And They Lived Happily Ever After

Once upon a time there was a young princess, Sassy.  One day, on the bus to Eilat, she met a fiery young man who turned out to be a superhero.  After a wonderful courtship he proposed on a mountaintop in the Galil.  They were married on a cold March evening near Jerusalem, and settled on a moshav near the airport, so near, in fact, that sometimes a landing plane would snag their laundry line.  But they didn’t care, because they had perfected the secret to living happily ever after.  Do you want to know what it is?

A Little On The Cheesy Side — 5771

Black Forest Blintzes for Ifat — the quality control department (me) tested this sample and claims total success!

The wonderful holiday of Shavuot is coming up, it starts tomorrow night, culminating with cheesecake overload on Wednesday night.  And then you have just a mere 48 hours before you begin to stuff yourselves with the wonders of Shabbat.  Ju-Boy and I have been planning our menu for a while now…

Ifat Is Getting Fat

Waving hello...

I always used to get a kick out of mentioning my cousins in Hong Kong.  Doesn’t that sound exotic?  Back when I was in high school it used to engender visions that I had relatives who were part of the ten lost tribes.  In its most unembellished version, they at least had a great recipe for dim sum.  In truth, my wonderfully foreign and mysterious family are Israeli.  I still get a kick out of saying I have cousins in Hong Kong.  I used to have cousins in Sri Lanka as well, but they got boring and moved to Hong Kong.

Ifat and Zipora

Ifat is my first cousin Moti’s daughter.  Her grandmother, Zipora, is my most favorite aunt in the world, my father’s baby sister.  She’s not so exotic, she lives in Kfar Saba, but she’s the best second mother a teen let loose in Israel could have.  Thirty years later she’s still the best second mother you could ever imagine.  Back in 1979 we were here for my brother’s Bar Mitzvah, and so was Ifat, only in utero.  I couldn’t wait for her to be born, but little diva that she is, she waited, and waited, and waited, driving her mother insane in the Israeli heat, and finally made her appearance… the day after we went back to the States.  Great timing, girl.

Ifat an Ste

Ifat and Ste have been together for the longest time, and last year they finally made it official in not one, not two, but three weddings.  These are very thorough people.  One civil wedding in Hong Kong, one Jewish wedding in Los Angeles, and one total blowout wedding to end all weddings in Phuket.  My Aunt Zipora flew out for that one and she said it was absolutely beautiful.  We got to meet Ste on the many occasions that Ifat has shlepped him out to Israel.  The man has a yummy British accent.  And now that they have the official blessing of the Chinese government, the California rabbinate and the Thai tourist board, they’ve decided to kick it up a notch.  That’s the notch at the top of this post, due in about six months. 

Despite Ifat’s slim figure, the girl likes her food.  I’ve seen her attack a plate of hummus, inhale broiled chicken breast and make giant inroads in some chocolate mousse cake.  On one of our more recent Facebook chats we were discussing some of her favorite foods, cheese, fruit and chocolate.  I got an idea for some lovely little pregnant pillows to honor Ifat, Black Forest Blintzes.  I’ve been kicking a few ideas around the last two weeks or so, and with Shavuot on the horizon, made up a batch of these babies this afternoon.

Black Forest Blintzes

20 blintz leaves (you can make them yourself, I buy mine frozen) (can use crepes)

750 grams (3 packages) (1 1/2 pounds) white baking cheese — in Israel I use Tuv Tam by Tara Dairies, in the States you could sub farmer cheese

3 eggs

1 box instant vanilla pudding (80 grams, 3 1/2 ounces)

1 cup dried cherries, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes

Butter for frying

Chocolate syrup

• Prepare the blintz leaves according to your favorite recipe, or, in my case, defrost them.
• Mix the cheese, eggs and vanila pudding until well combined.  Drain the cherries well and add them to the cheese mixture.
• Place about a tablespoonful of cheese/cherry mixture in the center of the blintz leaf.  Fold over the edges to create a square, a nice little pregnant pillow of yummy cheesiness.
• Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Fry the blintzes first folded side down to meld the edges together.  When the bottom has browned nicely, flip the blintzes over and fry on the other side.
• Serve hot with chocolate syrup.

Frying my cheesy little pregnant pillows in my mother's pan that she brought over from Sweden. This pan has been frying blintzes for over 50 years!

Black Forest Blintzes for Ifat -- the quality control department (me) tested this sample and claims total success!

Happy Shavuot! 

!חג שבועות שמח