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Friday, April 25, 2014

The Key to Good Hollie

Hollie is what my Grandpa Al called the traditional Sabbath bread also known as challah.  You know, that gutteral "ch."  Hollie to me is actually Holly, who is a new friend of mine.  (Hi, Holly!)

This week is the first Shabbat after Passover and an old but only recently popularized custom is that of the "shlissel challah" or , key challah.  The idea is that you bake a challah in the shape of a key, or, alternately, bake a key directly into the challah.  One of the explanations given is that the key will open up the gates of heaven for the next 7 weeks until the holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. 

Early this morning I remembered the shlissel challah, whipped up some dough, and even got the big kids to shape some loaves.  Glad they fit it in before the bus. 

I wonder if Grandpa Al knew of this custom or learned about it during his youth at Chaim Berlin Yeshiva.  For some reason, I doubt it.  But I know he would have chuckled at the joke my dear husband Stango offered up this morning as I pulled out the last loaves from the oven.  Something that I should do more often.  Shlissel while you work. 


no keys in here, but these are the loaves shaped by the 3 children shown above.  Nistar's is the top.  Ezra's is the bottom left, with help from his big sis.  Eli's is the bottom right.

Kinderlach's challahs baked and finished product

will be needing this spare house key!

for those who care about sepsis, indeed we wrap the key

I do the traditional three strand braid

wow, I had a manicure last week!

peekaboo, I see you, key!

I braid from the center.  See the key?

moving right along...


almost there
I flipped it over after braiding
I also shaped one in the shape of a key.  I brushed the loaves with an egg-oil-chopped onion-salt mixture.  Yummy onion taste, thanks again to dear Leah Shemtov for that tip

Whelp, that's all folks.  Thinking of Grandpa Al, and Grandma Martha, all of blessed memories, since I mentioned Grandpa Al above.  Hope they enjoyed my handiwork!  Good Shabbes to everyone on the planet and in the past in the future and all the energy bodies everywhere.

Here are my Grandma Martha and Grandpa Al, at my bat mitzvah, sitting in center.  Other dear family members include, from left to right, by couple:  Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Murray , Aunt Henny and later husband Dave, aforementioned Grandma Martha and Al , and Grandma Mayme and Grandpa Archie .  May all their memories be for a blessing.  Miss all these good people.  What a nice representation of families.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

TBT: That's Throwback Thursday for the Techno-Challenged

If you don't know what TBT means, and you're interested, or at least want to brush up on your iPad, iPhone, Facebook, Internet, Ebay, Etsy (you never heard of that, huh?) skills then I suggest you contact your

Friendly Neighborhood Tech Coach.

Main Line Tech Coaches.  Alas, that's for another day.

For now, it's Thursday, and my TBT is my dear Stango and I on our honeymoon in Hawaii.  It was March, 2002, just a few months after our wedding.   This photo is from our 7 hour boat ride out into the Pacific along the Na Pali Coast.  From a distance, we viewed the forbidden, private island of Niihau.

May I take inspiration from this photo that we go as soon as possible to another resort vacation filled with exploration and adventure.  And that we have clean, fresh, new clothing to wear at it.  And that we can get back into the shape we were in here.  It's 2014...plenty of Gen Xers are fit, in shape, and healthy.  Forget Gen Xers, what about all the Baby Boomers and Between the War Babies.  So many people are taking good care of their physical health, whether it's walking, swimming, yoga, pilates, Zumba, spinning, barre method, elliptical machine, whatever!  No excuses!  Now that we relived our freedom at the seder(s) as Passover just passed over, and some of us have been renewed (those who celebrate Easter and other spring festivals), and we enter into warmer weather, let us all take a pledge to ourselves to be more active physically.  We have it in us.  I know the food is so delish but we could put down that 2nd portion of food and say we're full and now it's time for physical activity.

At long last.  A photo from the Stango Loony Affair.

Stango and Loony, March 2002, Na Pali Coast, Hawaii