Bnot Torah Blog
Warm & Tasty Supper at our Chonechet’s House!
February 5, 2012
This past Bayit Cham, at the home of our Chonechet, Ricki Leybovich, proved to be a combination of the wacky and the serious, the calm and the crazy, the light and the deep! You see, in our group, we can plan events, but things don’t always go as planned. It all started calm and normal enough. We were greeted with the wonderful aroma of hearty tomato soup (with rice of course) and fresh, home baked bread. As we all settled down and enjoyed our “family” meal, there was light chatter, some laughter and comfortable shmooze (with consistent refilling of the bread basket). After we were all warmed up from the soup and pleasantly satiated, Ricki brought out a beautifully sculptured bundt cake– Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake (whole wheat of course!!) YUM!!! After we had worked our way through our cake and tea/coffee, we said goodbye to those who had to leave for Chumash project tutoring. So sad to see you go! Those who stayed decided that instead of playing our planned game…
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Surprise Birthday Party at our Chonechet’s House!
January 10, 2012
At Bayit Cham Events, all of the girls really felt right at home in the local homes of our Chonchot who live literally minutes away from school! Best of all, we had surprise birthday parties for Daniella Yasinov of St. Louis and Sora Ruchel Jaffe of Queens, New York!! Happy birthday wishes to them both and may they only continue to have a year of happiness and hatzlacha!
What’s more, we started our Bayit Cham Supper with fresh and warm whole wheat bread from the oven. Then we had cream of butternut squash soup and a wonderful salad bar where everyone chose from any type of vegetable. Plus, girls could choose tuna, corn, croutons, grilled sweet potato, and balsamic thousand island and Italian dressing! After that we had fresh and tasty lasagna that our Chonechet brought right out of the oven!
We also heard great Divrei Torah from our fellow students! A good time was had by all as we all had a great time simply hanging out and getting to bond until finally the evening came to a close.
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Super “Soup-er” Bowl Pre-Fast Feast Bayit Cham
January 8, 2012
A new Bayit Cham and I know what you’re thinking. Before I should continue to describe what surprises our Chonechet dreamed up for us this time, you’re thinking what on earth is a “Super Soup-er Bowl?” And I’ll tell you quite simply. It is the cutest and most adorable, yet classy way of serving soup that you have ever seen. It is quite literally soup in a bowl. But not just any bowl. It is made of freshly home-baked whole wheat bread, artistically sculpted into a perfectly round bowl. And now for your next question-what was inside the bowl? Well that we had an inkling of as soon as we smelled the tantalizing scent wafting out of the apartment….the scent of piping hot creamy potato leek soup. It was the perfect welcome from the cold Jerusalem air outside. There were even homemade croutons, garnished with garlic and onion! This was combined appropriately with an absolutely delectable zucchini-onion-mushroom quiche, and a delicious, freshly tossed salad. For dessert we submitted to the lure of steaming, ‘melt in your mouth’, super-fudgy Brownies.
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Design Your Own Menorah at Chaya Fish’s House!
December 25, 2011
Guest Post by:
Devorah Garfinkel, graduate of Sha’arie Bina Torah Academy for Girls, North Miami Beach, Florida
We just returned from the best time at Chaya Fish’s house! One of the great things about it is that she lives literally minutes away from Sharfman’s! Anyways, when we arrived we were greeted with an overwhelming sense of Chanukah! The smell of latkes frying and the colorful decorations were more than enough to get us into the fun holiday spirit. We sat down at a table decorated with Chanukah themed napkins and plates with chocolate gelt scattered on the table. Festive Chanukah music played in the background and we played with the dreidle at the table. Then we went into the kitchen and started frying our own latkes!! Chaya also served us a tasty holiday Dinner which included: French Onion Soup, as well as latkes with applesauce. After we were all full…
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An Oriental Themed Supper!
November 22, 2011
We glanced at our watches, walking quickly through the Jerusalem rain. It was 7:55, and we were anxiously anticipating what 8 o’clock would bring. The next Bayit Cham had finally arrived, and once again we were walking towards Rachel’s house, wondering what we would be surprised with tonight!
