad I thought the situation was earlier, but once he was revived, my daughter told me she had the same thought that he would die based on his complete unresponsiveness. He was in really bad shape. It took until the next morning for the swelling in his face to go down completely, but once we saw him acting like his healthy self after the milk mixture, I was sure that the swelling would take care of itself.

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Every morning I take all three of our goats out. (I’ll have to tell you the story of how we came to have a third goat another time!) Two are milking goats, and the doeling is six months old. I’ve gotten them all used to a milking routine and include the little doeling because it’s nice for her to get out and get treats even if she doesn’t need to be milked. I figure it will be helpful whenever she eventually is ready for milking to have her acclimated to this schedule.

When I took her out, I noticed that her hind section didn’t look clean. Off I went to look online, when I learned that runny stools in a goat (called scours) are a very bad thing that can kill them. Having just experienced this with our bunny less than two weeks before, I didn’t doubt this claim.

I looked online for what to do, other than take her to a vet and medicate. Based on almost three decades of taking care of my own children, I was sure there was something I could do for her at home. While I was looking this up, my son asked me what to do. I told him I didn’t yet know, but if it was a person I would give them electrolytes.

‘What were electrolytes?’ he wanted to know. I told him I had no idea what it would mean for goats, but for people I would give a mixture of a sweetener, baking soda and water, and maybe some salt. He went off to shul, I continued reading online, and when he came back he told me he had spoken to someone who had experience treating farm animals, and had gotten a recipe to use.

While he had been out, I was reading lots of information, confirming that the issue was what I thought – loose stools – and how to treat them. By the time he got back, I had already made up an electrolyte solution based on something I found online. Nonetheless, I wanted to know what he had learned.

His recipe would have been cheaper to use, as I made a mixture with honey and his called for sugar, but basically it was the same idea – basically the same as what I had told my son would be what you’d give a person. The problem was getting it into her. I’d given her a container of my mixture to drink from, but she hardly touched it. I had read about using a syringe, but I didn’t have one, the neighbors we thought might have one didn’t, and I didn’t know where to get one.

Fortunately, along for a rehydration recipe, my son got instructions about how to get the drink into our doeling. He put the electrolyte mixture into a glass bottle (because she could chew a plastic bottle), pried open her jaws, put in the bottle and held her bottom jaw closed while he poured the fluid slowly into her mouth. He did this a couple of times that afternoon, then a few times the following day. He was so good with her, gentle and firm at the same time.

After a day and a half of this, the loose stools had ceased so we discontinued the ‘treatment’. My son later told me what a good feeling it was to be able to treat her and do what was necessary to help her get better.

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Yesterday afternoon, ds10 came out to do the milking with me (I’m teaching him how to milk). He milked a bit, then I took over. When I glanced in the bucket, the milk had a pinkish cast. I’d never seen that before; I threw it away, washed out the bucket and began milking again. Definitely a pinkish cast. I got a different bucket and milked her on the other side. That side was fine.

I assumed that there was some kind of minor internal bleeding, but the question was why, and what to do about it. After perusing the goat forums (new experiences make being a lifelong learner a necessity!), I was relieved to read that it seems to be something that can happen no matter how careful you are, and usually passes with time with no need for treatment. (It reminds me of when I was in second grade, I would get nosebleeds in the hot dry climate where we lived. The doctor told my mother that the dryness caused tiny capillaries in the nose to break.) When I milked her this morning, everything was fine. So I’ve learned about one more variation on the norm.

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Dealing with health related issues for the first time is always a little worrisome. Many, many times over the years I’ve experienced how empowering it’s been to successfully treat our children’s ailments at home. Though I’m now including animals along with people, the task remains to first of all not panic! – and then to appropriately support the immune system, so the body has the resources to heal itself.

Avivah

Freezer crisis mostly averted, but I am SO busy doing damage control

canning, food preservation

Well, it looks like my freezer has given up the ghost.

Unfortunately, it was packed with meat, chicken and fish that I had ordered for the holidays. I was able to put a good amount into the top freezer of my fridge and my smaller fridge in my guest apartment. I cooked generously for Shabbos, using some of the defrosting item. But about fifteen pounds of beef bones and six pounds of tilapia couldn’t be fit anywhere, no matter how tightly we packed it in. And just when I thought that’s all I had left to deal with, I found another six pounds of tilapia, three large roasts and a package of ground beef.

