[My Purim basket Giveaway ends Monday, March 3.]
Sometimes the urban environment is an ideal place for wild animals. Here’s an example: In 2006, Petach Tikva’s two hospitals merged to form the Rabin Medical Center. Since then, several new buildings have appeared at the Beilinson campus while the Hasharon campus, several kilometers away, lies stagnating.
The health ministry originally planned to shut down Hasharon completely, but workers and residents protested and prevented the closure. Large departments in Hasharon, such as maternity, closed or moved to Beilinson but others, including orthopedics and internal medicine, exist in both places. Hasharon is viewed as a friendly, community-based hospital while Beilinson has become a large medical center with numerous specialties.
Nothing illustrates the stagnation of Hasharon more than the building pictured above. I’m not sure whether it was meant for a clinic or offices, or even parking, but shortly before the merger took place someone scrapped the project. This was bad news for the neighborhood’s elderly and sick. Yet all was not lost–this abandoned building on a huge plot of valuable, government-owned property in the middle of a residential neighborhood–turned out to be the perfect habitat for bats.
Walking by at twilight one can hear hundreds of shrieking bats and even view them flying back and forth. Some residents avoid the place, while others are fascinated. Recently my husband has seen bats swooping over the street late at night. When he called the city’s hotline, he was told that they don’t deal with bats.
Petach Tikva has invested large funds in beautifying the city. Let’s hope that it will put pressure on the health ministry to remove this eyesore. Maybe they can merge it with the local zoo.
More on animals in urban settings: The “Street Goats” of Bnei Brak.
This post originally appeared on Green Prophet and is reprinted with permission.
For an updated list for 2010, see Easy Costume Ideas.
Reiza, who is pregnant and due right around Purim, tweeted that she hasn’t thought about Purim costumes yet for her three kids. I always find it hard to come up with easy, inexpensive costumes. After Purim, of course, I have dozens of ideas. Reiza wrote, “Costumes should be eco-friendly (aka cheap).”
Please post suggestions for easy-to-execute costumes in the comments. My own small ones want to be a waiter and Queen Esther. I can handle that.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=0e432ab6-85eb-43bd-a506-99058aac35fa "Purim Costume Brainstorming photo")
 |
| Purim Basket |
Oh, Nuts is donating delivery of a free Purim gift basket to a lucky reader of this blog. Originally the giveaway was for a basket worth up to $30, but when I pointed out out that baskets for delivery in Israel cost more than that, Oh Nuts agreed to include the one pictured above as an option for Israelis. I drive a hard bargain.
To be eligible you need to visit the Oh Nuts website and choose your favorite basket from the American baskets and the Israeli baskets. Then leave a comment below with your preference. They currently don’t deliver to any other countries–but you can always send it to a friend. I guess that’s what you’re supposed to do anyway.
Next week, I’ll choose a random winner from the commenters.
The winner has been announced. Comments are now closed.
 |
| chicken casserole |
I am enjoying Mimi’s challenge of cooking with whatever she has in the house. As food manager of a large family I have had to learn to keep well-stocked, but when I run low I try not to run across the street. We shop at a large grocery every three weeks or so, the shuk for produce once a week, and daily at the makolet (corner store) for bread and milk . I’ve talked with my husband about buying produce once in two weeks, but he fears we don’t have enough room.
We are enjoying the variety of inexpensive vegetables post-shmitah and I had put up a couple of batches of marinara sauce. I don’t know why fresh tomatoes are so cheap while canned tomato products shrunk in size and grew in cost. Last time I bought fresh chickens I cut off and cooked the white meat and saved the broth for soup, since most of the family prefers dark meat.
We usually eat Shabbat leftovers on Sunday and dairy the rest of the week, creating a problem when there is meaty food left over after Sunday. Sometimes I freeze it to add to soup or combine with other leftovers for a day I don’t feel like cooking.
This week I solved the problem by adding leftovers to a meat meal I prepared Tuesday. I chopped a large mushroom and some vegetables that never made it onto last night’s pizza. Then I added chicken breast cut in bite-sized pieces, marinara sauce, the last few tablespoons of cholent, two pieces of leftover cooked potato with the cooking water and voila, chicken casserole, served on top of plain rice. I would have added the roasted vegetables I’ve been making since Abbi mentioned it here, but some family members would have rejected the dish had they found bits of beet or turnip. So I served those separately.
Related posts:
The Day is Short and The Work is Great: Easy Shabbat Preparations
What’s There to Eat? Saving Time in the Kitchen
Mimi of Israeli Kitchen challenges readers to A Week without Shopping.
Sarah hosts the Jewish/Israeli blog carnival Haveil Havalim, from Down Under.
And Trilcat updates us on her baby’s surgery.
Tonight we begin the joyous Jewish month of Adar, during which Jews celebrate Purim to commemorate the victory described in the Book of Esther. It’s also the first anniversary of the terrorist murder of eight young yeshiva students during such a celebration. Read here about one unusual remembrance. May their memories be for a blessing.
Twitter links powered by Tweet This v1.7, a WordPress plugin for Twitter.
