#edjewcation

Now, I actually very famously hate baking, and oh my gosh, it's a lot of effort, but these hamantaschen are worth it. Legit my favorite ones, better than any bakery I've had from. Not overly hard, but still crunchy, yet still soft.

Recipe:

1 Cup sugar

3 eggs (plus more for eggwash)

1 stick margarine/pareve butter replacement

Half a lemon (both juice and zest) OR 2-3 teaspoons of lemon juice

Around 3 cups flour (plus more for rolling)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 pinch baking soda

Jam/jelly/filling of choice

Optional:

1/4 Cup corn meal

6 teaspoons chocolate powder (for HALF the dough)

If you add cornmeal to the chocolate, add 1/4 Cup sugar to dough

350°F about twenty minutes (but check them after fifteen), and the chocolate about twenty five.

Sorry, I don't know metric measurements.

Pictures, and how to fold them under cut!

We're supposed to eat seven species of fruits that grow in Israel. We gave the first of these fruits to the Temple during Temple times.

These foods are:

Wheat, barley, olives, grapes, pomegranate, figs, and dates.

Here's what I made!

Barley with figs, olives (black and green), grapes, (later added almonds) and the liquid is pomegranate juice, Olive oil, date syrup. Also pickled jalapeño juice, a bit of Dijon mustard, and some white wine vinegar.

So; yes and no.

A mashgiach is what I like to describe as a "kosher supervisor." (Technically I'm a mashicha because female, but that's stupid and I'm electing to ignore it.) Some of the basics include just making sure that nobody brings in anything not kosher, including something without a hashgacha (kosher symbol) or bringing something dairy into a meat kitchen (see previous ask about this lmao.)

More things include; turning on pilot lights, and ovens, because there's a rule about non-Jews not "cooking" food for Jews, so we have to take care of that.

We also are involved in a lot of checking! For example, we can't consume blood or any insects. Any eggs have to be cracked open into a clear container to look for blood spots. We also have to check any produce that might contain bugs in it (the most common being aphids, thrips, black spider mites, and sometimes flies.) This can range from lettuce which can be relatively straightforward to tricky things like herbs. Or berries and broccoli, oh my gosh, I'm not even trained in those, those are difficult, there's so many bugs.

But I am involved in cooking, because I went to (kosher!) culinary school and am trained in it, and was hired first as a cook/clerk for our department in the supermarket, and later was okayed as a mashgiach.

Amusing story time! There was a mashgiach that came in to train the other mashgiachs (mashgichim) on bug checking (I'd already completed my training. I had to go into Brooklyn, though, but that's another story.) He brought in asparagus as an example of why we don't use it in the agency we're with, because it's loaded with bugs.

Pasting it here, so other people can see it easier. It is interesting, and it gives another interpretation to it. I liked the parallels between Vashti and Yosef, and use of the same word. The author, however, failed to provide a picture of cat Vashti, so massive points off.

It's not incorrect to reframe her refusal within a feminist context, given that her husband was drunk with his friends and demanding that she appear before them in the nude. It's just another midrash, albeit more modern.

More under the cut; very Jewish perspective on it.