Tonight we’ll be hosting a mens’ gathering for Rosh Hashana, with a focus on shared inspiration and words of Torah. I was intending to make some refreshments, but my husband suggested we upgrade the menu and serve some of the tilapia that is defrosted. That should be nice and I think the men will enjoy it. I’m thinking of trying something new – making pickled fish. That will be a project using the tilapia tomorrow.

I made ten different meat/chicken meals for my boys (using the defrosting chicken and meat) and plunked them in the canner. Unfortunately, the canner malfunctioned – steam was leaking out and it wasn’t building adequate pressure. I’ve never had this issue and I was feeling somewhat pressured that right when I have all this stuff that needs to be preserved to save it, my canner isn’t working.

I searched online for what could be causing the problem and tried canning a load using the suggestions I found. No luck. The next night I examined the top of the canner closely, trying to see what could be causing the problem. I was already imagining having to order replacement parts from the US, and how maybe that wouldn’t even solve the problem, when I noticed that a piece that screws together was a little loose. I tightened it, put in a new load and held my breath waiting to see if it would build pressure.

I was so thankful when it worked!

(Have you ever noticed how you’re more appreciative for something after it hasn’t been working and then starts functioning well?)

Now I’m canning up the beef bones that are small enough to fit in a jar; I bought them to use for cholent and can still use the canned bones in this way. The bigger bones are being made into a huge pot of broth. I’m going to reduce it down and then can it, since that’s the most efficient way for me to use it. I’ll do a load of meat in the canner tonight, and tomorrow I’ll can the broth.

Whew. Each canner load takes three and a half hours from start to finish. It’s been a bit of a marathon.

I bought this freezer several years ago from someone who personally imported it from the US, and there’s nothing for sale here near that size. It’s huge and I’ve really appreciated having it. When I buy a case of meat, it slides right in. But there’s a point where you have to be willing to let go of things that are costing too much time or energy to maintain. Three months ago I had this same problem, and paid 600 shekels to have the refrigerant gas refilled. I hoped it would last for several years. It hasn’t and continuing repair costs aren’t justified.

The freezer is still cool, though not freezing, so I’m going to hold on to it as a cooler until after the holidays. Thanks to this freezer issue and the need to deal with so much meat/chicken, I got behind with the produce, and now have grapes and lemons waiting to be made into juice, and apples, nectarines and pears waiting to be made into compote. I am thankful for the abundance we have, and I’m also very conscious of the work that goes into preserving it all. That’s often how frugality is – you can save a lot but there’s a cost in your time and energy.

With Rosh Hashana coming up next week, I need to get all of this produce out of my fridge and make room for cooked holiday foods. I hope tomorrow to make the last batch of grape juice. then make a pot of compote using the ripest fruit. The apples and lemons can go into my freezer-turned-cooler; that will be helpful in acting as a holding place and giving me some breathing space while I focus on all the meats and fish.

Avivah

Sending food, sending love

canning, food preservation, Parenting

In my last post, I shared about processing jars of home cooked stews and meats for my boys in a dorm. It’s shelf-stable and they just have to heat it up. In response, someone commented:

>>The soup/stew solution seems like a really good start, but hard on you.<<

I appreciated the intent to offer suggestions that would make it easier for me and put the ball in their court.

My kids are very capable – very. Though I understate my kids’ abilities and capacities when writing about them, I can safely say you won’t find many boys their ages as capable as they are. They can certainly shop and cook for themselves; they don’t need me to help them find a solution for this. Since they don’t have cooking facilities, their solutions are unlikely to be as good as mine, but they aren’t spoiled and have a make-do-with-a-good-attitude ethic.

But you know what? I want to do this for them. In so many ways, doing this for them says, ‘I love you’. Every time they heat up a jar of food I prepared for them, whether they think of it consciously or not, they’re imbibing some of my love, knowing that I went out of my way because I love them, and connecting to that love.

I’m not interested in skimping on that. I’m not so busy with more important things in my life that this is a pressure for me, or one more thing to do on my overly full to-do list. I do have a list that doesn’t seem to get much smaller regardless of what I do, but being present for my children and having a relationship with them is high on my list – even if they’re far away and it’s a non-verbal food interaction. Not only is making this food not hard on me, I welcome the opportunity to show them how much they matter to me.

There are different ways to show love, and people perceive love that is given to them in different ways. For my older son, I know this is meaningful for him. Someone else might say, ‘Meh, nice but it really doesn’t matter much to me.’

