surprise!

Backtracking a bit-


Thursday night I was making deli roll for mishmar. Shalhevet asked if she could watch and learn how to make deli roll, so I showed her he basics.

At this time, I realized that I should plan something for my birthday because otherwise there would be nothing and my birthday would suck. So I was about to write a massive e-mail inviting ppl to a small gathering after shabbas in the 4th floor lounge. But I didn't want to go out and buy food, but it would be really tacky to ask people to bring food. I asked my roommates, who said "wait until Shabbas. You can announce at havdalah that you're having something, and people will come and bring food, since people always have leftover shabbas food." I thought that was a silly idea, so I called Ari Levine.

Ari agreed with me on the tackiness issue, so he asked "what about your roommates." Yeah, what about my roommates? Sarah, who was at her computer, made a weird face at me. So I told Ari that. Then he was like "well, maybe we can throw you something. Lete me just check" so he got off the phone for a second, and I heard him typing so I figured he e-mailed the 403 listserv [they have a listserv! Dorks!] and he came back and said that the probably could do something. Coolness.

So friday rolled around, and I student taught at akiba, which was surprisingly fun. Then I had a whole escapade getting back, but I still had enough time to eat lunch and make 4 [6 deli rolls in 2 days!] deli rolls before mashing from 2-3:30. I'm gonna get so many hours this month.

Shabbas starts, I go to services, and then Shalhevet's Friday night dinner. Then we have the taboo tournament. I was on a team with Josh Lannik, Avidan, Mustafa, and Mustafa's Girlfriend whose name I don't remember. We lost the first round but were the best of the losers so we got to be a wildcard. Then we tied in round 2 and had to go into overtime, and barely lost that because Avidan messed up. But then again, I wasn't so great. I had some interesting clues, though, like G-string "You can't see me wearing this..."

Afterwards, Shalhevet was like "Simone made deli roll, and she wants you to come to her room and check it at 10:45." Simone is a vegetarian. I asked if she made veggie deli roll. Shalhevet said she made real deli roll for a meal. I was like "whoa! I'm an official deli-roll checker. this is awesome." So we still ahd some time to kill. Shalhevet picked up a DBH, and was like "look. Ari wrote an article!" i was like "Yes, I know." So we read it, and she's surprised at how fast I can read [which isn't so fats, but whatever]. then we go back to the highrise.

On the way out, I remark how it's annoying that my birthday is on shabbat, cause I can only celebrate it on Saturday night, because the rest of Shabbat is for G-d and not for my birthday. She disagreed with me.

Then we get to 308 and as I open the door I see a huge amount of people. Why would that many people be watching me check deli roll?

Then they yelled surprise and I realized it was a surprise party.

My surprise party was rocking. I talked to everyone, and they explained.

All along my roommates had been planning it, and they were kind of freaked when I was going to do something, which is why they said to wait until after shabbas. Sarah e-mailed Ari when I was on the phone with him, and titled the e-mail "you are on the phone with rachel adler right now." he was liike "yes...i am..." so when he "checked" with his "roommates" he really e-mailed Sarah back. i had no idea.

The original deli roll thing was genuine. The simone deli roll thing was a ruse.

Shalhevet was definitely stalling when she had me read the DBH article.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So Saturday was the Avidan meal, where we all made foods that avidan could eat [except me, cause he wanted there to be deli roll. can't say Avidan never did anything for the peoples.] Joseph made the chicken say "T Y H"

Afterwards, we played Avidan's weird time changing game ["Chrononauts"] and then Apples to Apples [see last entry]. I stopped by 403 and Ari was sleeping. Raphi and Tal[who doesn't live there] were there. So Raphi said I could have some potato kugel. Ari Levine's potato kugel is the best potato kugel in the world. This was the first time I've had it. Even cold it's amazing. It's also very addictive. If you ever invite Ari Levine to a meal, have him bring potato kugel.

Shalshuddis was good. After that was the LINKS havdallah. I got to play guitar! I haven't played guitar in forever!

Then Michael, Tova, Michael's friends Jeremy and Daniel, and I all went bowling.

Afterwards, since it wasn't even 11 yet, Julie came over and we watched some Dr. Quinn. She left the episodes with me, so now I can watch again. I might go do that in a bit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The only thing is, now I'm 20, and not 19. I'm not a teenager anymore. I'm in my 20's. It's really scary. I'm supposed to be an adult or something, but I'm not an adult. But I feel old. But not mature. Bleh.

for great deli roll

In order to know what deli roll is, you have to experience it, by eating it, and ideally by baking it as well. Here's my standard recepie, as posted to the hillel newsgroup:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is my famous recepie, which is really Ari Levine's recepie, so all credit goes to him.

You will need:
Deli meat [preferrably real meat. do you really want to use turkey deli? come on!!!! and if you use vegetarian meat you know you're a kofer. it's assur to use fake meat.]
filo dough [I usually use kinneret puff pastry dough. it's easy, and I like it]
mustard
barbeque sauce
tin foil or a cooking sheet of some sort
a spoon or knife


0. let filo dough thaw for an hour before you start at least. Generally I forget this step, and heat it up in a microwave. this is time-consuming, but it works just as well. but only for the kinneret dough. the athen's stuff is crackley and wrapped in plastic, so it can't be unrolled unless it has thawed, and it can't be heated in a microwave. so watch out.

1. Preheat the oven. I usually have it on 450, but high rise ovens are really annoying. Maybe 400 for a normal oven. but 450 works. If you turn it on before you start cooking, you should be fine.

2. Spread out tin foil or lay down cooking sheet. If your cooking sheet is treif, then you should not use it. If it's questionably treif, like apparently mine is, use the tin foil instead. it's easier. no dishes involved!

3.lay out the filo dough. if it's like the athen's type unroll it, since it's one big many-layered piece. if it's the kinneret type, arrange the squares in a 2 x 4 pattern, connecting them together by presseng the dough.

3. Spread a generous layer of BBQ sauce. This is so essential. You NEED BBQ sauce. Otherwise your deli roll will be so comepletely inferior. you'll cry.
Be sure to leave about a half inch on each side empty, with regards to this step and all following steps of spreading. like don't put BBQ sauce here, don't put mustard here, don't put meat here. the meat is essential, because then you'll have a hard time folding. seriously. this is a stuff-free zone. think of it as no-man's land.

4. spread a much thinner layer of mustard. people over-do the mustard. don't be like the masses.

5. Lay out the meat. depending how much meat you have, you might be able to have 2 layers, which would be cool but don't overdo the meat, because then it might not roll up.

6. Spread another layer of BBQ sauce [not as generous as the last one]

7. maybe spread another layer of mustard...I advise against it, unless you run out of BBQ sauce. but only use a little.

8. fold over the filo dough first on the length of it, and then pinching it off at the ends, which should be easy if you did a good job of steps 3-7. press it down.

9. Put it in the oven. I usually plan on cooking it for 40 minutes, but check it at 20. you want the top to be a bit poofy if it's the kinneret dough, and maybe golden brown. 20 minutes only works if you have a real oven, but I usually like to make sure the dough is really cooked. the Athen's dough doesn't require this, because it doesn't puff out, so there just look for color.

10. take it out of the oven, and eat it. maybe share it with your friends, so they can know what a cool person you are for being able to make deli roll. but do you really want to give away your hard-earned culinary masterpeice...well if you do, send it to:

Rachel Adler
3901 locust walk
Box 336
Philadelphia, PA 19104.

Or deliver it to room 1011 of HRN.
Then I can tell you if you made a good deli roll.

Hope this helps.

~Rachel "The Yellow Hobbit" Adler