Homemade EVERYTHING?

Well, not quite. I could have made the pasta from scratch, for instance, but I didn’t. I could have grown the spinach and tomatoes from scratch, or at least, made my own sauce, but I didn’t. Maybe this summer – it sounds like a great challenge.

As it was, this was just plain BEAUTIFUL lasagna. With homemade mozzarella – tasty, though not mind-blowing. It grated pretty nicely, though it was softer and stickier than regular block mozzarella. I froze it for a bit and it grated slightly better, though still on the mushy side. One pound of cheese was the batch I made on Sunday, and another pound was fresh today. I think we used about 1/4 of the new pound, leaving 3/4 of a pound still in the fridge. Yummy! And it’s getting easier and easier to get the cheese just right… patience seems to be the key. Here’s a tutorial that is VERY explicit, step-by-step, and helpful with the handholding I need as a beginner!

(I’m tagging this post “crafts”, because why CAN’T cheesemaking be a craft???)

The ricotta is also homemade. I used the rest of the “Nozzarella” from Sunday, a failed mozzarella which over the last 2 days had hardened into a rich, creamy, delicious cheese somewhere halfway between mozzarella and mascarpone. I almost couldn’t stop eating it to toss it in the blender with some steamed spinach… but eventually, I did and the result, combined with a bit of salt plus the whey ricotta from Sunday and today (I was patient with boiling and cooling the whey and got a TON of ricotta today!), was utterly heavenly.

The third picture shows them all going together in the pan:

Oh, did I mention fresh all-sourdough rye bread courtesy of Breadtopia???

Mmm… what a feast to get us through a chilly(ish) winter evening! The motivation for this was that I promised to bring lasagna to a friend who had a baby last week… I love bringing lasagna because I always do two, it takes almost zero extra effort, and we get to EAT lasagna, which is really my favourite part.

Perhaps this will lift me out of the supper-making doldrums I’ve been in lately…?

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page. As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi! If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You, here’s a

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi! If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah : the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science : Plants, Animals, Human Body Math Ambleside : Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature Science General Poems for Elemental Science . Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful. Three pages are included: one page with two po

Ancient Auction Secret: If Chinese auctions are racist, why do Jews love them so much?

Ah, Jews, Jews, Jews, Jews. You sure do love your Chinese auctions, don’t you? It seems that even in an era of political correctness, within certain circles, this term just will not die . And frankly, I’m mortified. I’m not Chinese, but I have family who is Chinese. Some are Korean, as well. I guess this makes us more ethnically diverse than many Jews, but I suspect most Jewish families are moving in this direction. Still. Even if we don’t know a single Chinese person, we should still stop calling it that. First of all… is it actually racist to call it a Chinese auction? I figured I’d let Chinese people decide. But when I turned to Google to find out how Chinese people feel about Chinese auctions, what I found was mostly… nothing. Silence. I did find some debate (presumably among non-Chinese people) over whether it was too far in the direction of political correctness to refer to these as a “silent auction” or (as in some parts of the States) a “tricky tray.” (Ok

Adventures in Mama-Land

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