Say Cheese (and other random things)

I mean good, tasty, fresh, non-standard-Israeli cheese! I went grocery shopping today and went to a place that actually had a kosher cheese counter... I mean, all kosher... made Sobey's look like a corner store! I got fresh mozerrella, cheddar and a garlic and dill infused mild cheese that smells incredible! The place is all the way on the other side of the world from us, but I can guarentee that I am going to go back!

It was not even all that expensive either. It is roughly what you would pay for fresh sliced cheese in Toronto, but it is really, really good!

I did most of my weekly shopping there. I could not get my fruits and vegies as everything they had was heter mechira, but I did get all my fish, dairy, dry goods and bread for the week. I also splurged on microwave popcorn. Channah has been asking for popcorn so when I saw it I decided to go for it.

I also went to town and bought all the spices I like to have on hand. Ok, not all, but a goor portion. I still need to get basil, oregeno and bay leaves (as we make all our own tomato sauce now as jarred tomato sauce is ridiculously expensive) but for some reason when I saw them today I could not figure out if I needed them or not so I did not bother. Sometimes I wonder if my brain thinks it is on a permenant vacation. Then I forget to keep wondering.

Other than that, this day was really productive. Lor helped me hit up two different harware stores and I picked up a whack of stuff we had needed.

• 2 foot stools for channah (one for the kitchen, one for her bathroom or bedroom or whever she needs it)
• 2 washing cups (we now have 1 in the kitchen and one in each bathroom. I should have gotten one more for the other sink in the kitchen, but for now they can share. I only ever really need two in the kitchen if we have a lot of company and we want ot use both sinks for washing at the same time, but as we do not yet have any furniture this is not likely to be a problem in the near future. If by some surprise the salvation army shows up for dinner I can just grab one from our bathroom).
• 2 scrubby holders (one for each sink
• 2 hangy bars for kitchen utensils (I love the fact my kitchen walls are tile so stuff like that sticks
• a carrot peeler and a good knife. Carrots are cheap and plentiful and make a great snack- so logn as you can clean and cut them. I forgot that we had neither of those things when I bought a huge bag of carrots last week. Now we can use the large bag of carrots in our fridge.
• a kettle (not a shabbos kettle. I am not getting one of those right now as we rarely have hot drinks on shabbat. If/when someone comes to visit who likes hot drinks, I will buy one- but as they start around 250 nis it is not on the short list of things to get.
• a hot plate for warming food on shabbat.
  
• ice cube trays that make ice cubes designed to fit into bottles. I am forever forgetting to fill and stick my water in the freezer the night before, so this way when I forget I can load in as many long thin ice cubes as will fit, add some water, and have mostly ice water for a good portion of the day!
• a cover for stuff that goes in the microwave ot keep it from splashing
• some plumbing putty to stop the leak in our shower (took care of that already- Go me!)
• a key cover so we can tell which key is for the mirpeset amongst the myriad of identical looking keys that were left in our laundry niche
• a key ring for our "Crap I locked myself out" key
• Oven mitts and a trivet

See :) Random odds and ends- but all things we needed (ok, except maybe the cool ice cube trays, but those were just neat!)

I can not beleive all the silly little things that you just do not think oif needing until you do not have them. I mean, in many cases there are ways to get around the problems (ie, we did not have oven mitts so we used a dish towel to get things out of the oven), but there are some convieniences that you just do not even think about when you use them. Not having a kettle was a real pain in the tush!