celebrate Purim on 43things

Thank you all for participating in this little 43T celebration!
See you in Passover :)

(well, it ended already)
2 things I found interesting this Purim, related to the ultra-orthodox sector.

A lot of the little girls dress up like brides. I think it’s wired and a little sad.
However, so many girls dress up like all kinds of queens and princesses, so maybe it’s really all the same.

I’ve heard about 2 women who dressed up like each other. They exchange their clothes and wigs. It really made me laugh, that’s a wild humor.

So, we put on the purimschpiel. And for some odd reason, I was supposed to be in charge of children’s programming, too. Well, really, Olivier did it, and I did set-up and clean-up, which is half of children’s programming anyway, really.

FUN! Thank you all so much for joining me…. oh RIGHT, Agpious gets another day for Shushan Purim!!!!

After writing about the hassles of making hamantaschen, later, I actually ate one, and even if it was ugly, it tasted sublime. I made a new batch of dough, correcting the problems of the recipe I started with, and it’s now easier to work with, and just as delicious:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups white flour

Cream butter and brown sugar; add egg and vanilla, and beat. Combine dry ingredients, mix in to butter/sugar mixture.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Roll out dough on wax paper, cut into circles with a glass. Put a spoonful of filling* in the center, then fold up into thirds into classic hamantaschen shape.

Bake 5 minutes, then do emergency work if necessary to refold into triangles; bake for additional 5 minutes, until golden.

*simplest filling is apricot jam – yum!

There was no parade or celebration in the street here, but I did put on that little French Maid costume for hubby. Had a glass of wine. Perhaps, that is all that is asked of me?

Tomorrow will be Shushan Purim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim#Shushan_Purim
This is the day Purim is celebrate in Jerusalem. We gain another day off :P
This year the holiday was extra long, combined with the weekend.
And on this note, I’m going to Jerusalem to another costume party. Traveling between the cities, I’ll enjoy a long holiday…

I was out with friends last night and all day today. Most people in the streets are not dressed, but here and there you see a funny hat, a crown, a cape and a few full costumes. And the kids, of course, so cute in their little costumes!
I wondered how it’d be for someone to visit Israel on Purim day without knowing about this holiday. I think I’d like this kind of a surprise :)

Maybe I should be Orthodox, then I wouldn’t be baking and consequently cursing on Shabbat. (I guess I also wouldn’t be here on 43things to report on the mishagas.)

First, I had to find a store that sold bulk poppy seeds. Yesterday, I bought every last gd poppyseed in the bulk jar at the local QFC, to make a half recipe (!!!) of poppy seed filling. I made the dough yesterday too. The dough was unruly and disobedient, and either did not adhere to itself, or got too sticky, and adhered all too much.

Today, I did my best to roll out the dough, fill them, and shape into little triangles. I won’t list everything that went wrong, just mention what I found the worst: they would pop open in the oven, so I had to pull them out about 5 minutes into the baking, force them back into triangles, and hope that they’d gd stay that way.

After all that futzing around, I ended up with still a half-cup of poppy seed filling left over, and only two dozen hamentaschen. I’m ready to open up the tequila and fulfill the mitzvah of getting drunk on Purim after all of this!

We are commanded in the Talmud to get so roaringly drunk on Purim that we can not tell the difference between “blessed be Mordechai” and “Cursed be Haman”. The gematria for Blessed be Mordechai and Cursed be Haman are the same.

In our ordinary consciousness, we live in a world of good and bad, darkness and light, a world of duality. The Unity of all Being is not readily apparent. In messianic consciousness, one readily perceives the Unity, the Eternal One. In that consciousness, Cursed be Haman and Blessed be Mordechai are not opposites, but one and the same.