We entered the apartment, and peered around into the dining room…..hey, is that Chinese noodles we see?? Nori?? Chopsticks?? No way! All out Oriental Night!! The table was decorated with all the ingredients any professional Oriental chef would need……(sushi rice, wasabi, soy sauce, hot mayo, bamboo mats, an assortment of vegetables, etc.). Little Bamboo shoots stood proudly at the center of the table, welcoming us with true National flavor. We all dove in to the Jasmine tea… wow!… so refreshing! Of course the feeling wouldn’t be complete without sushi on the menu. Our Chonechet set about teaching us to make sushi, and to be honest, considering we were all amateurs at this, we were shocked to see how professional they ended up looking! It’s time to open up a new Kosher Sushi joint!
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Gourmet Hot Chocolate Buffet Bayit Cham!
November 6, 2011
The Bayit Cham at Rachel Rose’s house was one to remember! Our Bayit Cham was better than ever! Arriving from the chilly outdoors, we were greeted with a dazzling display of every flavor of hot chocolate imaginable. Nougat/rosemary, caramel, white and brown chocolate, peanut butter, cinnamon, mocha…you name it, we had it! And to top it off (if you”ll excuse the pun), we were able to choose from the most delicious toppings known to us all 
From whipped cream, chocolate curls, marshmallows, chocolate chip cookie dough…and that’s just to name but a few! Plus, we snuggled on the couches sipping our heavenly hot chocolate combos, while happily munching on some fresh Kettle cooked popcorn. There’s nothing like good relaxation for a bunch of serious seminary girls like us.
And one second, what was that you said?? The night’s not over yet?? Our Chonechet informed us it was time for “Cinnabon” production! Yuuuuuuuum! We rolled up our sleeves
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Human Sculptures & Healthy Wraps at Bayit Cham!
November 1, 2011
We just had an awesome Bayit Cham at the local home of our Chonechet, Ricki Leybovich. Since we’re all looking to eat healthy (yet yummy) foods, we were treated to a delicious dinner of “Make your Own Wrap”! Set before us on the table was a delectable spread of wraps, tuna, egg salad, cheese and a great variety of delicious vegetables and fillings. We all had a great time making one (and two and three) wraps just to our liking! Continuing with the healthy theme, we were treated to a dessert of popcorn and whole wheat biscotti’s…YUM!! We all had a great time shmoozing while we munched away on all of these guilt-free goodies. Next, we played a hilariously wacky and game called: “Human Sculpture.”
Here, we divided into two teams and each team was given saran wrap, aluminum foil and some rolls of toilet paper. These were our supplies to make our own human sculptures! Someone from each team was chosen to stand (very) still while her teammates…
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Sukkos Vacation Bayit Cham!
October 10, 2011
If any word comes to mind right now, it’s simply WOW!!! What an evening!! We just got back from our first incredible Bayit Cham at the home of our Chonechet, Mrs. Rachel Rose! And talk about a royal welcome!-there was no need for a red carpet, as awaiting our arrival was an absolutely delicious French onion soup with scrumptious garlic bread to go with it. Then, as we were all still savoring the super taste in our mouths, out came steaming hot yummy whole-wheat baked ziti, and of course a fresh, seasoned salad to top it off. We know what you’re thinking…now YOU’RE getting hungry!! But wait…the best part was yet to come! Our Chonechet returned from the oven with the most unbelievable mouth-watering molten milk chocolate chip cakes for dessert! This was too good to be true! Those cakes disappeared before we could even say thank you!! At this point in the evening I realized just how much the Faculty here cares about you and it’s really true that: “Sharfman’s is a FAMILY!”
A Surprise Birthday Party & Our Edible Sukkah!
October 9, 2011
We just had our first Bayit Cham at our Chonechet’s house. It was such a blast!! We were greeted with a yummy supper of baked ziti and a fresh veggie platter (with a great dip of course!). All of us really enjoyed having a homecooked dinner! After we were all satiated with food and shmooze, out came a beautiful pink surprise birthday cake for both Joanie Tawil and Renanna Pellman The evening continued with us discussing and writing down personal goals for our year in Israel at Bnot Torah/Sharfman’s. We can’t wait to see how much we’ve accomplished when we open our envelopes after Pesach! We then gathered around and had some inspirational time with Charlie Harary and his videos on Yom Kippur and personal growth. We all came away with some powerful messages!
And last, but definitely not least, we ended off with some Sukkos preparations. We broke out the supplies and constructed our very own edible Sukkah! We got to design our Sukkah using tea biscuits
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