On a wing and prayer

Orange BBQ Sauce

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tablespoons oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

juice from one orange plus zest

1 cup ketchup

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons ground mustard

1/2 teaspoon pepper

fry onions with garlic until tranlucent, add the rest. cook up to a boil and let simmer for 20 minutes, blend and serve

(So I added a bit more orange juice, about 1/4 cup. It upped the citrus flavor by a lot.)

I tossed the wings with cornstarch, garlic powder, and chili powder. Then baked them on an oiled cookie sheet until golden brown. I tossed them with the BBQ sauce and popped them back into the oven so the sauce can caramelize on the wings.

Time Zones, Internet, and Messaging

Growing up, the rule in our house was no phone calls to friends after 10 p.m. The thinking was that if you could wait till that "late", you could wait until morning, when it's a more reasonable time.

In today's day and age of the Internet, cell phones, and more messaging apps than you really need, one would think being aware of time would be standard. Almost my entire family lives along the eastern coast, which puts me seven hours ahead of them. Which is why I wait until 2 p.m. to send a WhatApp message to my siblings. That's 7 a.m. for my sister, brothers, and sisters-in-law. My other sister-in-law (Zach's sister) lives in California.  That's ten hours behind us. So I send her an email when I need to talk with her.

I keep my cell phone near my bed at night. It serves as my alarm clock. Now, it has a sleep mode setting, so that between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. it's quiet. No notifications ping, phone calls are screened, and it's nice and quiet. The problem is there ARE people who may need to reach me in case of emergency, and the work around to get through is a right pain in the butt. The person has to call, let it ring a certain number of times, and then call back within a certain number of minutes. Quite frankly, if there's an emergency, they're not going to remember that. So I took my phone off sleep mode.

Last night I received several Facebook messages from friends on the East Coast of the United States. One person sent me multiple messages at almost 1 a.m. my time. For her, it was almost 6 p.m. Two hours later, I received another couple messages from someone else. Again, where she is, it's a perfectly reasonable time to message.... if you don't take into account what time it is where your recipient is.

I'm not naming names, I'm not calling anyone specific out, there's no need to apologize. Just be aware of the wider world we have access to thanks to the Internet.

What rule did you have growing up that thanks to today's technology makes it difficult or irrelevant?

To Everything There is a Season

One thing about moving to Israel is learning that there is a lot of food-related seasonality.

The best time for most citrus is December - May.

Strawberry season starts in December, and if the weather is just right, it can go as long as April.

Interestingly (and annoyingly) enough, limes are only about 2 weeks in the summer.

Even celery has a season... Winter to early spring.

Fresh string beans are April, while fresh peas are only the first two weeks of April, and snow peas are only available at specialty stores for about the first week of April.

Fresh Brussels sprouts can be a hit or miss regarding availability. I found them last year, but not this year.

Fried donuts and filled donuts are October to the end of December. Good for my waistline.

And commercially available hamburger buns - you know, the squishy white bread, 8 to a bag kind - are in supermarkets for about a week before Israel Independence Day, till maybe two weeks after. Not even through the summer! Israelis do love their pitas. The bakery near me sells slightly fancier buns throughout the year, but not every day. If I'm thinking about making burgers for dinner and I don't see the buns on the shelf in the morning, I'll often ask them if they're planning on making that day. If they say no, more often than not, I change my dinner plans.

What seasonal food do you most look forward to?

Sewing the Seeds of Love

Yes, I know it should be s-O-w-i-n-g the seeds of love. But I'm going to talk about sewing and garb and stuff.

Time is ticking down towards our Shire's rebirth event. And we still don't have a place to hold it, and I still haven't come up with a menu. And we still need to get our garb cut and sewed.

On Friday, we're heading up to Tel Aviv to get Zach and Nati their American passports renewed, and then we're going to take a little trip to the Nachalat Binyamin area of Tel Aviv where they have quite a few discount fabric shops. I'd like to get some new linen for garb.

We've also made a priority list, an order of what will get sewn and when. First, T-tunics for the boys. Then a fairly simple under- and over-gown for myself (which reminds me, I need to finalize my choice). Then Zach wants to make his garb... which won't be particularly simple since he's such a snob. And then, if there's still time, we'll make leggings of some kind for the boys.

So, what projects are you finally getting to?