I’m so, so aware of how quickly time goes by, how short the time with our children is. The process of growing up is gradual, a constant spreading of one’s wings and becoming more independent. Independence doesn’t happen suddenly when they go away to school or get married. The relationship with a child changes as they go through increasing levels of independence, and by necessity your active role in their lives shifts.

We tend to associate food with times we spent with love ones, with warm memories, with feelings of being cared about and taken care of. Good food, served with love, has the ability to reach a person in ways that other things don’t.

I can give my boys money to buy food if they need to, and I’m glad to do it. But feeling loved through the money for food is more distant than feeling loved by eating the food itself.

Preparing food so my boys can have a home cooked meal whenever they’re hungry is something I can do for my older son this year. This is when he needs it and especially appreciates it. Next year he’ll be in yeshiva gedolah, where the food is usually much better, so this probably won’t be needed.

I’m embracing the opportunity that I have now to send my sons love from a distance. It only looks like jars of food sitting on their shelves. But now you know what it really is.

Avivah

How I’m providing nourishing food to our boys in a dorm

canning, Intentional Spending, Parenting

>>I know how you cook and care about feeding your family nourishing meals- how do you “handle” (for lack of better word, handle seems a bit dramatic), your kids’ diets while they are away in their schools?  <<

We’ve found the meals in Israeli dorms in the past to be decent, with good amounts of protein and fresh produce. It helps that my children aren’t picky eaters. I don’t really worry about their food once they’re out of the house; I assume they’ll make the choices that are right for them and work within the parameters of what’s available. They do appreciate home cooked food much more when they come home, though!

However, at the current yeshiva both my boys are at, the menu seems to be scaled down; it’s heavy on the starches and light on proteins; there’s hardly any fresh produce. This isn’t a complaint; I think this is typical of yeshiva ketanas, and that the yeshiva high school my boys attended in the past had unusually good food. In any case, we have a situation we haven’t had come up before.

When I spoke with my sixteen year old son at the end of last week, he mentioned how helpful it was that I sent them with so much tuna, since he eats a can every day.

I sent it thinking it would be something he would have once in a while, and asked him why he was eating it so often. He explained that if he doesn’t have it a couple of hours after lunch, he’s so hungry he can’t think about anything but eating dinner the entire afternoon. He’s never said anything like this, so I asked him about what and how much he was eating. Since he has a cavity that just started that he wants to heal, he’s trying to avoid processed carbs. That’s the bulk of what is served at his school, and since he’s not able to fill up on bread/pasta/white rice, the small amounts of protein leave him unsatisfied.

I wondered what I could do about this. What could I send him other than tuna? I wanted him to have foods that would be satiating. Cookies and crackers wouldn’t be helpful, nor would any of the snack foods available in the stores. I couldn’t think of anything that would be filling that doesn’t need refrigeration or involve some kind of preparation.

Then I had a brainstorm. I asked him if he had room in the dorm for electric burners and a pot. He said he did. I asked if I sent him home canned foods, would he heat them up and eat them? Yes, he would.

I offered to make him some hearty homemade soups to supplement his diet and asked what he wanted. He requested split pea soup, so that’s what I started with. I made a thick stew with a generous amount of rich broth, to pack in nutrition and calories; he could eat as-is or thin it down for a more typical soup consistency.

I pressure canned seven liters of the soup, as well as seven pints of chicken wings. When ds15 returned back to yeshiva after Shabbos, he was traveling by bus with just a backpack and therefore could only take only a few of the jars back with him. Ds16 called to tell me that even without being able to heat it up, he enjoyed it at room temperature.

One jar is four cups of soup, and is enough for both boys to supplement one school lunch. Based on their feedback, though, from now on I’m going to can pint sized jars for them, so they can eat separately according to their schedules. This week I’ll make them some beef stew, and by periodically canning different dishes, they’ll have some variety.

This Shabbos both boys will be coming home, and I’m planning to send them back to yeshiva with a suitcase containing the burners, pot, and jars of food. They’ll bring the empty jars home for me to reuse. I’m also going to send some fresh vegetables and fruit, and a frozen bottle of raw goat milk. I suggested he buy yogurts and produce at a local store to supplement.

This is a first for me. Until now, the food served at the dorms has been adequate for all of our boys. In this case, I’m sure they could have found a different solution, but this is one that I feel good about nutritionally. I hope this will be a good solution to keep them nourished from a distance!

Avivah