Forklore

Mayer July at the Magnes

Noam wins Golden Key Honor Society Award!

At Friday's ceremony, the McMaster Chapter presented two scholarships, valued at $250 each, to outstanding new members. This year's deserving winners were Rebecca Jarvis, a second-year student majoring in Honours Life Science with a minor in French, and Noam Berlin, a second-year Honours Biopsychology major.

Golden Key is the world's premier honour society, with a combined membership base of more than 1.6 million students in more than 350 chapters worldwide, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

The Society, which recognizes and encourages scholastic achievement and excellence among college and university students from all academic disciplines, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Membership is by invitation only for students in the top 15 per cent of their respective faculty. In addition, honorary members are inducted into Golden Key to unite students with faculty, administrators and community leaders. These people are chosen because of their individual accomplishments, personal interest and support of academic excellence.

Read all about it! We are so totally proud!

Shawna wearing Bobe Rivke's silver purse at friend's wedding

Warsaw time

Unable to travel at the moment, so am living on Warsaw time, up at 2:30 am EST (9:00 am in Warsaw), conference starts at 3:00 am, and done by 1:00 pm. We are using Skype with its video feature (all of it free!). Overall it works quite well. I am using a nice little Logitech webcam. Miss a glass of wine and dinner with colleagues in Warsaw, but while they play, I can write up my notes and email them. We are developing the core exhibition for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. It is a very exciting project with a terrific team.

Kyle at 7 weeks

Lisa says since adults do not wear pajamas all day, why should kids. So this infant is in overalls!

Mayer

Portrait of Mayer taken for taken for the exhibition at the Mosaica festival on June 11, 2006. With thanks to Dima Chatrov and Andrew Maidanik. Mayer's PowerPoint lecture was a smash hit! Shawna ran the rehearsal and the show.

Kyle at 6 weeks

Shawna's photograph of Kyle, taken on May 29, 2006.

Kyle at 5 weeks

Sourdough

New batch on the go. This time, lots of rye flakes that I ground in my coffee grinder so it is more like meal, than flour, same with flax, plus hemp. So this loaf really will be like eating steak. Added gluten flour and whole wheat, and lots of caraway. Will line the hot cast iron pan with sesame seeds.

Kyle's bris

Kyle and his parents

Portrait

Tom Warren's portrain of Max.

Galanga flowers

Found these amazing galanga (galingale) flowers in the freezer case of a small, but very tidy, Thai shop in Chinatown on that steep narrow street off Mott Street running into the park. It was Sunday, a lovely spring day, and Max and I went out for a walk, lunch, and a sit in the Chinatown park. Old men gathered under a tree with their finches in bamboo cages, covered in cloth, which they hung from the branches; there were eight such cagees hanging from that tree at one point. The park was recently renovated, with big boulders; it now has a kind of Chinese landscape feel. They sat on those rough stones talking to each other as their finches chirped.

Now, what to do with the galanga flowers. Seems they are to be thawed, thinly sliced, and added to a Thai-style vinaigrette for a glass noodle salad, rojak, and dishes of that kind.

]]> Yam Woon Sen (Thai Glass Noodles Salad)
Ingredients:

* 75g glass noodle (tang hoon) -- soaked and drained
* 100g chicken breast meat -- steam-cooked then shredded
* 100g prawns -- shelled and scalded
* 25g shallots -- sliced thinly
* 1 big onion -- sliced thinly
* 2 stalks coriander leaves -- chopped

Sauce:

* 2 tbsp pounded fresh chilli
* 1 galangal flower (bunga kantan) -- sliced thinly
* 2 tbsp lemon juice
* 1 tbsp fish sauce (Nam Pla)
* 1 tsp sugar

Garnishing:

* Lettuce leaves
* Mint leaves

Method:
MIX cooked prawns and shredded chicken meat in a salad bowl. Add in the glass noodles and the rest of the ingredients. Toss well then dish onto a bed of lettuce leaves. Garnish with mint leaves.

Welcome to the world!

Kyle is born! Congratulations Lisa and Corey. Isn't Doron the lucky one to hold the baby! Shawna took this picture.

Sourdough

Sign that semester is coming to an end and period of writing at home is about to start. Sourdough in the oven. All out of rye flour, so this one is a mix of rye and lots of whole wheat, with lots of altus. Have to leave the house at 9:30 this morning, so started the oven at around 6:30 and the loaf is looking good. Sprouted mung beans. Steel cut oats in the rice cooker. Made brown basmati rice, filling the loft with a lovely nutty aroma, and black bean chili.