After the apocalypse ( or after the day that felt like the apocalypse)

THIS was the view from my window this morning as opposed to the terrifying orange of two days ago. Air quality isn't perfect yet, so I have spent the day indoors. My tiny adventure out of the house yesterday left me with a terrible headache.

It's Friday, so that means a cookign and baking day. It was a challah baking week. Before I shaped the challot I reminded my husband of his religious obligation to bug me and remind me to take challah.

The book my husband bought me with ALL of the rules of taking challah spends a great deal of time going through how big a piece of dough must be taken from the main dough to qualify as a כזית, the size of an olive. I just lop off a piece that is the size of a really big olive and don't get into the madness of people who never saw an olive determining that a כזית could possibly be the size of a baseball or a watermelon.

I know that common practice is to wrap the dough bit in foil and toss it into the oven while the actual challah bakes. I like watching that dough lump burn. Sue me...the mitzvah is done. I promise that this particular rant is done as well. 

I decided to add a filling to this batch of challah. We own far too much cocoa so the filling is a mix of cocoa, raspberry jam and apricot jam and a bit of water to make it spreadable.

It has taken me until recently  to realize that you can yank  dough that is a wonky rectangle into a a perfect rectangle as you roll up a filling inside.  Yes! you are the boss of the dough!

Here are the loaves braided and waiting to rise.

A few hours later, they looked like this.

Unlike the last batch of challah, these aren't overbaked.

Sunday, I had made a batch of whities (meringues to the rest of the universe) for my friend who is in need of them. The whitie making left me with three egg yolks.  Those yolks are now a batch of noodles.

After I cooked and drained the noodles I made a sort of fake sesame noodle sauce with almond butter, gochujang a bit of honey and cider vinegar. I also added some carrot and cucumber for a bit of crunch.  It isn't the identical flavor to cold sesame noodles but for  a sauce that took about a minute to make....good enough for government work.

I also made chicken.

What is in my little lavender bowl? The cumin and cardamom mix my daughter gave me, some amba powder, soup hawaij and a couple of shakes of cayenne pepper. A while back I couldn't get enough of smoked paprika and sumac. This is my amba powder moment. I think that the flavor profile of this chicken lives in the geographic region somewhere between India and Iraq.

I have been working away on mending/reinforcing my friend's wedding tallit.

 

I have two big projects starting soon and until they begin it has been oddly restful to do all of the hand stitching to repair, and reinforce this tallit.

I still hate China silk ( that doesn't just mean that it comes from China but it is a type of really thin silk).

I am nearing the end of this phase of the project and can soon move on the the parts that I can do by machine.

Shabbat Shalom!