Cake and Cumin

First, a Happy New Year and Shana Tova to everyone celebrating the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah is one of my most favorite holidays because the foods you eat are all symbolic and are all delicious! You can check out a list of traditional Sephardic foods here and the family Leek omlette recipe here.

This week, we received onions, hot peppers, banana peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, green peppers, oregano, beets, yellow beans, kale, and carrots. So, here’s the plan…

The tomatoes from this week and last week, I need to find time to make into tomato sauce.

The hot peppers and banana peppers, well, I’m afraid to say I’m not much one for spice so usually my fiance just cuts those up when he wants a little more of a kick to whatever we’ve cooked.

Thank goodness we got onions because I think the CSA onions and garlic are MUCH better than what we get at the supermarket.

The oregano will be dried (so many dried spices! I need to use more spices to I have containers to put the newly dried spices in!

Recently, we have just been sauteing the yellow beans with some olive oil, coriander and sometimes a bit of fresh ginger and they have been delicious! Kale will also just be sauteed with onions and garlic.

The beets I brought home for Rosh Hashanah and they’ll be boiled up as a side.

The potatoes, carrots, and green peppers I honestly don’t have a plan for yet but usually you can through carrots and green peppers into anything and potatoes last long enough for me to ponder what to do with them.

6 Things I Learned from Staffing Birthright

…which also relate to everyday life

For those of you who don’t know, I have staffed over a dozen immersion experiences. These experiences include Alternative Spring Breaks, Leadership missions, and most often, Birthright. This year is the first year in many that I am not currently in Israel. Therefore, for all those staffing a Birthright trip this summer, this post is for you.

1. Pick your battles. When staffing a trip, there are hundreds of rules and things you can argue with your bus about BUT fact of the matter is that there are 3 staff and 40-50 participants. You will lose the big battles if you are constantly fighting the small ones.

2. It’s important to live in the moment- since I have started staffing trips, I have seen the proliferation of smartphones and devices. The ability for participants to skype or constantly communicate with others at home doesn’t let people let go and focus on where they are and what they are doing. This goes double for staff. The need to blog, report, update, and keep up with home work while staffing a trip takes away from the ability to be in the moment, experience the trip through your participants and really allow them to have a full experience.

3. Being out of your comfort zone is key- As a Birthright staff person, you deal with hundreds of issues that you have absolutely no training on. Because of that, you learn an incredible amount and realize skills you never knew you had. Also, those experiences make great stories!

4. Don’t judge people from an initial meeting. I have sent and staffed hundreds of students on these trips. Sometimes, the ones you think will be the most well behaved are not and more often the ones you think will be difficult are the ones who appreciate the trip the most.

5. Sometimes you shouldn’t sleep, and sometimes you should. Get stuff done, recap the day, and get a chance to hang out with the other staff and participants on your bus. It’s the best when I feel organized for the next day AND get an hour or two to hang out with the participants so they know I’m a real person and not just the person asking them to be on time in the morning. Sometimes, it is worth 1 hour less of sleep to get to know everyone a bit more… and sometimes it is not and you need that sleep. I’ve learned to know the difference and do what is best.

6. Be confident and honest. Through staffing these trips, I realized I can have a real impact on people who participate just by sharing my opinion and personal stories. I have also seen people try to make up answers to questions and talk about things they don’t know much about which almost always backfires.

Any additions from those of you who have staffed?

The Flying Camel: Essays on identity by women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage is one of the best books that integrates excellent storytelling with exploration of a complicated identity type. In honor of Women’s Day being this week, I chose this as the first highlight from my library. In America, a majority of the Jewish community is Ashkenazi (of European origin). Growing up, being an Arabic Jew, the Jewish culture I experienced, holidays I celebrated, and food I ate were often completely different than my friends’. This book talks about a variety of experiences that relate to everyone. They also have a great glossary in the back for those unfamiliar with the terms. Finally, the stories focus on Jewish women- the special challenges and successes that Jewish women face.

For a great women-related initiative check out this out from Jewish Women International and for awesome, empowered smart content focused on women helping women look at Levo League.

Not as pretty but delicious! Apple crisp, sun-dried tomato/basil, and roasted garlic/rosemary/olive oil varieties (Taken with instagram)

Hamantashen making day!! These are the sweet ones. Peanut butter, orange, cherry/strawberry/almond, nutella, and peach/melon varieties (Taken with instagram)