Cherry season

Pitting cherries with my DH posh tourne knife 

Summer is here. Spring was exceptionally beautiful this year but as usual in this place short lived. Very quickly the green lush turned yellow and dusty. Pretty delicate flowers were replaced by thorns.  It's getting hotter everyday as well. The temperature hits 30 centigrade by 10am. Although I am not a fan of Israeli summer, there some nice sides to it like cherries.

Cherries for sale in the Banias National Park

We've just returned from a vacation in the North of Israel, and everywhere we went they sold cherries. We couldn't resist their lovely color so we bought more than a kilo of cherries. They were in good price.  Getting home we discovered that not all tasted that good but even sour cherries are great for dessert.

We've decided to make a French classic: "clafoutis aux cerises" namely cherry pudding. Since the amount of flour is minimal in this recipe we had no problem to convert it to a gluten-free version. The recipe is based on the one published by Benny Saida. With our northern cherries the dessert turned out just perfect.

Ingredients

 6 egg yolks

3 egg whites

2/3 cup sugar

2 table spoons of brandy or cherry liquor

1/4 cup soy flour + 1/4 corn starch

1 cup milk

1/3 cup whole cream (38% fat)

1/2 kg pitted cherries

 1 bag of vanilla sugar

A 26cm diameter pie tin or personal soufflé dishes buttered.

1.       Heat the oven to 180 centigrade. Mix the eggs in a large bowl while adding the sugar till a light fluffy mixture is formed.

2.       Add the flours and liquor mix till unified. Add the milk and cream in slow stream while stirring the mixture.

3.       Mix the cherries with the sugar and vanilla sugar and spread at the bottom of the tin.

4.       Pour the batter on the cherries and bake 50 minutes till the pastry is browned.

Clafoutis- such a cute word.

Sping break

One of the many religious families taking advantage of the holiday to go hiking. Strangely they wore their best cloths for the dust and mud.  

Pesach holiday is over. As usual there were many hikes, picnics and family get together.  We visited sites North and South of the country along with most of Israel's population. The kids homework and school assignment were left for the last minute so we could have a bit of family fun. Though some of the days we  managed going to work, the past couple of weeks were mostly dedicated to our favorite amusements namely lots of great food while enjoying Nature. We had a lovely weather and spring brought with it an abundance of flowers which some I've photographed. Here are a few for your enjoyment.  

From left upper corner: Judas tree, sage, Jerusalem sage, cyclamen, cistus, orchid, chrysanthemum, buttercup, orchid, anemones and buttercups. 

Paradise, in open eyes.

Anchorage Bay from above

I love the new Coldplay album and one of my favorite songs is "Paradise". It's about a girl that her 

dreams didn't come true. I've always considered myself very blessed in that sense, I've realized most of my dreams and I always have new ones to fulfill. For years I aspired to travel to New-Zealand. I know the travel route by heart. I have a clear map of the islands in my head after staring at it for so long. I have 3 different travelling guides to New-Zealand; sometimes I read them before I go to sleep. I always knew that someday I'll get to New-Zealand. Last February I got there alright but in very miserable circumstance that made me think of cosmic jokes. I didn't see much of New-Zealand since most of the time I was needed in the town of Nelson (as you can see in my former post). Although my help was very much required I was convinced to take a day off and go traveling even for a short while. The beautiful Abel Tasman National Park is an hour's ride by boat from Nelson. It is the smallest national park in NZ but one of the most travelled. I took a water taxi tour to the park, where the taxi drops you off at one point and picks you up in another while you hike in nature. I was picked up from the motel by the taxi company and driven to Nelson port where I embarked with a very diverse group of people the vessel that took us into the park. Although I'm not used to be alone and very rarely if ever I hike by myself, I had a most wonderful time. I hiked from Bark Bay to Anchorage Bay, a mild 16km walk in the most wonderful views. The weather was ideal; partly cloudy with light breeze from time to time that dried the sweat. I got back to Nelson tired but happy I managed to fulfill a tiniest part of my New-Zealand dream.

In the Coldplay song the poor girl sees Paradise every time she closes her eyes. I was very lucky to be with my eyes open and with my camera to see a slice of Paradise.   

Eating Sambusak at the edge of the world.

I've missed my blog. It has been a month since I last wrote here. All sorts of things happened in this month most of them not so good but I'm trying to make some sort of lemonade of the lemons handed to me. The life lesson I learned once more is that good health is everything. If you and your loved ones are healthy than all else is manageable. I've been to the far ends of Earth this past month and I'll share some of my impressions with you in my upcoming posts.

