New Horizons

New challenges...

The past couple of months have been full of changes, challenges & hopes.

Back at the end of November I quit my job of 7 years, with no prospects of a new one... That was a big change, and my immediate reaction was to sleep and sleep and sleep. I guess that was the result of stress and distress and feeling underappreciated. It also didn't help that I had been living hand to mouth, my salary only just covering basic living expenses... It's no fun having to think twice or thrice about whether or not to have a cup of coffee at a cafe.

The challenges have been to live on no salary, and to actively job hunt. I have been sending out my resume to hundreds of potential employers, getting an interview every week or two, though Murphy's Law of interviews is that they all happen in a bunch. So some weeks I wouldn't have any interviews and others I would have 2 or 3 or even 4... And that is pretty stressful.

Now, I don't know about other people, but my interviews generally last an hour or even more. I had one that lasted 3 hours (seriously) and got invited back for a second interview to meet someone who was flying in specially from the US. I have only had 2 interviews that lasted less than an hour - and neither was for a job that I REALLY wanted... Mind you, they were second interviews, and horror of horrors, one guy asked me, point blank, ok, what is 3/8ths? Urk - I have a fear of math when I have no paper or pen, let alone a calculator, to help me. I just don't trust my brain. Do I want to work for someone who asks questions like that?

The hope, of course, is to find a great job.

And finally, I interviewed at the right place, at the right time, with the right person, and was immediately asked to schedule a second interview for the next day. And, despite riding my scooter through torrential rain, arriving soaking wet in spite of my rain gear, and going in to the interview carrying shopping bags filled with my wet, dripping, streaming, soaking wet gear, and having to sit, damp-butted, through another hour long session, they called me back to say that they wanted me to work for them.

Which is all well and good, but they still hadn't told me what my salary would be, which is typical of Israel. So when I went in to sign my contract last week, I really didn't know if I would or would not be working. And I very nearly didn't, but I stood my ground, and am getting, for the first time since I moved to Israel, a living (though not extravagant) wage.

Tomorrow is my first day of work, and I am extremely nervous. But that is to be expected.

And on top of the new job jitters, I am going to be taking part in the International Women's Day Craft/Art Sale at the Amiad Center in the Flea Market in Jaffa, which is to be held on Friday March 14th, just over a week away.

That would be really easy, if I was going to be selling my pottery, but having lived hand to mouth, I had to stop potting, and my stock has been almost all given away as presents. Instead, I am going to be cooking and baking for the next week. And I am hopeful that people will like what I do and I will have lots of impulse buyers.

I am planning on making: English Almond Chocolate Toffee, Crumiri Cookies, Individual Chocolate Chip Butter Cakes, Caramel Corn/CrackerJack, and Honeycomb Sponge Toffee. As you can see from my examples, everything is individually packaged and they will all cost the same - 10 Shekels (about $2.50), which is, I hope, basically an impulse buy kind of figure, and that people will think "I feel like a snack, "oh that looks good, "hmm, maybe that will keep the kids quiet for a while. I will maybe have a few larger cakes for sale, but I figure people don't want to carry around cakes when they are wandering around a flea market.

If you have any suggestions for me - ie, I have never, ever participated in a sale before, and I have no clue how much of each I should make - should I figure on 100 packages of each item, 50? Should I do anything special for my stand? All comments or suggestions are VERY welcome!

Saturday Night Comfort

Even though it was a lovely day on Saturday,
I craved something warming and homey.

So I hit the books and came up with something that reminded me of lunch at the cafeteria when I was in university.

The first time I ever ate cornbread was back in the days when I still had the world ahead of me, and I had not even contemplated leaving Canada. This was not something that we had grown up with at home. Its crunchy texture, almost sweet flavour and sunny yellow colour, when matched with whatever soup was available, usually my all-time favourite Scotch Broth, was an instant hit with me.

But for some reason, I rarely make it. So when I do, it becomes a special occassion.

I saw the recipe in the Silver Spoon and thought
"hmmm, a cornbread cake".

But on making it I found there were a few things wrong - for one thing, the recipe calls for a scant 1/2 cup of yoghurt - and when mixed in with the 3 cups of dry ingredients it was immediately obvious that there had been a typo. So I trebled the yoghurt, and then added an extra glop inadvertently - the yoghurt container burped... And when I tasted the unbaked mixture, it was definitely not "cake" sweet. And then there was the issue of how many this would serve - the editors say it serves 6, I say it serves 12 hungry people, because of course you don't just serve this on it's own.

Yoghurt Cornbread – adapted from The Silver Spoon

• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1 1/2 c cornmeal
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 c balkan style yoghurt (the original recipe calls for 1/2 c)
• 5 tbsp neutral oil
• 2 eggs
• Thinly sliced almond paste (optional)
  (I used 2-3 oz for 1 pan – not everyone likes almonds)

Preheat oven to 350F

2 8inch cake pans well buttered and then dusted with a flour and sugar mixture

Beat eggs, oil & yoghurt, add well mixed dry ingredients.

Divide into the pans.

If using, push almond paste into the batter so that it is covered

Bake approximately 40 minutes until nicely browned and a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool for about 5 minutes, then turn out.

In my opinion this is best eaten while still warm.

If you have used the almond paste, dust with icing sugar and serve with lightly sweetened, sloppy whipped cream or creme fraiche.

And then...

I found a gorgeous bunch of celery at the Carmel Market on Friday - after I had gone on another job interview. And it immediately called out for being made into soup.

Now here in Israel there are 3 kinds of celery. There is the traditional kind, called American here (big wide stalks that call for being stuffed or braised), this has a very "celery" flavour, which becomes milder as it cooks. The leaves are used very sparingly because they are so strongly flavoured.

There is celery root, which is lovely as a remoulade salad with homemade mayonaise and to which I add, untraditionally, chopped eggs and lots of onions and lemon zest.

And then there is soup celery, which looks rather like the scraggly stalks and leaves from the celery root. This is much milder, and is added prolificaly and uncut, to traditional chicken soup - usually a big bunch is added to 1 chicken's worth of soup. For those of you who have never encountered this type of celery, you would think that the soup would be inedible, but it adds a depth to the soup which normal American celery just doesn't manage to pull off. I actually like eat the celery after it has been cooked to almost disintegration, it is sweet and mild and doesn't resemble it's namesake at all.

And for the more esoterically minded cook, the leaves of lovage are very similar to pale green celery leaves, and can be used in the same manner as soup celery, but it has a much more intense flavour that resembles Maggi, and imparts an almost umami meatiness to the soup.

Cream of Celery Soup – adapted from The Silver Spoon

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1tbsp butter
• 4 cups chopped celery (SS called for 3)
• 1 small onion diced
• 2 – 3 medium potatoes diced
• 1/2 stale French stick torn apart
  ('cause it was there and I thought "aha - thickening agent)
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme (because my post of thyme is growing out of control)
• Salt & white pepper to taste
• Water
• Lightly whipped cream, chopped thyme and finely grated parmesan for garnish.

In a large pot melt the oil and butter, add the onions & sweat them off, then add the celery and thyme and sweat them off until bright green and starting to soften.

Add potatoes and bread and cover with cold water (level should be about 2 inches above celery/potato mix). Add about 1 tsp salt.

Bring to boil and then reduce to simmer until potatoes are very soft.

Puree with immersion blender, season to taste.

Garnish with cream, thyme and parmesan.

And so, as the sun set over Jaffa, I warmed my soul with comfort food.