israeli politics

At eight in the morning a pharmacist called to tell me I was being sent the Plaxovid.  He warned me not to take certain other medications and to rest.  Very nice guy.  At six-thirty in the afternoon the pills arrived and suddenly I stopped coughing.  My head cleared and I mapped out the play I’ve been trying to write for years about Kurt Gerron.  I don’t know what will happen with it, but I know it is something I’ve been trying to get off my mind for years.  

I’m hoping I can get back into the world by the end of the week, and not live in my fantasies, even though my fantasies are pretty good, sometimes much more exciting than the life outside.   

And I’m in a country where the less exciting it is, the better. 

פ Read Post »

israeli politics

After a night of continuous coughing, I got a call from the health clinic – “We’re sending you paxlovid.”  Immediately I began to feel better.  The flowers Carinna sent the night before helped.  And the morning  seemed almost normal.  But the Paxlovid didn’t arrive, and I am now barely able to move.  I’ll bet that once I feel better I’ll forget this nightmare.  thank goodness I hide candy bars all over the house…

roller coaster corona – july 12, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

I think i’m better.  Seriously.  When I wasn’t trying to get the Health clinic on the phone or coughing, I could feel my t cells and b cells struggling to get up the gumption to get rid of this nasty virus I’ve been avoiding for two and a half years.

And winning. 

Really.

By tomorrow I’ll make my own chicken soup and maybe bake some chocolate chip cookies,

and finish writing the play I’ve been working on all year….

good night.

 

july 12, 2022 – day 4 – Read Post »

israeli politics

the positive result came in the morning, and I was informed that I would be contacted.  After a few hours of that I decided to cut the waiting and call my doctor.  Unavailable and unresponsive until now.  Then I called the coviv emergency number.  That’s when I was told that I had a few more hours to get the paxlovid and they’ll call.  

so i sit by the phone, remembering when i was afraid it was too late to get a date, and what luck that i have friends.

july 11, 2022 – day 3 Read Post »

israeli politics

i posted this a few years ago, but it comforted me today, and I haven’t figured out how to link to it, so I’m reposting it:

How My Mother Made Chicken Soup

Karen Alkalay-Gut

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(What is the point of this recipe? When you ask a person of the previous generation how to make something, the person doesn’t start giving you exact quantities – not because they are hiding something, but because the big job is to obtain appropriate ingredients. “You got a carrot? Put it in! A nice celery root? Add it. You don’t have it? Use what you’ve got!) Parsley, leeks, green vegetables – what could it hurt?

 

So here’s what you do to make chicken soup just like my mother used to.

1. You go to the chicken yard and look at the chickens.

2. You pick a healthy-looking chicken and watch it. Is it walking around all right? Is it eating? Does it fit in with the other chickens?

3. You take your selected chicken to the shochet. You don’t have it sent, because the selection could get mixed up with another chicken. You want to be sure it’s your chicken. You grab the chicken by the feet, or, if you’re a  fine schmecker you get a servant to put it in a basket and carry it for you.

4. Next to the shochet there should be a chicken-plucker who will not only pluck the chicken but will burn what is left of the feathers on his Bunsen burner.

5. You take the chicken back to the shochet to get the head removed.

6. You take the chicken home, and make sure there is no blood in the neck veins.

7. You open up the chicken and examine it. Is every organ in place, is it whole, is it clean? If not you have to bring it to the Rabbi to see if it is kosher.

8. You examine the organs and the unlaid eggs to be put into the soup and put them aside.

9. You rinse the chicken thoroughly, feeling with your fingers if everything is smooth.

10. You salt the chicken with coarse salt.

11. You place your chicken on a slatted wooden board and lean the board on the inside of the sink

12. You wait up to an hour for the blood to drip into the sink.

13. You Rinse The Chicken Three Times To Remove All The Salt And What Is Left Of The Blood.

14. You take out the breast and put the rest of the chicken (excluding the liver and the other innards except for the eggs) in the pot with water, some carrots and celery, and a little salt  and bring to a boil. (Remember how much you salted the chicken to kasher it – so be careful with the salt).

15. Once the chicken boils, you have to watch as the scum on the top gathers, and skim it off. This can be done at least three times and you should be watching standing up next to the stove because, as my mother said: the soup of a cook who sits on her behind – stinks.

16. Let it simmer an hour or so, or whenever you’re ready, but make sure it doesn’t boil.

17. In the meantime, make the noodles (a bretl lokshen)

a. Knead the noodle dough (flour and water and maybe an egg) on the kitchen table

b. Roll out the dough so that it covers the table.

c. Sharpen knife.

d. Slice the dough into noodles.

e. Cook the noodles in boiling water.

18. Let the soup cool.

19. Take the chicken out of the soup to be broiled so it looks as tempting as the breast you are about to broil.

20. Put noodles into individual plates

21. Add heated soup

22. serve

23. Enjoy!

reposting chicken soup Read Post »

israeli politics

Certain that Jewish cooking wouls alleviate my symptoms, I ordered our lunch from Keton on Dizengoff at 1, and saw that the charge immediately came off my card.  But the food didn’t arrive,  After a few hours (2 1/2), following a few complaints, an elderly man showed up with the food still edibly warm.  

I think it did make a difference – the heltzl, the tsimmes, the cholent, the chopped liver, chicken soup, spaezele,  knishes, goulash, and the rest.  And such big portions!

To my knowledge Keton is the only place left to get Jewish food in Israel.  And I’ve almost stopped cooking that stuff entirely.  But it really is good.  

Kasha may be the best of the bunch – overcooked, lightly salted, with shmaltz – you can’t get a better dish.  Oh, yeah, you can call it buckwheat, and cook it with olive oil and onions and vegetables, but it’s still kasha, and it still fills your stomach with a good feeling.  People say it’s too rich for the hot climate, but I could feel every grain attacking individual Corona viruses, improving my mood with each bite.

And don’t get me started on chopped liver. 

jewish cooking -july 10, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

the pcr test took less than 5 minutes, 10 minutes to get there and 10 minutes back.  But then I wanted old fashioned chicken soup and chopped liver and helzel to comfort me.  Sure that this food cures corona, I ordered from Kiton – three hours ago – and it hasn’t arrived.  

I’m beginning to think that the paxlovid will make it to my door before the chicken soup comes.

 

covid – july 10, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

The morning was usual – a saturday morning massage, pancakes, picked up a sick kid at the amusement park and dropped him off at home – and then I began to feel achey.  We went to visit friends but by 5 I was running a fever.  Cancelled my plans to see Dara Barnat and Sabine Huyhn reading at the Little Prince, to see my friend, to do everything –  and began making a list of people with whom I’ve been in contact for the past days. 

I was shivering and running cold and hot and coughing and sneezing.  Took all the medications I could find and then took a COVID test.  It was negative.

So I’m simply sick.  

Fever – july 9, 2022 Read Post »