Sunday is market day in Nelson, New-Zealand, just behind the town's main road, in the parking lots. I wasn't in Nelson on a holiday, far from it. Not very pleasant circumstances led me to this part of the world but on that Sunday I allowed myself to relax a little and went exploring the town's market. It was beautiful and sunny, after a streak of  cloudy wet days, (the locals said it was a very unusual summer, too chilly and wet). The market was a collection of stalls: some selling fresh produce, some selling food and there were many garage sales that sold anything under the sun for example a used pair of pink bicycles only 25 NZ$. I endeavored tasting ethnic local food and bought a loaf of Maori bread. The bread resembles a doughnut as it is deep fried. I liked it very much, reminded me of the Tunisian fricassee that I usually eat in Ramle Shuk. 

Maori bread

As I munched on my steaming loaf I suddenly noticed a food stall with a name that rang familiar: "Melamed", not a common name in NZ. I approached the stall and happily noticed it sells all the foods I like best: Middle-Eastern delicacies like pitta with za'atar and sambusak (filled savory pastry). Since I was far from home missing it terribly it was both surprising and comforting meeting a fellow country woman that managed the food stand. We chatted a bit in Hebrew. Of course we bought za'ater pitta very happily. It was a bit of home after a week without any decent hummus or tahini salad.
It never cease to amaze me how one finds Israelis everywhere in the world. Even in the town of Nelson, NZ.

I've recently read a fellow blogger very different experience in NZ, check out "Eat like a girl" impressions.

Sambusack made in New-Zealand

I'll follow the sun

A lovely sunset on the Jerusalem mountains

These days I spend most of my time in the lab trying to make my humble contribution to science. Unfortunately I'm missing out my favorite season: the blooming of the almond trees. This year the weather has been kind to us and it rained quite a lot the past month. The unusual amount of water brought with it a blossom that we rarely see in these areas. Anemones by the thousands cover the hills behind my hometown creating lovely red carpets. Last year I had a lot of free time to wonder around the hills like Julie Andrews in the "Sound of Music" but now I take what I can get. At present I don't have a lot of spare time except for  weekends that provide me and my family the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful outdoors and catch up on some photography. The last two weekends were gloriously sunny so we went on some very short hikes in the area not far from where I live. We were delighted to find every place we visited lush, green and adorned with flowers. I want to share with you some of the splendor of this winter. Too bad  it is so short lived. 

Almond tree blooming

A few of the thousand of anemones currently blooming near my house

A little bit of sunshine

One of the Zodiac alleys of Old Jaffa, a slit of sea and sun

Have no mistakes, I'm not complaining. I am very happy it rained almost every day the past couple of weeks. It is nice to experience a touch of real winter. The temperature has plummeted so in the ungodly hour I go out to work it's in single digits; a rare phenomenon where we live. The sky is gray with low purplish clouds, my favorite weather. I enjoy the rain even when I need to walk almost 10 minutes to my car while my eyeglasses get covered with steam and droplets. The road leading to the lab is very pretty, twisting among mountains laden with woods mist covered like a scene from "Lord of the Rings".

winter sky

As much as I enjoy the winter gloom there are times that a little sunshine is welcomed, like in our last excursion to the old city of Jaffa. We love once in a while getting lost in the narrow alleys and feel the sea spray. It was a cold day but the little bits of sun that came out here and there illuminated all in a nearly magical way. I had a wonderful time taking photos while inhaling salty cold air.

Sun bath for the seagulls 

Like a picture painted by Turner

There will be a serious post one day on Jaffa, it's an amazing city that is as ancient as human civilization, but for now just let us relish a bit of sunshine. 

Changing and rearranging.

Free as a butterfly? Nor really, but quite pleased. 

I've jump started my career only 3 weeks ago and it already feels like I lived in this lab all my life.  My brain cells are all devoted to the effort of understanding my new environment. I've tried to spare some to writing and photographing but at this point in time it is an enormous effort. I have a big project that is quite complicated. I do not want to leave this blog which is very important to me, in a way it has been a journal of my life. So I need to figure out the shape it will take in the future. I'm processing all the changes and they will manifest in here eventually. I urge you to bear with me and be patient with formatting and design shifts. I will keep writing and sharing my views on science (there will be a lot of science now….), photography, travel and food with and without gluten. I'm concluding this post with a few photos because I might shift the blog's theme from writing to photographing. 

Rainbows are always a sign of hope and optimism.

I'm gonna fly like this beautiful ibis from the Hachula area.