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Juicing For Jews

October 31, 2011 by newkosher

Juicing isn’t looked at as a fall/winter activity…and that’s a shame, because fresh fruit is available, in season, all the time.

The prospect of making fresh fruit and vegetable juice at home can seem scary and expensive, but here are a few easy tips to make like a lot easier, more economical, and downright tasty!

The best juicer to buy is a used one.

Assuming you already buy fresh juice every week, juicing at home will save you money in the long term. For people who aren’t into fresh juice and are only doing this on a whim, you WILL…I repeat….you WILL lose money.

Juicing involves labor: buying the fruit, washing and chopping, juicing and then clean up. It’s a labor of love, like knitting or painting. You have to WANT to juice. You have to get satisfaction out of the process.

The best juicer to buy, therefore, is a used one. People get rid of juicers at yard sales and Craigslist all the time. I got mine from my mother, who regifted it to me from my sister.

There is no “best brand” or “best model juicer”. Buy a really nice one used, and you will pay the same price as a cheap new one. Seriously: used juicers have been used three or four times, then stuffed in a closet.

Buy fruit in season and based on price per pound.

The magic number is $1.00 (USD) per pound or less. When fruit is in season, it should be around this price at any larger grocery store. Here’s a cheat sheet from About.com:

January
oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, tangelos, lemons, papayas

February
oranges, tangelos, grapefruit, lemons, papayas

March
pineapples, mangoes

April
pineapples, mangoes

May
cherries, pineapples

June
watermelon, strawberries, cantaloupe, cherries, blueberries, peaches, apricots

July
watermelon, strawberries, cantaloupe, blueberries, peaches, apricots, kiwi, raspberries, plums, cucumbers, tomatoes

August
watermelon, strawberries, cantaloupe, blueberries, peaches, apricots, kiwi, raspberries, plums, cucumbers, tomatoes,

September
grapes, pomegranates, persimmons, tomatoes

October
cranberries, apples, pomegranates, grapes

November
cranberries, oranges, tangerines, pears, pomegranates, persimmons

Don’t Be Afraid of Vegetables In Fruit Juice

Despite loving juice, I’m not a vegetable juice fan. In fact, V8 frightens me. But adding carrots or celery to apple juice is a great way to add vitamins without having to drink the thick tomato stuff!

Also, herbs and roots are nice in juice as well. Try adding a little ginger to orange juice or parsley to carrot juice.

Have Fun

Juicing is a passion, so have fun with it! To make it more fun, make sure to clean up after yourself before having the juice. Why? Because the reason people quit juicing is because of the clean up of the machine. Do that first, before enjoying your drink, and you will never be left with that, “oh, no!” feeling.

Filed Under: NewKosher (Recipes), Uncategorized Tagged With: best juicer, cheap juicing, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, how to juice, in-season fruits, juice recipes, juicing, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

I Am Here, And I Am Not Worthy

September 26, 2011 by Leon Adato

Even after a few years through the yearly cycle of liturgy, “traditional” prayer services are still very new to me. Even so, I’ve already found a few of my favorite moments – things I look forward to hearing and savor as they pass.

If you are in the right state of mind, the Days of Awe present a lot of those moments. For me, one is the prayer “Hineini” (“Here I Stand”), or “The Chazzan’s Prayer”. You can click here for the traditional text, or here for a more poetic interpretation. But it reads, in part:

“Hineini – Here I stand, impoverished of deeds, trembling and frightened with the dread […].

I have come to stand and supplicate before You for Your people Israel, who have sent me although I am unworthy and unqualified to do so.

Therefore, I beg of you, […] Please do not hold them to blame for my sins and do not find them guilty of my iniquities, for I am a careless and willful sinner. Let them not feel humiliated by my willful sins. Let them not be ashamed of me and let me not be ashamed of them. Accept my prayer like the prayers of an experienced elder whose lifetime has been well spent, whose beard is fully grown, whose voice is sweet, and who is friendly with other people. “

I find myself deeply moved by the private, personal and human tone of this prayer. Many prayers – throughout the year as well as on the High Holidays – are written as communal “we ask you… please help us…hear our prayer” types of supplications. But here is a prayer written for the solo voice.

It’s just my interpretation, not anything I’ve learned formally, but I truly believe this is the voice of the Kohain Gadol as he stood in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. As he stood in the small boxy room, a nation’s hope riding on his shoulders and a rope around his leg to drag him out if he died for some undetected sin, in that moment what could anyone say except “You and I both know I’m not up to this job. But those people out there, they are good and holy people. Please don’t let me let them down.”

Weirdly, this reminded me of one of my favorite sequences from T.H. White’s story “The Ill-Made Knight“. In it, Lancelot is called upon to heal a fellow knight. The problem is that, because of his failings, he no longer believes he can perform such a feat:

“Miracles, which you wanted to do so long ago, can only be done by the pure in heart. The people outside are waiting for you to do this miracle because you have traded on their belief that your heart was pure – and now, with treachery and adultery and murder wringing the heart like a cloth, you are to go out into the sunlight for the test of honour.

Lancelot stood [waiting his turn], as white as a sheet […] He walked down the curious ranks [of knights], ugly as ever, self-conscious, ashamed, a veteran going to be broken.

“Oh, Sir Urre,” he said, “if only I could help you, how willingly I would. But you don’t understand. you don’t understand.”

“For God’s sake,” said Sir Urre.

Lancelot looked into the East, where he thought God lived, and said something in his mind. “I don’t want glory, but please can you save our honesty? And if you will heal this knight for the knight’s sake, please do.”

[a bit later…]

The cheers which now began, round after round, were like drumfire or thunder, rolling round the turrets of Carlisle. All the field, and all the people in the field and all the towers of the castle seemed to be jumping up and down like the surface of a lake under rain.

In the middle, quite forgotten, Lancelot was kneeling by himself. This lonely and motionless figure knew a secret which was hidden from the others. The miracle was that he had been allowed to do a miracle.”

The days ahead have the potential to transform. There is an opportunity to encounter the Divine and leave our old selves behind us. During the process, keep in mind that the amazing thing might not be that God forgives us, or grants us another year. Maybe the most amazing thing is that we will have the chance to stand before God at all.

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Shabbat & Holidays, Uncategorized Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, edible torah, leon adato, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Rosh Hashana

Our new blog

April 27, 2011 by newkosher

Greetings food fans,

This is our NewKosher blog where you’ll find out about all the new things that are going on with NewKosher.

Excuse our dust as we update the website! Everything should be working fine and more recipes and menus will go up every day. Keep coming back to see more!

Filed Under: NewKosher (Recipes), Uncategorized

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