What I'm Reading Lately...

How to use Google Wave (anyone really get this stuff?)

Quiche in a Loaf

The Reason Social Media Matters for our Kids

S'mores Kits (I am the geekiest person cuz I bookmarked this with "mishloach manot")

What are you reading lately?

The Jewish Mama Meme Maker

Oh thank you thank you, Home-shuler! I needed a post for today and yours is just perfect!

A Jewish Holiday Meme

One menorah, or several? Hillel or Shammai? (just kidding about that part)
We have several chanukiyot. It seems like every year the kids bring home one made from a block of wood and metal nuts. The candles don't fit into those metal things, honestly, people. I know they seem like a good idea. And then I have to figure it out for the whole week...cuz the kids really really want to use the ones they've made and how dare I pooh-pooh their bee-yoo-tee-ful creations!?

Do you buy your children gifts for every night of Chanukah?
We've decided not to give any gifts at all, beginning this year, for Chanukah. The kids will get gifts from grandparents and assorted other people. But not from us. We've decided to give all gifts at Purim instead. It's not only motivated by a desire to get out of the commercial ridiculousness of the season but also the reality that we have November and February birthdays. Enough is enough in gift-land!

Do you and your spouse/partner or any other adults in your life exchange gifts?
Not usually. I do have a birthday at the end of December and usually get a gift...

Special family chanukah traditions?
We eat latkes. We decorate the house. We set up a table in the living room with all the Chanukiyot. As the kids get older, I'm hopeful for some traditions that involve going out and doing for others. They go to bed awfully early now. We also take a "dreidel tag" which is a tradition at our congregation to buy gifts for kids in need through the Jewish Children's Bureau. I usually do a whole big Chanukah blog party too...giveaways and all that.

Latkes or sufganiyot? If latkes, sour cream or applesauce?
Both. Both. 
The more the better, I always say! Last year I made my own baked sufganiyot.  

Favorite chanukah book?
Potato Pancakes All Around by Marilyn Hirsh. I think it might be out of print but I love the peddler who teaches them to make potato latkes from a crust of bread. It's like a Chanukah stone soup!

Do you actually play dreidl? If so, what do you use for counters?
No, not really. But I vote for m-n-m's. Everything's better with m-n-m's.

What relationship, if any, do you have with Christmas and all things Christmas-y?
None.

If you're reading, you're tagged!

Day 12 of NaBloPoMo and I haven't missed one yet!

I Really <3 Hebrew School Teachers

Last week, I baked some amazing chocolate cookies for our Hebrew School teachers. They really are amazing people who put up with some crazy stuff in their classrooms.

I do like to bake...um...a lot. The teachers seem to be willing guinea pigs for my baking experiments.

So I just whipped these up for our teachers:

Strawberry Cheesecake Bars
adapted from the King Arthur Cookie Companion (which is seriously one of my favorite cookbooks)

Crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup unsalted butter

Filling
2 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/4 cup strawberry jam

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan. Make the crust: mix together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and butter. I mixed with my hands. Do not lose your rings by leaving them on the counter and sweeping them off into the sink. I'm just reminding you in case you might ever think to do something like this. Press into the bottom of the pan. If it's not smooth, spread some plastic wrap over the top and even it out with your hands or a small rolling pin (can of beans, BPA free please, works well.) Bake 12-15 minutes, until set. Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes or until you're done making the filling

Beat the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Correct Spanish homework while beating. Oh wait, that was just me. Gently beat in the vanilla and eggs. Spread over the crust. I used an offset spatula to make it all smooth and pretty.

Put the jam into a ziptop bag and squish it around to make it really spreadable. Snip off one corner and pipe lines of jam the length of the pan, I did three lines. Then use a knife to pull the jam from side to side through the cream cheese mixture to make a cool swirly effect. This was the reason I made the recipe, because I thought it looked so cool in the book. Hold up children who want to see what Ima's doing.

Bake for 20-22 minutes, until the filling is set. Middle will wobble slightly. Remove from oven, run a spatula around the edges of the pan to loosen and keep from cracking. Cool for 1 hour at room temperature and then refrigerate until chilled and firm. Then hide the whole pan away because you'll want to eat it all.

Wow.

Thanks to my dad for the photography:-)
This is what works for me this Wednesday...see what works for other people...

Monster Truck Cake

I always browse around to try and find great looking cakes. I've made a Ninja cake, blues clues cupcakes, lion cupcakes, tie-dye cupcakes (I get a lot of hits on this one, actually)...and a few miscellaneous chocolate frosted things.

I knew I could make a cake that looked like a monster truck.
Started with cake baked into two loaf pans, stacked up after cutting at an angle like a windshield.
(I use cake mix. Go ahead, flame away. Everyone's got their ability limit.)

Covered in bright yellow frosting. I use the frosting recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Yum! (I'm not sure why, since we're not vegan. And I usually sub in butter for the vegan margarine. But it's a good and easy recipe.)

We needed to add some reinforcement to the body of the truck. My husband helped me stick two drinking straws through the cake. This helped hold it together after it started to collapse.

Chocolate-covered donuts served as the wheels. That was a huge hit. Everyone wanted to eat them along with the cake!

The finished product - a big hit!
Sam greeted each of his friends with "come see my truck cake!" which was enough for me!!!

Day 10 of NaBloPoMo, still going strong...I've gotten three days out of this one birthday!

Monster Truck Monster Party

Sam really wanted a "monster truck" party for his birthday.

Let's go back a step...our approach to birthdays tends to be low-key but creative. I love to come up with a fun party idea that we can execute at home. We've done superheroes, ninjas, and legos. My kids get one invitee per year of age (a concept I think I'm about to regret with next week's 8-year-old party) and I try to do homemade cakes.

So we invited four friends (3 came, one was downed by the nasty cold bug going around). We planned a few games but the kids had so much fun just playing with all the monster trucks we'd collected that we almost ditched the games! But each time there was a little lull, we pulled them in to...

Hot Truck (a version of Hot Potato)

Pin the License Plate on the Monster Truck
(there's almost always a version of this old standby at our parties.)

We also colored a monster truck mural and offered some truck racing...
And of course, cake eating!

Can you see the cool placemat under his cake? I made these for each kid, personalized with a different truck picture and their name. They were a huge hit - the kids were so excited to take them home. We also gave each child a small monster truck as a "thank you for coming to my party" present. (That's what Sam called it.)

The whole party was set for one hour. The friends stayed a little longer because they were having so much fun playing.

Doesn't get much better than this!
(Come back tomorrow for cake pictures - the best part!)

This is your birthday song...

My second-born turned four today. It's hard to believe he's gone from this:

...to this first birthday...

...to this second birthday...

...to this third birthday...

...to this...fourth birthday...

My Sam is a very grown-up little four-year-old guy. He's full of opinions about what it means to be four. For example, today he told me that four-year-olds don't have to take naps. He protested right up until he dropped off to sleep midafternoon!

His birthday party? Monster trucks. Stay tuned for birthday party pictures.

Each year brings new blessings. May this one be no different.
Happy birthday, Sam!


NaBloPoMo Day 8 - how convenient of my children to have birthdays in November to give me material...

It's Nearly Tomorrow

It's almost tomorrow but if I don't put this up, I'm skipping out on my NaBloPoMo challenge.

So....it's a post.

Shavua tov!