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Winter Weather (finally)

Ah winter.  This has been one of the driest winters on record here in Israel.  We only get rain during the winter months, from October through March.  In any other month, its one sunny day after another.  This winter has been particularly dry and that is very problematic, coming after three other dry winters.  Our water sources are at an all-time low and water rationing may be around the corner.

So we are very happy that this weekend is supposed to be wet and stormy.  It means that we will all have to stay inside and eat warm comfort food!  I am so looking forward to the weekend.

As a change of pace, we have four young men staying with us.  I have no idea where they came from, but they got our card (from one of their female friends) and gave us a call.  Also as a change of pace, we are eating out tonight.

My son Asaf (he of the chronic kidney disease) turned 18 this week and we will definitely  be celebrating this weekend.  Our dinner hosts have a daughter who was born on that say day as Asaf (10 years later), so we will get to celebrate both events at dinner tonight.

On the food front, we will also be hosting our next door neighbors for lunch.  Should make for a reasonable count (approx. 19).  That's a lot of food, particularly since yeshiva boys have a tendency to eat like bears.  I'm planning on cooking a big batch of crock-pot turkey.  After some research on the Internet and talking with friends, I'm going to throw in raw rice, dark turkey meat, frozen broccoli, carrots, and onions.  Add some chicken bullion and a few cups of water and we will be good to go.  I expect that the final result will be mushy since the rice breaks down after 18 hours in a crock-pot.  But, it will stick to your bones and keep you warm.

Since we will have rice, I'm going to make a dried beef curry.  The concept is that you put beef, red peppers, curry power and onions together, fry then up and then add water.  When the beef is soft, you allow the water to boil off.  Traditional recipes like this or this, call for lots of "unusual" ingredients that may be hard to find.  I'm going to try for something simple, no coconut milk, no kafir limes leaves or lemon grass.  I will use ginger, curry powder (it already contains tumeric), crushed red pepper and lots of garlic.   This will go very well on top of the crock-pot rice.

Dinner - out

Lunch - 19?
Crock-pot turkey and rice
Dried beef curry
Prepared shnitzel
Kimchi -- check out the video at the end of this entry.  I skip most of the strange stuff (never had oysters, never want to have oysters)
Israeli Salad
Other side?
Dessert




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Comments

Bruce Krulwich said…
How did the rice work out?

More importantly, how was kimchi to make and eat? I keep hearing about it from Koraens at work, but have never tried it.
February 21, 2009 at 6:29 PM
Elliot said…
The rice was fine. Broccoli left overnight in a crockpot looses its color, but the taste is still reasonable. It was a good choice for a cold day.

As far as the Kimchi, the smell is pervasive. It wafts over the lunch table. If you have friends who enjoy garlic, then all the better, otherwise, perhaps not.

The taste is complex, with crunch from the cabbage and many flavors from the garlic, ginger, red pepper and sugar. I'm a big fan!
February 22, 2009 at 12:45 AM
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