8 books for $8 for Chanukah!

This post is for those of you who live in, or have shipping addresses in, the United States.

For a limited time, you can get 8 books from Kar-Ben Publishing for just $8 (shipping is extra)!

These books are hardcover books, and your little ones will be thrilled with their new collection!

Hope you enjoy!

(I'm considering buying these in order to have some "emergency gifts" on hand - my kids are all too old for these.)

I'd love to hear about other great deals you've found!

For those of you who don't have US shipping addresses, note that you can get FREE international shipping when you order books from Better World Books, Book Depository, and Wordery. (these are affiliate links - thanks for using them and supporting my blog!)

Shabbat Menu!

 
This has been a super crazy week, and for Shabbat we have a houseful of guests!

We will be 11 people Friday night (plus an infant), 13-14 people for lunch, and 8 (plus an infant) for seudah shlishit.
And somehow I still have shopping to do tomorrow - so not only a I behind in the cooking, but I am also behind in the shopping!

Of course, I could freak out, and I probably will freak out. But for now, I will pretend it's all good and that I have things under control...

Here's the plan:

Friday night:
Homemade Challot
Salad course - vegetarian liver, cut veggies, other salads
Spicy Roast Chicken
(Rice?)
Potato Kugel
Broccoli (Roasted)
Apple Kugel
Chocolate Cake

Lunch:
Homemade Challot
Salad Course
Black Bean Cholent
Shnitzel
(Rice?)
Potato Kugel
Apple Kugel
Watermelon, Chocolate Cake

Seudah shlishit:
Challah Rolls
Tuna
Egg Salad
Pasta Salad
Potato Salad
Leftover spreads and salads from lunch
Cut vegetables

Ok, now, if I wasn't earlier, I am totally looking forward to a Shabbat nap!

Promotion: Chanukah Q&A from Mi Yodeya

Hi, it's Ester's son again. I must have had so much fun writing this other post that i came back for another. :)

Over the past year, i've been active in the online community Mi Yodeya. Mi Yodeya (MY for short) is part of the Stack Exchange Q&A network. MY is Q&A about Judaism. It's totally free, anyone can come in and ask or answer.

For this Chanukah, some of Mi Yodeya's active users decided to put together a treat for you (everyone) -- a special Q&A booklet with Chanukah questions -- real questions, from real people, shared on MY.

Click this picture to get to the download!

It has 8 two-sided pages, one for each night of Chanukah. You can print it out, or read it digitally. We've included something for everyone in there, so that it can be enjoyed by little children and learned rabbis, each on their own level.

By now, you must be desperate to find out where you can get it. So, you can click on the picture above, or type in the short link or CLICK s.tk/miyodeya to go right to it. It's a quick dowload.

And of course, don't forget to check out Mi Yodeya itself for even more Judaism Q&A! Short link: mi.yodeya.com

^ My user profile

Egg-free Honey Cake for a Crowd!

I decided to try out baking a large batch of honey cake, as I was taking one to an event and then another to another event the next day.

It worked out really well, even though some people say making large batches of cake isn't the best idea.

WARNING: this cake is not exactly healthy, and not exactly frugal either. But it certainly is festive and appropriate for the season, so I figured I'd share!


 


Honey Cake for a Crowd, Egg-free
makes 2 9"X12" pans

4 tablespoons ground flaxseed
1.5 cups hot water
1/2 cup oil (I used this palm oil, but you can use any oil you like - neutral flavors work best)
2 cups honey
2 cups demerara sugar, or other dark sugar
1.5 cups warm (not hot) coffee (can be decaf!)
2 tablespoons orange juice
4 cups whole wheat flour (this recipe works fine with white flour, I just don't keep any in the house and I like to pretend my cakes are healthy)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
dash of ground nutmeg
dash of ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Note: if you are mixing this by hand, you'll need two bowls. If you are using a mixer, one bowl is fine!

Mix together flaxseed and hot water and oil, and let sit for 10 minutes
Add the other liquid ingredients to the flaxseed mixture.
If using two bowls, combine all the dry ingredients in the second bowl, and make a well in the center.
Slowly add liquids to the dry ingredients, and mix very well to combine.
Pour into two 9"X12" baking pans
Bake at 180C for 1 hr, 15 min.
Allow to cool completely before covering tightly, it is best served the next day. 


Wishing you all a Gmar Chatimah Tovah!

Shavuot Snacks

Shavuot in Israel is just one day. It is SUCH a short, sweet holiday...

We tend to stay up late into the night learning and talking and noshing. For some reason, NO ONE ever stays up late learning without noshing. (In our family, we usually do not stay up through the night, for a number of reasons.)

So I figured I'd share some of the noshing things I will be keeping around...

This year will be a little different than previous years, primarily because I'm not eating cow's milk, but I'll probably still get some Ben & Jerry's for the rest of the family.

Other noshing menu items:

Caramel Popcorn, lots and lots of caramel popcorn (this stuff flies!)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Homemade Crackers

Vegetable Sticks

Chummus

Watermelon

And anything else I find myself inspired to make. I'm leaving my oven on for yom tov, so I'll bake even on a whim!

What are your favorite snacks?