Challah recipe

Challah is a rich, sweet bread, used by Jews each Shabbat to celebrate the goodness of life.


For four loaves

Needed:
small bowl
large measuring cup
1/3 cup measuring spoon
1/2 cup measuring spoon
1 cup measuring cup
teaspoon
tablespoon
pastry brush
baking sheet
aluminum foil or plastic
(optional) sesame or poppy seeds
canola oil
salt
sugar
honey
Fleishman's (or some other brand) packages of yeast
eggs
flour (I use unbleached white)
clean cloth dishtowel


1. Prep work:
a. Put a kettle of water on to boil.
b. Turn your oven onto a low temp and after a few minutes, turn it off.
c. Take a big bowl. Pour a little bit of oil in and rub it all over the inside.

2. In a large measuring cup, put a dash of sugar and 1/3 cup warm water from the faucet. The water should be warm enough so that you can briefly put your hand under it -- not so hot that you can't, and not so cool that you can just leave your hand there. (Too cool and the yeast won't work; too hot and you will kill the yeast.)

Add two packages dry yeast to the warm water and sugar and stir well. Set aside for a few minutes.

3. In a small bowl, beat three eggs and set aside.

4. Pour 1/2 cup canola oil into the large bowl.

Add a dash of salt.

Add at least 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Add a good-size dollup of honey (about a tablespoon).

Mix it up well.

Add 1 cup boiling water to large bowl. Stir.

Add 1/2 cup cold water. Stir.


5. Add beaten eggs to large bowl. (You can either leave a little in the bowl for brushing on loaves just before baking, or you can just beat another egg to use for that.)

6. Hopefully, the container with yeast has been bubbling up. (If it didn't, REDO Step #2!) If it is nice and bubbly, add to large bowl.

7. Mix it all up. Add seven cups flour and mix well. You may need to add more flour. The dough should not be so sticky that you can't handle it.

8. Turn out on floured board or counter and knead for a few minutes.

9. Re-oil the large bowl. Put the dough back into the large bowl and turn it around so that it is oiled on all sides. Wet the dishtowel and wring it out, then cover the top of the bowl. Put the bowl in the oven and set the timer for one hour.

10. When the timer rings, oil two baking sheets. Take the bowl from the oven and knead the dough for a minute. Cut into 12 equal pieces. Braid into four loaves. Put the loaves onto the oiled baking sheets and leave them to rise again for 45 minutes.

11. Brush the loaves with beaten egg and bake around 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. Check to see if they are brown on the botton; it's easy to let them get too brown!

12. Make sure the loaves are cool before wrapping them in aluminum foil or plastic.

Blessing:

Baruch atah Adonai, eloheynu melech ha'olam, hamotzi lechem min ha aretz. ("Lechem" is pronounced "le-hem" but with a little throaty sound...)

Blessed art thou, Lord our God, creator of the universe, for giving us the grain from the earth.

**********

It is traditional to tear, rather than cut, the first loaf of challah that is passed around on Shabbat. This is in reference to the prophecy of swords being turned into plowshares. But some people cut it.

**********

Refrigerate or freeze. Challah does not keep well if you don't. It makes great toast!

To talk to Jordie about...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Jump - Love, Actually

Lest we forget the joy of the festive season, let's watch Hugh Grant boogie again in the holiday movie "Love Actually." (Hugh plays the prime minister of England.)

Feeling good

Not only good, but giddily, happily, toe-wigglingly good! And it's not the Lortab speaking; I've taken much less of it today than I have daily for the last month. The only way I could survive lately was to be on steroids and Lortab. I have one herniated cervical disk; another three are merely "bulging disks." But hey, that's enough to cause excruciating (and I mean I would rather go through childbirth again rather than experience this) in my neck, shoulder and arm, with hand numb and tingling. So that I would be sitting at my desk, holding my arm to try and stop the pain, trying to work.

The other day, after I had run out of the painkiller, I could feel myself at work, feeling distant from my tasks, slipping away mentally because the pain was just so intense. I was really losing it.

However, my visit (and Jordie came, because I asked him to) to Dr. Marshall Poor, really defied my expectations. He's a neurosurgeon, but he did not push me into surgery. Instead, we are trying drugs and physical therapy, and seeing how I do. Maybe the situation will be healed with just that.

And walking through our living room and kitchen, it is such a good memory to think of friends from the renewal group at synagogue being here yesterday morning. It makes me smile to think of Carolyn swinging on our porch swing. And sitting on our back porch talking and enjoying the great food from the potluck...and the wonderful service which Bruce David led...a golden morning. And guess what? Both Jordie and I were not well enough to do things which we would normally do if company were coming: the back yard grass was not cut recently, the bathroom was not cleaned, the bedroom had laundry baskets full of clothes. And, I think nobody cared.

I am not allowing the tense situation in my volunteer life to devour me anymore. I am just not. I was defensive and sad and angry and just eaten up with it. It had to do with personnel decisions. It was awful. And sad. But now, I'm just not consumed. Everyone involved is a grownup. People make decisions. From those come more decisions. We did what we had to do in that situation and it's time to move on from it.

And to move on from this dreadful month of pain. Thank God for this new drug, Lyrica, that Dr. Poor put me on. I have no pain in my arm. I feel like me. Hallejeujah.

Well, last night I WAS too out of it to be at Lotus Festival with Jordie. I had to ask him to bring me home, and then he went back to Lotus by himself. I was just dizzy and out of it. But I had just started on the new drug Friday and I was not used to it. It was making me dizzy and drowsy, and with the Lortab, which can also do that...it was too much. Jordie brought me home and I fell asleep in the chair, still in my clothes, and stayed that way all night.

But today, I didn't have to take nearly as much Lortab. And I haven't felt nearly as dizzy and drowsy. Really, it's like a miracle. I am so grateful for everything good in my life right now. As Grandma used to say "Thank God for a normal day."

love and politics

Our daughter Amalia and her honey, David Hamilton "with our Obama/McCain cookies from Portos, our favorite bakery. [in Los Angeles] They are keeping a poll there as to how many of each cookies sells."

The Egg Sketch