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.

Rage is Outrageous: It Just Depends On Your Perspective

Like so many things in life, the way you approach it makes all the difference.

Take the word "rage."  In the jam band music scene, the word rage over the past few years has emerged as a positive description of a way to enjoy the live tunes.  As in:  "We're gonna rage tonight."  Meaning, "we're gonna groove to the awesome music and have lots of fun with good friends in a safe environment."  It is 100%  positive.  The first name of the keyboardist in my favorite band is Page.  It is typical to refer in a congenial way to the side of the stage where he performs as "Page Side Rage Side."  Some folks are taking this word and using it in a positive way in the music scene.  My friend Karen, The Tiny Rager, maintains a thorough, meticulously-cataloged list of current music happenings in New York City as well as detailed music reviews of various shows.  Where she finds the time, I do not know!   Another person takes wonderful professional photographs of various music shows at Rage It Proper.  Nifty stuff.

Speaking of being proper, Derek Blasberg, the fashion writer, is a champion of proper behavior for women, as I have mentioned recently.  His books are funny but true.

My grandmother, Martha Miller Loonin, may her memory be a blessing, was a proper, elegant lady.  She helped me keep up with current trends.  One summer in camp she sent me a package that contained "crazy ET headgear" that was "all the rage."  Here is her letter to me:

Letter to me in camp by my Grandma Martha Loonin z'l .  Note the 3rd paragraph "it is all the rage around town"

Here is the type of headgear she sent:

Wouldn't it be fun to bring back this early 80s rage inspired by the movie E.T.:  The Extra-Terrestrial.  Where, you ask, would a mother of 3 school-aged children don such headgear seriously?  No, not when I visit the Nordstrom shoe department.  Not at my friends' 40th birthday parties, which seem to be endless at the moment.   Not when I am waiting at the ice rink for lessons to end.  Perhaps at a raging music venue where folks know how to let loose and have fun.  Or maybe on Purim.  Or maybe both.  The headbands that Grandma Martha sent had much longer, boingier springs.   

Boingier.  That is a good thing.  We should all have more boing in our lives.

And now, the negative rage.

Of course, we all know about road rage.  Not good, not good.  Los Angeles, where this term originated, is a frustrating place to drive, but folks gotta find more ohm and calm when behind the wheel.

At a local gas station-mini mart, I noticed their store-brand slushy-type food coloring-laden junky drink.  Here is one of them, called Red Rage:

Cumberland Farms is absolutely correct that ingestion of a Red #40 drink will create great rage, despite efforts last year to dispel this theory.  The science exists to prove that.

And this makes me very sad.

Parents buy this garbage for their children, and then they start yelling at them 10 minutes later when they start  bouncing off the walls.  Couple it with a game on the DS of some birds that also have an angry rage face like this image, and you've got a lot of negative vibes.

Of course I realize that it is intended to appeal to children.  My boys love that image.  And the taste of the drink.  And they love to play Angry Birds.  They aren't stupid.  The stupid one would be me who allows it even as a special treat.  And I don't like the word stupid.  It is a very poor word choice.

Why can't we turn that negative rage into a positive rage of a good time?  Usually we drink water and minimize our food coloring and high fructose corn syrup intake.  We listen to good tunes and have fun.

I guess it just depends on where you are coming from.

I'm gonna put on my purple glitter alien headband and help the children to bed.

Boing, boing, boing...

All this rage stuff makes me want to just get positive.

Here is some George Harrison playing "Here Comes The Sun."  Rage it in the most outrageous way.